Shine On, Beaver Moon...

According to the Farmer's Almanac, the full moon of November is the Beaver Moon. One theory is that now is the time set your beaver traps, another that the beavers are actively getting ready for winter (how does a beaver prepare for winter? Maybe insulating the lodge? stocking up on used paperbacks? Sadly, the Almanac does not say).

Here's a Cliff's Notes version to the moons of the year:

December: Cold Moon or Long Nights Moon (no explanation necessary if you live in a northern climate).

January: Wolf Moon (supposedly named for the howling of cold and hungry wolves)

February: Snow Moon or Hunger Moon (self explanatory)

March: Worm Moon or Crow Moon or Sap Moon (worm casts appear in March, a harbinger of Robins to come, Crows "caw" and the sap starts flowing in the trees).

April: Pink Moon (not the color - the flower; moss Pink, which is a ground Phlox).

May: Flower Moon (self explanatory).

June: Strawberry Moon (again, self explanatory).

July: Buck Moon or Thunder Moon (July is when male deer start getting their antlers).

August: Sturgeon Moon (Sturgeon were most readily caught in August).

September: Harvest Moon 

October: Hunter Moon (deer are fat and crops are in, so let's go hunting).