Dec. 29, 2019 - Jan. 4, 2020

Weather | 12/29, 1.30" rain, 49°, 53° | 12/30, 27°, 32° | 12/31, 29°, 36° | 1/1, 22°, 49° | 1/2, 37°, 52° | 1/3, 31°, 40° | 1/4, a few snowflakes overnight, 31°, 39° |

• Sunday, 12/29: Today is our 29th anniversary. Bill left, after a venison stroganof dinner, at 2:30 pm. Katie finished her moose cross-stitch and took Plato and Amber on a walk on the East Trail. We played Sorry, a game that Katie picked out, in the evening and then watched the WW I movie, They Shall Not Grow Old, along with its extras.
• Monday, 12/30: At 9 am, we got a call from Dr. Carson, our vet in Hannibal handling Mocha. He said he's given her several enemas. X-rays still show something he can't recognize, but she's eating and seems normal...said the unrecognizable item might be just something "kitteny" that she'll grow out of. Said we could proceed with exploratory surgery, or take her to Quincy for an ultrasound. Both cost about $250, each. He recommended getting her home and seeing if she can come out of it on her own. Mary said fine to his recommendation. After morning chores, we went to Hannibal. One of the vet assistants said Mocha demands attention anytime anyone enters the cat kennel area. The 3-day stay, 8 enemas, 4 x-rays, and stool softener medicine cost us $237.15, which we thought was very reasonable, considering all that they did. Mocha snuggled with Mary on the way home. Decided to introduce her to our herd...normal cat reaction from our cats to Mocha...they hate her and hiss at her. Plato went up sniffing her and got too close, so Mocha smacked him on the nose. First, she ate 6 cat food pieces, then 8 pieces. In the evening, she ate for 10 minutes straight. Katie and I left for St. Louis at 3 pm, so she could catch her flight to New Orleans. Dropped off cat dewormer that we didn't use at Tractor Supply in Troy, MO. Katie's flight was delayed. The screwed up St. Louis airport, Lambert Field, has 2 terminals, 1 for departures and 1 for arrivals. Went to Terminal 1, which is departures. Southwest, who Katie is flying with, wasn't listed there. Went to Terminal 2, which is for arrivals, and Southwest is there for both departures and arrivals...what a stupid mess. Signs indicated arrivals and departures based on terminals. You're just supposed to know that Southwest's departures are at the arrivals terminal. Dropped Katie off and went to Bill's apartment. He shopped after work, so I waited a little while for him, then we drove to a nearby Best Buy and recycled more electronic junk...a printer/scanner, a Gateway 12-volt AC/DC converter, and an HP laptop. Ate at the House of India restaurant. Food was delicious. Went to Bill's apartment and watched the 2002 Bourne Identity movie.
• Tuesday, 12/31: An early morning text from Katie indicated she got to New Orleans, but her luggage didn't make it with her. After a shower, woke up Bill and ate an egg breakfast in his apartment. Bought gas for $2.09 a gallon and drove home. Stopped at Hannibal to buy a couple items at Aldi, including a New Year's celebratory bottle of Irish Cream. Got home just before noon. Enjoyed a chicken, sweet potato meal. We let Mocha out. She's eating and drinking with gusto and most importantly, pooping. Katie texted that her bag came in. We watched 3 sessions of Ken Burns' Civil War miniseries, but dozed off through the third one.
• Wednesday, 1/1: Kind of tired from all the driving in the past 2 days. Mocha seems to be doing well. Eats on a regular basis. She's getting along best with the dogs. She explores every so often, so we chase her around the house while she's doing this, since we don't want her getting hurt from other cats. Mary washed sheets and furniture covers. We took down the Christmas tree, dusting ornaments as we put them away. Moved living room furniture back into better positions, giving us more room. Watched episodes 3 (since we slept through it last night) and 4 of the Civil War. Katie texted photos, videos of her visits around New Orleans.
• Thursday, 1/2: Feeling tired again today...attribute it to after holidays "ahh!" moment. Mary washed clothes. She wrapped up some skeins of yarn she got for Christmas into balls. I applied labels to my 27 pear wine bottles, placed them horizontally into 2 boxes apples came in and stored them in the upstairs north bedroom, turned to the wall to keep them dark and the wine corks away from cat claws.While bringing back mail and the garbage can from the gravel road, I heard a bald eagle, looked to the east and saw 3 large lumps in a cottonwood tree. Told Mary when I got to the house and with glasses, she saw 3 bald eagles sitting in that tree. They let out with their song every so often. Had venison General Tso for main dinner. Read in evening. I finished the 4th book of the Captain Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian, called The Maritius Command. Mocha was very busy exploring the house today.
• Friday, 1/3: Seemed like we babysat a kitty all day. Mocha didn't poop overnight, so we gave her a dose of stool softener. She found a liter box in the freezer room and did her duty. She wasn't eating, so Mary cooked up a little piece of sweet potato and a bit of turkey meat. She snarfed the sweet potato, then the turkey, then a few pieces of cat food. Mary made chili. We watched more of The Civil War. After the movie, Mocha vomited her sweet potato, then drank a bunch of water. I slept with Mocha in the recliner in the north bedroom to keep her warm.
• Saturday, 1/4: About 4 am, Mocha crawled out from under a blanket and barfed up more sweet potato on the Mid-Rivers wall calendar under the litter box and on the carpet. I cleaned up, told Mary about it, and went back to bed. After getting up and eating breakfast, decided not to call the vet, since Mocha ate and drank yesterday. After the vet office closed at noon, she drank a couple times and barfed liquid vomit. She's not eating today. Left a voice mail with the vet explaining that we will show up at opening time (8 am) on Monday with Mocha. Katie got tickets to the Vikings/Saints football playoff game tomorrow and she texted us that she "volunteered to be one of the military big flag people in Sunday's game." She added to watch for the military person with the red ball cap. I updated our checkbook register, did some checkbook balancing, and assessed the credit card balance. Mary worked on a puzzle that Katie gave her for Christmas in the evening.

Dec. 22-28, 2019

Weather | 12/22, 29°, 53° | 12/23, 32°, 58° | 12/24, 37°, 59° | 12/25, 41°, 63° | 12/26, 38°, 49° | 12/27, 30°, 43° | 12/28, 37°, 55° |

• Sunday, 12/22: I made waffles for breakfast. Mary baked cookies. Katie reviewed presents she ordered that got sent to us, then wrapped Christmas presents. I drove to Quincy and bought an air bed from Menards and fresh veggies from Aldi. The air bed took some time, because they had only 1 and it was on the bottom of a shrink-wrapped pallet in the back. Katie wants to do cross stitch, so Mary gave her a pattern book. Katie poured over it and picked out a pattern of a moose. Mary got Katie materials and helped her get started. We watched the Love Actually movie. Katie inflated the new air bed. It's a queen size and 22" high, so it's the height of an actual bed with a frame.
• Monday, 12/23: Our new kitten didn't eat for a couple days, so we decided to take it to a vet. Called the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal when they opened at 8 and they said to bring it in immediately. Katie grabbed it after chasing it around the north bedroom a bit. Turns out it's a female, so her name is Mocha. Loaded her into a pet carrier and into the car. Got to the vet clinic at 9:30. The vet was excellent. Mocha weighs 1.8 pounds, so estimated to be 2-3 months old. She got some dewormer. Had flea excrement in her fur, so she also got flea medication. Got an appointment for 2 weeks, to give Mocha another batch of dewormer and initial vaccination shots, if she's eating better by then. I held her for the first time in the vet office. She's very affectionate and purrs like a freight train. Bought gas and Katie a coffee at Hannibal. Back home at noon for our first meal of the day. Mary made blackberry bars, pumpkin pies, and speculaas cookies. Katie worked on her moose cross stitch design. I spent time with Mocha.
• Tuesday, 12/24: Mary made a pistachio torte and put the bed down in the upstairs north bedroom. Mocha immediately decided that was her bed, thank you very much. Bill arrived at about 1 pm. He quietly sneaked into the house and Amber barked at him, then Plato and Amber wiggy-wammed him all around the kitchen. Mary and Katie cleaned up the veggies. Mary and I saw a V of cackling geese. Bill, while laying down on the bed, got to where he could pet Mocha. She really likes him. We all got to petting her. She's very thin, but eating some dry cat food...won't touch the wet food. We played Triopoly and drank a bottle of wine. Katie won the game. We watched A Christmas Carol and got to bed around midnight.
• Wednesday, 12/25: Unwrapped presents after breakfast. Some very thoughtful presents from Katie and Bill. I called Mom after unwrapping presents and Katie and Bill got to talk with her for quite a few minutes. We did a wienie roast outside. Perfect day, with sun and temperatures in the 60s. We saw a couple Vs of snow geese heading west. We watched the movie Tolkien, a very good movie. Mocha is very affectionate (see photo of Bill & Mocha below).

