June 8-14, 2026

Weather | 6/8, cloudy, 0.46" rain, 71°, 83° | 6/9, p. cloudy, 0.02" rain, 71°, 87° | 6/10, 1.21" rain, 67°, 83° | 6/11, 4.19" rain, 65°, 85° | 6/12, sunny, 57°, xx° | 6/13, xx°, xx° | 6/14, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 6/8: Backwards Meat Whistle Fly
  • We received an email that our chicks shipped out today from Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, MO. We should see them on Wednesday morning.
  • We've come to the end of gnat season and we are now in the middle of deer fly season. They swarm around you the instant you venture outside. Sometimes they come in on us or the dog. You'll notice one in the window, but it isn't wise to swat them on the glass, because the end result is blood spattered on the inside of glass. Fortunately, a squirt of Dawn dish soap solution kills them quickly.
  • Our forecast calls for rain throughout the day. While washing dishes after the noontime meal, I looked out the window and said, "It's not raining at all." The very next second, a downpour drenched our property. It made Mary laugh.
  • I made a meat whistle fly (see photo, below). Unfortunately, I put the rabbit fur backwards on the hook. We'll see if my mistake works when I try it on the end of a fishing line.
  • Mary was working on a cross stitch pattern when she declared that she did two froggings in a row. Frogging is cross stitch speak for "rip-it, rip-it," meaning you have to tear some stitching out due to a mistake. She decided on setting that pattern aside for later.
  • We decided to celebrate two straight days of hobby activities and enjoyed a bottle of 2025 spiced apple wine. It was really good.
  • We had the best night yet on the numbers of fireflies lighting off after dark. Their numbers keep on growing, making all of the trees sparkle with their flashes.

  

  My backwards rabbit fur Meat Whistle fly.

  
  
  

• Tuesday, 6/9: A Clean Chicken Coop
  • Mary and I cleaned the chicken coop, which took a big chunk of the day. I worked inside the coop shoveling out old hay and chicken manure while Mary moved and emptied wheelbarrow loads into the compost bin. She and I installed the wall the separates the chicks from the hens. While I stapled plastic bags to the top of that wall, Mary hauled in wheelbarrow loads of new hay. We hung the heat lamp and added unfilled chick feeders. Everything is ready for tomorrow's arrival of chicks.
  • During the time I swept dust from the inside ceiling and walls of the coop prior to digging out chicken manure, Mary trimmed tree branches at the chicken run gate and around the forsythia bush. That bush had branches reaching out and partially eating the pickup.
  • Mary checked the blackberry bushes at Bramble Hill. The berries are all very green.
  • We saw the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the eastern sky after sunset.

   

• Wednesday, 6/10: Chicks Arrive Along with Big Rains
  • After eating breakfast, we received a call from the Ewing Post Office that our chicks arrived. I drove to Ewing and brought them home.
  • We have 26 new chicks. Two are Barred Rocks and the rest are either Buff Orpingtons or some kind of white chickens. They were all slow to move and huddled under the heat lamp for about 15 minutes, then slowly warmed up and started feeding and drinking water. Through the day they seemed very fine.
  • A thunderstorm started banging away at 11 a.m. Over several years of raising chickens, this was the first year we received a thunderstorm on Day 1 of the arrival of new chicks. This storm lasted until 3 p.m. We just at a snack around noon to stave off hunger, then ate our midday meal around 4 p.m.
  • After chores and while Mary picked black raspberries, we heard thunder rumbling to the west. We had a train of thunderstorms travel through us starting in the late afternoon that continued until 1:30 a.m.
  • We watched quite a bit of live weather material online, such as Max Velocity on YouTube, as tornadoes, hail, and high winds were evident west, north and east of us. We didn't get hail or tornadoes, just a lot of water.
  • After the thunder finally quit, I checked the chicken coop. The chain link fencing at the gate was leaning slightly to the south, due to a thick post breaking at the ground. Small maple trees growing through that fence held it from falling all of the way to the ground. I looked through the coop window and the chicks were fine. Standing water was everywhere. We really got a huge dumping of rain, making frogs and fireflies really happy.

   

• Thursday, 6/11: More Rain
  • First thing this morning, I used several strands of baling twine and tied the top of the section of chain link fencing, which includes the gate to chicken yard, to a maple tree branch, to hold it upright. It's a temporary fix until I do some permanent work on the fence. The chicks look great, even though the west wall of the coop got enough rain to soak through to the inside.
  • Local media sources reported flooding and washout areas on several area roads. HERE is a video from WGEM in Quincy of flooding in our area, including Highway 156, the route we take to drive to Quincy. 
  • On the noontime walk with Cooper down the lane and back, I noticed that some of the gravel at the end of the lane washed away. Gravel even washed away on the gravel road.
  • We did evening chores around 3 p.m., due to weather radar that showed a thunderstorm front on its way to us. Fortunately, the white section of the radar, which usually involves hail, moved by to the north of us. We just received another downpour of intense rain, amounting to 0.75" of moisture. With 3.44" from the night before, we got a total of 4.19" today.
  • We watched online as severe tornadoes ripped through towns in Illinois where Mary lived when she was young, including Streator, Dwight, and Wenona. Later in the night, tornadoes were seen in South Bend, IN and into southern MI.
  • I finished reading Alexander Kent's 23rd British Navy novel, Sword of Honour, and started the next book, Second to None. 
  • Right before we went to bed, Mary spotted a horsehair worm on the kitchen floor near cricket legs. Apparently, a cat ate a cricket. The worm looked like a nightmare. HERE is information about a horsehair worm. 

June 1-7, 2026

Weather | 6/1, sunny, 0.04" rain, 66°, 87° | 6/2, hazy, 57°, 81° | 6/3, sunny, 57°, 81° | 6/4, p. cloudy, 56°, 85° | 6/5, 0.70" rain, cloudy, 67°, 79° | 6/6, p. cloudy, 71°, 87° | 6/7, 0.12" rain, cloudy, 71°, 83° |

• Monday, 6/1: Gardening
  • Around 6 a.m., water dripped off the house roof. We got a tiny bit of rain in the early morning hours.
  • You can smell garlic while standing inside the chicken coop. This year's garlic crop is exceptionally aromatic.
  • At noon, while walking Cooper on the lane, we had a doe deer walk toward us, then run away. I wear a head net if I haven't sprayed bug dope on myself when walking the pup to keep gnats from bugging me. I think the doe was curious as to what that human with no face was all about.
  • Mary finished weeding the onions and then weeded half of the parsnips.
  • I sharpened the blade of my mower and then mowed more of the far garden grass. I chased a small bunny inside the near far garden. Peter Rabbit squeezed through the one-inch chicken wire, but my name isn't McGregor.
  • Mary saw a red-headed woodpecker while walking Cooper in the late afternoon. It's the first of the year.
  • We saw even more lightning bugs this evening. Venus and Jupiter are closer together in the western sky.

