By Bill Felker

 Another morning dawns clear and mild. This little time of tranquil skies, these days of Indian summer – here is the annual opiate that blunts our senses, that dulls our minds to the inevitability of the coming cold. Winter seems immeasurably far away. Yet, before evening falls today, there is a change, a chill in the air. So soon, these warm and drifting days are over! —Edwin Way Teale

The Moon, the Meteors and the Sun

On November 4, the Deer Rutting Moon is new at 4:15 p.m., and the next day it reaches perigee, its powerful position closest to Earth, at 5:00 p.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this Moon passes overhead in the middle of the day.

Late Fall is the time for deer to come into estrus, and mating takes place throughout the last months of the year. Combined with the early darkness at the end of Daylight Saving Time, deer rutting makes this period one of the most dangerous of the year for driving. 

The workday begins to shrink more quickly now, losing about two minutes every 24 hours: November takes almost an hour from the day’s length along the 40th Parallel.  Everywhere in North America the day’s length approaches its shortest span.

The South Taurid meteor shower brings shooting stars after midnight between the 4th and 5th in Taurus in the southeastern sky.

Daylight Saving Time ends on November 7 at 2 a.m. 

Weather Trends

New moon on November 4 and lunar perigee on November 5 will create a definite pattern for freezing temperatures deep into the Border States and at higher elevations throughout the country. Blizzard conditions are quite possible across the West and Great Plains. And look for a killing frost at full moon time, November 19, well into the South.

With the arrival of late fall this week, an increase in the likelihood of cloud cover begins, and the percentage of sunny days and partly sunny days drops from October’s peak of about 60 percent down to winter’s average – about 35 percent. Also after the 5th, chances of highs in the 70s drop to only five percent, and most highs just reach the 40s or 50s. 

The 6th ushers in the snow season for this part of the country, flurries or accumulation emerging into the realm of possibility, at least a ten percent possibility per day between now and spring. Chances of a thunderstorm drop to only five percent per day until February, but all-day rains increase. 

Zeitgebers

(Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year

The last raspberries of the year redden in the low November sun. An occasional autumn violet is still open in yards and pastures. Mums are past their best, but the witch hazels are often still flowering. 

Grasshoppers continue to feed in milder years. Crickets are normally still active. 

All the major migrations (except for the migration of gulls and sandhill cranes) end within the next two weeks.

Although many of the Osage orange, maples, oaks, beech, pears and sweet gum continue to hold on, the last ginkgoes lose their leaves, magnolias weaken, and cherry foliage turns brown at the edges. 

Mind and Body

The S.A.D. Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, rises deep into the troublesome 70s this week. The average length of November’s night is almost as great as the night’s length in December and January; the weather becomes more severe, and clouds thicken. S.A.D. increases to winter levels and the effects of lunar phase and position become even more significant. This is the time to be aware of the most minor shifts in mood and attitude. Depression often arrives incrementally, beginning with a dull ache or feeling of emptiness and then progressing to a full change of philosophy and outlook. Mindfulness and activity (especially outdoors) are often able to alter the S.A.D. physiology or provide respite from the seasonal blues.

In the Field and Garden

The final winter wheat should be planted and the harvest of corn of soybeans completed. Test the soil of the yard, the pasture, the field and the garden. Mow the lawn for the last time after all the leaves are down. 

Under the dark moon, plant garlic cloves for harvest at the end of next June. Remove tops from everbearing raspberries.

Although tomato and pepper time is over, collards and kale still hold out in the garden. Your mulched beets and carrots are doing fine. Lettuce planted in August may still be producing

Throughout the northern half of the nation, practically all weeds and wildflowers become dormant in an average year. Most of the corn, soybeans, and sugar beets have been harvested across the country.

Bulbs, shrubs, and dormant roses can still be set out; November’s first week usually provides the most pleasant weather for outdoor activities.

By this stage of the autumn, soil temperatures sometimes fall into the middle 40s, and the grazing season ends in many Midwestern pastures. Pond waters are at or below 50 degrees, and koi are reluctant to rise for their food. 

Sugar beets are typically more than three-fourths dug, and the pumpkin harvest nears completion. Orchids reach full bloom in conservatories throughout the country. 

Almanack Classics

Bantam Beats Heavyweight in Comeback

By Larry Rader, Shiloh, Ohio

On a snowy Christmas morning when my brother and I were in middle school, our older cousin gave us a pair of bantam chickens. We put them in the chicken coop with about twenty Rhode Island Red hens and a single rooster.

The chickens could go outside but were limited by a five-foot chicken fence around a lot about forty by seventy feet. The chicken house sat on eight-inch cement blocks.

Within a few minutes the larger Rhode Island Red rooster chased the little bantam rooster outside. The little rooster hid under the chicken house. For a week or so, he was forced outside day and night.

Then one morning, our mother said that the big rooster was outside alone. He looked thin and weak; his head was bloody. When he walked, he turned his head from side to side as if he were being chased. 

We caught the big rooster and put him in a hog crate with a dish of water and some feed. Immediately, he went to the water and drank and drank and drank and drank!

Within a couple of weeks of recovery from the surprise beating at the “hands” of the bantam, the big Rode Island Red rooster healed, gained weight and was a good chicken dinner for our family!

Poor Will Wants Your Stories!

Poor Will pays $5.00 for unusual and true farm, garden, animal and even love stories used in this almanack! Send yours to Poor Will’s Almanack at P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 or to wlfelker@gmail.com.

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THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

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Bill Felker’s Poor Will’s Almanack for 2022 is now available. In addition to weather, farming and gardening information, reader stories and astronomical data, this edition contains 50 essays from Bill’s weekly radio segment on NPR radio, WYSO. For your autographed copy (by media mail), send $22.00 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Or order from Amazon or from www.poorwillsalmanack.com.

Copyright 2021 – W. L. Felker