March 9-15, 2026

Weather | 3/9, sunny, 45°, 76° | 3/10, sunny to thunderstorms, 55°, 83° | 3/11, 1.42" rain, 37°, 55° | 3/12, sunny to cloudy, 25°, 53° | 3/13, p. cloudy, 44°, xx° | 3/14, xx°, xx° | 3/15, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 3/9: Cooper's Vet Visit
  • Wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond when I walked Cooper down the lane this morning.
  • We took Cooper to the vet at Petco in Quincy, IL. He was very good, but we could tell that he knew that he was in a veterinary clinic. At first, he was very weary of the vet, but after some coaxing and massive rubbing by this vet, Cooper relaxed. Overall, the vet pronounced him healthy. Cooper has a big wax build up in his ears. Dr. Andrew, as the vet calls himself, showed us an easy way to remove ear wax from a dog's ears. We're to do it each day for 10 days. We really liked this vet...Andrew Perrine. We'll use him again. We left with a NexGard Plus prescription and a bottle of ear wash. We picked up a handful of treats in the Petco store.
  • I went into Sam's Club while Mary and Cooper stayed in the pickup. It was a hot time for them, with temperatures in the 80s over the black asphalt of parking lots in Quincy. Six months of NexGard Plus costs $206.43 after a Sam's Club discount. It's expensive, but we feel it's needed. This stuff handles fleas, ticks, intestinal worms and heartworm in one medication that's simply a chewable, instead of gloopy slop smeared between shoulder blades. With a wiggle wart like Cooper, picking off ticks absolutely won't work.  
  • We also got gas at Sam's Club for $2.89 a gallon, significantly cheaper than the national average. I got a couple things at Walmart and we drove back home. The front seat of the pickup is now a dog hair mess.
  • When we got home, the inside of the house was crawling with thousands of Asian ladybugs. Mary handled chickens, then emptied about 5-6 inches of dead bugs out of the shop vac  from yesterday's bug evacuation and started sucking while I did evening chores, including playing fetch with Cooper. I took over after I was done with chores. We sucked bugs well after darkness fell. What a mess!
  • The red amaryllis is blossoming (see photos, below). It's a joy to see.

An open amaryllis blossom.

The other opening amaryllis blossoms.

• Tuesday, 3/10: Pruning Apple Trees, Then Thunderstorms
  • We had another big bug day with Mary and I trading off on vacuuming them.
  • Mary pruned all of the small apple trees in the south orchard and the big Empire apple tree. I followed behind her and applied tree wound dressing on all of the cuts. It got hairy at the end as increasing southwest winds blasted me while I stood on a step ladder to cover cuts high in the tree.
  • We noticed the first blossoms on the forsythia bush. 
  • Mary performed the first ear cleaning job on Cooper. A smaller amount of wax came out as compared to what the vet removed yesterday.
  • While Mary did this, a deer tick crawled across Cooper. She grabbed the flea comb and out it came. Later in the evening, I saw a tick march across the right leg of my shorts. I disposed of it immediately. Today's hot temperatures brought out the ticks.
  • On Cooper's late afternoon walk, he flushed out two bob white quail from the east edge of Bluegill Pond. He's a natural hunter. Our fetch session was cut short. Cooper tired quickly after just a few throws, kept the ball and headed home. 
  • Thunderstorms started rolling through us at about 9 p.m. A tornado touched down in the county just north of the Missouri/Iowa border, two counties away from us. Big tornadoes hit further east in Illinois. Softball size hail fell in that state. We waited on going outside with the puppy until thunder died down a little bit and let Cooper out after 1:30 a.m. It was still thundering to the east well beyond 2 a.m., when we finally made it to bed.

• Wednesday, 3/11: Rain, Molly Rubs, Woodcock Whistles & Labeling Wine
  • After last night's thunderstorms, it rained while we slept and rain was falling when we woke. This was nice moisture that helps plants and trees. The grass is greening up and flowering plants are starting to show green leaves in the woods. Frog Pond, which was dry just yesterday, now has water in it with spring peeper frogs singing.
  • Our high temperature was at midnight and the low was in the early evening.
  • When we lived in Circle, MT, Molly, our golden retriever, would welcome the day by rubbing against the sofas with a smile on her face and a wag of her tail. Molly has returned in the form of Cooper. Each morning he rubs along the edge of our bed. When he does this, Mary says, "Hello, Molly!"
  • While walking Cooper around the west field at noon, I heard the flight of an American Woodcock. They emit a whistle through their wings when they fly. It sounds like THIS.
  • I put labels on the 25 bottles of the pear wine, but didn't get them into a cooler, yet.
  • One of the four blossoms broke off the amaryllis plant, so Mary put it in a bowl of water. It's very nice have it on the kitchen counter top. Below is a photo as the light of the setting sun reflected off the petals.
  • Mary and I enjoyed a bottle 2023 apple cider. It tasted good and is quite tangy. As with all wine, it's better with aging.

  

  Amaryllis blossom reflecting soft light of the setting sun.

• Thursday, 3/12: Wine Inventory & Dog Fuzz
  • Mary and I walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond. The water level is higher, with water backed up into the once dry creek bed. Water is also up in Bass Pond. It looks like the water in that pond just turned over. It's cloudy water on the surface. We saw where water was extremely cloudy near the south bank where either a catfish or a muskrat did some underwater digging into the bank.
  • I did an inventory of all of the stored wine. Through all of the coolers, I have 321.5 bottles. The half bottle is a 375-ml bottle of cherry wine. It's half the size of a regular 750-ml bottle. The largest selection of wine is cherry, at 90.5 bottles. Next is a tie with 38 for various apple wines, and 38 bottles of jalapeño wine. Next is 25 bottles of garlic, 24 bottles of blackberry, and 23 bottles of parsnip wine. Through this process, I identified two varieties with bad corks that I bottled in 2023, which are apple cider and pumpkin wines. I also consolidated some wine varieties, thereby emptying one cooler. 
  • I put away the recently bottled 2025 pear wine into the empty cooler.
  • Mary clean the house and removed all of the dog hair (I call it dog down) off the floors. We used to blame cats for all of the loose hair on floors. For the month and a half that we went without a dog, we saw no hair on the floors. Now we know that it's the dog to blame for drifts of hair.
  • Three new birds arrived for the year, which were the white-throated sparrow, field sparrow, and the American goldfinch. 