• Thursday, 12/26: I changed the chain on the chainsaw and Mary, Bill and I drove the tractor/trailer to the edge of the woods SW of the house. I cut down a dead red oak tree, but down really isn't the correct word. This tree was thick with branches to the ground, so it stayed upright the entire time I sawed it up into firewood chunks. Had to continually cut off lower branches and drag them out to the field, then cut off chunks of firewood. Katie showed up and helped with loading firewood. Then, Mary and I unloaded firewood into appropriate locations. Had nachos and watched the Katie & Leopold movie. Mary used a syringe to try to get chicken broth into Mocha. She's too thin and not getting nourishment and liquids.
• Friday, 12/27: Called the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal to get Mocha in with a 1:45 pm appointment. Mary came this time. We saw Dr. Robert Carson, the principle vet who bought this clinic in 1976. He's very good. Gave Mocha an xray and showed it to us. She's got a lot of blockage in her colon and 1 item that he couldn't identify in her belly. He is keeping her and giving her an enema. Said he'd call with information as he knew more. After getting home, I washed and scraped labels off 12 wine bottles. We watched the first 4 episodes of Long Way Around, a series about Ewan McGregor and his friend taking motorbikes from the UK to New York, via Russia, several other countries, flying to Anchorage, then driving through Canada and across the U.S. It's very interesting.
• Saturday, 12/28: Since I didn't hear from the vet, I called when they opened at 8 am. Dr. Carson answered the phone. He had already given Mocha her 3rd enema since we dropped her off and took an X-ray. She still has 1 blockage left to remove and the unidentifiable item looks like another ball of poop, so he's going to continue to try to get that to pass. Bill & I washed/delabeled 23 wine bottles to give me a total of 35. Then, Bill made pizzas. After eating, Bill & I sanitized bottles and equipment. We racked the pear wine to the brew bucket and added 1 crushed Campden tablet and 2.5 teaspoons of potassium sorbate (stops any remaining yeast from working). Then, we bottled, with Bill filling bottles, Mary holding full bottles upright and me installing corks. Decided that the bottle-filling device I have isn't as good as what Bill has...a bottling bucket with a on/off tap at the bottom of the bucket. Also found it best to have 3 corks soaking in order to better slip them into the bottles. Bottled 27 bottles holding 750 ml, each (see photos below). Was about 5.25 gallons. Now we wait a year for the pear wine to age. We tasted what didn't get bottled. It tastes better than the last time we tried it. Age will probably make it even better. Dr. Carson called around 3 pm. Mocha still was bound up. He was going to continue to do enemas to get Mocha to pass the final material out of her bowels, naturally, but if that doesn't work, he'll have to do surgery. She will be home by Monday, at the earliest, if this all goes naturally. If surgery is involved, it will be several days later before she'll be coming home. We cleaned up the wine bottling stuff and watched the last 3 episodes and extras of Long Way Around.

27 Bottles of Pear Wine

A Bottle of my 2019 Pear Wine

Dec. 15-21, 2019

Weather | 12/15, 4" snow or 0.44" moisture, 15°, 20° | 12/16, 15°, 29° | 12/17,  11°, 23° | 12/18, 8°, 27° | 12/19, 25°, 38° | 12/20, 27°, 45° | 12/21, 29°, 49° |

• Sunday, 12/15: It started snowing at 10 am and snowed until midnight, giving us 4" on the ground. No firewood cutting, splitting, or stacking today. My sore muscles are thankful. Fed only 1 kitten in the machine shed. We think the fluffy orange kitten got too bold and was nailed by a wild animal overnight. Mary baked an apple pie. As darkness was coming on, we tried to get the remaining kitten to eat in the machine shed. It just meowed, but wouldn't eat. It was very cold and lonely, without its litter mate. Decided we needed to help it. I put a package of soft food, tuna-salmon flavor, in a bowl and grabbed a pet carrier. Unfortunately, it was our small carrier, so I gave the bowl of food to Mary and ran back to get the larger pet carrier. When I returned to the machine shed, I asked Mary if she saw the kitten and she said, "I have the kitten." It ran up to the food immediately. She tried to grab it and failed. It came back. She petted it and then grabbed it. The kitten struggled a little, but was too weak to put up much of a fight. We put it in the carrier with the bowl of food. It freaked out and dumped wet cat food all over the inside of the carrier as I hauled it inside. We took it to the upstairs north bedroom, set up a litter box, water, and food, and let it loose with the door to the bedroom shut. It ran for under the stuffed chair. Turned on a lamp and let it be. Returned a few more times and it always hid behind a blanket under the bookshelves. We wrapped Christmas presents. I asked my former Petco workers for good, yet inexpensive, veterinarians. Molly had the best advice, the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal. I looked them up online. They look good. Once this little guy or girl is tame, we'll go get it neutered and get it a set of shots. Yes, we now have 6 cats. Sleeping arrangements might be altered for Christmastime visitors. Someone is getting the room with the kitten, we just don't know who, yet.
• Monday, 12/16: Mary cooked up a midday meal of cod and sweet potatoes. I was a bum. Don't see much of the kitten when we enter the upstairs north bedroom. It did use the litter box and ate and drank. We suspect it was once inside a home and was dumped near our place. Got a message at 8 pm from FedEx that the delivery of our package wasn't attempted, due to weather...4" of snow didn't stop the mailman from delivering. We researched and decided on some loose leaf teas, which we'll buy after Christmas using a $50 gift card reward from our bank. We figure an after-holidays purchase might avert shipping issues. Plus, Stash Tea doesn't ship with FedEx.
• Tuesday, 12/17: We've got deer tracks in the snow all through our yards and by all of the out buildings. Spent an hour in the morning and an hour at night with our new kitten. It came to within a couple inches of both of us in the morning session. It knows to use the litter box instantly...no training necessary. In the evening, it ate an adult portion of wet cat food, producing a huge belly. There's no problem with its appetite. Haven't been able to determine its sex. Decided to call it Mocha if it's a girl, and Binx if it's a boy. A package Katie sent is now back to supposedly being delivered by FedEx. I texted her, advising her to change its destination to the Quincy Walgreens store. I found a 2x8 board, cleaned it up, and installed the nutcracker on it. Tried cracking a black walnut. It worked great. I cleaned the 30:30 rifle I used for deer season. Boxed up 35 empty wine bottles that I'll clean, remove labels, in the future. Didn't want to be trying to dig them out of the downstairs west bedroom when a kid will be in there during holidays. Removed anything important out of the old Lenovo laptop, removed the hard drive, purposefully damaged it, then reinstalled it. Will drop it off at Staples for recycling in the near future.
• Wednesday, 12/18: Plato and Amber always roar out the house door when we walk them, running north to woof at squirrels or bunnies. This morning, Plato came back with a big bunch of fluff in his mouth. Mary asked him to drop it, which he did, and it was a dead squirrel. He nailed it. He was very proud of himself. This explains the mystery of the dead squirrel a couple weeks ago. Mary tossed it into the north woods and while doing so, saw a beaten-down path into there by coyotes. It was an amazing, sparkling spectacle of frost-laden grass, tree branches, and cedar boughs this morning as the sun rose. I took down 1 of the 2 ceiling light fixtures in the kitchen and hung a new 7-bulb chandelier fixture in its place. The old 2-bulb fixture had cloth-covered wires on the backside of it. Good to be done with that! The new light is 1000% brighter. I cleaned the bathroom sink drain. Rust in the device that opens and closes the drain will require a replacement. I smashed several hickory nuts with the new nutcracker. It works well, but it takes time. After 1.5 hours, I had a little bit of nutmeats in a sandwich bag. I cleaned up and stacked at the back door several old electronic items to recycle at Staples, including a Gateway desktop computer, its monitor, its speakers, a Lenovo laptop, and a VCR/DVD player. Mary figured her monthly menu and drew up a shopping list. A FedEx email announced that our package is finally at the Quincy Walgreens store.
• Thursday, 12/19: We shopped in Quincy. Had to charge the Cadillac's battery, first. It was dead. Lower price for aluminum can recycling. Uploaded iPhone operating system 13 for my phone while on the Quincy Library's wifi. Also downloaded an audio book. Ate at Chinese restaurant where we swore 2 years ago we wouldn't eat there, again. We won't eat there, again. Picked up FedEx package at Walgreens. Dropped off electronic stuff for recycling at Staples. They won't take VCR/DVD player. Bought pet food at Farm & Home. Got bathroom sink drain ball rod assembly at Menards. Grocery shopped at Sam's Club, Walmart, County Market, and Aldi. Got home at 4:30, did chores, unloaded car, ate an Aldi pizza, and watched the Trading Places movie. Bill texted, asking about Saturday's schedule and I responded. Checked Gateway Arch info online. Sent texts to Katie and Bill related to visiting the arch.
• Friday, 12/20: I cleaned up the 2 tube-type TVs and moved them to behind our entrance door. Cleaned our rug shampooer (it had Merlin's pee on it & took a great deal of scrubbing to get it clean) and put it away in our upstairs bedroom closet. Cleaned up and put away several other items in the downstairs west bedroom, then swept its floor. Mary and I then scrubbed that room's floor with Lysol and a couple rags. We also clipped all dog nails.
• Saturday, 12/21: Mary cleaned house and baked bread. I left home by 7:15 am. Picked up Bill at his place in St. Charles, MO, then drove to Lambert Field in St. Louis and waited for Katie, who flew in on a Southwest flight from New Orleans, arriving in St. Louis at 10:30 am. That is the worst airport in the world for vehicle traffic congestion. After getting Katie, we went to a Best Buy and recycled the TVs...cost $25 each to get rid of them. Then, we went to a Schnucks grocery store and bought lunch...salad for Katie and I and Bill got a sub. Drove to downtown, found a parking garage, and walked to the Gateway Arch. Spent over an hour in the museum, then took the tram to the top of the arch and back. Then, drove to the Sameem Afghan Restaurant in the Grove neighborhood of Forest Park. The food is excellent. Bought some cat food and a syringe at the St. Charles Petco store. Couldn't find cat deworming medication, so called a couple places. Dropped Bill off at his place and picked up his air bed. On the way home, bought some dewormer at Tractor Supply in Troy, MO. Ran into a dog while slowing down to the first stop light coming into Hannibal. Pulled off the road. Katie walked through the woods down the hill where I hit it, but couldn't find it. Got the Hannibal Police's phone number and called them. Two squad cars showed up. While one was getting info from us, the other officer found the dog. It was okay. That took us about an hour. Got home around midnight. Bill's air bed had a 4-5 inch slice in it, so Katie slept on the couch.

