June 28-July 4, 2020

Weather | 6/28, 0.17" rain, 65°, 85° | 6/29, 71°, 89° | 6/30, 0.14" rain, 65°, 79° | 7/1, 0.43" rain, 67°, 80° | 7/2, 0.14" rain, 66°, 85° | 7/3, 70°, 85° | 7/4, 69°, 87° |

• Sunday, 6/28: We still were sluggish and were slow to get outside. Mary is still feeling the effects of white clover pollen. I decided that with Mary's obvious allergy to clover, I'm not going to make clover wine. Mary made 2 egg quiche pies. We ate one. She started 3 strawberry runners. She also clipped 22 sweet potato slips off tubers. They were very slow to grow this year, so we're extremely late at getting them in the ground. Mary also trimmed tree branches along our lane, to allow vehicles to drive without getting brushed. I tied the chicken wire to 5 more posts in the near garden. We're hearing fireworks erupting to the south every night. Mary discovered online that the largest fireworks store in the world is just outside of Hannibal, MO. We've been in that warehouse. If you've got the money, you can buy almost anything, as long as you're 14, or accompanied by an adult. So, I could take a 5-year-old in there and let the kid lay down a few thousand dollars to buy something that would create a deep crater. We don't care. We're the "Show Me" state.


• Monday, 6/29: It was an extremely muggy day, making nearly 90° feel much hotter. Mary mowed the far garden and mulched a part of a row in it. She has half a row left to finish mulching all of that garden. White clover pollen is still bugging her. I installed chicken wire on 9 posts in the near garden. The wind was blowing from the south, meaning that big cedars on the south of the near garden blocked it, so I could only stand about 20-30 minutes working there before I had to take a break in the air conditioned house. I really don't do well in this heat. Mary picked a bowl full of raspberries and even found 2 ripe blackberries. We read magazines in the evening and I looked up watermelon wine recipes online. Another storm went by us to the south and stalled out in Quincy, after dark, giving them more flooded streets as depicted by this WGEM report. Quincy has also seen their COVID-19 numbers double in 2 weeks, which is no surprise, considering how lackadaisical Quincy residents are about taking precautionary steps in dealing with the virus. 


• Tuesday, 6/30: Rain fell while we ate breakfast and it was mostly cloudy, so the day was cooler than past days. Damp grass meant Mary mowed, but didn't collect it for mulch, and was able to finish mowing most of the lawns. I finished installing the chicken wire on posts in the near garden and made a gate. Then, I used hemp twine to cinch up some of the wire that appeared to be sagging. Two young mourning doves were pecking at gravel just behind our cars while Mary walked dogs. They even walked over to Mary and the dogs, then walked back to peck, again. Mary took a photo of them (see below). While walking dogs at night, thin, low clouds swiftly moved NE to SW across the moon, creating an eerie scene. I shined the flashlight into the garden and caught the glint of an eye. While walking down the north side of the near garden, I heard electric fence wires clang together. I'm sure it was a rabbit, proving that the chicken wire worked. That bunny is jumping through the electric fence, but didn't make it beyond the chicken wire. Rabbit season starts Oct. 1. Bunny stew will be on the menu!

Two young mourning doves.

•  Wednesday, July 1: Thunder woke me, so I unplugged appliances. It rained all morning. I took a hatchet and made several stakes out of persimmon branch Y's, then pounded them into the ground at the bottom and the middle of 8-foot stretches of the chicken wire fence in the near garden. Depending on changing ground levels, I sometimes used up to 3 of these stakes. This makes it harder for rabbits to push the bottom of the chicken wire fence in to get to garden plants. Mary did a bunch of house cleaning and made a shopping list for tomorrow's shopping trip to Quincy. We decided that I'll shop and she'll stay home to work on the near garden.


• Thursday, July 2: Muggy and hot seems to be our daily weather and today was no exception, with more rain at late morning. I cleaned up persimmon branches and leaves left in our lane immediately outside the near garden gate from my stake-making activities yesterday, loaded them into the tractor trailer and dumped them at the dry pond east of the far garden. Then, I left in the morning and shopped at Quincy. We normally don't shop on Fridays, because factory workers who work four 10-hour days have Fridays off and fill stores on that day. With the upcoming July 4th weekend, most had today off, so today was like a Friday. The stores were packed with idiots who cannot move. In Walmart's toothpaste aisle, there might still be 2 women standing there staring at the shelves, as if they're counting dust particles collecting on the product. In Aldi, I kept waiting for this older woman with a long, white-haired mop (heck, she was probably younger than me) who couldn't make any buying decision. After going through the register, there she was standing in the middle of the out door, blocking all traffic, looking at a flyer! I got home at 7, glad to be back in peace and quiet. Mary completely weeded the near garden, taking out shoulder-high lamb's quarter and volunteer tomato and tomatillo plants. In her words, "That was a chore!"


