August 30-Sept. 5, 2020

Weather | 8/30, 53°, 79° | 8/31, 0.01", 59°, 77° | 9/1, 0.91", 61°, 75° | 9/2, 65°, 83° | 9/3, 61°, 85° | 9/4, 51°, 83° | 9/5, 55°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/30: When you hear a wild canine howl, it puts a sense of apprehension in your soul. It shouldn't. Coyotes and wolves are just communicating. Yet, a howl, when let go close by, definitely brings your senses to attention. We experienced it when we stepped out for the dogs' last walk. Coyotes first howled off to the distant north. Then a group howled that was closer. Finally, howling came from right in our north yard. Amber, our vizsla/pitbull cross, let out with an angry "muff." We never saw the coyotes, but I kept my flashlight on as we walked away from them to the south on our gravel lane. As we walked, Mary and I discussed how we're seeing fewer bunnies since spring. No doubt, coyotes are visiting Melvin's Restaurant occasionally for rabbit dinner.
  
  In other news:
  
  • Mary dug up the potatoes. We got about 20 pounds of mostly small spuds. Dry weather, close planting, and a late planting reduced their growth potential. Mary said despite all of that, getting any potato is nice this year. 
  • I finished stringing electric wires on the NE corner of the far garden fence. Then I cut 2 pieces of steel angle iron from an old bed frame for horizontal bracing, cut 1/4-inch rebar into four foot-long pieces for wire tightening rods, ground notches into 3  steel posts, and started putting up the SE corner. 
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. 
  • We watered gardens. Mary's count was 10 worm eggs, and 8 worms. While watering, we smelled a skunk on the east breezes. 
  • Katie texted that snow was in the forecast tomorrow for her job site at Nuiqsut, AK. 
  • Bill said he's arriving here Friday for Labor Day weekend. 
  • The Ironweed flowers are blooming and quite striking. Below are photos of it, and a picture of an ironweed blossom with a monarch butterfly on it.

Purple ironweed blossoms.

A monarch butterfly on ironweed.

• Monday, 8/31: Our young chickens are 7 weeks old, today (see video below). That means they're halfway to butchering age for the cockerels. They are growing nicely. That's a fun feature about chickens...they grow quickly. At this stage, we can distinguish pullets from cockerels. We bought 3 Rhode Island Red pullets, but we received 2 additional Rhodie pullets, plus a barred rock pullet and a buff Orpington pullet, for a grand total of 7 more egg-laying birds to add to our current flock of 4 hens. Our rooster, Leo, will be busy. Obviously, sexing newly-hatched chicks is not an exact science.
  
  In other news:
  
  • The day started with heavy mist, which gave us some much-needed moisture.
  • I made waffles for our main meal.
  • I installed the SE corner posts for the far garden electric fence. After tamping gravel in around the posts, I discovered I missed grinding a notch into one post, so I strung all of my extension cords, a heavy cord from the house, and a trouble light, from the house to the handheld grinder at that corner of the garden. It was 375 feet of cords, which is too far for 14-guage electrical extensions. I only used the grinder for a few seconds, then disconnected the evidence of my redneck fix to my stupidity.
  • Mary packaged up donations to the Salvation Army thrift store, and made a shopping list, since we have to go shopping for chick food tomorrow.
  • We watered both gardens and Mary found her normal passel of worm eggs and worms.
    
    
    
    
  
  
• Tuesday, 9/1: Shopping is a mixed blessing for us. We're able to get away from the house, even if it's only 35 miles away. After avoiding burr-up-the-butt drivers, viewing shoppers using facemasks as chin straps, and listening to all of the city noise, we feel relieved to be home where all we hear is the wind and birds and crickets singing.
  
  In other news:
  
  • We woke to a thunderstorm, that gave us a good, healthy rain. Today was the first time we haven't watered the garden in several weeks.
  • We shopped in Quincy.
  • Mary killed a bunch of worm eggs and worms. She says some sungold tomatoes are ripe.
  • We watched a movie.
  
  
• Wednesday, 9/2: Today we did:
  
  • Mary mowed the west yard.
  • I hung the electric fence wires on the SE corner of the far garden. I had to let out wire from connections at the gate, because each corner post is a little further outside of where it once was located. I also took apart the last corner, the SW of the garden. Posts are severely rusted, so I'll replace them.
  • Mary did her daily worm egg and worm search.
  • I did online research on ladder roof hooks for repairing the chimney...a job I'm not looking forward to at all!
  • Mom texted that a grass fire and extremely high winds forced residents of Jordan, Montana (west of her in Circle) to evacuate. The fire was headed to Cohagen, which was also evacuated. I checked a 10:30 pm update on Montana Public Radio that indicated all who were evacuated returned to their homes.