   

• Tuesday, 6/2: Gardening & AC Repair/Cleaning
  • Mary saw a deer at the southwest corner of the west yard when she took waterers out to the chicken coop at around 6 a.m. Later in the morning, while walking to the raspberry patch in the east yard, she heard hoof sounds of a deer crossing tin roofing left on the ground in that area. We are living with deer that are within 50 feet of the house.
  • I sharpened the blade to Mary's mower.
  • I cleaned and repaired the large air conditioner. A mouse chewed a hole in the filter and in the side of the interior solid foam. When I opened up the foam, there was a live mouse and a mouse nest under the interior fan. It left. When I poked the nest out with a stick, another mouse fled the AC. I washed everything down, then cleaned surfaces with a bleach solution. I repaired the hole in the white foam by cutting a plug out of a sheet of Styrofoam and taping it in place with aluminum tape. I cut screening out of an old AC filter and aluminum taped it over the filter hole. A soft foam air seal near the inside of the unit decayed and was falling apart. I removed it and used aluminum tape and foil to create a new barrier. This work took all day, so I didn't have time to install the unit.
  • Mary weeded the rest of the parsnips.
  • She mulched all of the onions and all but a foot of the shallots with grass mulch.
  • Mary also mowed the inside of the near garden.
  • She picked about half of a quart bag of black raspberries.
  • We noticed even more lightning bugs on Cooper's last walk of the day. There are so many that they make the oak trees look like they're filled with Christmas lights.

   

• Wednesday, 6/3: Last Air Conditioner Installed
  • I installed our largest air conditioner into the west living room window and sealed it in place with foam boards on the outside and screws, packing and masking tape on the inside. The filtered and cooler air is a vast improvement on our main floor. We've been keeping cool so far with a big fan in the living room, plus our two ACs upstairs. The AC air felt so good, we spent the afternoon inside soaking it up.
  • Prior to installation, I trimmed two branches from a maple tree near the southwest corner of the house. I noticed a nest in that tree where three branches emerge. Mary noticed that a robin made that nest and is using it. Later in the year, when the bird vacates the nest, I'll cut the whole tree down. It's too close to the house and rubs against the outside walls during high winds. I also trimmed some giant ragweed from below where the AC is located.
  • Mary is noticing that several of the black raspberries are drying up. We need rain. She also noticed that birds are eating them up. She is constantly getting cursed by catbirds. Mary had a Bob White quail fly out from under a walnut tree near our compost bins while seeking raspberries.
  • Mary worked on a shopping list. She found a good sale price on whole pork loins on the Niemanns (one of the grocery stores in Quincy, IL) online flyer. The sale starts on Friday, therefore, a planned shopping trip for tomorrow is postponed until Friday.
  • The lightning bug extravaganza continued tonight with even more flashing. Jupiter and Venus are very bright near the Gemini constellation in the western sky.

   

• Thursday, 6/4: Oil Change, Mowing & Mulching
  • I changed the oil, oil filter, and air filter in the pickup. I reset the oil change reminder in the vehicle's computer memory for the first time since we've owned this pickup, so now I won't get a reminder that I have to change the oil each time I start it up. The last oil change was March 2025 and we drove just shy of 4,000 miles in 15 months...we don't drive much.
  • Mary finished a shopping list for tomorrow.
  • She mowed the yard north of the house and trails through tall grass just east of the house so we don't have to walk with grass heads touching our knees when we take the pup out at night.
  • Mary mulched the rest of the parsnips in the near garden and started putting down grass mulch on a row in the far garden.

   

• Friday, 6/5: Shopping, Fawn & Playing Bunnies
  • When we woke, rain was heavy, shooting huge volumes of water off the metal valley flashing off the southeast section of the roof. Mary postponed letting the chickens out until the thunderstorm let up.
  • We discovered that a package of rolled oats was scheduled to arrive via FedEx, today, so Mary stayed home to make sure the package didn't sit out in the rain or the heat. I went shopping, alone. Cooper was very happy after watching me drive the pickup away and then seeing Mary walk into the house. He doesn't like being away from his people.
  • Quincy was flooded with shoppers. I found several good deals.
  • We spotted a tiny fawn on the trail next to the near garden this evening. It was maybe two feet tall. Mary thinks it was the creator of the sound of hooves she heard running across roofing tin on Tuesday. We also watched bunnies playing in a clover patch in the east yard. Two rabbits would all of a sudden jump straight up in the air at the same time.
  • At nightfall, there are more and more lightning bugs. They really are a mesmerizing and an amazing sight.

   

• Saturday, 6/6: Picking Berries & Adding Chicken Wall Supports
  • Mary had a close encounter with a squirrel at the chicken yard gate first thing this morning. While going to open up the chicken coop and let the birds outside, she saw a squirrel bounce to the ground at the big mulberry tree south of the chicken yard. It ran to trees at the south fence of the chicken yard. As Mary stepped through the gate, the squirrel scooted by just inches in front of her.
  • Mom won a cordless DeWalt power drill at the McCone Electric Cooperative's Annual Meeting. She and Hank attended the event. He worked at the co-op for 44 years. 
  • Mary froze the two pork loins that she cut into 12 packages of medallions. I got these loins for $1.69 a pound in Quincy, yesterday.
  • Mary picked black raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.
  • I glued up supports on the inside of the west wall of the chicken coop. This 16-year old coop is made of 2x4s and half-inch oriented strand board (OSB). The OSB is severely weathered on the outside, yet strong on the inside. I removed staples from hardwood removed years ago from an old overstuffed chair, applied Liquid Nails adhesive, and stuck the hardwood supports to various locations on the inside of the wall. We have chicks probably arriving on Wednesday and I did this to ensure that the wall gets us through to September, when I'll remove the old wood and rebuild decayed sides of the chicken coop.
  • The air is very humid outside, which makes for optimum firefly conditions. The lightning bug display gets more dramatic each night. Tonight topped everything we've seen so far this year. Even Cooper stops to view the flashing of these bugs on his nighttime outing.

   

• Sunday, 6/7: A Hobby Day
  • We started the day with rain and also ended the day with rain. Mary and I spent most of the day inside doing crafty hobbies.
  • Katie sent Mary photos of her tour of Florence, Italy (see photo, below).
  • Mary finished cross stitching an ornament entitled "Autumn Silhouette," (see photo, below). It was a tedious project, due to backstitching all of the leaf veins. She says she won't tackle this ornament, again. 
  • I made another foam dragonfly (see photo, below). This time I made it out of thinner foam and tried to copy a photo in Kenn Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America of an Eastern Forktail Damselfly (see photo, below). We see a lot of them here. I used two feathers from Leo, our rooster, for the fuzzy legs. I tied in light plastic for wings.
  • Mary picked a large amount of strawberries, plus two blueberries.
  • We keep Cooper on the lane in an attempt to attract fewer ticks. They are really thick right now. We take a dozen or two off him after every trip outside.

Michelangelo's David in Florence.

Mary's "Autumn Silhouette" cross stitch project.

   

A photo of an Eastern Forktail Damselfly.

My latest foam fly copying a damselfly.

 

May 25-31, 2026

Weather | 5/25, sunny, 54°, 84° | 5/26, sunny, 56°, 84° | 5/27, sunny, 59°, 86° | 5/28, p. cloudy, 61°, 86° | 5/29, cloudy, 63°, 84° | 5/30, cloudy, 67°, 82° | 5/31, cloudy, 67°, 84° |

• Monday, 5/25: Bill Leaves
  • Bill spooked a deer while walking our lane and checking for birds on the Merlin app on his phone.
  • Bill left around 2 p.m. for his apartment in St. Charles.
  • I pulled all of the totes (I call them tubs) that I got yesterday out of the back of the pickup. There are actually 50 of them. I dumped out all of the dead Asian ladybugs in them and let several dry in the sun. I stacked similar sized tubs together to form three high columns and moved them with a hand truck to the machine shed, where I stored them out of the sun.
  • I watched Game 3 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. Carolina won 3-2 in overtime. They lead Montreal two games to one.
  • Mary received several photos from Katie of her visit to northern Italy. Below are a couple photos from the mountains.

Katie with the Italian Alps in the background.

Another photo of Katie in the mountains.

