Oct. 25-31, 2020

Weather | 10/25, 35°, 42° | 10/26, skiff of snow or 0.08" moisture, 29°, 33° | 10/27, 29°, 42° | 10/28, 30°, 49° | 10/29, 36°, 43° | 10/30, 26°, 53° | 10/31, 37°, 63° |

• Sunday, 10/25: Second roof job completed:
  
  • I opened curtains in the living room this morning to watch a young buck with 6-inch spikes walk around the south side of the house.
  • I started today by removing the plank and the 2 brackets on the roof under the chimney, then patching the holes left by removing 6 big nails that held the brackets on the roof.
  • Meanwhile, Mary made a batch of flour tortillas.
  • I light a fire in the woodstove. Goodbye, weak electric heat. Hello, deep warming wood fire heat.
    
  • While I switched chains on the chainsaw, Mary loaded up bricks we had in various places and stacked them behind the woodshed.
    
  • Next, we cut down the mulberry tree that grew the past several years right outside the south windows of the sunroom. I sawed up larger pieces into firewood size. Mary hauled branches west to near the woods and stacked the green firewood pieces on top of the newly-stacked bricks behind the woodshed. Most branches came down easy, but one hit the railing of the south porch and bounced back toward my head. I dodged it. The final branch reached as high as the second story windows. When I notched it's base, it wanted to lean into the house. I tied 2 lengths of 50-foot long half-inch nylon rope together and had Mary pull it away from the house as I made the final cut. It worked.
  • We moved the lift from west of the house to the SE corner of the house, outside the sunroom. We had to move it closer once I discovered I couldn't reach the old gas heater exhaust pipe when the lift was in its first position. 
  • I then went through a crawl space in a small closet in our bedroom and disconnected the gas heater exhaust pipe. I had to vacuum spider webs, first. Nests of hay are just above the sunroom ceiling in this crawl space area and a big snake skin was shed and now drapes across a couple roof joists. We suspect the nests were made by squirrels. Ice cream buckets are sitting in there, so Herman, Mary's uncle, had leaky roof issues prior to us living in this house.
  • Next, I took the lift to the roof and pulled the exhaust pipe out. Then, I removed the boot that it went through. I discovered that this SE corner of the roof was never covered with tar paper prior to nailing on asphalt shingles. WOW! Below this pipe, the plywood was wet and nail heads in the plywood were rusty...a good indication of our leak issue into the sunroom.
  • It was getting dark, but with snow predicted tomorrow, I decided to finish this project. I rigged up 2 clamp-on lights on the lift's basket. A plug-in receptacle is at the basket of the lift with a place to plug in at the base, so I ran a cord from where we usually plug in our electric fence unit to the lift's base. I had excellent lighting that I could redirect where I needed it and continued working.
  • While I kept working on the roof, Mary cleaned up the mess I made by emptying out our bedroom closet to get to the roof crawl space to disconnect the gas heater exhaust pipe. Prior to that, she brought in all chainsaw-related tools. She kidded me that her whole day was spent cleaning up after me. 
  • After removing several horribly rotten shingles, I squeezed 2 laps of tar roofing cement around the foot-square aluminum and OSB patch I bought last year to patch this mess and nailed it into place. Then, I ran 2 more laps of tar on either side of the seam, laid down 4-inch wide fiberglass/tar screening, ran a wavy line of tar over that and ran a nitrile glove covered finger over the tar to fully impregnate the screen. Next, I nailed new shingles over everything. I finished around 10:30 pm. I was beyond exhausted.
  • Nailing shingles below you at 35° with a north wind blowing chimney smoke in your face while leaning over an aluminum bar in a tiny lift basket is hard. At one point, I stepped one foot on the roof to better position myself for using the hammer and stepped right into fresh tar. I guess I wanted to be a Tarheel. It gave me an excuse to throw away old Walmart tennis shoes that were shot, anyway.
    
    
• Monday, 10/26: Our first snow:
  
  • We woke to our first snowfall of the season...just a skiff. Our soon-to-be freezer chickens, who are 15 weeks old today, didn't know what to think of the white stuff. For me, today is going to be a day of doing abso-bloomin-lutely nothing. My muscles and joints are telling me I'm a nut!
  • Around 5:30 pm, I started the lift and got it ready to transport, since it's due back tomorrow by 1:30 pm. I tried to start the pickup and it wouldn't start. I put the charger on the battery, since I cranked the engine quite a bit. I did some online research. It could be a weak fuel pump, or moisture in the distributor. I'll try again in the morning and if it doesn't start, I'll call Sunbelt Rentals to determine my options. If I can't get a pickup from them, I'll see if I can rent one from Home Depot. The timing of our truck not starting stinks.
  • It snowed all day, but it melted as it hit the ground throughout the day.
  • Bill called. He will visit us the entire week of Thanksgiving.
  • We saw 16 wood ducks fly off of our tiny Bluegill pond. We also saw a small doe and a barred owl while walking to the mailbox to get our mail.
    
  • Below are photos of the results of the past month of work.

SE corner of chimney, my worst stucco job
and what people will see.

NW corner of chimney, my best stucco job
and what deer will see.