• Thursday, 9/3: Events:
  
  • Mary mowed a bunch more of the lawns. 
  • I put up the SW corner posts of the far garden electric fence, using newer steel posts and newly-cut angle iron from an old bed frame. Then, I strung 7 of the 10 wires, again, letting out each of the wires to fit a corner put in the ground wider than it was originally installed. I need to finish soon, because one of the corn silks is turning brown and once the sweet corn ears fill, raccoons will be tempted to rip and shred.
  • My old employer, Mid-Rivers Telephone Co-op, reported they have burned up facilities near Jordan, MT, and in Musselshell County (Roundup). BLM reported the Jordan fire involved 30,000 acres. They also report a 40,000-acre fire in Rosebud County, 20 miles north of Ashland, MT. A lot of grassland burned up, which is hard for ranchers.
  • Karen, and her husband, Lynn, have recently shown nice pictures on Facebook of them camping in Utah and Colorado.
  • We got back to garden watering. I picked a handful of sungold cherry tomatoes. Mary found fewer worm eggs than worms, which means we're getting to the end of horn worm season.


• Friday, 9/4: It's Waffle Friday:
  • I made waffles for breakfast, of course.
  • Mary washed sheets, cleaned house, froze blueberries and a watermelon, and turned over mowed grass that we'll save for composting.
  • I finished stringing electric wires in the far garden, then straightened and pounded in all but 2 posts between the corners and got electric wire plastic connectors in appropriate places on each post. I still need to splice out rusty wires and other fix ups.
  • Mary watered gardens and picked fewer eggs and worms.
  • I drilled holes in old Gatorade bottles and put mothballs in them to keep toothy varmints from chewing on car wiring in Bill's car.
  • Bill showed up around 9 pm, so we ate nachos and watched 2 movies.


• Saturday, 9/5: Rap music, Black actors playing our nation's founding fathers, and lots of dancing is what we watched after dark when Bill streamed his phone to our TV so we could watch the play, Hamilton. It comes at you fast and furious. We all liked it. I can understand why it was so popular on Broadway. It's a show well worth viewing.
  
  Other happenings:
  
  • We finished the far garden electric fence. I say "we," because Bill helped me. We replaced rusty sections of wiring. Then, Bill replaced bare hot jump wires around a post near the gate handles with new jump wires covered with 1/4-inch plastic tubing (see below). It's too bad I didn't do a before and after photo, because what he replaced was hideous. I tightened all 10 wires and connected hot and ground wires from the near to the far gardens. Our corn is now raccoon-proof.

  

  Far Garden electric jump wires that Bill installed.

  • Mary picked some of the hazelnuts...several still remain on the bushes. She also collected dried grass, watered all gardens, and killed worm eggs and worms.
  • Katie texted Mary. She said the ptarmigan are starting to turn white. Her favorite character in Hamilton is King George III.

August 23-29, 2020

Weather | 8/23, 67°, 91° | 8/24, 71°, 93° | 8/25, 68°, 92° | 8/26, 68°, 91° | 8/27, 70°, 90° | 8/28, 70°, 89° | 8/29, 64°, 79° |

• Sunday, 8/23: Happenings:
  
  • Mary made a turkey pot pie and washed 2 loads of laundry.
  • She also picked an ice cream bucket of green/wax beans. They're coming on strong.
  • We watered the gardens. We're very dry, now. Several trees in the woods are losing yellow leaves.
  • Mary's garden death count: 19 worm eggs and 1 horn worm.
  • I did another wall calendar, Styrofoam job, this time on the pickup's windows.


• Monday, 8/24: We did the following:
  • I called McKenzie Auto about them looking at a few things on the Cadillac. They can get to it Thursday morning.
  • I sharpened my mower's blade and mowed the trail to the north side of the far garden and the outside of that garden's electric fence.
  • Mary did laundry, picked green beans and cucumbers, and cut beans into processed size.
  • We watered the gardens. Mary found 27 worm eggs and 8 horn worms.


• Tuesday, 8/25: Events:
  
  • We dropped the Cadillac off at McKenzie Auto in Lewistown, MO.
  • I mowed the inside of the far garden. Grass was knee-high, so the going was tough.
  • Mary did house cleaning and picked more beans.
  • We watered the gardens. Mary found 34 worm eggs and 3 horn worms.


• Wednesday, 8/26: The lack of supplies in grocery stores is forcing us to do a better job at stocking up this year. We like tea. We drink a lot of iced tea and we prefer Red Rose Tea, which we only found at the Quincy Walmart store. When this store quit selling it, we went directly to the Red Rose Tea website and purchased 12 boxes, each containing 100 teabags (see below). This should keep us in tea for a year. It's nice to be able to find what you want online.
  

  

  When they quit selling what you want, buy it from the source!

  In other news:
  
  • I removed the 3 metal fence posts of the NW corner of the far garden, notched them with a handheld grinder, then pounded them into the ground, complete with gravel punched down the side of the posts with a spud bar and a tension wire crisscross put between them (see photo below). I find this system stays put in clay ground after heavy rains.
  • Mary washed and dried towels, made flour tortillas and chimichangas, and froze 30 servings of green/wax beans. She also turned the hay laying down in the south lawn.
  • Mary started to water gardens and I joined in later. She found 27 worm eggs, 9 horn worms, and an army worm. Without daily watering and worm detection, our garden plants would be gone.

