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Community thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted Sept. 22, 2007 at 1:00 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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12 Comments
TOMORROW, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, IS THE FALL OR AUTUMNAL EQUINOX. THAT IS THE EARTH WILL ONCE AGAIN TILT BACK TO THE ZERO POINT SO OUR SUN WILL PASS OVER THE EQUATOR.
The length of night will equal the length of day as we head into the fall and winter months. Of course, the fact we are still in daylight savings time has NO effect on the tilt of the earth.
The Earth’s maximum tilt is roughly 23.5 degrees to the north and south which occurs on the longest night and longest day in December and June of each year.
Tomorrow morning, the Earth’s tilt will return to zero degrees. Put another way, the Earth’s equitorial plane will coincide with the ecliptic plane for a few seconds until the Earth proceeds to tilt northward giving more sunlight to the southern hemisphere and less to the northern hemisphere.
TREE COLORS WILL BEGIN CHANGING AND THE COLD WINDS OF WINTER WILL HEAD THIS WAY.
So during these tilt-free days, in Wichita and around the world, we will be troubled by the Sun rising and setting directly in the East and West giving us those blinding sun rises and sun sets directly down our east-west streets and highways … so wear your sunglasses.
Incidentally, daylight savings time ends this year on the first Sunday in November, on November 4th, so mark your calendars.
Now, the timing of the Full Moon is not related to the equinoxes. The Full Moon this month will occur this coming Wednesday on September 26th, 2007. The Full Moon occurs when the Moon reaches the point of being on opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, about every 27 and a fraction days. For that reason, we occasionally have two full moons in one calendar month, a so-called “blue” moon.
The Moon is much closer to the Earth than the Sun, a little over 200,000 miles distant. The moon also has a periodic tilt but only about two degrees north and south of its horizontal equatorial plane as I remember.
SO, PLANT YOUR FEET FIRMLY ON THE EARTH THIS COMING WEEK WHILE THESE REGULAR ASTROMICAL EVENTS OCCUR … NOW SUDDEN CHANGES ANTICIPATED.
NOW should be … NO SUDDEN CHANGES ANTICIPATED.
Yep! This is the weekend I’ll be verticutting the lawn for seeding and winterizing.
:)
Similar with me Joe – some spot seeding to get an early start. I won’t winterize until nearly Thanksgiving but hope to get grass started in the heat-damaged areas early.
Still some hot days ahead … not technically “Indian Summer” but pretty much the same thing.
Guys, can you help me out?
For several years, I had the crappiest lawn in the neighborhood. Patchy, some weeds. Every spring, I’d seed, but it never seemed to do any good. This year, I seeded in early March and now I have a lush, beautiful lawn.
Question: When is the best time to do “Weed and Feed”?
How does one “winterize” a lawn?
“Weed and feed” is a classic reference to the good old days of reefer madness: smoke the whacky, and eat till ya explode.
“Winterize” a lawn is done so by scrapping off a fine layer of lawn, and laying down a fine layer of concrete. This not only takes care of soil erosion, but eliminates the fine art of mowing the damn thing in spring and summer. Plus, it saves water.
Stumper, at one time I considered just putting down gravel, but I was afraid that flying rocks would be a hazard when I mow.
XXX – seed in the fall, not the spring. I think Joe and I might be starting just a bit too early in fact.
The idea is to have a long autumn for the grass to get started; I have found that winter is not hard on it. Then it gets all of spring to finish establishing itself. (I’m assuming fescue here).
Winterizing is pretty much just a late fertilization with slow-release and, for me, a fairly short-level mowing. I tend to keep it going until after Thanksgiving in this ‘no-real-winter’ climate.
Thanks, Ben.
It depends on what grass you use too. Most popular for around here is fescue blends, but are climate is on the border line of being too harsh for it, but fescue grass can work, it’s that you have to water it constantly. Takes a lot of water.