Lift, mulberry stump, & roof job (light color).

Newly stacked bricks & green mulberry firewood.

• Tuesday, 10/27: I'm tired of things not going our way. It has to turn around. We had a week of really poor weather, both wet and windy. The newly purchased pickup won't start. As a result, we didn't get the lift back on time and probably incurred more charges. Our only vehicle that remains running has a front passenger-side brake that is scraping metal on metal. We're past due on butchering chickens. It's freezing at night and our garlic isn't planted. I'm dedicated to taking the bull by the horns and doing something about all of this...better vehicle maintenance, earlier garden plantings, a dedication and timeline for getting out of this 111-year old squirrel, snake and bug infested house and into a new house. I'm mad and I plan on doing something about it.
  
  Today:
  
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread.
  • I tried removing the distributor cap on the pickup. It's crammed against the firewall. The head of the front hold-down screw started to strip, so I stopped. We tried starting fluid, but my can was so low, I couldn't get any to spray down into the throttle body. 
  • I called Sunbelt Rentals 3 times. The first time, I was told they'd try to get someone out to pick up the lift. The second time, I was told a sales rep might get out to us to get the lift. The third time, I was told no one was coming.
  • I drove to Lewistown and bought a new can of starting fluid from McKenzie Auto, squirted it in and the pickup still wouldn't start. I looked for chewed wiring, but didn't find any. I removed the number 2 spark plug. It was rough looking and soaked with gas, so the gas supply is good. I'll need professional help to get into the distributor, so I decided to stop.
  • I called Home Depot. They rent pickups, but not for towing. I called U-Haul in Quincy. They have a pickup that can be used for towing. I reserved it for picking it up tomorrow morning. On my third call to Sunbelt Rentals, I told them I'm renting a pickup and will have the lift into them around noontime tomorrow.
  • We're out of chick feed and an order of powdered milk came in, so I drove to Quincy and got the milk, bought cat, dog, chick, and hen food, and various staples for us. 
  • While driving home, someone hit a deer just prior to me coming around a corner of the highway. Then, on State Highway J, about 2 miles from the house, I saw 4 deer on the edge of the road eating dried soybeans. They're out and about, now.
  • Mary did some cross stitching and all of the chores while I was in Quincy.
    
  • The house is nice and warm and our reconstructed chimney is pulling a good draft through the woodstove. That makes me happy.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/28: Driving Day:
  
  • Today I drove to Quincy, rented a pickup from U-Haul (it was a 2019 Chevy), drove home, hooked up the lift, drove to Quincy, dropped off the lift at Sunbelt Rentals (they didn't charge extra), dropped off the pickup at U-Haul, then drove back home. The pickup was a gas hog, but it towed the lift well. It road like a tank. Our pickup, when it's running, rides better and gets better mileage. I'm glad that's all done.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch ornament and did house cleaning.
  • We had smoked scrambled eggs, fresh bread, and tomato slices for a meal.
  • Mary took a photo (see below) of a deer buck rub on a 6-inch in diameter walnut tree right next to our driveway and the house. It had to be a big buck. It certainly didn't fear being next to our house last night.

  

  Buck rub on 6" walnut tree.
  

  
  
• Thursday, 10/29: A slow day:
  
  • It was cloudy and cool outside, so we put in a quiet day.
  • I gave Mary a haircut. Her last one was on Feb. 8th. She prefers short hair. It wasn't prior to the haircut.
  • The pear wine slowed way down on bubbling out CO2, so I cleaned up the overflow tubing and put in a regular airlock. The silicone seal on the cap of the Big Mouth vessel is poor, so I tried the screw-on cap from the small 1.4-gallon Big Mouth that cracked. That was even worse, so I went back to the silicone cap and tied it down to the milk crate that the 5-gallon Big Mouth Bubbler sits in with laces that once were on old hockey skates I owned. That works, but it looks like I'm trying to hold down a demon (see photo, below). I read online that this type of brewing carboy breaks easily, so I tried not to get it too tight. The specific gravity of the wine is at 1.000, which is perfect.
  • While putting chickens away for the night, Mary saw an 8-point buck and a doe just west of the chicken run. 
  • Katie texted Mary that she will be staying at her job in Alaska through Christmas. She said that temporary power for the village that needs to be babysat during the Christmas break. Since she figured we were leery about her visiting us, due to COVID issues, she volunteered to stay and babysit the temporary power generators.
    
  • After our evening meal, Mary popped all 6 garlic varieties into individual cloves for her garlic planting in a few days.
  • Prior to going to bed, we put rings on the legs of all 6 of our hens from this year's chicks. We start butchering cockerels tomorrow night.

  

  Skate lacing tie-down to keep silicone top in place.
  

  
  
• Friday, 10/30: If you want to notice wildlife in action, spend a night outside. The wild critters are abundant and loud. During chicken butchering that we did between 9:30 pm on 10/30/20 and 5:30 am on 10/31/20, we encountered an opossum, heard barred owls, great horned owls and coyotes, and chicken feet theft. The opossum came right at us while we were knocking off our second chicken at the killing cone. The smell of chicken blood must have attracted it. I had to poke it with a long black walnut branch to get it to move on. I heard foot steps on the machine shed's metal roof while working on a chicken. After a coffee and toast break, midway through butchering, all of the chicken feet were missing. We think a coyote was our thief. Needless to say, one of us is always near dead chickens that we hang on a spud bar rigged between two step ladders, or we'd notice even more theft.
  