• Friday, July 3: I woke at 5 am, couldn't get back to sleep, then woke Mary up at 5:55. I looked out the east window and there was Bill at our porch. He said he couldn't sleep, so at 2 am, he decided to drive north from St. Louis. He had been at our porch for 20 minutes. When he first stepped out of his car, he heard the hissing of his driver's side rear tire going flat. He changed his tire to the doughnut spare tire and spotted a nail driven into the tread of the flat tire. I fixed waffles and afterward, called Sam's Club to discover that if we got the tire in soon, they could fix it yet today. So, I drove Bill and his tire to Sam's Club in Quincy. Fixing a tire is free to all Sam's Club members. Nine customers were ahead of us, so we drove home. I fueled up on the way home, and filled 3 cans of gas for home use. While eating lunch, Bill got a call from Sam's Club. Unfortunately, his Verizon cell service stinks at our house, so he didn't talk with anyone, but we drove back to Quincy and got his tire. Meanwhile, Mary did more cleaning, made a cherry crisp, and then planted the sweet and hot pepper plants, sweet potato slips, and green bean seeds into the near garden. She then covered bean seeds and sweet potatoes with curtain sheers, to protect them from marauding birds. Once I was done driving, I used the saw blade on the weed whacker to trim waist-high plants in the chicken yard. Bill got some much-needed sleep. In the evening, we enjoyed smoked scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, and pear wine. Then we watched The Hunt for Red October and had some beer that Bill brought with him. Katie texted Mary about her house plants. She can only find succulents, so Mary keyed her in on Logee's. Then, Katie picked lots of plants, then reduced her cart from $150, down to $70.


• Saturday, July 4: Mary planted carrot, parsnip, and cucumber seeds in the near garden (even though the parsnip is probably planted too late). She watered garden plants and seeds and when she was watering the onions, she saw something move. It was a baby bunny that she grabbed and hauled off to the trail between the Swim Pond and Dove Pond. On the way, she noticed that blackberries are getting close to ripening. Bill washed a couple loads of clothes...he doesn't have to pay to use our washing machine. I stayed inside while researching watermelon wine recipes and writing down a procedure for making that wine in my book. Bill helped me bottle the dandelion wine. The hydrometer gave me a 0.995 reading, so it has a 17.7% alcohol content. We corked 4 bottles and I put 7/8 of another bottle in the fridge. The wine tastes smooth with a hint of lemon and flowers. It should improve with age. I dumped some ancient half and half that was in the fridge at the dry pond and on the way back, remembered that I didn't spray myself with bug dope...sure enough, I got 2 chigger bites, one on my belly and on the top of my left foot. We built a fire and ate hot dogs, with freshly chopped up green onions, and chips, and some of IPA homebrew that Bill's friend, Mike Push, made. Then, we had the partial bottle of dandelion wine. Several neighbors fired off fireworks. Our fireworks were fireflies. We saw 2 bats zipping hunting bugs. The moon rose over the house. Bill gave me glasses on my birthday and, remembering what was etched into them, he held the glass into the moonlight and took the photo below. It was a nice, calm evening. We didn't get to bed until after 1 am.

Moonlight through a moonlight glass with dandelion wine in it.

June 21-27, 2020

Weather | 6/21, 68°, 88° | 6/22, 0.03" rain, 69°, 83° | 6/23, 0.02" rain, 56°, 77° | 6/24, 57°, 80° | 6/25, 57°, 86° | 6/26, 66°, 90° | 6/27, 0.01" rain, 67°, 85° |

• Sunday, 6/21: Mary picked a handful of raspberries, then weeded part of the near garden. She announced that 6 pumpkin seedlings sprouted. Bill called to wish me a happy Father's Day. He didn't get an extra day off, but since where he works is taking Friday off, he has 3 days off and plans to visit over the July 4th weekend. His strawberry wine's yeast is settling down. The NW corner post of the near garden was loose in the soil, so I pounded in more gravel around it and its 2 supporting posts. Then, I re-figured the electric wire locations on the corner posts, found an old piece of 3/4-inch quarter round trim, and marked the height of each wire on that length of wood as a measuring stick for all of the electric wire locations on all posts of both garden fences. Then, I changed wire locations on the rest of the corner posts of the near garden. I changed the wires holding several doughnut insulators on corner posts. We had thunderstorms form to the south, east, and north of us that never dropped rain on us. A couple of them merged together, moved into Quincy, IL, and stalled. They had immense flash flooding. Here are some photos put on Facebook of the flooding in Quincy. Katie called twice, then left a text. I called her back. On her days off, she's working doing other spare jobs. She said a friend who lives in Anchorage got a bush construction job that lasts only a month and the virus testing prior to going to the worksite was a long ordeal and a hassle. Katie said she was the designated driver for the recent Alan Jackson Drive-In concert she attended. It was a real concert, except people watched it from the back of their pickups. We took the dogs for their last walk and the lightning bugs were pulsating from all surrounding trees, making for a spellbinding, mesmerizing sight. There are literally thousands of them showing off at night.


