Forecasting Weather the Natural Way

When I was a kid my mom lived in a trailer on my Grandparents farm. I spent every waking moment that I was not in school literally following in my Grampa's steps. He taught me how to "listen" to the world around me. Naturally most of my world is animals.

The animals in my life are telling me that it's going to be a long, cold winter. Living in Cincinnati we don't see "winter" until late November. We've actually had years where we were wearing short sleeves at Christmas. Not this year.

Bonnie and Rosie have been shedding out their summer coats since late August. Bonnie has about as much of a winter coat now then she had all last year.

And I think Rosie's winter coat is light in colour as her legs are turning a nice caramel colour. Being the first winter I've had her I'm excited to see what happens. She's also growing a nice beard that you can barely see in the picture.

And then tonight while Jim and I were at the barn finishing up the electric fence repairs I found this Wooly Worm.

According to folk lore it's the brown band on a Wooly Worm that is the indicator of harshness of winter. The thinner the band of brown the more harsh the winter. As you can see he's all black.