  Happenings:
  • Mary made huge batches of popcorn to give us inexpensive snacks.
  • A young raccoon walked down our lane next to the house in the afternoon.
    
  • She filled the coffee maker half-full of vinegar and the rest with water to clear sodium residue out of it. Prior to doing the cleaning, it would take an hour to make coffee. Now it takes 12 minutes.
  • Mary also raked leaves and put them in the compost pile.
  • I picked up tools, leftover asphalt shingles, and mortar, cement, lime, and mortar sand buckets that were scattered outside, in the woodshed, and in the machine shed, and put everything away.
  • I fixed a big clamp light fixture that shorted out when I used lights on the roof job. Hot and ground bare wires twisted together inside of the ceramic fixture. I soldered new eyelets on the end of newly bared wires, added heat shrink, put it together and used it as a light hanging from the rafters for chicken butchering in the machine shed. 
  • I also set up the machine shed for butchering, with 4 other lights aimed to the center from north, east, south, and west. After repositioning a come-along hanging from a rafter, I added an aluminum meat hook below it and put 2 old Mid-Rivers Telephone wall calendars on the floor below it. The killing cone got a couple new pieces of aluminum tape to smooth over rough edges. Buckets of water were added where needed. Then, I sharpened 9 knives.
  • We started by killing 4 cockerels, then I skinned one at a time and Mary thoroughly cleaned each one, cut them into pieces, put each chicken in a zipped gallon freezer bag, and put them in the freezer. We then did a second batch of 4 chickens. By doing them at night, it's easier collecting chickens off the roost. We prefer skinning chickens, because of the slick way that feathers, skin and excess fat comes off altogether and instead of round chicken bodies, we get compact flat ziplock packages in the freezer. This year, the chicken food was much better than in past years, so these birds are bigger and more developed, thereby considerably slowing down our butchering speed. We were hoping to get 12 done tonight. We only got 8 chickens butchered, so it's going to take us 3 nights to butcher all 24 cockerels.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/31: A Day of the Walking Dead:
  
  • After finishing butchering chickens at 5:30 am, we took baths, crawled under blankets on couches in the living room, and slept an hour and a half. A woodpecker banging on the side of the house woke me. Plato jumped off an easy chair, came over wiggling his tail so hard his butt swung back and forth, and smiled at me. I talked about it. Mary bitched about me talking. We were up for the day.
  •  On what was a very windy day, we saw several raptors and bluebirds. We counted 16 bluebirds eating fruit from the Sargeant Crab Apple tree. At noon, we watched a golden eagle sail into the wind while some other bird chased it. Several hawks flew overhead through the day. Mary saw a peregrine falcon. Our chickens were very aware of these birds, calling out and hiding.
  • I cleaned up blood and gut buckets from chicken butchering.
    
  • We had a wiener roast on a small fire, since it was windy. Mary's relish is amazing on hotdogs. We ended it with a quarter cup of 2019 pear wine.
  • I smelled wine around the seal of the Big Mouth Bubbler holding this year's pear wine, so I racked it into my 6.5-gallon glass carboy, added 2 crushed Campden tablets, to kill any harmful mold that might have entered with the faulty seal, and sanitized and added an airlock. Instantly, the airlock was burping, which wasn't happening with the bubbler. Obviously, correct action was taken. 
    
  • Mary did chores while I handled wine duties.
  • Mary baked 4 small apples, each, which we enjoyed while watching the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus.
    
  • We turned in early, extremely tired.
    

Oct. 18-24, 2020

 

Weather | 10/18, 0.02" rain, 37°, 43° in morning | 10/19, 35°, 40° | 10/20, 0.01" rain, 36°, 46° | 10/21, 0.37" rain, 41°, 49° | 10/22, 45°, 80° | 10/23, 0.58" rain, 37°, 42° | 10/24, 33°, 41° |

• Sunday, 10/18: Today's relaxation:
  
  • The high temperature for the day was this morning. We had some rain and then temperatures dropped a little throughout the day.
  • I bottled the worst wine I've made, which is the watermelon wine, and the best wine I've made, which is the blackberry wine (see photos below). The watermelon wine smells bad, but tastes sort of okay. Mary hates it. She calls it the limburger cheese of the wine world. The blackeberry wine tastes smooth, tart, without any strong alcohol taste. It's a real winner and it has no aging in the bottle, yet. Both wine types have an approximate 12% alcohol content. 
  • I also added pectic enzyme to the pear wine, activated yeast with 95° water, then throughout the afternoon and evening, added quarter cups of pear must to the yeast mixture. I pitched the yeast into my pear wine brew bucket at midnight, 24 hours after this batch was first made.
  • Mary cleaned the upstairs north bedroom walls and ceiling.
  • After I was done playing in the kitchen with my wine, Mary made a venison General Tso meal.