 
• Tuesday, 5/26: Gardening & Butterflies
  • Mary cut the last of the garlic scapes and announced that all of the garlic plants are ready to be harvested. She plans to start that chore tomorrow.
  • Mary weeded about 3/4 of the onion plants in the near garden.
  • I mowed the inside of the near far garden where the garlic grows. It was full of very tall grass and required at least two passes to effectively cut it. Mulch went on the eastern row that is currently empty.
  • We now seem to be in a dry cycle with no rain predicted in the next 10 days. The air almost felt tropical while working outside.
  • We're seeing several Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. Mary took a photo of one in a comfrey plant (see below).
  • We heard the first green frog while walking the puppy at night. HERE is their call.

  

  A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on comfrey flowers.

   

• Wednesday, 5/27: Garlic Harvest Begins
  • I mowed areas outside of the near garden.
  • Mary harvested two garlic varieties. They were Music Pink and German Extra Hardy. They were all in great shape, with large bulbs. Growing conditions were perfect for garlic this year. This amounts to a third of the garlic, based on variety types.
  • Mary and I hung the garlic in the machine shed rafters to dry.
  • We're noticing that the Porter's Perfection crabapple tree is dying. It's leaves are turning brown. The bark around its trunk was excessively chewed this spring by either a ground hog or rabbits. We want to replace it, because the apples from it are tart and very tasty.
  • I watched Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. Carolina won, 4-0, and lead the series, 3-1. It was an extremely one-sided game. Montreal didn't get a shot on net in the third period until the last three minutes of the game.
  • When I walked Cooper for his last outing, fireflies were putting on a great show over the tops of grass seed heads in the south field.
  • Mary turned 60 today. I told her she now gets to see mail in the next decade trying to sell her hearing aides. She said, "WHAT?!?"

   

• Thursday, 5/28: Mesh Tube Darter Fly
  • Mary and I took the day off from doing outside work, to let our bodies heal. We ain't the young pups we once were!
  • We watched barn swallows flying to within a foot of the west living room window this morning. 
  • While watering the onions in the near garden at noon, Mary heard a wild turkey gobble to the east of her.
  • She found our first ripe strawberry. I had the pleasure of eating it...what a wonderful taste! 
  • Tiny parsnip plants are popping through the ground.
  • In the evening, while walking Cooper back from the mailbox, I noticed that Cooper was stalking something. Then I saw a big turkey fly from the lane and to the west.
  • I took in a monthly fly tying session on making streamer flies, featuring Matt Murray, a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) educator from the St. Louis region. Streamers are used to catch larger fish, such as bass. He tied a Clouser minnow and a Mesh Tube Darter. The second fly involves several steps that results in a very realistic minnow. Flashy dubbing goes on the hook shank in a football shape. It's covered with 3/8" wide white mesh web tubing (HERE is a link to it) that is usually used by crafty folks to make wreaths. A strip of rabbit fur goes over the top, pushing the webbed tubing down to resemble a minnow's belly, with the mesh looking like fish scales. The rabbit fur is fluffed up to resemble the dorsal fin of a fish. Two small round feathers are tied at the front to resemble pectoral fins. A plastic fish mask (HERE is a link to one), which resembles a fish head, is glued to just behind the hook's eyelet. Fake fish eyes are glued to fish mask. I bet a bass would gobble it up!
  • Mary and I enjoyed a bottle of 2024 parsnip wine while we read books tonight.

   

• Friday, 5/29: Half of Garlic Harvested
  • Mary harvested the Siberian garlic. It was a long row that filled the wheelbarrow with garlic plants and huge bulbs. After she was done and we took a drink break, we hung that batch of garlic in the rafters of the machine shed. Half of the garlic plants are harvested.
  • I made a noontime meal of waffles and added mothballs to all of the bottles we keep in the pickup, riding lawnmower, and wood splitter...not at the same time, of course!
  • I watched NHL hockey for last time this season. The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1, to win the Eastern Conference Championship. The Canes play the Vegas Golden Knights in the championship series. I don't care who wins that matchup, hence the reason NHL hockey won't be on our TV, now.
  • The Porter's Perfection crabapple tree is definitely dead. All of its leaves are brown. We wonder if wind from one of our thunderstorms didn't break off major roots underground. Of course, critter chewings on the trunk didn't help.

   

• Saturday, 5/30: Two More Garlic Varieties Harvested
  • We had a FedEx package of vitamin pills coming from Swanson in Fargo, ND, today, so I cut a dead tree and branches hanging out on the lane. One is an old, thin ash tree that died and is covered with a wild grape vine that was slowly pulling down to about head height over the east side of the lane. There were also dead walnut branches that I dodge when I mow the lane, along with two green elm branches. They're gone. FedEx, who didn't use to deliver on Saturdays, arrived today.
  • When I walked Cooper around noon, we encountered a snapping turtle near Bluegill Pond that was in the middle of the lane. It had a shell that was about a foot in diameter. I put Cooper on a lease immediately. On the way back home, the turtle was gone.
  • Mary picked eight nice ripe strawberries...yum, yum! She's also picking black raspberries every day.
  • Mary harvested two varieties of garlic. They were Georgian Crystal, and Samarkan. These are both varieties that last a long time and taste good. Mary threw away the first bulb of the whole harvest, which is amazing. Some years, she throws away four or five bulbs. This year, there are huge bulbs with all varieties. Mary and I hung them in the machine shed rafters. There is just one more variety to pull out of the ground and we're done harvesting garlic.
  • I mowed tall grass partway down the east side of the far garden, adding grass mulch to the eastern row of the near far garden. It takes two passes to completely knock down this tall grass.
  • Rain clouds came and went away all day, without a drop ever falling on us. We're in the dry cycle, now, when predicted rain just dries up before getting to us.
  • Beautiful birds, such as Baltimore orioles, summer tanagers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, cardinals, and various woodpeckers, are eating mulberries and stealing what little we had this year of cherries. We really have a ton of colorful birds raising their young this year. Plus, three chimney swifts are heard and seen chittering about as they catch bugs in the air.
  • Speaking of bugs, I noticed gnats hitting my head net while walking Cooper. Then, a dragonfly showed up to catch the bugs. Good for it!

   

• Sunday, 5/31: Last of Garlic Harvested
  • I heard a deer snort at us when I walked Cooper on his first morning outing. It was just a few feet away through the bushes east of the lane, I'm guessing, based on how loud and close it sounded.
  • Mary harvested the last garlic variety. It's Shvelisi, which is the best tasting and longest lasting garlic. We hung it in the machine shed rafters. We are all done with the garlic harvest.
  • Mary has been picking raspberries every day for the past five days. Today, she finished filling up a quart bag in the freezer. We don't get many black raspberries, but they taste great.
  • I mowed more of the far garden area. I started between the fences on the east side, but saw a tiny bunny run into the grass ahead of me. I didn't want to chew it up with the mower, so I moved to the west side and mowed the long strip outside of the electric fence.
  • Mary mowed the chicken yard. She's working to keep the motherwart plants at a low height. If left unchecked, they grow to six feet tall so that chickens get lost in the giant stalks.
  • In the evening, we celebrated harvesting all of the garlic by drinking a bottle of cherry wine. Harvesting garlic is part one of growing garlic. Next is, sorting and storing the garlic after it dries in September. Part three is planting garlic the first week of November.
  • We watched an amazing display of fireflies in the trees before we went to bed. By walking to the north and standing near the grain bins, we were hidden from the bright moonlight and could better view them as they filled the trees with blinking lights. It's spellbinding to view all of these flashing lights in the tree branches. Occasionally, we noticed a flash in the sky from thunderstorms way across the state, well west of us, so we shut the chicken coop windows before going to bed.

