By Bill Felker

 Exciting new vistas have been opened by the wind, and dry leaves are rustling everywhere. How beautiful is a bare tree, a symbol of the tautness and simplicity of winter! — Harlan Hubbard

The Moon, Stars, Shooting Stars and Planets

The Deer Rutting Moon, new on November 4, enters its second quarter at 7:46 a.m. on November 11. Rising in the afternoon and setting in the early morning, this moon passes overhead in the dark, making the best lunar time for hunting and fishing in the evening

By 5 a.m., the stars foretell their evening early spring positions: Orion fills the south west, and Sirius now promises April instead of December. Overhead, Cancer and Leo announce the March blooming of azaleas across the South, and Regulus advises the setting out of cabbages in the Lower Midwest. 

Jupiter and Saturn are Evening Stars in Capricorn. Venus moves once again during November, this time into Sagittarius, visible at dusk deep in the southwest, a third and the brightest Evening Star. Mars in Libra becomes visible as a Morning Star later in the month. 

The Leonid meteor shower reaches its best on the night of the 16th- 17th. Expect no more than 30 shooting stars per hour. 

Weather Trends

Temperatures are typically in the 40s and 50s now, but certain days bring a greater risk of biting winds than others. The 11th, for example, is the first day so far this fall when the chances of a day in the 30s jump from Middle Fall’s two or three percent all the way to 40 percent. And the 13th, although often mild, brings the slight possibility of a high only in the 20s for the first time since April 6. Freezing nighttime temperatures are recorded an average of 50 percent of the time.

Zeitgebers

(Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year)

Hawthorns, crabapples and many honeysuckles have lost their leaves, branches full of red berries left behind, bright against the dull ground and underbrush. Scarlet rose hips and the buds of pussy willows stand out. 

The final white mulberry foliage comes down. Mock orange and forsythia are thinning; their leaf-fall measures the progress of the last phase of autumn.

The height of rutting season for white-tailed deer typically takes place during the second and third weeks of November in the Lower Midwest. The activity level increases for deer during courtship and breeding, especially during nighttime hours. 

Mind and Body

The S.A.D. Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, rises into the 80s by November 16, introducing yet another phase in the threat of seasonal affective disorder for those susceptible to the effects darker skies, longer nights and colder winds. It seems counterintuitive, but the best antidote for those symptoms may be to spend more time outside!

In the Field and Garden 

Clean up all around the yard and garden, split your wood, clear out the hedgerows and haul manure. Plant next year’s sweet peas for early April sprouting. Mulch perennials. Finish repairs to the outbuildings. 

Fertilize trees, now that all the leaves have fallen. Don’t forget to start paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs indoors for holiday blooms. 

Around the yard, stake young shrubs and trees. Parsley and thyme should be brought inside pots for winter seasonings. Wrap young transplants to protect them against frost cracking.

 Between showers, work gypsum into the soil where salt, used to melt winter’s ice, may damage plantings. In the garden, strawberries can be mulched with straw. 

Sometimes the winter wheat is well enough developed by now to turn the fields green again. The poinsettia crop is typically shipped to market this week.  

Almanack Classics

Mare Sense

By John S. Eicher

When I was a boy at home, we had a young Belgian stallion, and he was a live wire.

One morning, I hitched him to the manure spreader beside Jean, a calm, sensible mare. I unloaded the first load, and then on the way back, we were coming up the lane, which was about fifteen feet wide and made a sharp 90-degree turn. 

Suddenly, this stallion took a jump and in a split second the horses were in a full gallop. I quickly slid off the seat back into the spreader box and pulled with all my might, but to no avail, and we were fast approaching the turn.

 I was probably imagining horses and harnesses, fences and spreaders in one tangled-up and bloody pile, or that maybe when we crashed into the corner post, I’d be some infamous, unsuccessful astronaut. 

However, old faithful Jean likely knew this was not a good situation and with perfect timing, she shoved the stallion over and we navigated the 90-degree turn, still at a full gallop, but without a nick or scratch. 

Thank goodness for horse (mare) sense.

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.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER

In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ.

PPRSSROOE       OPPRESSOR

PRSOSSSEO       POSSESSOR

ROSSEFORP       PROFESSOR

SSSCCROUE       SUCCESSOR

SSSPPRROEU       SUPPRESSOR

SORGRESSNTRA    TRANSGRESSOR

SSORCETEAN       ANTECESSOR

TERNISECSOR       INTERCESSOR

ESSOREDECREP    PREDECESSOR

CONDSE-SSRGEUE SECOND-GUESSER

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

BLEAURD

ABELILER

CEABLEITON

AACPBLE

MMENCODABLE

TABLECCAPE

KEABLEIL

VAAILLABE

VAALLUBE

IRIRATBLE

 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