  

  Garden electric corner post, with Plato puppy in the background.
• Thursday, 8/27: Happenings:
  
  • Mary picked 2 ice cream buckets full of beans and two 4-gallon buckets. She then made a batch of pickles. It was going to be 12 quart jars. Unfortunately, one of the jars broke at the base, so we got 11 jars of pickles (see photos below).
  • I ran 2 tanks of gas through the grass trimmer, cleaning out knee-high grass and weeds under the electric fence wires around the far garden (a continuation of grass trimming that I did yesterday). It's tricky, with loose wires and thick vegetation.
  • We watered both gardens...together on the far garden, then I watered the near garden while Mary killed things on plants in far garden. Her count was 23 worm eggs, 8 horn worms, and 1 cucumber beetle.
  • We could see Hurricane Laura's clouds on the southern horizon all day. The edge of high clouds eventually were right overhead, but the sun still scorched through. We are hot and crispy, here.

  

  Washing cucumbers in the sink.

  

  Eleven quart jars of processed pickles.

  
  
• Friday, 8/28: Today's activities:
  
  • I called McKenzie Auto, was put on hold for 10 minutes, so I hung up. Mary and I drove the pickup to Lewistown. Our car was in their garage with nobody around for a couple minutes, then a mechanic walked in. They were essentially done with our car...they found nothing wrong with the front end and fixed chewed wiring that resulted in the dash message of "Service Power Steering." We drove home after paying the bill, Mary in the pickup and me in Cadillac. Mary said the pickup was the nicest to drive of any pickup-related vehicle we've owned.
  • I weedwhacked the rest of the grass/weeds under the far garden's electric fence wires.
  • Mary picked the last of the green beans that she wants to freeze.
  • She also picked up dry hay and put it in the second bin.
  • Mary watered the far garden and I watered the near garden. She killed the normal amount of worm eggs and horn worms.
  • We watched the 2000 movie, Finding Forrester.


• Saturday, 8/29: According to WGEM in Quincy, we're in a drought. Open this WGEM Weather page, scroll down to the drought map, and we're the county NW of the word "Quincy." It's no surprise. Any bare ground is cracked. Leaves are falling out of trees. The gallons of water we pour on the gardens every day keep our plants alive. Our location defies rain development when we get in a dry spell. Hurricane Laura waved wispy high clouds at us as it dumped rain on Arkansas. This morning a weather front marched out of Kansas, then dived south. A massive derecho storm swept across Iowa on 8/10, which was our last rain of half an inch. We live on a rain-repellent hill, where we watch weather go close by, all around us, and we don't get a drop. On the happy side, we also watch tornadoes go by us that never come through our property. It's an odd phenomenon.
  
  In other news:
  
  • Mary processed the beans she most recently picked, yielding 22 additional servings, plus 2 quart bags for a Thanksgiving bean casserole. The grand total is 65 servings. Mary is beaned out! It's time to pull the bean plants.
  • I strung the electric fence wires on the NW corner of the far garden, then reset the metal posts on the NE corner and started stringing those wires. I'm pressing close to the raccoon corn ripping and slashing day for our sweet corn. We keep seeing what I call white raccoon corn cheese, aka poop, all along our gravel lane, so I've got to keep plugging on the far garden electric fence.
  • Katie texted photos of a visiting musk ox to the construction site where she's working at Nuiqsut, Alaska (see photo below). 
  • We did our normal garden watering and worm picking dance...Mary's count was 22 worm eggs and 12 worms of various types.

  

  A musk ox at Katie's worksite in Nuiqsut, AK.

  
  

August 16-22, 2020

Weather | 8/16, 57°, 83° | 8/17, 62°, 82° | 8/18, 57°, 83° | 8/19, 56°, 79° | 8/20, 53°, 79° | 8/21, 57°, 83° | 8/22, 62°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/16: Happenings today:
  
  • Mom texted that she's tired after attending Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeos 4 nights in a row. She said, "The PRCA rodeos here in Circle were very good. There were a huge number of well-known riders from all over the U.S. and Canada, due to the fact that many rodeos have been cancelled everywhere."
  • Mom also texted that Ernie Carlson, who Katie once worked for, died of a stroke 10 days ago. He was 66.
  • Mary planted 12 strawberry runners into potting soil in Styrofoam cups.
  • We planted strawberries in buckets this spring. I got "sand" from a creek NE of the chicken yard, but about half of it, unbeknownst to me at the time, was mainly clay, which killed 2/3 of the strawberry plants. I took 2 of these buckets, dumped them out, salvaged the non-clay layers of soil, added better sandy soil, topsoil, wood ashes, leaves, grass, and topped it off with 3" of potting soil and an inch of grass mulch. When they're ready, we'll plant each strawberry runner into 1 of these buckets with better soil.
  • Mary used her scythe and cut a section of long grass south of the house that we'll use for hay on the floor of the chicken coop this winter.
  • Mary's death count from the gardens includes 29 worm eggs, 4 army worms, 4 cabbage worms, 1 tomato worm, and 1 cucumber beetle.
  • We listened to the last few minutes of the St. Louis Blues/Vancouver Canucks playoff game 3 that ended regulation play in a 2-2 tie. It was after midnight, so we went to bed. Noticed the next morning that the Blues won 3-2. The Canucks lead the series 2-1. Hopefully, the Blues kick it on, now. They always play the last game of the day in Edmonton, Alberta, where half of the NHL teams are playing in isolation, due to the coronavirus. GO BLUES!


