Well howdy, y’all! It’s September, the time in which we start drumming our fingers impatiently as we wait for any hint of less suffocatingly hot weather. It’s also the month that hosts the beautiful Harvest Moon, the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox. On this day, the sun saunters directly over the Earth’s equator and fall officially begins, bringing with it longer nights (YUSSS!) and poofs of cooler air. This year’s Harvest Moon reaches its peak on Saturday, September 26th at 11:49 a.m. (CDT), but the best time to bathe in its opulent glow is during the evenings of the 26th and 27th. During Fall, the moon rises earlier in the evening and seems bigger and brighter due to her proximity to the horizon and its blue-colored-scattering atmospheric particles. The intimacy between the horizon and moon creates a magic trick called moon illusion, which makes her celestial bod seem more robust to our eyeballs. This big ole wheel of Swiss cheese is the most flighty of all the fulls, as the date that it shines the brightest fluctuates more than any other satellite. Sometimes she doesn’t reach full wax action until early October. The full autumn moon is referred to as the Harvest Moon because under its grand luminescence that seamlessly transitions from the sun’s setting rays, farmers have more time to harvest their crops. Unlike other times of the year in which the moon rises 50 minutes later each night, for a few days after the full Harvest Moon the moon continues to rise at around the same time, helping to illuminate the pickin’. Different Indigenous tribes give the autumnal moon various monikers. For example, since animals seemingly do it more in September, the Cree people call her the Mating Moon. Some cultures love the Harvest Moon so much they throw parties for her. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people thank the Harvest Moon for a successful autumn harvest by playing games and eating yummy mooncakes! So on September 26th, I hope you’ll use the brightness of the Harvest Moon to gather your own bounty and prepare for fall. Now let’s get into the cleaning talk.
Is there such a thing as a fall cleaning? And if so, which tasks are most important?
Nice question. There are definitely a few cleaning tasks that I like to take care of before our bone-chillingly-cold-because-of-high-humidity winter hits. Since I tend to spend most of my time barricaded in my house in the winter, it’s nice to have a clean place to snuggle up. My absolute fave, bang-for-your-buck chore is inside-and-out fridge cleaning.
While cleaning and organizing a refrigerator isn’t necessarily fun, it is refreshing and satisfying to clean off those grimy shelves and throw out all of the expired condiments and rotting food. I suggest waiting until the evening before your garbage pickup to tackle this chore. It’s a bad idea to put a bunch of rotten food into your outside garbage can for an extended period of time. As some of you know, I am revolted by fly larvae (I don’t even like typing their evil name), and if you have a gag reflex, you probably are too. Grab a heavy-duty garbage bag or double-bag it with a regular kitchen can liner (you don’t want rotting-food-juice seepage, and I don’t want that for you), and throw all of your moldering produce, dairy products, meat, and leftovers into it. Now you’ll remove all the condiments, throwing away those that are expired. You also might want to throw out that half-used sticky bottle of jelly, as we all know that you’ve been dipping licked spoons and knives into those jars—bacteria, ma dude. Bacteria. Once the fridge is food free, remove all the shelves, drawers, and vent covers from the fridge and freezer. If you want to impress me, you can also remove the drip pan. The drip pan is located behind that vent-looking thing under the doors of the fridge called the kick panel. It’s usually very easy to remove the kick panel and the drip pan. Tip your fridge back slightly and pull the pan out. In some refrigerator models, this pan is accessed from the back of the fridge. Let all of these parts soak in a sink or tub filled with hot water, white vinegar, and dish detergent (I use Dawn). After about an hour, grab a sponge and scrub, getting into all of the nooks and crannies, to remove the remaining food particles and juice. These parts will not go back into the fridge until it is clean. Back to the fridge proper: Fill a bottle with a mixture of 1/3 70% isopropyl alcohol, 2/3 vinegar, and lots of drops of your favorite essential oil, and spray every inch of the inside of the fridge and freezer (inside the vent holes too). Wipe everything with a damp rag. You might need a sponge and some baking soda to remove any sticky schmutz. Make sure to thoroughly clean inside, underneath, and around the rubber gaskets that are attached to the door and, as much as possible, inside of the vents on the walls of the fridge. Dry the fridge with a rag and reinstall all of the shelves, vent covers, drawers, and the drip pan (if you are a person after my own heart). Now for my favorite part! Fill’r back up with your favorite foods, drinks, and condiments! And don’t forget a fresh box or two of baking soda. Bada bing! I like to wipe the outside of the fridge for good measure. Use the spray that you made and baking soda, and wipe all of the food splatter and hand prints that are surely lurking. Phew, all done!
Got cleaning questions? Email isabel@antigravitymagazine.com
illustrations by Ben Claassen III
