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°, xx° |

• 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!

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. 

April 20-26, 2026

Weather | 4/20, sunny, 32°, 66° | 4/21, sunny, 54°, 77° | 4/22, cloudy, 57°, 78° | 4/23, p. cloudy, 54°, 83° | 4/24, 0.55" rain, 54°, 68° | 4/25, sunny, 42°, 76° | 4/26, sunny to thunderstorms, 49°, 79° |

• Monday, 4/20: Mowing, Mowing, Mowing...Keep Those Mowers Rolling!
  • There was widespread frost on the ground this morning, with a low of 32°.
  • I noticed an oak tree that blew down near the beginning of Bobcat Trail that would make good firewood.
  • Mary and I both mowed. I mowed the lane, the east yard between the house and the lane and most of the south yard. Mary mowed between the sheds and the west yard.
  • Mary put grass mulch around the two new bushes, the rhubarb, and the raspberry transplants. I added grass mulch to the south row in the near garden.
  • I noticed rabbit chewings on the new strawberry plants, so Mary added old laced curtains over the strawberry containers and held them in place with several clothes pins.
  • We heard a wild turkey gobble to the east northeast in the late afternoon. Today is the first day of spring turkey hunting season. 
  • I watched Game 1 of the Edmonton Oilers/Anaheim Ducks NHL game. The Oilers won 4-3.

   

• Tuesday, 4/21: Mowing & Birth Certificate
  • On the noontime walk with Cooper around the north field, I noticed the spring green color of the leaves on the honey locust trees (see photo, below). This tree's pea-like leaves arrive with a distinct yellow-green color.
  • Mary mowed the area directly north of the house, which is the worst lawn to mow, due to mounds built up by moles digging in the earth. She also mowed the east lawn across the lane from the house. I mowed the rest of the south lawn and the south orchard. Mary progressed with grass mulch on the south row of the near garden and I put mulch around five of the eight small apple trees in the south orchard.
  • I also added baling twine to the Antonovka and the Colville trees to keep them more upright through heavy winds.
  • My birth certificate arrive in the mail from Florida. I'm now legal. For over 69 years I've been an alien blob. Now I'm a legal human. I feel better already.
  • It was windy all day, but especially after dark when we heard a maple tree that's growing too close to the southwest corner of the house scratching on the outside wall. I need to cut that tree down before it damages the house.
  • I finished Alexander Kent's 21st novel, For My Country's Freedom. The later novels by this guy are getting very predictable.

  

  The bright spring leaves of a honey locust tree.

   

• Wednesday, 4/22: Mowing, Body Mad at Me
  • Mary mowed east of the machine shed and around the grain bins. Since poison ivy is trying to take over that part of the lawn, she didn't collect any grass clippings. I mowed the western orchard path, then inside and outside of the near garden, minus between the fences.
  • My body is screaming at me for pushing a mower for three straight days. 
  • Something ate on the newly transplanted pink lilac bush. I'm suspecting a rabbit. There are nice green leaves on the top of the Carpathian walnut sapling and the basket willow, along with all five of the transplanted raspberry plants.
  • I watched two hockey games at once. They were the Oilers/Ducks and the Wild/Stars games. I'd switch between the games as one or the other went into intermission between periods. The last game went into double overtime and ended at close to 1 a.m. I was rooting for the Wild. They lost 4-3. I rooted for the Oilers in the other game. They lost 6-4. I guess I jinxed both teams.

   

• Thursday, 4/23: Shopping & Fly Tying
  • I noticed that Circle, MT is under a blizzard warning. In texts with Mom, she said it's true, and that it's snowing and blowing. Mom said that yesterday's high was close to 90 and she had windows open with the fan on. This morning, she has the heat on.
  • I drove to Quincy, mainly to pick up two prescriptions. I grabbed a few other items while in town.
  • After cleaning the house, Mary finished mowing the far north yard.
  • A couple rain drops fell after I returned home, but that was the end of it. 
  • Mary and I did a quick tour of a few transplanted items, such as the bleeding heart, basket willow, and the Carpathian walnut. All are progressing with nice green leaves appearing.
  • I took in a fly tying Webex. This one featured Pat Rigby, a tech specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation office in Kirksville, who has tied flies for over 20 years. He keyed in on making soft flies that sink. They're made with chicken hen feathers...hey, I have tons of free hen feathers! These are flies with a slim profile that are easy to make. He used yarn in the place of dubbing, "because I'm lazy," he says. The flies he makes look great and in some cases, it took him just seconds to make them. I left a comment about how his fly tying speed blew me away and he said, "Tie 10,000 flies and your speed increases." He winds the thread backwards on the hook (counterclockwise) from the way we were taught to wind it. Pat promoted trying all kinds of colors. He notices that dark patterns work better in muddy water, compared to bright and flashy flies. He uses flashy stuff in super clear water.
  • I ordered a fly tying book recommended by TJ, who hosts the monthly fly tying Webex.