• Monday, 8/17: During our "weenie roast" last night, where we used metal weenie roasting sticks to cook slices of pork loin over an outdoor fire, Mary and I discussed house plans. I tossed out the idea that maybe building a new house is wrong for someone my age. She disagreed, saying that her Uncle Herman was in his 70s and 80s when he put in new floors and built the north addition to our existing home. It's really never too late to do whatever one's heart desires. Onward...CHARGE!
  
  Today's happenings:
  
  • I called our insurance company, took the Buick off insurance, and added the GMC pickup. The change cost us absolutely nothing, and I was able sign paperwork enabling the change online. That's neat.
  • Called McKenzie Auto. They don't do state vehicle inspections, now, and they said to see Travis Fleer. Called Fleer Tire. Travis is the only one at his garage who can do inspections and he's on the county board, so he's not in today, due to a county board meeting. His employee said to try Joe Howse in LaBelle. I drove back roads to LaBelle. Howse's door was locked, no one was there, and there wasn't even a sign on this place of business. I'll have to get the pickup licensed tomorrow.
  • Mary did a deep water to both gardens, which took all afternoon. Her garden death toll was 31 worm eggs, 6 cabbage worms, 4 army worms, 1 horn worm, and 2 cucumber beetles.
  • After finishing eating next to the outdoor fire, it started raining. We took items inside, walked dogs, then after two spittles of rain, the skies broke to crystal clear and we went back to the fire.
  • Checked online prior to bedtime, and the Blues beat the Canucks 3-1 and tied the series 2-2. GO BLUES!


• Tuesday, 8/18: Events:
  
  • I drove the pickup to Lewistown and got it inspected. I shouldn't have been concerned about ABS light. Inspection involved, left turn, right turn, high beam, horn, brake lights, sticker in window, you're done.
  • Travis Fleer, who did the vehicle inspection, puts out-of-state deer hunters in stands in properties adjoining us. He said someone recently bought the land west of us. He thinks it's someone who bought the land to hunt on. Travis lost the lease on the land north of us, because the owner's grandson wants to hunt there. That explains why it was quieter to the north last hunting season.
  • I drove to Monticello, our county seat, and got license plates for the pickup. It's now legal.
  • Katie messaged me that I have a daughter who can help build a house. That's nice of her.
  • Mary made a big batch of vegetable soup and dusted more books.
  • Her garden worm killing list is 13 worm eggs, 2 cabbage worms, 2 horn worms, and 2 cucumber beetles. She saw 1 corn tassel and the start of some corn ears...flashing red lights for me to finish electric fence around far garden before raccoons attack!


• Wednesday, 8/19: Some nights, we're reminded how close we are to the wild here on our property. Such was the case today. We walked the dogs south, partway down our quarter-mile gravel lane. Right next to Bluegill Pond (it once had bluegill fish in it), ears went up on both of our dogs as they peered intently in the pond's direction, westerly. After a couple minutes, Mary and I walked back north. The dogs followed, with ears laid back and intensity in their trot home. A barred owl called from the edge of our west lawn as we followed the fast-moving dogs to the house. Immediately after getting inside, Mary heard coyotes yipping. They sounded like they were between the woodshed and the machine shed, about 100 feet from the house. It's a wild place. We like it that way.
  
  In other news:
  
  • I found stainless steel screws, removed the rusty bolts, and attached the new Missouri license plates on the GMC pickup.
  • Mary picked a possible "pickle batch" of cucumbers. She also picked a handful of wax beans, with more coming.
  • She made biscuits to go with the vegetable soup...yum!
  • Mary watered gardens and picked 7 worm eggs, no worms, 2 cucumber beetles.
  • I racked the watermelon wine and the blackberry wine. I might be tossing the watermelon wine. It smells terrible and tastes just as bad. Mary says it tastes like you sucked on the rear end of a polecat. She never wants to taste it, again. We tasted the blackberry fines, or leftovers, which usually leave you with a strong yeasty suggestion, and they tasted wonderful. Mary says it tastes like alcoholic Kool-Aid. The 2 wines, after racking, are pictured below.
  • I reviewed pickup wheel pricing online. I'll order new ones, since they are only $25 more a piece than used rims from a junkyard in Monroe City, 38 miles south of us.

Blackberry (left) & watermelon (right) wine.

• Thursday, 8/20: I went shopping in Quincy. Traffic was high. Employees guard some store entrances requiring face mask usage. People who once didn't wear masks, now wear them as chin straps. I'm amazed at how completely ignorant some people are about working to curtail this pandemic. Covid-19 numbers are skyrocketing here and yet, several people still act like it's all a hoax. Quincy's Adams County has 692 cases, 52 in Lewis, our county, and 307 in Marion County, south of us where Hannibal is. This is no ruse and I only hope those of us who are trying to curtail it don't succumb to the disease, due to the incompetency of the mentally midgets, of which there seems to be vast abundance, locally.
  