May 18-24, 2026

Weather | 5/18, cloudy, 0.63" rain, 61°, 67° | 5/19, cloudy, 0.58" rain, 51°, 61° | 5/20, p. cloudy, 46°, 68° | 5/21, cloudy with sprinkles, 50°, 69° | 5/22, cloudy, 57°, 71° | 5/23, p. cloudy to 0.16" rain, 59°, 75° | 5/24, sunny, 54°, 80° |

• Monday, 5/18: Hockey
  • We experienced rain in the morning that quit in the late morning hours. We were cloudy in the afternoon. A severe thunderstorm roared through right when we went to bed, giving us wind and heavy rain.
  • There was a wet baby robin in the middle of the lane next to the Sargent crabapple tree. It sat in the same spot all day. I used a leash on Cooper to keep him away from the bird. The baby robin was moving around in the late afternoon with an adult robin chirping from a nearby tree, so the baby bird's parents are feeding it. We didn't see it after dark.
  • I watched Game 7 of the Montreal Canadiens/Buffalo Sabres NHL series. Montreal won in overtime, 3-2, advancing to the third round of the playoffs. Buffalo dominated in the second and third periods, but Montreal's goalie, Jakub Dobeš, kept the Canadiens in the game. The overtime goal was by the same guy, Alex Newhook, who scored the Game 7 winning goal in the earlier series, featuring Montreal against Tampa Bay. Bill texted me that Dobeš played high school hockey in St. Louis. I looked it up and Dobeš is Czech and moved to St. Louis at age 16 and lived with a family friend while attending De Smet Jesuit High School and playing for the St. Louis AAA Blues youth team. The family friend was Ľuboš Bartečko, a former St. Louis Blues forward. It's interesting how St. Louis is becoming more and more of a hockey magnet of former NHL players who help to develop new talent.

   

• Tuesday, 5/19: Wine Inventory
  • Light rain fell throughout the day, keeping us inside.
  • Mary tossed a dead sweet potato that she used for creating slips. She has three others that are moving along very nicely, so there will be plenty for planting in the garden. Instead of developing roots and new shoots, this one just started rotting.
  • Mary cut a several more garlic scapes. These plants are nice and big this year. 
  • I did a new inventory of all of my wine, since I discovered recently that I somehow missed writing down on the inventory chart in the pantry the results of a big cherry wine bottling that I did this past winter. Here are the numbers of bottles of some of the larger collections of wines that we have: cherry-80, blackberry-23, jalapeño-35, pear-44, parsnip-24, garlic-22, and various apple wines-29.

   

• Wednesday, 5/20: Shopping
  • I went shopping in Quincy, IL. The stores were very quiet with a minimal number of shoppers. The cheapest gas in both Missouri and Illinois was at Sam's Club in Quincy at $4.19 a gallon.
  • Katie sent photos of her trip to Italy (see below) for the Air National Guard. It sounds like she's having fun. The food is great. Her team is in Venice.
  • Mary watched the baby phoebes take off flying from their nest inside the woodshed. She said they did pretty well on their first attempt at using their wings to fly. Fortunately, we've been cool this spring. Some years the phoebe nest gets too hot where its located, just under the woodshed's Quonset hut metal roof. The nest falls down every autumn, but phoebes always built a new nest each spring. It worked for them this year.
  • Mary checked all of the fruit trees. All pear trees are absent of any fruit. There's maybe a dozen cherries on all of those trees. Some apples are developing on the Empire, Granny Smith, and the Liberty apple trees. Single digit temperatures on fruit blossoms killed off most fruit this year. However, wild blackberry and raspberry plants are putting out abundant numbers of green berries. That crop looks promising.
  • I watched Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference Final, where the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche, 4-2, in Denver. 

Katie took a shot of the Alps from the jet's window.

Katie (front, left) and her fellow Guard members with a toast.

 
• Thursday, 5/21: Big Wild Turkey
  • Around noon while Mary was picking scapes off garlic plants in the far garden, she heard what she describes as a "whop, whop" sound and looked up to see a huge wild turkey flying away to the east of her. She said it was big, with a bronze coloration, rather than the normal darker brown color that we usually see. Mary guesses that it probably weighed at least 25 pounds.
  • I walked down to Wood Duck Pond because I thought I could cross the "dry creek bed" and look at our east property line. That area is still flooded from high water in Wood Duck Pond and my deer blind continues to be in flood waters (see video, below). We heard engine noise to the east and wondered if our neighbor was ripping out the fence between our properties. After getting back home, I drove east. There was no activity at the fence line. The engine noise was from a neighbor about a mile east of us who was mowing his postage stamp lawn with a big zero-turn lawnmower.
  • A fledgling American robin is still moving around on our lane near the Sargent crabapple tree. We have to be careful walking past that area, or driving a vehicle through there.
  • I watched Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. The Montreal Canadiens won by the score of 6-2, over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes scored 33 seconds into the game and then Montreal scored 27 seconds later. I think the main TNT game announcer, Kenny Albert, is horrible, so I turned off the sound on the TV and listened to the game via the NHL app on my cell phone while watching the video on TV. It was a much improved experience. I mentioned it to Bill and my son texted back that he does the same trick, often.
  • I watched 35 minutes of a board meeting for the folks who supply us with water. A video of their meeting is almost two hours long. They have a new board member who is raising a stink over how they operate. The rest of the board is full of old fuddy duds (Mary says be careful...old fuddy duds might be the same age as me!) who are obviously upset with this younger upstart who is questioning everything that they do. It's interesting.
  Stagnant flood waters fill what once was the dry creek bed.
  
  

• Friday, 5/22: Mowed Lane
  • With Bill showing up tomorrow for Memorial Day Weekend, I mowed the lane and the place where he parks his car.
  • Mary is starting to see rows of onions. Garlic scapes are coming to and end, which means garlic harvest is soon. 
  • Katie sent several photos and videos while sightseeing in Italy. Most were from a World War I memorial. 
  • On every venture out our door, you see a hummingbird flying off from the clump of comfrey flowers near the basement entrance. If you don't look up, you can sometimes hear hummingbird wings buzzing away.
  • The baby robin we saw in the middle of the lane near the Sargent crabapple tree for the past few days is nowhere to be seen. It obviously fledged and is flying around. 
  • The swamp dogwoods midway down the lane are full of all kinds of pollinators.
  • I watched Game 2 of the NHL Western Conference Finals. The Colorado Avalanche led 1-0 for most of the game. The Vegas Golden Knights scored three goals in the final period to win, 3-1. They lead the series, 2-0.

