Feb. 14-20, 2021

 Weather | 2/14, -6°, 6° | 2/15, 2" snow, 0.18" moisture, -7°, 2° | 2/16, -8°, 11° | 2/17, 1/2" snow, 0.03" moisture, -5°, 23° | 2/18, 1°, 23° | 2/19, -1°, 31° | 2/20, 10°, 39° |

• Sunday, 2/14: Cold Temps
  
  • Cold temperatures continued outside. Mom texted that it was -32 in Circle, MT, this morning. Chickens remain in the coop, as they have been for several days. The electric heater in there keeps temperatures roughly 10 degrees higher than outside temperatures. Mary gives them extra sunflower seeds and they're working on a pecking seed block. Our crew of 11 hens and 1 rooster seems content for days inside the coop.
    
  • Mary made a very nice chocolate zucchini cake dusted with dark chocolate chips and hickory nut pieces, today. It tastes delightful and keeps our figures svelte!
  • We enjoyed a shrimp midday meal for Valentine's Day. The shrimp was sauteed in my homemade garlic wine. We also drank the rest of the partial bottle of garlic wine. It's a wonderful cooking wine, but not as good for drinking. After eating shrimp, we had some blackberry wine with the cake. Now, that's a really excellent wine.
  • Since we didn't enjoy Saturday Game Night yesterday, we played the Senet game in the living room, next to the woodstove this evening. Senet is a very fun board game. Mary looked it up online. Senet was invented by Egyptians around 3500 B.C. Instead of dice, you throw four 4-inch long sticks that are rounded, but with one flat side. One flat side up means you move one space; two flat sides up, move 2 spaces; three flats up, 3 spaces; 4 up, 4 spaces; 4 rounded sides up, move 6 spaces. There are several other rules, which equals a lot of fun. I'm glad we have this game and we'll definitely play it again, in the future. As usual, Mary beat me three games to two.
    
  • I worked up a grapefruit wine recipe, altering ingredients and methods from last year's attempt, which was too high in alcohol and tannin taste.
    
    
• Monday, 2/15: Bill Didn't Get the Memo
  • Our son texted that he made it back home from work early and that they got about 5 inches of snow in St. Louis. One hundred percent of the employees who work under him called in saying they were not coming to work, today. "Got a lot done with no one around," Bill texted. "I didn't get the memo everyone else did lol."
  • I made up a batch of grapefruit wine. It took about 1.5 hours to skin the grapefruit sections free from white pith. Last year, I included rinds from 8 grapefruit. This year, I used 1.5 grapefruit rinds in the nylon mesh bag. I didn't add tannin, which I did last year. I used 1.4 pounds of sugar this year to reach a specific gravity of 1.080. Last year, I used 3 pounds of sugar and hit a specific gravity of 1.093. I used white grape juice this year, instead of the orange juice concentrate of last year. Hopefully, I have a mellower, better tasting result this year. My new 28" spoon was a delight to use. I'm waiting for a new variety of yeast to come in tomorrow's mail that I'll use in this batch of wine.
    
  • Mary did some book shelf cleaning and some cross stitching.
  • All of the wildlife is huddled in their hidey-holes, except for rabbits. Dogs last only a minute or two in the newly fallen snow at subzero temperatures, then they're lifting paws in the air due to the cold.
    
    
• Tuesday, 2/16: First All-Day Sun Since Jan. 12th
  • We had sun all day, today, an event we haven't seen for over a month. The sun has amazing power. Even though our high was 11, steam rose off our roof as the sun melted snow on it.
    
  • Mary made a batch of flour tortillas and chimichangas for our main meal.
    
  • I received another package of winemaking stuff (birthday presents), including several stoppers that fit wine bottles, so I can properly age smaller wine leftovers that don't fit into existing carboys. I also got some Lalvin R2 yeast, an aromatic variety that's good for white wines, such as the grapefruit wine I'm making right now.
    
  • I worked up a yeast starter batch with the R2 dry yeast by first adding 97° water, then 2 ounces of wine must heated to 97° every hour and added to the starter. I dumped the yeast starter into the brew bucket at midnight. The specific gravity dropped from 1.080 to 1.076 in one day. If I take the specific gravity down to 0.995, it will have an alcohol content of 10.5%, which ought to bring out the taste better than a wine with higher alcohol levels.
  • I learned from Karen that half-hour electrical outages were planned for Mom in Circle, MT, due to struggling electrical issues in Texas with cold temperatures. Mom texted that no outages were in place, yet, but they were to start tonight and run through Thursday.
    