Dec. 8-14, 2019

Weather | 12/8, 33°, 50° | 12/9, 19°, 47° | 12/10,  12°, 31° | 12/11, 17°, 37° | 12/12, 27°, 49° | 12/13, 24°, 49° | 12/14, 26°, 27° |

• Sunday, 12/8: Woke at 6 am, ate a sandwich and hunted the Cherry Tree Stand. Got there at 7, crawled up onto the stand, looked down to load my gun and realized I didn't wear my hunter orange vest that has the bullets in the pockets...boy, what an idiot! Walked back, got my vest, returned to the stand, and was boiling hot due to my quadruple forced march. Didn't see deer. Thought I heard some under the cedars immediately south of the stand, but that might have been rabbits or squirrels. Not a good idea to go hunting while the sun is rising. Mary washed sheets. I hunted the SE deer blind at 2:30 pm. Didn't see a single deer. Saw a small coyote trot by, running south to north. Saw gobs of squirrels...one came up to 3 feet away. Heard turkeys landing in the trees NE of me, two great horned owls hooting in that same general area, and coyotes howling in the woods just north of me. Tonight's the end of deer hunting. Got 1 doe on opening day. Including most of part of one of last year's deer, we have a total of 42 packages of venison in the freezer, so we're not hurting. Also, this means we're doing the traditional smorgasbord meal at Christmas, instead of some venison thing Mary was going to do. It also means we go back to normal life, instead of not planning, in case we had to spend time butchering a deer. That makes Mary happier. Watched The Holiday movie. Katie texted at 11:15 pm that she is in Anchorage. I texted back, asking how her flight was and she called. She was eating Thai food at a restaurant. They had blizzard conditions in Mertarvik for 2 days, but temps warmed when she flew out today. She said it was different flying into Anchorage in a small plane. With a jet, you drop out of the clouds and there are the town's lights. In a small plane, you see Anchorage's lights a long way out. Her flight out of Anchorage is Wed., 12/11, so she'll be there for a few days.
• Monday, 12/9: Started out as a dark, cloudy day, but cleared in the afternoon. I used a tank full of gas in the chainsaw and cut up a wagon load of firewood. Unloaded wood in various places, based on its dryness. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread, so she couldn't help me with firewood. While unloading wood in the machine shed, I heard kittens meowing after I said something to myself. They seemed to respond to my voice. Told Mary. She found 2 kittens, both very fluffy, 1 orange and 1 a brownish/gray tabby, both with swirls on their sides. She guesses they're 4-6 months old. She gave them food and water, which they gulped up. They seem to be familiar with humans. We're guessing they were dumped...hate humans! Pulled the cat food and water after dark, so it wouldn't attract wild animals. Mary also found a couple winter wrens in the machine shed...we ought to rename it the zoo. When Bill found out we were doing a Christmas smorgasbord, he asked all gung-ho, "You want me to bring some cheeses!"
• Tuesday, 12/10: Some mornings, when I wake early, I go to the easy chair in the upstairs north bedroom, throw blankets on, and look out the north window. This morning after doing that, I saw 5 doe deer walk by the north edge of our garden, heading to the west. They were happy and sassy, saying, "Nanny, nanny, you can't shoot us!" Mary put feed and water out and the 2 newest outdoor kittens in the Machine Shed ate, then slept in the sun. We don't know their sex, so Mary named them Frankie and Johnnie, from the song by that name. Mary and I moved split wood from the Machine Shed to the woodshed, then cut another gas tank load of firewood from the downed elm tree...this time mainly large pieces that need to be split. We're leaving the rest of that tree for Mother Nature, since it's full of knots and has poison ivy growing up the trunk. We stacked the firewood in correct places. After chores and our nightly meal, we did a Christmas-related job, which took all night, that will be revealed after Santa visits.
• Wednesday, 12/11: I split the firewood from the last 2 sessions of firewood cutting. This job took all afternoon, creating 2 waist-high firewood piles, about 5-foot long. Mary dusted the DVDs. We watched the movie, Miss Potter.
• Thursday, 12/12: I'm sore from several continuous days of firewood work, so took morning and half of the afternoon off. Every morning for weeks, I've been browsing online sites for used pickups. I'm always finding junk, based on the money we have saved up for buying a pickup, so far. Decided to wait until February/March, when we'll have a bigger pickup nest egg, and then look again. Mary and I sorted and stacked firewood into the woodshed and machine shed that I split yesterday. I took down temporary lights in the machine shed and coiled, cleaned up and put away electrical cords. Katie called around 11 am to tell us she made it into Gulfport in the early morning hours. She called in the evening and talked for 1 hour, 24 minutes, while driving to Florida to do her makeup Air National Guard duty. Talked about her job in Alaska, about earlier sunrises here in the Lower 48, compared to AK, upcoming spring college attendance (she's 2 classes away from an associate's degree), ideas on becoming an AK resident, and thoughts about moving.
• Friday, 12/13: FedEx strikes, again. All day, the online tracking of a package indicated it was on a delivery truck. Since a package sent via FedEx was lost Thanksgiving weekend, we monitored this one regularly throughout the day. It never showed. At night, an email indicated that the package had the wrong address, yet the address listed in that email for the package was our correct address. I called FedEx, only got a computerized voice, which said the address was wrong on the package and that only the entity shipping the package could change the address. I sent an email message to the originating company asking them to forward explicit directions on how to get to our home to the Quincy, IL office of FedEx. Mary washed clothes and dusted books. I sharpened the two chainsaw chains. Attempted to cut firewood from a downed white oak tree north of the chicken yard, but it's so wet, it's almost soil, just like it was a year ago. Went to the woods west of the west yard. Cut up a downed red oak tree and several branches. Also, felled a tall red oak tree and cut it into firewood. Loaded a full wagon load and Mary and I unloaded it. There's still cut firewood left in the woods...it was too dark to go back. While doing chores and getting the mail, Mary saw a red-tailed hawk and a sharp-shinned hawk. At the mailbox, Mary saw 10 trumpeter swans flying low and on the way back from the mailbox, a belted kingfisher. 
• Saturday, 12/14: A 3:54 am email from FedEx says our package is out in a delivery truck due to be dropped off at our place today. Obviously, our email worked. We also got a 8:53 am FedEx email that a Florida package is out for delivery. Hopefully, we'll see these 2 packages by the end of the day. Knowing FedEx, they'll screw something up. I drove the tractor and trailer back into the woods and picked up the red oak tree that I cut up yesterday, unloaded it into the machine shed, and split the firewood I cut and hauled in yesterday. Mary helped me stack it. We're now shoulder-high with a stack of firewood in the woodshed. Mary raked leaves and insulated potted blueberry plants with the leaves. Watched The Polar Express and The Seeker movies. We got Mom's package...a case of oranges from Florida. That was delivered, because it was a FedEx package handled by the U.S. Postal Service from St. Louis onward and the postal folks know where we live. The FedEx delivery bozos don't know where we live. The other package that was on a delivery truck never showed up, for the second day in a row. I found a website that is dedicated to complaints about FedEx. They do the same trick around the country. On FedEx's website I found where you can ask for the package to go to a Walgreens store, where you can pick it up. I selected that option. It takes 5 business days for them to do this. We'll be through Quincy after 5 business days and can hopefully get the package before Christmas, since it's a gift. In the future, we will not do business with anyone who ships via FedEx.

Dec. 1-7, 2019

Weather | 12/1, 30°, 34° | 12/2, 25°, 38° | 12/3,  29°, 49° | 12/4, 30°, 53° | 12/5, 27°, 57° | 12/6, 31°, 40° | 12/7, 21°, 44° |

