POOR WILL'S ALMANACK FOR 2018 offers a variety of ways with which the reader can approach the natural year: REFLECTIONS ON THE SEASONS BY BILL FELKER include humorous essays like "Buttercup the Weather Dog," more serious essays such as "Spring Journal on the Camino de Santiago" and phenological descriptions like "The Hinge of Early Summer" and "Inventory in Early Autumn." NEW NAMES FOR THE MOONS: This year's moons include the Frolicking Fox Moon, the Ducks-Scouting-for-Nests Moon, the Termite Swarming Moon and many more. Each annual version of POOR WILL contains different moon names that are based on an event that takes place in nature during that monthly period. ASTRONOMICAL INFORMATION in plain English gives monthly updates about the sun's position, the location of major planets, the stars and shooting stars THE S.A.D. STRESS INDEX measures the natural phenomena which are assumed to be related to Seasonal Affective Disorder: the day's length, the average percentage of sunlight, the weather and the phase of the moon. In order to create the Index, each of those factors was given a value from zero to 25, and then the four values were combined onto a scale of one to 100. The higher the number, the greater the stress. Lunar phase and the moon's proximity to Earth produce the most dramatic swings in the Index. Lunar ratings are based on tidal and sociological information that suggests the Moon is most influential when it is full, second-most influential when it is new and least influential at entry to its second and fourth phases. METEOROLOGICAL FORECASTS: The weather estimates in this Almanack are based on Bill Felker's charts of fractal weather patterns made between 1978 and 2017. Readers of his weekly and monthly columns throughout the United States have used these estimates successfully since 1984. Poor Will's Almanack for 2018 integrates lunar conditions with brief descriptions of expected weather systems in its "Almanack Daybook" section, suggesting how the moon's phase and proximity to Earth could influence the character of each major shift in barometric pressure. A CALENDAR OF FEAST DAYS for homesteaders, gardeners and farmers lists the days of the year one might expect the public to have increased interest in livestock or produce. This calendar is also useful when one is planning strategies for marketing to particular ethnic or religious groups. THE PEAK ACTIVITY TIME FOR CREATURES section is a monthly guide to lunar position and corresponding behavior. Many people find that livestock, children, fish and game are more active (and dieting is more difficult) when the moon is overhead: at midday when the moon is new, in the afternoon and evening when the moon is in its first quarter, at night when the moon is full and in its third quarter, in the morning when the moon is in its fourth quarter. Second-best lunar times occur when the moon is below your location, 12 hours before or after those times noted above. The approach of weather systems (high-pressure systems typically preceded by low-pressure systems) also influences fish and animal activity. THE ALMANACK DAYBOOK SECTION consists of daily gardening and farming notes, phenological information about changes in foliage, flowering and migratory activity throughout the year as well as commentary about lunar influence on predicted weather systems and seasonal stress. READER STORIES: Readers have been contributing to POOR WILL'S ALMANACK'S weekly and monthly columns since 1985. People have submitted memory stories, outhouse tales, narratives about unusual occurrences and special animals. Each annual version of the ALMANACK features the best submissions from recent years, and the 2018 edition includes several fine outhouse tales, such as "A Terrible Outhouse Afternoon" by Willy O'Halleran and "Surprise in the Outhouse" by Aldon Cisco.
My apprenticeship in almanacking began in 1972 with the gift of a barometer. My wife, Jeanie, gave the instrument to me when I was succumbing to graduate school stress in Knoxville, Tennessee, and it became not only an escape from intense academic work, but the first step on the road to a different kind of awareness about the world. From the start, I was never content just to watch the barometric needle; I had to record its movement then graph it. Eventually, I learned when changes would occur and what kind of weather would take place on most any day. That information was expressed in the language of odds and percentages, and it was surprisingly accurate. Taking into consideration the consistency of certain patterns in the past, I could make fairly successful predictions about the likelihood of the repetition of such patterns in the future. The pulse of the world was more steady than I had ever imagined. From watching the weather, it was an easy step to watching wildflowers. Identifying plants, I saw that flowers were natural allies of my graphs, and that they were parallel measures of the seasons and the passage of time. I kept a list of when each wildflower blossomed and saw how each one consistently opened around a specific day, and that even though a cold year could set blooming back up to two weeks, and unusual warmth accelerate it, average dates were quite useful in establishing sequence of bloom that always showed me exactly where I was in the progress of the year. In the summer of 1978, my wife and I took the family to Yellow Springs, Ohio, a small town just beyond the eastern edge of the Dayton suburbs. We bought a house and planned to stay. I began to write a nature column for the local newspaper. To my weather and wildflower notes I added comments on foliage changes, bird migration dates, farm and gardening cycles, and the rotation of the stars. The microclimate in which I immersed myself gradually became a key to the extended environment; the part unlocked the whole. My engagement with the natural world, which began as an escape from school (and helped me stop smoking, as well), finally turned into a way of getting private bearings. It became a process of spiritual and physical reorientation. In that sense, all the seasonal notes in this book are the fruit of a strong need to define where I am, who I am and what happens around me. It is my hope that Poor Will's Almanack will help you to find your own seasons and place, as well.
