March 31-April 6, 2025

Weather | 3/31, sunny, 32°, 57° | 4/1, cloudy, 30°, 55° | 4/2, t-storms, 1.03" rain, 47°, 70° | 4/3, cloudy, 41°, 54° | 4/4, rain, 39°, xx° | 4/5, xx°, xx° | 4/6, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 3/31: First Major Shopping Since January
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, IL. The last major shopping trip to Quincy for us was on Jan. 24th. It was quiet in all stores. The pickup handled beautifully with super quiet brakes that work like a charm. It's obvious to me that the old rear brakes were dragging, because the fuel economy of the pickup improved a great deal, as indicated by the fuel gauge that didn't move much at all.
  • Shopping highlights: 1) I ran into difficulty when we stopped at Staples to print off the email I got from RockAuto containing the FedEx shipping label for the package to return the dust shield with missing parts. The label would not show up. The employee at the printing department had me send the email to his computer, he hit an option to show blocked images and printed it. When I asked him how much I owed, he said, "Let's just say, have a great day." I got the print out for free. 2) We shipped out the RockAuto package after driving way the heck north of town to the FedEx shipping office. 3) The last stop was at Farm & Home. When they gave me my parts, only one item was in the bag, even though two parts were listed. They looked around in drawers and in the back and didn't find the second part, which is an oil worm gear for the large Stihl chainsaw. The parts employee then ordered the worm gear, saying it should be in on Thursday. We're back in Quincy on that day, so we'll see if they can finally get it right. If they don't have it, I'm canceling and getting it online. I first called in to order this part on Feb. 6th. Farm & Home's chainsaw parts department stinks and I've had enough of their sloppy work.
  • We got home, unloaded the pickup, did evening chores, and rested. Shopping tires us out, especially after making 13 stops to buy stuff today.

• Tuesday, 4/1: More Firewood
  • Strong winds blew out of the east, southeast all day.
  • We're not seeing bees in the pear blossoms, because it's too cool and windy. I hope we don't have a repeat of last year, when we didn't get pear fruit.
    
  • Mary cleaned and did a big load of laundry, while I split all of the firewood that was in the machine shed. It amounted to eight wheelbarrow loads, one of which went into the house.
  • Blackbirds and juncos remain with us, even though it's late in the season to be viewing them.

• Wednesday, 4/2: Old Lawnmower Maintenance
  • A strong west wind blew today. West winds mean we smell the wonderful aroma of a dairy dung pond. It's the yuckiest smell imaginable. Fortunately, we don't get many due west winds.
  • Mary made pizza, which was yummy. She always puts together two pizzas and puts an uncooked one in the refrigerator for the following day.
  • I worked on the old lawnmower. After changing the spark plug, I removed some covers to gain access to built-up dead grass and dirt behind the carburetor. Using small screwdrivers, I dug out a lot of debris that was hindering the correct operation of levers and springs involving the carburetor. I replaced the air filter, changed the oil, and sharpened the blade, then mowed the new area designated for a burn barrel. The mower runs much better, now.

• Thursday, 4/3: Quincy Library Book Sale
  • Mary and I drove to Quincy to attend the spring Quincy Library Book Sale. Mary picked up a neat World War I history book. She also found several books featuring areas in England and a John Muir omnibus book of his writings. I got a 1974 Gun Owners Book of Care and Improvement and a 2021 book authored by Bill Gates entitled, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
  • We toured a newly opened store in Quincy called Ollie's. It involves cheaply made junk at average prices. The store reminded me of Big Lots. We won't be going back.
  • We also went to Joann's going out of business sale and bought lots of stuff. Most of our purchase was for me...I picked up a bunch of things, such as beads, metallic thread, and a large storage container, that fit into my new fly tying hobby.
    
  • I checked with the stupid asses behind the chainsaw desk at Farm & Home. I was told that they haven't received parts orders that they given to Stihl for over a week. I'm done with them. I ordered the oiler part for the large chainsaw from a company in Minnesota after I returned home. It costs more, but at least I'll probably get it in a reasonable amount of time.
  • I watched a Webex featuring a Missouri Department of Conservation ornithologist discussing efforts to halt the decline in migratory birds.
  • Mary and I went through the new books we bought today. She laughed through the night at two Zits comic books.
    

March 24-30, 2024

Weather | 3/24, cloudy, 34°, 55° | 3/25, p. cloudy, 34°, 59° | 3/26, sunny, 34°, 60° | 3/27, 0.59" rain, 41°, 55° | 3/28, 0.01" rain, 53°, 77° | 3/29, mostly cloudy, 58°, 73° | 3/30, 0.13" rain, 37°, 60° |

• Monday, 3/24: The First Blossoms in the Woods
  • I opened the curtains in the bedroom right while Mary was letting Plato outside when I saw seven deer north of the far garden. I opened the window and told Mary about them when they ran off. We think they were all bucks. They were big deer.
  • We walked Plato around the west field and down the Bobcat Trail, where we saw those same seven deer. We noticed the white blossoms of Chickasaw plum trees in a couple places in the woods. Big bunches of the white flowers are on the west berm of Frog Pond (see video and photos, below). Several honey bees were frequenting the blossoms.
  • I worked on the pickup's driver's side rear brakes. Steps I did today included: 1) cleaning,  greasing, and replacing parts in the emergency brake actuator mechanism; 2) removing a wheel stud to gain access to the front of the emergency brake hold down piece; 3) drilling and tapping new bolt threads for the bolt that secures the emergency brake shoes; 4) installing a new wheel stud where I removed the old one; 5) removing the brake hose from the old caliper, bolting its bracket to the axle housing, and attaching it to the metal brake line; 6) cleaning oil off the new brake rotor with brake cleaning fluid and installing it. Tiny bits of rain started falling, so I cleaned up tools and installed both tires as rain protection. It was around 7 p.m.
  • On our final walk of the night with Plato, coyotes were howling from several locations around us.
  Turn on the sound to hear bees visiting these Chickasaw Plum blossoms.
  Frogs in Frog Pond join the chorus as background melody.
   

Chickasaw Plum blossoms.

These are the first blossoms in the woods.

• Tuesday, 3/25: Ladybug Manor!
  • Besides finishing dusting books in the house, Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs throughout the day. WILL THEY EVER STOP!!! British name their houses. Our house should be called Ladybug Manor.
  • Mary spotted a red-shouldered hawk sitting atop a cedar tree south of the house this morning.
    
  • Winds were relatively calm, so I sprayed all of the apple and pear trees with copper and horticultural oil spray. Copper sprayed with the oil is supposed to help deter fire blight. The oil also kills overwintering bug larvae buried in bark cracks. I noticed that the horticultural oil spray concentrate contains 98.8 percent mineral oil. A tiny bottle was $20. Next time I'll just buy mineral oil.
  • Around 1:30 p.m., Mary heard snow geese flying overhead, but couldn't locate them in the sky. They're still going through.
  • Prior to bedtime and while walking the puppy, Mary and I noticed a slight red and green tinge in the northern sky, or bit of aurora borealis.

• Wednesday, 3/26: All Brake Parts Installed
  • Mary and I walked Plato to Bass Pond. As we approached, a great blue heron lifted off of Dove Pond, which is right next to Bass Pond. While standing on the bank of Bass Pond, we saw many bass swimming around. Most were small, or about six to 10 inches long. This is good. It shows that bass are reproducing themselves in Bass Pond.
  • We noticed honey bees in the forsythia bushes and the branches coming off the weeping willow stump.
  • I finished installing new parts on the pickup's rear brakes. The only thing left is to bleed the brakes. Steps I did today included: 1) checking if the right rear rotor turned and it didn't; 2) removed rotor, emergency brake shoe and actuator parts; 3) since parts won't completely close together like they should, I ground three milometers off the end of a tiny cylinder inside the actuator and reassembled actuator parts, plus the e-brake shoe; 4) reinstalled the rotor and tested for turning...it's perfect; 5) installed caliper bracket, brake shoes, caliper, and brake hose to caliper while torquing all bolts to appropriate specifications; 6) removed left rear brake caliper and installed a middle anti-rattle clip that I forgot to include when I did that brake. I cleaned up and reinstalled tires with rain predicted overnight to help protect the new brake parts from moisture. I'll need to recruit Mary to help me bleed the brakes in the future.
  • With the pickup out of service for awhile, what is amazing is that we have not shopped for anything for over two months...our last major shopping day was on 1/24/25. We're only out of cat litter and Splenda brown sugar. It shows we've done a good job at keeping stocked up. We try to do that in case snow plugs our gravel road for an extended period, which wasn't a problem this winter.
    