• Sunday, 12/1: Another gloomy, misty, foggy day. We had another turkey leftover meal before Bill left to go home around 2 pm. I finished reading the third Patrick O'Brian book, HMS Surprise. I enjoy these novels. I also looked online at post and beam house construction.
• Monday, 12/2: A huge part of the day was spent looking for a FedEx package that according to a tracking link, was left at our door on Saturday. We were here. FedEx never showed up. We looked all around the property and inside all cars, including Bill's in St. Louis. Mary visited with all 3 neighbors across the gravel road from us. They haven't seen it. In the evening, after Bill said nothing was in his car, Mary texted Katie encouraging her to talk to FedEx and the company she ordered the item from. We'll see what develops. As usual, FedEx delivery really stinks for us. Mary figured all of our monies and funded our various purchasing accounts. I tested the corker I have by putting a #9 cork into 1 of the empty wine bottles. It works great. Ordered a bunch of items online.
• Tuesday, 12/3: Mary washed a load of clothes. Found a dead big squirrel behind the second bin. I hauled it off to the north woods. We cut firewood from an elm tree that blew down the summer of 2018. Mary stacked the wood nearby...the ground's too wet to drive a tractor on. Texted Midwest Supplies, a brewing supply company in the Twin Cities, asking them to add a package of potassium sorbate, a wine finisher that ensures yeast is dead prior to bottling your wine, to an order for wine corks, that I placed yesterday. In the evening, they texted back that they'd add it, but that the finisher was on them, which was very nice, since it normally costs $16 for a pound of it.
• Wednesday, 12/4: Woke to an extremely blue sky. Katie called. FedEx wasn't helpful with the lost package, but in talking to the business who she ordered from, they are sending a replacement to her Gulfport, MS address, so it all worked out. They're mudding in sheetrock walls in the clinic she's working on. She's leaving this weekend from there to Anchorage. Her flight out of Anchorage is on 12/11, so she'll probably be overnighting in Anchorage a couple nights. She goes back to work in May in a village close to Bethel. Mary and I loaded up the cut wood from the downed elm tree and hauled it with the tractor/trailer to the machine shed and woodshed. We built an outdoor fire and cooked up pork loins. Did chores, then ate veggies and dip inside. I did hours of pole barn building research.
• Thursday, 12/5: Mary washed 2 loads of clothes. Found a stubby cat in the machine shed. Saw it scampering away, twice. Had trouble starting the wood splitter. Removed the spark plug. Took a propane torch and burned the gas residue out of spark plug, then cleaned it with a wire brush. Pulled the air cleaner and pulled empty pecan shells out of it...damn critters. When the engine started, more pecan shells ricocheted out of the magneto...goddamn critters! Split wood from the past 2 firewood gatherings...most went to the north wall of the machine shed to dry.
• Friday, 12/6: Today is the first day of a 3-day anterless deer season. Got up at 4:45 am and hunted Bobcat Deer Blind, since a north wind was gusting to 20 mph and I didn't want to be rocking around in the trees while sitting in a tree stand. Saw absolutely nothing...too windy and the deer are hunkered down under cedars. Heard a screech owl and saw a bald eagle way above the trees. Went home and enjoyed hot oatmeal, hot coffee, and a hot woodstove. I took some auto lense polishing material on an electric polishing pad to the crinkled outside tint of the left lense in my old eyeglasses and got rid of the crinkled, wavy pattern on the outside. I need to finish the whole lense, so I can see through it better. Trying this. If it works, I might have a second pair of glasses to use while doing outside work, like cutting firewood. After a squash and taco noodle meal, I hunted under the cedar forest, east of the swim pond and didn't see a single deer. Had squirrels all around me. After sunset, heard several coyotes just east of me. Also heard sirens and when I got home, noticed a fire with big smoke billowing up east of us. Mary and I drove to investigate. Looks like hay bales caught fire in the middle of a field belonging to a farm NE of us. That's not the first time. They must bale wet hay, because their round bales are always catching on fire.
• Saturday, 12/7: Got up at 4:45 am and hunted the Cherry Tree Stand, located in the NE quadrant of our property. My boots crunched on frosty grass. Orion and Sirius were setting in the west. A slight south breath of air was moving. I heard raccoons cussing each other out in the woods east of me. Before legal shooting time, I saw a deer moving and standing east of me...too dark to tell what sex it was. It went back east into the woods. At legal shooting time, saw 3 bucks in succession walk out of the woods east of me, going NW. The last one stood for about 10-15 minutes east of me, surveying the west and sniffing the air. It was a magificent-looking animal. I heard a snort to the north after he went on...probably smelled my scent well down the tree line. None of the others seemed to notice me. A light breeze blowing through a fenceline of cedars obviously hides your scent, for the most part. My last chance for deer will be tomorrow, since we're going to a Quincy Symphony Choir Christmas concert tonight. Katie shows up here 2 weeks from today, so I drew up a to-do list for the next 2 weeks. Mary washed towels. We did chores early and went to Quincy, checked out a couple stores, and were going to eat at Subway, but their subs are now over $7...were between $5-$6 a year ago. Went to Qdoba, instead, to eat. Went next door to Petco, looked at fish, and visited with Taylor, 1 of my old work associates. Fish and small animals are looking much better. Went to the concert that was in the Salem Evangelical Church in the old German district of Quincy. It was first built in 1877, with several renovations since then. The concert was excellent. The place was standing-room only, so we were squished into wooden pews. Got home and had a tea. Got to bed at midnight.

Nov. 24-30, 2019

Weather | 11/24, 26°, 55° | 11/25, 37°, 57° | 11/26,  0.12" rain, 31°, 54° | 11/27, 33°, 39° | 11/28, 27°, 39° | 11/29, 0.05" rain, 31°, 36° | 11/30, 0.83" rain, 36°, 48° |

• Sunday, 11/24: Slept in and didn't go out hunting, early. Hunted Wood Duck deer stand with a SW wind blowing at 10:45 am. Didn't see a thing. It was amateur hour with target practice guns going off after frustrated hunters just started plinking cans or whatever. Neighbor farmer to the east started combining corn at 12:45, so I went home and ate lunch. Mary washed curtains, insides of windows, and was ironing them when I got home. Hunted Bobcat deer blind at 2. Nothing until minutes before legal shooting ended at 5:14 pm, when a deer I couldn't see, because it was too dark, walked downwind of me, then snorted off to the north into the woods. Even though there's 2 more days of regular deer season, I'm going to give it a break until anterless deer season on Dec. 6-8. Deer are too spooky with all of the idiots with their new AK-47s shooting rapid-fire at nothing today.
• Monday, 11/25: Since they're predicting windy and wet weather for the next week, we decided to get firewood today. First, I sharpened the 2 chains for the chainsaw and did some basic maintenance on the chainsaw...cleaned the air filter with soap and water and wire brushed the spark plug. Mary washed rugs, scrubbed a couple floors, dumped rancid Pedigree dog food and cleaned out that pet food container for cat food. We cut up a white oak tree that fell over the west trail this summer, along with a few small downed hickory trees. Unloaded wet and large pieces into the machine shed, and dry firewood into the woodshed. Mary worked up a shopping list. Bill called. He has a week coming up after Thanksgiving where he has to work mandatory overtime hours. He says a good thing is that it will probably pay for Christmas, with 30 hours of overtime. We reviewed the Audible website and put several audio books on a wish list.
• Tuesday, 11/26: Went shopping in Quincy. Downloaded 4 Audible books using the Quincy Library's WIFI, while Mary bought 4 books from the library bookstore. Ate at Qdoba. Got my new glasses adjusted. Got a strap at Gamemasters to hold my glasses on my head when I'm working outside. Shopped for food and other items. Got home after dark, unloaded, ate pizza from Aldi, and watched Thor: Ragnarok. A thunderstorm hit at 10 pm. Stars were out when we walked the dogs, later.
• Wednesday, 11/27: Mary did some cleaning, baked 2 pumpkins pies, and made cranberry sauce. I did some cleaning, too. Walked Plato and Amber to the SE blind and then on the east trail, with half of the trail not cleaned out of grass/weeds, but with a tractor trail over it. The dogs loved that walk. Bill showed up around 9 pm.
• Thursday, 11/28: Thanksgiving Day. Katie called in the morning. She's working today. They're putting in metal studs for walls on the inside of the clinic at Mertarvik, AK. In the evening, she texted that she ate a crab legs and steak dinner. Karen and Lynn made it to Mom's house in Circle in the early afternoon. I picked a couple pocket fulls of pecans off the ground before it started to mist. Mary cooked up an amazing turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. It was a 23-pound turkey. After 2 helpings, each, Mary carved up 3 days worth of meat in the fridge and 5 packages in the freezer, worth 10 more meals. We had Bill's homebrewed beer. It was very good. A buck with only his left set of antlers ate Asian pears under the tree at dusk. Took the turkey carcass and dumped it along the north trail as a gift offering to the coyotes. After dishes, we watched the Christmas Vacation, Paul, and Nine Months movies...only snored a couple times. Had pumpkin pie at the start of the 2nd movie.
• Friday, 11/29: The 2nd youth deer hunting weekend starts today. We saw a doe and a young deer cross our lane while walking the dogs this morning. Didn't hear any shooting...kind of foggy and misty, so not a nice hunting day for youth hunters. On the bright side, I don't have to partake in Black Friday nonsense, since I don't work retail, now. I picked some more pecan nuts off the ground under the trees. We put up the Christmas tree. Actually, Mary and Bill did most of the work. Had a thunderstorm after dark.
• Saturday, 11/30: I made waffles. Racked the pear wine for the 3rd time, with Bill's help, from the plastic bucket to the glass carboy. It's a lot more clear, with barely a residue at the bottom. Added 3 crushed Campden tablets and put on the airlock. Then, Mary, Bill, and I tasted the residue left at the bottom of the bucket...about 15 ounces, each. It tasted more like pear, compared to the first tasting. It's really powerful. Discovered, by accident, that pear wine works wonderfully well with green olives, or olive hummus on crackers. While eating nachos, we watched the Star Trek: Beyond and White House Down movies. Done with movies for awhile.

Nov. 17-23, 2019

Weather | 11/17, 0.06" rain, 33°, 43° | 11/18, 0.03" rain, 26°, 49° | 11/19,  40°, 58° | 11/20, 30°, 56° | 11/21, 0.22" rain, 43°, 56° | 11/22, 25°, 35° | 11/23, 29°, 45° |

• Sunday, 11/17: Light rain most of the day...kept chickens inside the coop. Mary cleaned. I racked the pear wine. The specific gravity is at 0.99, which means it's very dry, with high alcohol content. Mary & I tried a quarter glass...very light tasting...one hell of a kick! This will definitely be a sipping wine. Had about 3/8" of white yeast residue on the bottom of the carboy. It took 2 rinsings with the garden hose to clean that out. I'm guessing that another racking, prior to bottling, should clear it out sufficiently. Watched Love Actually movie. Bill texted that he was racking a third batch of beer. By the photo he sent, it looks good. Here are photos of the pear wine:

Racking pear wine from carboy to plastic bucket.

Yeast residue left in the carboy after racking the pear wine.

