Sept. 22-28, 2019

Weather | 9/22, 1.52" rain, 67°, 73° | 9/23, 55°, 75° | 9/24, 55°, 77° | 9/25, .03" rain, 61°, 80° | 9/26, 51°, 79° | 9/27, 0.53" rain, 61°, 87° | 9/28, 1.50" rain, 63°, 73° |

• Sunday, 9/22: Bill texted that he was going to the St. Louis Blues preseason hockey game against the Columbus Blue Jackets today for a ticket price of $6. Mom texted that they had a wet Town & Country Day in Circle yesterday, but got their Senior Center float through the parade OK and sold several slices of pie, making good money for the center. One item served at the evening T&C meal was gator, which she said looked greasy. We had rain most of the day. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. I diddled around online. Found a deal where you could pay for 1 season ticket and get another senior season ticket free from the Quincy Symphony Orchestra Association, so I signed Mary for buying a ticket to give me one, free. Their first concert is next Sunday. Katie texted that she stopped to view the Four Corners Monument. Mary made fajitas with garden green peppers and tomatoes. It was marvelous.
• Monday, 9/23: Fog was lifting as I woke this morning. Multicolored jewels of dew glistened as the rising eastern sun cast its light on cobwebs viewed while walking the dogs. The sky is bright blue this morning. It's a beautiful day. I planned my week. Looked online about starting running at my age and found an Australian running coach with good advice of alternating running and walking, gradually increasing running over a 3-month period. He says to start at only 30 minutes, 3 times a week. I like his approach and I plan on following it. Mary mowed around compost area. I divided a 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds into 4 cat litter buckets with lids and put them in the chicken coop. Also, combed Churchill outside. He really needed it. Various texts: Mom says they got 6.2" of rain in Circle, MT, so far in September, making the grass grow. Karen had physical therapy with a neurologist, has to do exercises, and will return to work this week. Lynn is visiting the Big Horn Mountains. Bill had fun at the Blues/Blue Jackets hockey game yesterday, saying some of the rookie players were very good. He sent a photo of the ice sheet from his vantage point in the St. Louis Enterprise Center saying it was supposed to be a bad seat area, but that even bad seats are pretty good in that ice arena. Katie sent a couple dozen photos to us via Facebook Messenger of her Grand Canyon hike and visit to the Four Corners. She left us a voicemail that she was driving to Florida for her Air National Guard stuff.
• Tuesday, 9/24: I cleaned a table that Shane let me have that he was throwing out of the grooming area of Petco. It folds up, yet is very sturdy. They were washing dogs on it. I set it up in the sunroom and will do leatherwork on it, taking it down when I'm not using it. Opened up a Tandy checkbook kit that we bought in Billings. Decided against using their pressed-together leather crap for the insides and instead I'll use some pig skin leather that I have for the inside. Also, I'm going to stitch it together with waxed thread, instead of going around the outside of the checkbook with lacing. I started my running regimen...run for 1 minute and walk for 4 minutes, six times. It's a way to gradually get into running without killing yourself. Still, my legs were sore at the end of the day. Mary picked a full bucket of tomatoes, then processed ripe tomatoes from today's and past day's pickings. This made for 4 more gallons of tomatoes in the freezer. I changed the oil and oil filter in the Cadillac and checked all of the fluid levels. Mary washed clothes and when she was taking clothes off the line, she saw 14 broad-winged hawks migrate through. They made a swirl above the chicken yard and then moved on. Mary woke up with spider bites...3 on her left elbow and 2 on her left thigh. They developed into blisters, some popping. We're hoping they aren't brown recluse spider bites, which can decay skin and muscle. If so, I might be hauling her in to see a doctor. She slept downstairs on the couch and is continually cleaning and soaking the bites with comfrey.
• Wednesday, 9/25: Mary stayed inside most of the day, cleaning and soaking her spider bites, so I followed suit and became a bum, today. Walked my sore legs for 3 round trips up and down our lane. I also did a better job of propping up old Mid-Rivers calendars in the windows of the Buick to block the sun and while doing so, spotted mouse chewings on the floor of the back seat. Vacuumed them up...put out several Bounce dryer sheets and set 4 mice traps in the Buick. Katie called while returning from Florida. Likes her Alaska job. Had fun on Grand Canyon hike/camp out. When the friends she was with tried to start a morning campfire with a piece of toilet paper and big logs, she asked, "Where is your kindling." Their response was, "What's kindling." She showed them and was henceforth known as the fire master. She bought Carhartt winter gear and rain gear. Her job wraps up mid-November, or mid-December. Her company has 2-3 jobs starting in February that they'd like her to pick from. Her pets are doing good and excited to see her. She returns to AK next Tuesday, hopefully getting to the worksite on Wednesday evening. Mary worked up a shopping list for a Quincy visit, tomorrow.
• Thursday, 9/26: Shopped in Quincy. Got a twin-sized comforter to use as a dog bed at Salvation Army, along with new washcloths that Mary will use as dish rags and new dress socks that I can wear with 2 of my tight-fitting shoes. I got a new battery for my phone at Interstate Battery, along with a flashlight with a magnet on the end. The flashlight slides open to reveal a worklight. Plan on magnetically sticking the light on tractor or trailer in order to better illuminate the area while field dressing a deer after dark, instead of asking Mary to hold open a deer carcass and hold a flashlight in her teeth at the same time while I'm gutting a deer. It also has a red light that can be made to flash and be seen a mile away. Bought a holster for it, too. Menards was out of bug dope. You can buy Christmas lights there, but no mosquito repellent...I guess the bugs didn't get the memo that they're supposed to die by now. Got table leg caps there. Bought a box of Jonathan apples at Edgewood Orchards...getting expensive at $50 a big box...need to do better at raising our own. Bought purple paint for marking out property borders, along with groceries, at Walmart. Picked up another pork loin at Sam's Club for $1.94/lb. Also hit Aldi. Had nachos and watched Battle of the Bulge, a movie we drove to the Twin Cities to see when it came out in 1965. As I watched it, I remembered how it was in that "new" movie theater, when you could hear sound all around you as the tanks drove over top of you on the big screen. Mary's spider bites are much better.
• Friday, 9/27: Since we went to bed late, and thunderstorms were cracking in the morning, we slept in and had a lazy day. It was super muggy outside. We picked tomatoes. Mary froze over 5 one-gallon bags of ripe tomatoes. We now have 14.5 bags in the freezer. We only need 6 more to have all the tomatoes we need. There's more than that in green tomatoes in the garden. Mary also picked a bucket of green and hot peppers. Thunder was rumbling as I finished chores and Mary worked on the tomatoes. A tornado warning came up with a thunderstorm that went through Lewistown, just 5 miles north of us. Thunder and lightning cracked and some hard rain came down throughout the night.
• Saturday, 9/28: Lots of rain. I was online a bunch. Discovered how to determine when to plant winter greens...find what day there is 10 hours of sunlight, which for us in Nov. 15th, then figure amount of days greens would be 75% grown. We figured 45 days to full grown, so 75% of that is 32 days, which counting backwards puts the deadline at Oct. 14th, or 2 weeks from tomorrow. Also, we can plant strawberries up to Nov. 15th, if they're still alive in our fridge. Mary swept and cut up the pork loin into 6 meals. The rain poured after dark.