April 19-25, 2020

Weather | 4/19, 43°, 63° | 4/20, 36°, 65° | 4/21, 40°, 59° | 4/22, 0.03" rain, 47°, 67° | 4/23, 51°, 69° | 4/24, 51°, 65° | 4/25, 0.67" rain overnight, 43°, 59° |

• Sunday, 4/19: Because I continue to see tiny bubbles occasionally rising in my grapefruit wine, I researched this. First, I used yeast that survives up to 18% alcohol (wow), since it's a champagne yeast. Second, potassium sorbate doesn't destroy yeast, it prevents it from reproducing. Third, time eventually kills yeast and sometimes it takes 2 months for yeast to thoroughly die out. Jack Keller, a guy with tons of online info about wine making, advocates letting wine age in large containers for 3 months to 2 years. He talks about killing yeast by putting carboys in a fridge for 3 months, thereby bypassing potassium sorbate. "Look out honey, I'm taking over the fridge." That won't happen. I'll just wait to bottle until there are no more bubbles. It might take awhile. We spotted gobs of bees and flies of all kinds in the pear blossoms. Mary planted all but a tiny bit of the near garden with the early produce, including onions, shallots, radishes, shelling peas, snow peas, lettuce, and spinach. I got all of the strawberry buckets filled with soil. After the rotten wood, the following layers went in...autumn leaves, grass clippings, compost, then a mix of mole hill mound soil, purchased topsoil and timber sand from the north woods. I had to mix soil twice and the second batch had too much clay in the sand I got, so was a little gloopy. During that adventure in getting sand, I got to the bottom of a gulch and noticed that my boots wanted to sink very quickly, which made me step fast before getting sucked into quicksand. Bill texted his mother a photo (see below) with the following words, "Donut shaped apple cinnamon muffins, cause why not?"

Bill's doughnut muffins.

• Monday, 4/20: It was a warm, sunny, and windy day with a few sprinkles, but not enough to get us wet. Mary mowed in, around the near garden, and around the compost bins. She made turkey pot pie for our main meal. I planted 50 strawberry plants in 17 cat litter buckets while Mary moved them to the north end of the near garden. The strawberry plants were in excellent shape with lots of roots. I also moved the 10 buckets of apple tree root stock to the near garden. Mary added mulch to all 27 buckets of strawberries and trees. I helped as she  watered the garden twice. Already, some of the peas are showing movement. Now, everything is in the sun and behind an electric fence. The cherry trees are starting to bloom. Both pear trees are all white with blossoms. Yesterday, the first person in our county to get COVID-19 virus, someone in their 80s, died at Quincy's Blessing Hospital, plus 4 more cases of the virus were discovered in our county. Three of those 4 are family members.


• Tuesday, 4/21: Mary's order was shipped via FedEx, so I altered its destination to the Quincy Walgreen's store, so we'll get it. It's supposed to be in tomorrow, so I'll run to town on Thursday. Mary washed towels and dried them on the line. She mowed and mulched the far garden. Some of it was grass that wasn't mowed since early summer of last year making it rough going. I had a migraine, but these days I don't get a headache, only the fuzzy eyesight and a less-than-perfect feeling. I picked up unused soil and layers of plastic sheeting I had down in the machine shed. I weed whacked the near garden fence. Two times, I helped Mary water seed beds in the near garden. We're starting to see the beginnings of strawberry leaves. We watched the 2003 movie Master and Commander. After an online look, I unfriended Garry Johnson on Facebook when seeing a comment about blocking the Bill of Rights due to press coverage. Seems as though the First Amendment, which allows for press coverage, is part of the Bill of Rights, so I highly disagree with that Circle Montana mental midget. 


• Wednesday, 4/22: Mary's order arrived at the Quincy Walgreen's today. I researched fixing the chimney where stucco in sloughing off the outside of the chimney and splits in the bricks are starting to occur. Decided that building a platform on the roof peak would be the safest option and decided to do that in the late summer/early fall. Mary made macaroni casserole and put together a shopping list. We watered the garden twice and then took a hike in the north woods. The redbud, apple, and cherry trees are blooming and yellow violets are showing up in various areas in the woods. There is also a light blue violet that Mary discovered is called the Missouri Violet. We heard a woodcock while walking dogs at night. Usually, they're done by now.


• Thursday, 4/23: I went shopping in Quincy. When I pulled into Walgreen's parking lot, people were going in and out of the store, but when I got out, a woman was announcing that the store was closed and would reopen in the morning. Later, KHQA announced that someone was in that store who had a confirmed case of COVID-19 and they closed it to thoroughly clean inside. Here's that article. Shopping involved bouncing back and forth between stores to get everything. Not a single margarine tub in Walmart, but returned to Sam's Club and found some. TP is out everywhere, not that we need any. Bought crappy paper towels, but at least found some. Aldi is limiting canned goods, so found more beans at Walmart. Most everywhere, you stand in line outside the store before entering. There was a lot more traffic. About half of all people are wearing masks and a few more wearing gloves. All but Aldi employees are wearing masks. Most not wearing anything are elderly and construction worker types. Back home, Mary did house cleaning and watered the garden once. We had nachos and watched The Martian 2015 movie. I have to go back to Quincy tomorrow to pick up the package at Walgreen's...if only FedEx could find our home, but in 10 years, they've only delivered to our residence twice and often delivered to some other address.


• Friday, 4/24: I drove to Quincy, picked up the FedEx package at Walgreen's, got items I couldn't find yesterday at Walmart, got spring water for wine making at County Market, then got gas at Fastlane on the way home for $1.27 a gallon. That's the price we once paid for gas almost 30 years ago when we lived in Roseau, MN. It was raining hard when I bought gas, with lightning hitting close by, so I waited a few minutes before I drove back home. At home, Mary planted chives in a container and weeping willow tree cuttings in a tub. We watched the BBC 6-hour version of Pride and Prejudice. I slept through several parts of it. Got to bed really late. It was raining and quite wet when we walked the dogs just prior to bed.


• Saturday, 4/25: Cloudy most of the day. Most all pear blossoms are done. Cherries and apples are blossoming, now. Mary ordered items for her birthday, since some cross stitch items are often on back order and it might take several days/weeks for them to come in. She also made 4 loaves of bread. I tried to figure out why we have a $10 increase in our cell bill, but can't make heads or tails out of the online bill. On a text chat with U.S. Cellular, that person didn't have access to my bill, so I cut that short. Tried calling and got a message that they are swamped and would rather customers communicate some other way. Decided to call the local office on Monday. Spent time online looking for pickups. A lot of junk out there. Spotted a nice one at Big Lake, MN...for some reason my wife doesn't want to drive that far...amazing. We walked the dogs on the east trail, half of which isn't mowed. Blue periwinkles are starting to bloom. There were big fish swirls in the Swim Pond. We saw 3 deer, a doe and 2 yearlings, just outside our west living room window at sunset. Since they were close to eating cherry tree branches, I went out, clapped my hands, and sent them away.