March 2-8, 2026

Weather | 3/2, cloudy, 29°, 38° | 3/3, 0.23" rain, 35°, 41° | 3/4, cloudy, 38°, 43° | 3/5, cloudy, 39°, 59° | 3/6, 0.16" rain, 48°, 68° | 3/7, 0.60" rain overnight, cloudy, 39°, 43° | 3/8, sunny, 33°, 65° |

• Monday, 3/2: Cooper, the Fetch Fanatic
  • The bit of snow that fell last night revealed hundreds of rabbit tracks all over our yard. I also saw a large deer track halfway down our lane.
  • Mary made a big batch of minestrone soup.
  • She added aluminum sulfate to all of the blueberry bushes and put wood ashes underneath the sugar maple tree in the north yard.
  • I put away winemaking items in the west room and set aside two cases of bottles, plus a few extra, for bottling the pear wine that was due to be accomplished yesterday. I need to remove labels off one case of bottles. I have four other cases of bottles requiring label removal.
  • Katie sent a text of an article describing the Barrow Landfill project that she's heading up. HERE is a link to that article.
  • Cooper is a fetch fanatic (see video, below). He would spent all day fetching a ball, if you let him.
  Cooper loves to fetch a ball.
  

• Tuesday, 3/3: Glowing Lichen
  • Mary and I walked Cooper around the west field and on the Bobcat Trail. Recent moisture is making greenish/blue lichen glow on tree trunks.
  • There are a lot of cardinals singing everywhere.
  • When it was time to play fetch with Cooper, we took him to the east/west part of the trail to the ponds where no mud is showing so that he didn't get as muddy as he did yesterday. A couple times when the ball bounced into the bent over grass along that trail, Cooper rolled in his hurry to get to the ball.
  • I spent time reviewing soil carrying capacities of clay, which is plentiful on our property.

• Wednesday, 3/4: The First Great Blue Herons
  • I took labels off 14 wine bottles. Twenty minutes of a steady boil in Mary's water bath canner containing water, a cup of vinegar, and a squeeze of dish soap seems to do the trick. A quick scrape with a fillet knife, followed by scrubbing the bottle with a green Scotch pad and baking soda cleans all label glue off each bottle. 
  • Mary cleaned the big fan using an artist's paint brush. Fine dust, probably from the woodstove, fills every crack and crevice when the fan sits near the stove in the living room.
  • When I took the garbage down the lane to put it out next to the gravel road for pickup tomorrow, I had two instances when Bob White quail flew off. We have healthy numbers of them on our property this year. I also saw 21 cackling geese fly overhead.
  • While doing the evening chores, I saw five great blue herons glide in from the south, high in the sky. The lead bird suddenly dropped significantly in elevation, then circled down. The other four birds followed the leader. They probably settled onto Wood Duck Pond. These are the first herons of the season.
  • On Cooper's last walk, we heard faint sounds of spring peeper frogs at Bluegill Pond.

• Thursday, 3/5: Bugs, Birds, Trout, & Frogs
  • We vacuumed bugs for most of the day, though we had to quit at times just to let the shop vac cool down.
  • I spent about an hour fixing the video I placed under Monday's addition to this blog. The phone takes a .mov video and this blog uses mp4 videos, so I had to switch it over to the appropriate format, which took time to figure out.
  • Mary paid bills and I balanced the checkbook.
  • We watched four mallards fly out of one of our ponds when were throwing the ball in a game of fetch with Cooper. There were also several snow geese flying overhead.
  • I watched a Missouri Department of Conservation webinar showing the inside of their trout hatchery at Branson. It was interesting. They stock about 1.6 million trout to lakes, ponds, and rivers throughout Missouri.
  • On Cooper's final walk, we heard the full song and flight of two American woodcocks while we walked on our lane. We also heard full-throated songs of spring peeper frogs.

• Friday, 3/6: Much Needed Rain
  • We vacuumed Asian ladybugs all day. For several days in a row, I can't get to the job of racking and bottling the pear wine, due to so many bugs emerging inside of the house. They surely would end up landing in the wine and spoiling it. All I can do is sigh and delay the job until there are fewer bugs.
  • I cleaned up all chicken feathers that accumulated over several months underneath the cover of my rolltop desk. Whenever we spot a nice feather in the chicken yard or the coop, we keep it for fly tying purposes. I sort them into baggies according to color and type of feather.
  • Cooper came with NexGard Plus, which is a combination medication that takes care of heartworm, fleas, ticks, and digestive worms. Since Cooper is such a wiggle wart, picking ticks off him is obviously impossible, so this medication is a good idea. We need to see a vet to get a prescription for this medication. After calling General Vet Clinic in Hannibal and texting Molly Brown, a former Petco coworker in Quincy, I set up a vet appointment with the Petco veterinarian. An initial vet visit at Petco is $72. Vet visits in Hannibal in 2019-20 for our cat, Mocha, were well over $100, so Petco is our cheaper option.
  • I heard the first eastern pheobe of the year while emptying ashes from the woodstove this morning. We also saw lots of snow geese flying in all directions.
  • There was light rain in the late afternoon. As clouds started clearing, a nice double rainbow filled the eastern sky (see photo, below). 
  • We experienced thunderstorms all evening. They gave us some much-needed rain.

  

  Photo taken by Mary of a rainbow seen through pecan branches.