• Monday, 11/18: Mary and I picked some pecan nuts off the lawn under the trees and for the first time, got some off branches of the tree closest to the house, which has larger nuts. Mary made flour tortillas and chimichangas. I hunted at the SE deer blind in the late afternoon. Saw 2 deer south of me. Unfortunately, just behind them is our neighbor's house, so not shooting in that direction. Both veered to north of me, behind cedar trees. The second one, was smart. It walked west up the hill in a gully, so all I could see was its ears and top of its head. Read some wine-making info online. Our wine alcohol content, based on initial and ending hydrometer readings, is 13%. It might be even higher, because of us adding sugar water after the first racking into the carboy, thereby restarting fermentation. Katie texted us throughout the day...Christmas present related. Bill texted a bunch in the evening. His 3rd batch of beer is actively fizzing (see below video). Matisse, his former fiancee who married someone else, is bombarding Bill with online friend requests. He wants nothing to do with it. Rightly so...she's a nutcase. 

 

• Tuesday, 11/19: After several solid freezes, willow leaves are falling like snowflakes. Mary washed towels, did a bunch of mowing, and put grass mulch on a row and a quarter row of garlic, to protect it through the winter. I hunted at the Rose Butt deer stand in the afternoon. The stand faces north, looking across a field. Wind was out of the NW. At 4:05, several deer snorted in the woods behind me, to the south. They were probably following a path through the woods that enters the field east of the stand, smelled me, and snorted. I heard deer in the woods beyond the field after sunset. Right when I was getting ready to leave, after the legal shooting time ended, I saw a big deer step into the field. I thought it was a buck, due to its size. It heard me getting out of the stand, snorted and bounced back into the woods, followed by another smaller deer. Bucks are alone right now, so that was a very large doe with a yearling. Winds out of the NE or east would be better for that stand, due to deer movement patterns. It was the first time hunting from there. Now I know. Katie called. Talked about Christmas gifts she's getting and having sent to our address. Her construction company is working until Dec. 20th, but she plans on leaving Dec. 10th, giving her time to do make-up drill duty with the Air National Guard, and to visit us for Christmas. They're wrapping up inside work on the school and will start on inside work of the clinic, next. She figures work will start back up at the end of February, or the first of March. They were under a blizzard warning or watch. Recently, it was 3° with a subzero windchill. She hasn't worn her new Carhartt coat...too warm-blooded. She tried seal meat recently...said it tasted fishy, but tasted good. A guy she works with, who hails from a neighboring village, told Katie she is big-boned. He meant it as a compliment...that she grew up where milk is consumed, so she has a healthy bone structure, being well-fed as a kid. He meant well, but his compliment didn't sound like one. So now, as a joke, she's known as "Big-Boned Katie" by her co-workers. We decided not to hunt for the next couple days, due to predicted real high temperatures and rain, making deer butchering tougher.
• Wednesday, 11/20: Yesterday while Mary was mowing, she drug her mower over some mole mounds and the rear plastic flap that I guess is supposed to protect the person pushing the mower, tore off and got chopped up by the mower. In the process, the blade got dinged up, so today, I sharpened her mower's blade with a new file I have. She then mowed some tall grass west of the house and finished mulching her garlic. Mary also washed clothes. I found a Chevy pickup that looked promising located 170 miles NE of us in Illinois. The owner had someone showing up at 3. After I sent an inquiring email, he said it didn't sell and I said I'd show up tomorrow. I tightened the north chicken coop vent windows with packing tape, put loose insulation in the north chicken door and screwed a board on the inside, while screwing the outside door shut. This tightens up the north side of the chicken coop from invading cold winter air. Went to bed at 10 pm, anticipating driving east for a pickup in the morning.
• Thursday, 11/21: I woke up at 2:20 and couldn't get back to sleep. Around 5 am, saw lightning and heard thunder. Received a message at 6:50 am...the Illinois truck owner said he would let me know if the pickup sold this morning and at 7:30, he said it sold. I looked online and found another half-ton Chevy pickup near Ste. Genevieve, MO (SE corner of the state and about 200 miles away). Talked to that truck owner. The pickup sounded good, but has close to 300,000 miles. Later, decided not to go, due to Thanksgiving preparations and hunting required in next few days. I went through 4 months of bank statements and balanced our account. Hunted the Bobcat deer stand with a west, northwest wind blowing. Saw 3 things between 3:25 and 3:40 pm. First, a legal buck walked up the draw west of where I sit, walked up the hill towards me, smelled my track on the trail just 20 feet SE of me, and looked right at me for several seconds. I stayed perfectly still. He didn't register that I was there and went on further east and over the hill. Could have easily shot him, but we're not wanting testosterone-laden deer meat, since it's already been quite cold and the male deeries are as horny as hell. A few minutes later, a second buck, this one with 4-inch spikes and illegal to shoot, followed the trail of the first deer. He looked at me from the exact same place, 20-feet away and on my trail, then slowly walked over the hill to the east. A few minutes later, a big mama raccoon led 2 yearling raccoons down the hill to the west of me, going south to north. About an hour later, another legal buck walked up the same draw as the first two, but turned around and walked north, walked up the ridge that my blind is on so that he was close enough I could have poked him with a stick, then crossed a deep ditch NE of me, and walked up and over the hill to the north. As dusk was settling in, I watched a coyote that was about the size of a German Shepherd, walk north to south to the west of me. That coyote was super quiet, unlike the leaf-crunching deer. Then, at 4:55, a deer to the east of me that I couldn't see snorted at me. At just after 5 pm, I decided it was too dark to see and emptied my gun's magazine of ammo. When a stood up, a deer in the deep ditch just to the north, below me, snorted and ran to the east snorting. As I walked into our west yard, another deer snorted at me from the west woods. I swear, the deer were like lice in the woods today.
• Friday, 11/22: Got up at 4 am, ate a sandwich, and hunted the Bobcat deer blind. A north wind was blowing and I could see the big dipper through the treetops. As daylight crept in, a squirrel scampered about. At one point, it was at the entrance of my blind. I looked at it and it leaped into the air, like a cat that's playing, "Oh, it's fun to be frightful," and ran up a tree. At 7, a big gray buck with not much of a rack appeared NE of me. He thrashed brush for several minutes with his rack. Then, he walked east, jumped a downed tree (when I saw how immense his body was), and went off to the east. He was a big, old granddaddy. I think that over the years, hunters continually taking bucks with big horns change the genetics of the deer herd so that big bucks with small racks are breeding...bucks with large racks aren't. Year after year, I'm seeing large bucks with medium or small racks. Didn't see anything else, so I went home at 8 to eat breakfast. Mary and I picked up more pecan nuts off the ground. She did more house cleaning. I researched engine issues through various years of pickups. Hunted the Rose Butt deer stand at 2:30 pm. A NE breeze eventually turned calm. At 4, a lame buck walked from the woods across the field from me to the corner of the field east of me. At 4:30, I heard a snort NE of me, leaned forward to look, and a large, small-racked buck was at the end of the field. It was looking right at me. He ran north through the woods, snorting several times. Decided this stand is in a poor location, because I'm sitting lower than the rest of the field and deer detect me before I can see them. Heard a deer snort through the woods SE of me at 5, then saw a big V of ducks fly from near there to our Swim Pond west of that stand. That probably was someone on our neighbor's land to the east, spooking up deer and ducks. Walked home at 5:05. All I ever see is bucks (what most hunters prefer to see)! With snow in the overnight forecast, decided to give hunting a break tomorrow morning.
• Saturday, 11/23: Got up with a tiny bit of snow here and there, but not much. On our morning dog walk, we saw a squadron of blue jays chase a kestrel through the pecan and walnut trees. Mary and I picked more pecans that are dropping from trees in our yard. Mary finished cleaning the north bedroom. She made a chicken dinner from 1 of this year's Wyandottes. It was delicious. I hunted the Wood Duck deer stand with a west wind blowing. Saw a legal buck at 4:30 pm. It emerged from the woods north of me, walked to the creek bed just down the hill from the stand, looked up and me, then walked north, down the creek bed to Wood Duck Pond, turned east and disappeared. About 5 minutes later, a non-legal buck followed the path of the first deer, but he walked north and east closer to me. I was facing west, didn't hear him anymore, turned my head to look for him. He saw me move and ran back where he came from. At about 4:50, 3 deer in a row, all non-legal bucks, walked from the north woods up to opposite my stand, then north to the pond, then east, out of sight. I then heard a 4-wheeler, followed by a combine, to the east. All 3 deer ran back west and disappeared. This stand is a good one, because I'm high and the deer don't see me unless I move. Plus, a west wind filters my scent among the treetops and deer don't smell me, even if they're downwind from me. As I walked home after legal hunting ended, I started singing, "Where have all the doe-wees gone, long time passing." A deer snorted at me just east of the house when I returned home.

