Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2026

Weather | 1/26, sunny, -10°, 13° | 1/27, sunny, -2°, 25° | 1/28, cloudy, 9°, 31° | 1/29, cloudy, 6°, 25° | 1/30, sun to clouds, skiff snow, -3°, 15° | 1/31, sunny, -2°, 20° | 2/1, cloudy, 5°, xx° |

• Monday, 1/26: Deer, Fly Tying & Texts
  • When we opened curtains on our bedroom windows this morning, we saw more the six deer wandering around in the east yard.
  • I took the pup on a walk to the Wood Duck Deer Blind. While down near the dry creek bed, I saw a Cooper's hawk flying about in the tree tops and looking at us. Cooper, the dog, and I noticed a great deal of coyote tracks in the snow.
  • Mary and I watched bluebirds drinking water that was dripping off the roof on the south side of the house. They were all fluffed out, due to the cold temperatures.
  • I practiced fly tying in the afternoon, making a scud and a hare's ear nymph fly (see photos, below). I used an orange seed bead ordered through 123stich.com, an online cross stitch company that Mary gets supplies from. It is the head of the scud fly. I viewed several online videos on how to apply dubbing to the thread, since I was failing miserably at dubbing the flies.
  • I also attended the sixth online fly tying class between 5:30-8:00 p.m. We learned to tie three flies and a jig. I also got tips on dubbing techniques from the instructors.
  • Mom texted that the storm missed her in Montana, but they went through a couple nights with lows of -22° and -25°. 
  • Karen texted that the electricity came on in the early evening hours.
  • Katie texted that she's camping in a tent in Florida and loving the sunshine with temperatures in the 40s while everyone else is freezing.

Scuds tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

Hare's Ear Nymph tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

• Tuesday, 1/27: Wood Splitting & Tying Flies
  • I took Cooper on a long walk along the west side of the north field. It was the first time that he stopped for long periods while looking into north woods. In the past, he just zoomed along without stopping to look. We're debating decreasing his food intake, again, since he's beefing up. We no longer see an ultra skinny dog with a backbone and ribs showing. His neck is getting thicker requiring us to loosen his collar.
  • Mary dusted books in the upstairs north bedroom.
  • I split firewood, moving a wheelbarrow load into the house and three loads into the woodshed. I also moved a load of ash firewood into the house.
  • I tied two flies that we learned to create from Monday's class. They were the Pheasant Tail Nymph and the Brassie (see photos, below). TJ, one of the instructors, tied an abbreviated version of the nymph in class, so I watched some videos on how to tie a complete nymph on YouTube and used those instructions for today's fly. It's supposed to be a major one for fly fishing in western states. The brassie resembles a worm. It is formed by wrapping thin red wire around the hook.
  • Mary finished reading Kenn Kaufman's Kingbird Highway and I finished Alexander Kent's 17th British Navy novel, Honor This Day.
  • We saw four types of waterfowl, that generally flew east over our place. They were cackling geese, snow geese, Canada geese, and trumpeter swans. We are located under a major east/west waterfowl flyway. 

Pheasant Tail Nymphs tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

Brassies tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

• Wednesday, 1/28: A Repeat: Wood Splitting & Tying Flies
  • Cooper and I walked on a loop of the south field and saw several places where deer bedded down in grass under cedar trees. In the bed-down areas, snow is absent and the tall grass is flattened. We also saw dog tracks. I think neighbor dogs regularly range into the woods next to the gravel road.
  • Mary did a big load of laundry and finished dusting books in the upstairs north bedroom.
  • I changed oil in the woodsplitter engine, split firewood, and moved four wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed. The individual pieces of firewood from the base of a red oak tree that Bill and I cut and moved home make for a full wheelbarrow load once each one is split.
  • I tied two more types of flies that we learned to tie in Monday's class (see photos, below). They were the San Juan Worm fly and the Wire Charlie jig. The instructor said a brief touch with a cigarette lighter on the ends of the worm keep the chenille from unraveling and gives it a realistic look. I don't smoke, so all I have is a gas grill lighter we use to light fires in the woodstove. When I used it on the San Juan Worm I made in Monday's class, the entire piece went up in a puff, turning it into black char. I cut off the mess and made a new one. On a new worm, I also used frilly hot pink UV chenille material for what I call a Psychedelic Hippy Worm.

San Juan Worms and Psychedelic Hippy (bottom).

Wire Charlie jigs tied in class (top) & today (bottom).

• Thursday, 1/29: Plentiful Deer
  • Today was a quiet day for Mary and I.
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and took in Bobcat Trail. We noticed tons of deer tracks in the snow. I saw the remains of a bird that was eaten by some wild thing.
  • We did an indoor wienie roast and Cooper was good about not tray surfing for goodies.  
  • Nine deer showed up in the evening to munch on grass and weeds under the Kieffer pear tree. Some were also nipping buds off saplings. When Mary went to the chicken coop to retrieve the chicken waterer for the night, most of the deer ran off, but one deer stood just southwest of the big Bartlett tree and watched Mary for a long time as she walked to the coop. Some deer seem to know us and are not afraid.
  • I took in the seventh fly tying class while Mary worked on a cross stitch project. The flies we learned to tie were the Gray Hackle, Dragonfly, and Meat Whistle. The last one was hard to tie. It resembles a crawdad.

• Friday, 1/30: Dog Walks, Popcorn & Movies
  • When I walked Cooper first thing this morning, I saw a deer crossing the lane near Bluegill Pond that first ran west, and then north. It was a big one.
  • Mary and I took Cooper on a noon walk up the west edge of the north field. I now take him along each evening when I walk our quarter-mile long lane to get the mail. The longer walks, two times a day, is helping to build up his muscles. Exercise and an adequate daily food supply means Cooper's initial skinniness is waning. In just two weeks, he's looking more like a normal dog. 
  • We had a snow flurry right at dusk. It just amounted to a skiff of snow.
  • I watched several videos on how to fold a feather in making a class of fishing flies that possess sweeping fibers at the front of the lure. I found a black tail feather from Leo, our rooster, with a dark green iridescence to it and used the feather to make a Gray Hackle fly (see photo, below). This fly pattern originates from over 100 years ago.
  • Mary and I enjoyed popcorn and watched two movies, which were Chicken Run (2000) and Corpse Bride (2005). Gandalf, Mocha, and Cooper also like an occasional piece of popcorn.

  

  Gray Hackle flies tied in class (left) and today (right).

• Saturday, 1/31: French Onion Soup & Katie Returns to Her Home
  • Mary noticed rabbit tracks in the light dusting of snow on the porch this morning. A bunny hopped onto our porch sometime overnight to view its surroundings.
  • Mary made French onion soup, using several of our homegrown onions and a whole bottle of Merlot wine. With former French onion soup meals, she's baked French bread. This time, she baked biscuits, which worked great. We'd just take a bit of biscuit in a spoon, fill the rest of the spoon with soup...yummy! It was exquisite.
  • J. Stockard, a fly tying company that I use, has a hook sale that ends today, so I spent most of the day working up an order from them. First, I went through all of the flies we tied in the recent classes and ordered various hooks. The order's total cost was way too high, so I pared it down. Then, I added other items I wanted. I decided against buying any hackle feathers. Entire bird skins of hackles can run as high as $100. I've got chicken feathers that are free to me which will work just fine. I finalized the order at 7 p.m. It will be a happy early birthday to me.
  • We thought we saw an otter track while walking Cooper, yesterday. When Mary walked him this evening, she revisited where that track crossed our trail to the ponds and investigated it. It's definitely the track of an otter. In flat snow-covered spots, it slid on its belly across the field. Anywhere there were high dried plant matter, it bounded through the snow. 
  • Mary got several texts from Katie on her trek from Panama City, FL to Anchorage, today. Winter weather changed things. She learned in the morning that her original flight was canceled. She was rebooked on later flights. They all connected, but she had very quick layovers in Atlanta and Seattle, resulting in only airplane snacks through the day. She sent a message from her home at 2:32 a.m., our time, that she arrived in Anchorage, ate food, and was laying in a pile of pets. Just prior to dusk, she sent images from her airplane indicating that her flight was directly over us (see photos, below). 

Simulation of Katie's plane location over us.

Shot out plane window of our area at the same time.

Jan. 19-25, 2026

Weather | 1/19, p.cloudy, 1°, 15° | 1/20, cloudy, 11°, 35° | 1/21, sunny, 23°, 39° | 1/22, p. cloudy, 13°, 34° | 1/23, cloudy, -2°, 5° | 1/24, 3" snow, 0.22" moisture, -8°, 3° | 1/25, cloudy, 1°, 15° |

• Monday, 1/19: Shopping Trip
  • I drove to Quincy, IL, to pick up a couple prescriptions and get a few items, especially pet things. A new 12-quart plastic dish pan for holding pet water and a dog toothbrush and peanut butter flavored toothpaste I bought at Menards. In the last couple weeks I've been looking at a Stihl cordless pruner for limbing trees I've cut down for firewood, or removing large limbs while pruning trees. It's a battery-operated chainsaw with a six-inch chain. I bought this Stihl GTA 40 from Farm & Home. I also bought two bags of Diamond Performance dog food that contains 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat for Cooper.
  • Speaking of the pup, Mary did some housecleaning with the ever-present help of our newest furry friend, Cooper. She reported that sweeping floors was an adventure with a dog glued to her side. He was either standing behind her, bumping the back of her legs, or standing in the pile of dirt she was sweeping...a lot of togetherness.
  • Mary saw a flock of about 100-150 snow geese flying east to west, which would be the first of north-migrating snow geese heading across the state to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Missouri. She also saw about 75 trumpeter swans flying back and forth over our property.
  • Katie flew to and from Barrow, AK, while checking a childcare center project she's working on and took several aurora photos through the airplane window. One is shown below.

  

  Northern Lights, taken by my daughter while flying to Barrow.

• Tuesday, 1/20: Firewood, Flies, and the Puppy
  • I split the rest of the oak firewood and moved a wheelbarrow load to the house and a load to the machine shed. I heard trumpeter swans flying overhead throughout my time outside.
  • I read the manual to the new chainsaw pruner and charged its two batteries. There are several precautions to heed while operating it, just like any chainsaw. 
  • I tied some versions of two flies that were covered in past fly tying classes. They were the foam beetle and the ant. In both cases, I used varying colors (see photos, below).
  • Mary went through all of the old seeds and figured out what we need for the upcoming gardening year. We then placed an order for seeds from Fedco.
  • We're realizing that Cooper isn't drinking enough water, so Mary mixed some chicken soup base with water to encourage him to drink. It seems to work. He's filling out more, so we cut his food back from six to four cups of dog food, daily.

Ant flies tied in black, olive, and red thread.

Foam beetles with black, red, and yellow foam.

• Wednesday, 1/21: Bill Arrived & Firewood
  • Bill's last day at his job was on Jan. 9th. He was uncomfortable with a lack of training for his position. Ironically, he was asked to write and created a 40-page piece on his job duties before he left. In the days since leaving, he's interviewed for some promising prospects. Bill showed up here around noon for a five-day visit, which might be cut short due to a forecast storm coming through here and St. Louis this weekend.
  • Cooper didn't like the looks of Bill at first. It took all day for Cooper to warm up to Bill.
  • I used the new Stihl chainsaw pruner to cut up branches on the end of a downed red oak tree just west of Frog Pond. I'm impressed with what it can cut. I got up to a five-inch cut on hard, dried oak wood. I had to adjust the fit of the chain on the small bar. I'm used to a tighter fit on my chainsaws. It has to be looser on this little battery operated pruner. I finished cutting up this tree with the small Stihl chainsaw.
  • Mary cooked a 16-pound turkey, so we enjoyed a turkey meal with mashed potatoes and a green bean casserole. It was great!
  • Bill helped me load firewood into the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor. This was a full load. We stacked small pieces in the woodshed, then we stacked larger chunks in the machine shed, next to the wood splitter. With subzero temperatures predicted soon, I need to boost up our firewood supply.
  • We watched two films that Bill selected, which were Stranger Than Fiction and Captain America: The First Avenger.

• Thursday, 1/22: Firewood & a Lost Tundra Swan
  • Mary cleaned the DVDs and the shelving that holds them. The entire time, Cooper huddled at Mary's feet, hiding from Bill. We think the pup associates Bill with his former owners, who were young men, and he doesn't want to return to his former living condition.
  • Mary put more hay in the chicken coop with colder temperatures predicted.
  • Mary and I saw a northern harrier hawk for the first time this year.
  • I cut up a large oak branch that came down in the southwest corner of the field. I used the tiny chainsaw groomer to cut up small branches and the small chainsaw to cut up the rest of the branch. Bill helped load and unload a full trailer load of firewood.
  • I split more firewood, putting wood into the house and several more wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed.
  • A big V of snow geese went over in the evening while flying east. Mary watched a flock of seven trumpeter swans go over with one swan emitting a different call. After listening to the sound of different swans online, Mary discovered she heard a tundra swan, which is a waterfowl that is way off course. This bird should only be on the west or east coast, not in the center of the continent in winter.
  • Bill decided he will go home tomorrow. The prediction is that St. Louis will get 5-10 inches of snow. He wants to get back to avoid the traffic during the storm. 
  • I took in the fifth online fly tying class while Mary and Bill played Yahtzee.
  • We watched the 2016 film, The Finest Hours.

• Friday, 1/23: Single Digit Winter Temperatures
  • We had single digit temperatures throughout the day, so all humans, cats, and dog huddled around the woodstove for most of the day. I'm sure glad I spent a couple days building up our firewood supply. Red oak and ash burns nice and hot, which is much appreciated on colder days.
  • Unfortunately, cool outdoor weather means Cooper gets much shorter walks. He's settling in to our routine of living. Cooper still clings to us anytime we move about the house, but he is a lot calmer. His weight is better and his ribs are less pronounced. We're sure he didn't get enough food from previous owners.
  • Bill left for his apartment around 2 p.m., so he can be in St. Louis before snow falls.
  • Remembering that yesterday's "snow geese" had the same markings as Canada geese, we decided that they were actually cackling geese. The problem is cackling geese sound very similar to snow geese. Mary saw another flock of cackling geese fly east over the house this evening while walking Cooper and agreed that their call is similar to that of snow geese.
  • I texted with Karen. She and Lynn are expecting to get hit with freezing rain during the upcoming winter storm.
  • A multitude of trumpeter swans flew back and forth, going east and west, before and during sunset.
  • We enjoyed two pots, each, of Harney & Sons jasmine tea while reading during the evening.

• Saturday, 1/24: Cahill Flies
  • Mary did some cross stitching.
  • She also kept the chickens watered. In cold weather, we just take a gallon waterer out to the chicken coop several times throughout the day, then remove it at night. The oil-filled electric heater in the coop set at 900 watts kept the inside of the coop at 20° when outside temps hovered around 0°.
  • I watched a couple videos on how to make a Cahill fly, since it involves using a wood duck feather and turning it into mayfly wings, which is not an easy task. Then I made another light Cahill fly and a dark Cahill fly (see photo, below). On the dark fly, I used part of a feather from our rooster's tail for the wings and tail of the fly. It's sure fun to create something that looks similar to a bug.
  • Five deer showed up before darkness fell and ate grass and dead weeds under the Kieffer pear tree, west of the house. Mary recorded a video of two deer fighting one another (see below).
  • The cold water line running to our kitchen sink temporarily froze up. It happens when we get subzero temperatures with an east wind. Mary set up an electric heater with a fan behind it, blowing warm air through opened cabinet doors to under the sink. Within an hour, the pipe was thawed. We kept the heater and fan running through the night. The upcoming electric bill is going to be a whopper!
  • We watched the first half of a Ken Burns PBS documentary entitled Leonardo da Vinci. It's quite good. We also had two pots, each, of some Harney & Sons hot cinnamon tea, which is absolutely amazing.

  

  Cahill flies tied in class (left) and today (middle & right). 

   
  White-tailed deer in a boxing match (see at end).
  

• Sunday, 1/25: Winter Storm & Relatives
  • I walked Cooper through the snow on a loop of the north field. He really moves along very quickly. Each time he saw a lone leaf tumbling in the wind over top of the snow, he attacked the leaf with gusto.
  • While I was walking the pup, Mary saw two bald eagles. A mature bald eagle was flying overhead and an immature bald eagle was perched in a tree east of the house.
  • Trumpeter swans are flying, again, after a hiatus from moving about, yesterday.
  • I tied flies demonstrated from past classes (see below). They were Hendrickson and Gray Olive Shrimp flies.
  • Mary cut material for future cross-stitch projects.
  • We watched the last half of the Leonardo da Vinci documentary. It's very good.
  • Katie traveled to Panama City, Florida for National Guard training. She was delayed in the SeaTac Airport for several hours and had to make new arrangements for connecting flights. She made it into Atlanta at night and to Panama City at 11:11 p.m. She got to her final destination at 1:15 a.m. on 1/26, spending 20.5 hours traveling. 
  • Karen said that they got 1/2 to 3/4 inch of ice at their home in Cleveland, GA. Their power went out at 1:40 p.m. They moved into their travel trailer and fired up a generator in the trailer for lights and electricity. "We're good," she said.
  • Bill said that about 10 inches of snow fell at his apartment in St. Charles, MO. 

Hendrickson light (left) and dark (right) flies.

Gray Olive Shrimp with black (left),
gray (center) & olive (right) thread.

Jan. 12-18, 2026

Weather | 1/12, cloudy, 26°, 47° | 1/13, cloudy, 37°, 52° | 1/14, sunny, 19°, 45° | 1/15, sunny, 7°, 30° | 1/16, cloudy, skiff snow, 29°, 39° | 1/17, cloudy, skiff snow, 7°, 13° | 1/18, cloudy, 7°, 27° |

• Monday, 1/12: Doctor's Visit & Jigs
  • A big flock of over a hundred Canada geese flew over us this morning.
  • I went to Lewistown for my visit with Dr. Abueg. He said my glucose numbers look fine and the medication will stay the same. Besides giving them blood for testing, I received a flu shot. Huge numbers are coming into the Lewistown Clinic with flu symptoms. Test results from analyzing my blood came in later in the day. My A1C is 7.4. My doctor said foods eaten at Christmas always elevated blood glucose levels and as long as we stay under 7.5, all is good. All other levels were within good ranges.
  • I made a number of jigs today (see below), which was the last fly type that we learned during last Thursday's class.
  • I attended the third online fly tying class. We learned to tie the J&M Special, Renegade, Mating Black Midge, and an ant fly. A couple of these flies have polypropylene fibers to form the body, which float, thereby making these dry flies. All of the flies tied in today's class have hackle collars, resembling small insect wings.

Jigs-used hot pink UV chenille on left jig.

More jigs-used feather from our chickens on left jig.

• Tuesday, 1/13: Getting Firewood
  • I sharpened the small Stihl chainsaw chain and cleaned up the big chainsaw.
  • Mary and I surveyed where there might be standing dead trees in the north timber and found several. I took down a medium-sized red oak tree and cut it up. Then, Mary and I loaded the firewood into the trailer. It amounted to about half a wagon load that I drove home.
  • Yesterday, I filled out an online application for a two-year old dog that is skinny, but looks like Plato, but with longer ears. His birthday is Nov. 25, 2023. His name is Kiba and he's located at All God's Creatures Animal Shelter in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, which is 82 miles north of us. They texted today. We arranged that we will show up there tomorrow at 1 p.m.
  • Mary and I ate the last of the Gold Rush apples that were in the fridge. They tasted great, even though they were a little soft. These apples are good keepers.
  • At dusk, I saw hundreds of trumpeter swans flying east to west over our property. They were flying in groups of 20-25 and making a heck of a racket. Mary noticed hundreds robins flying about, too.

• Wednesday, 1/14: Our New Dog, Cooper
  • Strong north, northwest gusts blew today. Some were over 40 mph.
  • Mary and I drove to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The wind really rocked the pickup. We arrived a half hour early, so we grabbed a bite to eat at A&W, located across the street from the animal shelter. 
  • We were introduced to Kiba. He's a wild one, but we immediately noticed he's smart, food orientated, and very trainable. We left with him after about an hour. He hopped right into the pickup's front seat (see photo, below) and halfway home, he laid into Mary's lap and slept the rest of the way home. We immediately changed his name to Cooper. Once home, he responded within minutes to his new name.
  • The first activity with Cooper was a walk to Wood Duck Pond. It was a whole new world for a former city dog. He is quick and spry, so the walk was easy for him. He is underweight at 40 pounds. The guy who left him at the animal shelter had a roommate leave him with the dog. This man was leaving for another state, so he left Cooper at the shelter in November. He was neglected. He had worms, probably wasn't fed well, and he's most likely naturally thin. We think he's another Viszla/Lab cross, but maybe three-fourths Viszla, giving him a slender build. He's a new slate. He's just learning the word "no" and his whereabouts in our house. One plus is he is house broken. Cooper is a velcro dog and follows us everywhere. All cats scattered when Cooper entered the house. Our two male cats, Gandalf and Nick, eventually ventured out. Our female cats, Mocha and Juliet, are in perpetual hiding.

  

  Our new puppy, Cooper.

• Thursday, 1/15: Cooper Antics & Tying Flies
  • Five deer ran across the fields south of the house as Mary and Cooper were waiting for me to get my coat on during our morning outing with the puppy. Cooper just looked at them and didn't bark, which is perfect.
  • Mary and I walked Cooper around the West Field and down Bobcat Trail. He loved the walk, with all of the interesting wild smells. We found a piece of honeybee comb under a big oak tree on Bobcat Trail (see below). It proves what we already know...that honeybee hives are on our property.
  • Gandalf bumped into Cooper, in a form of cat love, then instantly hissed at the dog. Cooper got too close when sniffing Nick's backside, so Nick took a swipe at Cooper. The dog gives that cat a wider berth, now.
  • We're feeding Cooper 1.5 cups of dog food, four times a day, in an effort to beef him up. He eats like a tornado, scarfing his food in a matter of seconds. 
  • I emptied firewood out of the trailer, then split wood and hauled three wheelbarrow loads to the woodshed.
  • Mary added more hay to the chicken coop. The prediction is for colder low temperatures in upcoming days and additional hay helps keep the chickens warmer.
  • Mary walked Cooper along the north woods. She said for every mile that she walks, Cooper walks an additional two miles with his back and forth movement. He's the dog version of the movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
  • I practiced making flies that we learned to make in Monday's fly tying class. They were the J&M Special, Renegade, and the Mating Black Midge (see below). All of these flies are made by wrapping a hackle feather to form a collar.
  • I also took in the fourth two-hour online fly tying class. We learned to tie feathers that resemble bug wings and how to alter fly tying thread color and texture by using dubbing. After a couple hours practicing making flies and then taking in a two-hour online class, I was worn out with tying flies!
  • All of today's walks with the puppy wore out his skinny butt (see below).

Honey bee comb found on Bobcat Trail.

J&M Special flies using red, black, and olive thread.

Renegade flies (top row) and Mating Black Midge flies (bottom row).

A worn out Cooper sleeping on his chair next to the woodstove.

• Friday, 1/16 Home With Cooper
  • A big flock of several hundred Canada geese lifted off a field just east of us and flew overhead this morning. It was an impressive number of honkers!
  • I made waffles for our midday meal. Mealtime was sandwiched by two long walks with Cooper. The first walk took in a loop around the north field. He is good on long walks, except I have to pull him away from animal nuggets. It's probably how he got worms...from eating dung. Mary spotted worms in one of Cooper's feces. They seemed to be dead. We have medication from the animal shelter that is scheduled to start on 1/19. The second walk was through the woods just north of the machine shed and into the north field, then back home. These long walks are good at exercising both Cooper and us.
  • Our two female cats ventured out of the freezer and laundry rooms and into the rest of the house after realizing that Cooper wasn't the monster they thought he was. Mocha is the most reluctant to get near Cooper. She spends most of her time on top of the fridge. 
  • We watched the BBC TV show, North and South.

• Saturday, 1/17: Racking Jalapeño Wine
  • Low temperatures are in the single digits, so we kept the heater on in the chicken coop.
  • Our outdoor walks with Cooper were truncated, since a nippy west, northwest wind was blowing.
  • The new puppy wants to roar after Mocha, the cat who is most frightened of Cooper. She doesn't like his speed. He got in trouble a couple times over chasing Mocha. We won't stand for a dog chasing cats, so Cooper gets a swift reprimand any time we see it. He also gets jealous whenever you pet a cat. He is a quick learner. Cooper automatically sits before getting handed a bowl of food, or before going outside. He also sits and stays with just hand commands, without us saying a word. We're also noticing that his muscle mass is building and not so much of his ribs are showing. This evening, Cooper spent most of the time sleeping in his chair next to the woodstove. With two big walks a day and a regular routine, he's ever so slowly calming down. Still, he's at your feet with your every move. Mary says we should have renamed him Worf, since he is such a "Klingon" dog.
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the fourth time. Since the Mexican-made three-gallon carboys are slightly larger than the Italian-made three-gallon carboys, which is what the liquid went into, I had leftovers. The specific gravity was 0.992 and the pH was 3.5, the same as the last racking. I added 0.5 grams of Kmeta. We tasted leftover wine. Heat is more pronounced with aging. Dark raisins give it a fully, richer flavor. This wine could make a good tasting Bloody Mary.
  • Mary dusted books and cleaned out bugs off three large bookshelves in the living room.
  • Many robins were in the trees along the lane when I got the mail. We didn't hear or see swans or geese today. They're hunkered down and not flying.

• Sunday, 1/18: Racking Parsnip Wine
  • Today was another cool day, but in the afternoon it got warm enough to let the chickens outside.
  • I racked the parsnip wine for the fourth time. The specific gravity was 0.999 and the pH was 3.5. I added 0.7 grams of Kmeta. We tasted the fines. Wow! It's very good. Mary says it tastes like grapefruit juice with an earthy subtext. I say it's just plain great. I'll be bottling it in a month.
  • Mary dusted the remaining living room books on the two bottom shelves, which are right at the puppy's height. He was glued to her side through the entire time.
  • Mary saw a red-shouldered hawk perched in a walnut tree in the east yard.
  • We heard a great horned owl hooting away at dusk. They're nesting in the west woods.
  • All of our cats are mixing with Cooper. Mocha is doing the cat love thing, which is standing on her hind legs and bumping the top of her head on Cooper's chin, followed by swiping her body on his legs. Gandalf is also smacking into the pup's legs with his body. Even though the cats don't like his swift movements, he is part of the pet family, now.
  • Cooper had a really good day. He obeyed instructions well, and seems to be a lot more relaxed. He sleeps soundly in his soft chair in the living room. At night, he snores away in another soft chair in our bedroom. When we first brought Cooper home, he was leery of the steep stairs, but now he roars up and down the steps with ease, sometimes leaping down the bottom five steps with one jump. He's an extremely agile runner and can navigate the entire house in a matter of seconds.

Jan. 5-11, 2026

Weather | 1/5, cloudy, 30°, 49° | 1/6, cloudy, 39°, 45° | 1/7, sunny, 25°, 63° | 1/8, 0.32" rain, 44°, 58° | 1/9, p. cloudy, 37°, 47° | 1/10, 0.12" rain overnight, sunny, 29°, 44° | 1/11, p. cloudy, 19°, 35° |

• Monday, 1/5: Fly Tying
  • I emptied all of the firewood out of the trailer behind the tractor and stacked most small pieces in a crisscross fashion inside the north machine shed wall. Large pieces were stacked next to the splitter. A handful of dry pieces went to the woodshed.
  • I heard lots of trumpeter swans flying around as I unloaded the trailer.
  • Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup.
  • I attended the first fly tying class put on by three Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) folks who are located in northwest Missouri. They are TJ, Mike, and Ginger. I've taken in a couple fly tying sessions from this trio. This beginner's class involves eight two-hour online meetings every Monday and Thursday and ends in early February. TJ is the main commentator. Mike is a retired MDC employee who's tied flies for decades. Ginger, another fly tying expert, handles technical issues and delivers corny jokes at the end. Together, they give out great information. They provided several kits, with hooks and materials for each fly enclosed in baggies and labeled, that were sent out over the Holidays to registered participants.
  • Today we practiced using the whip finisher, laying a bed of thread on a hook, and tied two flies, which were a Glo Ball, and a Woolie Worm (see photos, below). Each baggie of materials for each fly includes three hooks. I only made one of each fly during the class. I will make the other two of each fly in the days between now and the next class, so that I practice techniques. I also need a lot of practice at using the whip finisher, since I goof up all of the time.
     

Glo Ball...Mike puts a spinner and a weight ahead of this.

A Woolie Worm with a bit of red yarn as added attraction.

• Tuesday, 1/6: Sawing Firewood & Anchorage Snow
  • I took the small Stihl chainsaw north and cut down a standing tree that had part of its bark missing, which is a sign that the tree is dead and probably dry. It was an ash tree. After cutting it up, I loaded it into the trailer, hauled it home, and unloaded big chunks next to the splitter and small dry pieces into the woodshed.
  • I also cut up several old persimmon sticks and some large kindling branches that Mary saved in the machine shed. These pieces went into the woodshed. 
  • Mary broke up and made kindling from dried branches collected from around the yard in past months and dried inside the machine shed.
  • Mary and I watched an amazing display of trumpeter swans fly over our property. They're close enough that we can hear their wing strokes. At one point their calls sounded as if a traffic jamb was on in New York City in the 1920s and everyone was honking their old style car horns. A trumpeter swan's honking sound is heard well before you can see them in the air. Mary thinks we saw 150 swans fly overhead this evening. That's the largest number of swans that we've seen at one time.
  • Katie is thrilled with the big dump of snow that came down today in Anchorage. It will make for good skiing this weekend. She uses trash cans as an indication of how much snow fell (see photos, below). 

Snow on right trash can cleared 12 hrs ago.
Snow on left can hasn't been recently cleared.

Car recently moved in an Anchorage, AK, parking lot.

• Wednesday, 1/7: Trip to Quincy
  • I practiced using the whip finisher on a fly hook after watching several videos on YouTube and picking out a good one to follow. There are a few minute details that make all the difference in the world in making it work. I'll practice more, tomorrow.
  • I drove to town to pick up a couple prescriptions and a couple items from various stores. It was relatively quiet.
  • Our neighbor to the east of us had an old barn in which most of the roof was collapsed. It is now a smoldering pile of ashes that are smoking with steers surrounding it. If they get any closer, there will be burnt beef next door.
  • Mary raked leaves that she put on top of the compost pile and picked sticks up around the yard for future kindling.
  • Several swans flew over the house this evening.
  • A bunch of eastern bluebirds flew into the yard for the day.
  • Mary collected five eggs, today. That's a good haul of eggs for the middle of winter. 
  • We watched the last episode of The American Revolution, by Ken Burns. This documentary reveals several facts that are missed in high school history classrooms. It's very good.

• Thursday, 1/8: More Fly Tying
  • We experienced a rainy day, with strong winds that started at sunset. We watched seven trumpeter swans struggling in the evening south wind, then they put themselves into a V, so they could fly better. This recent rain means grass is greening up in our yard.
  • Mary finished a Halloween cross stitch ornament and started another one.
  • I practiced using the whip finishing tool without ever referencing an online video. I have that procedure down. I made flies that we learned to make in Monday's class. In making a new Woolie Worm, I used a neck feather shed from Leo, our rooster, and burnt orange chenille that Bill gave me for Christmas (see below). I also made a Glo Ball with four colors of yarn (see below).
  • I attended another two-hour fly tying class in the evening. We tied four different flies, which were the Crackle Back, Griffith's Gnat, Woolie Booger, and jigs. I'll show photos of them as I make additional new ones.

Woolie Worm with bristles from a feather
shed from our rooster, Leo.

A Glo Ball fly made with four colored yarns.

• Friday, 1/9: Firewood, Flies, and a Movie
  • I split two wheelbarrow loads of firewood from the last ash tree that I took down and cut up. We tried some of it in the woodstove. It burns nicely and is dry.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch pattern and I made two Crackle Back flies, based on one of the four flies made in yesterday's fly tying class. The direction booklet accompanying the class suggests that a bead can be added, so I put a glass red bead on the head of one fly and a brass colored tungsten bead on the other fly (see below). I used a feather from our rooster, Leo, for the bristles on the second fly. They turned out better than the Crackle Back fly that I made in yesterday's class. I wound a little too much of a feather on the fly with the red bead, so that the bristles hide the green sparkle of the floss creating the body. The fly with the copper head has fewer bristles and shows off the body. The copper bead is made of tungsten, to give that fly weight. The other is one with the red bead is a dry fly that hopefully floats.
  • We watched the 2022 movie, Downton Abbey: A New Era, while enjoying a bottle of spiced apple wine and the last of the Christmas cookies.

Crackle Back fly with red bead.

Crackle Back fly with copper-colored bead.

• Saturday, 1/10: Reloading Webex, Firewood and Flies
  • I took in a gun ammunition reloading Webex held by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The biggest point I got out of the session was the high cost of this hobby. I looked up costs online and just the cost of primers, gun powder, bullets, and brass casings will run about $500. An additional $500, or more, goes into buying a press and dies needed  to load ammunition. Buying $1000 worth of already loaded ammo would equal enough for my needs until I'm 120 years old. I just don't use enough ammunition, especially 30-30 shells, to warrant reloading my own ammo.
  • Mary dusted books in the big bookcases of the sunroom.
  • I split the rest of the dry elm tree pieces and started splitting other elm chunks of firewood.
  • While Mary worked on a cross-stitch pattern while I made two more flies, which were Griffith's Gnats. The original one made in Thursday's fly tying class contained black thread. These two involved red and olive thread (see below).
  • We watched the 2025 film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and all of the extras on the disk that Katie gave us for Christmas.

Griffith's Gnat using red thread.

Olive thread on a Griffith's Gnat. These flies are tiny!

• Sunday, 1/11: Splitting Firewood & Woolie Boogers
  • I spent some morning time getting six months of blood glucose numbers off my meters and then arraigning the numbers on a single sheet of paper to give to Doctor Abueg when I go for my semi-annual checkup tomorrow.
  • I split and stacked six wheelbarrow loads of slightly damp ash firewood.
  • Mary dusted the narrow bookshelves in the sunroom and found hundreds of Asian ladybugs.
  • We worked on our hobbies after sunset. Mary did more cross stitch. I tied two Woolie Booger flies (see below). In the first fly, I used brown materials provided by the class. I used a fluffy feather from a barred rock chicken in place of marabou for the tail. I used red chenille, red thread, and a barred rock hackle feather to make the bristles. It will be interesting to see how these flies look when they're in pond water.

Brown Woolie Booger fly.

Red Woolie Booger fly using our chicken feathers.

Dec. 29, 2025-Jan. 4, 2026

Weather | 12/29, cloudy, 9°, 20° | 12/30, p. cloudy, 10°, 36° | 12/31, cloudy, 26°, 40° | 1/1, cloudy, 22°, 34° | 1/2, cloudy, 19°, 27° | 1/3, sunny, 18°, 35° | 1/4, mostly cloudy, 18°, 40° |

• Monday, 12/29: 35th Anniversary
  • For today, our Missouri Department of Conservation calendar stated that "Squirrels gather in nests to conserve energy." Well, our squirrels didn't read that calendar entry, because three of them were running around under the nearest pecan tree on a cold morning. Conserving energy wasn't part of their makeup.
  • We experienced a cold, single-digit morning with a strong northwest to west wind. From a measly 9°, it gradually made it up to 20° for a high temperature.
  • Today was our 35th anniversary. Mary and I got married on a much colder day in 1990 in Red Lake Falls, MN. For some unknown reason, Mary still likes me.
  • We watched a bald eagle fly over our property while we were washing dishes. It had a partially white head and tail, so Mary guessed it was a four-year old bird.
  • Mary heard a four-wheeler in the woods west of our property this evening. Some goofball froze his buns off while hunting deer. Missouri's final deer hunting season is on right now, which is the alternative deer hunting season, when you can shoot a deer with a black powder rifle, a center-fired pistol, an airgun, or a spear-like device called an atlatl. This season ends on Jan. 6th, then there's bow hunting until Jan. 15th.

• Tuesday, 12/30: A Clean Up Day
  • I cleaned up the west room and put winemaking items away. It's been a mess for several weeks.
  • Mary took decorations off the Christmas tree, cleaning them as she went. I hopped in at end and helped remove lights, then we disassembled and put away the Christmas tree. Now we have our living room back.
  • Mary and I watched a red-shouldered hawk fly into a walnut tree near the east end of the near garden. It landed next to a squirrel that zoomed to other side of the tree trunk to get away from the hawk. Blue jays bombarded the hawk, so it flew away.
  • I heard a black powder gun go off to the southwest of us while I was doing evening chores. They have a distinct sound. It's an explosion that is loud and lasts for several seconds. Regular rifles register a quicker bang.
  • We watched the first episode of The American Revolution (2025), by Ken Burns. This is a Blu-ray disc that Katie gave Mary for Christmas. It's quite thorough and very good.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of perry. It has a really light taste. Pear wine tastes better.

• Wednesday, 12/31: New Year's Eve
  • Other than fixing meals and washing dishes, we had a very quiet inside day today.
  • There were lots of doves flying out of cedar trees along the lane when walked down to the gravel road with garbage bags to put in the trash bin for pickup tomorrow. I heard trumpeter swans somewhere to the north, but never saw them.
  • I spent the day online, looking at house construction ideas, YouTube videos about a bell auger, and potential dog adoptions.
  • We watched the second episode of The American Revolution.
  • At midnight, someone was shooting off either fire crackers or a gun to the southwest of us. The only fire crackers we were involved with were text messages to our kids, Bill and Katie, with images and sounds resembling fireworks.

• Thursday, 1/1: A New Year's Walk & Cutting Firewood
  • Our midday meal was barbecued pork, potato, and a salad that included some kale from our winter greens tubs. Our winter greens are finally retired for the year.
  • Mary took a walk after our midday meal and took some photos (see below).
  • She spooked a bald eagle from the trees above the dry creek bed just south of Wood Duck Pond. She also saw four deer in that vicinity.
  • I installed the new chain on the small Stihl chainsaw and cut wood from downed limbs in our yard. I walked into the woods just north of the machine shed and noticed lots downed trees and branches. One ash tree went over next to the Boys' Fort Deer Blind, so I cut it up into firewood lengths. I also cut up several tree branches. Mary and I decided we'll collect everything and stack it under cover, tomorrow.
  • On a trip back home to refuel the chainsaw, there were three quick shots from the woods west of our property. It was from a lighter caliber gun. It was probably a pistol, which is one of the guns allowed in the alternative deer hunting season.
  • Four deer ran off a little distance when I walked down to the gravel road to put the trash bin away. They didn't go far, then stood and watched me walk by on the lane. 
  • We watched the third episode of The American Revolution.
  • My blood glucose numbers are up...too many Christmas cookies, which are almost gone.

Christmas ferns emerging on Bramble Hill.

An acorn in a bird's nest, probably put there by a blue jay.

• Friday, 1/2: Collecting Firewood
  • Chickens are laying eggs every day, now. Mary has a young barred rock hen that follows her everywhere Mary goes while in the coop. Mary even petted her, today.
  • I removed the tire chains off the 8N Ford tractor and discovered that Bill, my son, did a far better job at wiring up the closures on the chains than I did. I cut and removed the wires on the tire I worked on quite easily, whereas, the tire Bill did had wires that were much harder to remove.
  • Mary and I picked up firewood that I cut yesterday to overfill the wagon behind the tractor with wood. Most of this firewood was ash that will need to be dried a little more. We also pitched a few chunks of oak firewood over the fence that I'll try to get tomorrow. There was too much in the trailer, so those pieces had to be left behind.
  • We saw two red-tailed hawks fly over us while I was driving the tractor to near the north woods.
  • We ate a late midday waffle meal.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex session about bobcats. They are in the lynx family of cats. The instructor showed photos to demonstrate their amazing camouflage characteristics. In both instances, I couldn't detect the bobcats until she pointed them out. We notice bobcat foot prints in snow and mud, but we've never seen one, except I thought I saw one while hunting last year. I now know why we hardly see them. They eat everything we have here...bunnies, mice, and squirrels.
  • We watched the fourth episode of The American Revolution.
  • Below are more photos that Mary took on her walk, yesterday. 

Milkweed seed pods between Bass & Dove Ponds.

Mushrooms on a tree near Wood Duck Pond.

• Saturday, 1/3: Beautiful Trumpeter Swans
  • I skinned the back of my left hand on a bed frame while lifting a cooler full of wine bottles in the upstairs north bedroom. I got the blood flow stopped with cayenne powder, then with Mary's help, bandaged it up. This altered my outdoor plans for the day.
  • I received the book entitled Favorite Flies and Their Histories, by Mary Orvis Marbury. It looks wonderful. The author, born in 1856, was the daughter of Charles F. Orvis, who started making and selling quality fly reels the same year Mary was born. The company he started in Manchester, Vermont is still in business. She found fishing flies fascinated and studied methods from around North America, then compiled this book that was first printed in 1892. Mary died in 1914. The book was reprinted in 1955. The version I bought for only $7.54, was reprinted in 1995, and it is in pristine condition. The color plates in it are very good. I bought it to use as a reference to make my own flies.
  • I did a bit of unloading firewood out of the trailer and making a crisscross stack of wood in the machine shed.
  • I heard two shots in the woods west of our property at dusk. The shots sounded like they originated from a regular gun and not a black powder rifle. I think they came from a pistol. I wouldn't want to hunt with a pistol. Accuracy is lacking with the short barrel, unless the target is six feet away.
  • We saw several flocks of Canada geese fly west to east over our property. They looked like they were slowly lowering in elevation and maybe getting ready to land in the Mississippi River. Canada geese have been rather absent this autumn and early winter. This is the first time we've seen a significant number of them flying overhead.
  • We also saw about 24 trumpeter swans flying very low over the treetops, heading west. As they approached from the east, the orange of the setting sun reflected off their white bodies. What a sight! These swans are well named. Their call is like a trumpet sounding off. It's a distinct sound that you can't miss and you can hear it from a long way off.
  • Mom texted that she is back home. She's been in Glasgow, MT, helping Hank. 
  • I finished the 16th novel by Alexander Kent entitled Colours Aloft! Obviously, the author is British, with a spelling of colours.

• Sunday, 1/4: Hawks & Swans
  • Around noon, Mary heard a red-tailed hawk call and looked up to see that hawk swerving to the north to avoid the west to east flight of an immature bald eagle. Then, off to the distance a red-shouldered hawk called, after hearing the call of the red-tailed hawk.
  • I laid low nursing the skin scrape on the back of my left hand. It's looking better.
  • In the evening, Mary and I saw several trumpeter swans flying in all directions (see video, below). They are very impressive birds and we think several showed up from the north, today.
  • I watched the neighbor southeast of us unload a pickup off a tilt trailer behind a semi truck. He's a so-called diesel mechanic for the Christian commune a few miles west in Knox County that once owned the dairy a mile west of us. That dairy is now owned by an entity in Wisconsin. He rolled the pickup back on the tilt trailer until the back wheels were on the ground and then drove forward with the semi. The front of the pickup crashed to the ground with an enormous thundering sound. I'm sure that helped the pickup's front suspension! He seems to collect vehicles that never get fixed. There's quite a junkyard over there.
  • Mary and I watched the fifth episode of The American Revolution.
  • I've noticed temperatures in the -40° to -50° range at the Fairbanks International Airport day after day. That means it's about -65° in North Pole, AK, where my folks once lived.
  Turn up your sound to hear the calls of several trumpeter swans.

Dec. 22-28, 2025

Weather | 12/22, cloudy, 29°, 52° | 12/23, sunny, 37°, 58° | 12/24, cloudy, 33°, 52° | 12/25, fog, 41°, 53° | 12/26, cloudy, 50°, 56° | 12/27, fog, 40°, 47° | 12/28, 1.25" rain, 15°, 57° |

• Monday, 12/22: Deer Blind, Christmas Goodies, & Swans
  • I walked down to the Wood Duck Deer Blind and removed the lauan top off the blind. The lauan board is an 1/8-inch thick. It's strong. The last time I looked at the blind, several inches of snow bowed that board down in the middle. Today, it was level, again. While I was there, I walked around viewing things. The pond is frozen at the south end. There aren't many deer tracks. A large oak tree blew over up the hill from where I once had a deer stand.
  • Mary baked a batch of butterscotch chip/oatmeal cookies. She also made some frozen chocolate peanut clusters. Tasty testing was done by all.
  • I split the rest of the red oak firewood and stacked the wood in the woodshed.
  • At one point while inside the woodshed, I heard trumpeter swan calls and jumped outside to watch six swans flying over our north timber. Mary also heard swans when she got the mail. A couple days ago I noticed one swan that was dusty colored. I read online that a swan with that color is a juvenile. 
  • We watched two movies, which were Babe (1995) and Patrick Stewart's version of A Christmas Carol (1999).
  • I'm noticing online that Fairbanks has experienced several days in December with temperatures below -40°.

• Tuesday, 12/23: Shopping
  • I shopped in Quincy. All stores were stuffed with shoppers. Lunatic drivers were zipping around, leaning on their horns, and going from 70 mph to zero in two seconds at stop signs and stop lights. Brake pad business must be a big thing in Quincy, IL. The Sam's Club checkout lines were so massive that I had to go a couple aisles back from the front to walk across the store. I bought an extra chain for the small chainsaw at Farm & Home. The old chain spun off of the bar last year, bending several drive links, resulting in the chain not fitting correctly on the bar.
  • Mary uncovered the winter greens that were under two layers of plastic and blankets for several days. There is a bunch of frost burn, but the kale looks very good.
  • I watched three V's of Canada geese fly right over the house just after sunset. There are online reports of dead geese in fields just east of Quincy. They're probably cases of bird flu deaths.
  • Katie bought a pair of classic cross-country skis today (see photo, below). She said they have skins, which involves small hairs on the middle arch of the underneath of the skis that grip the snow. Skins came out about four years ago, replacing fish scales on composite skis.

  

  Katie's new cross-country skis.

• Wednesday, 12/24: Christmas Eve, Game, & Movies
  • Right after handling chickens this morning, we saw a barred owl sitting in a maple tree in the east yard.
  • Bill arrived right at noon. He's visiting until Sunday.
  • While walking back from getting the mail, Mary spotted a freshly killed large deer mouse on the east side of the lane. It wasn't there when Mary and I walked to the mailbox, so it was killed moments earlier and we scared away whatever had it. Mary thinks it might have been a mink, since it was near Bluegill Pond. 
  • Mary made a cherry crisp.
  • We did our Christmas Eve smorgasbord, featuring 13 varieties of cheese. It was really good.
  • We played a game of Triopoly. I had a monopoly on two Minneapolis properties that Bill landed on many times throughout the game. I won.
  • We enjoyed a 1.5-liter bottle of 2023 blackberry wine. It was good.
  • We watched two movies that Bill selected, which were A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), and Kate and Leopold (2001).

• Thursday, 12/25: Christmas Day, Cats In a Box
  • Bill, Mary, and I opened Christmas presents after eating breakfast. Gifts included lots of books, movies, and documentaries. A large Home Depot box that held some pry bars that I got from Katie was a huge hit for the cats. An empty box to a cat is a wonderful gift in itself.
  • We postponed a wienie roast that we had planned, because it was too foggy and wet outside.
  • We played several games of Sorry!
  • We enjoyed a 1.5-liter bottle of 2024 cherry wine. 
  • We watched two movies. Mary picked out A Room with a View (1985) and Bill selected Greyhound (2020). Both are good movies. The second one stars Tom Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay. It's based on a C.S. Forester novel called The Good Shepherd, about a U.S. Naval commander of a destroyer group escorting a convoy to England from German U-boats in the North Atlantic in 1942. It's non-stop action.

• Friday, 12/26: Boxing Day Wienie Roast
  • Mary moved the two sheets of plastic that were next to the winter greens (once covering them) and stretched them out in the machine shed to dry. She also stacked bricks that held the plastic and blankets over the tubs of greens to behind the woodshed.
  • Mary repotted the two amaryllis bulbs. There were no roots under the smallest bulb. We'll see if it survives.
  • Mary poured a 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds into buckets and put them inside the coop for the chickens.
  • I ordered fly tying items (several spools of thread and dubbing wax) in preparation for eight online Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) fly tying sessions that I'll take in through January and into February. I also ordered a fly tying book entitled Favorite Flies and Their Histories, by Mary Orvis Marbury. This old book goes for as much as $40. I got it for $7.19 from Abe Books.
  • We had a wienie roast outside after I built a fire on the concrete pad next to the mulberry tree in the west yard. Even though it was mostly cloudy, we saw a few moments of sunshine. Some tufted titmice visited us in the top of the mulberry tree. One had an acorn in its beak.
  • We saw trumpeter swans flying over us in the afternoon. Bill also saw some when he took a noontime walk.
  • I received a package in the mail from MDC of fly tying materials for the upcoming classes, all in sandwich bags with labels on each bag indicating the type of fly it will be made into. Included in the manila envelope was a photocopied booklet of each fly to be made, along with directions, and a tentative schedule of dates and which flies will be tied during each class. The accompanying letter asked that I check to make sure materials for each fly in the booklet were included in the package, so I checked them off and emailed back to the MDC instructors that materials for the last fly in the booklet were missing. I'm looking forward to the classes.
  • I looked through a bunch of new books that Mary got for Christmas, as suggested by Bill. He gave several of them to Mary.

• Saturday, 12/27: Yummy Crock Pot Venison
  • Fog set in for an all-day weather event.
  • I called Mom. She's in Glasgow, MT, helping Hank, who is recovering after a colon operation. They've had several times when freezing rain turned to snow, so country roads (that aren't main highways) and city streets are icy.
  • Katie tried traditional cross-country skiing for the first time today and found she was a natural at it. Others, who were skiing with her, were surprised to find out that it was her first attempt at this kind of skiing.
  • Mary picked the last of the kale from the winter greens. We enjoyed it in a salad with our main meal. Mary also put additional hay in the coop for the chickens, since colder temperatures on forecast.
  • Mary made a meal of crock pot venison and freshly-baked French bread. It was an amazing feast.
  • Mary heard snow geese flying above the fog. They were heading due south. 
  • We played several games of Michigan Rummy. Mary won. 
  • We watched a movie selected by Bill. It was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013).

• Sunday, 12/28: December Thunderstorm
  • Mary and I woke up to flashing lightning and several cracks of thunder. We zipped around the house and unplugged appliances. Heavy rain fell for several minutes, giving us 1.25 inches. After a high of 57° in the morning, temperatures dropped throughout the day and into the nighttime hours until it was 15° at bedtime. We even got a dusting of snow. Strong wind gusts to 41 mph blew after dark, sometimes shaking the house.
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 1 p.m.
  • I scanned through the rest of the books that Mary received for Christmas.
  • Mary and I enjoyed tea and I finished reading the 15th Alexander Kent novel, Success to the Brave.

Dec. 15-21, 2025

Weather | 12/15, sunny, 7°, 39° | 12/16, sunny, 21°, 49° | 12/17, cloudy, 31°, 47° | 12/18, 0.19" rain, 21°, 51° | 12/19, sunny, 13°, 33° | 12/20, p. cloudy, 31°, 45° | 12/21, p. cloudy, 17°, 42° |

• Monday, 12/15: Chicks Ordered
  • A strong southwest wind this morning. It died down by sunset.
  • The forecast is for above freezing temperatures for the next several days. It ought to melt all snow, even on the north edges of the woods.
  • I ordered chicks that will arrive around June 10th. It's another group of 25 cockerels. That seems to be enough to keep us in chicken meat for a year.
  • I took down and put away all of the lights and extension cords that I had up in the machine shed for butchering deer. That's done for another year.
  • I miss life with a dog in the house, even though I don't miss the hairy dust bunnies bouncing along the floors, or climbing over the child barrier we put up at the door to the room where we store freezers that keeps dogs away from cat litter boxes. I've been looking at adopting from animal shelters, but several of them make it such a major chore that you'd think I was adopting a child from overseas.

• Tuesday, 12/16: Racking Apple Wine
  • I racked the apple wine for the fourth time. After losing some liquid in the racking process, I ended up with 300 ml of more wine than what I started with. The obvious reason is that the 3-gallon carboys made in Mexico hold more liquid than those built in Italy. The specific gravity was 0.998 and the pH was 3.1. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. Mary and I tasted the leftover wine. It's very tart and has a good, rich apple taste, which means this apple wine is the best I've made, so far. The wine is still cloudy, but who cares when it tastes this good.
  • We vacuumed bugs countless times, today. Mary emptied the vacuum and said that 90 percent of the bugs were flies. They're the bug of choice this year in our "hermetically sealed" house.
  • Canada geese aren't seen in our skies of late. We wonder if avian flu isn't killing off whole flocks of them. Mary saw 20 Canada geese fly over around noon, which is rare this winter.
  • We watched two movies. They were The Seeker (2007) and The Santa Clause (1994).

• Wednesday, 12/17: The Day of the Flies
  • We vacuumed bugs ALL DAY LONG!!! I'm amazed how many flies can emerge from the walls of this house. It seems as though every fly hatched from the dairy cow pooh a mile west of us and from pig dung a mile southeast of us came here to overwinter in our house walls. There are times when I'm sure 1,000 flies are buzzing around inside each window. The shop vac ran most of the day while Mary and I took turns sucking up bugs.
  • The reason for the influx of bugs is springlike temperatures. By bedtime, temperatures were close to 50°.
  • Mary noticed a small dandelion flower at the end of the lane, a blossom deceived by warm temperatures.
  • Deer have totally disappeared. We haven't seen any for several days.

• Thursday, 12/18: Deer Hide Tanning & Splitting Firewood
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation virtual seminar on tanning deer hides with tree bark. It was fascinating and the best Webinar I've attended. It might be something I'll try, but I'm sure it must be done outside, or in an out building. The presenter was extremely knowledgeable and went over tanning hides to result in leather and hair-on hides. He had four different files sent out as part of the lesson...very thorough.
  • While I was involved with the webinar, I glanced up and saw deer eating vegetation under the Kieffer pear tree. Like magic, all I have to do is write in this blog that we aren't seeing deer and within an hour, deer appear.
  • I split four wheelbarrow loads of red oak firewood and moved it into the woodshed. I also moved about six wheelbarrow loads of firewood that dried in criss-cross stacks along the inside north wall of the machine shed to the woodshed.
  • Our high temperature was this morning. Temperatures dropped through the day.
  • We watched two movies that were The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) and The Santa Clause 2 (2002).

• Friday, 12/19: Racking Parsnip Wine
  • I racked the parsnip wine for the third time. Instead of using an auto siphon, I used a long piece of clear hose. This doesn't always work, because the hose wants to curl up in the bottom of a carboy. To get around this problem, I used a thick hose inside the carboy. I only lost about 300 ml of fluid after racking three containers. The specific gravity was 1.000 and the pH was 3.5, readings that were the same as the last racking on Nov. 9th. The remaining liquid filled a 3-gallon carboy and a gallon jug. Mary and I tasted a tiny bit of the wine. WOW!!! It's remarkably good.
  • Mary cleaned a couple fans. One runs in our bedroom at night and the other Bill uses when he's visiting us. She also oiled them. They run much better.
  • We're not seeing many birds, except bluejays, and a few Canada geese that Mary saw during morning chores and I saw during evening chores.
  • Most of the snow is melted. The prediction is for a high of 68° for us on Christmas Day, which might break a record.

• Saturday, 12/20: Racking Pear Wine
  • We heard a goose cannon going off several times in the morning. That means someone has planted winter wheat southwest of us and there are enough geese to trigger the cannon. A goose cannon is powered by propane and lets off a loud booming explosive sound that scares the birds away, so they don't eat winter wheat leaves. Here is a LINK to a goose cannon.
  • I racked the pear wine for the third time. I tried using the same technique of moving the wine through a clear hose, but it didn't work. A five-gallon carboy is too high for gravity flowing through thin tubing to overcome. With nearly a quarter of liquid left in the carboy, flow stopped and I ended up using the auto siphon to finish the job. The specific gravity was 0.999 and the pH was 3.5, which was a 0.2 increase in pH from the last racking. The resulting liquid filled a 5-gallon carboy and a 1.5 liter bottle. Mary and I tasted the 10 ounces that was left after racking. The wine tasted somewhat like apple cider, with a kick. The pear taste, which is subtle, will probably shine through with aging.
  • We watched two movies, which were The Monuments Men (2014), and Auntie Mame (1958).

• Sunday, 12/21: Winter Solstice
  • Mary made a batch of lime zinger cookies. I helped a tiny bit by cracking hazelnuts. While I was doing that, Mary zested and juiced several limes...what a wonderful aroma! Lime zingers are rather so-so coming out of the oven. They have a much better flavor after they are frozen. We tested three, each, in the evening hours while reading books. YUM!
  • I split more red oak firewood and moved the last of the crisscrossed firewood that was drying to the woodshed. There are four wide trunk sections left next to the woodsplitter.
  • Mary heard trumpeter swans to the northeast. Their distinct call echoes way off into the distance.
  • Mary and I celebrated winter solstice with a bottle of 2022 dandelion wine. It's wonderful tasting liquid and very gold in color. Mary picked it out, because it's made from the epitome of spring flowers.