• Saturday, 3/7: Bottling Pear Wine
  • The second Orvis Fly Pattern Index book arrived in today's mail after getting sent off course several times through Hannibal, MO. It's a free copy that Thrift Books sent to replace the water-damaged copy I received last month. Originating from Atlanta, on Feb. 24th, it was sent to Joneboro, IL from Hannibal, eventually making its way back through St. Louis. On Feb. 27th, Hannibal directed it to Cornell, IL. It then traveled to Peoria, IL, then through Chicago and back to St. Louis. The third time through Hannibal, it was finally sent to Ewing, MO and onto us. The plastic spiral-bound spine has breaks in it, probably from all of the extra handling. I'll try to clean the similar spine off the moldy book and install it on this version.
  • We saw the first turkey vultures of the season while walking Cooper to and from Wood Duck Pond. We also startled a flock of mallard ducks off Wood Duck Pond. A huge deer track was in the sand of the dry creek bed.
  • The east and south yards were filled with robins at sunset.
  • Mary startled a flock of snow geese while throwing the ball for Cooper prior to sunset. They were flying toward her and saw Mary and Cooper. There was a sudden panic in their call. They came together in a wide ribbon of geese, then moved back into a V once the snow geese were past Mary and Cooper. She thinks they've been shot at from a person with a hunting dog on the ground and took precautionary measures.
  • Mary watched a red-shouldered hawk drop down and rake another red-shouldered hawk.
  • I bottled the pear wine after giving bottles a quick wash in OxiClean. The specific gravity was 0.998 and the pH was 3.3. I added 0.9 gram of K-meta. I corked 25 bottles. One was a 1.5-liter bottle. Mary and I drank the 600 mls of leftover wine. This is by far the best pear wine I've made, mainly because I used dark raisins, instead of golden raisins. The flavor is very good...richer tasting and more mellow. With aging, it should be an excellent wine.
  • Katie sent videos of part of the ceremonial Iditarod Sled Dog Race start at the Chester Creek Trail in Anchorage. She said, "they called it a trailgate party."

• Sunday, 3/8: Katie & Official Iditarod Start
  • When I walked Cooper down the lane this morning, I saw a deer on the west side of Bluegill Pond. On Cooper's noontime walk, we spotted three deer running southwest through the woods at the end of Bobcat Trail. In both cases, Cooper smelled the animals well before I saw them.
  • This was another huge bug sucking day with the shop vac. I kept busy vacuuming up Asian ladybugs in the kitchen as Mary made a pizza.
  • Mary heard barred owls calling during mid-afternoon while hanging laundry on the outside line.
  • I cleaned the plastic spiral-bound spine of the moldy version of The Orvis Fly Pattern Index, removed the broken spine from the newest version of the book, and installed the good spine.
  • Katie sent a video and photos (see below) of the official Iditarod sled dog race start from Willow, AK. She drove to a coworker's house in Willow and biked 6.7 miles, round trip, to and from the race start.

Fat tire bikes used to get to Iditarod start.

Tracking over the snow on a bicycle.

Official Iditarod sled dog race start at Willow, AK.

Feb. 23-March 1, 2026

Weather | 2/23, sunny, 4°, 31° | 2/24, cloudy, 17°, 53° | 2/25, p. cloudy, 30°, 53° | 2/26, sunny, 30°, 58° | 2/27, sunny, 34°, 71° | 2/28, p. cloudy, 28°, 55° | 3/1, p. cloudy to 0.5" snow, 0.11" moisture, 19°, 40° |

• Monday, 2/23: A Day About Cooper
  • When I walked Cooper for his first outing this morning, I saw a coyote in the south field. It was rooting around in the tamped down grass for a rodent. When it noticed us, the coyote quickly ran away to the west woods. Cooper didn't see it, but smelled the coyote on our way back home.
  • We received a dozen lacrosse balls that I ordered which will be used as balls for Cooper to fetch. So far, the first ball is holding up nicely to his teeth, so we think they will last a long time.
  • Mary and I spent time reviewing the house plan, deciding on window placement, among other ideas.
  • We asked Bill how is first day of work in his new job went and he said the previous guy employed in his job was unorganized, requiring a great deal of clean up. "There is so much I can do to help them," he said.
  • There is a daily routine we have with Cooper that he enjoys. He goes out first thing every morning. As Mary fixes our breakfast, he sits nearby and gets the apple core, minus seeds, and one frozen blackberry. At noon and around 5 p.m. he gets a long walk. After the second long walk we play fetch until he's worn out. Every evening before I brush my teeth, I brush his teeth. If I forget, he reminds me that it's tooth brushing time for him. Brushing his teeth means I mainly brush his tongue. He loves the taste of the peanut butter flavored doggy toothpaste and bites the big doggy toothbrush as often as possible. Included in the kit that came with the toothpaste and toothbrush was a rubber scrubber you put on your forefinger to clean dog teeth. If I used that silly thing, I'd be minus a finger trying to clean the teeth of that shark!

• Tuesday, 2/24: Labeling Wine
  • We had a strong wind blowing from south to west for most of the day. It was calm by night.
  • I wrote on wine labels and applied them to the apple and jalapeño wine bottles that Bill and I corked a few days ago. It takes quite some time, because each bottle must be wiped down with a damp rag and dried prior to applying a label. The Star San sanitizer I use turns cloudy when mixed with our water and puts a slight haze on the outside of all bottles, which is removed with the damp rag. I moved some wine bottles around and found space for these two wine varieties in the coolers.
  • Mary and I discussed house plans in the evening.

• Wednesday, 2/25: Firewood & Pruning
  • I split the bigger pieces of the second mulberry tree that I cut up on March 9th and stacked two wheelbarrow loads of firewood in the woodshed.
  • I used all my chainsaws and cut up a cherry tree that dropped across Bobcat Trail last year, two red oak trees, and several oak and hickory branches that dropped onto the north woods forest floor. I used the Stihl grooming saw that has just a six-inch bar and cut down an oak with a five-inch diameter and sawed it up with that battery-operated saw. It's very impressive. Most of the firewood went into the woodshed, while bigger pieces were stacked next to the woodsplitter.
  • Mary pruned bushes and trees for the first time this year. She did all of the blueberries, the small Bartlett tree, the Porter's Perfection apple tree, the Liberty apple tree, and one small cherry tree.
  • Several flocks of snow geese went overhead throughout the day. We also saw a few trumpeter swans.
  • I heard the first American woodcock this evening.
  • I didn't clean chainsaws until late at night, when I detected a gas leak from the big chainsaw's gas cap. I scrubbed the cement floor in the entry room, took the chainsaw to the machine shed and emptied all of the gasoline out of it, then cleaned it outside. Cleaning chainsaws inside is not a good idea. One disadvantage of the Stihl MS 361 saw is a gas cap that wears out in a short time.

