May 24-30, 2020

Weather | 5/24, 1.34" rain, 63°, 89° | 5/25, 0.03" rain, 64°, 84° | 5/26, 0.04" rain, 65°, 83° | 5/27, 0.21" rain, 67°, 77° | 5/28, 0.33" rain, 65°, 69° | 5/29, 53°, 69° | 5/30, 50°, 73° |

• Sunday, 5/24: Started sunny, but turned to strong thunderstorms in afternoon and evening. I put our largest AC into the west living room window, closed off all air leaks around it, squeezed in foam boards to block water intrusion from the outside, and old bedding foam between gaps in the sash window panes. Mary watered the garden and had a hummingbird hit her hat while she was in the near garden. She was getting ready to mow and I was about to start cleaning the next AC when we noticed dark clouds to the SW, checked weather radar, and put everything away. We could hear thunder at 3 pm, and rain, with heavy wind, hit at 4. It lasted until about 8. Saw 2 deer just out our west windows after the rain (see photo below and notice tall grass). They really scarf down tree leaves. One was defoliating a small tree when I opened the window and said, "Hey!" It didn't even notice me, so I gave it a Bronx cheer and boy, that spooked it. I saw 2 more deer halfway down our 1/4-mile driveway when I walked the dogs. We watched the 8th episode of The Vietnam War series.

One of 2 deer west of our house.

• Monday, Memorial Day, 5/25: The day started sunny, then small thunderstorms rolled through intermittently starting at 1:45. While walking dogs in the morning, we saw a crawdad in the lane (see photo below). This variety burrows into the mud and lives in its own hole. It doesn't live in lakes or streams. I took apart, washed out, assembled, and installed an AC into the east window of our bedroom, then sealed up around it. Mary made a turkey pot pie and did cleaning. We watched the 9th installment of The Vietnam War. Much more comfortable inside the house, now that 2 ACs are installed. Our driveway is a vast clover field with millions of white flowers full of honey and bumble bees.

Crawdad walking in our driveway.

• Tuesday, 5/26: It was sunny in the morning, but then we had a continuous supply of thunderstorms traveling SE to NW, which is a weird direction for here. Mary made chocolate chip cookies. She got a birthday card in the mail from my mother. When she didn't get embroidery scissors that she ordered, because they were lost in the mail, Amazon said she could reorder, which she did. The first pair finally did show up and now the reordered pair is on its way. Mary did all of the chores, since I was in the middle of cleaning and installing the 3rd AC into the north upstairs bedroom. It's an old Haier brand that we bought 10 years ago that's obviously built well. It was exceptionally dirty with bug and frog leather. Mary found a baby snapping turtle on the path to the far garden (see below). We finished the last installment of The Vietnam War. It's well worth seeing.

A baby snapping turtle.

• Wednesday, Mary's 54th birthday, 5/27: We were going to go fishing, but it started raining early and did it throughout the day, so we bummed around inside and celebrated Mary's birthday by watching a couple of happy movies (after days of Vietnam War, we needed something light and non-combative). I made waffles for our noontime meal, in the place of fish. Katie called while we were out doing evening chores. Bill called while Mary was trying to call Katie back. We jabbered with him for quite awhile. Katie called late. She had been to a restaurant with the person she's currently staying with and other friends. Grass is growing so tall in yards around the house that I'll soon be out there with a chainsaw to mow it!


• Thursday, 5/28: It was the same weather pattern that we've had for several days of cloudy to rain to clearing at night. Today, rain clouds traveled NE to SW and we were in a constant band of rain. Mary made 40 flour tortillas, followed by chimichangas. She did some cross stitching. I was an online bum all day. We saw the first fireflies of the season while on our evening walk.


