March 23-29, 2026

Weather | 3/23, p. cloudy, 29°, 51° | 3/24, cloudy, 33°, 57° | 3/25, cloudy, 45°, 80° | 3/26, 0.40" rain, p. cloudy to thunderstorms, 47°, 86° | 3/27, cloudy to sunny, 35°, 50° | 3/28, sunny, 22°, 53° | 3/29, cloudy, 45°, xx° |

• Monday, 3/23: Pruning is Done!
  • On the morning walk on the lane with Cooper, a wood duck pair lifted off Bluegill Pond. They can easily be identified by the female wood duck squawk. HERE is the sound.
  • Mary and I walked Cooper on the north loop around the north field at noon and he was off the leash the the whole way. He looked back at us many times to make sure we were still with him. He returns to us with a quick whistle. He's a good boy!
  • We identified a location south of the clothesline to plant a Prairie Fire crabapple sapling and another spot in the east lawn to plant a Carpathian, or English walnut tree that we've bought from Fedco and should arrive this month.
  • I finished pruning the big Bartlett pear tree using the 10-foot step ladder. I took out several water sprouts, but also left several, because when pruning, only a third of the tree branches should be removed. From atop the big ladder, I noticed lots of white buds, which means blossoms are coming. It's an advantage with pear trees. They blossom over a long stretch of time, so if some blooms are nailed by a freeze, future blossoms will survive.
  • There was no game of fetch for Cooper. His rear leg wound needs to heal. Instead, we let him loose for extra running around the yard. I did take him down to the mailbox at the gravel road and noticed that our Hispanic neighbors have moved out. The last time I spoke with Juan, he said smell from mice under the mobile home was too much for his wife, Alma, to live with and that they were looking to move.
  • We celebrated the end of pruning fruit trees with a bottle of cherry wine...how apropos! It sure is good stuff!

   

• Tuesday, 3/24: Foam Dragonfly
  • We decided to have a quiet day inside without physical exertion after I spent time yesterday crawling up and down a high ladder. I always tense up leg muscles while pruning trees from heights. I would have made a very poor sailor a couple centuries ago.
  • During our morning walk with Cooper, four deer ran off in the north woods beyond the end of Bobcat Trail.
  • We watched an unusual low-flying airplane go over our property several times today. It has a long probe off the rear of the plane. A recent WGEM article explains that it belongs to the U.S. Geological Survey. They are surveying Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri for minerals. HERE is the article. 
  • While Mary did some cross stitching, I made a big foam dragonfly lure. Below is a photo of a green one I made in the fly tying class and a video of the large red foam dragonfly I tied today. I used a YouTube video from an Italian who demonstrates tying flies to help build the red foam dragonfly.
  • Mary and I played fetch using a fast-running dog. Mary was on the porch and I was at the machine shed. I'd call Cooper. He'd run to me. Mary would call him and Cooper ran to her. We did that several times to burn excess energy from his puppy body.
  • In the middle of all of this, Mary spotted a peregrine falcon that flew east to west over the machine shed.

  

  A simple green foam dragonfly made in the fly tying class.

  
   
  Today's red dragonfly. Fuzzy body parts made with feather from our rooster, Leo.
  
  

• Wednesday, 3/25: Servicing Push Mowers & More Bugs
  • Mary heard the first brown thrasher of the season while walking Cooper first thing this morning.
  • When I walked Cooper around the south field at noon, I saw two deer run off to the west.
  • While Mary made tortillas, I serviced the two push lawnmowers...wire brushed spark plugs, blew out air filters, and scraped under the decks. Oil was clean and the blade was fine on the new mower. I changed oil and sharpened the blade on the old mower.
  • Using the new mower, I mowed all of the paths around the small cherry trees west of the house and all of the trees in the south orchard.
  • Mary vacuumed bugs over and over and over, again and again and again.
  • I finished reading Alexander Kent's 19th novel, Beyond the Reef. It was a good one.
  • We tried a bottle of 2025 peapod wine. It had a nice smell after opening the bottle, but tastes strongly of alcohol. This wine needs much more time aging. I believe snow peas are better eaten, rather than made into wine.