  In other news:
  
  • I texted with Karen for several minutes.
  • Mary picked a half of a grocery bag of cucumbers and a handful of green beans. She also picked 100 persimmon leaves and laid them out to dry.
  • She watered both gardens, taking about 2 hours. She found 7 worm eggs and 2 army worms.
  • After I got home, and while I was unloading and putting items away, Katie called, asking for 401K advice. We talked for several minutes. 
  • We had nachos and watched the 3rd Hobbit movie.


• Friday, 8/21: Waffle Day! Earlier this year, we decided to make Friday morning the time when we eat waffles for breakfast. I took a waffle recipe that I got from Mom and altered it. Instead of egg whites and melted margarine, I use ground flax meal. It's a simple recipe...1/2 cup white flour, 2 cups wheat flour (we like King Arthur wheat flour), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 4 heaping tablespoons ground flax mixed with hot water in a bowl, and enough hot water to turn the mix into a semi-thick liquid soup. This makes 4 waffle squares. I cook them up in a Nordic Ware waffle iron my parents gave us for Christmas in 1991. When I can get them, we add strawberries with margarine spread and honey. Waffles make our Friday mornings a real treat.
  
  In other news:
  
  • Mary turned over the hay she cut a few days ago and cut another small patch in the south lawn, laying it out to dry.
  • I spread out a canvas tarp and surveyed under the pickup's rear end. A paper stamp stuck on the driveshaft confirmed that it's relatively new. It's aluminum and there's no hanging bearing, which is something that always wears out. The spare tire is flat and on an extremely rusty rim. Even though the previous owner said he replaced some brake lines, those running to the back need replacing. The muffler is good. The right rear shock is badly dinged and both brake backing plates, referred to as dust covers on disc brakes, are rusted through and need immediate replacement. It looks like axle shafts must be removed to get the brake dust covers on...a major job. Hey, the pickup was cheap for a reason. I knew that when I bought it.
  • I wrote a list of items that need fixing on the pickup, and ranked them from 1 to 10 in priority.
  • We ate scrambled eggs cooked on a small outside fire. We call it smoked eggs, because the smoke from the hardwood fire gives them a smokey flavor.
  • I helped Mary water gardens. With me hauling water and Mary pouring out the watering cans, it greatly reduces garden watering time. I picked 3 strawberries and stomped down mole borrowings under the bottom wires of the near garden's electric fence. 
  • Mary picked more cucumbers and beans.
  • Mary found and killed 33 worm eggs and 2 horn worms. She showed me a snowy tree cricket that we always hear every night in our trees.
  • Two of our five pumpkins are turning orange. I pointed at growing squash and Mary realized that they weren't acorn squash, but summer scalloped squash. The seed accidentally got into our acorn squash seed packet. Oh well, we'll shred them up to make yummy chocolate/summer squash cake.


• Saturday, 8/22: Happenings:
  
  • Oops...forgot in yesterday's waffle recipe that I also add a cup of milk to the batter.
  • Mom and I texted for several minutes. Her garden is productive. Temperatures have been in the 90s and over 100 for several days in Circle, MT.
  • Mary picked another bunch of cucumbers and beans.
  • After processing, she froze 13 meal-sized packages of beans. She also froze 12 meal-sized packages of blueberries that I recently bought at Aldi.
  • Mary stored 3 oversized wheelbarrow loads of hay into the second grain bin. Each load was stacked up to her head in height.
  • I heard electric snapping about 15 feet from the electric fencer unit, carefully dug down and determined it emanated from where I soldiered a spice together. Apparently, the heat shrink covering was faulty. I covered it with several layers of electrical tape, buried it, then checked at the fence and had no electric fence pulse at all. Obviously, my old soldered connection was bad and wrapping it with electrical tape separated the union completely. I did a quick fix of swapping wires, to put the hot charge through what once was the ground wire from the fencer to the fence. I'll fix the bad connection later.
  • We watered both gardens. Mary nailed 19 worm eggs, 6 small horn worms, an army worm, and an unidentified worm.
  • I priced out pickup rims and rear brake dust covers at RockAuto.
  • I applied redneck sun protection to the inside of the windows of the Cadillac...old Mid-Rivers wall calendars cut to size and propped into place with pieces of Styrofoam that came with fish and animal shipments into Petco.
  • The blackberry wine is down to just a couple tiny bubbles of fermentation every few seconds...almost done fermenting.