• Friday, 5/29: It was sunny to partly cloudy. We had windows open all day. Went fishing in the morning. The bass were biting well. We threw back many more than we kept, which were 5 of the biggest ones (see photos below). I had good luck with a small light green plug that once belonged to Dad. Mary caught several on a Rapala Firestick. My last big bass gulped a Hulla Popper. I saw it lurking in the water below the lure, gave the popper a splash, and then it hit...what great fun! We watched 2 bald eagles diving at each other while we fished. While I filleted the fish, Mary picked lettuce for a salad. The meal was excellent. Dave Parmeter and I emailed back and forth about the class reunion, chicken coops, and other things. I'm not in favor of holding a class reunion this year and told him my thoughts, since he asked. Mary cross stitched for 2 hours. I picked a half a quart of red clover blossoms for a future wine. Fingers get really sticky while plucking the blossoms off clover flowers. A Boone County (Columbia, MO) resident unknowingly had coronavirus while attending the Lake of the Ozarks pool party that was on news across the nation. He was around so many people that authorities aren't even trying to contact them all...just post all the places he visited. Yup, we grows 'em smart raught hewa in Mussurah! Saw more fireflies on the last dog walk before bed.

Bass keepers from fishing at the Swim Pond.

The same bass in buckets.

Dinner of bass, garden salad, garlic toast, and pear wine.

• Saturday, 5/30: It was a cloudy day, but it cleared for the night. Mary saw a Baltimore oriole carrying a long piece of grass to weave into one of their hanging nests this morning. She cut garlic scapes, found a tiny bunny in the garlic bed, and chased a big rabbit out of the near garden. Mary harvested several pounds of radishes (see photo below). She also did some mowing, which she describes as hideous, since several rainy days produced hay fields out of our lawn. She also did cross stitching. I picked more clover blossom petals (see photo below) to use for making wine. It's an extremely tedious and time-consuming job, but it does give you time to see nature in miniature form. Clover is filled with tiny weevils and ants. Plus, several baby bunnies enjoy munching on it. Mary and I watched the launch of the SpaceX rocket via a live feed through space.com. It's the first U.S. manned spaceflight since 2011. The video footage showed the primary booster rocket landing safely on the recovery ship, which is really amazing. I remember the old Saturn V rockets blasting fire for several seconds before they lifted off the pad. This rocket lifted off almost immediately once the rocket fire erupted. And, the control center in California involved folding tables, huge computer displays and laptops. Technology is vastly improved from the days of Mission Control in Houston. I finished Patrick O'Brian's 10th novel, The Far Side of the World, which is vastly different than the 2003 movie by the same name. The enemy in the movie is the French, but in the book, the enemy is American during the War of 1812. In the movie, the HMS Surprise captures a French ship. In the book, after the heroes are stranded on a Pacific island with the American crew, the Surprise shows up and blasts a broadside into American sailors, who are trying to hack the British sailors to death. I guess you can't have British fighting Americans if you want box-office seats in the U.S.

Radish harvest.

A quart of red clover blossoms for wine.

May 17-23, 2020

Weather | 5/17, 0.25" rain, 59°, 67° | 5/18, 0.02" mist, 53°, 57° | 5/19, 53°, 61° | 5/20, 0.03" mist, 54°, 63° | 5/21, 53°, 65° | 5/22, 55°, 77° | 5/23, 61°, 79° |

• Sunday, 5/17: Rain to partly cloudy to a cloudy day. Mary got a haircut from what she says is the world's greatest bald barber. We saw a photo on KHQA's website of Quincy Tea Party protesters of Illinois' coronavirus shut down with a sign that read, "Harapist are essential." Mary says she should go there with a sign reading, "Bald men make the best barbers." Mary did a deep clean on all four of our electric fans. I updated my wine diary, then dug up 4-8-foot pieces of hog fences that I put between hazelnut bushes a few years back to prevent deer from walking through and browsing on the bushes. I want the fence pieces to make climbing fences for snow peas and we don't think deer like hazelnut bushes. I cut 6 head-high persimmon trees that I'll use as cross-bracing for my pea fence. Cutting these small trees cleared enough room around a small Jonathan tree for me to install a cow panel around that tree. I helped Mary pick radishes, while she picked baby spinach to add to our home grown chicken meal. Then, I spent several hours looking for white grape frozen concentrate, an often called-for ingredient in several wine recipes. It doesn't exist in any grocery store in the states of MO, IL, or IA. There is just plain 64-ounce bottles of the juice, but it can't be used, because it contains the same chemical I use to kill yeast as its preservative. White grape concentrate sold by winemaking suppliers costs $25, which is crazy. Then, I discovered Gerber sells 32 ounce white grape juice that has no preservatives for $2.03, available at Quincy's Walmart. It was way beyond bedtime during my Gerber "Eureka moment!" when Mary declared I am an obsessive-compulsive wine twit. I plead guilty to the charge.