  • Mary said she went through the surprising event of vacuuming bugs.
  • She also broke old branches down to sizable kindling pieces and collected new downed branches throughout our yards to dry inside the machine shed.

• Thursday, 3/27: Rain Delay
  • When I first woke up, I saw a barred owl in the top of the Empire apple tree.
  • Thunderstorms rolled through and rain fell between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., so Mary and I enjoyed a quiet day indoors.
  • I reviewed some brake bleeding ideas online. Experts say brake fluid should be changed every two years. Nobody does that! Supposedly, the brake fluid I currently have should be tossed out, because it's more than a year old. I'm not doing that, either.
  • The forsythia bushes are amazingly bright, especially the two we planted about 10 years ago next to the Kieffer pear tree (see photo, below).
   

  

  Forsythia blossoms in west yard. Kieffer pear trunk
  in background. Lilac bush in right foreground.
  

• Friday, 3/28: Brakes Done...Almost
  • Today was the worst inside-the-house Asian ladybug invasion, ever. At times, there were easily a couple hundred bugs inside each window. We'd vacuum them all off, come back 10 minutes later, and we were back where we started with another couple hundred bugs crawling everywhere. I started vacuuming and Mary resumed the chore. She had to give the shop vac a rest, occasionally, because it was getting too hot. Mary isn't feeling well, due to day after day of inhaling bug dust.
  • I watched a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex about hummingbirds. They spent most of their time discussing feeders, which we don't do. We have tons of hummingbirds here in the summer. They flock to all of the Russian comfrey blossoms. Mary planted it in 2010.
  • I bled the pickup brakes. First, I made a brake bleeding collector from a cleaned plastic bottle and a piece of clear plastic hose. The hose comes from my winemaking materials. I drilled a hole in the lid of the bottle slightly smaller than the hose diameter and a second smaller hole to release air so the hose wouldn't pop out as the bottle fills with fluid. The hose goes through the hole in the lid and to the bottom of the bottle. A little bit of new brake fluid goes into the bottle. The other end of the hose goes on the brake bleeder nipple. The bottle sits above the brakes, but below the level of the master cylinder. After the brake bleeder valve is opened, brake fluid flows through the clear plastic hose, allowing you to see if air is in the fluid. More importantly, air in the brake fluid in the hose rises and any fluid going back into the brake caliper contains no air. This simple gizmo is sold by auto parts stores for about $20. I made it for free. Okay, we once bought a bottle of peanuts to make chocolate covered peanut candy and I once bought the hose to help bottle wine. Other than that, it was free.
  • I first sucked old brake fluid out of the brake fluid reservoir, then gravity bled the rear brakes. Then I had Mary pump the brake pedal as I bled all four brake calipers. At one point, we had all four tires off and the pickup on blocks. It was then that Mary said it was a true hillbilly pickup. "There it sits, no tires at all, just on blocks," she said.
  • While everything was open with all tires off, I greased the pickup's front end and rotated the tires. I topped off the brake fluid reservoir, torqued all lug nuts, and put all of my tools and blocks away. I finished at 8:45 p.m. 
  • The only item left to do is to condition the new ceramic brake pads. I need to take the vehicle to 30 mph and brake to 5 mph, 30 times, to put ceramic brake residue on the new rotors. The manufacturer writes that this is important to the proper working order of ceramic brake pads.
  • While I picked up blocks to put them away, a corn snake crawled from under the pickup and right by me. Corn snakes are rather pretty. At that point I was wearing a hat light and I could see hundreds of spiders' eyes in the lawn.
  • The Bartlett pear trees are starting to open blossoms and the Kieffer pear tree is white with blossom buds. A few honey bees were in the small Bartlett pear tree, despite a strong south wind.
    

• Saturday, 3/29: Great Brakes!
  • The Asian ladybugs are still nuts, so vacuuming them continued, but not for Mary. Continuous bug dust from the vacuum makes her feel ill. I was the only bug sucker today.
  • I drove the pickup up and down our gravel road to condition the ceramic brake pads. I kept a tally sheet to get in 30 times of getting to 30 mph and braking to at least 5 mph. I'm sure neighbors thought I was nuts with all the driving and stopping I did. I don't care. The brakes work very nicely, now. I still get idiot lights telling me that the anti-lock brake system (ABS) isn't working and the brake booster is faulty. That's minor. The ABS light is on because any little bit of rust on the front puts it out of kilter and I have plenty of power in my right leg to stomp on the brakes without a brake booster. I didn't tear into the brake booster. It's immaterial when brake pads are falling out from under the vehicle.
  • I changed oil and the oil filter on the pickup. After checking fluid levels, I added a little antifreeze. All brake line connections were completely dry...perfect!
  • Violets are starting to bloom. All pear trees are white with blossoms and filled with native bees.
  • We heard an eastern towhee, so they're back for the summer. We still have juncos. They know it is too cold up north.
    

• Sunday, 3/30: Catch Up Day, No Mustard
  • With the pickup brakes completed, I cleaned up the mess of boxes in the freezer room from various auto brake parts shipments and gave three bigger boxes to Mary. She filled those boxes with books to donate to the Salvation Army in Quincy.
  • I got the partial brake dust shield part packaged up to send back to RockAuto.
    
  • I looked up lawn mower and chainsaw parts to purchase.
  • I cleaned up the back of the pickup so we can load in coolers for a shopping trip to Quincy, IL, tomorrow.
  • Mary finished a shopping list and I added some items to that list.
    

March 17-23, 2025

Weather | 3/17, p. cloudy, 26°, 69° | 3/18, cloudy, 51°, 77° | 3/19, 0.15" rain, hail, sun, clouds, snow, 31°, 68° | 3/20, skiff of snow, sunny, 0.19" moisture, 27°, 47° | 3/21, 0.05" rain, cloudy, 35°, 63° | 3/22, sunny to cloudy, 31°, 57° | 3/23, 0.14" rain to sunny, 45°, 53° |

• Monday, 3/17: Melting Snow, Reordered Parts & Fly Tying
  • The snow that fell Sunday morning is disappearing fast with higher temperatures. We think our little hilltop got the most snow of the region. Facebook friends in Quincy told me that they only received about a half an inch of snow.
  • When the last order of auto parts arrived via UPS around 9 a.m. today, I inventoried all parts to make sure I didn't mistakenly overlook the missing dust shield sections. They aren't there.
  • Instead of returning the dust shields right now in order to get a replacement order, I changed the request to just getting a refund and spent money to get a newer set of dust shields sent to me. I'll send back the partial dust shields I currently have once I get the pickup in running order.
  • I removed the driver's side tire, but decided it was too late in the day to start working on the pickup.
  • Instead, I went down to the mailbox and moved gravel in the dead grass alongside the mailbox back into the road. When I shoveled snow down there this winter, my shovel loads of snow included a large amount of gravel from the road. The mail delivery woman in her Jeep with huge tires is wedging a deep rut in front of the mailboxes alongside of the gravel road. That's where this gravel went.
  • I attended the last Missouri Department of Conservation fly tying Webex. We tied two flies. They were the Caddis Fly and the Clouser Minnow (see photos, below). My versions of both flies are a whole lot fuzzier than those tied by the instructor. I also crowd the eye of the hook too much. Obviously, I need to tie more flies to get better.
  • While I was in the middle of my virtual fly tying session, the neighbor woman who lives in the house across the gravel road from us came looking for their red heifer that has a bad eye. It got loose. Fixing fences must be impossible with those folks. They are always losing animals.

