Weather Prediction

I think this video is pretty cool. I am very fascinated with a lot of the old almanac stuff about weather prediction, most is based on where the stars and planets, moon, and sun are lining up. For more info on that I am sure you can look up and find some old almanacs online and read about some of the weather predictions. One was a guy predicted 11 months in advance where a storm would hit, and what time. He was 7 hours off and 100 miles off from the city! Thats pretty close! That is obviously not just a guess. You can't be THAT good at guessing. Another one, though not confirmed is a some predicting in January, snow in July (in ME). Here is the video to Wooly Bear Worms Predicting Winter: http://www.accuweather.com/video/1683763362/tropical-outlook-paula-shows-signs-of-weakening.asp

It rained today. Probably less than half an inch, though a few places may have gotten more. However, we have had dry winds come in and dry it all out. They are talking about fire warnings in the county we are in. Speaking of fire warnings, did you know that for every 1% increase of o2 in the air, the chance of a natural forest fire rises 70% !?! (Just learned that in Chemistry : )

My cider is fermenting well. Lots of bubbles coming up. We made over 1 gallon yesterday of sweet cider. I got another quart from it by pressing it, leaving it for several hours, and tightening it down more. It is cooling down again, it had warmed up slightly in the past week, but it is cooling down. Probably partly do to the rain we had, and then the evaporation from the wind drying it out, creating a more cool temperature. Which means I am going to be up early tomorrow to see the horizon. I love it when it is cool like this. I love a good walk in the woods.

I harvested 4 red vine ripened tomatoes today. I also picked half a dozen green ones to bring inside to ripen. I think right before the frost I will bring in all the green tomatoes. Maybe make some chutney, but also store the green ones to ripen slowly throughout the winter. They are not like vine ripened tomatoes, but the beat the store bought ones.

I planted more fava beans today. In the bed just below where I planted the others. I planted them closer this time. One of my fava bean plants died, either by accident or what a mole came along and chewed it! However, that is about the only loss I have had to moles. Though they are probably eating my earth worms. Which contrary to what my cousin in law says, I believe earthworms are important to have in the compost and in the garden, due to reading a long story about a large homestead where everything was eaten by earthworms in a long 50x100ft pit.

I also planted more leaf lettuce. The great thing about leaf lettuce is that you can start cutting at 6 inches or less and keep cutting. You don't have to do spacing (you can, and get more of a 'head', but I don't bother), just sprinkle it on. I planted two spots of 18" by 2.5 ft.

Getting my posthole digger I dug a hole, right by the shallots. I wanted to see how easy it is going to be to dig these holes for the Whizbang Squash secret. The top 12 inches were that nice sandy top soil, but than I hit clay. Not pure clay, but clay none the less. However, it was not that difficult to dig a hole 18" deep in less than 10 minutes. I didn't want to waste the effort of digging a hole for nothing, so I plucked out a lambs ear plant (they have sprung up everywhere) and put it down in upside down with a few other weeds. I than put a little topsoil on it, than filled it back up with the nicely ground clay. I will say, a post hold digger makes great dirt for potted plants and such, no clumps, especially when it is harder soil, that it just sorta scrapes away at.

My wheat is almost ready to harvest. I'll probably just pluck out all the stalks that have the wheat bring them into the garage in a bucket, bring each head in between my two hands, rub together to get the outer husk off. I will probably just save it for seed. Not really enough to do anything with, though it would be fun. I can't wait to see what my sweet potatoes will have done.

Oh, and before I go. If you are interested in Winter Squash, Johnny's has a great selection, you can click on each variety and see what they are like, how they grow etc. Also check out there pumpkins, they have tons of varieties. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?SearchTerm=winter+squash

English Vintner