   

• Saturday, 5/23: A Cooper Scare Turns Out Okay
  • When I walked Cooper down to the mailbox, I let him off the leash too early when coming back home. He chased after the smell of rabbits that ran into the bushes to the east. There is still a bit of barbed wire fence near that location. I called Cooper and he bounced off the inside of that barbed wire fence...OUCH! When I called him a second time, there was no response. I ran home and told Mary that Cooper ran off. She took off down the lane calling for him. I drove the pickup down the lane, then east on the gravel road. I drove further east and turned around in the turnoff into the neighbor's field. When I turned into our lane, there was Mary with Cooper. He stayed inside the corner of the fence around the field and never budged or barked or whined. Mary saw a flash of tan, then the bright orange of his collar, walked around and guided him out of the field. He was soooo happy to see her! It all ended well.
  • Bill arrived around noon.
  • I cleaned and installed the air conditioner into the upstairs north bedroom window to give Bill some comfort while sleeping in that room. I worked at cleaning this old Haier AC better than I did last year, when it first smelled weird after I started it up. This is an excellent unit. We bought it in 2009 and it still runs well.
  • I installed foam board rain guards on the outside of the the window that the AC sits in when rain started falling. This turned into a thunderstorm that gave us about a fifth of an inch of moisture. 
  • When Mary and Bill walked Cooper on an afternoon walk, they heard our first, ever prairie warbler. The Merlin app on Bill's phone indicated that this bird isn't suppose to be in northeast Missouri. It's more of a southern bird.
  • We watched a big doe deer meander to near our south orchard apple trees. Mary opened a sunroom window and scared it away. We also saw a summer tanager in a mulberry bush east of the house.
  • Bill picked out Fiddler on the Roof from our DVD collection that we watched while enjoying popcorn. After the movie, we each ate a piece of pumpkin cake that Mary baked earlier, today.

   

• Sunday, 5/24: Free Totes
  • I spotted used totes for sale for $1, each, on Facebook Marketplace and the seller was only five miles southwest of us at Steffenville. I drill holes in them, cover the inside of the holes with quarter-inch hardware cloth, fill with soil, and plant greens or strawberries in them. The seller once was an auctioneer. They often handled estate sales for people who didn't want totes returned to them, so they collected several over the years. When I told them what I used the totes for, I was led to behind their garage, where several totes without lids were stored that they were going to throw away and told me they were all free. I dumped water and dead Asian ladybugs out of them and filled the back of the pickup with 46 totes...enough for a lifetime of plantings for us.
  • After loading the totes, I talked to the husband for awhile. He said online sales sites put him out of business as a licensed auctioneer. So, he restarted his former carpentry remodeling business and is now booked a year and a half in advance. He and his wife are from Liberty, Illinois. Through his auctioneer work, he discovered a former church in Steffenville for sale on an acre of land for $12,000. Charlie Sharp, who once owed the dairy a mile west of us, owned it and converted it into a location to make candles. After buying it, this guy took the roof off, built a second story for a bedroom, and added a garage on the back. He said the place sits on clay and once you dig six feet down, the clay is so hard you need to chip it out. It's probably the same clay that's on our place, which is good information to know.
  • Mary and Bill found three ripe black raspberries. 
  • They also found a female painted turtle, with a leach on her back, moving across the west yard. They eventually moved it to the shade in southwest corner of that yard and pointed it toward Frog Pond.
  • Mary and I mowed the west yard so we could enjoy a wiener roast without wading through tall grass.
  • Bill took the phone app, Merlin, on a walk, and discovered the call of an eastern wood pewee, which is the first for this year.
  • Mary opened her Birthday presents, early, since Bill leaves tomorrow. He gave her a big fine mesh row cover for vegetables, two decks of cards, and a tray for dice games. I gave her a Pflueger President spincast reel. The cheap plastic Zebco closed-faced reels that Mary has been using just don't cut it for longevity.
  • While throwing the ball for Cooper, I tossed it into thick bushes two times. After the second time, Cooper grabbed the ball and headed straight for home, as if to say, "You're done, buddy!"
  • Bill, Mary, and I enjoyed a wiener roast around an outside fire in the west yard. Before and after eating, we played several games of washers. We saw a handful of bats overhead catching bugs after the sun set.
  • When we went inside, we found that Cooper chewed up and spit out parts of the rubber mat just inside of the door. Hopefully, he didn't swallow any rubber bits. We left him inside for most of the afternoon and into the night. It was too much for him to bear.
  • On the last Cooper walk, we saw an amazing lightning bug display. A recent hatch revealed a type of firefly that flashes less often, glowing for several seconds, while hovering near the tops of grass in the fields. They were very plentiful.

May 11-17, 2026

Weather | 5/11, sunny, 46°, 78° | 5/12, sunny, 53°, 80° | 5/13, sunny, 51°, 71° | 5/14, sunny, 45°, 74° | 5/15, p. cloudy, 55°, 84° | 5/16, cloudy, 0.12" rain, 63°, 74° | 5/17, cloudy, 0.14" rain, 65°, 84° |

• Monday, 5/11: Turned On Electric Fence
  • Mary heard the deep buzzing sound of the wing beats of a ruby-throated hummingbird when she took the tomato starts outside. She knows that distinct sound from past years of hummingbirds flying nearby. It was the first of the season.
  • Mary started cutting garlic scapes. She cut four. More to come
  • Mary weeded half of the strawberry plants in the near garden.
  • A couple days ago, gnats started appearing. They really love me. Mary says she doesn't notice them until I show up next to her outside. I'm wearing a headnet, now. 
  • I checked all fence posts in the near garden. I thought they would be loose, but they were solid. I replaced one gate wire that was rusty. I then pulled the 11 electric fence wires tight, cutting off lengths of excess wire in each case. I plugged in the electric fencer unit, made a couple small adjustments, and saw the unit go to full strength.
  • I watched Game 4 of the Avalanche/Wild playoff series. Colorado won 5-2. They now lead the series three games to one. I rooted for the losing team, again!

   

• Tuesday, 5/12: Near Garden Work
  • Mary finished weeding the strawberry containers. She found a walnut that sprouted in one of these buckets. The strawberry plant had one leaf that touched the walnut plant. It was yellow and crispy, as if it was slightly burnt. It's from the power of walnuts. They give off a chemical that kills other plants.
  • Mary mowed the east yard for grass mulch, which she put around all of the strawberry plants.
  • I mowed up the tall dead grass and weeds that I pulled and cut next to the chicken wire fence of the near garden and then mowed inside and outside of that garden.
  • I also cleaned tall grass and weeds from around all of the strawberry tubs and buckets.
  • Mary watched the arrival barn swallows that were playing around in the wind. She then turned south and saw a turkey hen looking at her from near the Sargent crabapple tree. When the turkey realized she was spotted by Mary, she flew up and over the hazelnut bushes and to the west.

   

• Wednesday, 5/13: Mowing & Mowing
  • Mary mowed the chicken yard. It was a dusty mess. We're drying out. The clay soil is either soggy, with water sitting on top, or cracked and dusty. There is no in between.
  • I mowed the lane. A quarter-mile lane plus six roundtrips with the mower equals a three-mile hike. The newer mower I operate has its own power, which makes mowing easier.
  • We both mowed down emerging poison ivy plants. Each mowing drops back the number of plants until they are finally killed off.
  • I watched the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, in overtime, knocking the Wild out of the playoffs. The Wild led 3-0 at the end of the first period, but that was the end of their energy for the rest of the game. The winning overtime goal was scored by a former Edmonton Oiler, Brett Kulak. Right after the game ended, Bill texted, "Well, poop." If you want a team to lose, just let me root for it. I can kill off any team's chances.

   

• Thursday, 5/14: Mowing, Again
  • I originally was planning on going to town, mainly to buy apples that we slice up and put on our oatmeal breakfast, but then I realized that we have frozen applesauce made from our own apples. I decided to stay home.
  • Mary mowed the north yard and the trails to the gate at the top of Bramble Hill. Mary reports that the blackberry patch between Bass and Dove Ponds is full of blossoms.
  • I mowed the south yard  and the south orchard, collecting grass clippings that went around three smaller apple trees. The south orchard's ground is extremely bumpy. Mowing it feels like bouncing across a newly plowed field full of huge lumps. Actually, I plowed that area in 2010 with the Ford Jubilee tractor that we no longer own and the plow ridges are still showing...what was I thinking?
  • The swamp dogwoods along our lane are blooming early. They're usually blooming in June.
  • Mulberry fruits are starting to turn pink, which will be appreciated by the birds. 
  • Only three cherries are showing on the big cherry tree, which normally is filled with fruit. Absolutely no fruit is on the sweet cherry tree. All blossoms froze at 3° on March 17th.
  • Mary spotted the ruby-throated hummingbird defending his comfrey territory, which is too big for the frenzied bird to patrol.
  • The bleeding heart plant that we put under the Four Brothers trees in the north yard is growing big and beautiful. It has no bug bites and no animal munch marks. It's perfect for the location, where the insects and the nasty bunnies roam (see photos, below).
  • I viewed multiple images on Facebook showing the horrible dust storms throughout the Hi-Line of Montana. 

