April 25-May 1, 2021

Weather | 4/25, 38°, 62° | 4/26, 52°, 83° | 4/27, 62°, 83° | 4/28, 1.43" rain, 65°, 69° | 4/29, 55°, 73° | 4/30, 46°, 73° | 5/1, 52°, 81° |

• Sunday, 4/25: Promising Apple Buds
  
  • Since predicted cold temperatures are history, I moved the grafted apple trees from the south upstairs bedroom to outside in the shade. I looked at each one, carefully, and painted tree seal on any crack in the prior applications. There are several swelling, greenish buds that show promise of developing into leaf sprouts.
    
  • Mary mowed the west yard.
  • I put fish fertilizer on the strawberries.
    
  • I raked the rest of what I mowed yesterday and finished filling in the rest of the near garden rows with grass mulch.
    
  • Mary dug about an 8-foot stretch in near garden, turning over the mulch.
    
  • Mary and I checked the cherry trees, that are full of blossoms. We moved a cow panel that was encircling what seems to be a dead cherry sapling to a live cherry sapling that's outgrown its chicken wire-covered tomato cage.
    
  • I worked on my dandelion wine by first skinning the white pith off the peels of 2 lemons, a lime, and an orange, adding them to my ugly pot of dandelion flowers that have soaked for 2 days, and bringing it to a low boil for an hour. The 2-day soaked dandelion flowers look like bad seaweed! But after boiling an hour with fruit, the kitchen smelled like fruit loops. I dumped the concoction into the brew bucket and added a 1.5" section of diced ginger and a pound of sliced up golden raisins. What a sticky mess it is dicing raisins! While I was letting it cool, the house smelled like Christmas cookies. Once the elixir cooled to 75°, I added a crushed Campden tablet and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. As usual, all of this took more time than I planned and more is online for tomorrow.
    
  • Quite a bunch of coyotes were howling at the end of our lane when we walked the dogs for their nighttime outing.
    
  • We saw tree swallows for the first time, so chimney swifts are soon to follow.
  • The final blossom of my amaryllis is showing (see photo below), this time with just 2 flowers.

  

  The last 2 blossoms of the Samba amaryllis.
  

• Monday, 4/26: Gusting South Winds
  
  • We had southerly gusts to 40 mph that blasted through the opened windows. It was our hottest day this year.
    
  • Mary mowed the far garden, both inside and outside of the electric fence. The high grass next to the rows made the job harder.
  • She also watered the garlic, herbs, blueberries, and the asparagus bed.
  • Mary cut another batch of asparagus spears that added to some she cut yesterday. We ate them, sauteed in garlic wine, in the evening...very yummy.
    
  • I was into dandelion winemaking for most of the day. I first measured specific gravity prior to adding sugar. The fruit and raisin sugars in the wine must gave it a 1.045 specific gravity. I had troubles sucking up juice with the thick dandelion flowers getting in the way. The recipe didn't call for it, but I went ahead and poured the wine must through a nylon mesh bag that Mary held open, to capture all of the soupy flower particles. Mary said it looked just like cat barf. After getting pure liquid, the wine must looked like it came from a sewage truck...sort of greenish brown (see photo below). But, it smells great. Then I added a pound and 7.5 ounces of sugar, to bring the specific gravity to 1.089. The sugar amount was about half of what other recipes called for. A check of the pH indicated it was 4, which is too basic. I need a pH reading of 3.7. Online research revealed that 1 gram of tartaric acid drops acidity levels in a gallon of wine by a tenth of a pH factor, so I tried to measure 3 grams on my scale. It wasn't accurate, because it went from 4 to 3 grams by eliminating half of what I had on the scale. I then used an online grams-to-teaspoon conversion to determine that 3 grams is 0.71 of a teaspoon, so I put 3 quarter teaspoons into the must. That gave me my desired 3.7 pH reading. I developed yeast starter throughout the afternoon and evening, using Red Star Cote des Blances yeast and pitched the yeast after midnight. My starting specific gravity is 1.087, which is perfect for 12% alcohol.
    
  • Bill said he's planning on visiting during Memorial Day weekend.
    
  • We watched the 2016 movie, La La Land. We liked it very much.

  

  Dandelion wine must prior to adding sugar.
  

• Tuesday, 4/27: A Mow Day
  
  • I mowed the lane and some areas adjacent to the east side of the lane full of poison ivy stalks. I also mowed the lawn between the house and the woodshed and the north yard to finish all mowing, except for the trails. We wanted to get all mowing done before tomorrow's predicted rain. I finished after sunset.
    
