Beech Tree News Network

For my desk, one of my daughters gave me The Old Farmer’s Almanac Everyday Calendar for 2022. Each day provides a bit of information to read, and the bottom of each page directs the reader to “ALMANAC.COM.” When I visited the website, some of the information I found included the following:

A warm January, a cold May. –Folklore

When wrens are seen in winter, expect snow. –Folklore

Truth and oil always come to the surface. –Spanish proverb

In 17th-century England, women sometimes decorated their hats with carrot leaves instead of feathers.

It’s easier to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. –Tom Brokaw, American journalist

Kitchen Problem: You’re separating eggs and dropped a bit of yolk into the whites.
Solution: Since even a tiny amount of yolk in the whites can affect their leavening ability, it is important to remove it. Moisten a cloth in cold water and touch it to the yolk. It will cling to the cloth like a magnet.

Porpoise or Dolphin?
A porpoise has spade-shape teeth and a triangular dorsal fin and grows up to 7 feet long. The sounds it makes are inaudible to humans.
A dolphin has cone-shape teeth and a hook-shape dorsal fin and grows up to 12 feet long. The sounds it makes can be clearly heard by humans.

A duck’s webbed feet have very little soft tissue and a unique blood-flow system that keeps the feet from freezing.

To clean mirrors, use a solution made from 1 cup of cooled black tea and 3 tablespoons of vinegar.

Did you know that every year has at least one Friday the 13th but no more than three?

When is a soap not really a soap? When it’s a detergent. Unlike traditional soap, detergent does not contain animal fat.

For itchy insect bites, a slice of raw onion may be the fix. Onions contain sulfur and flavonoids, which can help stop itching and heal bites.

What do hair, coffee grounds, and corncobs have in common? They’re all good ingredients for a compost pile.

If ant hills are high in July, the coming winter will be hard. –Folklore

The ruby, along with the related sapphire, are the second hardest natural gemstones, with only the diamond being harder.

Want onions to keep? Wrap them separately in foil and place them in the refrigerator. They’ll be good for up to a year.

A U.S. Social Security number has three sections: area number (first three digits), group number (next two digits), and serial number (last four digits).

It’s lucky to keep a jar of pennies in the kitchen. –Folklore

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his pockets held the following items, which now reside at the U.S. Library of Congress: two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, a brown leather wallet containing a Confederate $5 bill, and nine newspaper clippings about the president and his policies.

Key West, Florida, is the top-ranking U.S. city for warmth, with an average temperature of 77.7 degrees.

I enjoy my daily read of The Old Farmer’s Almanac calendar. Mark Twain said, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” Twain’s comment about distortion certainly describes much of today’s world, doesn’t it?