Fall Survival Checklist: 2014

admin Posted OnSeptember 10, 2014

1.6K Views

We like to think of What To Do as The Old Farmer’s Almanac for suburban yuppies. Each season we check in with the OFA for need to know stuff like the weather, meteorology and astrology. If we asked the OFA to edit a Fall Survival Checklist for our towns, we think it would go something like this:

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Report:

Weather: Expect a dry but comfortable October with average temperatures of 57F° just one degree above average and precipitation of 2.5”, or 1” less than normal (great for apple picking.) There will be a chill on in November with average temps 3° below normal. And December is going to be downright cold and rainy with temps 2° below and precipitation 3″ above average.

Astronomy: Full moon days: October 8, November 6, December 6. (Don’t talk politics or religion to your spouse on a full moon or you may be lawyering up in the morning.)

Geminid Meteor Shower: Radiating from near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, the Geminid meteor shower is one of the best in the Northern Hemisphere. The meteors are bright and plentiful, with 50 to 100 meteors per hour visible at the peak. Most meteor showers are best viewed after midnight but the Geminids are game on early evening. Watch between 9pm and midnight on Fri-Sat, 12/12-13. How do you know if it is dark enough to see? If you can see each star of the Little Dipper, your eyes have “dark adapted,” and your site is probably dark enough. Under these conditions, you will see plenty of meteors.

Best Fishing Days: According to the OFA the best fishing days are between the new and the full moon. Here’s when the fish will be biting this autumn. September 24-October 8, October 23-November 6, November 22-December 6. Here’s some inspirational fishing music.

Astrology: Celeste Longacre’s Best Days: According to the OFA’s resident astrologer/radio personality and author Celeste Longacre, here are the best days to: Quit Smoking/Begin Diet: 10/10 & 19, 11/15 & 16, 12/13 & 18. Go to the dentist: 10/19 & 20, 11/ 15 & 16, 12/ 13 & 14. Start projects: 10/24 & 25, 11/23 & 24, 12/23 & 24. Prune to encourage growth: 10/7, 8, 26 & 27, 11/4, 5 & 23, 12/1, 2 28 & 29. Destroy pests & weeds/cut hay: 10/ 7 & 8, 11/4, 5 & 23, 12/1,2 28 & 29.

Ingredient substitutions for foodies: Farmers are foodies too. In fact, they are the original foodies. So the OFA has lots of helpful tips for gourmets. For instance: If you run out of balsamic, just sub in 1 tbsp. of red wine vinegar and 1 tsp. of sugar. The mascarpone jar is empty? 3 tbsp. of heavy cream, 3/4-cup cream cheese and 4 tbsp. of butter will yield 1 cup of mascarpone equivalent. For common and uncommon ingredient substitutions from OFA check here and here.

Holidays and Observances: Rosh Hashanah: Thursday, September 25. Yom Kippur: Saturday, October 4. Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 27. First Sunday of Advent: November 30. First Day of Chanukah: Wednesday, December 17. Christmas: Thursday, December 25. First Day of Kwanzaa: Friday, December 26.

And other special days worthy of observance: National Hug Day: Wednesday, October 8. Mulligan Day (Give yourself a second chance!): Friday, October 17. Halloween, Friday, October 31. Men Make Dinner Day: Thursday, November 8.(Watch out for the old pizza in a box trick!) Veterans Day: Tuesday, November 11. International Men’s Day: Wednesday,November 19 (You da man! Thanks for dinner on the 7th.) Cookie Day: Thursday, December 4. Connie Francis Birthday: Friday, December 12. (“Who’s Sorry Now?,“ “Lipstick On Your Collar,” “Where the Boys Are”)

Apple Picking: Those fall traffic jams you see at Exit 8 on 684 means it’s apple-picking season. Hardscrabble Road in North Salem sports two u-pick ‘em experiences, Outhouse Orchards and Outhouse Orchards North Salem NY Harvest Moon where there’s a fall fest every weekend with live music, hayrides, pony rides and lots of food. There’s more apple picking in Granite Springs and Yorktown Heights. If you just want to eat the apples and prefer to have someone pick them for you, Thompson Cider Mill in Croton on Hudson offers a variety of locally grown apples including rare and heirloom varieties. Want someone to pick them for you and bake them in a pie? Check out Salinger’s in Brewster. More news for apple pickers (and eaters) in our Guide To Westchester Apple Picking.