  • A check of the dandelion wine at noon revealed fast-moving yeast...the specific gravity dropped from 1.087 to 1.075 in 12 hours. Another 12 hours, at midnight, it was at 1.056. The wine's color is now yellow. We took a small taste test...it's very good.
    
  • Mary raked and put mulched grass clippings in the far garden.
  • She also sorted stored vegetables in the back porch closet, throwing away any soft onions and potatoes. Surprisingly, we still have several good onions from last year's garden. 
  • Mary also did several hours of work cleaning the back porch closet.
  • Exactly a week ago, snow covered our trees and the ground. A week later, windows are open and we're thinking about installing air conditioners.
    
    
• Wednesday, 4/28: A Rainy Winemaking Day
  
  • Rain started the moment I let dogs out in the morning and it continued until late night. We sure aren't dry!
  • A noon check of the dandelion wine showed the specific gravity as 1.023, a drop from 1.087 in just 36 hours. That's the fastest wine yeast, yet. I racked the wine into a gallon jug and 2 beer bottles and the resulting yeast bubbling was intense (see below video). Mary and I tasted it. Mary said this dandelion wine has an initial grapefruit taste and a dandelion flower taste at the end. For me, it is just plain good and much better than last year's attempt.
  • Next was the blackberry wine. It was still slightly bubbling. Once I racked everything into a bucket, a hydrometer test showed a specific gravity of 0.994 for an alcohol level of 12.97%. It's higher than I wanted. A look at last year's blackberry winemaking attempt pointed out 2 differences. First, I racked the wine earlier, at a specific gravity of 1.042, rather than 1.010. Second, I strained the must through a flour sack towel last year. By removing more yeast particles earlier in the process, there was less fermentation into alcohol, resulting in a nicer taste. Straining might be an answer to a better tasting dry wine. I added 2 crushed Campden tablets, 2/5 of a full dose, so as not to add too many sulfates to the wine, then racked it into the 5-gallon carboy, a wine bottle, and a beer bottle. Mary and I tasted it. Mary says it has a fruity, almost Kool-Aid taste. It's more alcoholic than I'd like, but it's quite smooth.
  • We watched the 1983 movie, The Right Stuff. 
  • I asked Katie if she's working, yet. She isn't. They're waiting for ice to break, in order to get a barge of building supplies into location at her next jobsite.
    
  First racking of 2021 dandelion wine.
  
  
  

• Thursday, 4/29: Homemade Bread
  
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread and put that amazing aroma throughout the house.
  • She cross stitched, an exercise she always does while baking bread, so she can guard rising bread dough from marauding cats. 
    
  • Mary also weeded and fertilized the garlic beds.
  • The dandelion wine drastically quite bubbling. It took only 48 hours for this wine yeast to expend itself, which is extremely fast fermentation.
    
  • I read the manual to the new smaller chainsaw. When I first started it, the saw didn't want to stay running. I'm used to a much larger saw and I adjusted the chain too tight. Once I loosened the chain, the saw ran well.
    
  • I cut down probably 500 persimmon saplings with the small chainsaw. It runs like a charm and is so light, compared to the bigger chainsaw, that it didn't feel like I had anything in my hands. The trees I cut down surrounded the Prairie Fire crabapple tree and were located between the tree and the house. Now, we can see to the far garden's south end from the house. I have a lot more small persimmon trees to cut down in what once was our east yard. 
  • It looks like we have a dead Jonathan apple tree sappling, which was planted in 2014, but greatly neglected. I have a Jonathan graft, but it is only showing swelling buds.
  • Today's wild critter report:
    
  • A bluejay that was trying to rob a nest was attacked and chased away by a robin.
  • I watched a hawk fly into a walnut tree in the next to the far garden. With glasses, Mary identified it as a Cooper's hawk. It flew towards the chicken yard, so I walked to the west of the yard. I heard a bird's call different from the usual sounds and checked it out on allaboutbirds.org, Cornell University's website, and sure enough, I heard a Cooper's hawk call. Mary sighted another, or the same, Cooper's hawk.
  • She also saw about 50 cedar waxwings buzz through our yard.
  • Two chimney swifts showed up just before sunset, so they're home for the spring/summer.
  • Yesterday's rain put a bright spring green on everything.
    