• Thursday, 2/26: Shopping & Fly Hook Webex
  • I went shopping in Quincy, mainly because a prescription I approved last week needs to be picked up no later than today from the Sam's Club pharmacy. 
  • I went to Birkey's Farm Store, another Stihl dealer in Quincy, and ordered an additional chain for the GTA 40 pruning chainsaw, an O-ring for the gas cap of the big chainsaw, and several sharpening items for the two small chainsaws. All items should be into that store in about one week. I liked the professionalism of this parts guy, compared to the young kids lacking knowledge that are always behind the parts counter at Farm & Home.
  • I got a better collar for Cooper that snaps on or off. The collar that came with him could only be removed by sliding it over his head. We wanted an easier removal. The new collar is expensive at $20, but it's a very well made Carhartt product.
  • Mary's plastic laundry basket collapsed, so she texted me, and I took a trip into Menards and got two new baskets. Their parking lot was empty.
  • Aldi was crammed full of old folks. It was as if they let out all of the senior citizen homes. Of course at 69, I'm not old. At least I don't doddle around staring at food shelves as if I don't know why I'm in the store!  
  • Mary vacuumed bugs all day.
  • She reported that lots of snow geese flew overhead throughout the day.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex on the importance of correct fly hooks. T.J. tied various flies on different hooks and dropped them into a tank that had a constant flow to imitate a trout stream. A hook with an eye turned up the same direction as the barb needs to be tied upside down, or what is supposed to be towards the surface of the water will be underneath as the fly swims through the water.
  • I heard coyotes singing to the north after it was dark outside.

• Friday, 2/27: Bugs & Splitting Firewood
  • I scouted for firewood with a dog walk down and up the south field and into the edge of the woods. There are a lot of downed trees in that stretch of the timber. Cooper and I spooked up a flock of Bob White quail along the way.
  • I vacuumed bugs for a couple hours. There must be millions of Asian lady bugs in the walls of this house. Mary vacuumed in the afternoon. The shop vac needs a break after we suck bugs for several hours.
  • We experienced southwest to west winds with gusts to 35 mph, before it died back in the evening. My plans to cut more firewood were delayed. A recent area fire started with the spark from a chainsaw. We are supremely dry. Extreme caution is a wise idea right now.
  • I split the firewood that was next to the woodsplitter and stacked five wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed.
  • After sunset, I washed all of the waterers with Cooper loose and next to me. He sat patiently and watched rabbits chasing each other around the yard. We're finding that he's very good at staying next to you while he's off the leash, plus he comes instantly with a quick whistle. He keenly watched all of the bunnies, yet stayed right next to me.

• Saturday, 2/28: Pruning & Squirrel Chasing
  • On the noon walk that Mary and I took with Cooper, we spooked up a pair of Canada geese on Wood Duck Pond and scared wood ducks off of Bass Pond. It looked like the water hasn't turned over yet on Bass Pond.
  • Our yard was full of bluebirds. Their soft song is heard regularly outside.
  • Mary pruned six cherry trees, while I pruned where I could reach from the ground on the Granny Smith apple tree.
  • I heard an American woodcock twice while I was washing chicken waterers right before darkness fell.
  • For the past two evenings while I cleaned waterers, I let Cooper out without leashing him. He sticks right by my side. This evening, a squirrel hopped down the trail between the house and the chicken coop heading directly our way. It apparently didn't notice us at the front porch steps. When the squirrel was 20 feet away, Cooper took off after it and chased it up the tall weeping willow stump. Cooper stood on his hind legs and scratched on the willow bark, while looking at the squirrel. At a moment when Cooper ran around the stump, the squirrel jumped on the ground and ran to a tall maple tree. It was a really fun time for the puppy.

• Sunday, 3/1: Picking Up Pruning Sticks & Light Snow
  • Mary moved a 50-pound bag of food to the chickens, along with a wheelbarrow of hay for the coop floor.
  • She also picked up all of the sticks thrown on the ground from pruning several fruit trees and hauled them to a pile southwest of the house. Rabbits enjoyed chewing on all of the Porter's Perfection crabapple sticks.
  • I labeled the 2025 parsnip wine and stored the bottles away in a cooler. Mary and I enjoyed a bottle of 2023 parsnip wine. It possesses an interesting amber gold color and tastes good.
  • I looked online about ideas for keeping a cement floor warm in the winter.
  • At dusk, dark clouds were in the southern sky. After dark, about a half inch of wet snow fell.

Feb. 16-22, 2026

Weather | 2/16, p. cloudy, 40°, 61° | 2/17, cloudy, 45°, 58° | 2/18, sunny, 48°, 63° | 2/19, cloudy, 0.01 rain, 35°, 64° | 2/20, cloudy, 21°, 36° | 2/21, p. cloudy, 19°, 35° | 2/22, sunny, 10°, 27° |

• Monday, 2/16: Snow Geese in Big Numbers
  • Mary and I saw a huge bunch of about 1,000 snow geese this morning as they flew low over the house. They were heading west and were led by a duck. They were flying low enough for us to hear the wind rushing over their wings.
  • We heard our first robin "tea leaf" song this morning, a sure sign that spring is coming.
  • At noon, Mary and I walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond and noticed the ice is gone off the top of the water. We also looked at Bass Pond. The water is down about 3.5 feet, exposing several dead American lotus plants. I turned a lotus seed head over and a seed fell out. It's the size of a hazelnut and looks like an acorn without the acorn's cap. We need to work at eradicating these plants, because they're taking over Bass Pond. 
  • I spent hours looking online for chainsaw sharpening parts. There are three sharpening tools that I use on the large chainsaw, but need for the other two chainsaws that have smaller teeth on their chains. One is a file guide holder that puts the round chainsaw sharpening file at a correct 30-degree angle and the other is a file guide, which holds the round file. The final item is a depth gauge used to measure the rakers ahead of the teeth to see if they need filing down after teeth of the chain are sharpened.
  • We vacuumed bugs over and over and over, again.
  • On an evening walk around the west field, Cooper saw several bob white quail running into the north woods. He froze and watching them with keen attention, then sniffed where they ran.
  • I finished and sent off a survey of the fly tying class.
  • While walking Cooper on his walk prior to bedtime, Mary and I heard snow geese flying overhead in the dark.