Nov. 10-16, 2019

Weather | 11/10, 36°, 53° | 11/11, 1.5" snow or 0.16" moisture, 19°, 29° | 11/12,  3°, 20° | 11/13, 10°, 33° | 11/14, 25°, 35° | 11/15, 17°, 49° | 11/16, 23°, 48° |

• Sunday, 11/10: Mary washed sheets, furniture covers, and jeans. She also watered the garlic and cleaned up and froze 4 packages of cranberries we recently bought. I drove to Fastlane, a Conoco truck stop, and bought 10 gallons of gas for the tractor and wood splitter and 2 gallons of 91 octane gas for the chainsaw. Then I cleaned the spark plugs on the 8N Ford tractor and sharpened a chainsaw chain. Mary and I drove down Bobcat Trail and cut out a section of a large white oak tree that fell on the trail, then cut enough firewood to fill the wagon. I unloaded the firewood, while Mary did the chores, except feeding chickens, which I did. Mom texted me that Len Kuntz died after open heart surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She also said it snowed 8 inches overnight and Circle, MT is expected to hit 0, or below, tonight.
• Monday, 11/11: Woke to a snowstorm...snowing hard with a 30 mph north wind. Our high temperature was in the morning...temps dropped all day. All told, it snowed about 1.5 inches. Snow ended at 3 pm. Left the chickens inside. Nice day to stay inside next to the woodstove. The only outside task I undertook was to hang the oil-filled electric heater up in the coop and turn it on for the chickens. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. We watched Lincoln and Darkest Hour. Bill texted us that a meteor fireball went across the St. Louis sky, from east to west...some neat videos of it online.
• Tuesday, 11/12: Sunny day, but started at 3°F. Mary did house cleaning. I cooked up 8 old eggs for chickens. Let them out at 2 pm...they went out for about a minute and went right back into the coop to stay, so I closed the door. Went to all of my deer stands and blinds, adding reflective trail thumb tacks where needed, and clipped or sawed away branches that were in the way. Saw a yearling deer at the cherry deer stand, 2 bald eagles, and heard a deer snort at the southeast deer blind. Saw deer tracks everywhere in the snow. Mary made a wonderful venison stew with biscuits for dinner. I cut out pads in some new battery-operated Warmfits boot heaters and tried them in my military bunny boots. They'll be perfect for sitting at deer stands/blinds in a few days (deer season starts Sat., 11/16).
• Wednesday, 11/13: Strong south wind, so even though it's warmer outside, it feels damn cold. That's what chickens said, so I left them in with the chicken door shut and fed them another batch of cooked-up old eggs. Mary & I split a bunch of bigger logs from the past 2 times we sawed up firewood. Mary separated them out into dry, so-so, and wet piles. We'll leave the wet stacked in the machine shed, where an open east end and partial open south end means a good wind blows through to thoroughly air out the wood in a week or two. While watching out the west living room windows, we saw 2 falcons dive from way high to the ground west of us. It was quite a sight. I got a migraine while doing evening chores, so took a couple acetaminophen pills and slept for an hour. Fortunately, since getting older and losing all of my brain cells, I don't get much of a headache, now. Had to endure venison stew leftovers and the first of our acorn squash from the garden. Life is tough.
• Thursday, 11/14: Saw the telltale sight of a deer's white tail bouncing off to the north through the woods when I dumped morning ashes from the woodstove. After seeing an Aldi flyer last night, we went to Quincy today and bought 2 Honeysuckle White turkeys for 59 cents a pound, plus other groceries. Also picked up dog and cat food at Farm & Home, plus a bag of sunflower seeds and a pecking block for the chickens. Ate pizza we bought at Aldi. I cleaned my good 30:30 rifle and stitched up the left hand of my chopper elk hide mittens where the stitching of one side and the thumb had broken apart. Mary worked on a cross stitching ornament. The Quincy Herald-Whig newspaper says the low temperatures on 11/12 and 11/13 were all-time record lows.
• Friday, 11/15: Mary raked leaves and broke up a head-high pile of long branches in the machine shed for kindling. I sighted in my best 30:30 rifle...it was shooting left and high, but after 4 shots, I got it right on. I also got my gear ready for hunting. Called mom on her 85th birthday. Tried to get to bed by 8 pm, but didn't make it until 9:30.
• Saturday, 11/16: WHAT A DAY!!! Got up at 4:30 am, dressed in warm gear, ate a sandwich and went hunting. Mary walked dogs, lit a fire and had a big tea, since sleeping is impossible with "clicky, clicky, clicky...sniff, sniff, sniff...why aren't you up?" dogs. Went to the Cherry Tree Deer Stand in the NE area of our property. A partial moon illuminated everything well and the grass was crunchy with frost. I heard a deer snort to the north as I got to the stand. After it started to lighten up, but well before the legal time to start shooting, a deer walked directly under that stand. I could have dropped something on it. It was too dark for me to make out whether it had horns, or not. Later, after the legal shooting time, a doe walked north to south a few yards east of me. When I got the rifle up, it was behind a honey locust tree, then turned east, walking away from me...would have been a bad gut shot...so, I waited. By the time it turned south, or broadside to me, there were too many branches between me and the deer, so I never shot. I kept hearing animals stepping in the water at the Swim Pond, getting a drink. At 7:40 am, I thought, "Only 20 minutes and I'm leaving," then I heard a deer beyond the cedar trees immediately ahead of me. Took my leather mittens off...no sound...put the mittens back on. Then, there was the deer's head. It looked up right at me, then started walking forward. I quickly dropped my mittens, brought up the rifle and took a right-handed shot. Aimed for the neck and it dropped instantly. Waited to make sure it didn't get up and texted Mary that I got one. She heard the shot and said she knew it was my gun, since it sounds like a cannon, compared to the .223 caliber tinker toy guns that some people use. Walked back home, got Mary, started the 8N Ford tractor with the trailer behind it, drove back and field dressed a yearling doe. It had fat on it...had been eating corn from the neighbor's field. We hauled it back home and washed the cavity out with the hose off the outdoor hydrant. I hung it up in the machine shed, then we ate breakfast. Sharpened knives and I skinned it. I blew out the right shoulder with the exit of my bullet, since I shot from above while the deer was walking up the hill. The bullet exit wound was about 3 inches in diameter. After de-boning the meat, we came up with 25 packages of meat in the freezer, which is a lot for a yearling with a blown-out shoulder. This doe was long. The long bodies always surprise you with the amount of meat you get out of them. While cutting out the shoulder stew pieces of meat from the deer carcass in the machine shed, Mary spotted an opossum, climbing in and out of boxes nearby. She was talking to it, when I showed up and said, "Talking to your deer carcass, huh?" She pointed out the possum, and we kept an eye on it while we finished cutting meat out of the carcass. It came within 1 foot of our feet, before wandering off to another part of the machine shed. We then ate vegetable soup. Mary moved firewood that might get wet with tomorrow's rain while I drove the carcass and hide to a hilltop on the east side of our property for coyotes to have. While doing chores, Mary spotted something in Gandalf's (a gray cat) mouth...turned out to be a small prairie king snake, tied in a half hitch knot. She brought it out to me, so she could lay it in my hands while she undid the knot. Mary laid it in tall grass near the wood ash pile and covered it with grass to give it more protection. I counted the chickens after getting them into the coop and was missing one. Found it, dead, at the north end of the chicken run...head hanging by a thread and half eaten. Mary saw claw marks that were wide and the tell-tale sign of white bird poop. It was killed by a raptor...a hawk, or an owl, and partially eaten. (Update: Mary spotted a big red-tailed hawk flying over the closed-up coop Sunday, 11/17, returning for another chicken dinner). Out of 10 hens we got the summer of 2018, we have 3 left. With this year's 2 pullets, we now have 5 female chickens. I took the dead hen body north and left it in an animal trail...another coyote offering. We changed and went to a Quincy Symphony Orchestra concert. The first piece, by Mendelssohn, was good. The second, a piece by Franz Strauss, featuring a French horn soloist, wasn't as good. The orchestra was fine, but this guy on the horn wondered off on his own beat...he was like the Willie Nelson of French horn players. The final piece, Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2, was really good. I spotted Diana and Chet Brown in the crowd. I trained their dog, Harley, when I was a dog trainer at Petco. Didn't go say hi...didn't feel sociable. Mary had an urge for hamburger...something about cutting up meat earlier in the day...so we ate at Burger King. Got home at 10:30, lit the fire and had a big tea. Got to bed at midnight. WHAT A DAY!!!

Nov. 3-9, 2019

Weather | 11/3, 30°, 56° | 11/4, 39°, 51° | 11/5,  31°, 51° | 11/6, 36°, 59° | 11/7, 23°, 36° | 11/8, 14°, 34° | 11/9, 30°, 56° |

