Signs and portents...

From an irreverent reader:

We get an emailed crop letter that noted an "old farmer's tale" - Lightning in January means dry weather in July. We have heard some other "old farmer's tale" - that thunder in January means dry weather in June, and thunder in the winter means snow in 10 days.

Guess we really don't want lightning and thunder in January!

I have a friend Dan, who has a "wise saying" for about any occasion, so I've heard plenty of these. I also have a neighbor who weans horses by astrological signs (the moon has to be moving away from the heart...or something like that).

As for me, I have, over the last two years developed an abiding respect for Mike Hoffman's long range forecasts on USFR. After 4 days it's all a crapshoot statistically, but I plan my planting and harvest expectations according to his forecast.

His call for a warm, wet winter, for instance helped me consider some forward sales since we have definitely recharged our deplenished water table here locally.

Still, anybody got some new old sayings, maybe involving cat fur or hickory bark? Post them in the comments.

And don't forget the spleen-cast.

BTW - am I old enough now that what I say is an "old farmer saying"?