• Tuesday, 2/17: First Blackbirds
  • I received a nice reply from TJ, one of the fly tying instructors of the online class I took in January and the beginning of February. It was after I sent in a survey of the class. Here are some of his words..."Dick, after reading this over, I feel like you actually understand how and why we have done many of the things that we did. That is very appreciated...Hopefully we see you next year. Thank you for the kind words."
  • Mary and I saw more snow geese heading west, today.
  • While walking Cooper around the west field, we saw a big deer track in the mud at the southwest corner of the field that was 3.75 inches long. We also heard three different Carolina wrens singing in the north woods when we walked to the end of Bobcat Trail. 
  • Every time I feed Cooper and I move him into the living room to allow the cats in the entry room to finish their meals, he gives me a big tongue smack up the side of my face after thoroughly licking crumbs from his bowl. He's very generous with his saliva.
  • Mary and I did some housecleaning.
  • I checked clean wine bottle numbers and I have enough for the three batches of wine that are overdue to get bottled.
  • I did a little more work on the house plans.
  • I saw and heard a few red-winged blackbirds in the east yard trees at sunset, which were the first of the season.
  • I received the The Orvis Fly Patterns Index in today's mail. Unfortunately the book came with a moldy smell with several of the back pages stuck together. It soaked up water at one point. The seller said it was in "good" condition. It was not.

• Wednesday, 2/18: Downy Woodpecker Makes a Home
  • During morning chores, Mary and I spotted four trumpeter swans in flight. We're wondering if they decided to stay here and nest. We also saw a bald eagle and several more Vs of snow geese.
  • A downy woodpecker put a big hole into the top of the trunk of the old weeping willow tree (see photo, below). Mary watched the woodpecker emerge from the hole and fly off to the big cherry tree.
  • Bill showed up at around 11 a.m. He's here until Sunday.
  • Bill and I walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond, east on the dry creek bed, and then home via an old east/west path.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex session entitled "Oddballs Under the Surface," about freshwater jellyfish, tetras, and shrimp that live in ponds, lakes, and streams in Missouri. It was very interesting.
  • I contacted the customer service department of thriftbooks about the moldy fly tying book I received yesterday. A representative emailed me back to tell me that they will send me a different copy of the book and that I can either keep the current copy or throw it away.
  • Mary made three pizzas and we played two games of Trivial Pursuit. Mary won both games. We also enjoyed the last bottle of 2021 pear wine, which was exceptionally good.

  

  A hole in the weeping willow stump made by a downy woodpecker.

• Thursday, 2/19: Bottling Apple Wine
  • Mary made a cherry crisp with the last of the pie cherries in the freezer. Most all cherries went into cherry wine this year.
  • Mary raked leaves and put three wheelbarrow loads on the top of the compost pile to add organic matter to it. She also put new hay in the chicken coop.
  • Bill washed two loads of laundry and changed the oil in his car.
  • I washed 18 bottles and then Bill and I bottled the apple wine that was made almost six months ago. The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.998, which gives it an alcohol content of 9.96 percent. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. We filled 17 bottles and corked them. Bill, Mary and I tried the leftover wine. It has a good apple flavor that will probably enhance with age.
  • Mary did a couple chores and then we got a thunderstorm around 4:30 p.m. It was our first thunderstorm of the year.
  • While I walked Plato to the gravel road and back, Mary and Bill saw several flocks of snow geese flying east after the rain. We also saw snow geese in the morning. A big flock of gackling geese flew west to east in the afternoon.
  • Bill threw the lacrosse ball for Cooper. The puppy loved it.
  • Mary heard our first killdeer of the season.
  • The three of us ate popcorn and watched Clear and Present Danger (1994) and Sister Act (1992).

• Friday, 2/20: 69th Birthday
  • I'm 69 today...don't feel that old.
  • Mary baked a turkey. It was a great midday meal.
  • Mom called. A blizzard went through Circle earlier this week, but this winter has been mild in eastern Montana.
  • Katie called. There is a good snow pack in Anchorage, so outdoor activities are plentiful for her. She's involved with several projects at work.
  • I split larger firewood pieces from the first mulberry tree I cut down last week and put four wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed.
  • There are fewer snow geese flying overhead.
  • Cooper and I raised a flock Bob White quail that were midway down our lane.
  • We watched the 2017 movie Murder on the Orient Express.

• Saturday, 2/21: Bottling Parsnip & Jalapeño Wines
  • We saw four deer run away to the west as we were walking Cooper on his first walk of the day.
  • Bill and I racked and bottled parsnip and jalapeño wines:
    
    • Parsnip - The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.999. The alcohol content is 9.3 percent. We filled 20 bottles of this wine. Mary, Bill and I tasted the leftovers. It was very good. It has a bit more earthiness than previous versions, probably because all of the parsnips were homegrown and fresh out of the garden.
    • Jalapeño - The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.992. The alcohol content is 11.27 percent. We corked 15 bottles of this wine. We all tasted leftovers. It was warm, but not terribly hot. It has a strong green pepper flavor.
  • Mary heard snow geese, so we still have a few going through.

• Sunday, 2/22: Deer Antler Shed
  • Bill left to return to his St. Charles apartment around 1 p.m. He starts his new job tomorrow.
  • For a late afternoon long walk, I took Cooper for a walk on a loop to the east. I found the shed of a deer antler on the trail that Bill and I walked just on Wednesday. It is a rack with four points (see photo, below).
  • Mary and I saw several flocks of snow geese flying north when I was playing fetch with Cooper.
  • I worked a couple hours on our house plan.

  

  A deer antler I found while walking Cooper.

