Old Wive's Tales--or Just How Bad Is Winter Really Going to Be?

Fall. 

It brings about thoughts of cooler weather (unless you happen to live in Texas and my friends there tell me fall will be scheduled for the 15^th of December), wearing hoodies, thick sweaters, boots, having bonfires, and taking in the color of the trees as they slowly shed their foliage and go dormant for the winter.

Inevitably, fall also brings out the wives’ tales about how to predict the coming winter: is that wooly worm all black, black and orange, or all orange; did you find a knife, fork, or spoon in the persimmon seeds you cut; how much heavier is the coat the farm animals are putting on; how bushy is that squirrel’s tail? For the record, the wooly worms I’m finding are all black, the persimmon seeds are predominantly spoons with a few knives tossed in, and my horse had his winter coat by the middle of September and my collies are shedding again to put on brand new, fresh coat for winter. I don’t pay too much attention to the squirrels, other than to battle daily with them to keep them out of my bird feeders. However, those are all predictors of a harsh and snowy winter here in Indiana. The wooly worms and persimmon seeds at the homestead in Tennessee are saying the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong. I like winter. On Christmas Eve and through about the second or third of January and then it can go away, again.

What are some of the wives’ tales you’ve heard about predicting the winter weather?