The Briar Philosopher - Signs of Things to Come

Signs of things to come

It may not feel like it from the temperatures this week, but fall is definitely on its way. The dogwood leaves are fading, and their now green berries are starting to redden. Apples are ripening. Goldenrod, Ironweed, and Joe Pye Weed are blooming along with many other autumn flowers. The Katydids are calling. The Katydids and the Goldenrods were always seen as signs of fall’s imminent arrival. “If you hear the Katydid call, it’s six weeks until first frost,” or “Goldenrod’s blooming. Won’t be long until hog butchering time.” These were things you’d commonly hear this time of year when I was growing up. People watched the “signs” of things to come. How thick the corn shucks were on the corn and how heavy the mast of acorns and nuts were when they fell were taken to be signs of how hard the winter would be, how deep the snows, and how frigid the temperatures. Spoon-shaped seeds inside a persimmon were considered a sure sign you’d be shoveling snow, and a black woolly worm was a sure portent of a hard season ahead. I’m sure some of those things panned out often enough to keep people following them. The goldenrod and katydid signs made sense for sure, as they always seem to happen toward the end of August, and it was a pretty sure thing that we’d get frost by the middle of October.

In the last couple of decades, it has gotten harder to predict even the coming of frost by the timing of other things. It hasn’t been unusual for frost to hold off sometimes until November, and old timers would be hard pressed to find a time when it was cold enough to safely butcher hogs before Christmas, and sometimes not even then. It was important for it to be cold enough outside that the meat wouldn’t start to spoil before it could be processed and put in the smoke house, and the lard rendered.

Of course, there aren’t too many folks who butcher hogs that way anymore. They just take them to the local processor and have them cut and packaged for the freezer. That’s all well and good and a mighty fine convenience. It just always feels a little unnerving to me when such a skill is lost. We’ve lost so many skills and so much know-how over the last hundred years or so. I hope there are enough people around who remember and have passed some of their knowledge along so that we’ll have access to that know-how if we should ever need it. Given the way the weather has gotten lately and the problems with droughts and flooding, and supply chain issues, we might need them sooner, rather than later.

I am more and more glad as time passes that I grew up the way I did and learned a lot about how to get by without much from the outside world. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the convenience of a grocery store as much as the next person, but I’m glad I know how to grow a garden and can and make jams and apple butters. I’m glad I know how to dry apples and string beans, and peppers. I’m glad I know how to bank a woodstove for the night, build a fire, piece a quilt, make lye soap, and any number of other things you don’t see much of these days. I even know how to help butcher a hog and render the fat into lard if the need should ever arise.

I guess the philosophy of this is that it’s important to know as much as possible about how to look out for yourself and your family. Time spent learning any skill is never wasted time, even if you never have need of the knowledge. If you’re fortunate enough to have some elders in your life who have such skills and knowledge, take advantage of that. Ask them to teach you something. It would probably mean the world to them to be able to pass on such knowledge. And if you happen to be an elder who does possess such skills and knowledge, be willing to share your wisdom with those who care enough to ask. If we put our heads and our hearts together, we can face whatever may come our way.