  
   

Feb. 9-15, 2026

Weather | 2/9, sunny, 18°, 57° | 2/10, sunny, 37°, 53° | 2/11, sunny, 23°, 49° | 2/12, cloudy, 30°, 55° | 2/13, sunny, 28°, 58° | 2/14, cloudy to 0.08" rain, 35°, 54° | 2/15, fog to sun, 37°, 59° |

• Monday, 2/9: Pizza, Firewood & Fetch
  • We experienced very warm temperatures for what's officially wintertime.
  • I saw online that today was International Pizza Day, so Mary made a midday meal of pizza.
  • I cut up the second dead mulberry tree southwest of the house and pulled another wagon load of mulberry firewood back home. Mulberry blasts a bunch of sparks when you place the firewood on hot red coals in the woodstove.
  • We let Cooper outside for the first time without leash. He comes immediately when we whistle, so we thought we'd give it a try. He runs everywhere all at once. Mary got a tennis ball and played fetch with him. He loves the game, runs very fast after the ball, and often grabs it in midair. Fetch is a great way of wearing him out. Cooper slept soundly in his chair this evening.
  • Bill texted that he will visit us between Feb. 18-22. He starts his new job on Feb. 23.
  • When I finished up evening chores, I heard an odd cry from the west woods. When Mary brought up various wildlife sounds from online sources, we identified it as a cry from a bobcat. It kind of resembles a baby's cry.

• Tuesday, 2/10: Yummy Apple Slush & Midge Flies
  • We tried the apple slush made in September from Liberty and Porter's Perfection apples that were sliced up in the food processor. It tastes absolutely wonderful in a bowl of hot oatmeal with blackberries and pecans. It's an excellent way to store apples in the freezer and eat them many months later. We'll do a lot more of this in the future.
  • I gave Mary a haircut. We save a lot of money by not paying a hair stylist. Mary told me, "Always trust your bald barber."
  • Cooper just loves it when we throw a ball for him to fetch. I tossed a tennis ball for him today. He usually caught it on a first or second bounce. Cooper even flips it out on the ground for us to pick up. We haven't had a dog as enthusiastic about fetching a ball as is the case with Cooper. I remember Molly, our first golden retriever, would look at me after throwing a ball as if to say, "You threw it, you go get the damn thing."
  • I tied three midge flies using different colored feathers and thread (see photos, below). These are tied on the tiniest of hooks.
  • Mary and I watched the 1983 film, The Right Stuff .

  

  Midge Flies: Tied in class (far left), all others tied today. Tied with feathers from our rooster (far right).

• Wednesday, 2/11: A Month with Cooper
  • As of today, we have had Cooper for four weeks. Mary took photos of him while on a walk that I sent to the All Gods Creatures animal shelter in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where we got Cooper, to show them how well he's filled out (see photos, below). He was a bag of bones, initially. I played a game of fetch with him. This time I used a white ball that Bill found at a pickle ball court in St. Louis. Looking up the logo on that ball online, it turns out it's a lacrosse ball. Cooper goes through a tennis ball in two days. This lacrosse ball might last longer. He loves the game of retrieving a ball and it's good exercise for him.
  • The package of fly tying items came J. Stockard arrived today after traveling from the east coast to the west coast and back to here. I unpacked the 24 items that were in it.
  • I tied two Dark Cahill wet flies (see photo, below). They turned out kind of rough. This was a fly pattern that we never had enough time to make in the fly tying class. I used some sticky dubbing wax that I got today and it greatly helps. I used too much glittery dubbing on the second fly. Natural dubbing is nothing more than fine animal hair. It makes the body of the flies. Both flies have wings that are too long. It wasn't a good day for me for making flies, so I quit.

Cooper at full attention on Bobcat Trail.

Cooper isn't skin and bones, anymore.

Dark Cahill Wet flies that are kind of messy.

• Thursday, 2/12: An Opossum in the Coop
  • While walking Cooper at predawn, Mary heard a wild turkey gobble for a second morning in a row. This time it was to the south. This is really early in the year.
  • I drove to Lewistown and bought tractor and chainsaw gas, along with a book of stamps at the post office.
  • I put some of the beads I use for fly tying into small circular holders.
  • I received The Book of Fly Patterns, by Eric Leiser in today's mail. It looks like an excellent book.
  • Mary found a large opossum in the chicken coop when she was putting the chickens away for the night. She used a shovel to coax it into a large plastic garbage can. I hauled the opossum to the bottom of Bramble Hill and let him out. He meandered off into the woods.
  • I saw a V of about 30 cackling geese go overhead while finishing evening chores.
  • Mary started an online family book club suggested by Katie. The first discussion was about an article in historyextra.com about U boat living conditions during WWII.

• Friday, 2/13: Shopping & Cooper Points
  • When Mary opened curtains in the living room this morning, she saw seven deer just south of the house. Some were very close to the apple trees, so she tapped on the window and they moved off to the west.
  • Mary saw the start of snow geese heading west while she walked Cooper this morning.
  • I went shopping in Quincy. Walmart was busy changing the location of everything, so finding items was difficult. Why do stores do this? I got new sharpening files for the small pruning chainsaw. The main reason I went to town, to get a prescription, was delayed because Sam's Club Pharmacy is out and needs to reorder the item.
  • Mary found a little opossum in the chicken coop when she was putting the chickens to bed. It ran out the chicken door and scooted away.
  • Mary reported that Cooper was a very good boy today. He didn't get into any trouble when she was outside for a long time hanging up laundry. She threw the rubber ball for him to retrieve until he was forced into submission. On the morning walk, she saw him go into a full point at some wild animal in the bushes. Mary looked up whether dogs with the Vizsla breed in them point and discovered that the Hungarian word for point is "vizsla," so the answer is yes, Vizsla dogs point.

• Saturday, 2/14: Movie Binge
  • We saw several large Vs of snow geese flying over us heading west today. We also saw cackling, Canada, and Ross's geese.
  • It was a quiet day for us.
  • Mary made a Mississippi mud chocolate cake. We had a piece, each, with some cherry wine.
  • I wore out Cooper with a long period of a game of fetch.
  • As it rained outside, we did a three-movie binge and watched Must Love Dogs (2005), Notting Hill (1999), and Marry Me (2022).