August 9-15, 2020

Weather | 8/9, 69°, 87° | 8/10, 0.52" rain, 71°, 89° | 8/11, 65°, 84° | 8/12, 68°, 86° | 8/13, 67°, 87° | 8/14, 68°, 86° | 8/15, 65°, 83° |

• Sunday, 8/9: After exchanging blog addresses with high school classmate Alison (Rabich) Boyce, and reading her excellent write-ups, I decided to alter this blog to include pieces similar to editorials I used to write back in my newspaper editor days. So here goes:
  
  One can get great satisfaction from fixing inanimate objects. It happened three times today. My Stihl grass trimmer wasn't running right. After reviewing the Stihl manual, I cleaned its air filter, cleaned soot from its spark plug, and reset the plug's gap. It still failed to gain adequate engine speed. The next step, claimed the manual, was to have a Stihl dealer repair it. "Horse pucky," I declared, and after removing the trimmer's back cover and the exhaust outlet, I found a screen plugged with carbon. Gas and a stiff wire brush cleaned it and subsequently boosted the grass trimmer's operation. Replacing a door knob containing a broken plastic latch with a new one possessing a better metal latch gave Mary and I a smile, now that a slight twist of the upstairs south bedroom door knob opens a door that we used to wrestle with to open. I also wired together an metal conduit box containing a switched 110-volt plug-in to use in coordination with the microwave, so that with the flip of a switch, the microwave is on or off. I love the feeling I get when I solve problems. Like my Grandad Melvin used to say, "Use your head for something other than a hat rack."
  
  Other events of today:
  
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread.
  • We watered both gardens. Mary found a small tomato worm and 3 worm eggs.
  • After dark, we used a black light flashlight and found 2 tomato worms, a cabbage looper, and 2 cucumber beetles. Grass mulch, grass seed heads, and worms are fluorescent green under a black light. Tomatillo fruit is reddish/orange.
  • Mom texted me a photo of herself on Saturday (see below). She looks great for someone who will be 86 in November.

My mom, Ruth Melvin.

• Monday, 8/10: A quick look at online weather radar indicated severe winds with a front moving in from the west, so I moved vehicles into the driveway. Winds weren't as bad as predicted here. Not so in Iowa and into Illinois, where winds sometimes exceeded 100 mph, according to these online reports...HuffPost, New York Times.
  
  Such forces of nature reveal how vulnerable we are. High wind blasts in 2011 took down large tree limbs on our Missouri property. I remember in the '70s, after checking shrimp pots in Halibut Cove in the 28-foot Little Grizzly fishing boat our family operated back then, hitting huge waves rolling down Kachemak Bay that sent tea I was trying to brew all over the inside of the cab of that boat. Commercial fishing teaches those involved to patiently wait out high seas, or the ebb and flow of the tide. I vividly remember the 1964 Alaskan Earthquake when our family lived in Anchorage, even though I was just a first grader at the time. Earth has a deep, groaning voice during large quakes. Huge winds are scary, but when angry ground rolls up and down and growls at you, it's terrifying. It all boils down to one point...live life to the fullest. Nature can change your life in seconds.
  
  Day's events:
  
  • Due to rain, we only had to check gardens...not water them. Mary found a tiny tomato hornworm and 3 worm eggs.
  • Specific gravity on the blackberry wine was 1.001, close enough to 1.000, so I racked it to a new 1-gallon jug and added potassium sorbate to stop fermentation (see photos below).

Blackberry wine after 2nd racking.

Fines and crude left behind after racking.

• Tuesday, 8/11: Late at night, Mary and I went outside to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower. I saw 3. Mary saw 2. It wasn't exactly stellar...ha, ha, get it...stellar. When I lived in Alaska, August was the month when you just barely started to see stars, but not a time when you'd be on the lookout for meteors. I love astronomy. I've always been a space nerd. As a kid, I always watched the Gemini astronaut flights on TV with amazement. In 5th grade, I'd crawl into a huge cardboard box, viewed my Stars Golden Book with a toy gun zapper that emitted a red light and identify constellations and planets. In 1968-69, I shoveled snow for Clarence Lafon, the chef at Beaver's Ski Chalet in Winter Park, CO, where my parents worked. I earned a dollar a week to save up enough money to buy a telescope, which was a big deal for me. Mary bought a telescope when we lived in Circle, MT. My dream is to build a dome for that scope, a dream that needs to become a reality.
  
  In daily news:
  
  • Mary made venison stroganoff and very yummy pumpkin cake.
  • She also harvested comfrey and persimmon leaves and laid them out to dry in the south bedroom.
  • I cut tall weeds that were growing through the chicken wire on the SE corner of the chicken yard. They were making it hard to enter the human gate. It took extra time, because I didn't want the long-handled loppers to cut through chicken wire. I removed 2 wheelbarrow loads of weeds from 25 feet of fence.
  • I removed an inside board and insulation to the north chicken door that when opened, will give our month-old chicks (as of Monday, 8/10) access to the north end of the chicken yard.
  • Mary found 2 cabbage worms, 3 worm eggs, and 2 cucumber beetles in the gardens. 
  • Donna Bell and David Parmeter (former high school classmates) mentioned an idea of holding a get-together in the Pacific Northwest. Interesting thought.


• Wednesday, 8/12: I installed a 2x4 block at the top of the NE corner of the chicken coop. It holds a pole in place attached to a gate running from the east fence to the coop, thereby dividing the north and south chicken yards. Older chickens stay in the south yard. New chicks roam the north yard. I let the chicks out (see videos below).
  
  
  
  Month-old chicks venturing outdoors.
  Chicks in the outdoors with hens watching through fence.
  