Bottling blackberry wine.

Blackberry (left) and watermelon (right) wine bottles.

• Monday, 10/19: Happenings:
  • Temperatures continue to hang lower than weather predictions, making chimney/roof work difficult. I nailed ridge caps from the chimney's edge to the south and north on the peak of the roof. Some of the asphalt shingles broke, due to being brittle from cold temperatures. My solution was to put them under the electric heater in the house, keep the lift engine running and to transport each piece outside in a plastic shopping bag to the roof, then bending the warm shingle into place on the roof ridge and nailing it. It took longer to do it this way, so I never got to brick and mortar work, today. But, all shingling is done around the chimney.
  • Mary made flour tortillas and venison fajitas.
  • I checked the pear wine. It's bubbling along, nicely. The specific gravity went up to 1.084. We're guessing that the mesh bag filled with pear and raisins released more sugar into the must.
  • We watched the first Harry Potter movie, a good Halloween item.
  • I checked with Katie and she flew from Anchorage to Nuiqsut this morning.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/20: When weather knocks your plans awry, it's maddening. Such is the case, now. A week from today, I need to return the lift. Wind and rain keeps delaying me from accomplishing 3 jobs I want to get done while using the lift. I can't seem to get job number 1, the chimney, done, let alone the other two, removing an old gas furnace vent while shingling over that spot, and cutting down the weeping willow tree. Mary needs to clean up the garden so she can plant garlic. Rain halted that today. We're late at getting chickens butchered. It's been too cold for that. Ugh! On the other hand, it's not snowing, like it's been doing in the northern states.
  
  Today's fun:
  
  • Rain was predicted after 1 pm, but I wanted to proceed on the chimney, so I took an old canvas tarp covering a table saw that belonged to Mary's Uncle Herman and tested it as a cover for the chimney. It worked, so I went ahead and laid 4 bricks to put the chimney top at 23" above the roof peak. Heavy mist cut the job short around 2 pm, so I couldn't lay the other 2 bricks of that course and had to cover the chimney to keep rain water from washing out today's mortar.
  • Mary started taking down the chicken wire of the rabbit fence in the far garden. The 4' long small persimmon trees I used as stakes for that fence rotted in the ground, so Mary broke them off. 
  • A great horned owl hooted all day long in the north woods, just NW of the chicken run. We never saw it, but heard it throughout the day.
  • The specific gravity of the pear wine dropped 10 points from yesterday to today to 1.074. The yeast is fizzing along nicely, emanating a fruity aroma from the pantry into the kitchen.
  • We watched the second Harry Potter movie.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/21: Today's events:
  
  • Rain halted our actions, again. I laid 2 bricks to finish a course, but ran out of mortar on the last brick. After quickly slamming together a quarter of a batch of mortar and filling gaps on the last brick where I ran out of mortar, I used the leftover mortar to hold nails at an angle in the holes that are pre-made in the center of the bricks. These nails will be covered with cement to help hold the crown on the top of the chimney.
    
  • Meanwhile, Mary rolled up the chicken wire that was in the far garden, then cut down and removed the corn stalks.
  • While eating lunch, I saw that rain was coming while looking at online radar. Since I had nail heads sticking up on top of the chimney, I found a Styrofoam packing piece that came with an air conditioner about 4 inches deep and roughly the size of the chimney top that I put on top of the chimney. I then covered the chimney with the old tarp and tied it down. Mary and I did a couple of chores until thunder persuaded us to go inside.
  • I drove to Quincy and bought a bag of chick feed, since we're not getting to chicken butchering. I also picked up pork loin on sale at HyVee.
  • The specific gravity of the pear wine dropped 24 points to 1.050 and the yeast beasties are fizzing along happily (see video, below). I'll probably need to rack the wine into a carboy and add an airlock tomorrow morning.

• Thursday, 10/22: Our day:
  • The pear wine's specific gravity was 1.028, so I racked it into a 5-gallon Big Mouth. Instantly, foam went through the airlock, so I rigged up a blow-off overflow with tubing and a Mason jar half filled with distilled water. The CO2 gas from the yeast is constant (see video below). I now wait 3 weeks to rack it again.
  
  
  • Today was hot with a strong SW wind, gusting up to 30 mph. In the past, I wouldn't have used the lift, due to the wind, but the lift's rental days are limited and we need to get jobs done, so I went above, anyway. I felt like I was in the mast of an old sailing ship.
    
  • I built a crown of sorts on the top of the chimney (see photo below), with about 4 batches of sand concrete. It's not perfect, but it isn't bad for my first, ever, attempt at working concrete. A true crown would cover the opening from rain and let smoke out of gaps in the 4 sides under it. This is more like a cap on top of the chimney bricks.
    

  

  Concrete crown on the chimney top.
  

  
  
  • Next, I put stucco on the east side of the chimney and started a 4-inch square of stucco on the north side. Darkness was closing in while finishing my last stucco batch.
  • Mary washed all the clothes. They dried quickly in the wind, today.
  • She also froze 3 gallons of tomatoes, and picked about a quart of very ripe persimmons from under the large persimmon trees.
  • Mary mowed most of the far garden where garlic will be planted.
  • The moon was in a triangle with Saturn and Jupiter after sunset...very pretty.
    
