By Bill Felker In our hearts those of us who know anything worth knowing know that in March a new year begins, and if we plan any new leaves it will be when the rest of Nature is planning them too. – Joseph Wood Krutch The Moon and the Sun The Second Week of Early Spring A winter resident in much of the country, the black-capped chickadee adds his mating calls to the morning chorus throughout Late Winter and Early Spring, bringing cheer and promise of warmth. And so the Mourning Dove Moon of February ceded to the Black-Capped Chickadee Moon on March 2 at 12:35 p.m., waxing into lunar apogee (its position farthest from Earth) and its second quarter on March 10 at 5:45 a.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon passes overhead through the day, encouraging fish to bite at that time, especially as the cold front of March 6 approaches. This week, the sun reaches two-thirds of the way to spring. It took almost six weeks for it to move the first third, about four weeks to move the second third, and now it will take fewer than three weeks to travel the rest of the way to equinox. And by March 2, the day’s length becomes a full two hours longer than it was on December’s shortest days. Before dawn, all the constellations that ride the Milky Way into summer lie in the east. To the far north, Cassiopeia zigzags towards Cepheus, the house-like constellation just east of the North Star. Following the Milky Way to the south is Cygnus, the Northern Cross. Below Cygnus is Aquila, with its bright star Altair. Below Altair: July’s Sagittarius. Weather Trends The new moon March 2 likely strengthened the cold of March’s first high-pressure system, frosting snowdrops and aconites. Then, the days before the March 5 cold front arrives, some typically one of the wettest of the month, with rain or snow likely 70 percent of all the years. Across the South and Border States, this high can be accompanied by thunderstorms or tornadoes. Once the March 5 front moves through, expect steady winds and brisk temperatures followed by sun. March’s third front signals an increased likelihood of storms almost everywhere in the country; this weather system is accompanied by floods and tornadoes more often than any other front during the first three weeks of the month. And the 9th, 10th and 11th bring some of the chilliest temperatures of the first half of March. Zeitgebers (Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year) Lupine leaves push out of the ground beside the crocuses, snowdrops and aconites. The earliest blue squills open to prophesy daffodils. Daylily spears are strong. Woodchucks dig up the hillsides, making new dens. Ducks and geese scout the rivers for nesting sites. The rivers are often high, and carp mate in the warmest shallows when the water temperature rises into the upper 50s. Flocks of robins continue to move north even in the coldest springs. Red-winged blackbirds now sing in the swamps. Red-tailed hawks, the horned grebe, the common snipe, all types of gulls, and black ducks migrate across the Midwest. Bumblebees and carpenter bees work in the flowers, a sign that it’s time for termites to swarm. In the Field and Garden This is the earliest date for planting most hardy vegetables directly in the garden along the 40th Parallel. Farmers also put in oats, spring wheat and ryegrass for quick vegetative cover. Only 11 weeks remain before the most delicate flowers and vegetables can be planted outside, four weeks until most hardy varieties can be set out. Fertilizer spread on lawn and field will have a month to dissolve in the ground before April or May planting. Remove old rhubarb and asparagus stalks, cleaning out around the beds, digging in well-rotted manure. Uncover and fertilize strawberries. Continue to prepare for the Easter Market, which peaks two weeks before April 16. Mind and Body Cloud cover and inclement weather continue to keep seasonal affective disorder high during the first days of March. The day is lengthening, however, and improved meteorological conditions toward the middle of the month push the S.A.D. Index (that measures forces contributing to seasonal stress on a scale of 1 – 100) down into upper 40s for the first time this year. Almanack Classics All the Fixin’s By Sylvia P. Gibbon, East Enterprise, Ind. This is a true story, having been told to me some 60 years ago. I still get cold chills thinking about it. Some of us older people remember when some of the local young men, seeking work, would go to Illinois to shuck corn by hand. Well, this one young man went and stayed with the people he was working for and “got sweet on” the daughter. He invited them to come visit him the next summer. In August, he got the word they were coming for a week’s visit. He wanted everything perfect to impress the girl, so they scrubbed the wooden floors with lye soap and did everything they knew to get rid of the flies – nothing helped much. It came suppertime and here they were. Supper was fried chicken, fried potatoes and all the fixin’s. The young man’s old-maid sister had fixed the meal, and when the potatoes were passed to her, lo and behold there was a fly fried right in the potatoes. She looked at it and wondered if anyone else had seen it. She decided to take it on her plate so no one would see it. She covered it with potatoes and ate all around it. Finally, she decided there was nothing to do but eat it, so she put it in her mouth, sorted it from the potatoes, held it a while and swallowed it without chewing. Well, I want to tell you one thing right now. I wouldn’t have cared if the president of the United States had been there, me and the fly would have gone under the table! *** 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 *** 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 $22.00 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. 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. RIHTS SHIRT IRTKS SKIRT RTIQU QUIRT IRLTF FLIRT RIDT DIRT TROISQ SQUIRT REJK JERK SIKRM SMIRK KEPR PERK RUTPS SPURT THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER IDTS SUTL SUMT UBTS RSTU CUSRT TSUJ DAUJTS SIDSUGT SUGT Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
