The Weatherman

While driving down a woods road near Michie Tennessee I

happened to notice a Hornets Nest about 8 feet from the

ground in a young oak sapling. I didn't see any evidence that the owners were home nor did I knock on the door to confirm their presence. But it was evident they had not been long gone from the condition of the paper nest. Hornet nests are made from the worker hornets chewing up woody fiber from plants and trees and making a pulpy material and then forming it into layers which make up the nest.

It is possible for up to 700 hornets to occupy a single nest. Some say

you can judge the severity of the coming winter by how high the nest is above the ground. Normally hornets nest are built close to eye level. The ole saying is that the higher up the hornets nest the colder and deeper the snow will be. With this one at about 8 feet above the ground we should have a close to normal winter.

"The trouble with weather forecasting is that it is right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it."

Patrick Young