From Summer to Fall

So, we asked Peter if he would be interested in writing a blog post all about making the transition from Summer to Fall on the farm. We were thinking more along the lines of the preparation that needs to be done, but this is what he thought we meant….

Mallory asked me to do a blog post about the change from Summer to Fall on the farm. This seemed a bit strange to me, since I assumed it was the same for people off the farm as well, but I figured I would explain it so everyone is on the same page.

You might notice that it is usually quite warm during the summer, but as we approach Thanksgiving it gets cooler. It also starts to rain more, and people don’t go to the beach as often. This is because of science.

More specifically, this has to do with the angle of incidence of the sun’s light hitting the earth. You see, contrary to popular belief (among IDIOTS!) the earth does not get further away from the sun during the winter time. But, as the earth takes its 365 day orbit around the sun it also spins on its axis, and this axis is not parallel to the sun but slightly off kilter by 23.5 degrees. That means (for non equatorial regions) in the north and south hemispheres that the angle of the sunlight is always changing from day to day as we orbit the sun.

The changing angle means the intensity of the sunlight increases from winter to summer, and decreases from summer to winter, and the same is with the day length since the time the sun is inside our horizon follows the same schedule.

That is why the seasons change on the farm.