I was reading a very interesting article not too long ago, about how the old folks predicted the weather. This is not the old folks like us, not the old folks of today, but the old folks from way back before weather forecasters were around, and there were no such things as TV and radios.
One way the old folks predicted what winter would be like was to cut several persimmon seeds in half to get an accurate winter weather forecast, so we thought we would cut thirteen persimmons seeds in half. All thirteen-persimmon seeds we cut in half had spoons, which mean according to the old folks it is going to snow heavily all winter long in our area and we will be shoveling a lot of snow this winter.
The old folks also used how the wasp built their nest, and if the wasp built their nest high, it meant there would be a harsh winter. The wasp built high in our hayloft at the barn, and I think that qualifies as building high, so again it does predict a bad winter for us according the old folks predictions.
According to the old folks the darker the wooly worms are the worse the winter will be. I have only seen five wooly worms, and all five were jet-black and the darkest, blackest, crawly little wooly worms that I have ever seen. That is another sign we will be getting a very bad winter according to the old folks predictions.
The old folks also said if horses get a thick coat early it would mean an early winter. Our horses put on a thick undercoat some time ago, and have been putting on their winter coats for a while now, so it looks like we are in for a bad winter, that is, if the old folks were accurate with their predictions.
Another way the old folks predicted what the weather would be was if squirrels were busy, gathering, their nuts early to store away for winter it meant there would be a bad winter. The squirrels are busy, scampering around gathering nuts, so it looks like a bad winter is in store for us.
It will be interesting at least to see if the old folks did have some insight in how to predict the winter weather according to different things like the ones above.