• Sunday, 2/15: Moving Firewood & Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!
  • I unloaded mulberry firewood from the trailer. This was wood that I cut on Monday.
  • We heard our first eastern meadowlark of the season.
  • Many geese of all kinds flew over the house today. I saw four trumpeter swans fly low over the gardens. We thought they were gone to the north with warmer temperatures, but I guess we still have a few.
  • It was a massive Asian ladybug day. Mary and I each vacuumed bugs twice, which means the house windows, ceilings and floors got bugs sucked from them four times today. Oh, how I want a tight house that keeps bugs outside!
  • Each evening I watch several YouTube videos from the Winter Olympics. It's so fun watching sporting events that aren't normally featured, such as all types of skiing, ski jumping, speed skating, curling, and the biathlon. Of course, I watch a little hockey from the Olympics, too. 

Feb. 2-8, 2026

Weather | 2/2, cloudy, 27°, 37° | 2/3, cloudy, 19°, 30° | 2/4, sunny, 9°, 29° | 2/5, cloudy, 19°, 47° | 2/6, sunny, 37°, 46° | 2/7, sunny, 16°, 36° | 2/8, p. cloudy, 21°, 46° |

• Monday, 2/2: Warmer Temps & Fly Tying
  • Most of the snow that's covered the ground for several days melted with warmer temperatures.
  • Mary and I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail. Under a tall oak tree halfway down Bobcat Trail, we found bits from honey comb on the snow. Some animal found and tore apart a beehive.
  • We cut back Cooper's food to three cups a day. His ribs aren't showing so much and we're probably more at a maintenance feeding amount, now. 
  • I sharpened one of the chains of the big Stihl chainsaw. I also greased the clutch bearing on that saw. We bought that saw in 2009. Steady maintenance keeps it going strong.
  • I heard trumpeter swans and saw four cackling geese fly overhead while doing evening chores. Mary heard Canada geese to the north. 
  • I attended the eighth and final online fly tying class where we tied three flies. They were the zug bug, the case caddis, and the midge. The last fly was extremely small! TJ, one of the instructors, went through all of the flies we created through the eight classes, detailing how to fish each one. This series of classes was the best in all fly tying classes I've attended.
  • Mary started an extremely rough sketch of a future house. I looked up charts for various size lumber to use as floor joists to gain strong floors.

• Tuesday, 2/3: High Water Bill Shock
  • The water bill that came in yesterday's mail was a shocker. They claimed that we owed over $1200 and used 81,000 gallons of water in one month. The date listed of when they read the meter was June 4, 2025. I looked it up and if you put 81,000 gallons in a tank, it would be 36 feet in diameter and 21 feet high. Mary said, "I wonder when we installed the Olympic swimming pool in the midst of subzero temperatures...polar bear dip, anyone?" I opened the cover to the underground meter near our outdoor hydrant and recorded the reading, then called the water district office. The woman I talked to said the reason for the goofy bill was that our monthly readings have been estimated for several months and someone would have to come to our place and get a reading. I gave her today's numbers off the meter. She thanked me and said she would call me right back once she figured out the correct amount. That call was at 11:30 a.m. Since I never had a call back, I called the office at 3:15 p.m. asking if she figured out the correct bill amount. She said it's been a very busy day, which indicates they had a major goof up in all of the bills that were sent out and most all customers were calling the office. The correct amount was a two digit number, instead of a four digit figure. I've suspected for about a year that the new readers that they installed a couple years ago, which were supposed to be read automatically at their office, weren't working. Amounts of water that we supposedly used each month remained the same, even though we use significantly more water in summer months for watering gardens. This billing snafu proved that point.
  • While Mary finished dusting books, I sharpened the second chain of the big Stihl chainsaw.
  • I started reworking house plan drawings, drawing a 24x78 foot rectangle. It looks like a mobile home. We'll see how this looks with rooms drawn into the plan. We've worked and reworked house plans for over a decade. We need to get beyond the "plans" stage!

• Wednesday, 2/4: Jassid Fly Tying & Garlic Wine Decision
  • Mary and I did accounting things this morning. I balanced the checkbook and she paid the bills.
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and Bobcat Trail at noon. He already knows the trails very well. Bobcat is a vague trail that was cleared years ago, but Cooper stopped where we always stop and turned to retrace his steps. He's a quick learner. Mary and I walked Cooper in the evening on a loop around the north field.
  • I tied two versions of the Jassid dry fly (see photo, below). In one I used a hen chicken's breast feather and light brown thread. The other involved a white feather and white thread. After tying them, I looked online. Jassid is a family name for leaf hoppers. A correctly tied Jassid fly has much smaller wings than what we were taught in the fly tying class. The Jassid fly was first developed in 1952. Mary worked on a cross stitch project while I tied these flies.
  • Since I'm late at making garlic wine, and from past experience, when I make this wine by this time of the year, its taste isn't as good, we decided to forgo making garlic wine this year. We figured out that we need 26 bottles for cooking purposes until I make a batch in early December, which is the exact number of garlic wine bottles we currently have in stock.

  

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

• Thursday, 2/5: Chainsaw Sharpening & Splitting Firewood
  • A fly tying order I placed a few days ago with J. Stockard in Connecticut showed up in California this morning. It's the second time this has happened. An former order went to Florida. Someone or some machine in the Springfield, MA post office needs an education in U.S. geography.
  • I sharpened both chains of the small Stihl chainsaw and greased its clutch bearing. I also checked the chain on the Stihl chainsaw pruner. It's still sharp. All three Stihl saws have different sized chains. I need to get proper sharpening equipment for the two smaller saws.
  • I split the rest of the firewood sitting next to the woodsplitter in the machine shed. All of the red oak was damp, so it went into a crisscross stack on the inside of the machine shed's north wall. One wheelbarrow load of ash firewood went into the woodshed. The rest was damp and went into a quick heap in front the the splitter. I'll stack it tomorrow.
  • Outside temperatures are higher, so we're back to vacuuming bugs in our house...yuck!
  • Cooper had a good day, today. He sometimes veers back to poor behavior, but then he thinks about things after corrections and gets better. Chasing cats is a major no-no. Biting human hands is another. Knocking food bowls out of kilter prior to eating is a really big mistake. But today there was none of that. He learns fast.

