Moon Time: The Strawberry and Raspberry Moon becomes the new Sweet Corn Moon at 9:31 p.m. on June 23. Lunar perigee, the moon's position closest to Earth, occurs on the same day. Rising in the dark and setting in the evening, this moon passes overhead in the late morning.
RELATED: Springfield weather
Sun Time: The sun, having reached solstice on June 20, remains at a declination of a little more than 23 degrees through July 2. The stability of the relationship between Earth and sun during these days creates the shortest nights of the year.
Star Time: Throughout the week, the Corona Borealis and red Arcturus are overhead by 11 p.m. To the west, Cygnus, the Northern Cross, is poised to take their place in late summer. Scorpius moves deep into the southern sky after dark; its great red star, Antares, is the brightest light close to the horizon.
Weather Time: The June 29 Front: If your land has been dry throughout June, the Corn Tassel Rains, which typically accompany this front, bring the first real chance of midsummer moisture. In spite of the association of the Corn Tassel Rains with heat, the final two days of June are sometimes the coldest of middle summer, highs below 80 degrees occurring more than half the time north of the Ohio Valley.
RELATED: Eric Elwell’s 7 surprising facts about summer
Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year: This is the time of wild black raspberries, and cattails are almost fully developed. May apples are ready to harvest in the woods. Blackberries have set fruit, even in the coldest years. Black walnuts are about half their full size, Osage fruits the size of golf balls. The common orange ditch lilies reach full bloom. Asiatic and Oriental lilies gather momentum, pacing the bee balm. The first woolly bear caterpillars, harbingers of winter, cross the road. Snapping turtles and mud turtles are hatching.
Field and Garden Time: Spray for potato leafhoppers, which are hopping in the alfalfa (and the potatoes). Find the corn borers eating corn. Rose chafers and two-spotted spider mites are active in your rose bushes. Cucumber beetles are destroying cucumber and melon vines. Japanese beetles are attacking almost everything.
Take advantage of drier weather to detassel corn, to bring in the winter wheat, to complete the first cut of alfalfa and to start the second cut. And if your animals are re-infested with worms, consider worming every 17 days to three weeks or every three lunar phases in order to eliminate the parasites.
Marketing Time: June 25 marks the end of Ramadan. The next marketing opportunity comes on United States Independence Day. After that, Jamaican Independence Day is Aug. 7, and Ecuadorian Independence Day is Aug. 10. Explore these opportunities to sell lamb and chevon.
WEATHER: WHIO Interactive Radar
Mind and Body Time: From now through most of July, your mind and body settle into the stability of the summer. In these longest days of the year, you will suffer no complications from seasonal affective disorders (unless you hide inside).
Creature Time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): The dark moon is overhead after sunrise this week, tempting the fish to bite at that time. Even more biting (and maybe binging) should occur as the barometer falls at the approach of the June 23 cool front and the June 29 cool front. Less biting typically occurs just after the passage of a front. Walk your favorite woodlots these warm summer days, identifying oak trees (which attract deer). Continue to keep track of butterflies: the great spangled fritillary might visit your yard.
Journal
Night walk: When I entered the wooded corridor to the fields, it was just light enough to see my way without a flashlight. The river was gray and dim below me, and the twilight blurred the edges of the leaves and branches so that their shapes merged into patterns of light and dark.
Once I made my way to the open pastures, my eyes were drawn to the landmarks above me. The sky was not yet fully black, and only the largest stars were out. By nine thirty, I could see the Summer Triangle, Altair, Deneb, and Vega, the latter two aligned east and west. Only a handful of crickets were chirping, fireflies no thicker than at home, small moths crossing my way, no mosquitoes. It was warm and close in the woods, cold and wet out in the open fields of Middle Prairie. Mist became much thicker after eleven o’clock. The full moon rising in the southeast.
Lights were on in the houses up the hill to the north, friendly but distant. On my afternoon walks, those buildings were too close and intruded on my privacy. Now they seemed too far to be of assistance, irrelevant and detached from my growing sense of risk.
I wondered if I were really as alone as I felt there. Stereotypes came to mind of danger in the night mists. I became more tense and wary, my body reacting to the lack of light and visible cues, responding to the loss of distinct, familiar images and their crisp definition by the sun.
In the safety of morning, I could take my self-sufficiency for granted. I knew my way because I could see it there in front of me. Here at night, all daytime suppositions were set aside. I felt myself straining to make up for the loss of the sun. I kept looking up, checking the moon and stars. Without them, I would have had to admit my helplessness and vulnerability. I was especially glad to have my bulldog Buttercup, beside me. We were partners in the adventure, no longer dog and master.
Deprived of solar light, I reverted to a more fundamental self, to a more primitive portion of my brain, one which was more mindful. In the day, my head often wandered well ahead of my feet, preoccupied and distracted. Here in the night, I didn’t daydream, ruminate, worry or scheme. I didn’t review the past or plan the future. There was enough to do in the present.
About the Author