   

• Friday, 4/24: Hobby Day & Watching NHL
  • We had over a half an inch of rain just after midnight. We heard it pouring on the roof while we were in bed.
  • After several days of pushing lawnmowers, we decided that today is hobby day and not a work day. 
  • I walked Cooper on his noontime walk to Wood Duck Pond. As we were getting close, I could hear a lone turkey gobbling to the east. The normally dry creek bed was flooded and the gobble sound was coming from across the water, from the slope on the east side of the woods. I called Cooper and we went back up the trail as to not disturb the turkey. Bass Pond is full of muddy water.
  • Mary cross stitched a Halloween pattern entitled, Scarie Sadie, of a black cat and bats in front of a full moon.
  • I tied two soft flies (see photos, below) based on the Webex I attended yesterday. One involves red thread, one of our rooster's feathers for a tail, Kreinik (metallic thread I bought when JoAnn's went out of business) used as ribbing, and a Rhode Island red feather tied on a #12 hook with a 1X shank. The other fly involves olive thread, a turkey feather tail, Kreinik ribbing, a body of two peacock hurls, and a barred rock feather tied on a #10 hook with a 2X shank. I tied these flies in an hour and a half. Pat, who I watched on Webex, probably could have tied both of them in two minutes.
  • Bill texted that he received a raise today after only two month on the job. He also was named Problem Solver of the Quarter and won a $150 gift card to the restaurant of his choice on Wednesday. His new job is an obvious good fit for him.
  • An online search revealed that by typing a certain number (*3001#12345#*) on an iPhone, you can get detailed information on 5G signal strength received from the cell tower. I went around the house searching for the strongest signal and found it in the upstairs south bedroom near the top of the south wall. At that point, it was equivalent to three bars of 5G. I leaned a six-foot step ladder against the inside of that wall in the bedroom and put the modem on it. This gave me an uninterrupted signal to the laptop hooked to the TV located downstairs in the living room. This is the modern version of wiggling a rabbit ear antenna on top of your television, circa 1972.
  • I watched Game 3 of the Ducks/Oilers Stanley Cup Playoffs. Anaheim won, 7-4. They deserved to win. Edmonton played the worst game I've ever seen them play. They're not going to make it beyond Round 1, if they continue on their current path. The Ducks are ahead in that series, two games to one.

Soft fly with red thread & dark feathers.

Soft fly with olive thread and white feathers.

• Saturday, 4/25: Bill Is Here For a Day
  • Each time after we get a big rain this spring, mobs of small ants fill the inside of our mailbox. I cleaned them out of the mailbox right when Bill arrived.
  • Bill showed up around 11 a.m. He's here for just one day.
  • Mary planted several pepper seeds in Styrofoam cups. 
  • Mary and I toured the newly transplanted plants (see photos, below). Two of the three yellow coneflowers are coming through the ground. Two of three blue phlox are thriving. All three Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants are looking great. Critters are nibbling on the pink lilac and basket willow bushes, but they both contain leaves. The rhubarb and the bleeding heart plants both look great. All five purple raspberry plants are up and growing leaves. The Carpathian walnut is sending out a big leaf bracket. I might need to remove the blue plastic protection tube and build a larger hardware cloth protector for it.
  • Bill and I watched Game 4 of the Stars/Wild hockey playoffs. Minnesota won, 3-2, in overtime. It was a really good game. The series is tied 2-2.
  • Mary made pizza that we enjoyed with some 2024 cherry wine while playing several games of Azul. Bill won most of the games. Mary and I won one game, each. It was fun.

  

  The three leaves in the middle are those of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant.

  
  

New leaves of a bleeding heart plant.

Rhubarb leaves are looking great.

Two of the five purple raspberry plants.



Blue phlox leaves are the tiny ones in the middle.