Usually a fescue bag comes in a blend, because there are so many types, and it just depends on soil condition, how shaded your yard is and etc, for which fescue types will thrive, so that is why they just throw in all types. If you have a shaded yard, then fescue is pretty much a way to go.
Some people like the bluegrass blends, but I would stay away from any bluegrass, because they tend to attract insects and grub worms. They just love that grass.
Bermuda is probably the best way to go, in my opinion, for our area. But it doesn’t grow well in shaded areas, so if you have an open yard, with no shade, Bermuda is a great option. It uses a lot less water to keep itself up and plus it crawls. Meaning that it will spread out on it’s own. But being that it does crawl, it’s considered an evasive grass. If your neighbor has fescue and you have Bermuda, your grass will start creeping into his. And if your neighbor is a yard perfectionist, it just might make them upset. Plus if you live in an association, they might have bans against using evasive grasses like bermuda. Because they want everybody’s yard to look the same, and usually they choose fescue. You can get bermuda grass started by just sprigging it.
You have Buffalo grass, which is really native for our parts and in the wild. Doesn’t require much to keep it up. No fertilizing and not much water. Some people don’t think it’s attractive, because it will tend to brown up in the summer time, but it won’t die, just slightly dormant, plus it never really gets deep green. It, however is pretty weak, meaning that many types of weed killers you use will kill the grass. So be careful on that part and get the weed killers for buffalo. But, if your neighbor has bermuda grass and you have buffalo, consider it gone, because bermuda will take over buffalo grass lawns in a snap.
I’ll add more later, but right now I gotta go.
But a word to Ben! Yeah! Right now I’m just verticutting and seeding. Just like you, I’m preparing it for winterizing, by hopefully growing a very healthy batch before it starts getting cold for that winterizing time. :)
Yep. Working today so will only get a little of it done tomorrow. Hopefully next weekend. Then keep it wet …
Bermuda or Buffalo in the back can be a good option. Doesn’t matter much how it looks and can stand up to kids/dogs.
Agree wholeheartedly about bluegrass – spray ot with round-up. HORRIBLE in the dry summer. It’s called KENTUCKY bluegrass for a reason.
EARLY THIS MORNING, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, I WAS DRIVING ON HIGHWAY 54 WEST OF WICHITA AS THE SUN CAME UP OVER THE HORIZON.
As it arose, the Sun was magnified by dust and other impurities in the first 80 miles of the Earth’s atmosphere. On the other hand, the sun’s light was shielded to some degree by the fog and moisture arising from the grass lands and fields of maize/sorghum and soy beans. Beautiful.
Interesting to see the Sun arise straight east down the middle of Highway 54 because today is the annual FALL EQUINOX as the Sun crosses the equator or more accurately our Earth tilts towards the north such that the Earth’s equator passes the Sun.
On Highway 54, the Sun arose in the south lane of the highway to adjust minisculy for the 39 degrees that Wichita lies north of the equator more than 100,000,000 miles from the Sun.
Last night the 3/4 moon or waxing moon about 200,000 miles distant stood at its zenith about 40 degrees south of vertical to adjust for Wichita’s position north of the equator.
Now only about five more days left until Wichita experiences the FULL MOON ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH.
That is the day I will once again signal the Winged Warrior to scour the top floors of Wichita’s many nearly empty downtown high-rise office buildings for signs of life, raucous laughter, cigar smoke and praising of the downtown arena project.
Yes, its rumored that Wichita’s favorite son, Earl Browder, two time candidate for U.S. President, raised in the Delano neighborhood of west Wichita, is surreptiously honored by his Wichita economic supporters on nights of the Full Moon.
Earl Browder was chairman of the American Communist Party and ran for U.S. President twice on the American Communist Party tickets in 1936 and 1940 soundly beaten both times by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Now if the Winged Warrior can only discover the identities of those who attend these monthly get-togethers on the nights of the Full Moon on the top floor of an empty office building high above the streets of Wichita ….