The first of the bleeding heart blossoms.

The bleeding heart plant fits right in under the trees.

 
• Friday, 5/15: Birds & Fireflies
  • I have achy leg muscles and pecan tree pollen is raising heck with Mary's sinuses and eyes, so we took the day off from working outside. It was a lazy indoor day.
  • I ordered items for Mary's birthday...hint, you read these items.
  • Mary removed a grocery bag of scapes from the garlic bed. They're maturing quite well and look great. Strawberries are forming and there are several blossoms on these plants. Lettuce and radishes are fully sprouted in the tubs. Onion and parsnip seeds get watered twice a day. Plants in the tubs get watered once a day. The rest get watered as needed.
  • I took Cooper on a walk on the newly-mowed trail to the ponds. A Baltimore oriole greeted me as the dog and I walked across our lawn. Keeping our property relatively wild attracts several birds. 
  • We enjoyed a firefly display on the final dog walk of the day. Several were flashing across the top of grass in the south field. Mary and I closed windows of the chicken coop, in case of rain, and saw a multitude of lightning bugs flashing just above the west field. We think this will turn out to be a big firefly year.

   

• Saturday, 5/16: Nasty Thunderstorms Missed Us
  • Around noon, we experienced a thunderstorm that gave us a little bit of rain. Then a steady stream of thunderstorms started around 5:30 p.m. that lasted through the rest of the night. Some real nasty storms with huge hail hit in the west and central part of northern Missouri. Radar showed them moving west to east and aimed right for us. They stalled well west of us, then veered off to the northeast into Iowa and missed us.
  • Today was Day 2 of indoor hibernation, due to thunderstorms.
  • Karen sent a photo of her blooming roses (see photo, below). With azaleas and roses, she's mirroring in growing what were some of our Grandmother Melvin's favorite flowers.
  • On a walk to the mailbox with Cooper between rain periods, he spooked up a Bob White quail. Near the gravel road, I saw a tiny lump in the grass, which ran off when we were five feet away. It was a tiny bunny. I was glad to have Cooper on a leash at that moment! 
  • We saw a pair of Baltimore orioles in a small black walnut tree near the west living room windows.
  • An indigo bunting, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and northern cardinals were hitting green mulberries in a bush just outside of the south living room window.
  • I finished reading Alexander Kent's 22nd British navy novel, Cross of St. George.

  

  A nice bed of roses grown by my sister, Karen.

   

• Sunday, 5/17: First Window AC Installed
  • Mary cut a big bag of scapes from the garlic plants.
  • I took apart the small air conditioner that we use in our bedroom and cleaned it with a garden hose, a toothbrush, and an old wash rag. I then assembled it and installed it in one of our bedroom windows. Prior to installation, I climbed an extension ladder and cut Virginia creeper and hops vines from the sides, tops, and bottoms of both bedroom windows. I taped all sides around the AC with packing tape to hold out air and bugs, then installed foam boards on the outer sides of the unit to repel rainwater. Finally, I used masking tape on the inside to cover any place around the edges where light shone through the packing tape, stopping bugs from trying to go to the light at night. After a few hours of the air conditioner running in the evening, the bedroom was in the 70s and comfortable. The past two nights were rather hot for sleeping in our bedroom. That was not the case this night.
  • At one point while up the ladder trimming vines, I asked for Mary's opinion on where to trim. At that moment, a female hummingbird flew to within a foot from Mary's face, looked her over, then flew off. She was just curious. 
  • I noticed that the bleeding heart plant has more and larger blossoms.
  • Most all of Mary's pepper, tomato, and tomatillo seeds sprouted and are growing. Outside, the lettuce and radishes are looking good in the tubs, as are the strawberries, that have several blossoms and green fruit.
  • While working on the air conditioner, a couple of gnats worked over my right ear. While reading a book this evening, my ear felt itchy and hot. Gnats just love me. Mary won't notice them outside until I show up next to her. I even had one trying to gnaw on my ear while we walked Cooper tonight.
  • We closed up the chicken coop windows after walking Cooper on his last outing with thunderstorms approaching from the west. After that, Mary and I stepped around the front of the south chicken yard to watch several lightning bugs dance across the west field. There are more and more showing up every night.

May 4-10, 2026

Weather | 5/4, 0.16" rain, p. cloudy, 57°, 78° | 5/5, 0.06" rain, cloudy, 47°, 53° | 5/6, p. cloudy, 43°, 58° | 5/7, sunny, 37°, 65° | 5/8, cloudy, 011" rain, 45°, 63° | 5/9, sunny, 49°, 78° | 5/10, sunny, 45°, 68° |

• Monday, 5/8: Gardening, Day Two
  • When I walked Cooper around the west field, I saw the bright blue of an indigo bunting at the end of Bobcat Trail. The north woods is wide open through the winter, but now, leaves on bushes fill the woods so that you can't see far. Some oak saplings have huge leaves that are 9-10 inches long.
  • I mowed the inside and the outside of the near garden and deposited grass clippings on the south row of that garden to finish mulching it.
  • I pounded persimmon stakes in the middle of 12 sections of the north chicken wire fence of the near garden to secure it to the ground. There are 10 sections left of that side of the garden, then all of the east, south, and west sides. I also used soil from an old ant hill and filled a few holes under the chicken wire fence.
  • Mary planted lettuce and radishes in tubs where we normally plant winter greens. I guess we should call them summer greens, not winter greens tubs. This will hopefully be a way for us to have salad makings all summer long. Then, we'll plant winter greens in those tubs in the late summer.
  • At evening chore time, Mary heard a summer tanager, so she reached for the Merlin app on her phone that identifies bird calls. From it, she identified an eastern kingbird, a red-eyed vireo, a rose-breasted grosbeak, and a northern mockingbird. These are all new birds for the season.
  • We had thunderstorms briefly roll through after dark. On Cooper's last walk, we really noticed a continuous show of lightning flashing south of us.

   

• Tuesday, 5/5: A Day Off
  • Mary wrote checks for outstanding bills and we marched them down the hill to the mailbox. Then, I balanced the checkbook.
  • We took the day off, since we had a prediction of rain for today.
  • We received a tiny dribble of rain equaling 0.01 inch.
  • I watched Game 2 of the Avalanche/Wild NHL series. Colorado won, 5-2, and lead the series, 2-0. This year, every team is root for seems to be on the losing side...BOO...HISS!
  • When we walked the puppy, Mary and I saw a firefly, which is early and odd. For for the next couple of days, we will experience cool temperatures. According to weather information, we're 10-15 degrees colder than normal temperature averages for May.