 

 

• Sunday, 4/26: Bill Leaves
  • After filling up his cooler with nine dozen eggs, we said goodbye to Bill. Our egg supply is still healthy, but at least we can see a little bare space in our fridge!
  • Yesterday, a tick traveled up my right leg and bite four times along the way. Since that leg was horribly itchy, I refrained from wearing pants. I stayed inside and washed dishes while Mary went outside and mowed. She mowed the chicken yard and the trail to between Bass Pond and Dove Pond.
  • I watched Game 4 of the Ducks/Oilers playoffs. The Ducks won in overtime, 4-3. Edmonton's defense is to pass the puck to the opposing team in front of their own net. It's not a key to success. The Ducks are ahead three games to one. One more loss by Edmonton and they're out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Round 1.
  • It rained a little bit prior to bedtime.

April 13-19, 2026

Weather | 4/13, p. cloudy, 61°, 81° | 4/14, 0.15" rain to cloudy, 65°, 86° | 4/15, 0.09" rain to cloudy, 60°, 76° | 4/16, 0.85" rain overnight, sunny, 58°, 80° | 4/17, sunny to thunderstorms, 1.96" rain, 58°, 81° | 4/18, sunny, 39°, 55° | 4/19, sunny, 34°, 55° |

• Monday, 4/13: Ongoing Issues
  • Today is Katie's 34th birthday, so we wished her a happy birthday online.
  • Fedco answered my email. We'll send the plants back to them, after we repair their box. I asked how to handle the label, but didn't hear back from them, today.
  • Mary turned over a bit of the near garden soil and weeded the garlic plants that were filled with wild buckwheat.
  • A guy from the Lewis County Rural Electric Co-op showed up and did nothing, because he says they need to bring in a bucket truck and the ground is too wet to move the heavy truck onto our lawn in order to be close enough to the pole. They could climb the pole, but he said he would let one of the younger guys do that. "Call us back if there are any changes," he said. I guess we wait until the pole and the transformer catches on fire before they actually fix the issue!
  • I ordered new checks from walmartchecks.com about 10 days ago. Unfortunately, I forgot that a central Illinois banking company bought our bank and the routing number changed. We were allowed to use our checks until they ran out. I failed to put the new routing number on my order for new checks. When I called the, I was put on a holding pattern at about 12:30 p.m. and they would call me back. The call-back came in at 3:30 p.m., but I had the sound off on my phone and missed the call. I'll try again, tomorrow.
  • I picked four dozen dandelion flowers. I'm at 50.1 grams and need 270 grams of dandy blossoms for a one gallon batch of wine, so I've got a long way to go! 
  • The new o-rings and air filters for the old lawnmower came in today's mail. These o-rings fit and oil and gas caps of the big Stihl chainsaw perfectly.
  • Bill called. He's doing well at his new job. He was invited to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game that was against the Boston Red Sox. Boston won. Bill's friend from high school, Craig, has a job where the office is just one block away from Busch Stadium. So, they drove to the parking lot where Craig works, then walked to the stadium, which was nice. Bill said the Cardinals have a big guy who looks huge when seen with the rest of the team. This guy hit a home run on his first up-to-bat.

   