  Historically, chicks take a day or more prior to venturing outdoors. Not this crew. They went outside immediately. We got these chicks exactly 1 month ago, on a July Wednesday when they were 2 days old. In the top video, the older hens are peering through the fence to look at the chicks. Silver, a silver Wyandotte hen, is especially fascinated with the chicks. We keep tall ragweed plants, aster plants, and other weeds near all chicken fences. They give chickens a place to hide from hawks, along with giving them shade. There are also Smart Weed seeds that the chicks like to eat. We enjoy viewing the chicks, but more importantly, they provide us with meat for the year (along with venison that I take every fall). Chickens grow very fast. We're partway through our 2nd 50-pound bag of chick feed and they've grown from the size of an egg to about a third of their adult size. In roughly 2.5 months, they'll be ready to butcher. The feed bill grows as they get bigger, but ends when they are processed into meat. Butchering is not fun, but it's necessary if you raise your own meat. Hens that accidentally come in with our chicks join our other hens and eventually enhance our egg count. I've contemplated raising sheep for meat, but stout fencing and a solid overnight building would need to be built, to keep them from becoming coyote food.
  
  Daily events:
  
  • Mary found 20 cabbage worms, 3 army worms, and 3 cucumber beetles in the gardens.
  • Mary dusted books.
  • I drilled holes in 8 plastic Gatorade bottles, put mothballs in them and in old bottles, and put one behind each vehicle tire and at least one in every vehicle engine compartment. They help to keep rodents from chewing up vehicle wiring.
  • Bill called. He's going to try to visit during Labor Day. At work, his receiving department job is slow, so he's helping in other areas, such as inventory. He said COVID cases are increasing in St. Louis.
  • COVID cases are ballooning, here. The number is at 587 in Quincy and 50 in our county.

• Thursday, 8/13: Today's events:
  
  • Bill texted that he and all other employees where he works were sent home, due to someone there testing positive for coronavirus. They had to bring a company in to deep clean the place. His employer paid everyone's pay for the day.
  • Mary dusted the movie DVDs.
  • I investigated ABS (antilock brake system) issues online with the GMC pickup. Removed both front wheels in my investigation. Front brake pads are new. Greased front end, since everything was reachable with tires off.
  • Mary looked during daylight and we did an after-dark black light search and found 12 cabbage worms, 4 worm eggs, 3 cucumber beetles, and 1 super large tomato worm in the gardens.
  • We left the heat lamp off for the first time at night. The chicks are growing nicely.
  • The blackberry wine still bubbles slightly, even though I halted fermentation by adding potassium sorbate on Monday.


• Friday, 8/14: Today's exciting details:
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • I tried to eliminate the ABS light in the dash of the GMC pickup after discovering that removing the ABS fuse turns on the red "Brakes not working" light. I removed plastic dash pieces to back out the instrument panel. There are no removable light bulbs. Discovered online that LED lights are soldered into the internal circuit boards of modern vehicle instrument panels. More importantly, online discussion boards indicated that as long as the red brake idiot lights aren't activated, a vehicle with the ABS light on will pass inspection. So, I'm good to go with the pickup's current situation.
  • Did online research about engine longevity of the 4.6-liter V8 in the Cadillac vs. the 3.8-liter V6 in the Buick. The Buick engine is better. We decided to keep the Buick and sell the Caddy after it's paid off in November, 2021, but take the Buick off insurance and work to get it ship-shape.
  • Mary found and killed 3 cabbage worms, 1 army worm, 1 tomato horn worm, 3 cucumber beetles, and 17 worm eggs.
  • The blackberry wine still bubbles...another hard-to-kill yeast variety.


• Saturday, 8/15: The older I get, the more I notice that the imagined mountains we build in our minds are pitifully minuscule compared to the natural workings of earth and the universe. It hit me tonight while walking the dogs and viewing the tiny specks of the Milky Way that spanned the night sky. They Milky Way was bright. Each tiny fleck of light is itself a sun shining light on asteroids and planets around it. We are but one of billions of occupants in space. Every day our tiny ant colony of humans eject verbal toxic waste about other ants of our species, discrepancies about religion, race, nations, and politics. It's trivial and so are we when we fail to realize how we are part of something that's much larger than our own imagination. 
  
  Today's happenings:
  
  • Katie texted us 2 photos of a musk ox near her worksite in northern Alaska. HERE is what she put on Facebook.
  • I reassembled the dash of the GMC pickup, after cleaning the pieces. I saw signs that it was taken apart in the past.
  • Worm eggs are on the increase. Mary's garden worm demolition count was 50 worm eggs, 4 cabbage worms, 1 army worm, and 3 cucumber beetles.
  • I looked up various pickup parts online.
  • We watched the 2013 movie, The Book Thief, one of our favorites.

August 2-8, 20208

Weather | 8/2, 61°, 79° | 8/3, 60°, 75° | 8/4, 45°, 75° | 8/5, 54°, 76° | 8/6, 0.02" rain, 58°, 79° | 8/7, 59°, 86° | 8/8, 0.04" rain, 69°, 89° |

• Sunday, 8/2: We didn't do much today. I checked the blackberry wine. The specific gravity is at 1.021 and it needs to be at 1.000 before I can halt fermentation. It now tastes yeasty, but with a tang of wild fruit. We had smoked scrambled eggs with bits of pork loin meat on an outdoor fire. Mary watered gardens. I ordered windshield wipers for the GMC pickup.


