Oct. 6-12, 2019

Weather | 10/6, 45°, 69° | 10/7, 45°, 69° | 10/8, 45°, 68° | 10/9, 45°, 67° | 10/10, 0.69" rain, 55°, 63° | 10/11, 0.12" rain, 39°, 45° | 10/12, 29°, 63° |

• Sunday, 10/6: I decided To Do's for the week, then took a wire wheel on the electric hand grinder to rust on the wood stove, then painted the top and sides of the stove with flat black spray paint that's good to 2000°F and painted the front with similar silver colored paint. Mary peeled, processed, and froze 12 quart bags of Bartlett pears. I realized a trip to Quincy was needed to get items to make pear wine and for woodstove pipe caulking. Bill called in the evening and talked to both of us for about 90 minutes. He and his friend, Mike Push, are getting into beer making.
• Monday, 10/7: Went to Quincy and bought stove pipe silicone sealant for the woodstove pipe, a dozen lemons, 5 lbs. of golden raisins, 5 gallons of water, and a large plastic spoon for making pear wine. Mary peeled and processed 8 quarts of pears. She then mowed 1/3 of the lawn. I mowed the lane after I returned home. We had nachos and watched the first Harry Potter movie.  
• Tuesday, 10/8: I took down the stove pipe, removed the soot out of the chimney, took a wire brush and cleaned soot out of the inside of all the stove pipe sections, applied stove pipe caulking, and with Mary's help, installed the stove pipe. Mary washed clothes, and turned grass over she's drying. Had an outside fire and cooked pork loin until about 10 pm. After bathing, discovered the outside of the left lens of my glasses was full of wavy lines, as if the coating melted (maybe from the fire). I'll have to get new glasses. Dug out my old glasses and I can see better at distances with them...never thought the optometrist we saw at the now defunct Shopko eye department was any good. Looked up eyecare businesses online.
• Wednesday, 10/9: UPS delivered a Carhartt coat we ordered. It's a large Yukon Extreme work coat. It fits me fine...large enough to put layers under it, which is what I want. It's too small for Mary, so we'll need to get her an extra large. Bill texted us, saying he's sick with a fever and staying home. Called an eye glass place in Quincy. Their full-time optometrist is the same guy we saw a year ago at Shopko...hell no on that place! Checked with Sam's Club in Springfield, IL, since the Sam's Club in Quincy doesn't have an eye care center, and their optometrist recently retired. Checked with an elderly couple in Quincy who I had as a dog training client (both wear glasses) and they recommended International Eye Care. Called them, got pricing, and set up an appointment for tomorrow at 10:50 am to get an eye exam. Mary washed sheets and furniture covers, and then cleaned out garden items, since they're predicting a low of 34° Friday night. She collected 51 acorn squash, 2 buckets of hot and bell peppers, and several more tomatoes. She also harvested comfrey and sage leaves. Mary brought in the wood rack, wood, and kindling. With all of the windows open, I lit a small fire in the wood stove to burn the oil off the outside of the stove pipe. I used up a tank of gas to weedwhack a part of the trail to the Swim Pond, then mowed that same part of the trail. Mom texted me that it snowed and blew all day in Circle...about an inch, but melted on the streets.
• Thursday, 10/10: Went to eye appointment at International Eye Care in Quincy an hour early to pick out frames. The optometrist, a woman, was excellent...very meticulous. My prescription is slightly stronger, especially in the left eye. Eye retinas are good. She's seeing the start of cataracts, but says I shouldn't need surgery for 15-20 years. She said we all get them, but she mainly sees them starting with people in their 50s, so I'm better than most. She also said I have blephartitis, a fancy word for crusty eyelids that can turn into sties, bacterial infections and vision loss. Her solution...cleaning a closed eye with a wash rag containing baby shampoo. Tried it this evening and my eyes feel better already. The total bill was $710.32. After paying, it leaves us with $50 in our emergency fund. Shopped for baby shampoo and a couple food items in Walmart, chick food and hand warmers at Farm & Home, and celery, strawberries and chips at Aldi. Mary found my wine yeast order wrapped in plastic and in our mailbox...the UPS driver left it there rather than driving up our lane in the rain. She baked 4 loaves of bread and made a big batch of vegetable soup, which I ate when I got home. After chores, we watched the 2nd Harry Potter movie. Bill stayed home for a second day...felt better in the evening, when he was soaking labels off beer bottles.
• Friday, 10/11: It blew hard overnight, knocking a branch out of the weeping willow tree. Made waffles and ate with strawberries for breakfast. I went through all of my books and wrote down in a rough draft all of the steps to making pear wine. This is something Bill recommended, so you aren't wondering what to do in the middle of the process. Then, I transferred that into a theme book...there are 34 steps. I also created a calendar of dates on when to siphon (rack) from one container to another. We'll be able to start drinking the wine in a year, or 10/13/20. This took most of the day to accomplish. Mary made tortillas, then chimichangas, and helped me hash out the wine recipe. She also strung up the last of the hot Portugal and Ho Chi Minh hot peppers to dry in the living room. We had a fire all day in the wood stove. Wood heat is such a thoroughly penetrating warmth. Saw little deer tracks in the trail I recently mowed while walking Plato and Churchill in the morning, then in the late afternoon, I saw many more larger deer tracks on the same area, in our north yard. We live with a lot of deer. We watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie. 
• Saturday, 10/12: Mary and I made pear wine...what a chore!!! After sharpening knives, getting equipment out, and sanitizing everything, we started. I squeezed juice out of 10 lemons while Mary diced golden raisins. We cut up 3, instead of 5 pounds of raisins. Raisins give the wine a more "vinous" character. Then, we peeled and cored 104 pears. It lasted 2.5 sticky, slimy, wet, and gooshy hours. Mary peeled while I cored and cut them into quarters. Towards the end, we were joking about Mary jumping off the roof hollering, "No more pearssss...plop!" It was her third day of peardom! We filled 2 huge stainless steel bowls with them, floating them in lemon water, so they wouldn't brown. We snarfed snacks and then put a layer of pears, then a layer of raisins in our long, sturdy, nylon mesh bag, then mashed each layer with a potato masher. Three gallons of juice emerged around a big, long, white nylon covered turd of pear mash. Next, we put 18 cups of sugar into 2 gallons of heated water, stirred until dissolved, then cooled it down to 75° after several cold water baths in the sink. Poured into my brew bucket and came up with a total of 6 gallons...oops...was only supposed to have 5 gallons. Two gallons of water, plus a ton of sugar, equals 3 gallons of sugar water. Also, added pectin enzyme (kills pectin for clearer wine), wine acid, yeast nutrient, and lemon juice. Checked specific gravity...it was 1.100...is supposed to be 1.085 for making dry wine. Even though we cut back the sugar, it was too much. Obviously, there was quite a bit of sugar in the pear juice. Removed some juice and added 5 cups of water to get specific gravity to 1.090. Quit, because we're afraid of getting liquid level too high in the brew bucket and bubbling over during fermentation. Put brew bucket, sealed, in the pantry. We are to let it sit for 24 hours with crushed campden tablets (sodium metabisulfite), which kill bacteria and wild yeasts in the juice. Clean up was fierce, with pear juice and mush on counters, the cabinet doors, and the floor. We ate, watched the fourth Harry Potter movie, bathed, and wearily went to bed.