• Monday, 6/22: I've been reviewing pickups for sale online every morning for a year. A few days ago, I found a '97 1/2 ton Chevy with a V6 that looked pretty good. I finally got a message back from the owner this morning and we scheduled to meet the owner in the Macomb, IL Walmart parking lot at 1 pm, tomorrow. Macomb is 99 miles NE of us. Hopefully, it's in decent shape. If it is, we'll drive it home. If not, we will have had a good outing. We want a pickup to haul things...don't want a junker, but we're not interested in a behemoth, monster, fuel-guzzler, that's expensive, either. I looked up the Kelley Blue Book valuation for it, in case we care to dicker pricing. Mary sewed herself a mask, so she can be out in the public for tomorrow's trip. I moved all electric wire insulators to their correct position on metal posts in the near garden according to my measuring stick and added 3 doughnut insulators on 1 corner post. More thunderstorms developed south of us and dumped rain across the Mississippi River in Illinois, today...just a few sprinkles for us. Yesterday's flooding in Quincy, IL, tore up asphalt of some streets to where old bricks under the pavement were washed out, according to news reports.


• Tuesday, 6/23, Karen's Birthday: I sent a birthday ecard to Karen and she sent a thank you ecard back, saying, "We're heading to Big Horn Mountains (WY) today, for a mini two-night camping, trail riding, fishing excursion." The trip to Macomb, IL, to buy a pickup was a fizzle. There was rust that I didn't see on the online photos, I could see through the floorboards to the pavement, the engine had a slow response when the accelerator was pushed, and something in the gearing sounded way too loud. He wanted $2700. I don't think it's worth $300. Oh well, the drive to Macomb for some burgers was nice. I pulled money out our bank this morning and then put it right back in this afternoon. We did notice almost 100% face mask usage when we walked into the Macomb Walmart. Not so in Quincy, where crumb bums live. When we got back, the dogs went bananas, then we relaxed, then did chores. Right after watering the 8 pumpkin plants that are growing, we saw 2 rabbits run from the middle of the near garden and escape through my "solid" electric fence. It just isn't working against the bunny hordes this year. My electric fence tester reads that the charge is at maximum. Mary and I reviewed it and decided to build chicken wire fences around all of the rows in the near garden and half of the rows in the far garden. It will take several rolls of chicken wire that we'll have to buy and wooden posts I'll make from small persimmon trees in the east yard. I have some work cut for me. Electric fence repairs will have to happen later, and they will be needed to keep raccoons out of corn. We got an electronic kitchen scale in today's mail that we ordered a few days ago. It looks nice. I finished Patrick O'Brian's 11th historical novel, The Reverse of the Medal, set in the early 1800s about the British Navy Captain Jack Aubrey, and his medical doctor friend, Steven Maturin. Now onto book 12!


• Wednesday, June 24: Mary mowed 2/3 of the lane, leaving the east side that has poison ivy growing in it for me, which I mowed, plus a patch of thick poison ivy growing right next to the lane at the midway point. The clover pollen that flew up while mowing gave Mary extremely red eyes, so much so that she couldn't see very well in the evening. I found an old chainsaw chain and the old bar, sharpened the chain with a file and installed it on the chainsaw. While sharpening, I noticed how the grinding wheel puts a straight cut into the teeth, whereas the file creates a curve, which is needed to carve wood chips out of the logs. I cut down several small persimmon trees at the west edge of the far garden that I'm going to use as posts for chicken wire garden fences. By using the old chain, I can cut right on the ground without messing up my new chains. Dirt severely dulls chainsaw chains. Mary mowed inside and outside of the near garden and mulched far garden rows. A good-sized prairie kingsnake came out of a mole hole right under the near garden electric fence, wrapped around the hot wire and died. That's too bad. They eat moles that tear up the garden. Mary watered the garden in the evening. There was a pileated woodpecker in the north yard. Mary calls them the Tarzans of the hardwood forest, because they're so loud. We ate one ripe blueberry, each. It was yummy, but not enough.


• Thursday, June 25: While walking dogs along our lane first thing in the morning, we saw 2 deer staring at us from the field west of Bluegill Pond. Mary mowed and mulched all day and finished mulching a row in the far garden. Her eyes were red again with what must be an allergic reaction to clover pollen, because, as she said, "This whole property is one big white clover farm." I cut 30 four-foot stakes from some of the small persimmon trees that I cut down yesterday and pounded 26 of them into the near garden at 8-foot intervals, which will get surrounded by 2-foot high chicken wire. I checked online for area stores with larger quantities of chicken wire. Menards in Quincy is my best and cheapest answer.


