By Bill Felker

 All over the slope, under the fruit trees, the fallen apples, decayed and soggy, are disappearing altogether, coming to their natural and fitting end, gently lowering to the soil the seeds they contain. Decay, rightly understood, can be as beautiful as growth. – Edwin Way Teal

The Moon, the Stars and the Sun

in the Third Week of Late Winter

The Mourning Dove moon waxed throughout the week, entered its second quarter at 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 8 and reached apogee, its position farthest from Earth, at 10 p.m. on Feb. 10. Rising in the middle of the day and setting in the morning, this moon passed overhead near midnight. Fishing and late-season hunting are favored as the wind blows from the southwest and the barometer drops in advance of the arrival of the Feb. 11 and 15 cold fronts. Seek fish and game around midday; the moon will be below the Earth at that time, encouraging all creatures (including you) to feed and to be more active.

The pace of spring quickens, as the sun reaches 40 percent of the way to equinox by Feb. 12. Throughout the months ahead, the brightening day gradually contributes to the weakening of seasonal stress.

Sirius, the giant dog star, will be due south at 10 p.m. on the 8th. The Great Square of autumn will be setting in the west then. Perseus follows Cassiopeia into the northwest. Spring’s Regulus will be well up in the sky on the other side of the horizon in the constellation Leo. Summer’s planting guide, Arcturus, is visible just before midnight in the northeast on Feb. 12th.

Weather Trends

In the month ahead, average temperatures slowly climb throughout the nation. Within the next four weeks, Ohio’s leap from 28 to 30 degrees is matched by Houston’s jump from 54 to 56 degrees, Juneau’s 25 to 27, Denver’s 29 to 32, San Francisco’s 49 to 51, and Chicago’s 26 to 28.

  Zeitgebers (Events in that Tell the Time of Year)

When you see foliage of aconites and snowdrops emerging from the ground, you know that the first mallards and Canadian geese are looking for nesting sites.

When strawberry plants have new foliage, then the steelhead salmon run, which started in the fall, finally comes to a close in Lake Erie.

When pussy willows are more than half emerged, maple sap will soon be running. At the same time, azaleas will bloom across the South, and under the sun of central Florida, dragonflies will hunt for prey in wetlands.

In the Field and Garden

By this time of the year, the quality of winter feed has often fallen sharply for your livestock. Consider forage testing to check the level of nutrients.

When you hear cardinals singing at 7 a.m., prune house plants, encouraging them to begin fresh growth as the days lengthen. Cardinal song at 7 also means that you could pull back the mulch in part of your garden to allow soil to dry out and warm up.

And as soon as you can work the soil, plant a few peas, onions, radishes, rutabagas, asparagus crowns, spinach, turnips and carrots on milder afternoons for the earliest harvest of the year.

Plan to serve the graduation cookout market. College graduations can start as early as the first week in April and extend into the middle of June.

Mind and Body 

The S.A.D. Index, which measures on a scale of 1 to 100 the forces that are known to affect human moods, lies in the relatively moderate 60s during the first part of the period, rising slowly into the 70s by next week. Expect the most seasonal affective disorder to occur as the moon waxes toward full on the 16th.

Almanack Literature

Musings on the Last of the Old Farmsteads

By Angela Lott, Fowler, Ind.

Here stands the last of the old farmsteads with barns fiull of hay, silos full of silage or grain, pig pens full of pigs, chicken coops full of chickens. And, of course, the “old outhouse” built for you know who and what for.

Carved out of the wilderness by the early settlers was land for crops, pastures, grazing land for cows, sheep and goats. And land for kitchen gardens, orchards and berry paths.

The buildings were built from the wood that was cleared out of the wilderness with neighbor helping neighbor.

A huge farm home was built to house a large family. A kitchen – the heart of the home – was always filled with the aroma of down-home cooking, especially with Grandma’s famous fresh-baked biscuits at 5 a.m. every morning.

The kitchen door was always open to welcome family, friends or neighbors, and farm hands and strangers. And, of course, what would a farm be without the family farm dog and the mouser cat that could get fresh milk in the milking stalls.

The great, great, great grandson now carries on the dream of Grandpa and focuses on raising Shorthorn cattle as Grandpa did. (As a young man, Grandpa had left his homeland of Scotland and crossed the ocean with a few of his Shorthorn cattle and a dream).

Still in existence is a small settlement with church still having services every Sunday morning with a few faithful attendees. A bar located right next to the church is still open with very few attendees but still has its fish fries on Friday nights.

And the school still stands, being used as storage for farm equipment. Oh yes, a cemetery where I am sure many of the early settlers lie. May they rest in peace.

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Poor Will’s Almanack pays $5 for stories used in this column. Send your stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387

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Journal

2009: Inventory in the snow, during the afternoon before the thaw, gibbous moon rising in the clear, robin’s-egg blue sky: Six to ten inches of snow still left, now pocked with rabbit, dog and my own prints. Bamboo leaves grayed and shriveled by the cold January, some leaves shedding. Mexican sunflower heads white and withered, bending double. Ice around the pond waterfall, the heater helping the iris to grow back maybe three inches. Tight brown buds on the lilacs. Peeping of robins, passing of crows. Fragile pokeweed, berries gone, only stems left. Skirts of sunflower seed hulls left all around the bird feeders. Crab apples in the snow, the crab apple tree – like the hackberry – ravaged by the starlings a day ago. Rose leaves dark olive brown. Gray rosemary and butterfly bush stalks. One green sweet William showing through the ice. Yellowish Joe Pye heads, dun heads of monarda and stonecrop, pale iris spears, rose of Sharon pods half empty, open like hands to the sky.

Poor Will’s Almanack for 2022 is still available, containing the S.A.D. Index, as well as natural history essays for each week of the year, monthly weather reports, some of the best reader stories of all time, and a monthly farm and garden calendar. Purchase your copy from Amazon or, for an autographed Almanack, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com. Or send $22 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.

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Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker