Weather | 10/14, p. cloudy, 39°, 57° | 10/15, p. cloudy, 41°, 55° |10/16, sunny, 29°, 57° | 10/17, sunny, 30°, xx° | 10/18, xx°, xx° |
10/19, xx°, xx° | 10/20, xx°, xx° |
- Monday, 10/14: Cleaning Plants Prior to Tomorrow's Killing Frost
- This morning, several dozen robins piled into the poke berries under the Granny Smith apple tree and went after the Sargent crabapples. These robins came in with yesterday's northerly winds. They had very pale breasts. Some were almost white.
- Mary saw a young deer with a gray winter coat when she walked the first waterer to the chicken coop. I heard it snort just a couple minutes earlier from the north woods.
- Mary and I collected more nuts with the husks on that were under the pecan trees.
- Mary picked the remaining hot peppers and hung three strings of them in the upstairs south bedroom.
- Then, Mary picked 90 jalapeño peppers that she will make into refrigerator jalapeño pickles.
- Next, Mary picked a five-quart pan of cherry tomatoes, and a four-gallon bucket of big tomatoes, including some unripe ones.
- I took the husks off a 26 pecans.
- I made noontime waffles, giving Mary relief from cooking.
- Mary pulled up all pepper and tomato plants. She wanted to get them prior to the killer frost that's predicted for tomorrow night. She says there were probably 1,000 immature green tomatoes that were too young to save. If left until after the freeze, they all would have been pounds of gooey mush. In the future, we must get tomato plants in the garden sooner than we did this year. She moved seven wheelbarrow loads of plants stacked up to head level to a pile down the hill, east of the far garden. Mary had green hands and forearms after that job.
- I chased squirrels away roughly every 10-20 minutes and husked another 105 pecans for a grand total of 133 put away for the day. There's only 577 left to reach our pecan nut goal for the year.
- The tool I'm using to husk pecans is nice and black. I remember Dad telling me that prior to trapping muskrats, he and Grandad would soak new steel traps in boiling water filled with walnut husks. Pecans, hickories, and walnuts are all related. I understand, now, how well the juice from these husks blackens steel.
- Tuesday, 10/15: Eyes Are Good
- Katie called us last night after I sent out this blog. She was making a butternut squash soup while she talked to us. She made a recent assessment trip to Kaktovik, AK, on a school project her employer is preparing to start. Katie is getting a new promotion to master sergeant in the Alaska Air National Guard. She got an award for her work in flood recovery efforts she did as a National Guard member in Juneau this summer. Katie reminded us that we need to get a Christmas wish list to her, soon.
- We got to Quincy around 9:50 a.m. for a 10 a.m. surgery post-op visit. Dr. Benedict, my optometrist, took a detailed view of both new lenses and said they looked perfect, with no movement. Eye pressures were 12 in the left eye and 19 in the right eye. Normal eye pressure is between 10-20, so they are good and I can stop taking drops for that symptom. He also said the left eye recovered quicker than normal and the right eye is recovering at a normal pace. I have 25/20 vision in the left eye and 35/20 vision in the right. Dr. Benedict predicts the vision will improve over the next couple weeks in both eyes. I have another post-op visit with him in three weeks on Nov. 5th. Then we decide whether I need glasses or if I can just stick with the cheater glasses for close-up viewing.
- Mary and I shopped for a few things after the eye appointment. The highlight was frozen turkeys for only 88 cents a pound at Walmart. We bought two of their largest birds. We also got a cheap pumpkin at Menards.
- We got back home around 1:30 p.m.
- Mary yanked all of the green bean plants out of the far garden. There are still squash and cucumber vines in the near garden. She'll move them after they're dried out later this fall.
- We both collected more downed pecan nuts with their husks on and I husked 27 of them while chasing squirrels away. Pecans draw squirrels in better than anything else in the world.
- Mary and I covered the winter greens with blankets to protect them from the expected overnight freeze. We decided not to worry about the strawberry plants.
- We're noticing that the juncos are home for the fall/winter.
- Katie called us last night after I sent out this blog. She was making a butternut squash soup while she talked to us. She made a recent assessment trip to Kaktovik, AK, on a school project her employer is preparing to start. Katie is getting a new promotion to master sergeant in the Alaska Air National Guard. She got an award for her work in flood recovery efforts she did as a National Guard member in Juneau this summer. Katie reminded us that we need to get a Christmas wish list to her, soon.
- Wednesday, 10/16: First Frost of Fall
- We got our first autumn frost. We were sure glad that we removed tomato and pepper plants. They would have been blackened mush with this frost.
- Mary and I picked up more pecans left on the ground by marauding squirrels and jays. Squirrels are in such a frenzy that they knock multitudes of nuts to the ground.
- Mary cleaned the insides of all windows. She also washed all curtains. A west to southwest breeze flapped them enough on the line that she didn't need to iron them.
- I husked pecans all day and chased squirrels. I now have a grand total of 3,058 nuts, with only 442 left to gather and husk.
- One big gray squirrel wouldn't leave the paper pecan tree, even after I threw firecrackers into the tree to scare it away. I debated about getting the .22 rifle out. Mary said since I got a good bill of health from the eye clinic, she thought I could use it. So, with Mary's help at spotting the squirrel high in the tree, I shot it. As the late afternoon progressed, I shot at a few other squirrels, but missed them. I'm rusty at shooting left-handed. Squirrels really change their tune about attacking pecan nuts once rifle shots are fired. They get scarce quickly.
- After the sun set, I heard something in the north woods, but never saw anything. Then, after entering the living room. there were three deer walking north to south just west of the house. That's probably the footsteps I heard in the woods. The leading deer got too close to the south apple trees, so I went outside and shooed them away into the west woods. They all had on their dark brown/gray winter coats.
- The hunter moon was extremely bright when we walked dogs for their final outing.
- We got our first autumn frost. We were sure glad that we removed tomato and pepper plants. They would have been blackened mush with this frost.