   

• Wednesday, 5/6: Mowing, Fence Repair & Deer
  • Mary and I saw a female Baltimore oriole trying to grab fish line that we once used to surround the a small cherry tree in the west yard.
  • Mary mowed between the woodshed and the machine shed and the west yard. Grass mulch went under two pear trees and four blueberry bushes.
  • A great blue heron flew over Mary's head in the mid-afternoon. Usually these birds dodge away from us when they spot us. This one didn't seem to care.
  • I cleaned grass and weeds from the two-foot high chicken wire fence and staked down middle sections, reaching the halfway mark of the near garden.
  • Several deer arrived in our yard this evening and decided to run around and play (see videos, below). We think they were young bucks, since doe deer are busy with newborns right now.
  A deer spooked a rabbit next to the near garden. 
   
  Several deer playing through the trees near the far garden.
  
  

• Thursday, 5/7: Woodpecker & Wren
  • Mary mowed just north of the house. Grass mulch went under blueberry bushes to finish them off, under two apple trees, and a cherry tree.
  • I cleaned grass and weeds at the chicken wire fencing of the near garden and staked down eight more sections of that rabbit fence. There are 19 sections left to finish.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Webex on orioles. It was good. We have an ideal location for these birds, which is why we see them regularly through summer months.
  • Mary and I watched a red-bellied woodpecker dig wood bits out of a hole in the weeping willow stump. After a short time, a house wren perched on a nearby branch to cuss out the woodpecker (see video, below). The woodpecker ignored the wren and kept on "pat-hooing" sawdust out of the hole. It was an interesting activity to witness. (Tap the square box at bottom of the video to bring it to full size.)
  Female woodpecker (middle, left) removes sawdust as wren (upper, right) yells at it.
  
  

• Friday, 5/8: Thoreau Documentary
  • While drinking our morning coffee, my phone sounded off with a message that a UPS package was delivered. It turns out the package was a Mother's Day DVD gift to Mary from Katie of Ken Burn's documentary on Henry David Thoreau.
  • While walking down to the get the UPS package left next to our garbage bin in a plastic bag under the big cedar tree, Mary heard the call of the first common yellowthroat warbler of the year.
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail. Below is a photo of a huge leaf on an oak sapling along that trail. Each spring, it's amazing how fast a wide-open forest transforms into a very enclosed woods with the emergence of all of the leaves on trees, saplings, and shrubs. What was once sunny and open becomes closed-in and intimate. 
  • While I walked Cooper, Mary took another video of the red-bellied woodpecker performing more excavation work on the weeping willow stump (see below).
  • After I made a midday waffle meal, rain began falling, thereby halting our outdoor plans. Oh, darn!
  • We watched the Thoreau documentary. It's quite good.

  

  A huge oak leaf on a sapling along Bobcat Trail.

  
   
  Our woodpecker friend excavating a bigger cavity in the weeping willow stump.
  
  

• Saturday, 5/9: Chimney Swifts Return
  • Mary was loading a bag of hen food into a wheelbarrow to take to the chicken coop when she heard the twitter of chimney swifts. She looked up and saw one flying above our house. In the afternoon, she saw two of them. Mary ran inside to tell me that the chimney swifts are back home. She was worried about them, since we saw other birds that return about the same time as swifts, but that was several days ago. She was very happy! 
  • Mary mowed the thicket of grass in our front lawn. Grass mulch went on two cherry trees, and she started putting mulch on a third one. A path east of our house gains access to these trees. Runaway comfrey plants fill this area of our property and they're filled with purple blossoms that are in turn buzzing with bumblebees.
  • I continued on cleaning grass and weeds from the chicken wire fence in the near garden and adding new stakes to anchor the bottom of that fence. I did 11 sections today, with eight left to finish this garden. I had to cut new persimmon saplings from the far far garden to use as stakes.
  • Mary noticed the first green shoots of a couple radishes and few lettuce plants starting in the tubs. 
  • I watched Game 3 of the Avalanche/Wild NHL playoff series. Minnesota won, 5-1. Colorado leads the series, two games to one.

   

• Sunday, 5/10: Mother's Day
  • Mary planted tomato and tomatillo seeds in Styrofoam cups. She always does this late, so that the transplants aren't tall and spindly.
  • Mary also planted onion, shallot, and parsnip seeds in the north row of the near garden.
  • I finished cleaning weeds and grass from the chicken wire fence and anchoring it down with stakes in the near garden. Next chore will be straightening corner posts, tightening wires, and turning on the electric fence of that garden.
  • Both Katie and Bill called to wish Mary a happy Mother's Day. Bill will be here on Memorial Day weekend. Katie finished from Air National Guard training in Fargo, ND. She will be traveling to Italy, soon, for additional Guard training and plans to spend extra tourist time traveling around Italy with a female friend of hers. In September, she travels to Montgomery, AL, for leadership training related to the Guard.
  • I called mom. She is in Glasgow, MT, over the weekend, spending time with Hank. It's extremely dry in Circle, MT, with high winds predicted for tomorrow (5/11/26). Mom picked up some plants from a greenhouse in Glasgow that she's planning to put in pots.
  • The eastern phoebe chicks have hatched in the woodshed. Hopefully, temperatures stay cooler so that they survive. The nest is just under metal siding, which gets too hot when temperatures get into the 90s.
  • I read that on this day, Winston Churchill became prime minister of the UK in 1940, so we watch the movie, Darkest Hour, depicting those events in history. We enjoyed last year's wonderful cherry wine while watching the movie.
  • Today was the last day of turkey season. The only shot we heard throughout the season was one north of our property, so we think the supply of turkeys on our property is in good shape.

April 27-May 3, 2026

Weather | 4/27, 1.88" rain, cloudy, 55°, 75° | 4/28, cloudy, 48°, 63° | 4/29, sunny, 45°, 57° | 4/30, 0.18" rain, cloudy, 36°, 65° | 5/1, sunny to 0.01" rain, 34°, 61° | 5/2, p. cloudy, 38°, 59° | 5/3, cloudy to thunderstorm thunder, 40°, 73° |

• Monday, 4/27: Flooding Here & Tornadoes in St. Louis 
  • Mary and I were startled awake at 6 a.m. with a very loud crack of thunder overhead. We unplugged appliances and went back to bed, since it was very wet with a downpour of rain.
  • We received 1.88 inches of rain in the morning thunderstorm.
  • Meanwhile, Mom sent a photo (see below) of snow that covered her car and the ground outside this morning. 
  • I walked the length of our quarter-mile lane with Cooper, since he gets fewer ticks on him on this walk, compared to walking him on any trail right now.
  • I went to Wood Duck Pond, alone, and saw a deer bounding off to below the Bass Pond dam. As I approached the woods in the bottom south of Wood Duck Pond, I heard a turkey gobble. The water level is extremely flooded well into the woods (see video, below) to the highest point that we've ever seen here. Turn on the sound of the video below and you'll hear crows calling and then a turkey gobble in the video.
  • Bill sent a text at 6:45 p.m. that the St. Louis area was experienced interesting weather. He heard the third tornado siren in a six-hour period. Luckily, he never had any tornadoes at his apartment.
  • We watched two movies, which were The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and My Fair Lady (1964).

  

  Snow covering Mom's car and her back yard in Circle, MT.

  
   
  Wood Duck Pond flooded way into woods. This area is usually dry.
  