• Sunday, 11/3: I put 5-foot long pieces of 3-foot wide steel roofing up between steel fence posts to form one of our three compost bins. In the past, I used copper wire to hold these steel pieces to the posts, thinking that the copper won't corrode. It doesn't, but the problem is wind wiggles the steel against the weak copper wire, breaks the wire, and then flips the steel roofing pieces around. Today, I quadrupled electric fence wire and twisted the 4-strand wire through holes in the steel and around the posts...much stronger and if it rusts, there's enough wire to hold it. At 4 wire ties on each fence post, it equals 16 wire connections that I put up. It took all day to put it together. I raked up 2 wheelbarrow loads of leaves and put them in the compost bin. Mary dug a third row in the far garden and planted four varieties of garlic in the second and third rows. That finished the planting of all garlic for the year. She grabbed the remaining unplanted garlic cloves and put them in a plastic bowl to use up in cooking, which she added to a venison stroganoff that we had for supper. Bill texted us and sent a photo that he was listening to the Vikings game and drinking a bottle of his first-made beer. We were going to butcher chickens tonight, but decided to wait until tomorrow night to start. Initially, we were going to butcher 6 per night for 4 nights. We've now decided to do 12 per night for 2 nights. Six a night works best earlier in the year, when nighttime temps are in the 60s, but now they're in the 30s, so 12 a night should work out okay.
• Monday, 11/4: While sending out yesterday's blog, I asked Kristen and Don, Mary's sister-in-law and brother, if they wanted to see this. They said yes, so if I seem redundant, I'm explaining ideas to them. Mary loaded several wheelbarrow loads of tall grass from the east trail that I recently weedwhacked and piled them next to the compost bins to use as compost biomass. She moved dry grass clippings out of the second grain bin into a large blue plastic industrial barrel, while dumping old clippings from it into the compost grass pile. Mary mowed new grass clippings that she set out to dry in the second grain bin. I got the machine shed ready for nighttime chicken butchering by hanging an old 300-watt equivalent CFL light from the rafters and setting up 4 east, west, north, south lights, all aimed at an aluminum meat hook. I hang each chicken upside down from the hook while butchering it. I got all buckets of water set out. Mary set up the 10-foot long digging bar stretched atop 2 step ladders for hanging dead chickens from. I sharpened 9 knives. I weedwhacked another gas tank full on the south leg of the east trail. We started butchering chickens at 7:30 pm. Finished killing 9 Austra White and 3 Buff Orpington cockerels at 9:30. Then, I skinned and gutted each chicken, after which Mary sectioned each bird, cleaned any remaining organs, thoroughly washed them, bagged them, and froze them. At the end of 6 birds, we took a tea and jam on toast break at midnight. We finished all 12 birds at 2:30 am. These chickens were big for their age (2 days shy of 14 weeks) and had tiny gonads. Obviously, the feed was excellent. I heard leaves rustling as creatures passed through all night. Could have been possums, raccoons, or even coyotes. Lots of coyotes howling after midnight, 1 barred owl, and a distant coon hound on a chase. We also heard snow geese flying over in the dark. Smart geese. You don't get shot at when you fly south during the nighttime. Went to bed at 3:30 am with the chicken butchering finale due several hours in the future.
• Tuesday, 11/5: Got 4 hours sleep. Mary took an hour nap at 2:30 pm. I gassed up the weedwhacker and cleaned up more of the East Trail. Sharpened knives, then took a 45-minute nap. Started knocking off chickens at 8 pm, then started skinning, gutting, and processing our 7 Silver Wyandotte and 5 Buff Orpington cockerels at 10 pm. The Wyandottes were smaller...harder for me to skin, but easier for Mary to process. Mary threw away a 30-year old U.S. Navy hooded sweatshirt that after 9 years of chicken butchering was in rags. We had an hour tea and toast break at 12:30 am. While working on the final 6 chickens, I heard a sound, turned around and saw a possum reaching up to chew on the head of 1 of the dead chickens. I hollered for it to scram, but it didn't move. So, I got close and stomped my boots. It ran a couple feet, stopping under our 16-foot Lund boat, so I grabbed the boat and banged it around. It ran another few feet and stopped under the 8N Ford tractor's wagon, so I kicked the wagon's plywood sides and it finally ran off. Obviously, bloody chicken heads are hard for a possum to leave behind. Finished with all chickens at 4:30 am. YAHOO!!!
• Wednesday, 11/6: Ate breakfast, after finishing with chicken butchering, then did chores. The 2 pullets left from the younger chickens (we always seem to wind up with a couple females when we order a couple dozen birds from Cackle Hatchery's "Pan Fry Special" of cockerels) were very timid about meeting our 4 older hens and the rooster, Leo. The new girls include a Buff Orpington we're calling Golden, and a Silver Wyandotte we've named Silver...nice originality, right? We both took a 2.5-hour nap at 8 am. Then after eating a meal,we drove the 8N Ford tractor pulling a wagon down the East Trail and cut firewood from an ash tree that blew down this summer. Unloaded a trailer load of firewood into the woodshed. Probably a possum hauled off some of the chicken feet I threw in a pile on the machine shed floor, so I cut the baling twine off 48 chicken feet and tossed them into the north woods. Mary covered the chicken guts in the compost pile while I cleaned up buckets.  Chicken butchering is not a fun job, but it results in several chicken meals throughout the year. We are super tired tonight, with the woodstove kicking out nice wood heat. It's blowing a stiff NE wind outside, which is why we elected to do two 12-bird butchering nights, rather than four 6-bird events, which would have put us into cold, windy conditions.
• Thursday, 11/7: Mary cooked up 2 pumpkins and froze 18 quarts of pumpkin for future pies and cakes...YUM! She also raked up maple leaves and put them in the compost pile. I nailed a 2x4' sheet of 1/2-inch plywood to the top of the Wood Duck deer stand to cover up holes chewed in the existing plywood by squirrels. I also finished weedwhacking the trail to the southeast deer blind...lots of big deer tracks at the 2nd crossing of the ditch on that trail. I also removed the inner wall of the chicken coop that once divided the hens and rooster from the new chickens. The remaining 2 pullets, Goldie and Silver, stayed on the roost while I disassembled the wall. I put all of the pieces of the wall above the rafters in the machine shed. Mary made a shopping list.
• Friday, 11/8: We shopped in Quincy, IL. I picked up my new glasses. The sides of the lenses are thicker...starting to look like Mr. McGoo, but I can see much better. Bought food, including birdzilla, a 23-pound turkey...need big, since Bill is showing up for Thanksgiving. Actually, we use it for several meals after turkey day. Bought Christmas wrapping paper after laughing at seeing black and white colored paper in Walmart...come on! Ate nachos after coming home and putting things away. Watched Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston, a good movie.
• Saturday, 11/9: Mary washed clothes, then cleaned the chicken coop and put in new hay on the coop's floor. I used 3.5 tanks of gas to weedwhack the trail to the Bobcat deer blind, a trail I haven't cleaned up in a couple years. Now, all trails to deer blinds and stands are finished. Mary and I walked to the Bobcat deer blind as the sun set and Mary spotted 2 big deer running off through the woods.

Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2019

Weather | 10/27, 34°, 63° | 10/28, 0.31" rain, 40°, 46° | 10/29, 29°, 39° | 10/30, 0.41" rain, 29°, 35° | 10/31, 2" snow, or 0.18" moisture, 24°, 36° | 11/1, 26°, 50° | 11/2, 29°, 48°

• Sunday, 10/27: Wine burping was every 4:25 minutes in the morning. Fixed the damper in the woodstove by removing the elbow coming out of the back of the stove while Mary held the pipe. Then I wiggled the damper's poke-through rod out, turned the rod 180 degrees, and jammed it back into the damper. A bump on the rod was facing the wrong way, allowing the damper to spin on the rod. It's correct, now. Added silicone caulking to the stovepipe sections and re-installed them. Mary washed clothes. Mary and I picked pecan nuts...Mary picked from off the ground, and I used a step ladder to reach low-hanging nuts on branches. Then, we moved the firewood I split yesterday to the north wall of the machine shed. Next, I weedwhacked to the cherry deer stand in the NE area of our property, and a little on the north trail going west from that stand. Mary vacuumed Asian lady bugs...they were flying about, today. Had a voicemail from Katie, so called her after finishing chores. They've finished the temporary school at Mertarvik, AK. Next is to finish the clinic, but they're waiting on an architect's signature to proceed. She said worst-case scenario involves leaving in 3 weeks and coming back after Christmas to work on the clinic. While she was talking to us she was watching a barge arrive from Nome. We talked Christmas ideas. After the call, she booked a two-way flight between New Orleans and St. Louis, arriving at Lambert Field in St. Louis on 12/21 at 10:30 am, and then leaving on 12/30 at 7:30 pm. We'll pick her up, grab Bill, visit the Arch in St. Louis, and per Bill (who Katie texted), eat at Sameem, an Afghan restaurant. I looked up a bunch of Christmas gift ideas, in an attempt to get what I want for Christmas to others. Still need to get pricing before I ship out the list. We smelled a skunk while we were in the living room in the evening. Mary checked prior to walking dogs...nothing there, but we still smelled skunk while walking the dogs.
• Monday, 10/28: Mary made her last batch of salsa...a new record of 30 pints, put in 11 quart and 8 pint jars. The 3 salsa canning sessions resulted in a grand total of 86 pints. I removed all of the ACs out of windows. Cleaned a long stretch of the bench in the machine shed and moved the ACs onto that location for the winter. Found mold on the window sill in our bedroom, since that AC wasn't tilted down enough on the outside, so I took a bleach solution to the wood. Took all day for both of us to do these 2 chores. The water bath canning put a ton of moisture in the air, so we aired the house out after she was done canning. It started misting when I was doing evening chores, which turned into rain after dark. We installed curtain rods and put curtains up in our bedroom to block yard lights from our neighbor's house. They work wonderfully. Trees are turning to beautiful colors and some are dropping their leaves.
• Tuesday, 10/29: I picked another batch of pecans, by using a step ladder and pulling down on branches. Mary picked several off the ground. I replaced parts on the 8N Ford tractor and changed oil and the oil filter. The oil was very smelly with gasoline. With a 3-inch oil plug on the bottom of the oil pan, used oil comes down in a huge gully wash. Luckily, my large 10-gallon oil catch pan caught it all. The tank-type oil filter that you pull the filter out of is a huge mess, because you have to sop excess oil out of the device once the filter is removed, because there is no drain plug on the bottom. I removed the entire gas line/filter and installed the missing gas sediment bowl, gas line, and fitting/filter at the carburetor. Put gas in and it started much better than it ever has in the past...obviously there's a fuel constriction with a newer canister fuel filter, just as I read online. Most importantly, the sediment bowl has a shut-off valve, so now when the carb float sticks open, I don't get gas in the engine oil. I sat for 7 minutes watching for a fermentation lock burp on the pear wine and didn't see one. It's clearing to a yellow/green color. We were going to butcher chickens this week, but there's snow in the forecast for several days, so we're putting it off. Mary washed sheets, did cross-stitching, and made flour tortillas and chimichangas. By our late-night dog walk, we saw freezing sleet on the porch steps. I ordered a heavy-duty nutcracker online.
• Wednesday, 10/30: Another mouse in the Buick trapline. A lazy day. The wood heat is wonderful. Mary baked a small turkey...yum, yum. I diddled online. Heavy snow was falling after dark. The pear wine is turning into what looks like a 6.5-gallon bottle of pee...hope it tastes better than that! Bill had the day off and went to a Minnesota Wild/St. Louis Blues hockey game. Blues won 2-1. It was a birthday gift from his friend, Mike Push.
• Thursday, 10/31: Woke up to about 2" of snow outside. Left the chickens inside. Laughed when I saw snow decorating a railroad tie post with poison ivy all over it and started singing, "Deck the Halls with Poison Ivy..." Let chickens out in the afternoon. I spent all day reviewing Christmas present ideas and sent ideas to Bill & Katie. Mary baked chocolate chip cookies. John Hendrix emailed me that I should attend the high school reunion in Homer in August of next year. He said I could use his Alaska Airline miles.
• Friday: 11/1: We wrote a 45-item list of things we need to do prior to deer hunting season on 11/16, assigned who is doing them, and deadlines. Mary popped all of the garlic cloves to plant, and dug up 1 of 3 rows for garlic in the far garden. I drove the 8N Ford tractor to the aluminum deer stand, brought it back to the machine shed, replaced the rotten OSB wood top with a good piece of OSB, drove it to my new spot on the south edge of the Rose Butt Field, and strapped it into a maple tree. Snipped off some cedar branches and tops. Cut out a 6' section of fence. When I pulled out the fence piece, I looked up and saw a buck with antlers the size of a medium bush running away from me. The damn rack looked like it belonged on an elk! Ordered Christmas gifts online for Mary and I. Told our kids that we were collecting possum poop for their gifts, since they weren't helping us with Christmas lists. Bill texted us several ideas.
• Saturday: 11/2: Yesterday while driving the tractor by the swim pond, a pair of huge mallard ducks lifted off the water, 3 deer ran off, and 4 Bobwhite quail flew off. Today, I drove to Quincy to buy chicken feed...feeding 12 cups, twice a day, to the young birds. Also, bought a 6-volt flashlight battery, some reflector trail tacks for marking my way to deer stands, and a couple grocery items. Mary planted 2 kinds of garlic and dug up another row. Digging is hard work...very wet, heavy and cold clay soil. She found a foot-long night crawler. While I was gone, Mary was hanging towels on the line and a red-tailed hawk came swirling down to attack the chickens. Mary had a handful of wash rags and started waving them around and shouted, "Go away!" It did. When I got back from Quincy, I weedwhacked a new trail to the NE corner of the far garden, where I'll dig in a wooden post for a new location for our rain gauge to replace the teetering railroad tie post down the lane that holds our rain gauge today. Then, I whacked a connecting trail to the chicken killing cone. Next, I weedwhacked another tank full of gas on the south leg of the east trail. We watched a movie we picked up secondhand at Salvation Army called A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe. It's very good.

