Yesterday, I mentioned 10 of the most common signs of a hard winter. Today, here is the rest of the list including some of the more popular ones.

* Pigs gathering sticks - have to live on a farm for that one.

* Insects marching a bee-line rather than meandering.

* Early seclusion of bees within the hive.

* Muskrats burrowing holes high on the riverbank.

* The squirrel gathers nuts earl to fortify for winter.

* Frequent halos or rings around the sun or moon forecasts numerous snows.

* Mice eating ravenously into a home.

* Heavy and numerous fogs in August.

The final two that I hear about most often are:

* Spiders spinning larger than normal webs and entering the house in great numbers.

* The wollybear caterpillar - A narrow orange band in the middle of the caterpillar warns of heavy snow; fat and fuzzy caterpillars warns of bitter cold. Also… a rough winter if you see lots of them crawling around, their movement is slow (thought they were always slow?), you saw them crawling before the first frost.

So, here is the official Farmers’ Almanac signs of a hard winter. I expect as we move into September, you will start to notice many of these. Feel free to share your observations. and/ or include a photo of your caterpillar or other sign of nature. I will post them. It can be mild in one place and rough in another. Let’s see how you observe nature getting ready for the winter months. My e-mail address is pgeiger@farmersalmanac.com.

Tomorrow I will tell you about winter and the persimmon seeds and winter.

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