Oats ripen, soybeans bloom;  heat makes raccoons act up

Updated 8:47 PM Friday, June 26, 2009

“Once you realize this floating life is the perfect mirage of change,

it’s breath taking: this wild joy and wandering boundless and free.

— Han Shan, 8th century China, translated by David Hinton

This week

The Cattail Moon, entering its second quarter today, continues to wax throughout the week, becoming completely full at 5:21 a.m. on July 7. A partial lunar eclipse will be visible when the full moon sets.

Aphelion, the sun’s position farthest from Earth, occurs on July 3 at 10 p.m.

Venus and Mars, still together, move into Taurus this month, coming up with autumn’s Pleiades in the dark morning hours, rising high into the southeast before sunrise. Jupiter appears in Capricorn before midnight and travels across the southern horizon through the night. Saturn, in Leo, sets at dusk.

In the warm predawn hours of July, the evening sky of early November appears. The Summer Triangle is setting in the far west as the eastern sky grows brighter, Orion preceding the sun. The Milky Way covers the center of the heavens, stretching from Gemini to Cygnus, promising the deep reds of oakturn, the orange peak of beeches, the gold of ginkgoes and white mulberry trees, and the flowering of the last shrubs of the year.

Weather

The Dog Days officially begin in Clark County on July 3 as the chances for highs in the 90s rise from late June’s 20 percent to between 35 and 40 percent. Although the July 6 cool front brings some relief on that day and the day after (with lows in the 50s one night out of two on the 7th), chances for mild 70s on the 8th and 9th fall to less than 10 percent. The rainiest days in the first third of July are the 3rd, 8th and 9th.

Daybook

Today, June 29: Maroon seedpods have formed on the locusts. Some green-hulled walnuts are already on the ground. The earliest cicadas start to chant. This year’s ducklings and goslings are nearly full grown.

June 30: June’s berries are disappearing. Black raspberries decline quickly in warmer years; service berries and pie cherries and the best mulberries have always fallen. July’s wild cherries are ripening, and elderberries are setting fruit. The oats ripen and the first tier of soybeans blooms.

July 1: The first of the midsummer hostas and the gayfeather show in the garden as thistledown unravels. Asiatic lilies enter full bloom. The rose of Sharon and the phlox are getting ready to open.

July 2: The behavior of raccoons, opossums and groundhogs becomes erratic in the heat. Young robins, blackbirds and blue jays are in the honeysuckle bushes eating red and orange berries.

July 3: The first buckeye, apple and cherry leaves become yellow and drift to the ground. Cicadas have emerged, and soon the rough-winged swallows will lead the fall migrations south.

July 4: The first two weeks and the fourth week of July are typically the wettest: Watch your livestock for foot disease that is often related to muddy pastures.

July 5: Mimosa webworms appear on locust trees. Potato leafhoppers reach economic levels in some alfalfa. Bagworms attack arborvitae, euonymus, juniper, linden, maple and fir.

Root diseases stalk the soybeans. The wheat still standing in the fields suffers from rust, powdery mildew, head scab and glume blotch.

Farmers feel the pressure from Canadian thistle, ragweed, foxtail, lamb’s quarter, dogbane, velvetleaf, nut grass and Johnson grass.

Mind and body clock

Some scientists have found that the human body clock is actually set to a 25-hour day rather than a 24-hour day.

One theory about this is that humans may have developed during a period when the Earth rotated at a slower speed than it does in this century, and the days were longer.

Although we now must make do with the 24-hour day, these longest days of the year — with about 15 hours of sunlight — provide solar riches that make the summer seem like it will last forever.

Moon and livestock

The moon will be overhead in the late evening this week, making the middle of the night the time during which most creatures tend to eat most heavily.

The arrival of a cool front around July 6 traditionally intensifies cravings for food in both fish and humans.

Bill Felker has been writing almanacks since 1984. Contact him at wfelker@woh.rr.com or visit his Web site at poorwillsalmanack.com.

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