My Caddis Fly is more of a fuzzball. It needs trimming.

This Clouser Minnow swims upside down and is weedless.

• Tuesday, 3/18: Damn the Ladybugs!!!
  • I started the day's activities by vacuuming bugs so Mary could make a midday meal of fajita rice bowls. Asian ladybugs were pouring up an interior wall next to the kitchen stove. I'd suck a dozen bugs, leave it for about 15 to 30 seconds, and another half dozen bugs would appear. 
  • After eating, Mary took over vacuuming. She vacuumed almost non-stop for several hours in the afternoon. As dusk arrived, I took over. We had to finally just quit to eat our evening meal. At the end of it all, our shop vac was a third full with bugs. If our shop vac dies, we'll have to get a new one right away. These bugs are terrible!
  • Mary put aluminum sulfate around the blueberry plants and wood ash around the sugar maple tree in the north yard.
  • We saw eight wood ducks flying while we walked Plato to Bass Pond for a midday outing. They acted like they were going to drop into Bass Pond, saw us and flew east, then dropped into Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • I pruned high branches of apple trees and applied TreeKote on fresh cuts. I finished pruning the Empire apple tree while using a six-foot step ladder and got halfway around the Granny Smith apple tree with the 10-foot step ladder. Most of the top branches on Granny are dead due to fire blight that hit that tree hard last year.

• Wednesday, 3/19: Wacky Weather
  • The day started with partly cloudy skies and then a thunderstorm rolled in from the southwest that eventually dumped pea-sized hail on us. The skies cleared to sun. Clouds built in with eventual rain. By 11 p.m., when we walked Plato for the last time, snow was falling.
  • Mom and I talked via a phone call. She's doing better after going through surgery in Billings, MT, to remove arthritis in her lower back. Pain that once prevailed while walking is gone. Karen is helping her. Mom must be careful not to bend over or twist. Mom and Karen are going to reorganize Mom's kitchen to prevent bending over to get items. Karen flies back home to her home in Georgia on Tuesday, 3/28.
  • I vacuumed a bunch more bugs. The only thing that slows them down is cold weather.
  • Forsythia bushes are starting to bloom.
    
  • We got evening chores done early and enjoyed some hobby activities. Mary worked on a cross stitch item while I sorted chicken feathers that we've collected over the past couple years to use for fly tying. There were a couple areas filled with fluffy feathers. After grouping like feathers in piles, I put them in zippered plastic bags. I labeled three old Book of the Month Club boxes with the words "Feathers," "Hair," and "Yarn." I'm ready for serious fly tying.

• Thursday, 3/20: Red Pearl Amaryllis
  • The Red Pearl amaryllis is blooming (see photo, below). It's such a nice flower that didn't bloom last year. Good to see you back, Red Pearl!
  • Mary heard a brown thrasher singing from the walnut tree that is growing in the forsythia bush, next to the pickup. It was below freezing, and yet the bird was singing away in the early morning sunlight.
  • The pickup dust shield parts came in with a UPS delivery, today. This time, I got all of the parts that are supposed to come with this shipment, unlike the last time it was sent.
  • I used the angle grinder that was once Dad's tool, with a wire brush attached, and cleaned the rusty eight bolts that hold the emergency brake assembly onto the axle housing (four on each side). Old, dried up threadlocker is on all of these bolt threads, which the wire brush effectively removed. I also removed the brake hose from the passenger side brake caliper.
  • Wind was blowing too hard and it was too cool to effectively work on pickup brakes, so I quit after doing these things on the vise in the machine shed.
    
  • We played around with hobbies after evening chores. Mary did cross stitch work and I reviewed how to make a foam beetle fly, put more fly tying items away in my roll top desk, and tried to identify hook sizes. Fly tying geeks online love to drown everyone in their numbers, making it hard to determine hook sizes. I finally referred to an old Golden book.

  

  The Red Pearl Amaryllis blossom over Christmas Cactus jungle.
  

• Friday, 3/21: Brake Work Progressing
  • Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs and they weren't nearly as bad as in past days. She also dusted the sunroom books and shelving.
  • I worked on the pickup brakes. With strong southwest winds, I concentrated on the passenger rear brakes, which is on the north side with the pickup parked facing west. 
  • It took viewing several YouTube videos and a great deal of jiggering the two-part dust shield to get it into place. Once I got it there, it wouldn't fit on the axle flange correctly. Close inspection revealed I still had a piece of the old shield in the emergency brake assembly. I took the new dust shield off and pried that old piece out, scraped out old rust, then reinstalled the new dust shield. A lot of the anti-rust powder coat paint got scratched off in the process. I'm not impressed with this tinny design. Older pickups were built better. The four emergency brake assembly bolts went in with blue threadlocker applied. 
  • I cleaned up the emergency brake actuator and installed new parts with liberal amounts of grease. I installed the emergency brake shoes and bolted in the retainer. With rain predicted, I threw on the tire to keep things relatively dry. I quit around 6 p.m.
  • I saw a group of about 100 snow geese flying west over the house. I've been wondering if they were all through, yet, but that flock shows we still have a few heading out. I also noticed red-winged blackbirds milling about. We have lots of cardinals on our property and they're really singing.
  • At dusk, we had extremely strong winds and a blast of rain. The wind blew the rain gauge off the post, so we're only guessing our rain amount.

• Saturday, 3/22: One Half of Pickup Brakes Finished
  • We walked Plato to Bass Pond and back for his a noontime outing. When we arrived at the edge of the pond, some ring-necked ducks took off from the water. This is the first time we've seen them here in Missouri. Mary says the last time she saw them was at the Roseau River Wildlife Management Area, which is along the Canadian border, while we lived in Roseau, MN, in 1995. Ring-necked ducks breed there. They're just flying through Missouri.
  • It was backup day for me while working on the pickup's brakes. First, after watching a YouTube video about the emergency brake actuator arm off the end of the emergency brake cable, I realized that I needed to install it prior to putting new parts in the actuator. So, I popped off the emergency brake shoes, unscrewed the new parts, installed the actuator arm and rubber gasket, screwed the parts together, and reinstalled the emergency brake shoes.
  • Next, I cleaned the new rotor on both sides with brake cleaning fluid. Then I adjusted the emergency brake mechanism in after several tries at putting the rotor on. At first, I was turning it the wrong way. I grabbed the turning mechanism for the other side of the pickup and figured out which way to turn it to decrease pressure, which worked. 
  • I greased the caliper pins and rub points on the caliper, installed brake clips, installed the new caliper bracket with new caliper bolts, bolted the rubber brake line bracket in place, installed the new caliper, and installed the rubber brake line to the caliper with new copper washers.
  • Then I realized I missed an important step...installing the new brake pads! I removed the caliper and slid in two new brake pads, then reinstalled the caliper and tightened the bolts with a torque wrench. The only thing left to do on the passenger's side rear brakes is to bleed the brakes, which I'll do after I install new parts on the driver's side rear brakes.
  • I put tires back on the pickup to help with rain protection, since rain is predicted overnight.
  • In the evening, I noticed a lot of muscle aches and pains. I'm not the young buck I once was while bending over and reefing on torque wrenches.
  • Katie sent a photo of a beautiful award she received after becoming the non commissioned officer of the year in her squadron for 2024 (see photo, below). She told me, after I asked, that there are 30 non commissioned officers in her squadron, or about half of the squadron.

