Dog Days And Weather Signs

The forty dog days of summer begins in the United States on July 3^rd and End August 11^th according to history and The Old Farmer’s Almanac. They’re so often said to be the hot, sultry days of summer, July and August being the two hottest months of the year.

The older generation had a lot of sayings about Dog Days. One being, “it’s dog days and snakes are blind, ye better be careful cause they’ll strike at anything that moves.” We surely did listen to that one cause we were reminded enough, especially while playing outside after dark or catching lightning bugs.

Another one is getting Dew Poisoning which means if you get a cut on your finger or hand and get the morning dew in it the cut will never heal. My daddy got dew poisoning one summer. He’d cut his finger with his pocket knife and was picking beans one morning and got dew in it and he went around all summer with his finger bandaged up and it finally healed come Fall. Mama told him, “ye know what did that and ye should have bandaged it up before ye hit the dew.”

I heard daddy and mama say it was hard for a cut or any open wound to heal during dog days many times. This pertains to anything even getting one’s ears pierced. I got mine pierced in the summer months after I got up the nerve to have it done. Mama told me, “ye shouldn’t have done that. They’ll never heal.” I can honestly say she was right about that. I had one to get infected and I thought it was going to rot off. If it hadn’t been for lots of peroxide and alcohol and babying, I would have given up and let them grow up. I still have to baby my ears and bathe them in alcohol quite often. I very seldom take my ear rings out except to change them.

There were a lot of weather sayings as well and I don’t know if any of them pertains to dog days but thought I’d add a few.

Here’s one,

If you’re hoping for a nice, dry day check for dew on the ground

When the dew is on the grass

Rain will never come to pass

When grass is dry at morning light

Look for rain before the night

There’s also one that helps to tell what the weather is going to be pertaining to cattle and horses, which means if you see a cow or horse take notice of which way the wind is blowing their tails. Cows and horses prefer not to have the wind blowing in their faces so they usually stand with their backs to the wind.

Tails pointing west

Weather’s at it’s best

Tails pointing east

Weather is least

Summer fog means fair weather is on its way and you can look for a sunny day.

Summer fog for fair

A winter fog for rain

A fact most everywhere

In valley or on plain

And the one I like the most is

If the rooster crows at going to bed

You may rise with a watery head

I just don’t know about this one but my mama sure hated to hear one crow at bedtime. She’d throw a rock at it every time just to get it to stop. She claimed it meant bad luck.

Just a little folk lore and I hope you enjoyed. I’ll try to post more later as they come to me.

Thought I’d add a little poem for some humor as well, concerning the fogs in August because of the most heard one of all. “For every fog in August there will be a snow come winter.” This one is kinda worrying me with August upon us cause we had quite a few fogs last August and quite a few snows. 

I counted forty, foggy mornings in August

an old lady once said

I wondered how can this be

as I scratched my head

Thirty one days in August

is all I’ve ever known

unless the calendar has changed

and the months have grown

I worked so very hard

to try and figure it all in

But the forty, foggy mornings

I didn’t know where to begin

And then I thought to myself

and I came up with a good try

When summer’s heat lingers on

there’s forty, hot days in July

In January’s snowy weather

there’s at least forty flakes

that lies on the ground

forty days for goodness sakes

How can I forget March

with so many windy days

The wind probably blows forty

I just don’t count the days

No, that can’t be right

I thought to myself

When thirty one days are gone

in a month, there’s none left

So I’ll just keep on waiting

August is soon to end

If there’s forty, foggy mornings

Will winter ever end??

© Susie Swanson, 2018