One has only to sit down in the woods or fields or by the shore of the river or lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round. The change of the seasons is like the passage of strange and new countries; the zones of the earth, with all their beauties and marvels, pass one’s door. – John Burroughs

The Phases of the Moon

May 31: the Moon is full.

Sun Time: The sun reaches a declination of 21 degrees 54 minutes by the end of May, a little more than 90 percent of the way to solstice

Star Time: Cassiopeia has moved deep into the northern sky behind Polaris, the north star, by this time of May, and Cepheus, which looks a little like a house lying on its side, is beginning to come around to the east of Polaris. When Cepheus is due east of the north star, then it will be the middle of July. When it lies due south of Polaris, then the leaves will be turning. When it lies due west of Polaris, it will be the middle of Deep Winter.

Natural Calendar

Spring pasture now reaches its brightest green of the year, and haying moves toward the Canadian border at the rate of about 100 miles a week, will be taking place almost everywhere in the United States by the middle of June. Spring wheat is just about all planted in the North, and all the oats are in the ground between Denver and New York. Potatoes and commercial tomatoes and pickles have all been set out along the Great Lakes. Winter wheat is turning a pale gold below the Mason-Dixon Line. Blueberries are setting fruit in the Northeast. In Southern gardens, squash bugs and Japanese beetles are out in force.

Iris and peonies bloom at elevations near 4,000 feet in southern Idaho. Aspen leaves are the size of a thumbnail, and the raspberry plants are just getting their leaves in Yellowstone. Blackberries are in full bloom in the Northwest, and dogwood trees are open around Sequoia National Park in California at the same time that the canola and winter wheat crops are about ready to be harvested in the Midwest. In the Southwest, blackberries have set fruit, and wildflowers such as chicory, salsify, moth mullein, great mullein and milkweed are open, marking the full bloom of the sunflower crop in southern California. North of Sacramento, the wheat is darkening, just like it is in Indiana.

In the Field and Garden

You can tell that Early Summer is underway WHEN certain things happen…..  And when those things happen, THEN….other seasons begin, too.

When elderberry bushes come into full flower and cottonwood cotton floats in the wind, then the first chiggers bite in the woods and garden.

When the first chiggers bite, all the soybeans are in the ground (except in the wettest years). When acorns form, then almost all the winter wheat is headed.

When damselflies out along the waterways, cherries will be ripe for pie, and the second cut of alfalfa will be underway. When milkweed and pokeweed flower, then the first winter wheat will be ripe.

When quail whistle and mate in the woods, tent caterpillars emerge in the trees, and the first Canadian thistles go to seed. When lizard’s tail is in flower along the rivers and lakes, and when black raspberry season ends along the roadsides, then corn borers haunt the corn.

When enchanter’s nightshade blooms in the woods, then the first soybeans are blossoming, too. When blackberries are setting fruit, then the earliest field corn will start to tassel and the canola harvest will be underway.

When potato leafhoppers are getting bad in the alfalfa, blight appears on the tomatoes. When long seedpods have formed on the locust trees, then chinch bugs start leaving brown patches in the lawn.

When mimosa webworms appear on locust trees, potato leafhoppers reach serious levels in alfalfa. When elderberry flowers turn to fruit, dig garlic before the heads break apart, and put in autumn turnips.

Almanack Literature

Beep, the co-habitating chicken

Submitted for Poor Will’s Funny Animal Story Contest

By Amanda Gunthorp, LaGrange, Ind.

Last spring, my husband decided that we should raise a few chickens. So, he took the boys to the local farm supply store, and they picked out 10 cute little chicks.

By summer, the chicks were big enough to let wander bout the yard. They were nice chickens. They’d go back into their coop at night all on their own, let the boys play with them, you know, the nice things that chickens can do.

Well, one morning about 5:30, I heard a bunch of racket outside. I awoke to find seven chickens dead, lined up on our back porch with our and the neighbor’s dog grinning like they’d just done the world a huge favor. Both dogs received some serious discipline and were chained up.

My mother, in the meantime, told me that farmers used to tie the dead chicken to the dog to train them. So, for three days, our dog moped around with a dead chicken fastened to his collar. He would beg for attention, but no one would go near him with that smelly addition attached to him.

As the summer progressed, the dog learned to tolerate chickens, but two more chickens died in car/chicken collisions. That left one chicken the boys named Beep. Beep became a pet. She would follow us around the yard, and she would come to the back door when hungry and cluck to let me know she needed a snack.

Fall quickly was turning to winter, so we insulated a small coop for her. When we put her in it, she’d run at the door and was really upset about being penned up. So, my husband opened the door, thinking she’d come and go. Beep refused to even sleep in her coop. She would go to a bush at sundown and perch there. We noticed that she and the dog were kind of friendly toward each other, so we started paying closer attention. Beep was roosting in the bush until sun-up, and then warming up in the morning with the dog.

As the temperature started dropping, she would get frost on her back by morning, and I started to worry that she wouldn’t survive the winter. When windchills dropped below zero, however, another miracle occurred. The dog and the chicken began living together. Beep no longer roosts in her bush but sleeps under the porch with the dog. Their food dishes are side by side, and they drink from the same bowl. This has been going on for three months now, and we are all quite happy with our co-habitating pets that should be mortal enemies.

Follow the summer with Bill Felker’s A Daybook for May in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and A Daybook for June in Yellow Springs, Ohio. These daybooks contain all the nature notes used to create Poor Will’s Almanack. Order yours from Amazon.

Copyright 2026: W. L. Felker