Dog days started on July 3 and I’ve been hearing folks talk about them.
Day before yesterday Granny asked me if I knew when dog days would start. I said they already did on Monday. Granny said “Well I reckon we’re in for some stormy rainy days for a spell.”
A friend said she cut herself and was worried it wouldn’t heal up good since we were already in dog days.
Most of the warnings and folklore I remember from childhood concerning dog days was the scary sort. You know like if you step on something and cut your foot it’s liable to rot off as well as give you a bad case of blood poisoning. Or dogs and snakes go mad during dog days and will eat you up so you’ve got to be on the lookout for them.
Yesterday’s post sharing old news from Pigeon Roost mentioned dog days and a few days ago long time Blind Pig reader Garland Davis sent me an email with a list of warnings he remembers from his grandmother. You can see the email below.
These are some of the cautions and warnings my Grandmother voiced each year as the Dog Days neared.
“You young’uns, be careful out there in the woods. It’s ‘dog days.”
Snakes will go blind and strike at anything.
If a Snapping turtle bites you, it won’t let go until it thunders.
People will experience major lousy luck. There will be worse sickness and fevers, and more people will die.
Rivers and creeks will flood more often.
Hail storms will ruin tobacco crops.
Humans and animals will be driven to madness. Especially the dogs will go crazy and bite.
If it rains on the first day of dog days, it will rain every day afterward.
Sores and wounds won’t heal, so surgeries should be postponed.
Drowning will be more likely.
Evil ghosts will be more active.
During “dog days,” you should always put your right sock on first, or you will fall and break your leg.
If you go barefoot, you’ll get gangrene.
To keep from breaking a leg, wear your socks inside out.
—Garland Davis
It’s a good thing I didn’t hear the one about evil ghosts being more active when I was a girl. I might not have ever left the house during dog days 🙂
Last night’s video: Granny’s Garden isn’t Growing and We’re Trying to Fix it!
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This is just a guess, but if snakes are shedding their skins during Dog Days, they are temporarily “blind” while the old skin is still covering their heads. And they will strike more sort of randomly. I saw this when I was a young teen- my dog was barking frantically and I looked out the window to see a snake reared up and back, striking wildly at Ginger, who was keeping her distance. My mamaw went out with me and had me put a rock on her two casts ( both arms broken at once due to severe osteoporosis) and she calmly dropped the rock onto the snake, which was shedding its skin. I had tried the same thing but wouldn’t get close enough since it was a copperhead. Mamaw was a tiny, frail woman but she was fierce.
My daddy who was born & raised in the burbs of Boston, always talked about the Dog Days. That meant that it was time to pack up and move to the beach house on Plum Island…about an hour north of us in the town of Newburyport. A friend of my parents always rented the cabin from June to Labor Day and we were fortunate to always be invited up. There were plenty of bedrooms. The ocean just steps from the door. All the little houses had names written on a plaque over the door and ours was Bells & Buoys. The outside lights were red & green for Port & Starboard, the way one says right & left sides on a boat. Or plane too. We’d bring the cats and they liked to come over & sit with us on the beach sometimes. There was no insulation in our house so it was very cold most nights. Mom tucked me & my sister into the old iron bed wearing our hand-knit Danish sweaters and 2 blankets! You’d never know it was Dog Days! Love to you XO Michelle in Boston
Hi Tipper, I am not much for commenting and emailing, but I was reading your post about dog days. Oh my it took me back to my childhood. I had 2 brothers one older one younger, both gone now. I live in Ohio and we always were told the middle couple of weeks in August when it gets so hot that that was dog days. We were scared to go out and play because a mad dog might get us. It was always in the high 90’s upwards to 100 degrees at that time of year. I hadn’t thought of dog days for ever. You make my day taking me back to them times. Still keeping you all in our prayers . God bless Granny to she is a real mountain treasure.
oh my word, those are some scary “dog days” warnings. I’m 60 and never heard most of these warnings, but growing up we were always told not to go swimming in the creeks because the water was stagnant and full of bacteria during dog days. Seems I remember about the dogs and the snakes.