  

  Katie's award as non commissioned officer of the year.
  

• Sunday, 3/23: A Resting Day
  • Rain was pouring down hard when I woke up briefly at 4:20 a.m. We received more rain later in the morning, and a bit of rain just before noon. In the afternoon, high wind gusts over 40 mph blasted us.
  • We stayed inside for most of the day, since the weather was bum outside. It also gave my muscles a break from bending over pickup brakes and wrenching on auto parts.
  • I put labels on the 14 bottles of the first batch of spiced apple wine and stored them in two coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
  • Mary dusted living room books and I sucked bugs with the vacuum. We thought the bugs were dwindling down, but today proved us wrong.
  • Mary and I watched the BBC series, North & South. 
  • We also drank a bottle of 2022 dandelion wine. It was exquisite. It has a citrus element to it. Mary says it's like drinking an IPA beer with extra hops. You can also taste the dandelion flower flavor. This is an extremely good wine.

March 10-16, 2025

Weather | 3/10, sunny, 35°, 71° | 3/11, sunny, 45°, 69° | 3/12, p. cloudy, 30°, 69° | 3/13, sunny, 40°, 76° | 3/14, clear, but mucky skies, thunderstorm, 0.13" rain, 55°, 82° | 3/15, cloudy to snow, 32°, 51° | 3/16, 5" snow to sunny, 0.33" moisture, 23°, 47° |

• Monday, 3/10: Pickup Brakes & Fly Tying
  • The first thing I did prior to working on the pickup was to cut up pieces of a 2004 Mid-Rivers wall calendar (I bet I'm the only one on earth with several of these relics), fold two pieces and tape them to the underside of the rusty wheel wells of the truck. Smooth card stock is easier to bump the head into, compared to jagged, rusty metal. I also wore a beanie for protection and moved all toolboxes away from my working area.
  • I spent a lot of time trying to remove the parking brake cable on the driver's side rear brake assembly. It finally broke free inside the mechanism. I disconnected the hydraulic brake line, then tapped the parking brake assembly free from the axle housing. Next, I jacked up and blocked the passenger side rear of the pickup and took apart that brake. It is bad, but not quite as shot as the other side. After removing the four parking brake assembly bolts, I quit for the day. Those four bolts are super tough to turn. This time I went out and in several times and squirted healthy amounts of penetrating fluid on the threads, which helped. I'm close to ordering parts.
  • Mary was the grand bug vacuumer of the day. Hordes of Asian ladybugs marched into the house. It was pretty much an all day event. We're completely sick and tired of them!
  • The third lesson on fly tying put on by the Missouri Department of Conservation involved make two flies: the Pheasant Tail Nymph and the Garbage Scud (see photos, below). The first fly is supposed to resemble the larvae of a mayfly. The scud is supposed to look like a freshwater shrimp. A stretched piece of a plastic bag is tied to the top of the scud fly to make it look like the shiny crustacean shell on a shrimp, hence the name "garbage" in Garbage Scud. We also practiced using the whip finishing tool. It was a nice break from reefing on wrenches on an old rusty pickup.
  • An increasing number of spring peeper frogs are singing from various ponds. Snow geese are still milling about.

Pheasant Tail Nymph imitating a mayfly larvae.

Garbage Scud resembling a freshwater shrimp.

• Tuesday, 3/11: Ladybugs, Butterflies & Brake Parts
  • The massive Asian ladybug vacuum sessions continue. Mary ran the entire house with the shop vac five times and I did it twice. The first time on my shift was to beat back bugs on the first floor level so Mary could make a batch of flour tortillas without squished ladybugs in the dough. We live a really great house!
  • I finished removing parts off the passenger side brakes of the pickup this morning.
  • I spent most of the afternoon chasing down brake parts and supplies to finish the brake job. It took time as I changed my mind on brands of some of the brake parts. A sticking point is what I'm going to use to remove the stub of a small bolt that broke off, which holds down the parking brake shoes. I still don't have a solution.
  • I attended a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex on early spring butterfly arrivals. There are several butterflies that overwinter in leaf litter, or inside dead, hollowed out trees here in Missouri and show up now.
  • I ordered $525 worth of brake parts and supplies this evening.
  • We notice several eastern bluebirds and cardinals singing from everywhere.

• Wednesday, 3/12: More Pruning & Pickup Parts Order
  • An eastern phoebe came home for the first time this season. We saw it and heard it today.
  • We heard a turkey gobble to the east before sunrise, while we walked Plato. It's the first time this spring that we heard a turkey.
  • In the late morning, we walked Plato to Bass Pond. There's a cave-in near the bank on the south side that looks like it was created by a muskrat. Several American lotus dead leaves and stalks are near the southeast corner of the pond. The water level is very low. We saw medium sized bass swimming near the shore. The water recently turned over in Bass Pond and looks murky.
  • Mary pruned to where she could reach on the big pie cherry, big Bartlett pear, and the Prairie Fire crabapple trees.
  • I did an online search on solving how to handle the broken bolt holding down the driver's side parking brake shoes of our pickup. One solution is to drill a new hole slightly off-center, run an appropriate tap through and insert the bolt in a new location. Mary found an old Craftsman tap and die set in a metal cabinet in the machine shed. We once bought it at an auction in Circle, MT. It doesn't have any taps I can use, but a thread measuring gauge gave me a 24 reading on the threads. A micrometer told me that the small bolt is 3/16" thick. After a couple hours of online searching, I discovered a 3/16" bolt is really a #10 screw. I need at least four inches of length and most taps and small drill bits are shorter. A tap extension is $80+, which is too expensive. More online research revealed that pulley plug taps are up to 12 inches long. 
  • I ordered a six inch long #10 pulley plug tap, some cutting oil, and an appropriate six inch long drill bit from a company called MSC Industrial Supply...problem hopefully solved.
  • We saw several V's of snow geese flying eastward this evening.
  • I have five packages coming to me from all over the country, due to my RockAuto.com order. I went with them for brake parts, even though Amazon has some of the items I need for less money, because Amazon takes up to two weeks before they fill orders. RockAuto filled my order within 12 hours after I placed it. They have facilities all over the country, which is why parts are coming to me from five different places.

• Thursday, 3/13: Getting Ready for Storm
  • Mary pruned the Sargent crabapple tree from where she could reach while standing on the ground. That's the last of the larger trees. Hopefully, I can prune tops of the larger trees, soon. This crabapple tree is starting to show green tip on buds.
  • I pulled hay off the strawberry containers, leaving only about three inches on top.
  • I used wire brushes to cleaned rust off the wheel hub flanges, in which the rotors are bolted to, in order to make it easier to remove rotors in the future. I also used old large screwdrivers and a putty knife to scrape rust off other parts in the rear brake assemblies.
  • Weather predictions of strong storms tomorrow with wind gusts between 80-100 mph gave me a desire to prepared the pickup for wind blasts. I reattached both rear tires and wedged boards under them to widen the support underneath the vehicle. I also picked up a large piece of plywood that I've been using as a base while crawling under the edges of the pickup and stored it in the woodshed.
  • I noticed two pairs of wood ducks flying in and out of Bluegill Pond when I walked down to the mailbox this evening. They are the first wood ducks we've seen this spring.
  • Bugs were terrible, today! We could be running the shop vac continuously, but you have to give it a break. Left alone, entire windows and walls are filled with hundreds of the crawling beasties.

