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.