   

• Thursday, 3/26: Bugs & Fly Tying Webinar
  • We experienced a very hot day with strong southwest to northwest gusts of wind. Our high of 86° in March is extreme.
  • We vacuumed Asian ladybugs all day. I started with several tours around the house. Mary took over in the afternoon. There are fewer bugs in the windows on the second floor, so we might be getting to the end of this invasion, which is the worst, ever! Today, you couldn't keep up with the crawling masses of bugs until temperatures cooled off in the late afternoon.
  • All of the yards are filling up with violet blossoms.
  • I attended a virtual fly tying class that featured a Missouri Conservation Department (MDC) educator, Sam Stewart, who works out of southwestern part of Missouri. His presentation was on tying big articulating flies that swim with a serpentine action. These range from muskie and steelhead flies to flies used to catch bass. He uses big hooks and "buck tail" hair, which is simply the hollow, therefore floating, fibers off the tail of a deer. He washes deer tails, treats them in borax so they turn all white, then dyes them when color is needed. Sam tied what he calls a Cotton Candy Double Deceiver. It's mainly white, but has light blue and pink in it. These colors shine off minnow scales when the sun hits them in shallow water. HERE is a photo from his Instagram site of this fly that he uses to catch smallmouth bass. This was a very interesting class.
  • Fast-moving thunderstorms rolled through us after dark, giving us a nice amount of much-needed moisture.

   

• Friday, 3/27: Firewood & Sweet Potato Slips
  • Cooper and I walked on the north loop around noon. An ash tree fell across our trail north of the machine shed that I need to remove. We stopped and looked at Bass Pond. The water in it is now clear.
  • Mary started four sweet potatoes by putting them in water suspended by toothpicks in quart canning jars. She gains about 35-40 slips off these sweet potatoes to plant in the garden. We've been using our own sweet potatoes to create slips that we plant outside for the past three years. That saves us about $100, based on prices for sweet potato slips that we notice in seed catalogs.
  • I stuck stakes in the ground to indicate tentative locations for planting a couple trees. One is a Carpathian walnut tree that was shipped today from Fedco. The other is a Prairie Fire crabapple sapling from under the large tree.
  • I drove the tractor to a mulberry tree near the gravel road that's been dead for years and cut it into firewood. I kept all of the small branches for kindling, since they are very dry, making for excellent fire starter. I also cut up two small dead ash trees. Mary and I unloaded all of this firewood and stacked it in appropriate locations.
  • Mary checked all of the garlic plants in the far garden. They all recovered from the hard freeze that occurred last week.
  • An idiot cropdusting airplane pilot was landing and taking off from the airport at the dairy a mile west of us. We had wind gusts over 20 mph all day. All pesticide and herbicide labels say not to spray in high winds. Need I say more?!

   

• Saturday, 3/28: Gathering Firewood
  • Cooper and I walked on his noontime outing to Wood Duck Pond via Black Medic Hill. There were several deer tracks going up and down that hill. The pond's water level is still high. On the way home, we stopped at Bass Pond. The water was back in a murky state. 
  • Cooper is the best dog we've owned at coming back once you call or whistle when he ventures too far afield. Plato used to lag way behind on any walk. Amber would beeline for home and leave you in the dust. Churchill would go off the trail, sniffing, and seek out bird nests to eat...not a happy incident is you like birds. Klondike was horrible at snarfing up deer dung. Molly was a wild child that once literally jumped down a cliff to go after a squirrel at Medicine Rock State Park north of Ekalaka, MT. Our most recent puppy always wants to be nearby, which is a very nice aspect while the dog isn't on a leash during a walk.
  • I changed the O-ring in the gas cap on the large Stihl chainsaw to prevent it from leaking gas. The old O-ring had expanded and was leaking. I also mixed fuel for the chainsaws and added Ethanol Shield to the five gallon can of gas I bought before gas prices skyrocketed.
  • After driving the tractor to just north of the closer portion of north woods, I sawed up an ash tree that fell over our trail through those woods. Mary helped me load the firewood into the trailer. I drove home a full wagon load of firewood that we unloaded into various places. Most of this firewood needs drying time and is destined for the next firewood season starting in the autumn.
  • When I walked Cooper on his evening outing, we spooked several Bob White quail off the end of our lane where it meets the gravel road. Eleven wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond.
  • There were several mourning doves calling from all around the house in the evening. 

