- 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!
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| 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.
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| Moonlight through a moonlight glass with dandelion wine in it. |
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