Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Best Days.


Have you ever really read the Farmer's Almanac?

Of course you know you can find prognostications about weather and seasonal suggestions for farmers. But my favorite feature is "Best Days," simply, the best days to do certain things, according to the phase and position of the moon in the Zodiac.

For instance, today is the best day to castrate your farm animals.

It's also the best day to dig a hole, wean, potty train, cut firewood and paint.

If you are trying to grow your hair, there are days for it. Likewise, if you are trying to retard hair growth. Tomorrow and the next day are days to begin diets if you are trying to gain weight. So you may want to rethink the timing of your diet.

I even got married on a day when the moon was right according to the Almanac. And I discovered one should never marry on the day or evening of a waning moon.

I know you are sitting there wondering when would be the best day to kill wild onions and weeds. The Farmer's Almanac knows all.

My husband is fond of telling a story about his grandfather, E. W. One early spring day E.W. rode out to his fields to find that his right-hand man had planted the beans.

"What you doing planting beans today? It's the wrong moon. Those beans aren't gonna come up!"

They cussed and argued and cussed and argued some more and those beans never did come up. They were replanted when the moon was right. And they grew like mad.

So, tell me today what it is you want to do and I'll tell you when to do it. Or you can just look it up for yourself here. You really should own a copy. Everybody should.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope today is a good day for ripping up floors... I should have consulted the almanac!

Hmmm... our baby is due on July 8th. Should I pop that sucker out like a rocket before then, or tell it to stay for just a little bit longer?

Oh, I do use the almanac for weather predictions and it's usually pretty accurate. Apparently this summer in Austin is going to be hell on earth. Great.

Greta said...

Actually, I was totally planning on digging a huge hole to put stuff in after work so this is totally awesome.

I want one of those books.

hello gorgeous said...

Actually Erin, the 13, 14, 23 and 24th of the month were the best days for demolition. I'm sure today will be just fine. I will have to get back to you on your birth...

Greta, somehow I just knew you were planning that.

Decorina said...

I grew up in Arizona. Much as I love the Almanac, it has little that applies to the Sonoran desert environment of Phoenix. I always felt gypped...

Raina Cox said...

I studied moon charts to predict when my baby was going to arrive, and she had her own damn plans.

Anonymous said...

Down on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the old days a lot of crops got planted by hand with farm labor that moved from farm to farm. They just wouldn't plant against the moon. It wasn't about the money. It wasn't about defying their employers. It was about not doing something that was just plain wrong and likely to draw some kind of misfortune upon oneself or one's family. Seems to me that we could use more people like that in the world...

hello gorgeous said...

Anon - I sometimes worry that the people who know how to predict weather based on the bands of the woolly bear caterpillar will all die and know one will be left who knows how to read the moss on trees, etc.

Here, for instance, as you know, there's already no one left who knows how to build a dry stone wall.

hmstrjam said...

yay i'm glad today's a good day to paint, that's what I've been doing...

hmstrjam said...

you should come to the vineyard, there are lots of people who know how to build dry stone walls- aka lace walls because you can see air through the stone gaps! I love it!

please sir said...

Guess it's quite handy after all! My brother LOVES it!

hello gorgeous said...

hmstrjam - every time I see your little icon thing it makes me laugh - that cat is just so into it

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