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Farming can't wait for flood recovery. We learn to adapt and keep growing.
Above: sunrise from the tree-stand on the mountain where you can watch the sun move to the north (left in the image) a little more every day between December 21st until June 21st when it starts moving back to the south (right) again. The further north it goes, the higher it is above the horizon and the longer the arch, thus extending the number of daylight by about a minute and a half everyday. Before you know it, a season has passed!
pruning and training a young pear tree (above) and a pollinator apple
What About the Groundhog? (from a facebook post by Doug Elliot, a North Carolina naturalist and storyteller, February 2, 2021)
It turns out that February 2nd is a big day. It’s a cross-quarter day marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. This is an ancient pagan celebration time known as the Festival of the Return of the Light. It’s a celebration of rebirth and renewal. In Gaelic Ireland it was known as Imbolc, the festival marking the beginning of spring. But what about the groundhog?
In the northern temperate regions all around the world, folks noticed that the beginning of February is often the coldest time of the year. But even though it’s cold, the days are getting longer, the light is coming back. And with the light will come the warmth, and with the warmth will come the growth, and the world will be born anew. The seeds aren’t quite germinating, but the fire of life–that essential spark–is there. The light will return. But what about the groundhog?
February 2nd is also 40 days after Christmas. We all know the Virgin Mary was a nice Jewish girl. She was a devout follower of the laws of Moses, and according to ancient Jewish tradition, a new mother, after childbirth, spends 40 days in rest and recovery. Then after 40 days she takes her child to the temple and makes an offering, acknowledging that this is a child of God. With this offering, the child is redeemed from God into the care of the mother. So, this is what Mary did 40 days after Jesus was born. Now among many Christians February 2nd is a holy day, known as the Day of the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple. Since Christians see Jesus as the light of the world this implies a direct connection to the old Festival of the Return of the Light. But what about the groundhog?
In the old days people saved the drippings from the candles burned during that long winter darkness because tallow and wax were very precious. On February 2 they would remelt the wax and make the candles anew, celebrating the light coming back to the world. In many churches to this day, this holiday is still known as Candlemas. Hallelujah! The light is returning to our world! But what about the groundhog?
Early February is the time to check your supplies–take inventory. Check your stored food; how are your canned goods holding out? Check your woodpile; do you still have half of your firewood? Check the hay in the barn. February 2nd is considered the halfway point of the cold weather and if you’ve still got half your food and supplies left in the beginning of February, you should have enough to last till spring.
February 2nd, Candlemas day,
Half the grain and half the hay,
Half the winter is passed away,
We’ll eat our supper by the light of day.
Okay, the light is returning! That explains a lot, but what about the groundhog?
I’ve heard it all my life, you’ve probably heard it too: Mr. Groundhog comes out of his den on February 2nd and if it’s a cold, blustery, overcast, sleeting or rainy day, Mr. Groundhog stays out and spring arrives, right?
If it’s a beautiful, sunny day, Mr. Groundhog comes out of the ground, sees his shadow, gets scared, dives back into the ground, and we get six more weeks of winter! I’ve heard that all my life and it never made any sense to me–until I started researching groundhogology.
Groundhog Day is a throwback to ancient bear and badger cults from Europe. These folks didn’t so much worship these critters as much as they watched them.
They watched these hibernating animals go into the ground in the fall and they didn’t come out. It was as if they died. The next spring however, when the world was being born anew they would miraculously rise up out of the earth as if they, too, had been reborn. The ancient ones realized that the life cycle of these hibernating animals is a great metaphor for the human spiritual journey. As we walk through this world our shadow is always with us. We all have a shadow that’s with us for all the days that we walk this earth. When we die and they put us in the ground, and when that hibernating animal goes into the ground in the fall, the shadow disappears. That shadow, the symbol of the soul, is set free and the animal sleeps the sleep of death. It becomes a part of the underworld–one with the earth. Early in spring as the time of rebirth and renewal approaches, the animal emerges from the underworld and if some of that old shadow–the old soul–is still attached, the process isn’t complete so the animal must return and continue sleeping that sleep of death until it is ready to be reborn completely anew.
That’s why we say if Mr. Groundhog sees his shadow we are going to get six more weeks of winter.
We’ll dig down and we’ll dig deep,
We’ll find that whistlepig where he sleeps
Oh Groundhog!
