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When it comes to predicting the weather, Elaine Dean doesn't just take the word of any old television meteorologist.

Instead, the Mount Airy resident looks to her backyard.

Dean said there's been a lot of animal activity, which could indicate a tough winter for the region.

Nuts, berries, acorns and pine cones — they adorn wreaths, the ground, and lately have been in hot demand by backyard dwellers of the squirrel variety.

"The walnut trees, the branches were almost touching the ground, it was just loaded [with nuts]," she said, saying there was a lot to harvest, but the animals have been diligently working at it harder than usual. "...They took every walnut on my tree."

"When it stays warm like this into November and into Thanksgiving, we usually get zapped in January or December," she said. "You've got to repay."

Dean serves as director of Mount Airy Net, a nonprofit organization that provides aid to families struggling with bills. She said the nonprofit has already received multiple requests for aid with fuel, oil and electric expenses where turnoffs were inevitable, a plight she thinks will be common this winter based on the busy squirrels.

Bill Barnes of Mount Airy is 72 years old, and said he's been farming his whole life. He agreed that while most people have their predictions, there really is not an exact science to it.

"It's kind of like an intuition," he said. "You watch nature, and kind of all aspects of it: the way the nuts fall and the crops grow and the animals act."

He said his father and grandfather, both farmers, had been good at predicting the weather, and said it went in 30-year cycles.

Local farmer Marjori Satterlee said her main weather indicator is the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Since 1792, The Old Farmer's Almanac has been known for being 80 percent accurate in predicting weather forecasts, according to its Web site.

She said even the old standby can falter though. "It used to be pretty right, but since the climate changes are taking place, I don't feel it's reliable anymore," she said. "The truth is, nobody can really predict what the weather is going to be."

"I wish I had some way of predicting," said

MaryAnne Smith, of Country Mouse Farm in Mount Airy, said she wishes she had a reliable way of predicting the weather. The fifth-year farmer does think we are in store for an especially snowy winter. "Simply because of the precipitation pattern," she said. "We've had a tremendously wet spring and summer."

Barnes feels the same way.

"I think if we keep on getting the moisture, we'll have a lot more snow this winter than what we've been getting," Barnes said. He said the last few winters have been mild, and the upcoming months might be a little bit snowier and a tad bit colder. "We're due."

In the spring Dean expects to find the remnants of forgetful squirrels prepping for a cold winter by burying their food.

"My yard has several walnut trees that come up [because of forgotten nuts]," she said, joking that the squirrels run out of Post-it notes to remind them where their walnuts are buried.

E-mail Angie Cochrun at acochrun@gazette.net.