March 16-22, 2026

Weather | 3/16, p. cloudy, 9°, 25° | 3/17, clear to snow dusting, 3°, 30° | 3/18, clear to cloudy, 25°, 63° | 3/19, clear to p. cloudy, 43°, 72° | 3/20, clear, 49°, 83° | 3/21, clear, 51°, 87° | 3/22, cloudy, 39°, 69° |

• Monday, 3/16: Single Digits in March
  • We had a cold day with a low of 9° and a high of 25°. The newly emerged forsythia blossoms turned to a dull brown/orange color from their original bright yellow tint. We have a thorough coating of snow to keep temperatures low.
  • A good thing about cold temperatures is that there are fewer bugs in the house. I only vacuumed once.
  • A large number of bluebirds were hanging around the willow stump this morning.
  • The sun has lots of power. It melted snow down to bare ground in some spots, despite the cold.
  • While Mary cross stitched in the sunroom, I put away all of the rest of my fly tying goodies that were hidden under the rolltop desk. An advantage with a rolltop desk is you can hide all of your stuff. A disadvantage is once you slide the rolltop cover open, your heap falls out onto the floor. Now, I don't have a heap!
  • I called the Lewis County Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) to let them know that we saw a spark above our transformer during last night's blizzard. I told the woman I talked to that we still have electricity, so there was no huge rush to come fix it. Within a couple hours later, two REC trucks rumbled up our driveway. The worker driving the bucket truck used a thick plastic yellow stick that expanded upward. It had a hook on top of it that he connected into a loop at the bottom of the clamp holding the lead wire onto the incoming electric cable. He checked the clamp's tightness by trying to loosen it. He said it loosened very easily, so he tightened it up by twisting the pole clockwise. What an ingenious device! We're all set, now. 
  • Cooper had a hard time seeing a white lacrosse ball in the white snow, so during our game of fetch, I sought out melted trail patches and threw it underhanded, so it landed on tan grass, instead of white snow.
  • We had a crystal clear night sky when we walked Cooper on his last outing.

   

• Tuesday, 3/17: Cold Morning
  • It was quite cold this morning, at 3°. It warmed up to 30° and melted more snow. I'm pretty sure emerging pear buds are shot, along with forsythia and lilac blossoms. I hope other trees that showed a bit of green before this cold snap survive.
  • I used a big chunk of today to work on federal and state income taxes and forwarded all forms electronically.
  • While Mary cross stitched on a pattern called Red Fox Profile, I put thinner in the bottle of head cement to make it viable and applied some on threads of a foam dragonfly and a meat whistle fly. I looked for online instructions for making a more realistic foam dragonfly pattern, didn't find it on my cell phone, but then found a good one I notice a couple weeks back on my laptop. The video instructions were created by an Italian fly tying specialist.

   

• Wednesday, 3/18: Freeze Assessment
  • When we took Cooper on his big noon walk, 13 wood ducks flew out of Dove Pond.
  • Mary and I toured all of the fruit trees and garlic plants to assess freeze damage. There probably won't be any blossoms or fruit from the pear trees. Small Sargent crabapple trees might not make it. The crab apple trees probably won't blossom. Several of the garlic plants were hit hard by freezing. There was a strong garlic odor coming off the garlic plants. Most all of the apple and trees haven't started to bud, so they'll be fine.
  • Mary fertilized the garlic plants. They were standing upright after our initial check, so Mary decided they needed a little boost of nourishment. They looked better.
  • I made a phone call to Birkey's Farm Store. My Stihl chainsaw parts are in.
  • I pruned where I could reach from ground level on the big Bartlett pear tree and covered all new cuts with tree wound dressing. Pear trees are the king of water sprouts, which are tall shoots that grow straight up. Some water sprouts on this tree are 6-8 feet long.
  • I also cut persimmon saplings growing around this tree and in the path I use to drive the tractor into the west field.
  • During Cooper's last outing, we heard barred owls and the first southern leopard frog. They sound like they cackle like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies.

   

• Thursday, 3/19: Shopping
  • I shopped in Quincy, today. First, I picked up the Stihl parts I ordered last month at Birkey's Farm Store, which mainly involved items to accurately sharpen chains. Six items came to close to $100. Prices are really high. Shopping in the Quincy Walmart is a nightmare. Not only did they move everything all around the store, they also discontinued several items, like Ultrabright toothpaste. I bought it at Dollar Tree. There's no book now in Walmart to look up a vehicle's air filter number. Instead, you use the Walmart app, which gave me a number for a filter that fits a Toyota. I bought the air filter at the new NAPA store in Quincy.
  • While I was away, Mary cleaned floors in the house and did the daily vacuuming of Asian ladybugs. She vacuumed the whole house four times. After dark, I vacuumed two times.
  • Bill called. He loves his new job. His immediate boss is giving him free reign to fix procedures of how processes are handled related to shipping and receiving. For instance, the warehouse area has two garage doors, one of which couldn't be used, because boxes of office paper were stacked just inside the door. Today he swapped the paper to the back of the warehouse and moved relocatable carts to inside the door. Now, instead of unloading paper through the other garage door and hauling it through an indoor door to further block the second garage door, it can be unloaded correctly. Bill decided to nix the idea of moving to a different apartment. Rent is too high to obtain a decent apartment and he's better off to stay where he's living right now.
  • We heard an American woodcock while walking Cooper tonight. They were quiet during the recent cold snap.
  • I have three tick bites on me. It's time to spray bug dope in order to avoid ticks.