• Friday, June 26: We found a torn up east wall on our chicken coop when we did morning chores. Two things saved our chickens from being killed by a raccoon. The first was a mouse nest in the wall, in which the raccoon probably ate the occupant. The second was double-sided bubble insulation that it couldn't tear through, even though we saw plenty of claw marks. Just on the other side of that were our chickens on the roost. Out went our plans for installing garden fencing. It was chicken coop reconstruction time. While Mary cleaned up dead branches stored on top of several 4'x8' sheets of plywood and OSB and sawed them into kindling, I drove to the Quincy Menards store and bought 300' of 2' high chicken wire. I also picked up a few groceries at Aldi. Then, Mary and I tore down about 2/3 of the east wall of the coop. It was a mess. Mice chewed up much of the inch-thick Styrofoam insulation in the wall and built several mouse nests, complete with foam beads and chicken feathers. In the rotten wood were several small ant nests. Even large grubs were in the rotten wood. And, yours truly used enough nails (especially to attach roofing tin) to secure a large house. Eventually, we got it torn apart, then replaced it with sheets of plywood and OSB. Once, while Mary went on break to get a drink of water, she saw a young woodchuck near the steps to our house. In the evening, after baths (MUCH NEEDED), and nachos, we watched the 2019 movie, Knives Out, which is really great. 


• Saturday, 6/27: We both were tired from several days of outdoor work, so we rested today. I made waffles and we ate the yummies with strawberries and blueberries. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread and did some cross stitch. I started installing chicken wire in the near garden, tying it onto 3 posts...only 23 posts to go in this smaller garden. Mary helped me install the east roost in the coop, and I installed in the eye screw to hook a tarp strap to hold the human door open. While I was sawing off a small piece of 1/4-inch lauan plywood to use as backing behind the hinges of the roost, Mary noticed that all she could hear was a house wren singing and carpenter bees buzzing, signifying how rural and peaceful our property is.

June 14-20, 2020

Weather | 6/14, 57°, 79° | 6/15, 58°, 80° | 6/16, 56°, 79° | 6/17, 59°, 83° | 6/18, 58°, 85° | 6/19, 0.54" rain, 64°, 83° | 6/20, 0.55" rain, 64°, 84° |

• Sunday, 6/14: Mary processed the snow peas, freezing 5 bags. Together they weighed 12 ounces. She planted Tom Fox pumpkin seeds in the far garden and put tomato cages covered with chicken wire over the planted hills to keep rabbits out until I get the electric fence up and running. She also anchored a strawberry runner into a Styrofoam cup full of potting soil. Mary pulled 2 more types of garlic from the far garden. They were Georgian Crystal and Siberian. So far, all of the garlic is coming out of the ground in really good shape, with several large bulbs, unlike last year, when they were small. Before sunset, we hung these garlic in the machine shed rafters. I ran a tank of gas through the grass trimmer to clean out more grass along the far garden fence...I just have 2 more sections of fence to finish the job. I picked, pitted and froze 3 and 3/4 quarts of pie cherries. We now have 22 quarts in the freezer. In the past, we've only seen a maximum of 9 quarts, so this year is producing a bumper crop of cherries. There are still more cherries, but soon I'll have to quit to get other chores done. It's just so hard not to leave those red beauties hanging in the trees. My wife is beating me with a rolled up newspaper (not really), because she wants the garden fence done. Mary mowed the final part of the lawn that still held knee-high white clover. While mowing, she spotted some ripe black raspberries, so when she was done, we went around to our known raspberry spots. Most were not ripe, yet, but Mary picked a few. We laughed when we saw her 7 pitiful raspberries in a freezer bag (see below), and she said, "This is my bag of hope." Hopefully, we'll get more to fill the bag. We had strawberries I bought a few days back that needed using up, so I made waffles for supper...strawberries on waffles with honey...what decadence!

Mary's "Bag of Hope," or 7 black raspberries.

• Monday, 6/15: Mom sent me a text. She started back working at the Circle (MT) Senior Center on Thursday after being furloughed with pay for 3 months, due to the coronavirus. Mary made flour tortillas. She watered garden plants, picked snow peas and more raspberries. She also pulled the last 2 varieties of garlic, which were Samarkand and Shvelisi, the 2 tastiest of all the garlic we grow. They were growing in heavy clay soil, so it took Mary longer to pull them. All of our garlic is now drying in the machine shed (see photo below). There was not a single bad garlic bulb this year, probably due to a healthy amount of moisture in the spring and not too much rain prior to harvest. I finished weed whacking all of the tall grass under the electric wire in the far garden. I also finished picking pie cherries, gaining enough for a quart and a third, giving us a grand total of 24 quarts in the freezer, which will make a dozen cherry pies (YUM!). Birds decimated the cherry crop out of the upper fourth of the tree. It's OK. We got enough and the birds were well fed, too.

Our 2020 garlic crop drying in the machine shed.