• Friday, 2/6: Wind, Waffles, & Tying Flies
  • With a strong north northwest wind Mary filled the clotheslines with laundry.
  • When we walked Cooper around the west field, we found bright yellow feathers on Bobcat Trail. Mary thinks they are from a yellow-shafted northern flicker. She thinks it was killed by a Cooper's hawk.
  • Trumpeter swans are still with us, but in lower numbers.
  • I put split ash firewood in a crisscross stack along the inside northern side of the machine shed.
  • I cooked waffles for our midday meal.
  • I added rooms to our recent house plans.
  • I ordered two used fly tying books through Thrift Books. They are The Orvis Fly Patterns Index by John R. Harder and The Book of Fly Patterns by Eric Leiser.
  • I tied two versions of the Zug Bug fly that we learned in the recent class. This fly pattern was created by Cliff Zug of Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Its tail is made of three strands of iridescent green peacock swords that shimmer similar to a green bug. It's supposed to resemble a caddis larvae. I changed colors of feathers, tinsel, and thread in the flies I tied today (see below). I think the fish in Bass Pond will really chomp onto these flies.

  

  Zug Bugs tied in class (left) & today (center & right). Feathers on today's flies
  came from our chickens. Shiny tinsel in today's bodies came from a JoAnn closeout sale.

• Saturday, 2/7: Bill Has a New Job
  • We walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond. We could hear ice on the pond creaking and groaning as it expanded with the sun's heat. There were deer tracks going across that ice.
  • We suspect that Cooper is actually growing a bit taller besides filling out. If that's the case, he's a lot younger than two years old. He still eats like a Tasmanian Devil, but Mary has him holding a sit for 30 seconds while the full dog food dish is sitting in front of him prior to eating.
  • Mary heard and saw three different red-shouldered hawks at the same time when she let chickens out of the coop around 10 a.m. It seems to be a type of bird we're seeing with greater numbers. 
  • Mary vacuumed a bunch of bugs. Higher temperatures brings out more Asian ladybugs and flies.
  • Bill called around noon after he took a tour of the facility with the owner of DCRS Solutions, a company in Maryland Heights (a St. Louis suburb) that sells point of sale card readers. He was offered a logistics specialist position which involves being in charge of incoming and outgoing shipping, keeping track of inventory, along with other duties. Bill is going to okay the offer by Monday. The position fits his prior background perfectly. Bill's last day with his prior job was on Jan. 9th. It only took him 29 days to find a new job.
  • I looked for firewood in the west woods southwest of the house and found several dead trees. I found two dead mulberry trees and went back with the tractor and trailer. I cut up one of these mulberries. This yellow wood is extremely hard and produces excellent heat in the woodstove. My new small lithium battery driven chainsaw pruner is great at trimming off branches I missed with the big chainsaw that are protruding off pieces of firewood.
  • An order came in today's mail to Mary from 123stitch.com with a bunch of cross stitch stuff. Included in it were three bead storage containers where I can store beads I use for fly tying.
  • I watched a bunch of videos from the Winter Olympics on YouTube. I like this viewing much better than seeing it on broadcast TV, because I can pick what I want to watch instead of seeing figure skating ad nauseam. I watched several women's hockey games, women's speed skating (won by an Italian in record setting time), women's ski jumping, women's cross-country skiathon (gold and bronze went to two Swedish women who come from the same town), and men's downhill (insane speeds).

• Sunday, 2/8: The Great Margarine Caper!
  • While Mary and I were outside cooking up some smoked scrambled eggs in a cast iron skillet over a small fire I built, Cooper was inside our house raising hell. Besides yipping loudly, he grabbed a big tub of Country Crock margarine off the kitchen counter, drug it to inside our main entry door and snarfed about an inch of margarine. When we entered the house, he zoomed to his chair in the living room and hung his head, knowing he was naughty. We immediately gave him the message that he did the wrong thing. All of that margarine buttered up his insides and by bedtime, he threw up. In his vomit was the remains of a dog toy he once ate before we knew him. We saw it briefly when he vomited about a week ago, but then he ate it all back up. This time, Mary moved Cooper to me and she removed the vomit. It had a strong odor of margarine. Today was a tough day for our puppy.
  • While Mary did a little house cleaning, I emptied firewood out of the trailer and stacked it in appropriate places, based on its size. No chainsawing for me today. I find it better to give myself at least a one-day break from lifting the big Stihl chainsaw around, since it's quite heavy.
  • We walked Cooper a lot, thinking he needed exercise after the Great Margarine Caper. He was happy to get extra walks.
  • The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. We are happy, since we were rooting for them. 

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°, 27° |

• 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.

• Sunday, 2/1: Racking Pear Wine
  • I walked Cooper at noon on a loop around the north field, following a well-worn game trail across the north end of the field. A stout southwest wind made the last leg of that trip very cold, even though temperatures are higher today. 
  • Mary did some house cleaning chores. I helped a tiny bit by cleaning bathroom and kitchen sinks.
  • I racked the pear wine for the fourth time. I was two weeks late on this wine racking. The specific gravity was 0.998 and the pH was 3.2. I added a gram of Kmeta. Mary and I tasted leftovers. This is the best pear wine I've ever made. Using black raisins, instead of golden raisins, gives pear wine an improved taste. This is great, since black raisins are cheaper.
  • A big flock of cackling geese flew over the house while Mary walked Cooper on his second long walk of the day. Cackling geese seem to be staying here this winter. In past years, we'd only see a cackling goose flying with a flock of Canada geese.
  • I watched fly tying videos on how to make a foam dragonfly and a meat whistle fly, both that we learned to make in Thursday's fly tying class. The videos demonstrated better methods for tying both of these flies than what we learned in class, so I decided I'll wait on making additional copies of these two flies and make them at a later date while using these better methods.
  • We need to move out of this house before it breaks apart while we're in it. The last drawing of a new house that I worked up a couple years ago involved an L shape and three different builds. To heck with that. We decided to develop a plan with one rectangular shape built all at once.