• Monday, 5/18: It was a misty morning. Mary made 2 pin cushions for sewing kits she's made out of padded pencil cases. I saw a bald eagle fly low over the grain bins and the machine shed. I got a 4 am email from Hartville Hardware stating that the order I canceled on Saturday cannot be canceled, since the package was already shipped. USPS Tracking told me that the label was created at 8 am and USPS had not received the package, yet. So I called Wells Fargo and had them stop my credit card charge to that company. Later in the day, I got Hartville Hardware's package in the mail. It didn't have postage on it, which is why we had to pay $3.80 in COD charges Saturday. There was no return address, either. And, they never informed Amazon that they even had it or sent the items. Obviously, they never kept track that they sent it, either. I didn't open the package. It was just a plastic envelope, so I could feel the gas filters inside. I'm going to send it back. I weedwhacked most of the swim pond trail, then trimmed poison ivy away from the rain gauge pole and weedwhacked down poison ivy plants growing along the east side of our lane to the halfway point opposite Bluegill Pond. We watched the first 2 episodes Ken Burns' documentary, The Vietnam War, that Katie gave Mary for Christmas. It's quite good.


• Tuesday, 5/19: I put the return address on the gas filter package, added "Return to Sender," and mailed it back. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. She also weeded the snow peas. The Baltimore oriole made it home today. I weedwhacked the rest of the poison ivy on our lane, including a stretch on the gravel road between the mailbox and our fence. Mary noticed poison ivy itchies, so she avoided walking the dogs down the lane. I got fuel line hose clamps in today's mail. We watched Episode 3 of The Vietnam War. We had mist after dark.


• Wednesday, 5/20: Mary patched a pair of jeans, oiled the woodstove pipe, so it won't rust while not being used through the summer, and cut scapes off garlic plants. I was online most of the day. Mary's scissors, which she ordered in April and the package got buried in the U.S. Postal Service's Hazelwood, MO facility for weeks, arrived today. We watched Episode 4 of The Vietnam War. We had another misty evening. I see a second package of filters coming from Hartville Hardware and I see a second charge on our credit card from them.


• Thursday, 5/21: Mary made flour tortillas and chimichangas. I called Wells Fargo on the second charge from Ohio on gas filters I don't want, but was put on hold for 30 minutes, afterwhich I hung up. I got another package from Ohio with 1 filter in it...sigh! Bill called. He got 2 cloth face masks from his employer. It's the first time his employer says they have to wear face masks. We watched Episode 5 of The Vietnam War.


• Friday, 5/22: A strong thunderstorm went through McCone County, MT, overnight. I saw a McCone County Sheriff warning on Facebook about wind blowing house roofs off in Brockway, MT. Mom said there were 110 mph winds. Mom's boss had damage at their ranch, Karen said. Mom said there was no damage at her house. Later, I saw where McCone Co. Electric Co-op had 100 downed electrical poles. Mary made 2 quiche pies to use up old eggs. She did a load of laundry, some garden weeding, cut garlic scapes, and harvested 2/3 of the radishes. I washed my coveralls, helped Mary with the radishes, called the Ohio bunch about the returned gas filters, returned their second package, received the filters I want to use and then fixed Mary's mower by adding new fuel hoses, new clamps, and a new gas filter. It started on the first pull and ran perfectly. Mom texted that her annual checkup went fine. We watched the 6th Vietnam War episode.


• Saturday, 5/23: This was the first completely sunny day since May 8th. A lot of garden plants wilted, because they aren't used to continuous sunshine. After Mary watered them, they perked up. I took down the vegetation in the chicken run with the steel blade on the Stihl grass trimmer, then I finished whacking the trail to the Swim Pond. When I got to the water's edge, a bull frog jumped into the water and a bass swam in and ate it. The pond's water is brown and it's extremely high. Mary mowed the front east yard with a bag on the mower and mulched over what would have been peas, if cardinals hadn't eaten all of the pea seeds. She also finished mulching the snow peas. I took apart the living room AC and used a toothbrush, rag, and water from the garden hose to clean it, put it back together, then let it dry overnight on the porch. We watched the 7th Vietnam War episode. Katie sent a photo of a certificate from her college announcing that she was recognized as a 4.0 President's List Scholar.