February
February
It doesn't take someone living without electricity to be able to notice and appreciate the daylight hours getting longer in early February. In north Georgia the sun sets about 5pm on December 21st, and by the first week of February the sun is setting about 6:30pm. And have you noticed that the pathway of the sun changes a little every day too? The groundhogs must start to notice the sun changing during first week of February when a few of them take a break from their hibernation and come out of the ground to stretch their legs and get a feel for things. Eighteenth century Europeans and immigrants to America believed that when animals awakened from their "deathly sleep" of hibernation, it could have been to check on the length of their shadow -- if they had little or no shadow, they had "slept" long enough to loose their shadow, or their previous life, to begin anew in spring. The shadow symbolizing your life is interesting!
Of course these changes are all because of the angle the earth as it rotates and orbits around the sun each year, making less and less shadow in the northern hemisphere between December 21st and June 21st. See how the sun's pathway appears to change where you live and what it means to the plants and animals around your house. Try keeping a journal to record your sunrise/sunset observations, and also jot down the basics: low temperature in the morning, wind, clouds, rainfall, bird sightings and/or calls, other things and/or sounds that make you wonder. The phone apps, Globe Observer and Inaturalist may help make your phone a useful tool for such data collection. Headwaters Leaning can help you get started when you visit and/or we can do zoom meetings.
More on groudhogs and the world
We pretty-much know that Groundhog Day has something to do with a halfway to spring reference -- "six more weeks of winter if he sees his shadow" or "an early spring if he doesn't see his shadow"? Before the Gregorian calendar of Roman times set the new year close to the shortest day of the year in late December, many cultures across the world from the Irish and Germanic, to the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, considered the first week of February a New Year because the signs of growing sunlight and life finally hint at a new year of light and growth. The ancient Irish celebrated a return of the light and the ancient European peoples noticed certain animals who had seemed to disappear, begin to reappear at this time, but some, like bears and badgers returned to their deathly sleep for a while longer. So when German Amish immigrants in Pennsylvania discovered groundhogs doing similar things, they figured they were a part of the same mystery of hibernation as a kind of rebirth dependent in some way to losing the shadow of their former life to be renewed in the spring.
In Japan, the the rituals of Setsubun, especially the bean-throwing, (Mamemaku) show how people desired to leave the unproductive parts of their life of the last year for spring renewal -- a kind of losing the bad action of one's "shadow." Identifying the unwanted actions, or spirits (oni). Beans are thrown at the bad spirits because beans are symbolic for defeating evil (___ is a phoneme for bean) and the person throwing the beans yells, "Out with bad spirits!" ("Oni wa soto!") and "In with the good!" ("Fuku wa uchi!"). The same thing applies to the home. Inside one's one's home as well are good sprits that need protection and bad ones that need to be cast out or kept from entering as the spring days get longer and another cycle of life begins. Holly branches are displayed on the doors of homes at this time to help keep the bad spirits out. Holly is a common decoration throughout the winter in other parts of the world too.
In the Japanese classroom, first graders decorate ogre or devil masks and write their bad habits on the insides of the masks. Sixth grade students wearing their masks, may visit the first graders' classrooms to scare them as the first graders throw roasted soybeans at them to drive away the "evil" and protect the good inside. Read a first grade story in their language arts book and tells this story, and an elementary school principal's speech given at this time of year, here.
Garden planning and preparations in early February parallels this kind of thinking in that the old, less productive seeds, plant varieties, tree shoots, deadwood, and excess vines must be identified and separated from the productive growth and seeds that you want to propagate in the new season.
Soil, as well, needs to be observed and tested for weaknesses and amended accordingly before planting. Every plant has soil preferences and even providing the prefered soil is sometimes not enough, and you must move the plants to another location. In the wild, plants do not stay in one place for long. The next generation of plant will usually need to grow in a different location. Seeds fly to these places on the wind, the flowing water, or on the backs or bellies of animals to find there next preferred place to grow. Farmers practice crop rotation to accomplish similar results. Many plants (like potatoes and tomatoes) need to leave the place they grew for at least three years before they can return and grow there again healthily. Farming and gardening is challenging business and some say it was the "original sin" to when humans thought they could raise plants better than they could raise themselves in nature. Farming turned out to be a lot of hard work, but very interesting too!
More on soil We can see signs of soil quality by looking at the kind of weeds growing there, their shade of green, etc.; and we can take soil samples and test them for a number of things that will tell us what amendments need to be made. Soil is always changing just like anything that is alive, and in the early spring there are plenty of signs of change that can cause a creative response from the gardener or farmer. How will you respond to the signs this year? Is it enough to read the signs of the kinds of weeds growing on the ground, or do you need to test the chemistry of the soil to pinpoint the details of soil pH and Nitrogen (N) Phosphorus (P) Potassium (K), and others minerals we may need to add to the soil for for crops with specific requirements this year? Get started on your own garden at Headwaters Learning at Revival Gardens this year!
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