Nature says: Brutal Winter ahead!

That lady is a great writer. Thanks for sharing.

Around here, we look at the persimmon and whether the shape inside is in a fork or spoon. I'm not sure of all about it, but it's generally spot on.

Many of those predictions in the farmers almanac were based on natures actions rather than historical evidence. My grandpa always planted based on those recomendations and didn't have any problems.

More often than not, we've lost a HUGE resource in nature from our grandparents and great grand parents because we didn't take the time to listen and ask questions. In our pursuit of technology and reason behind it, we have probably lost the actual knowledge of when to do certain activities with nature at the helm.

It makes me sad to think of things like this as I squandered my time instead of learning from my grandfather. He was born in 1909, and my father was a late kid and so was I, so he was old when I got here in 1977. He died in 1992, and other than remembering his actions and questioning why (he would have told me) I was too interested in riding the damn 4 wheeler. Now that I grow my own garden and have my own farm, I think of him nearly daily when out there working for guidance on how to do many of the tough tasks that he made look so easy.

All of the persimmon seeds we cracked open this year were spoons. This suggests lots of snow...the spoon being a shovel.

If the appearance is a knife it will be cutting cold. A fork signifies neither of those, hence a decent winter.

BTW, a knife is the common shape. Spoon is rather common and fork is rare.

From another source:

Meaning of the “Eating Utensils”
•Knife – Signifies icy cold winter weather coming with wind that will cut through like a knife.
•Fork – Signifies a mild winter with light feathery snow in the outlook.
•Spoon – Signifies a lot of wet heavy snow to be shoveled.

From another source....with pictures
http://portal.chaminade-stl.com/Default.aspx?tabid=6854