   

• Friday, 3/20: Bugs!!!
  • Mary watched seven deer cross the lane at Bluegill Pond when she walked Cooper this morning. Bob White quail were calling.
  • On our noon walk with Cooper, we went to Wood Duck Pond and scared off several mallard ducks. On the way there, we also scared off wood ducks that were on Dove Pond. We also looked at Bass Pond. I saw one fish swimming by at Bass Pond. It's water is still murky and hasn't quite finished turning over. All ponds have slightly higher water levels.
  • We noticed a bit of smoke from the Nebraska fires brought in with a west northwest breeze.
  • Mary and I took turns vacuuming bugs all day. There are times when one sweep with the end of the vacuum nozzle on the top end of a window collects close to a hundred bugs at once. This is the worst it's ever been! If we didn't spend all day sucking up bugs, no creature could stand being in this house. We would have a crawling orange mass of bugs everywhere.
  • I fixed loose drywall on our bedroom ceiling. Above the bed is a ceiling that sits at a 45-degree angle. Herman, Mary's uncle, used masonry nails in predrilled holes to nail 3/8-inch drywall to the roof rafters. The original dried oak rafters are so hard, drilling is required to put in any nail. They were coming loose. Not worrying about aesthetics, I used 2.5" hex head roofing screws and 1" washers to refasten the drywall to the angled ceiling. Now we won't worry about a big chunk of drywall falling on our heads while sleeping. We really need to get out of this house!!
  • Mary checked garlic plants and pear trees. Some garlic plants are dying with too much stress from extreme cold and hot temperatures just a few days apart. She saw some green flower buds among the damaged pear buds. We're hoping something good comes from them. 
  • We noticed a tiny bit of redness from northern lights on the northern horizon when we walked Cooper on his last outing at night.

   

• Saturday, 3/21: More #*@! Bugs!!!
  • Mary heard a wild turkey and a Bob White quail sound off at the same time while walking Cooper first thing this morning.
  • It was another full day of vacuuming bugs. I started the morning shifts. Mary did the later shifts. They never seem to stop. When Mary emptied the vacuum in the morning, there were more bugs in the shop vac in one day compared to what normally is there after one week of vacuuming bugs during earlier months of the winter.
  • In an attempt to get out of this leaky bug-infested home, I staked out the rough area for our new house design in the east lawn with half-inch rebar stakes. I tied fluorescent orange survey tape to the tops of the four stakes, in order to see them better. I didn't worry about getting it square. I simply used due east, west, north, and south on the compass app on my cell phone to get the walls to line up with map coordinates. 
  • Mary heard an eastern towhee for first time of the season, today.
  • We checked out garlic plants. Some are dying, but most of the plants seem to be pulling through.
  • Violet blossoms are showing where we laid down bricks on the ground under where water pours off the southeast roof's valley during heavy rains (see photo, below). There are violet leaves sprouting all over our lawns, indicating future flowers.
  • Blossoms are opening on a second amaryllis stalk. 
  • We went to bed with the window open and the fan blowing 70° air into the bedroom. Just four days earlier, the outside temperature was 3°. It's absolutely nutty weather!

  

  The first violets of spring! 