• Tuesday, 6/16: I took it a little easier today. Mary mowed the far garden, putting mulch in the NE row in that garden. I racked the dandelion wine for the third time. The yeast residue was thick on the bottom of the old gallon jug, but when I pulled wine out to test its specific gravity, it was quite clear (see photo below). It had a yeasty alcoholic taste, but was very smooth. I think with aging, it will be good tasting. We had a weenie roast in celebration of finishing garlic harvest. It was a perfect night...clear, windless, and temps in the 60s. We saw several large bats flying around after sunset. We noticed several satellites flying by and we saw 2 meteorites. Coyotes started howling at one point to the south and east, when a lone coyote howled nearby. It was probably on our lane between the house and Bluegill Pond. By the time I threw 4 buckets of water on the fire, walked the dogs, and went inside, it was 11:30 pm. Fireflies lit up all of the trees, from top to bottom, making the night seem magical. There were thousands of them. You haven't seen anything until you've seen a 100-foot tall oak tree lit up naturally, like a Christmas tree. It was a very nice evening.

Dandelion wine in cylinder and gallon jug.

• Wednesday, 6/17: Mary washed dog bed blankets and towels. She watered garden plants and finished mowing inside and outside the electric fence of the far garden. She also mowed the east front yard. She said she has 1 more wheelbarrow load of mulch to finish mulching the NE row in the far garden. I drove the tractor and wagon to the gravel pile below the Swim Pond dam and got a couple partial buckets of gravel. Partridge peas and Deptford Pink flowers are blooming on the trails that are getting overgrown. After getting gravel, I drove the tractor on the entire north trail. Then I used a spud bar to pound gravel alongside the corner posts in the near garden, in an attempt to solidify them into a permanent upright position. Sagging electric fence wires are allowing rabbits to jump through the fence, into the garden, and munch on plants. The snow peas are decimated by bunnies. The SE corner post had a cutoff, rotten wooden post inside of it, making it impossible to punch gravel into the ground, so I used the spud bar to pry out about 2' of the rotten post, then removed all the plastic doughnuts holding wires on the steel corner post and pounded it into a newer location, then placed the 2 corner bracing posts, and attached the twisted cross wire bracing. Next, I installed the 13 existing wires to the post. With each wire, I'd start at one end of the fence, run the entire distance, tightening as I walked, then secure each wire at the other end of the fence. Bottom wires require me to be bent over while walking around the entire fence. I got sore after several wires. It got dark before I could finish. On the last wire, I discovered I wired the doughnuts in the wrong order on the SE corner post, making 2 wires cross one another. I went inside. It was 9:30 pm. We ate, then I went back out, fixed my mistake and finished the fence in a blizzard of tiny gnats that buzzed into all ears, up my nose, and into my mouth. I was sure glad to finish that job. Except, I'm not done. I still need to add more wires to keep older rabbits from jumping through the higher wires of the fence. They're leaping 2.5 feet off the ground. Mary texted with Bill. His strawberry wine is progressing nicely (see photo below). Mary invited him to visit during July 4th weekend. He's interested. Katie sent a photo of her associate's degree from Community College of the Air Force.

Bill's strawberry wine.

• Thursday, 6/18: Mary washed and dried clothes. She also mowed and poured mulch into the far garden rows. She picked a handful of raspberries. Birds are nailing them. I inventoried electric fence parts and what I need for adding electric wires to both gardens. Then, I added T-post and rod insulators to all of the posts around the near garden in order to add 3 new electric wires around that garden. 


• Friday, 6/19: It was a very sticky and hot day. We were tired, so we stayed inside most of the day. Mary and I watered garden plants, and then waited for a storm to develop, which it did in mid- to late-afternoon. The wind blew extremely hard, knocking down some small branches and lodged a lot of tall grass. A nice robin nest was on the ground near the weeping willow tree.


• Saturday, 6/20: It rained in the early morning hours. When we walk the dogs the last several days, we take along a shovel and bust off sprouting shoots from chicory plants in our lane. It means we have our eyes to the ground. This morning, Mary looked up about a third of the way down the lane and said, "Look at that." There stood a big bunch of pink, wild roses to the east of our lane. They've probably been there for days, but us hounds with our noses to the ground never noticed them. Mary cleaned the house today. I measured garden fence distances to determine electric fence wire to buy. Then, I drove to Quincy, IL, to pick up a Sam's Club package of dry milk that we recently ordered, pet food, and electric fence parts. I'd say an eighth of everyone was wearing a mask...that with virus infection numbers increasing in that county. I swear, people are nuts! Picked up food items at Aldi, even though several customers in there moved at glacial speeds. One woman in her 30s took 5 minutes inspecting every melon before I could get to the fruit section. I got home, stepped out to peace and quiet, and thanked the forces that be that we live where we do, away from people and traffic.