  

• Tuesday, 4/28: Cleaning Unwanted Saplings & Weeding Garlic
  • Mary spotted a turkey hen that walked across the east lawn, between the house and our lane (see photo, below). It then wandered off to the south.
  • Mary put mineral oil on the woodstove pipe to keep it from rusting. When we first moved here, we replaced stovepipe yearly. Since Mary started applying oil every spring, we haven't purchased any piping. This stovepipe is 11-12 years old.
  • Mary weeded about 40 percent of the garlic plants.
  • During yesterday morning's storm, a chunk of wood holding several green branches broke away from the weeping willow stump. Using the small pruning chainsaw, I sawed it the rest of the way off the stump, sawed up the various branches, and hauled them away. I also cut down a walnut and mulberry saplings in the south orchard and a walnut coppice in the north yard near the McIntosh tree.
  • I mowed the lane. Our grass is growing quickly with all of the rain.
  • I watched Game 5 of the Wild/Stars playoffs. Minnesota won, 4-2, and now lead the series three games to two. I decided not to jinx the Oilers/Ducks game 5 and stayed away from watching it. Edmonton won, 4-1. It worked!
  • We heard a whip-poor-will calling to the east when we walked Cooper for his last outing, a first for the year. We didn't hear any whip-poor-wills last year, so it was nice to know that we didn't lose them.

  

  A turkey hen in our east yard pecking at bugs.

   

• Wednesday, 4/29: Weeding & Cleaning
  • I took the tiny pruning Stihl chainsaw and cut persimmon saplings in the far far garden. After getting a few feet into that garden, I got a migraine. These past few years, I just get the visual aura, minus the actual headache. This time it was different and I got a headache, too. After our noontime meal, I took a nap. I didn't wake up until 5:30. I guess I needed the sleep.
  • Mary weeded more of the garlic plants. She only has a quarter row yet to weed. Mary says she keeps stirring up lots of earthworms that are right on surface of the soil. She also says that the heavy grass mulch that she put on last fall is almost gone, now.
  • I cleaned the Stihl pruning saw. It was filled with mud from cutting saplings trunks close to the ground. The mud was partially dry, because I left the saw on the porch while I took a nap. Cleaning took two hours. I had to soak the chain in gasoline and scrub it with a soft brass brush. It took awhile to get all of the muddy grass out of the gears. When I put it away, I discovered oil leaked out of the oil cap and into the inside of the saw's case, so I had to clean that up. Stihl makes poorly built oil caps that have a tendency to leak...or maybe they install cheap o-rings that go bad quickly. The final conclusion is that I won't use the grooming saw for cutting saplings when the cut is made close to the ground. I'll use loppers, instead.
  • As the sun was setting, I heard what I thought was an oriole. I checked online and it was the call of a Baltimore oriole. Mary said she thought heard one this morning, so it probably flew in today.

   

• Thursday, 4/30: Almost 10" of Rain This Month
  • We're keeping Cooper on our lane when we walk him, due to so many ticks on all of our trails. When I walked Cooper at noon, I squirted Dawn on all four sides of the mailbox post, nailing ants attempting to crawl that post and get into the mailbox.
  • We did evening chores way early, starting at 3 p.m., due to rain clouds arriving from the northwest. We finished chores right when rain started falling around 3:30.
  • There were complete double rainbows in the eastern sky around 5 p.m.
  • We got 9.89 inches of rain through the month of April, which is one of the largest amounts of rain we've received in one month since Mary has been keeping records. 
  • I watched the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars, 5-2, to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was a good game in St. Paul, MN.
  • The electrical connection from our transformer to the power line was sizzling and sparking after dark, so I took video of it to prove to the electric co-op that we have a problem that needs to be fixed. 
  • I didn't watch the Edmonton Oilers/Anaheim Ducks game. The Oilers lost, 5-2, and are out of this year's playoffs. Instead, I read a book...must calmer that way!
  • On Cooper's final nighttime walk, a whip-poor-will was constantly mouthing off, coyotes were howling, and a barred owl was hooting. The wildlife was really loud.

   

• Friday, 5/1: Electrical Short Fixed
  • I drove into Lewistown to visit the Lewis County REC and showed my video of the nighttime sizzling electrical short at the transformer. The receptionist called the project manager to the front and I showed it to him. Halfway through that video, he said, "We'll get that fixed!" Just minutes after getting home, a huge bucket semi and a pickup from the electrical co-op showed up. They quickly checked the tightness of the old clamp. It was loose. They backed the bucket hoist onto our lawn and used it to get up to the transformer. They replaced the clamp and the lead wire. After the tall lineman returned to the ground from the bucket hoist, he said, "I don't think the last guy who tightened that clamp ate his Wheaties." At night, we noticed that all electrical items operated faster. The fridge isn't on as long. My Waterpik runs better. We think that electrical connection was an issue long before we discovered the short back in March.
  • The bucket hoist left big dents in our lawn. The REA linemen suggested that they could send someone out to fix our lawn. Both Mary and I said no, we can do that. We'll pull sod out of somewhere and stick it in the dents.
  • Mary finished weeding the garlic beds and fertilized them. The plants are quite tall this year.
  • Mary and I found rabbit fur and guts left near the Carpathian walnut. We're guessing that a hawk did that.
  • The bleeding heart plant is growing big. We need to switch the protector surrounding it to the Carpathian walnut, which is quickly outgrowing it's plastic protector tube.
  • I exercised Cooper by throwing the ball until he was really tired, since he was an antsy pantsy guy all day. It worked. By evening, he was sleeping very soundly in his living room chair.

   

• Saturday, 5/2: Mowing & Mulching
  • We watched a small deer in the north yard this morning.
  • I moved the hardware cloth protector that was around the bleeding heart to the Carpathian walnut. We read that animals don't like bleeding heart leaves. That plant is about a foot high. The leaves on top of the walnut were bunched up in the blue plastic tube, but they're now in the open with the hardware cloth protector that is about two feet in diameter.
  • The Russian comfrey plants that take over the world are all over the place west of the house. They're filled with purple blossoms that are attracting several bumble bees. Once hummingbirds arrive, they'll also feed off of these flowers that bloom all summer long.
  • I hauled off a few small persimmon saplings that I cut out of the far far garden a few days ago.
  • I mowed outside of the west side of the far garden, then I mowed between the far garden and the compost bins. The grass was deep and wet. Grass mulch filled a long stretch of the near garden's south row.
  • A new fly tying book came in today's mail entitled The Feather Bender's Flytying Techniques. The author, Barry Ord Clarke, is British and lives in Norway. He has very detailed photos describing each step of tying several flies. There are links to online videos. It looks like a great book. I found this hardcopy book, suggested by TJ, the leader of the fly tying monthly webinars I attend, for a great price on alibris.com.
  • It was fun watching the Kentucky Derby reruns, where a horse called Golden Tempo came from dead last at the three-quarter post to win, charging up the outside of the track. It was the first win in the Kentucky Derby by a woman trainer.

   

• Sunday, 5/3: Garden Work
  • Mary turned over soil in the north row of the near garden after adding compost and ashes to it. She saw tons of earthworms. Mary also noticed signs of bunny chewings on weeds in the near garden.
  • I mowed the path between the electric and rabbit fences in the near far garden and then an area that was mowed last year between the near far and the far far gardens. I removed more persimmon saplings in the far far garden, hauled off small saplings, and cut bigger saplings into stakes. I then mowed where the saplings were removed in the far far garden.
  • Mary noticed that wild black raspberries are already forming.
  • In the late afternoon, Mary heard the song of a summer tanager. She also heard and saw a catbird. She heard a yellow-throated vireo with help from the Merlin app on her phone.
  • I watched the first game of the Stanley Cup's Round 2 between the Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado won, 9-6. I texted with Bill quite a few times, as he was watching the game, too.
  • After the game, Mary and I read for a little bit.
  • With stars overhead, bright lightning was flashing south of us as we walked Cooper for his last outing. We didn't go far, because thunder indicated that the storm was quite close. Rain fell after the walk.