Oct. 20-26, 2019

Weather | 10/20, 39°, 63° | 10/21, 0.55" rain, 51°, 55° | 10/22, 43°, 55° | 10/23, 39°, 67° | 10/24, 37°, 49° | 10/25, 38°, 53° | 10/26, 0.05" rain, 37°, 48° |

• Sunday, 10/20: I gave Mary a haircut We were planning on going to a free youth choir concert at 7 pm in Quincy, but a wine emergency prevented us from going. Checked the wine's specific gravity and it's at 1.004. It's supposed to be racked into the secondary fermentation container at 1.014. It's sugar content went down very quickly. I sanitized the glass carboy and hose, then we drained the wine from the primary fermentation bucket to the carboy. Recipe directions said to add sugar syrup to fill up the carboy, so we added 5 quarts of it. All that did is put the yeast into hyperdrive and after installing the fermentation lock, it fizzed wine right up through the lock. We mopped up wine for about 30 minutes, then it settled down. Checked online and you don't need to fill syrup to the top, because CO2 gas released during fermentation prevents oxygen from filling the air gap. Later, after fermentation has stopped, when you're trying to get the wine to become clear, you worry about an oxygen gap. What we did by adding syrup was to boost fermentation, thereby adding more alcohol to the wine. We might be making super alcoholic wine that can only be used in the place of gas to power the tractor. We tasted what was left in the bottom of the primary fermentation bucket. It tastes really good. Who knows what the end result will taste like. We keep learning.
• Monday, 10/21: It rained in the early morning hours. Mary canned 13 quarts of salsa, which took all day. The wine keeps on fizzing. We're calling it the yeast beast and we're leaving it alone until the fizzing stops. I drove the tractor on future trails I want to cut through the grass...to the swim pond, then to the field east of the pond, which we're calling the Rose Butt field, because several deer seasons ago, I shot a deer in the woods north of that field and we dragged it into the field, started field dressing it in the dark and realized that Mary's butt was parked right in the middle of a multiflora rose bush. I also drove the north trail, stopping to check the cherry deer stand, which is fine, and the aluminum ladder deer stand, which needs a new plywood top. I also checked along the north fence where a trail camera was aimed into our property and it's now gone. I guess the purple paint on the post it was sitting on told them that they were encroaching onto our property. I then drove the east trail, and spotted another autumn olive bush packed full of berries. Then, I drove a new south trail, and a shorter west trail. I walked to the new autumn olive bush and picked a full bowl of berries. The new mower blades arrived in the mail.
• Tuesday, 10/22: This morning, fermentation in the wine is way down, which is just what we want. Mary figured our monthly finances. She bagged up 3.5 more quarts of autumn olives, making 19 total in the big freezer. I installed the new mower blades. Mary mowed part of the lawn & said the new blade cut like going through butter. I weedwhacked the east trail from the far garden to the old pond, giving Mary a place to dump dead garden plants, then whacked part of the north trail on the east side. Mary and I picked a bunch of pecan nuts, since they're larger this year and might actually amount to something. After baths, we watched a movie (don't know which one, since it's future tense at the time of this writing). It was Hocus Pocus.
• Wednesday, 10/23: Wine is down to burping the fermentation lock every 23 seconds in the morning and 27 seconds in the evening. I weedwhacked another stretch of the north trail to just 10 yards from where I'll turn east for a short jaunt to the cherry deer stand. I picked another bowl of autumn olives, taking the tractor to pull the trailer to hold the step ladder. Mary froze 13 packages of sweet peppers, making a total of 31 packages for winter. She racked up a bunch of grass to use for our indoor toilet and put it in the second bin to dry. She also went down a long stretch of the Swim Pond Trail and pulled long grass that I cut when weedwhacking the trail into the middle of the trail to dry. We'll use that for chicken coop straw. I can smell gas in the oil in the tractor's crankcase. It's a common issue if you don't turn off the gas at the sediment bowl...the carb float sticks open and gas drains into the oil. Herman removed the sediment bowl, replacing it with a canister fuel filter. A Ford N-series tractor website I've bookmarked says never to do that, because, 1) you can't turn off the gas when the tractor is sitting, 2) it's a gravity feed gas system and a canister fuel filter restricts flow, and 3) you lose 2 filters with the sediment bowl assembly. I ordered a sediment bowl, gas line, gas line fitting at the carburetor, an oil filter, an oil breather cap, an oil filter canister top gasket, and an oil drain plug gasket from Just8Ns.com. Got word online that my glasses are in. Texted Mom. Picked up several pecans and stained my thumbs pitch black from opening pecan husks with my bare hands.
• Thursday, 10/24: Tried to remove pecan husk stains. Now my thumbs aren't pitch black, but mostly black. Mary worked up a shopping list and I drove to Quincy and picked up my new glasses. Then, I shopped for human food, dog & cat food, hen food, chick food, a file for sharpening mower blades, PEX pipe for my wine auto siphon, oil for the tractor,  and cross stitch floss. I was having real troubles seeing with my new glasses...tried on my old ones in the Walmart parking lot and the distance vision is better with the old ones. Damn! Mary checked hickory nuts & decided they're not worth worrying about...likewise with persimmons, because the latter is not ripe, yet. She picked up several more pecans. She found 3 dead mice in the mouse traps in the Buick. Wine was burping the lock every 30 seconds this evening. We watched Corpse Bride and ate nachos.
• Friday, 10/25: Found another mouse in my Buick trap line. I drove to Quincy to turn in my new glasses. They checked old and new glasses and discovered my old glasses hold a stronger prescription. The optometrist ran me through another free eye exam. Came up with same numbers as my new glasses for distance vision, but went ahead and bumped up the prescription to match old glasses. The increased close-up vision of the new prescription is right-on. I also opted for a better lens type with a tint, recommended by the glass-fitting expert at the glass shop. Cost me an additional $166. They'll send my new glasses back and get them refitted with newer lenses. Returned the PEX to Home Depot and got a smaller size for my auto siphon. Grabbed strawberries and bananas from Aldi and went back home. Mary loaded 10 wheelbarrow loads of chicken coop hay into the second bin, giving us enough for another year. She also picked up more pecans. Wine is burping the fermentation lock every 67 seconds this evening. Bill called. He's working long hours and doing beer brewing in his spare time.
• Saturday, 10/26: Three dead mice were in my Buick trap line this morning. Picked some more pecan nuts, this time wearing latex gloves. The trees are really loaded this year. Picked another bowl of autumn olives. Mary made another batch of salsa, canning 13 quarts and 1 pint. My 8N Ford parts came in. I split logs that we left last spring next to the splitter, which is inside the machine shed. It was raining while I split wood. At the end of chores we enjoyed a complete double rainbow. After dark, coyotes were howling just west of the house. The pear wine burped the fermentation lock every 80 seconds in the morning and every 2 minutes, 46 seconds in the evening. Texted with Katie and Bill. Katie plans to work through Thanksgiving in Alaska.