Are You Using Up Huge Amounts of Data? If you have noticed an uptick in your data usage lately, it may be your Facebook app. On September 3, the UK website moneysavingexperts.com reported that Facebook recently changed its settings and videos now auto play in your newsfeed. If you use the Facebook app on your mobile phone or tablet you may be experiencing a spike in your data usage, especially if your friends have been taking the ice bucket challenge. Before you start seeing higher data charges, you should check your settings. It could be due to the social network’s auto play video function. In your device settings you can opt out of video auto play completely or set video auto play to only play on WIFI. You can get detailed instructions from moneysaving experts.com or from Facebook directly. If you liked this post, like us on Facebook.

Should your wine be organic? A chat with the Wine Geeks Wine Doctor: Do you find yourself going to the wine shop and asking more questions about maladies than varietals? You’re not alone. Wine Geeks Armonk’s sommelier Derek Todd says he gets more questions about health issues than wine pairings or selections. “Sometimes I have to check my sign out front to see if it says Mount Kisco Medical Group,” he joked. We sat down with Derek and he told us what the big wine producers are putting in their bottles, whether you should go organic and what to do about wine headaches. Here’s what he had to say.

Muscoot Farm, Fitness & Food: Muscoot Farm offers a great farm, fitness and food morning for locavores who like to stretch their legs. With 7 miles of hiking trails you can get your heart pumping and then shop at their farm market with 25 vendors selling produce, organic meats, fish, baked goods, Survival_Muscoot_hike07 prepared foods and more. There’s a half-mile woodland trail, a moderately strenuous 2 mile hike if you want to work up an appetite but are stressed for time, and a 3 ½ mile trail where you can see the full diversity of Muscoot’s landscapes. Or grab a cup of coffee at the market and take a short walk to the gazebo or the ice pond and chill out on the dock. If you want to burn some calories before you shop, Muscoot is a smart tip! And what better venue for a farmers market than an actual farm? Duh! The market is open to the end of October. Sun, 10am-3pm. (Muscoot Farm, Rt. 100, Somers) Check out our Farmers Market Guide.

Rolf Brandt, Arborist The Care of Trees Mt. Kisco

When it’s time to remove a tree: Are your trees like trophies to you? We feel that way with ours. But all things must pass. And with trees safe is often better than sorry. Especially with hurricane and winter storm season coming. But how do you know when you have a sick tree? We asked Rolf Brandt, Arborist, at The Care of Trees in Mt. Kisco, “What are the signs that a tree is about to fail?” Here’s some tips he passed along.

“When we inspect a tree we start at the roots to see what might be occurring at the base before working our way up the tree,” he told us. Here are the six signs of tree damage he laid out for us to help determine if it is time to remove your tree:

Heaving soil at the base of the trunk and beneath the canopy

Decay-producing fungi, such as mushrooms, growing at the base of the trunk

Chipped or peeling bark and cracks in the trunk

Cavities in the trunk or large scaffold branches

Dead or hanging branches in the upper crown

Fine twigs without living buds near the ends of branches

Christine Cahill, The Harvey School

College Prep: Hartwick or Harvard? What are the most common questions parents ask about college? What should they be asking? What if my kid doesn’t know what they want to study? Will my child be able to get a job after graduation? These are some of the questions we asked local college guidance experts for our annual feature College Prep: Finding the Best Fit School. We even asked them to comment on Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, David & Goliath, that postulates it may be better to be a top student at Hartwick College than an average one at Harvard. You may be surprised by what they had to say. Read more.

Dr. Nan Miller, Mt. Kisco Partners in Prevention

Teen Substance Abuse: If you have a child in high school there’s a 1 in 3 chance that they had a drink of alcohol in the past 30 days,according to Dr. Nan Miller, Coordinator of the teen substance abuse program Mt. Kisco Partners in Prevention. And if they did, there’s a better than even chance your child was binge drinking.There’s a big spike in alcohol use when kids enter high school, but many start drinking in middle school. What’s a concerned parent to do? We sat down with Dr. Miller to find out. Read more.

Does your teen have ID? Another social media tip we received that we pass along here. If you travel with teens who do not have a drivers license you may run into frustrations with security over your kids who are old enough to draw the attention of airline security agents but not old enough to identify them selves. You can obtain a non-driver photo ID card (NDID) at the local DMV and avoid this potential frustration. Here is the link to the website info:

First Frost Watch for Bulb Planters: The first frost in our area can be as late as the end of November. But the ideal time to plant bulbs is six weeks before the ground freezes to allow sufficient time for rooting. Look for nighttime temperatures between 40° and 50° about mid-October. Here are some additional tips to get your bulbs off to a good start.