  • I hauled a second garbage can down the lane on a plastic toboggan this evening. The first garbage can sat at the end of the lane all this past week. As my boots crunched the snow while pulling the load, a barred owl hooted at me from the trees just south of the lane. Mary said a tufted titmouse stared at her from a cedar tree alongside the lane. Not much wildlife moving right now, so any bird is a big deal.
    
    
• Wednesday, 2/17: Perfect Snow Flakes
  
  • We had light snow for most of the day, with little wind, so full flakes settled down. After dark, they glittered in the flashlight.
  • The grapefruit wine fermentation slowed to a crawl. The must's temperature is 53°, when it's best at 60°. I tried opening the door to the pantry and guarding it from cat intrusion, but the wine must stayed at 53°, so I moved the brew bucket to the living room whenever I was on the couch. It worked. By bedtime, steady bubbles were percolating from the wine must.
  • Mom texted that they didn't have to endure electrical outages in MT.
  • I saw a deer when I went down to get the mail. No garbage pickup today. A half an inch of snow must be treacherous for a several-ton garbage truck, at least for here in NE Missouri. The mailman, in his Jeep, gets through every single day, whether it's snowing, or not snowing.
  • We watched the 2017 movie, Darkest Hour.
    
    
• Thursday, 2/18: Packages Arrive
  • We got a message that a box containing a brew bucket I ordered arrived and was waiting for pickup at Walgreen's in Quincy. So, I drove to Quincy to pick it up and buy some groceries. 
  • On the drive to town, I noticed some impressive wind-blown snow banks along the north side of the mile-long gravel road (see photos below).
  • In today's mail was a long, lost package. It was a book that Mary ordered on Dec. 1st. When the book never showed up, she asked that a replacement be sent. She finished reading it last week. We'll have to return this copy. It really got lost in the mail system.
  • While I was shopping, Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. 
  • She also worked on her Native Raven cross stitch pattern.
  • Even though the specific gravity of the grapefruit wine was at 1.075, the same as yesterday, fermentation is bubbling right along.

North winds produce snowdrifts on gravel road.

Two years ago, this was filled in with deep snow.

• Friday, 2/19: Warmer
  
  • We received warmer weather today after several days of cold temperatures. It was the warmest day we've had since Feb. 3rd. 
  • The chickens saw the outdoors for the first time in 13 days. We shoveled a path from the coop door around the south chicken run for them to walk.
    
  • Mary did house cleaning, and a load of laundry that dried on racks in the living room.
    
  • Mary made a cherry pie for someone's birthday, tomorrow.
  • We watched an immature bald eagle fly over the north woods.
  • I vacuumed up bugs in all of the house windows.
    
  • Upon checking the grapefruit wine and squeezing the mesh bag, specific gravity was at 1.060, from 1.075 yesterday, so fermentation is burning up sugar levels. Mary and I tasted it. This will be much better grapefruit wine than I made last year.
    
  • After evening chores, we had nachos and watched 2 movies, Independence Day (1996), and Men in Black (1997).
    
    
• Saturday, 2/20: Birthday & Phone Calls
  
  • I turn 64 today. Bill called around 9 a.m. and talked with us for over an hour. Work is going well for him. He's been helping his friends, Mike & Erin, remove old flooring and install new flooring in a house they're about to sell. Bill will visit us March 6-14. He gave me a gift card to The Home Brewery. Mom called at noon and we talked for an hour. Conditions are dry in Circle, MT. The heater fan in the Senior Center blew and they had to work one day last week in jackets and gloves. Katie tried calling several times and we connected after chores in the evening. With a 2-week Air Force National Guard engagement at the end of March, she and her employer are working out when she'll go back to work. She ordered me a sound bar and subwoofer for our TV.
    
  • Mary cooked a turkey that we had for an afternoon meal. Later, while watching the 2013 movie, The Book Thief, we enjoyed cherry pie.
    
  • After the meal and carving meat off the bird, Mary and I hauled the turkey carcass into the north woods and left it for the coyotes to dine on this evening. Snow is crusty and melting in most places, but on the north side of cedar trees, it's still deep and fluffy.
    
  • The specific gravity of the grapefruit wine is 1.049 and fermenting nicely.