• Sunday, 3/22: Helping Fruit Trees
  • A titmouse bird teased Juliet at the open bedroom window this morning. It was perched two inches from her nose on dead hops vines.
  • Mary and I saw our first spring beauty flower in the woods on the morning walk with Cooper on Bobcat Trail.
  • We experienced a strong north wind from noon and into the afternoon and after darkness fell that brought down our temperatures.
  • I checked the small Sargent crabapple trees I planted last fall. Both seem to be alive. 
  • I cleaned out more tree saplings near the big Bartlett pear tree.
  • Mary pruned the Prairie Fire crabapple tree. We spotted four small crabapple saplings underneath the main tree that could be transplanted. We cleaned out persimmon and mulberry saplings that were too close to this tree. Climbing false buckwheat vines filled these neighboring saplings and traveled into the Prairie Fire tree last summer. We're hoping that by cleaning out these saplings, the vines stay away from the crabapple tree.
  • I untied cow panels surrounding the Liberty and Porter's Perfection trees in the west yard so Mary could put tree wound dressing on the recent rabbit or ground hog chewings on trunks of these two trees. The plastic tree guards are old and falling apart, allowing tree trunks to show.
  • I made tree trunk protectors out of quarter-inch hardware cloth by cutting the hardware cloth down to fit under the lowest branches of the trees. Then I formed them around the trunks and stitched the two sides together using tarred twine, along with half-hitch and clove-hitch knots, the same technique used to put netting on a shrimp pot. Finally, I attached each of these small protectors to a rebar stake to keep them in place.
  • Mary played fetch with Cooper while I worked on the tree guards. After she let him inside, she went in a little later to discover blood all over house floors. He lands with both hind legs skidding on the grass when he grabs the ball while playing fetch. In his former life at the animal shelter, he chewed on his hind legs. It was a nervous habit that he no longer does. Today's injury involved reopening his old wound. There will be no game of fetch for awhile to let the wound heal up.
  • I vacuumed bugs in the morning, and Mary did a round of vacuuming after evening chores, but by nighttime, after outside temperatures dropped significantly, there were a lot fewer bugs.
  • Each of the last couple nights when we walk Cooper, the stars shone brightly. Tonight a crescent moon was setting to the west.

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°, 55° | 3/14, p. cloudy, 34°, 56° | 3/15, cloudy, rain to 3" snow, 23°, 63° |

• 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.

• Friday, 3/13: Pruning Fruit Trees
  • Mary pruned where she could reach with a six-foot step ladder on the big cherry tree. She says that the very top of that tree looks good.
  • I pruned the Granny Smith apple tree using the other six-foot step ladder. I just have two branches at the very top of this tree to prune, then collect up all of the cut branches and cover cuts with tree wound dressing.
  • The U.S. Weather Service is calling for a low of 7° for us on Monday night. We have opening buds and leaves showing on pear trees, the forsythia, and the lilac bushes. We might loose something if it gets as cold as they're predicting.
  • I looked up cement formulas and calculated amounts of Portland cement, sand, and gravel needed for a future concrete pad under a home.
  • I finished reading Alexander Kent's 18th British Navy novel, The Only Victor. This started out very slow, but the last third of the book was good.

• Saturday, 3/14: More Pruning
  • I walked Cooper on a loop around the north field. I heard hounds used for hunting coyotes. They were baying to the east, so I snapped a leash on Cooper to walk him most of the way home. Later, Mary and I heard the hounds baying to the north. Coyote hunters disobey all private property laws while hunting from the roads, which is all illegal. 
  • Mary pruned the huge expanse of the Sargent crabapple tree while I pruned the narrow top reaches of the Granny Smith apple tree. She used a six-foot ladder. I used the other six-foot ladder, plus the 10-foot ladder. We both painted on tree wound dressing and collected up cut sticks. The work took all day to accomplish. We have two more trees to prune.
  • Meanwhile, Cooper fussed around while watching us from inside the house. Mary's couch took a beating with him jumping on it to look at us out the south living room window. He can't stand that we're outside and he's in the house. His velcro attitude gets old, but it shows how attached he is to us.
  • Mary spotted a rough-legged hawk flying east to west over us. Looking up the bird in books, she learned that it nests way up in the north arctic region.
  • We saw a low-flying great blue heron.
  • To save on meal prep, we had a wienie roast inside over a fire in the woodstove. A combination of cherry and oak firewood made for a very hot fire with blue flames. Hotdogs cooked very quickly.

• Sunday, 3/15: Wild Weather
  • Today was an interesting weather day. At noon, the temperature was 63°, and light rain started falling. Temperatures dropped significantly through the afternoon. By evening chores, sleet was falling. Around 6:30 p.m., snow started falling and strong northwest gusts blasted us. When we walked Cooper around midnight, it was snowing, gusts to 47 mph and 23°. There were times while walking north on the lane when you couldn't see due to the blizzard conditions.
  • In the morning, we watched a ground hog walk east across our west yard.
  • Mary and I vacuumed another herd of bugs from the inside of the windows, walls, ceiling, and the floor. As it got colder outside, the Asian ladybugs stopped migrating into the house.
  • We watched two movies that Mary and I picked out as our favorites as the wind howled outside after dark. They were Master and Commander (2003) and Beauty and the Beast (2017).
  • When we walked Cooper on his last outing, we noticed a sparking wire on the lead between the incoming power line and the transformer. It explains why we've noticed drops in electrical power at times. Wind probably exacerbates the electrical short. 

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.