Woolly Bears

Yes, you read that right! Are you intrigued? I just read about woolly bears, woolly worms and forecasting Winter from the amount of black and orange. I also read they are called woolly worms in the South, so we all know it's the same "critter". Some might spell them wooly bears or wooly worms but I'm going to side with The Old Farmers' Almanac (The Truth About Woolly Bears), which is where I was reading.

I don't know if the predictions for winter is really true or not. There have been some studies done but it's more for fun to try to predict the weather from the amount of brown/black on them. I've noticed more black on the ones here lately. Rumor has it more black is a more harsh Winter.

If you'd like to read up on them some, there is a group which had formed due to a study of them with a website. You can check it out here: http://www.ecostudies.org/FTFG/FTFG-11-17-03.html I found it by googling them, Woolly Bear Mountain.

For reference, I was reading from the 1998 Almanac as I got one CHEAP at GoodWill (25 cents). The current issues are EXPENSIVE these days so I no longer buy the new editions. I had to get this one as they always have a few good, old-time recipes I like to check out. They also contain the info on the length of daylight which I like to reference in the Winter. For some reason knowing that we'll acquire a minute and so-many seconds per day or so many minutes per week helps me get through the cabin fever months.

Back to trying to find that chart that is simple and easy to track that has the day of each month with sunrise, sunset and the amount of minutes more daylight is accrued by the day..... I can't remember where I had seen that.

Maybe I'd better just to visit the website. After all, there IS a website for EVERYTHING!