• Friday, 3/14: Bugs, Ad Nauseam
  
  • Mary and I vacuumed bugs almost continuously, today. We believe that over a million Asian ladybugs left our surrounding timber last fall and all crammed themselves into the vinyl siding of our house. There were times when well over 100 Asian ladybugs went into the shop vac from just one window. It's absolutely amazing. Any food preparation in the kitchen is a tag team event. One cooks while the other person continuously vacuums bugs. Living in this house would be unbearable if we didn't suck up those damn tiny tanks (ladybugs).
  • Some of the pickup parts arrived, today, via UPS, FedEx and USPS. The only bad aspect is that I got only half of the brake backing plates/dust shields. It's a two-piece unit and I got only one of the two pieces. I answered a bunch of RockAuto's online questions and included a photo. They will give me back an answer in one working day, which means I won't hear back from them until Monday or Tuesday. Oh well, not all of my parts come in until Monday. Now I'm delayed even longer, since the dust shield is one of the first items to install.
  • We had thunderstorms roll through us around 6 p.m. The really high winds, most of the rain, and tornadoes missed us. Bill reported that really bad weather also missed his location in St. Charles.

• Saturday, 3/15: Pruning
  • Winds settled down, today, so I pruned the top levels of a couple trees...the Liberty and the Empire apple trees. I only got a quarter of the Empire tree pruned, since it involves using the largest 10-foot step ladder, which is cumbersome to maneuver, due to its weight. I'm also placing Treekote on new cuts, which adds to my time up the ladder.
  • I saw a bald eagle and a great blue heron flying overhead while I was up a ladder pruning trees. Mary spotted a brown-headed cowbird. The heron and cowbird are the first of this season.
  • Mary picked up pruned branches that were lying under all trees that she recently pruned from the ground level.
  • We vacuumed bugs, of course, because they're always with us day after day.
  • After dark, we watched two movies. They were the 2020 film, News of the World, and the 2016 movie, Bridget Jones's Baby.
  • When we walked Plato, the ground was wet and snow was falling with a stiff north breeze.

• Sunday, 3/16: Snow Dump
  • We woke to quite a significant snowfall. It was about five inches deep (see photo, below). Plato loved it as he bounced over the white blanket, occasionally grabbing mouthsful. Temperatures in the upper 40s melted most of it by sundown.
  • I racked and bottled the spiced apple wine's first batch. It never thoroughly cleared (see photo, below), but I decided to bottle it, since this wine tastes wonderful and I don't care how it looks. The specific gravity was 0.999. This puts the alcohol content at 8.65 percent. The pH is 3.0. I filled and corked 14 bottles. We drank the 350 milliliters leftover after bottling, along with the 450 milliliters of dregs left in the bottom of the four containers, equaling 50 milliliters over a bottle's worth of wine. It is exceptionally tasty...spicy and very tart.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project and dusted upstairs books while I bottled wine.
  • RockAuto cannot send the missing parts of the brake backing plates/dust shields. They want me to print out a shipping label and send the parts back via FedEx. The nearest FedEx drop-off location is 24 miles east of us at the Dollar General store in Canton, MO. I can't do that, since my only transportation is the pickup, currently on jack stands and blocks. And I'm not taking a bicycle on narrow two-lane highways to Canton to get run over by a farmer-driven grain semi. Hiking 48 miles roundtrip would take all day. I'll just order a new set of dust shields and handle a refund of the current ones after I get the pickup in running order.
  • When we walked Plato on his last dog walk of the day, a single spring peeper frog was singing at Bluegill Pond with the temperature at 31°. They are hardy little souls.

5" snowfall viewed SW of our house.

Slightly cloudy spiced apple wine.

March 3-9, 2025

Weather | 3/3, p. cloudy, 35°, 63° | 3/4, 0.80" rain, 43°, 53° | 3/5, 1/2" snow, 0.15" moisture, 29°, 31° | 3/6, p. cloudy, 21°, 45° | 3/7, sunny to cloudy, 34°, 60° | 3/8, sunny, 23°, 53° | 3/9, sunny, 31°, 63° |

• Monday, 3/3: Four Tied Flies
  • When we walked Plato this morning, we heard footsteps near Bluegill Pond. Then, Mary saw the tail of a deer as it headed to the west forest.
  • We heard and saw snow geese, off and on, throughout the day, but not as many as in past days.
  • I raked leaves in the north yard and put four wheelbarrow loads of leaves on the active compost pile. I also fluffed up the grass covering the strawberry plants.
  • I attended the second Webex fly tying class put on by the Missouri Department of Conservation. We tied a Glo Bug, a San Juan Worm, a Foam Beetle, and a Crappie Jig (see photos, below). The Glo Bug is supposed to resemble a salmon egg. It sinks and is floated over rocky stream beds to attract trout. The San Juan Worm also sinks, resembling a small earthworm. The Foam Beetle is easier to make than it looks. It floats on the surface. Giving it an occasional bump with the tip of a fly pole makes it look like a struggling bug on the water's surface that attracts bluegills, crappie, and bass. The crappie jig is fished on the bottom.
  • After making the crappie jig, I realized that the marabou used for the tail is exactly like the downy lower part of a chicken feather. I have lots of free marabou in the chicken coop. I just need to figure out how to dye chicken feathers if I want a color other than white.
  • I ordered more fly tying stuff, including a better pair of hackle pliers (these are non-skid), chartreuse and black crazy legs (used to make the foam beetle legs), and black, brown, yellow and red 3mm thick fly foam (for making the foam beetle body).
    

A Glo Bug fly resembles a salmon egg.

The San Juan worm looks like an earthworm.

The Foam Beetle fly.

A Crappy (the fish, not excrement) Jig.

• Tuesday, 3/4: First Big Rain/Thundershowers
  • We experienced our first thundershowers of the year, giving us a nice amount of rain. It was also the first major rain of the year.
  • Mary cut Aida cloth for future cross stitch ornaments and dyed four pieces with tea, leaving them with a rosy brown color.
  • I practiced using the fly tying whip finish tool. It took a long time for me to get that technique down correctly. I also divided up four strands of bright red fly tying thread into one strand and put it on a thread spool that Mary gave me.
  • I researched how some companies, especially in Texas, chemically inject solutions into clay soils to alter their ion/cation relationship so that they don't swell during wet times, or shrink during dry periods. One company uses a mild sulfuric acid solution. Often, agricultural lime is used to alter the expansive and shrinking properties of clay soil..
  • I did a bunch of online research at night on various impact socket sets.

• Wednesday, 3/5: Snow & High Wind Gusts
  • A little snow storm hit us, mainly in the morning. It only dropped about a half-inch of snow. Northwest winds gusted to 57 mph, really rocking all trees. All area schools were closed today.
  • Right after sitting down to breakfast, the guys who are cleaning brush and trees away from the electric co-op's right of ways drove up in front of the house looking for the owner of a stray dog that they found. Mary directed them to the neighbors in the house southeast of us. The neighbors always let their dogs run free. The tree cutters showed up pulling a large equipment trailer, which they then backed down our driveway. When I walked the lane later in the day I noticed by the tire tracks that the driver backing that trailer did a very good job at keeping to the main paths of the lane.
  • A package of a DVD that Katie ordered a couple days ago showed up in the early afternoon, so I went down to pick it up. UPS delivered it to our neighbor's trailer across the gravel road from us and when I started looking for it, Alma jumped outside, hollered at me, while waving the UPS package in her hand. I ran across the road and got it from her. As I was in the neighbors' front yard, about a thousand snow geese flew overhead, struggling in the fierce wind. They all saw water to the southwest of them and swooped down to that location over the treetops. It was quite a sight to see.
  • Fifty pounds of oatmeal showed up that we recently ordered. The FedEx driver roared in with his dual-wheeled panel truck, putting more wear and tear on our soggy driveway.
  • Mary and I watched the four episodes of the BBC 2004 TV miniseries, North & South. Katie saw it recently and asked Mary if we've seen it, then ordered up the DVD to sent to us, which arrived today. While the final credits were running, Katie texted to ask us if we liked it. She had remarkable timing!