  • We watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie.
    
    
• Friday, 10/23: More rain:
  
  • Weather continues to play havoc with accomplishments. A flash of lightning woke me this morning. Sure enough, it was raining. It rained until noon.
  • I made waffles for breakfast.
  • In the afternoon, I finished applying stucco to the north side of the chimney and got to within 1 brick height of finishing putting stucco on the south chimney wall. Due to cool temperatures, I'm using hot water in my stucco mix. The result is a fast set-up time, requiring me to make smaller batches and to hurry once a batch is made to get it in place and smoothed out with a trowel. After an afternoon and crawling in and out of the lift's basket many times, I'm rather worn out.
  • Mary did some cross stitch, all of the evening chores, and picked some more ripe persimmons that blew out of the trees (see photo, below). They look horrible, but Mary makes a pudding out of the meats of these, which is very good.
    
  • Oh, a north wind blew with gusts to 25 mph, today...the adventures of roof work. I'm now calling the chimney, my crow's nest.
    

  

  Persimmons picked today.

• Saturday, 10/24: A FINISHED CHIMNEY!!!
  • I finished putting stucco on the south and west sides of the chimney, ending a project that has lasted nearly a month. I still have to remove the plank and brackets from the roof, and fill nail holes from the 6 nails that currently hold down the brackets, but the main work is over.
  • First thing this morning, I labeled blackberry and watermelon wine bottles and laid them down sideways in dark boxes in the upstairs north bedroom so wine soaks into the corks and for them to age.
  • I took apart all of the stove pipe pieces for the woodstove, cleaned soot out from inside of them with a wire brush, cleaned their outsides, and put them back together between the stove and the base of the chimney. Mary helped me with the installation, holding stove pipe as I added silicone sealant and screws to tie all the sections together. We decided to let it sit overnight, but tomorrow we'll be able to heat with wood. Our electric heaters are fair, but nothing compared to the deep heat of a good woodstove fire.
  • Mary removed the seeds, picked a few more, and froze 3 quarts of persimmons.
  • She cleaned up the walls and floor where we put firewood throughout the heating season, brought in the firewood rack, and filled it with wood.
  • Mary did all of the evening chores, since I was on the roof, finishing the chimney.
    

Oct. 11-17, 2020

 

Weather | 10/11, 55°, 81° | 10/12, 0.01" rain, 55°, 67° | 10/13, 43°, 73° | 10/14, 45°, 82° | 10/15, 47°, 57° | 10/16, 32°, 55° | 10/17, 39°, 65° |

• Sunday, 10/11: What we did:
  
  • I laid 5 bricks to completely mortar in all flashing pieces that I put into place yesterday, then cut and bent the aluminum sheeting for the head counterflashing that faces the east side of the chimney, sprayed lacquer on it, temporarily carpet taped it into place, then laid 3 bricks to mortar it permanently to the chimney. I added a little bit of caulking on this final piece of flashing when the sun was setting. Below is a photo from the ground of today's work. Please disregard my sloppy mortar work. I'm an amateur and I'm going to cover all of the bricks with stucco. All I have left is laying several courses of brick and applying stucco to finish the chimney. I also have some ridge caps north and south of the chimney to nail into place.
    
  • The forecast is for rain tomorrow between 4-8 am, so we'll see if my waterproofing of the chimney works. It's also supposed to blow with NW gusts to 35 mph. If it blows that hard, I won't be on the roof.
  • Mary did another firewood tree marking adventure, this time into the north woods. There are some trees close by, but further north the dead trees are covered with poison ivy. Mary had a deer run ahead of her and all she saw was a rump that was about 2-foot wide...a big buck.
  • Mary froze 3 more gallons of tomatoes. We have 20 gallons in the freezer. One more gallon and Mary has all she needs to make 3 batches of salsa and 1 batch of slumgullion. The rest of the ripening tomatoes we'll just have to eat, fresh...darn!

  

  Head flashing & counterflashing on chimney,
  looking at it from the east on the ground.

• Monday, 10/12: Grandad Melvin used to say, "It really stinks getting old." I also remember asking him how old he was on a visit to what later became Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. He answered that he was 65 and I said, "Boy, that's old." He suggested I wait and see how I felt about it when I turn 65. I'm a year and a little over 4 months away from that age and I surely don't feel old. My body sometimes reminds me that it stinks to get older. For days, I've been doing the limbo as I climb out of the lift's aluminum cage onto a 2x10 plank on the roof. Now my right knee aches like the dickens. Somehow, I've stressed it. I'm fine, but just achy in the knee.
  
  Today's events:
  
  • Rain fell while we walked dogs this morning, but it only lasted for a few minutes.
  • Since a NW wind was howling, we declared today as a day off from chimney repair. I suggested going shopping, but since my knee hurt, a day on concrete wasn't smart.
  • I made waffles for breakfast.
    
  • Mary defrosted our largest freezer. It's now ready for new chicken and deer meat. We have to start butchering chickens, soon. The chicks are now big and 13 weeks old, today. Fourteen weeks old is the outer limit.
    