LOL, well yesterday I tried to make a blackberry cobbler and it turned out awful, so I reckon I can just blame that on it being the dog days of summer!!
Prayers sent up for Jackie’s head wound to heal
A limb fell from a dead tree I was cutting yesterday and hit me in the head. I had my first helicopter ride to Asheville and came home with ten staples across the top of my head. I look like someone tried to scalp me with a dull knife. I hope those tales of dog days aren’t true. It is still bleeding some which may be an indication of bad news.
Jackie-thank goodness you are okay!! I’ll be praying for a speedy recovery 🙂
Correction: My wife has poor eyesight and counted ten staples. My neighbor who can see better counted 14.
no rain yesterday but it was a miserable day I was hoping for rain to cool it off
We have had our share of rain here in KY this spring and summer. Granny could be right about the stormy weather during dog days as the radar is lighting up for marginal severe weather again today. My garden might have been dry enough to till yesterday but by the time I tied the twenty four tomato plants the third time and cut the weeds around my plastic fence by hand, I couldn’t find the energy to do much else in the hot and humid weather. I tried to remember a folklore about cutting ones hair during dog days. I think it was said to be bad luck to cut hair during that time. That could have been a regional or family saying since your reader never mentioned hearing it.
Wow Tipper, that all sounds pretty scary but especially the snakes!!! A copperhead almost got me about a month or so ago! According to this list, if it happened now it would have gotten me for sure! The ghosts sound pretty bad too!
Here in the Florida piney woods, the temps and humidity have been almost suffocating • high 90’s and 105-106* heat index • but, the rain came! Thunder and lightning galore but was welcomed with thankful and grateful feelings! Sure did freshen up our surroundings; more to be expected for the next few days! We still need more; so, I’ll be welcoming it. The “dog day’s of summer” have sure been “hot’n dry in these parts”! But, life is indeed, good!
All of the dog days happenings were pretty funny… and frightening! When I was growing up we called dog days that time period usually the beginning of August when it was super hot and when it stormed it was usually a bad one. Love this blog.
We were not allowed to wade in creeks or to go swimming during dog days of summer or go barefoot in the yard because of chance of infection. My Grandparents from Eastern Kentucky had many signs they followed for planting, fishing and everyday life.
I rebuke the spirit of dog days in Jesus name
Here in East Tennessee we’ve had the Dog Days for sure, hot and rainy and more rain, and I’m sick of it. I’ve heard of The Dog Days of Summer since I was a wee lad (now 61) especially the warning about snapping turtles. We used to hunt for them down in the cow pasture pond. They loved making their homes in the bank of the pond. I caught one fishing once, and it about took off my dog’s nose when she got a little too curious. Luckily Babe didn’t learn a lesson the hard way that day. I’m more than ready for Fall.
I guess I am glad about not getting yesterday’s post til today, I might not have left my house yesterday either. Snakes going bling, yuk, and some of the other folklore…well, who knew. I still will embrace old ‘stuff’ and new ‘stuff’ and hope that one day my ‘Grands’ will say, ‘well G’Ma used to say some of those things and we will laugh way into the future. What was some of the other stuff, step on a crack and break you Mother’s back?…I am gonna print out yesterday’s post and give a copy to my ‘Grands’ and make sure they know where it comes from and pass on the others for them to read. Hope Granny’s garden improves as I am sure it will after your tending. God Bless you guys as you are always in my prayers.
I always thought the dogs days were the sweltering heat in the month of August. When the temperatures rise. Just thought I’d add to the thread.
Robin, that’s all I thought the Dog Days of summer were as well. Everyone just rested in the shade and fanned themselves. It was just too hot to do much of anything.
Make that Ed! Can’t spell my own name!
I’ve heard about dog days since I was a kid! Dogs going mad but the big one was we could not go to the BLUE HOLE to swim. That was a bummer!