• Tuesday, 4/14: Transplanting Plants We Didn't Order
  • We woke at 3:15 a.m. with the sudden loud cracking of thunder overhead. Mary and I jumped out of bed and unplugged appliances.
  • While walking Cooper around the north field around noon, I noticed that water was puddled up everywhere.
  • The dog ends up sloppy after splashing through all of the puddles on trails, so Cooper gets a complete wash down on the front porch each time he goes outside. Today is the three-month anniversary of driving up to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, to get Cooper.
  • I successfully called walmartchecks.com and changed the routing number on our check order. Calling first thing in the morning helped. When you call during midday hours, it takes forever to get through.
  • An email from Fedco came with a label to print out and directions that a FedEx truck will pick up the package tomorrow. The problem is that we don't own a printer. I sent an email back that I'll drive to Quincy and have FedEx print out the label and asked if they could compensate me. A return email told us to keep the contents of the box and plant everything. That news totally changed our plans for today. 
  • Mary and I planted three Blue Moon woodland phlox plants in woods north of the machine shed near a pond that only fills when we get big rains. We also planted three corms of Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants at the same location. I marked each planting with tall sticks. We planted a Frances Red Basket willow in the north yard between the Four Brothers (two pin oaks, an American Elm, and a pecan tree) and the McIntosh apple tree. We don't care if deer eat it, so we're not putting a fence around it. We planted a Miss Canada lilac near other lilac bush in the west yard. Finally, we planted yellow coneflower roots west of our livingroom's west window, near where we have a yearly stand of purple coneflowers that Mary planted in 2010. Not including dahlias that are planted later, we have four more items to put in the ground. Cloudy conditions and nighttime rains mean you couldn't ask for better transplanting weather. We hope the plants survive. Most all have pale yellow leaves. They've been in a dark box too long.
  • I found two morel mushrooms in the woods where we planted the phlox and Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants. We left them behind. These mushrooms are very treasured by locals who bread and deep-fry them. We know that years ago, people grabbed them out of these woods, so we want to leave them alone to build up their population.
  • All of the strawberries that we planted on Sunday are looking very good, with nice green leaves.
  • Mary harvested several asparagus spears. Some shoots were already too large to eat and she left them to grow. She lightly cooks them in garlic wine...very yummy!
  • With a high reaching 86°, it's a bit hot for living without an air conditioner. However, we have predicted lows in upcoming days in the 30s, so it's still too early for running an AC. We cooled the house down like my grandfather used to do in Maryland, with open windows and a big fan.
  • Before any AC goes in, we'll need to insist on the electric company fixing the short at the transformer, which we heard and saw at night while walking the puppy.

   

• Wednesday, 4/15: Yellow Violets & More Transplanting
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail, where the yellow violets have really multiplied (see video and photos, below). Mary got seasick watching my video and went back to take the photos.
  • I picked blossoms off eight dozen dandy flowers. I have a grand total of  75 grams and I need 270 grams to make a gallon of wine. Is it any wonder that I hate this time-consuming job?
  • Mary transplanted most of the rest of the plants we didn't order, but received on Saturday from Fedco. She put the Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart in middle of the four brothers trees in the north yard. I need to add protection around that plant. Mary planted the Wild Columbine in a pot located in the shade next to the woodshed. She also put the Victoria heirloom rhubarb in a large pot. It will be there until we can dig up a place for it in the middle of the far garden. The five Royalty Purple Raspberry plants went into ground south of the far garden, near the compost bins and next to other wild raspberry plants. The only set of plants yet to put in the ground are three different kinds of dahlia bulbs. Mary plans to plant them after May 1.
  • A thunderstorm rolled through after dark, with a strong downpour of rain, giving us 85 hundredths of an inch of precipitation.

Yellow violet close-up taken by Mary.

Spring Beauties along our Bobcat Trail.
 

Yellow violets and an active puppy dog on Bobcat Trail.

• Thursday, 4/16: Ticks & Dandelions
  • We picked a lot more ticks off Cooper after his noontime walk. It amounted to about 40 ticks. We've entered the height of the tick season right now. 
  • The conditions on the north loop trail are very wet with water in the trail about everywhere. The silly National Weather Service has us in a moderate drought. I beg to differ with their assessment! We've had 5.32 inches of moisture since April 1st.
  • Mary sorted and tossed bad items from stored acorn squash and garlic bulbs. She reports that they are storing amazingly well. She tossed six squash and about a bucket and a third of bad garlic bulbs. Squash should only last three months after picking. They were picked in October, so they should all be bad by January. Garlic should last six months after harvest. They were harvested around May/June. We always get some of our garlic to last until July of the next year, or 13 months.
  • I picked dandelion blossoms. I'm noticing low numbers of dandelion flowers this year. I now have just over 100 grams of blossoms. I'm contemplating making just a half-gallon batch of dandelion wine this year.
  • I changed a magazine subscription away from Fine Homebuilding to The Journal of Light Construction. The former magazine is all about high-priced ideas for construction companies and doesn't fit my interests.