  • I called Sunbelt Rentals about renting the lift for another week. It's been $1000 a week. I've had it for 2 weeks. If we had a flatter roof, I wouldn't need the expensive gizmo. Expecting to have to commit another $1000, I was told that for another $174, I hit the monthly rate and I can keep it until Oct. 27th, which I approved. That was great news.
  • Mary brought out 2 strings of orange lights and I helped put them into the branches of the ficus tree in the living room. She added decorations, including miniature witch's brooms, 4 cross stitch ornaments Mary made, an old cauldron, and a witch's hat (see photos below).
    
    

The orange glow of our lit tree.

Our Halloween tree.

Cat with ghosts cross stitch ornament.

Pumpkin Pi cross stitch ornament.

The Pumpkit cross stitch ornament.

Kitty on pumpkin cross stitch ornament.

Miniature broom ornament.

Witch's hat on an old cauldron.

• Tuesday, 10/13: Today:
  
  • Mary canned 12 quarts of slumgullion. In a big pot, she put in 5 gallons of tomatoes, 8 medium white onions, 6 huge sweet peppers, a bit of salt, and 3/4 of a cup of Real lemon juice. Then, she brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes and then canned it. Mary's story about slumgullion is that her grandparents weren't the richest people, and they had a lot of kids, but Mary's Grandmother Hutton had a hard time turning down hobos who would ask for a meal during the Great Depression. A hobo stopped by one day and she didn't have anything to feed him. He asked, "Do you have some tomatoes, onions, peppers, and corn bread?" She said, "Yes." He said, "You make the corn bread and give me the vegetables and I'll show you how to make slumgullion." The dish was so popular that it became a standard in the Hutton family, ever since.
  • Mary also froze 29 small packages of chopped sweet peppers.
  • I laid 11 bricks on the chimney. Bricklaying is going faster, now that I don't have to make those infernal flashing pieces. Of course, my all-time high achievement of 11 bricks in a day is probably what a pro bricklayer can do in 15 minutes. After I laid 3 bricks to finish the course that covers the last flashing, I calculated that I need to lay 6 more courses of 6 bricks per course to get to the required height that the chimney needs to reach. By nightfall, I had 2 bricks at the second course of 6 courses to get to the top.
    


• Wednesday, 10/14: My maternal grandfather, Jack Robison, had a bulldog approach to living. He was famous for getting a cast on his leg and spending hours in an irrigation ditch, essentially melting it away. Mom says he would enter the house and my grandmother would say, "Now, what did you do?" But, that tenacity was a good thing. When doctors told him a stroke meant he wouldn't walk again, his response was to get up and start walking, even if it meant his walk was a little bit teetering. No problem, he carved 2 canes from diamond willow we found in Alaska, marching about a mile every morning with his beautiful canes to support him. Would my grandfather have worn a mask if he were alive today. Even though he had a reckless streak, I think he would. He didn't go to college, but he was smart. I bring this up, because on our visit to Quincy today, we saw most everyone wearing masks. It's changed from months ago, when many weren't doing so. You might smash forward in life, like Grandad Robison did, but you still need to be smart about it. Wearing a mask right now is smart.
  
  Our day:
  
  • We had NW gusts up to 40 mph, so no roof-time for me. We went shopping in Quincy, IL. Prior to leaving, I drilled a hole in a bolt, put the bolt through a hole in the hitch coupler of the lift, and padlocked it, to detract from someone stealing it. Besides shopping for needed items, we dropped off a couple items I didn't use on my chimney project.
  • We ate nachos and watched the 1998 movie, Practical Magic.
    


• Thursday, 10/15: Events today:
  
  • A NW wind was gusting hard this morning, so I stayed away from the chimney until afternoon, when the winds decreased.
  • I texted Katie. She was in the Atlanta airport, getting on a flight to Seattle. After Seattle, she'll fly to Anchorage.
    
  • Mary and I looked at all of the Bartlett pears wrapped in newspaper in a chest of drawers on the upstairs landing. Out of 116 pears, we only had 15 that went bad. Still, I have to make pear wine very soon.
  • Mary picked 40 Kiefer pears.
  • Mary picked 25 jalapeno peppers after I mentioned the possibility of making jalapeno wine. She also picked red or yellow hot peppers of other varieties. Mary picked a full bucket of absolutely ripe tomatoes and a half of a bucket of green tomatoes. She froze 5 more gallons of tomatoes. Mary picked the last of the comfrey leaves to dry.
    
  • I laid 8 bricks on the chimney, finishing the 2nd course and putting 4 bricks on the 3rd of 6 courses left to lay. The top of the chimney is now 17.5 inches from the roof peak.
  • We celebrated October 15th, just 'cause, with a bottle of pear wine. It's very good, now...extremely smooth..
    


• Friday, 10/16: Happenings:
  
  • Late last night, Katie texted that she made it to Anchorage. She stays there until Monday, in order to quarantine and pass covid tests.
  • Morning winds were gusting to 30 mph, so I delayed working on the chimney until afternoon. I laid 8 bricks, finishing up the 3rd and 4th courses and raising the height of the chimney to 20.5 inches. 
  • I sharpened the lawn mower's blade.
    