• Thursday, 3/6: Geese, Eggs & Birds
  • This morning, we saw a flight of snow geese that recently lifted off and were heading west over our house. All of a sudden, the leading geese veered back to the east. Then, we saw two bald eagles flying south to north right under the flock of geese. One was a mature bald eagle and the other was an immature bald eagle. All birds then went on their way.
  • We heard lots of snow geese southwest of us on the ground, both in the morning and in the evening.
  • I drove to Quincy to pick up a couple items and print off some paperwork.
  • We're now getting about four eggs a day from our hens. Mary looked up that the average price of eggs nationwide as of March 5th is $7-$9 a dozen. Our last bag of feed was $12, on sale, which lasts about a couple weeks. Two weeks of our eggs at four eggs per day at the nationwide average prices would be $32 to $42. So, our eggs are really cheap, in comparison.
  • I listened to a Missouri Department of Conservation webinar about birds in Missouri. The biggest point I got out of it was that we live in a great place to see all birds, even ones that she said you're really lucky to see, right here on our property.
  • Mary heard the first eastern meadowlark of the season, today.
  • I looked at insulation ideas for post frame houses online in the evening.

• Friday, 3/7: Pickup Is Immobile Until Fixed
  • I did a bunch of paperwork related to money...checkbook related.
  • I drove the pickup to Lewistown and got gas. From the stop light at Lewistown to just a few feet up our lane, the pickup's right rear brake made a horrible noise. To play it safe, I let the momentum of the vehicle slow down as I rolled up the hill on our lane, then carefully alternated between drive and neutral of the automatic transmission, so I didn't need to use the brakes. Later, when I walked down the lane to get the mail, I found a worn chunk of rusty metal and a worn out brake pad laying on the ground near where the noise quit on the pickup as it rolled up our lane. Obviously, we won't be driving the vehicle until I replace the rear brakes, because they're shot.
  • Mary removed grass mulch on emerging garlic plants in the far garden. She noticed earthworms in that mulch. When Mary started, the temperature was 58°. An hour later, the temperature 50°, after the wind switched from the southeast to due north. Her hands were blue. The temperature dropped throughout the rest of the day.
  • Mary heard a chorus frog when she was outside uncovering the garlic. We heard one spring peeper frog as we walked Plato at night.
  • We saw a barred owl beyond the southwest corner of the house. It was there for a couple hours. At dusk, the owl moved closer to the house, perching on a branch of a cherry tree nearest to the house.

• Saturday, 3/8: Pruning Big Trees & Removing Brake Parts
  • Bill called. After working for a full five days, he's happy with his new job. He says his boss is amazing. Bill feels like he has a lot to learn. He says he is the only one upset about his lack of knowledge. Bill likes the professionalism of everyone in the company. He has already used the information he taught himself about dealing with data on this new job.
  • Mary uncovered the winter greens. We have ignored them for months, because of hard freezes. Miraculously, we have live spinach plants. Plus, some kale plants are yellow/green and might survive. She gave them a good watering and left the plastic cover off to give them good sunlight and air.
  • After jacking up the driver's side rear of the pickup and installing a jack stand and wooden blocks under the vehicle, I opened up the brakes of that corner of the truck. The inside disk of the rotor was completely worn off. It came off in chunks. An inner ring of metal was spinning around the brake assembly. The rubber around the piston is decayed and leaking. I had to tap the rotor with a hammer for several minutes, interspersed with several applications of penetrating fluid, before the rust gave way and the rotor broke free from the axle. The brake material of one of the emergency brake shoes was loose and rotating around inside the brake area. When I unscrewed the small bolt holding the emergency brake in place, it sheared off. I applied penetrating oil to the four bolts holding the brake assembly to the axle and put away spare wooden blocks and tools for the day.
  • Mary pruned the Empire and Granny Smith apple trees from a standing height. When removing water sprouts (shoots growing straight up from branches), you can prune about two-thirds of an average sized apple tree. She applied tree sealing compound to all fresh cuts on both trees and to some smaller trees she recently pruned. At one point, Mary pointed to her wrist and said, "Look, the Empire strikes back!" Sharp branches of the Empire apple tree gave her two bloody cuts on her right wrist.
  • We noticed three new birds for year, which included a killdeer, a turkey vulture, and a small flock of American white pelicans that circled right above us as they gained elevation. We see snow geese milling about.
  • Mary and I both vacuumed Asian ladybugs inside the house two times, each. Warmer outside temperatures are making the little buggers march around.
  • I viewed YouTube videos on removing rear wheel bearings, which is something I might have to do if they're shot. I hope they are in good shape, or I'll have to buy a slide hammer to remove the rear bearings.

• Sunday, 3/9: Pickup Wounds
  • A sunny day with higher temperatures meant an even higher invasion of Asian ladybugs, so we vacuumed bugs all day. Mary vacuumed three times and I did it twice. They're terrible!
  • I reviewed online on ways to handle a broken 8mm bolt holding down the emergency brake shoes on the rear of our pickup. It's quite an ordeal that I'll have to work through.
  • I removed the four 18mm parking brake bracket bolts on the rear driver's side brake assembly. They were really tough to remove, due to severe rusting. I used a lot of penetrating fluid and suffered skinned knuckles. Towards the end of removing the last bolt, I tripped backwards and hit the back of my head on an opened toolbox. I went inside and Mary patched me up. One more time outside and I touched that back head wound on a jagged fender wheel well. It was time to quit!
  • Snow geese were flying both west and east. I think they're milling around in our area while waiting for snow to melt north of us.

Feb. 24-March 2, 2025

Weather | 2/24, p. cloudy, 39°, 61° | 2/25, sunny, 37°, 60° | 2/26, sprinkles to p. cloudy, 41°, 60° | 2/27, sunny, 33°, 55° | 2/28, sunny, 35°, 67° | 3/1, p. cloudy, 21°, 37° | 3/2, sunny, 12°, 45° |

• Monday, 2/24: A Woolly Bugger
  • Katie tracked the two Home Depot birthday gifts that she ordered for me. By the end of the day, both were in at the Quincy Home Depot location.
  • We saw something parked along the gravel road and Bill said he saw it there when he arrived on Saturday. Today, the crew cleaning the right-of-ways for the Lewis County Rural Electric Cooperative started up that Bobcat and trimmed small trees and grass on our side of the property and inside our fence line along the gravel road. It's not the best time of the year for this work, when the ground is soft due to warming temperatures.
  • We see a few honey bees out in the sunlight, today.
  • Bill took a walk and spotted a raccoon skin, including its tail, hanging from the top of a tall wood snag of a dead tree near Wood Duck Pond. We suspect a hawk or an owl got it.
  • I attended a Webex fly tying class put on by two guys from the Missouri Department of Conservation's August A. Busch Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center in Defiance, MO between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Half the time involved a slide presentation and the rest was spent tying a woolly bugger fly. My version is sloppy, but it might catch fish (see photo, below). This instructor is good, because he goes slowly through the steps and you see the work from his prospective, making it easier to follow along. It's actually better than viewing it all in person, where you are on the opposite side of the work being accomplished.
    
  • We watched the last three episodes of Genius: Einstein. 
  • Mary and I smelled a skunk while walking Plato at night. We kept him close to us.

  

  My woolly bugger fly. It's okay, but I'll get better.
  

• Tuesday, 2/25: Pruning Trees & Fixing Tire Tracks
  • While Mary and I were letting out the chickens and feeding them, we saw snow geese flying so low from east to west that we could hear their wing beats. Now that temperatures are warmer, we're seeing more snow geese.
  • The crew that is cleaning the electric company's right of ways drove a large machine wielding a buzz saw out the front of the machine on a long retractable pole to north of Bluegill Pond and sawed up tree branches intruding into space near the power lines. Behind that large machine was the other machine that we witnessed yesterday, which munches up smaller trees and branches dropped by the first machine.
    
