Wrap your young transplants to protect them from rabbits

The exact Description of Things, however small and seemingly contemptible,

and Accounts of what is observable in them, will always be of Use to those who study Nature, to what End soever that be.

— John Morton, 1712

The moon and stars

The Deer Rutting Moon wanes throughout the period, entering its last quarter at 7:38 a.m. on November 27. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon moves overhead in the middle of the night. Fish and hunt either in the dark or at the second-best lunar time, (the early afternoon when the moon is below the Earth) as the barometer falls prior to cold fronts due on or about Nov. 28 and Dec. 3.

If you get up to do your chores around four or five o’clock in the morning, you will see the evening sky of mid-April. The Milky Way, along with winter’s Orion and Sirius, the dog star, will be setting in the far west. Above you will shine the corn-planting star, Regulus. Arcturus, the star that favors the seeding of squash and tomatoes, will be the brightest light in the east, and the pointers of the Big Dipper will be positioned almost exactly north-south.

Weather trends

The seventh high-pressure system generally arrives on Nov. 28, preceded by rain 70 percent of the time on the 27th (the 27th is the wettest day in the month’s weather history).

Nov. 28, 29 and 30 have the best odds of the month for snow (the new moon increasing the likelihood of troublesome weather). The 28th is the gloomiest day of the whole month, carrying just a 20 percent chance of a peek of the sun. Most of the other days are cloudy, too!

Zeitgebers (Events in nature that tell the time of year)

Along the fence rows and in the woods, new foliage of garlic mustard, sweet rocket, sedum, leafcup, henbit, hepatica and wild ginger hold on against the frost.

Fed by autumn berries, robins linger in town. Starlings cluck and whistle at sunrise and cardinals and pileated woodpeckers call off and on throughout the day. Finches work the sweet gum tree fruits, digging out the seeds from their hollows. Sparrow hawks appear on the fences, watching for mice in the bare fields.

The last milkweed seeds scatter along the roadsides. Thimble plants explode in the cold.

Mind and body

The SAD Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, declines into the 60s this week, but that level of pressure from the moon and the environment keep those who may suffer from SAD on edge. From now on through December, holiday stress combines with winter darkness and the cold to challenge many people.

In the field and garden

Wrap young transplants to protect them from rabbits. Mulch the roses and the last of the root crops against December frost. Stake young shrubs and trees.

Parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme in pots from the garden offer winter garnish and seasoning.

The Christmas tree harvest has begun in northeast Ohio, and the last poinsettias from Southern farms have come north.

Growth of winter wheat often slows in the cold. Some fields yellow from low nitrogen levels. New garlic shoots are firm and green, but they have stopped growing and usually remain at their mid-November height.

The corn and soybean harvests are usually complete by today.

Journal

As the sun moves across the late autumn sky, it shines further and further into my south-facing windows. Paying attention to where and when the light enters my house allows me to track the seasons toward and away from winter solstice. It also helps me to feel cared for. Strangely, it makes me feel chosen.

When I watch it in my private space, I feel like I am not only following time made visible and measurable right on my wall, but I am also affected by the very specific pattern of its apparition here for me.

My relationship with the sun is different when I am outside. In the yard or the woods or on the road, the impersonal sun has no limits. It shines everywhere, belongs to everything and to every creature.

But when I am inside watching it on the wall in my room, the sun is more intimate. It is not so vast and almighty. Instead, it seems a bright blessing for me. I am the only one who sees it here at this moment. It is a light for solitude and courage and a personal ally against the winter ahead.

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.