   

• Friday, 4/17: WOW! The Thunderstorms
  • I picked dandelion blossoms and now have a total of 122.6 grams. I only need to get 12.4 grams to get enough for making a half gallon of wine.
  • We did chores very early in the mid-afternoon with severe thunderstorms arriving.
  • I was throwing a ball for a game of fetch with Cooper when thunder was banging in the west. Needless to say, our game didn't last long.
  • When I put Cooper inside, skies were very dark to the west and I watched seven turkey vultures riding the currents and circling right over the house. They always ride the wind currents ahead of an approaching storm. 
  • Mary took a few things out of the freezer in case power went out with our poor transformer connection and we didn't want to open freezer doors and lose cold temperatures in the freezers. Our power stayed on.
  • From 4:00 until 11:30 p.m., a long chain of thunderstorms rumbled through us. At times, the skies were green with dark clouds. Funnel clouds were recorded west and north of here. One-inch hail fell in Lewistown, just five miles north of us. We only had a little bit of marble-sized hail. We experienced very strong winds and a continuous roar of thunder. Our total rainfall was almost two inches. We now have 7.28 inches of moisture this month.
  • When we walked Cooper for his last outing, we were sloshing through water everywhere. It's a good thing we haven't planted seeds, because they would drown in our present swampy conditions.
  • A big, yet thin, tree frog parked on our east-facing kitchen window when we finally went to bed around midnight.

   

• Saturday, 4/18: Flooding Wood Duck Pond
  • In a check of the new plantings from the Fedco box of plants that we never ordered, Mary discovered that the wild columbine is dead. I noticed that three of of the five Royalty Purple Raspberry plants are greening. The basket willow and pink lilac bushes have leaves that are a bit greener.
  • Meanwhile, all of our newly planted strawberry plants are growing nicely. The garlic took a big jump in height. All of our fruit trees look great. There are new green leaves on the top of the newly planted Carpathian walnut sapling.
  • We walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond around noon. It's flooding and the dry creek bed is very wet and under water (see photos, below). I'll have to rebuild my deer blind after the floodwaters subside.
  • I picked enough dandelion blossoms to get a total of 137 grams, which will make a half gallon of wine. I'm guessing that this spring's 3° low, along with some days in the 80s, reduced the dandelion blossoms. All that's out there are tiny flowers.
  • I watched Game 1 of the Minnesota Wild/Dallas Stars playoff hockey game. The Wild won, 6-1. That's who I was rooting for.
  • When Mary put the chickens to bed for the night, she discovered that the west fence of the north chicken yard blew down overnight, yet all of the chickens stayed inside of their yard, even though they could have marched right over the fence into the west field. They're good chickens! 
  • Mary and I read books in the evening hours.

  

  Wood Duck Pond flooding the dry creek bed and the forest floor.

  
  

Wood Duck Blind on 4/2/26 with slight flooding.

The same blind in today's higher floodwater.
 

• Sunday, 4/19: Fixing Mary's Mower
  • There was spotty frost in shady places when I walked Cooper down the lane this morning.
  • We repaired the west chicken fence by pounding into the ground a couple metal fence posts at the base of fallen wooden posts and then leaning up the chicken wire fence and securing the wooden posts to the metal posts. I also drove two rebar stakes in the ground and tied a tomato cage surrounding a blueberry bush to the stakes. That cage keeps falling down in the wind, allowing rabbits to chew on the blueberry branches.
  • I made a guard out of a piece of three-foot high half-inch hardware cloth and put it around the newly transplanted Bleeding Heart plant to protect it from rabbits. 
  • I fixed Mary's push mower. I removed the air filter housing and used a small screwdriver to dig out oily dirt built up around the throttle mechanism and linkage. I changed the air filter. The old one was smelly with gas. I think it was choking down the engine. I removed the recoil pull starter assembly from the Kohler engine on a mower that died a few years ago and installed it on this mower. The recoil on the old mower we use wasn't retracting the pull starter rope all of the way. There was a nut missing of the three nuts that holds the recoil assembly on the mower we use, so I borrowed a nut off the dead mower. Once everything was put together, the mower started with just one pull, a new event for this mower. I tested it by mowing the lane to the rain gauge. It worked great. Mary is back in business for mowing the lawn, which is good, because the grass is now tall.
  • Mary dusted books to get rid of leftover dead ladybugs. Fortunately, they've finally dwindled down from invading the inside of our house windows.
  • Mary did a tour of recently transplanted plants. Most are doing well. So far, all that we've lost is one blue phlox, a wild columbine, and two of the three yellow coneflowers.
  • Mary says that the garlic plants doubled in size from the last deluge of rain.
  • A house wren showed up and is doing its "yickity, yack" song, claiming every bush and tree in our yard. A Carolina wren is telling the house wren to scram. We heard a screech owl when we walked Cooper on his nighttime outing, along with two barred owls to the east.