June 7-13, 2020

Weather | 6/7, 67°, 86° | 6/8, 67°, 85° | 6/9, 1.94" rain, 67°, 77° | 6/10, 0.03" rain, 61°, 73° | 6/11, 55°, 79° | 6/12, 60°, 85° | 6/13, 59°, 80° |

• Sunday, 6/7: Mary opened the living room curtains this morning just in time to watch a catbird pick a cherry off the pie cherry tree, so we picked ripe, or nearly ripe, cherries prior to eating breakfast. I moved the cars. We haven't moved the Buick for months. I had to inflate the driver's side front tire and noticed that mice totally devoured the thin sound insulation on the engine-side of the firewall...we need more owls, hawks, coyotes, and snakes to clean up on rodents. Mary washed all of the clothes, then mowed where the cars usually sit. I weedwhacked 2 more gas tanks worth on the far garden fence, then mowed the lane. Mary bagged mowed grass and added mulch to the far garden. She cut garlic scapes and decided that we need to pick garlic soon. We then both mowed grass between the woodshed and the machine shed and left it lay. We're trying to take down as much tall grass as possible before a predicted tropical depression is supposed to hit us.


• Monday, 6/8: We picked more pie cherries after breakfast. I was on a step ladder, reaching as high as I could go, but still unable to get the top ripe cherries. We filled a quart bag and started another for the freezer. Mary noticed that a close-by mulberry with ripe fruit helps keep marauding birds from nailing all of the red cherries. I weedwhacked 2 more gas tank's worth of grass along the far garden fence. Mary and I both mowed and raked tall grass in the west yard, putting mulch into the far garden until almost dark. I asked Mary if we should pick more cherries and she replied, "I'm not doing one damn thing, more!" We were both tired. Mary saw a 3-foot long prairie king snake with a lump in its gut while wheeling a wheelbarrow load of grass to the far garden. There are lots of mice for a snake to eat on our property.

• Tuesday, 6/9: HELLO CRISTOBAL (the earliest tropical depression to affect MO in weather history). It depositing torrential rainfall for hours. We're rejoicing while sitting inside, since we don't have to handle grass outside. Regretfully, the recently-mowed grass is greening up, yawning, and getting ready for new growth spurt. By mid-afternoon, the rain quit. Ponds of water were everywhere, including under the 8N Ford tractor inside the machine shed. Mary and I picked pie cherries, freezing 2 more quarts. Mary found a tree frog in a green bucket in the woodshed. It seems to go there every day. She moved it to a weeping fig tree sitting under the weeping willow tree, like she does every day. It'll be back in the bucket tomorrow. We ordered an iced tea maker, 2 movies, and some bank checks online. Mary and Katie texted one another about Katie's aloe vera pups. I talked to Bill right before we ate supper. He's making strawberry wine and had some winemaking questions. We had lightning and thunder just to the east as we walked the dogs for their last outing. It was a very short walk.


• Wednesday, 6/10: The sun rose to a smoky, fog look on all horizons. Then a heavy mist settled in until mid-afternoon, when it returned to sun, but with strong NW winds. I went to Quincy to pick up 2 packages shipped via FedEx. Anymore, it's better to have FedEx hold packages at Walgreens, instead of never getting them after FedEx tries...or doesn't try...to deliver them. I  bought a few other items. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread, started a cross stitch project, picked snow peas, cut garlic scapes, and sucked up house spiders with the Shop Vac. I bottled my grapefruit wine, yielding four 750-milliliter bottles and 2/3 of a 5th bottle that Mary and I worked on through the evening. It's improved with age. I experimented by adding Truvia, which contains erythritol, derived from wood sugar, and stevia, both of which are good for diabetics, like me. I liked the sweeter grapefruit wine taste. Mary didn't. It's okay, because she can stick to the dry wine taste and I can enjoy a sweeter taste, without boosting blood sugar. I texted with Bill for awhile about winemaking ideas.


• Thursday, 6/11: Clear northern air today brought on a vivid blue sky and a nice, sunny day. Bill texted me this morning that his strawberry wine was bubbling, sounding like pop rocks. I updated my winemaking diary. The grapefruit wine finished out at 13.12% alcohol, down from 14.02%, when I last racked it, which is just about perfect. We participated in a pie cherry picking gulag, picking cherries most of the day. We froze 6 quarts and started another quart bag, which gives us a total of 9 quarts of pie cherries. We easily reached Mary's goal of 6 quarts for the season. There are still several ripe cherries beyond my reach atop the step ladder. It was too windy to attempt to back the trailer behind the tractor into position and put the ladder on the trailer, but if it's calmer tomorrow, I'll give that a try. An adult and juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker flew into the cherry tree throughout the day as we harvested cherries. We'd either clap or holler to chase them away. I have to do my utmost to preserve future cherry pies. We also saw several bluebird adults and fledglings flying near the cherry tree. I checked and we need 4 pounds of pea pods to make a gallon of wine, so I weighed the snow peas Mary picked yesterday and they came to 2 ounces. I will never have enough from this year's crop, so we decided to freeze them for Chinese meals. We'll plant a lot more next year, in order to have enough to make pea pod wine. Mary picked a our first strawberry out of the garden, cut it in half and gave me a piece. It tasted amazing. While doing the chores, we spotted a new daytime moth flying around the Virginia creeper vines on our front porch (see photo below). Mary looked it up in our Butterflies and Moths of Missouri book and it's an Eight-Spotted Forester. They are quite striking when they fly. We ate garlic toast, hard-boiled eggs, and a huge garden lettuce salad that also had spinach, radishes, and green onions in it...almost all homegrown food. After dark, we heard a chimney swift come down the stovepipe. Mary turned the damper open and it settled into the stove. We'll try to remove it in the morning. We hope it's old enough to fly, because we don't know what we'll do with a hatchling.