  • Bill left around 2 p.m. for his St. Charles apartment. He's busy studying materials procurement, since that is what is future job involves.
  • Mary pruned 13 small fruit trees and five blueberry bushes.
  • I drove the 8N Ford tractor up and down the lane to push down marks made in the soft soil on either side of the lane by the large vehicle that cut down tree branches at Bluegill Pond. At the end of the lane, I talked to the guy driving the muncher vehicle. It's a track vehicle with a big set of blades on the front that rotate and slice up wooden matter. He was very polite and talked about how they try not unnecessarily to drive over trees. His machine not only takes out small trees that have the potential of growing to tall threats for overhead power lines, but pulverizes branches dropped by earlier work. I wish I had that machine to handle lespedeza. He said the attachment alone costs over $150,000. I checked out Bluegill Pond. His machine completely eliminated branches dropped earlier in the day.
  • I did a bunch of online research at night on various impact socket sets.

• Wednesday, 2/26: Owl Webex & Birthday Presents
  • I attended a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) webinar on owls that was broadcast from Joplin, MO. It was good. Owls aren't really wise. Nighttime vision for owls means their eyeballs take up a huge percentage of their skulls and there isn't as much room left for a brain cavity. Human eyes would need to be the size of tennis balls to take up a similar percentage of our skulls.
  • I drove to Quincy to pick up two gifts from Home Depot that Katie ordered for me for my birthday. They were 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" socket adapters and a modular storage case with a 100-piece impact driver bit set made by Milwaukee. I'll be able to drive any screw or socket of most any type or size.
  • While in Quincy, I also picked up two sets of DeWalt impact sockets, each containing seven sockets. One has metric sizes and the other has SAE sizes involving inches and fractions.
  • The on and off ramps from Highway 6 to Highway 61 are blocked while the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDot) rebuilds the overpass of Highway 61 at Taylor. Two summers ago, an oversized trucker hit that bridge two times in a week and damaged it. The detour on Highway 6 takes you through windy roads through Maywood, an tiny village and adds several miles and minutes to the trip. On the way back home, I took a shortcut from their detour that was much faster. It involves rough pavement, so I'm guessing that officials decided to use the long route for a detour so roads wouldn't get further trashed.
  • While I was gone, Mary went through the root crops stored in the back porch closet. She was surprised how well everything is surviving. The only casualties were small sweet potatoes with dry rot and some garlic.
  • Mary vacuumed a lot of bugs and flies. This is the worst year we've ever seen on bugs invading inside our house through the whole winter.
  • We saw the first red-winged blackbird of the season in the yard. I heard the first American woodcock this evening. Plus, Mary watched as a red-tailed hawk use her as a scarecrow. Crows were pursuing the hawk. The hawk dropped lower in the sky and flew right over Mary. The crows spotted Mary and veered off to the east. That was a smart hawk, who continued north, unmolested.

• Thursday, 2/27: March Winds Come Early
  • Mary and I took Plato on a walk on our north loop trail. He loves sniffing in wild areas. With only one dog, we can go as slow or as fast as he wants to move.
  • We saw snow geese struggling to fly west against a strong west, northwest wind. In the evening, we noticed many snow geese were flying back east with the wind at their backs. At one point, we saw a pair of smaller Ros's geese leading a group of snow geese.
  • I undid all of the new tools that Katie gave me, cleaned oil off them, and sorted them into spaces in the new case that came with them.
  • I spent the evening digging into online information about a concrete slab versus a crawl space for a post-frame house, along with termite and carpenter ant information.

• Friday, 2/28: Labeling Garlic Wine
  • Strong west winds blew, today. They changed to northwest wind gusts with the arrival of a cold front. Wind was blowing so hard at noon that Mary witnessed a flock of snow geese totally stalled overhead as they tried to fly westerly.
  • Mary and I walked Plato around the west field and down Bobcat Trail. Walking through the woods involves very crunchy leaves over the top of soft forest soil.
  • I labeled the 25 bottles of garlic wine and then sorted the bottles into available coolers for storage.
  • Mary and I both spent a long time vacuuming bugs from inside the house. Will they ever stop?
  • After watching an excellent example of kindergarten diplomacy exhibited by our weak-minded president and vice president in yelling at the president of Ukraine, Mary and I watched the 1994 film, I.Q., and the 1996 TV series, Nova: Einstein Revealed.

• Saturday, 3/1: Racked Spiced Apple Wine, Batch 2
  • We started the day with a stiff northwest breeze, but it dropped off by nightfall.
  • Mary and I had an indoor wienie roast.
  • Yesterday, Bill signed his final paperwork for his new job. His first day is Monday, March 3rd. Bill received a tour of the office. "It's the nicest office I've ever seen," he said. "The office has its own fitness center, like with showers and everything." It will be a big step up from working in an non-air conditioned warehouse in 100 degree summer heat.
  • Mary chased four deer out of the hazelnut patch at dusk.
  • I racked the spiced apple wine, batch 2, for the fourth time. The specific gravity was 0.999 and the pH was 3.0. There was a tiny bit of fines even though the wine is still cloudy. Similar to batch 1, I added 0.5 grams of K-meta and 4.36 teaspoons of pectic enzyme. After racking, I was left with two one-gallon jugs, a half-gallon jug, and a 1.5-liter bottle of liquid. Mary and I tasted the wine and it was similar to batch 1, but not quite as spicy. It's quite good. We even drank the wine left with the fines.

• Sunday, 3/2: Cutting Up New Firewood
  • Temperatures were quite cool in the morning, but it warmed up throughout the day.
  • Mary saw a bald eagle and a red-tailed hawk circling one another overhead.
  • We noticed lots of snow geese flying east to west. Several flocks were dropping in elevation as they flew over our property.
  • Mary and I went to the southwest corner of the west field and cut firewood from oak branches that fell out of dead trees. We loaded up the wagon. A few pieces were large enough to put next to the woodsplitter in the machine shed, but the majority went directly into the woodshed.
    
  • I tied another woolly buggar fly. It wasn't a very good job, again. I probably need to blunder through several to get better. Mary cross stitched while I muddled through fly tying.
  • At dusk, I cleaned the small chainsaw and greased its clutch needle bearing.
    
  • My evening was spent looking up building techniques required in termite country.

Feb. 17-23, 2025

Weather | 2/17, 1" snow, 0.06" moisture, 3°, 19° | 2/18, cloudy, -3°, 11° | 2/19, cloudy, 1°, 13° | 2/20, sunny, -7°, 17° | 2/21, sunny, 0°, 26° | 2/22, sunny, 10°, 38° | 2/23, sunny, 23°, 53° |

• Monday, 2/17: Bottling Garlic Wine
  • Snow filtered down ever so slowly throughout the day.
  • We saw a barred owl sitting on the nearest clothesline post this morning. His feathers were all fluffed out so that he looked like a dust mop.
  • I racked and bottled the garlic wine. At the third racking, this is the fastest I've had any wine clear, and it was crystal clear (see photo, below). One difference with this wine is cool temperatures kept it from moving quickly while in the brew bucket on the initial fermentation stage. Maybe slow fermentation allows it the clear faster. The pH was 3.1 and the specific gravity was 0.998. The alcohol content of this cooking wine is 13.62 percent. I added 2/3rds (0.6 grams) of the full amount I'd normally add of K-meta to the wine, since I added a full amount on the second racking a month ago and usually none is added on the third racking. I corked 25 bottles, leaving me 200 ml that I added to an opened bottle of garlic wine in the refrigerator.
    
  • While I was filling bottles, Mary saw a deer herd of six to eight animals out the north windows. Once they were past the far garden, they bucked and jumped out in different directions. Mary suspects that they were playing.
  • I watched the Sweden/USA game of the NHL Four Nations Tournament. Sweden won 2-1.

  

  An extremely clear garlic wine sample.
  