  • Mary used a scythe to cut down grass on the path to the chicken killing cone, then raked it up to use it as an organic cushion in a new compost bin.
    
  • Mary added 2 sheet metal pieces to metal fence posts to start a new compost bin and added grass to about 2/3 full.
    
  • We saw hundreds and hundreds of robins flying south today. Online, we noticed it's snowing in northern Minnesota.
    


• Saturday, 10/17: Today we did:
  • I moved vehicles to the lane, SE of the house, due to SW wind gusts to 50 mph, and to avoid any weeping willow branches hitting the vehicles. It's not a day for chimney work.
  • I removed 2 air conditioners on the ground floor level and stored them on the bench in the machine shed. I also moved a stack of asphalt shingles to inside the machine shed.
    
  • I went to Quincy and bought a 3-pound bag of lemons, a needed ingredient for pear wine that I forgot to pick up when we shopped on Wednesday.
    
  • Mary moved garden tools, shovels, and tar paper back into the first grain bin that I left on the grass when getting to asphalt shingles.
    
  • Mary mowed the trail to the chicken killing cone, did some cleaning, and strung hot peppers.
  • We made pear wine. Mary chopped up 3 pounds of golden raisins while I juiced out 10 lemons. Then, Mary peeled, while I cored, and quartered about 96 Bartlett pears and 12 Kieffer pears. It's a messy job, especially when the Bartlett pears are so ripe. I put the pear quarters in 2 big bowls containing water and Real lemon, a solution that prevents the pear meat from turning brown. Then, we put alternate layers of pear pieces and raisins into a large mesh bag, squeezing after each layer was added to release pear juice. Next, I added 5 crushed Campden tablets, 5 teaspoons of acid blend, 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, and 2.75 gallons of water to bring the must level to the 6-gallon mark in the brew bucket, with the bag also in the bucket. Next, I measured the specific gravity. Starting at 1.030, I added sugar until it was at 1.080. This is much lower than last year's pear wine starting point. I'm trying to make this year's pear wine at a lower alcoholic content, to keep our ears from curling when we drink it. Now, I let the must sit for 12 hours, to let the crushed Campden tablets kill any wild mold on the fruit. For roughly $16, we get about 2 dozen delicious bottles of pear wine. We started this project at 7 pm and ended it at midnight. Below is a photo of the pear must in the brew bucket.

  

  Measuring specific gravity in pear wine must.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Oct. 4-10, 2020

 

Weather | 10/4, 0.08" rain overnight, 37°, 57° | 10/5, 34°, 63° | 10/6, 47°, 76° | 10/7, 59°, 79° | 10/8, 48°, 77° | 10/9, 55°, 80° | 10/10, 58°, 81° |

• Sunday, 10/4: Happenings on a bright, sunny day:
  
  •  After studying how to correctly put metal flashing on chimneys, I couldn't see how it would work on our chimney. So, this morning, I stacked up poor quality bricks I wouldn't use anyway on a sheet of plywood tossed over the trailer behind the tractor, using pieces of lathes as stand-ins for mortar thickness, to mirror our chimney. I leaned a board on a bucket next to this fake chimney and got it at a 45° angle, representing the roof. Then I played around with additional bricks and a piece of aluminum flashing to determine what I needed to do, then wrote down the steps. It took all morning, but I now can visualize the steps of this project.
    
  • Mary dug up carrots. It's the last crop from the garden. It's supposed to frost tonight, so all that we needed to harvest is now removed. There are still some green tomatoes out there, but we have so many tomatoes ripening that we don't need any more.
  • Mary marked dead trees with fluorescent orange paint while walking SW and east of the house. It's easier determining dead trees now, when most leaves are still on trees, than later in the fall, when leaves are gone, and we're cutting firewood.
  • While wandering east looking for dead trees, Mary took photos of blooming New England asters (see photos below).
  • I finished putting tar paper on the roof where I took asphalt shingle off around the chimney. Then, I added new shingles up to the base of the chimney. Finally, I snipped and bent into shape the first of many pieces of flashing, the apron, and nailed it to the bottom front of the roof in front of the chimney. Prior to nailing it in place, I spray painted it with lacquer to prevent the aluminum from corroding when it comes in contact with mortar.

These New England asters are 1" in diameter.

Honey bee on a New England aster.

• Monday, 10/5: Activities:
  
  •  We woke to spotty frost. Some tomato and pepper plants were nipped, along with squash and pumpkin plants. It's okay. We've harvested all we need.
    
  • Our chicks are 12 weeks old, today.
  • I called up Sunbelt Rentals and rented the lift for another week.
    
  • Mary made 4 loaves of bread.
  • I made a batch of mortar and practiced laying bricks on a piece of plywood laying across the trailer, because Katie said I should practice. I had some mortar left, so I laid 3 bricks on the chimney and ran short when trying to lay the 4th brick, so I scooped the mortar off and threw it away. I made another batch to mortar and laid 2 more bricks, and then threw away a larger batch of mortar. I'll need to get better at estimating my mortar to brick count, so I don't waste so much mortar. The Type N mortar I'm making is 1 part Portland cement, 1 part lime, and 6 parts sand. I'm going to need more sand.
  • While reviewing online chimney flashing information, I realized I need to alter my plans of going 2" up the side of the chimney with step flashing and increase it to 4". Also, I'll need to go with taller counter flashing, the second flashing anchored by bricks, which sits on the outside of the step flashing and the chimney.
    