An Eight-Spotted Forester on Virginia Creeper.

• Friday, 6/12: After the morning dog walk, I shined a flashlight as Mary grabbed a young chimney swift from just inside the woodstove door, took it outside and opened her hands. It flew off right away and was joined by 2 other swifts in flight. They all circled around the house, twittering. We picked 5 quarts, and a major part of another quart, of pie cherries. We now have 14 quarts in the freezer. I didn't get to the high part of the tree. I drove to Quincy, IL, and picked up the iced tea maker and 2 movies that arrived at Walgreens. I also bought 2 rolls of chicken wire for keeping little wild rabbits that make it through electric fences out of garden crops, and a couple grocery items. I found organic white grape juice that is free of preservatives in the HyVee brand. It's often a winemaking ingredient and hard to find. I'm amazed at how many people bustle about without taking any coronavirus precautions. Bought gas ($1.79 a gallon) while driving home and I was the only one wearing a mask in the entire place. The infection numbers are going up, too. I feel like we're advancing into the second stage of the Dark Ages when science is discounted. Back home, Mary mowed the rest of the lawn near the woodshed. After chores, we ate nachos and watched the 2007 movie Enchanted. While we were watching the movie, we heard more bird noises of a silly chimney swift coming down the stove pipe. Mary turned the damper open to let it drop into the inside of the stove. For some reason, they can't seem to stay attached to the inside of the chimney this year. Hundreds of fireflies and bright stars, including the Milky Way, made for an amazing last dog walk. You couldn't tell where the sky ended and the trees began.


• Saturday, 6/13: We did our morning dog walk, then proceeded to what's become our morning ritual chimney swift removal, except this time there were 2 baby chimney swifts in our stove. Each time Mary opened her hands, the birds flew up, joined their parents, and twittered by circling around the house. I serviced the 2 lawnmowers (changed oil, cleaned air filters, sharpened blades), while Mary pulled 2 types of garlic out of the far garden (Music & German Extra Hardy) and laid them in the shade. I picked, pitted, and froze 5 quarts of pie cherries, giving us a grand total of 19 quarts. There are a lot more on the tree. Cat birds kept sassing at me while I picked and I noticed them swarming into the top of the tree after I left. Mary picked snow peas, watered the garden and strawberries, added acid soil amendments to the blueberries, and cleaned the radish patch in preparation for seeding with parsnips. She told me that there are several strawberry buds and a runner that will be a future plant. Mary and I tied garlic bundles using plastic baling twine and hung them to dry in the machine shed rafters. Upon returning from our nightly dog walk, we spotted a tree frog running across the outside of our screen door. Such is the life of residing in this zoo.
  

May 31-June 6, 2020

Weather | 5/31, 54°, 79° | 6/1, 0.01" rain, 60°, 84° | 6/2, 63°, 87° | 6/3, 67°, 87° | 6/4, 0.03" rain, 66°, 87° | 6/5, 0.89" rain, 65°, 88° | 6/6, 69°, 89° |

• Sunday, 5/31: The day started cloudy, with sun shining through for most of the day. The day's nature report: 14 turkey vultures flying overhead at 1 time, a pair of red-headed woodpeckers nesting at the dry pond east of the house (haven't seen them nesting on our property for several years), and a great blue heron flew overhead. E-mails from Dave Parmeter and John Hendrix informed the Homer H.S. Class of '75 that an evening beach picnic at Anchor Point (AK) will be the extent of this year's 45th reunion, due to the virus, and a bigger event will take place in 2025. That's a good decision. The Anchorage Daily News reports the largest single-day number of COVID-19 cases today. KHQA in Quincy, IL reports 53 cases in Adair County (MO), 2 counties west of us. They also report 1,343 cases in IL in 1 day, with 60 new deaths in 1 day. Mary washed sheets, furniture covers, towels, and did some cleaning. She made a General Tso Chinese dinner with deer meat. I mowed our 1/4-mile lane...an arduous, day-long task with a push mower and knee-high white clover. Mary often does that job, but I did it this time, since too many poison ivy plants are popping up and pulverizing them with mower blades puts a rash on her, whereas it doesn't affect me. She is one tough woman. I stopped often to catch my breath. We've been saying it for 10 years, but we really need more mechanized lawn mowing equipment...something with a seat! Mary mowed part of the far garden that is now a hay field.