Everyone stay hydrated in this hot and humid weather. Happy Friday
Tipper, I was better off not knowing about dog days and how bad stuff would be! I mean blind snakes, mad dogs, busted feet- nothing good to look forward to except staying in the house for safety sake! Lol. I’m just going to risk it and live dangerously through these dog days. I think most ALL MY LIFE has been dog days…. Lol now I’m just a ribbin ya and joshing… btw there’s a package on its way to Granny’s for you and Matt in memory of Miss Cindy. Much love, comfort and good things only for you and yours during the dog days! Is that my dogs a barking’? ( Army talk for sore feet.) Have a good one in spite of the dogs howling and dog days of rain and blindness and bites and haints! It’s too much!!! I’m barking at the moon…
There is a possibility of rain here after 2:00 PM. We’ve had a similar possibility every day for the past month and a half. We’ve probably less than a quarter of an inch of rain in all that time. The dark clouds roll in, the lightening flashes and the thunder rolls. I can hear the rain! I can smell the rain! But it’s like there’s a sign warning the rain that it’s trespassing here. It stops, pulls back and goes around.
We’ve had rain but not enough. What we get does more harm than good. This is an observation not a complaint. I have a good strong well and only 1200 ft² of garden space. I’ve only watered twice this season but both times long enough to soak deeply into the ground. If rain today doesn’t pan out my garden might get a nice cool drink from my hose and sprinkler.
Usually bringing out the sprinkler brings on the rain but not, so far, this year. I’ll wait until after 2:00 PM today before I consider watering again tomorrow.
Ed, right now as I write this, weather radar showing storms all around me but not a drop here only a cool breeze. Like you, I am not complaining, things are still doing good from the spring rains but with these hot days (feel like temp today 100 degrees) it won’t take long for the ground to get very dry. It is predicted to have more storms Sunday, maybe some of them being severe.
We got a little rain around 3:00 PM. It rained just enough to muddy the top of the soil in my garden. I had watered just my little 1200² ft garden real good early last week. I was thinking about watering again tomorrow but now I think I’ll be good until next week.
Thanks Tipper for your interesting post. That was a fascinating list of warnings from Mr. Davis this morning. The scariest one for me is the blind snakes that try to bite everything. Yikes! I looked on almanac.com and they also have some interesting folklore about dog days. Happy Friday everyone!!
Oh my did I ever hear about dog days from my Mother. Big warnings about getting a cut or scrape during that time but it seems they were deathly afraid of Mad Dogs. Any strange dog that wandered into the area would have been killed, especially if it had got in a fight with any farmers dog and bit it.
Tipper, I didn’t find your post in my email this morning so when I clicked on yesterday’s post I noticed it was there. Last night I was on utube t.v., and watched today’s vlog there and maybe that had something to do with it.
Dee.. I had the same situation with Tipper’s email.
Try my solution, bookmark https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/ and check it before you look for notifications. You will get to see a new one as early as 5:00 AM or even earlier. I can’t get up that early any more and sometimes not at all but I sleep with a Chromebook beside me.
Always heard of snapping wouldn’t let go till it thunders, dogs go mad and sores and wounds wouldn’t heal during dog days. Always had problems with wounds on my feet not healing well, of course going barefoot may have had something to do with it.
As a kid I was always skinned up somewhere on my legs or arms. My grandmother would always warn me to stay out of water during Dog Days if I had a sore somewhere.
Tipper, it has been hit and this week with the BP&A post, I will get it one day and not the next day. I don’t remember many warnings about the dog days other than the ones about mad dogs and snapping turtles (mud turtles) biting and not letting go until it thunders. I didn’t know dog days started in July, I always thought it was later on around the first of August. The one about a lot of rain and floods would not hold water around my home this summer, so far the last of June and now July has been hot and dry. While looking at the weather radar yesterday, it looked like you may have been getting more rain. Others areas closer to the SC mountains have been getting rain nearly every day.
If you’ll bookmark https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/ and click on it instead of waiting on a notification you will be happier.
I have always heard Dog days mentioned but never knew what it really was until yesterday’s blog. I was telling my parents about it yesterday when I went to visit and they said they hadn’t heard that either. Love all the folklore associated with it! I will have to share these with my kids and grandkids now.