• Tuesday, 10/6: Events:
  
  • Mary did 3 loads of laundry. She also froze 3 more gallons of tomatoes. We now have 15 gallons in the freezer.
    
  • Pears are ripening...pear winemaking is around the corner.
  • I spent the morning studying my fake chimney and redid my chimney building plan based on what I discovered online last night. I then laid 5 bricks with 1 batch of mortar resulting in zero waste. Next, I made a half a batch, laid 2 more bricks, and again, no mortar waste.
  • I went to Quincy as the sun was setting and bought 3 more 55-pound bags of mortar sand, 12 pre-bent step flashings, a roll of 20" flashing for making higher counterflashing pieces, and a couple ingredients Mary needs to make piccalilli.
    


• Wednesday, 10/7: We did:
  
  • Mary washed 2 loads of laundry.
  • She also made 9 pints of piccalilli. It contains green tomatoes, cabbage, sweet & hot peppers, onion, garlic, horseradish, mustard seed, celery seed, vinegar, and sugar (Mary replaces sugar with Splenda). It's an end-of-the-season garden relish.
  • I cut and bent 2 corner step flashings, lacquered them and all of the other step flashings, then installed the corner step flashings. I alternately nailed down asphalt shingles and installed pairs of step flashings until I reached the top of the chimney. It takes time to cut each shingle and weave it into existing shingles on the roof. 
  • The autumn Asian ladybug invasion started today, which made it especially fun on the roof. They always sound like a Hercules helicopter when they fly near your head. Brush them off and they stink to high heaven. And, contrary to what the experts say, they bite.
    


• Thursday, 10/8: It's a good thing I don't do chimney work for a living, or I'd be canned on the spot for taking too long. Of course, I'm not a professional chimney dude, so I'm learning as I go, which is why I'm doing this job in glacial speed.
  
  Today's events:
  
  • Mary washed rugs and cleaned our bedroom. She also froze 2 gallons of ripe tomatoes. We now have 17 gallons in the freezer, with more coming. Mary did all of the evening chores, since I had my nose in the machine shed doing my chimney thing.
  • I cut and bent aluminum sheeting all day. I made a front counterflashing piece that will go on the west side of the chimney, two first level counterflashing pieces for the north and south sides, and two second level counterflashing units, again for the north and south sides of the chimney. I was up and down on the lift several times to get measurements and to check that sections fit properly. I sprayed them all down with lacquer and secured tabs where needed with aluminum tape. The sun set, so I quit for the day. Below is a photo of some of them loosely attached to my fake chimney replica in the machine shed.
  • Mary says I have a weird sunburned crescent shape on the back of my head from wearing a hardhat that's open on the back while up on the roof. She says, "It looks like the back of your head is smiling."
  
  

  

  Some of the flashing pieces I made today displayed on my fake chimney
  (the hard board represents the roof). It'll look a lot better on the actual chimney.

• Friday, 10/9: Today was hot, with a strong SW wind. Being high in the air on a lift, I noticed gusts immensely. It's sort of like riding out high seas in rough water, you have to concentrate hard with the task at hand and try to ignore surrounding factors. Still, sudden gusts make you slow down and become extra cautious. I laughed at one gust, when to the north, a bunch of blue jays squawked as the wind blasted through.
  
  Happenings:
  
  • Mary washed towels. She also made quiche and coleslaw, since I bought too many cabbages the last time I went shopping.
    
  • I installed the 5 counterflashing pieces I made yesterday on the chimney, held them temporarily in place with carpet tape, then mortared them into place and added 5 bricks to the chimney. I cut and bent 2 top step flashing pieces, nailed them into place, then cut 2 asphalt shingles lengthwise and nailed them at the top of the roof. I sealed the joints of all counterflashing pieces installed today with aluminum tape. Below are 2 photos of my work so far.
  • Mary mowed the lane.

North & west sides of chimney.

South and west sides of chimney.

• Saturday, 10/10: Happenings:
  
  • Mary continued her house deep cleaning, this time hitting the bathroom.
  • I cut some asphalt shingles lengthwise and added these half-shingles to the east side of the roof, then cut, bent, and created what's called the head flashing, then coated it in lacquer and nailed it to the top, or east side of the chimney, right at the peak of the roof. Next, I made 2 versions of the third counterflashing for the north and south side of the chimney, taped and lacquered them, then used carpet tape to temporarily put them in place. I laid 4 bricks to mortar these counterflashings permanently. I have just one more flashing to make tomorrow and then it's all brickwork.
  • A SW morning wind died to calm and then the Asian ladybugs came out. 
  • Mary hiked to the NE, marking dead trees for potential firewood. She found several near Wood Duck Pond. She spooked up 2 deer and said at one point there was a bright red oak tree in front of several bright yellow hickory trees for an amazing contrast in fall color.