• Monday, 8/3: I sharpened the blade on Mary's mower. She noticed its engine was smoking, while she mowed part of the lawn. I looked at the GMC pickup. It looks like the muffler and tailpipe are relatively new. The rim of the spare tire that's stored under the bed is rusted badly. Shocks need replacing. Fluids look good. I have a chigger bite on my inside left ankle that blistered up to the size of a nickle. It wasn't looking healthy, so I cleaned it with soap and put hydrogen peroxide on it, twice, then soaked it in Mary's comfrey tea, and finally put antibiotic ointment on with a big Bandaid over it. It's quite sore, but looking better. I HATE CHIGGERS!!! We talked to Bill on his birthday and chatted for quite awhile.


• Tuesday, 8/4: I reviewed our primary election ballot to determine who to vote for and then we drove to Lewistown and voted. Mary mowed a tankful of gas. Her mower smoked and when she finished, oil spots covered her mower. It must be blowing oil past the piston ring in the engine. Mary also did some garden mulching. Due to my ankle, I stayed inside and washed the dishes. The various candidates we voted for won their primary contests...a first for us. The constitutional amendment to allow for an expansion of Medicaid won.


• Wednesday, 8/5: I sharpened the blade on my mower. I checked Mary's mower and there is no oil showing on the dipstick. I'll need to put new rings in that mower. The pickup's wiper blades came in today's mail, so I installed them. Mary watered the gardens, washed 2 loads of laundry, and made flour tortillas. I checked the blackberry wine. The specific gravity is at 1.012, and it's still fermenting nicely. I did the dishes.


• Thursday, 8/6: Due to just a couple of cups of chick feed left in the bottom of the bag, I went to Quincy to get a few items, including chick feed. While en route, I stopped at the Lewis County Electric Cooperative's drive-through annual meeting. Workers flagged attendees to drive around their equipment building and then stop where you voted, with an employee punching your choice onto a tablet. They offered $20 off next month's electric bill, so we thought since I was going to Quincy, I might as well go to Lewistown, too. I forgot to put a quarter in my pocket for getting a shopping cart at Aldi, so I went to our bank's branch at Walmart to take $0.25 from our account. The bank teller grabbed a quarter from her purse, saying, "I got this quarter for free when shopping at Aldi, so it's your quarter, now." When I went to hand that quarter to a woman rolling a cart back to the store in the Aldi parking lot, she said, "Keep your quarter. I got this cart for free." There are good people everywhere. I still saw people not wearing masks while shopping in Quincy. They usually are old men. COVID-19 cases are at 486, with 5 deaths, in Adams County, home to Quincy. Our county, Lewis County, has 37 cases and 1 death. Marion County, the next county south of us and home to Hannibal, MO, has 171 cases and 1 death. It's not a time to slack off on precautions. Mary mowed the lane and did 2 loads of laundry while I was gone. We had evening nachos and watched the 2017 movie, Beauty and the Beast.

• Friday, 8/7: Mary did 2 loads of laundry. She also mowed inside and outside of the near garden and outside of the compost bins. I did a bunch of online research on Mary's mower issue of burning oil and throwing oil out of the exhaust. Turns out it could be a plugged crankcase breather and I can get a replacement for that mower for around $10 from RepairClinic.com. I weedwhacked part of the near garden, changing over to 50-pound test nylon fish line in the trimmer to try next to the chicken wire. It works nicely at trimming grass, without tearing the chicken wire apart. I know the regular trimmer line would demolish the chicken wire. It isn't any good with tall grass or thick weeds, so I'll have to come up with other alternatives to remove them. Oncoming darkness forced me to quit. Mary investigated and found an army worm, a cabbage worm, and a tomato worm, and 3 worm eggs on various garden plants. Received several texts late at night from Homer H.S. classmates meeting at Land's End on the Homer Spit in Alaska (see photo below). People I recognize include John Hendrix (2nd on left), Karen (Babcock) Delaney (3rd, left), Marie Fitz (4th left), Arn Johnson (end of table), Roger Toci (7th, right), and Mary Lambe (6th, right).

Class of 1975 Reunion at Land's End.

• Saturday, 8/8: While Mary was vacuuming spiders, the old Shop Vac died. We thought it would keel over 10 years ago, when I bought a different one, so she switched over to that one. There's frugal, and then there's us! The newer vacuum works much better. The old vacuum was bought at a 2008 auction in Circle, MT, for $9. We got our money's worth out of it. I finished whacking weeds around the electric fence of the new garden, and then started cleaning out tall grass just inside the chicken wire fence. After clearing some, I suddenly realized I was in the carrot and parsnip patches of the garden. I destroyed tops off several plants...damn! I quit after that. Mary checked appropriate plants for tomato worms. She found 7 tomato worm eggs and destroyed them. Mary took a photo (see below) of myself hoisting a glass of pear wine that I sent to the Homer H.S. Class of '75 on Facebook and got a few reactions back from it. 

A toast!