Celebrate many ethnic holidays this month
Now if I let myself believe, it might seem that summer will never end. Even in the face of the changes taking place around me, I might to choose to remain here in the center of the year where the heat and humidity create a backwater of time.
reliable evening companion and can be found in the southern sky after dark. Below and a little east of Jupiter, Saturn rides Sagittarius in the center of the southern horizon at dusk and is visible as it moves toward the west throughout the night.
August 5: Along the freeways, beds of white boneset have come into bloom beside drifts of blue chicory and silver Queen Anne’s lace.
August 6: The Black Walnut Leafdrop Moon alerts the monarchs and swallowtails and the fall webworms to prepare for autumn. Sparrows form larger flocks. Robins emerge from their Deep Summer retreats. Peaches, plums, grapes, blackberries, second-crop raspberries and elderberries sweeten, then complete their seasons. Yellow jackets come to feed on the fallen fruit.
August 7: Average temperatures start to drop between one and two degrees per week until September 10, when they decline about a degree every three days into January. Although declines are more rapid in the North, almost every region of the country experiences a temperature shift this month.
August 8: In perennial gardens, the last red, white, and violet phlox, golden and purple coneflowers, bright helianthus and pale resurrection lilies define late summer.
In the field and garden
Make corrective lime and fertilizer applications for August and September seeding. Keep carrots, oats, bran, iodized salt and good greens on hand to invigorate bucks as the breeding season opens.
As the moon waxes, set out cabbage, kale and collard sets. Seed the lawn. Check the weight of animals scheduled to be bred and adjust feed as needed.
Don’t let your ducklings get heat stroke. Keep them in the shade and have plenty of water available. If a duck is panting, s/he may have heatstroke.
Many ethnic holidays occur in the autumn: think about selling lambs and kids to these markets:
August 6: Jamaican Independence Day Demand may increase for older lambs, rams or ewes, up to 65 pounds at this time.
August 10: Ecuadorian Independence Day Consider reaching out to the Hispanic market at this time to provide lambs and kids for cookouts.
August 12: Eid al-Adha: (Islamic Festival of Sacrifice) Lambs in the range of 55 to 80 pounds are favored for this market.
August 31 – September 28: Al Hijira Muharram This celebration of Islamic New Year continues for 29 days. It has no religious significance, but, like many New Year celebrations, it is a cultural event. A rise in halal sales could be expected during this period.
Idyll
Now if I let myself believe, it might seem that summer will never end. Even in the face of the changes taking place around me, I might to choose to remain here in the center of the year where the heat and humidity create a backwater of time.
This is the season in which anticipation cedes to acceptance. It is a time of self-deception. In the same way that the depths of winter seem to erase the possibility that the cold and gray can ever end, Deep Summer seems to promise only green leaves and flowers and warmth.
Suspended from history and precedent, a person might bask in disbelief, rest outside of obligation and reason on an ocean beach of the soul.
On the other side of the sand dunes, I know that other things are happening. I know there are wars and evil. But I am at the beach, and I am listening to the waves, their carefree collapse onto the shore, their soothing, rippling retreat.
The tide is high and moves out away from me. It will not come back for a long, long time. My fingers sift the sand beside me. I look up into the turquoise sky, listen to the clear, repeating cries of shorebirds.
This is all there is, the sun on my legs and arms, safety and suspension. The warm sand. The smell of the sea. This is full denial, and it shows me there is still enough time for everything. Listen to Poor Will’s radio almanack on podcast any time at www.wyso.org.