Story excerpt: Four (there spelling) every thick fog, Mullis places a big bean in a jar. For every little fog, he puts in a small bean. Once the winter arrives, Mullis removes a bean after every snow and finds out how accurate he was at the end of the season.
This year, Mullis is expecting a heavy winter, with nine big beans and eight small beans in his jar.
“It’s unusual to have more big beans than little beans” he said, noting that his jar usually contains around four big beans and five small beans.
In addition to the increase in snow, Mullis is also predicting an occurrence he has never predicted before.
“It’s what the Indians call a ‘Black Squirrel’ winter or the ‘Winter of Sorrows’,” he said. “My mom’s 86 and this is the first year she’s seen the black squirrel. We’ve all seen them this year. That’s supposed to be the harbinger of something bad.”
Mullis acknowledges that “a lot of people laugh at this,” but noted that many of the people that use to laugh are now the ones asking about the beans in his jar.
Read Dreaded Black Squirrel Winter!