    
• Friday, 4/30: Raining Maple Keys
  • The maple trees are full of seeds and whenever the wind blows, maple keys come raining down like little helicopters. As they hit the metal machine shed roof, the sound resembles an animal running across the roof.
    
  • I cut 26 four-foot long stakes out the small persimmon trees I sawed down yesterday. Then, I mowed the inside of the near garden and pounded in most of the stakes where I'll put up a two-foot high chicken wire anti-rabbit fence. I'm driving the stakes exactly a lawn mower width inside of the electric fence, which keeps out raccoons, ground hogs, and deer. Without all of our fences, it's not worth planting a garden.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, did 2 loads of laundry, and removed the wood rack from the living room...no more woodstove fires until fall.
  • She also dug parts of the rows in the near garden.
  • We checked the pear and cherry trees and saw many tiny fruits starting to develop.
    
  • The autumn olive trees are blooming, releasing an amazingly fragrant smell. Bumble and honey bees especially like the white, trumpet flower shaped blossoms (see photos, below).

Autumn olive blossoms.

More blossoms, with small persimmon trees in background.

• Saturday, 5/1: Gardening
  • Mary finished turning over soil in the near garden. With each shovelful of soil, she'd see 6-8 earthworms. Some were up to 10" long. 
  • She then planted potatoes. The potato patch got larger than expected, so Mary says the sweet potatoes are going out into the far garden.
    
  • I pounded the rest of the chicken wire fence posts into the ground. Then, I stretched the chicken wire we used on the same garden last year around the posts. I'm only about a foot shy of completing the circle. I tied chicken wire to 19 of the 26 posts. Last year, I installed a chicken wire gate that we never opened, so we decided this year to forego the gate and step over the 2-foot high fence. I'll weedwhack grass down inside the chicken wire, instead of trying to battle a mower to inside of that fence.
  • Even though the bunny chicken wire fence isn't completely installed (see photo, below), when we walked the dogs on their last nightly walk, I shot the flashlight out into the garden and there was a big rabbit between the chicken wire fence and inside the electric fence, which is why we put up the chicken wire. I still need to fix the electric fence, after a deer did a tight rope act on it last December and stretched the wires out.
    
  • I saw several swallowtail butterflies throughout the day.
  • For the past 2 days, we've been letting the dogs lay out in the sun or shade while we work in the garden. A concern of them running off hindered us from doing this in the past, but they're older and stick around, now. They love the outdoors.

  

  Chicken wire in near garden. Potatoes planted in foreground.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

April 18-24, 2021

Weather | 4/18, 38°, 63° | 4/19, 40°, 53° | 4/20, 2" snow, 0.19" moisture, 29°, 44° | 4/21, 25°, 51° | 4/22, 27°, 57° | 4/23, 41°, 60° | 4/24, 0.01" rain, 47°, 64° |

• Sunday, 4/18: Dandelion Pickin'
  
  • I plucked blossoms out of dandelion flowers all day long. It's not a speedy endeavor. Yesterday's pickings gave me 39 grams. Today, I reached a grand total of 112 grams. A quart equals 90 grams. I need 3 quarts to make a gallon of dandelion wine, so I'm a quarter of the way to filling my second quart. After picking dandies all day, my fingers look like a bee's butt...all yellow and sticky.
    
  • Mary is still feeling a slight fever and dizziness from the COVID vaccination. My arm feels fine and I never felt sickly. An online check reveals that older folks feel less affected by the shot. I'm old and Mary is young...ha, ha, ha!
  • In the evening, a deer wondered around through our yard (see video, below). Our big pie cherry tree full of white blossoms is in the foreground of this video. The deer tried to eat an old cherry twig that died years ago, by peeling back the white plastic guard.
    
  • Mary saw 4 more pelicans, today.
  • We're very happy that the garden is not planted. Snow of 1-2" is predicted for Monday night, with a low of 28° on Tuesday morning.

A deer in our west yard. 

This video is taken from our west living room window.

• Monday, 4/19: Shot Symptoms Are Over
  
  • Mary felt fine for the first time since taking the COVID vaccination. She washed 2 loads of laundry and did some housecleaning.
  • I saw a barred owl on top of a small oak sapling SW of the south living room window when I opened the curtain in the morning. It flew down to hunt a mouse on the ground, then flew south. It's amazing how such a large bird can perch on a tiny twig, signifying how light owls are versus how large they appear.
    