May 10-16, 2020

Weather | 5/10, 42°, 56° | 5/11, 33°, 59° | 5/12, 41°, 57° | 5/13, 43°, 57° | 5/14, 59°, 77° | 5/15, 1.15" rain, 58°, 73° | 5/16, 0.34" rain, 57°, 71° |

• Sunday, 5/10: We had sun, but strong winds with gusts to 35 mph, so we were inside most of the day. I did online research on gas line hoses. You shouldn't put ordinary rubber hoses on anything today, not due to alcohol in the gas, but because of all the gasoline additives that eat normal rubber from the inside out. That's what happened to Mary's lawnmower. I sent an e-card and then called Mom for Mother's Day. Mary got phone calls from Katie and Bill. Katie is talking regularly with her old boss in Alaska and hopes to start that work up north in a few months. Bill is supposed to work 35 hours per week, but was able to snag 38 hours last week. Checked the dandelion wine specific gravity and it dropped 30 points. The yeast is very active, burping the airlock every 2 seconds with CO2 gas (see below). We watched the The Sound of Music from a blu-ray that features improved clarity. I remember seeing this movie as a kid in 1965 in a Fergus Falls, MN movie theater and I think this blu-ray disc is better. After midnight, we covered garden plants with sheets and blankets, again. It was 37° then, but calm, hence the reason for waiting until after midnight to lay out light-weight sheets.

• Monday, 5/11: Another frosty morning, so we removed plant covers, dried them, and put them away. Mary mowed the near garden, both inside and outside of the fence, then raked it up and mulched all of the spinach, lettuce, and part of the radishes. She also washed sheets and furniture covers. I sharpened the blade to the lawnmower Mary's using. Then I removed the air cleaner to the other mower in order to measure the diameter of the gas inlet tube at the carburetor...it's 5/16, not 1/4 inch, like I thought it was. Spent a bunch of time to find the correct gas hose and appropriate clamps, then ordered them from RockAuto. Then, I found gas filters with 5/16" connections originally made for John Deere lawn tractors that I'll make work for these mowers and ordered them. After our evening meal, I checked my dandy wine...it was burping every 1.5 seconds and the specific gravity (S.G.) dropped to 1.050, which was 32 points down from yesterday's S.G. of 1.082 (see video below). Since it was foaming more, I put a plastic wash basin under the gallon jug in the pantry.

• Tuesday, 5/12: Cloudy day that cleared at dusk, but grew partly cloudy after dark. Mary washed clothes. I moved buckets of strawberries and apple rootstock trees out of the woodshed and back into the east end of the far garden. Five of our strawberry buckets of plants are dead...never sprouted leaves. We both mowed the lane, with me relieving Mary halfway through the mow job. Katie texted Mary that she received a $3 raise. Her boss told her that Katie does good work and gained experience in the past year. In the evening, after a meal, relaxing, and washing dishes, the dandelion wine check showed a specific gravity of 1.028, another 32-point drop in a day, and the airlock is burping every 4 seconds, meaning the alcohol content is rising and the yeast activity is slowing down. It's color changed from orange to yellow. For two nights, a whip-poor-will, shows up on our south porch railing and says, "Where is Bill, Where is Bill...!" When Bill slept in the upstairs north bedroom, a whip-poor-will would sit on the roof just outside that bedroom window and drive him crazy every night. They're still looking for him.


• Wednesday, 5/13: It was cloudy and cool, so we were inside much of the day. Mary made flour tortillas and chimichangas. She also did house cleaning. I was on the laptop all day.


• Thursday, 5/14: Much warmer, so we opened windows once it went from cloudy to partly sunny. My fuel hose and clamps arrived. The clamps are the wrong size...I didn't pay attention to minimum and maximum opening of clamps, so I ordered gas clamps from Summit Racing...man those mowers are really going to rock, now. Mary mowed the rest of the lawn that needed mowing. I raked up what she mowed, then Mary mulched the rest of the radishes, all of the shallots, and almost half of the onions. Katie texted about her virtual graduation from her community college that will be May 28th at 6 pm. I downloaded an app on my phone that tells you free wifi locations, so we might be able to go somewhere and view this. Thunderstorms came through after dark and it rained hard through the night, mainly in the early morning.