• Monday, 6/1: We had a little bit of rain in the morning, but it turned sunny. The day's nature: a dead robin in the far garden that must have died of old age while sitting upright; a squirrel on the lane when we walked dogs that ran right at Mary, hesitated a foot away from her left foot, then dodged into the tall grass to avoid our dogs; 2 hunting red-tailed hawks flying eastward. I cleaned the 4th and last window AC and installed it in 1 the north entryway windows, sealed it and installed foil with aluminum tape on the outside to divert water and bugs. Mary finished mowing the far garden, including outside the electric fence, then mowed a piece of lawn north of the near garden. Originally, I was going to go shopping in Quincy, but with 90° predicted this week, decided getting the last AC into place was more important. 


• Tuesday, 6/2: There were wet bunny tracks on our wooden porch when we walked dogs in early morning hours. It was hot and sunny all day. We voted in Missouri's delayed municipal election. Voted against school district and nursing home tax increases. We were on the winning side of the nursing home ballot, but lost on the school district item. It won by 6 votes. Our property taxes just went up...we estimate by $93. I helped Mary water plants in the near garden. I put foil on the outside of all of the rest of the window ACs with aluminum tape to seal out rainwater and bugs. Ground-level ACs and the 2nd-story north AC with a ground-level roof to stand on are easy. It was trickier on the aluminum extension ladder for the east-facing AC in our bedroom. We're sealed and delivering cool air inside our house, now. Mary washed all clothes, except jeans. She used the bagger on her mower to pick up mowed grass in the far garden and apply more mulch on far garden rows. I did the same thing to mowed grass north of the near garden. While unloading a bag of grass, Mary hollered, "Look up." There was an Air Force stealth bomber flying east to west. It was louder than commercial jets and moving well beyond where the sound was coming from, yet below the speed of sound, since there wasn't a sonic boom. Stealth bombers are based at Ft. Leonard, MO, located 230 miles due south of us. Mary said she's heard that jet sound at night, but never seen one, since aircraft lights are off when a stealth airplane is traveling in the dark. Their sound isn't to stealthy, though.


• Wednesday, 6/3: It was a bad day in many respects. First, we had several thunderstorms develop right over our heads. You could watch the clouds grow straight up into the sky. With thunder cracking above all afternoon, we were driven inside...neither of us are going to stand outside with thunder overhead. I was able to saw up 4 pieces of inch-thick persimmon trees into 3-foot braces for a pea fence. Mary started weeding onions. While inside, I discovered that the AC in the entryway's north window died...the electrical motor gave out. I found lower gums in my mouth that are receding too much. Glad the day is over!


• Thursday, 6/4: It was a sunny, hot, and muggy day. I finished the pea fence, while Mary finished weeding onions and shallots. Without weeds, they look great. She also cut garlic scapes and reported that we'll be harvesting and hanging garlic, soon. I helped Mary water all of the garden plants. I ordered toilet paper through Sam's Club, since you can't seem to buy it in Quincy. It seems the first thing of importance in a pandemic is your ass. Save the asses! I also mowed on both sides of the near garden fence and weedwhacked under the fence of the near garden, finishing up at 9 pm.


• Friday, 6/5: We woke to thunder and dark green clouds to the west. I roared out of bed, remembering that I left the mower outside and the chicken windows were open. I got the mower into the machine shed, while Mary closed coop windows. It started raining right when we both finished and came on with torrential rain and strong wind...happy to report no water intrusion around window ACs, due to my foil/aluminum tape job. I shopped in Quincy. It's back to normal on traffic in the city. About 50% of the people wear masks in a state where a face mask is required when outside of your home. I wore a mask. Picked up a new AC to replace our recent dead one. Back home, Mary patched a pair of her jeans, telling me in a text that "my fingers are hurting." She finished cross stitching a Christmas ornament. She also sorted bad squash and old garlic from last year's gardening efforts, along with store-bought onions, and tossed them. She started a new set of last year's sweet potatoes for slips, since the store-bought sweet potatoes she started several weeks ago are barely progressing. After I got home from shopping, unloaded the car, and Mary did chores, we ate nachos and watched the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. On the last dog walk, you could swim through the air, it was so damp and muggy. The lightning bugs loved it, though.


• Saturday, 6/6: It was a hot day. I removed the old AC and installed the new one I bought yesterday into the north window of the entryway. It's my 5th, and hopefully final, AC install for the year. Mary made flour tortillas. She mowed the front east lawn. I restarted weed whacking under the far garden fence, which is slow and tricky, since the electric fence wires are buried under last year's dead grass and this year's tall grass. You have to inch up on covered wires without snatching them up with the twirling grass trimmer head. After 2 tanks of gas in the whacker, I put the bag on the mower and picked up already mowed grass while Mary used it to finish mulching the onions. They are doing very well.