• Tuesday, 2/18: Cold, So We're Inside
  • It's quite cold for us...in the subzero single digits. But, Mom is seeing much lower temperatures in eastern Montana. She said today was the fourth day of below zero temperatures. It was -30 at her house this morning and it didn't get above zero yesterday and it's not expected to do so, again, today.
  • I looked at birthday gift ideas for myself.
  • Mary baked four loaves of bread and worked on a cross stitch project.
  • I read the Whizbang Apple Grinder & Cider Press book that I bought at Christmastime of 2023 and looked up where to buy HDPE plastic to make into a basket for the press. I found an inexpensive source on Amazon.
  • I'm finding online that foam board insulation, which is advocated for placing under slab on grade floors, outside of basement cement walls, or as exterior insulation, is an excellent source for carpenter ant nests. They like its softness. It resembles decaying and rotting wood. It would be a poor item, along with spray foam insulation, for us to use with woods throughout our property. Pest control companies are starting to nullify any guarantees to homeowners who have foam board insulation installed on the outside of their buildings.
  • Katie asked me what to do in case volcanic ash falls in Anchorage. I told her about my experience at WSU in Pullman, WA, when Mount St. Helens blew. Mary and I looked online and Mt. Spurr, near Anchorage, is having recent seismic activity and they're suspecting it might erupt sometime soon.
    

• Wednesday, 2/19: Gift Ideas
  • I looked into making a basket for an apple cider press. It can be made out of wood or 1/8-inch thick food safe plastic and it appears that wood will be cheaper than the HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic.
  • I followed deer tracks into the north woods just north of the machine shed. The deer walked down the trail to my new deer blind, looked at it, then turned north and walked right by it.
  • Mary made a venison General Tso dish for our midday meal.
  • On potential birthday presents to buy, I think I decided on purchasing a set of precision screwdrivers made by PB Swiss. Reviews online state that this Switzerland-based company makes top-ranked screwdrivers with tips that never wear out. I'm also looking at some gun cleaning items that assist in removing rust from the inside and outside of rifle barrels.
  • I recently listed hobbies I enjoy, along with hobbies I once enjoyed. When I was a kid, I loved flying kites. I mentioned it to Mary and she dug out a kite I once bought at a Washington, D.C. Smithsonian gift shop which is a stunt kite that was never used. On a warmer spring day, I'm going to try it out. Mary also dug up a Golden Press book on kites that has several interesting plans for building unique kites. That looks like fun.
  • We watched the 1993 film, Medicine River, starring Graham Greene, from Dances With Wolves fame. We rented this movie years ago, when we lived in Roseau, MN, and liked it. YouTube has a copy of it that was rerecorded from a VHS tape. It's a rough video in spots, but at least the film is viewable. It's not available for purchase, anywhere. The movie was fun to watch, again.
    

• Thursday, 2/20: Family Birthday Wishes
  • We saw a barred owl twice today. The first time it was on a tiny branch in a maple sapling in the east yard as I opened the bedroom curtains after waking up. Owls are so light for their size that they can sit on a twig similar to what a small song bird can perch on, which looks odd. The second time we saw a barred owl was in the late afternoon. It was perched on a cow panel wrapped around a cherry tree southwest of the house. Maybe it was the same owl we saw this morning.
  • Mary heard a cardinal's spring song at sunrise when the temperature was at -7°. It proves that the height of the sun is a determining factor for spring activity in birds, not warmer temperatures.
  • Four deer tried to munch on apple trees south of the house at 10:45 a.m., but Mary pounded on the living room window and waved the curtain, scaring them away.
  • I'm 68 years old today. It sounds a heck of a lot older than I feel.
  • We received a call from Katie this morning, wishing me a happy birthday. She was at the airport in Anchorage, catching a flight to Fairbanks, where she was to represent her company today at a job fair in the student union building at the UAF campus.
  • Bill called with birthday wishes. Today was a big day for him. He had a third interview with the CEO of a company he applied to for a job. A couple hours later, Bill announced that he was hired. He will start March 1st. His position is listed on the original job advertisement as data analyst/project coordinator. The company is McBride Homes. They construct homes throughout the St. Louis region. He will assist a purchasing manager who works with suppliers for the company's home construction efforts. She was one of the most recent hires by that company and she's been with them for 10 years, which indicates that McBride Homes is a stable employer. The job means a step up in income for Bill.
  • Mom called with birthday wishes. Yesterday when she looked out the window at her thermometer, she thought it was broken. After calling around town, Mom realized her outside thermometer was correct. The morning temperature really was -40° in Circle, MT.
  • Mary and I watched the championship game of the Four Nations NHL tournament. Canada won in overtime, beating USA, 3-2, on a shot from Edmonton Oilers Captain Connor McDavid. Canada's goalie, who is in the goal for the St. Louis Blues, Jordan Binnington, was amazing in overtime, stopping several extremely good shots on goal by the USA team. It was a fun game to watch.
    

• Friday, 2/21: Dragonfly Webex
  • I watched a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex presentation about dragonflies. It was interesting. Dragonflies were around 100 million years prior to dinosaurs. A pond with dragonfly larvae indicates unpolluted water. They live three to five years underwater in the larval stage, then a few weeks to a few months as adults. They can fly up to 35 mph. Some are migratory and can travel as much as 1200 miles. Their four wings allow them to maneuver in any direction through the air.
  • The chickens were outside for the first time in several days. They enjoyed themselves dusting in the mud on the south side of the chicken coop.
  • I walked Plato to between the ponds. Snow hasn't melted on that part of the trail, where we saw coyote tracks of a very large canine. The tracks were as wide as Plato's tracks and much longer. Deer tracks are everywhere.
    

• Saturday, 2/22: Turkey & TV
  • Bill arrived between 11 a.m. to noon. Plato mugged him like he always does...he loves Bill.
  • We watched NHL hockey. First was the Minnesota Wild and the Detroit Red Wings. The Wild came from behind 3-1 to win 4-3 in overtime. The second game was boring. Washington beat Pittsburgh 8-3.
  • Mary baked a 21-pound turkey, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It was very good. We also enjoyed a bottle of 2024 parsnip wine. It was also good. Bill says it has the most complex flavor of any wine I make. The earthy flavor that also includes a citrus taste is very unique.
  • A 60-piece case of Milwaukee impact drill and drive set of attachments were delivered via FedEx today (see photo, below). They are part of a birthday present from Katie. They look really nice.
    
  • After chores, we watched three episodes of Genius: Einstein, which was something Bill requested viewing.
  • We ate turkey sandwiches and part of a cherry crisp that Mary made for my birthday.
    
  • The stars were very bright and steady when Mary, Bill, and I took Plato outside on his nightly walk.

  

  Impact drivers & drill bits for my new impact wrench.
  

• Sunday, 2/23: Using New Tools
  • We saw a barred owl at the top of a cedar tree south of the house this morning. Near sunset, a barred owl was on the insulator on the side of a power pole near Bluegill Pond. It might have been the same owl.
  • When Mary and I walked Plato around noon, we spotted a bald eagle circling way above our property. It caught an uplift and soared higher. At the same time, we spotted a red-shouldered hawk circling near the bald eagle. The hawk shows off as an extreme orange bird when the sun is shining through its feathers against the deep blue sky.
  • I used some of my new impact drivers and bits to attach strips of half-inch plywood to cover cracks in the tongue and groove siding on the north end of the woodshed. The impact driver works very well at driving screws into tough wood. The design of the chuck is nicer than old chucks on electric drills requiring a key to tighten or loosen them. You just push the tools into place and release them by pulling a retaining ring outward. It means I can change bits with one hand while holding a piece of wood up with the other hand. The biggest advantage is I don't need to run an extension cord to the tool, since it's powered by a lithium battery.
  • Bill and I saw a flock of mallard ducks fly over the house, followed by a big flock of snow geese that ventured to the southwest. Because the sun was setting, the geese were dropping in elevation and getting ready to land for the night.
  • We watched four episodes of Genius: Einstein.