• Friday, 5/15: Mary moved all of the houseplants to under the weeping willow tree. She also fertilized the blueberry bushes. The specific gravity of the dandelion wine was at 0.997, below where I needed to stop the yeast, so I racked it into a newly sanitized gallon jug and added a crushed Campden tablet. CO2 gas release slowed significantly, with the airlock burping between 30-40 seconds. I folded a flour sack towel into quarters and strained the floaties out of the grapefruit wine while slowly pouring it into my 1.4-gallon bigmouth carboy. Doing that put a ton of oxygen into the wine, so I'll let it set for a couple days to let the bubbles dissipate. In the evening, we watched The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, a 1995 movie featuring Hugh Grant. It's wacky and funny and a good movie.


• Saturday, 5/16: Mary made an apple pie...it was very yummy. Her new Tilley hat came in the mail...so clean and white. I got a notice from Amazon that the place handling my order for lawnmower gas filters never confirmed the order by their deadline. I canceled the order, and then ordered gas filters and air filters for the lawnmowers through a S.C. company on eBay. I spent hours trying to determine the specific spark plug for those mowers, then decided to not buy any, since the current plugs look good. Rain started in mid-afternoon. Did chores between rain storms. In the evening, we watched the Young Victoria movie and its extras. Katie texted Mary that Southern Mississippi University got her application. When I went out with the dogs on their last walk, I spotted something going across the lane that shrunk down into the grass between the 2 lanes of the driveway when I shined my flashlight on it. Plato and Amber were really good about staying back when I told them. I got up close. I think it was a baby ground hog, even though at first I thought it was a muskrat, because it was about that size...it didn't have a muskrat tail. We left it alone and went back inside. It continued raining throughout the night.

May 3-9, 2020

Weather | 5/3, 0.02" rain, 57°, 67° | 5/4, 0.21" rain, 44°, 57° | 5/5, 0.20" rain, 43°, 53° | 5/6, 0.13" rain, 40°, 59° | 5/7, 41°, 66° | 5/8, 0.23" rain overnight, 45°, 66° | 5/9, frost, 30°, 63° |

• Sunday, 5/3: Day started cloudy, then light rain, then clear and sunny. I stirred the must of my dandelion wine...nothing happening with fermentation, yet, but it's smelling yeasty. Mary made a turkey and rice dish, along with yummy chocolate pudding pie. She also did some cleaning. I raked the remaining grass that was mowed in the far garden. Also, helped water all plants in both gardens. It's looking like a complete crop failure with peas...no germination. Our lilacs are in full bloom.


• Monday, 5/4: Beautiful sunrise to ominous western approaching clouds to thunder and rain for the afternoon, which is much needed for our garden. I texted for a bit with Mom. My sister, Karen, plans on visiting her for Mother's Day. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. I knocked down tall grass with the whacker for paths to 3 apple trees and the asparagus bed in the east yard and to the 2 pear trees and 2 blueberry bushes west of the chicken coop. It took 2 tanks of gas in the weed whacker. Mary sorted out monies, paid bills, and mended clothes. I reviewed what I need to buy to get the aquarium running. I bought it in 2017 with a deal when I was working at Petco...who knows, it might have fish swimming in it before I die, but don't hold your breath! I didn't order anything for the aquarium, but I did order more wine making supplies from Midwest Supplies in the Twin Cities. I also ordered the remaining 4 Patrick O'Brian novels. I'm currently reading the 10th in his series entitled The Far Side of the World. My dandelion wine is starting to smell more of yeast. Still a bubble or two in my grapefruit wine. Bill texted a photo from his friend, Mike, of a beer he's making that's bubbling like crazy. Bill said they both plan to make their own brews and then join up to compare their concoctions. All of our trees are leafing out, now. The predicted temperature for Friday night and Saturday morning keeps dropping in the 30s to a point we'll need to cover garden plants to protect them from frost. Mary saw a mockingbird. One arrives every spring, but then moves on.


• Tuesday, 5/5: Day started with light mist, then patches of sun, then rain. We were inside. Mary made flour tortillas, then chimichangas. I called Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, MO, and ordered 25 cockerels from their Frypan Special and 3 pullets. We wanted Golden Comet pullets, but they wouldn't have them available until August 17th, which is way too late...would mean we'd be butchering chickens in the middle of deer season, which is an ugly scenario. So, we went with 3 Rhode Island Reds, with the order arriving the week of July 13th. We wanted the chicks arriving around the first day of summer, but Cackle Hatchery is swamped with orders and can't do the pullets any earlier. Checked aquarium item prices at Petco's website. They are now matching Amazon's prices and since I'll be buying fish from Petco in Quincy and can use PALS Rewards at that time, I bought a UV algae zapper and a water test kit from Petco. Decided to check availability of Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), a soybean food that we use in the place of hamburger, since there is now a meat shortage due to closed packing plants with coronavirus issues. Mary found a 25-pound bag of Bob's Red Mill TVP at a wholesale warehouse. I ordered a bag and resurrected our Quillstar business name...shsh, no one needs to know it was a writing company, not a restaurant.


• Wednesday, 5/6: Drove to Quincy to pickup a FedEx package of fruit tree spray at Walgreen's. When I got up to the Walgreen's counter to get the package and she asked me for a personal ID, I realized I left my wallet at home...didn't even have a driver's license. Drove back home, got my wallet and a lunch that Mary made, then returned to Quincy, got package and a few grocery items from Sam's Club, County Market, and Aldi. Meanwhile, Mary weeded part of the near garden and mowed a piece of the lawn NW of the house. She also planted tomatoes and tomatillo seeds. It rained a few drops after I got home. Did chores. Our TVP order is already in Quincy. It was shipped from DOT Foods in Mt. Sterling, IL, which is only 40 miles east of Quincy. After struggling for a couple hours, I changed FedEx delivery to the Quincy Walgreen's store. Yeast in my dandelion wine hasn't kicked off, yet, probably due to cool temperatures in our house right now. For 2 days in a row, I see no bubbles in the grapefruit wine, which means it's ready to bottle. Katie texted that she got straight A's in all of her courses, which means she'll graduate summa cum laude with an associate's degree. She moved in with a friend, since the place she got to live in isn't available until July. She was rehired by the construction company she worked for prior to going to Alaska. There were 2 whip-poor-wills calling to the north when I walked the dogs tonight. Plato and Ember were frightened from their calls, wouldn't go very far down the lane, and roared back home.


• Thursday, 5/7: Cloudy day, with rain at dusk. We watched online until we saw that UPS delivered our package, then I walked to the end of the lane and got packages from Petco (aquarium stuff) and JCPenney (hooded sweatshirt and underwear). We raked the NW lawn and mulched more of the far garden, then I mowed the east lawn while Mary weeded and raked grass behind where I mowed. We finished chores just prior to rain. The dandelion wine yeast started to bubble...yahoo!


• Friday, 5/8: Sunny and windy day. I received my wine brewing stuff from Midwest via a UPS delivery, along with 5 items for Mary as early-ordered birthday gifts. I drove to Quincy and picked up our 25-pound bag of TVP at Walgreen's. Also got couple things at Sam's Club and Aldi. At home, Mary moved the buckets of strawberries and apple tree rootstock to the woodshed. When I got home, we dug old sheets and blankets out of the Suburban and covered plants in the garden, since they're talking frost for the morning. I received 3 of the 4 Patrick O'Brian books in the mail. In the evening, we ate nachos and watched the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas, about Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol. It's a good movie. A fruity yeasty smell fills the pantry from the fermenting dandelion wine. It smells quite good.


• Saturday, 5/9: Woke to 30° and frost everywhere. Around 8 am, I removed the sheets and blankets covering garden plants. After breakfast, we stretched out and dried sheets on the grass and blankets draped over car hoods. I disassembled Mary's lawnmower down to the carburetor. Determined that the automatic choke vacuum diaphragm works, Thoroughly cleaned the carb and parts surrounding it and cleaned with gas and blew it out with compressed air. The gas hose was rotten. Mary divided up the 25-pound bag of TVP into 104 meal-size sandwich bag packages and froze them (see photo below). Each sandwich bag of TVP makes the equivalent of 1 pound of hamburger meat, and it costs 83 cents per package. Try to find hamburger for 83 cents a pound! Mary washed towels and weeded part of the near garden. In the late evening, I checked the dandelion wine's specific gravity and racked the wine into a 1-gallon jug.We got to bed in the wee hours of the morning.

104 packages of TVP, our hamburger substitute.