  • I picked more dandelions to get a grand total of 181 grams, or a gram above a 2-quart equivalent. Another 89 grams and I'll have 3 quarts to make a gallon of dandelion wine.
  • I moved all of my grafted apple trees into the upstairs south bedroom to protect them from the next 2 nights of cold temperatures. I also moved all of the strawberry plants into the woodshed and helped Mary cover them with sheets.
    
  • I took the tractor/trailer to just north of the NW corner of the west field and cut several small dead trees, since we're nearly out of firewood with expected lows in the 20s for the next couple nights. After Mary did all of the chores, she started walking west to meet me. I came home a different way and didn't spot her until after she turned around to go back home. Together, we unloaded the wagon, stacking the new firewood against the inside of the machine shed's north wall.
  • We watched the 2016 movie, Bridget Jone's Baby.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/20: Spring Snow
  
  • We woke to 2" of heavy wet snow bending down all tree branches and covering spring fruit tree blossoms (see photo below). This is the second year in a row of April snows.
  • Mary made flour tortillas, taco salad, and did some cross stitch.
  • Most of the snow we woke up to melted and there wasn't any snow damage to the fruit tree blossoms.
    

  

  Snow weighs Sargent crabapple tree branches down.
  

• Wednesday, 4/21: Dentist Visit & Hard Freeze
  
  • We were up at 5 a.m., due to my 8:30 a.m. dentist appointment in Quincy.
    
  • We had a hard overnight freeze. Our low temperature set a new record. Crunchy frost was everywhere prior to sunrise. Mary did a check after sunrise and only blossoms on a small cherry received frost damage. Mary sent me a photo (see below) of an Asopus Spitzenburg apple blossom.
  • My dentist visit went well. My front cap was recemented into place. The underlying tooth stud is sound. He said my teeth look good and cost should be able to be kept low with regard to dental work. The dental full-mouth X-ray was the easiest I've ever endured. He says I brush too hard and recommends a Waterpik. I have a May 12 appointment for cleaning and a cavity check.
    
  • I bought all of Menard's cheap shelf brackets, which was 31, and 300'  of 2' high chicken wire, along with a few groceries, while in Quincy.
    
  • Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal.
  • I checked with Mom and she owns the very same Waterpik that is available at the Quincy Walmart. I'll pick one up the next time I'm in Quincy.
    
  • I picked dandelions for about an hour, bringing the grand total to 212 grams of blossoms...only 58 grams to get enough for a gallon batch of dandelion wine.
    
  • We watched the 1997 movie, Contact.

  

  An Asopus Spitzenburg apple blossom.
  

• Thursday, 4/22: Sun, Bees, and Blossoms
  • After a second-in-a-row morning of frost, we saw sun and bees by the thousands on all of the fruit tree blossoms.
    
  • Mary and I moved strawberry plants out under the weeping willow tree, where they got partial sun. They were covered with sheets inside the woodshed for the past 2 days, due to freezing temperatures.
    
  • I picked dandelion blossoms, getting a grand total of 275 grams, 5 grams over the 270 grams I need to make a gallon batch of dandelion wine.
    
  • Mary finished cross stitching a Halloween ornament, then picked bag worms off cedar trees in the east yard all afternoon.
  • I moved several clay soil bricks from last year's strawberry buckets to fill deep animal holes in the trail that I made last fall, which crosses the west field.
    
  • I lit a small fire to cook smoked scrambled eggs. We enjoyed them with a side dish of asparagus spears cooked with garlic and sauteed in my homemade garlic wine...quite yummy. Even better tasting was the bottle of autumn olive wine that we drank. It was only 12 days since I bottled it and this wine tastes remarkably good for hardly any aging at all. It's very clear (see photo below) and one of the best I've made.
  • Katie texted that she's in Anchorage at her apartment. She got her first COVID (Pfizer) vaccination. She's going to Eek, Alaska (south of Bethel) around May 7-10 to help build a new school. Here's an AP article about funding for that school.

  

  Autumn olive wine, aged 12 days.
  

• Friday, 4/23: Happy Dessert for Blah Day
  
  • It was a cloudy, dark day, even though it never rained until late evening, so Mary made a chocolate pie. We enjoyed half of it for a nighttime snack in order to keep our svelte body shapes in correct alignment.
  • Speaking of snacks, Holly, our smallest cat, ate a bumble bee. A few hours later, she hollered for 20 minutes, straight, then vomited the backside of the bee, along with 1 leg. That silly cat will eat anything.
    
  • I thoroughly inspected my apple tree grafts. I have 4 grafts with tiny visible green leaves emerging (see photos below) and several more with swelling buds. A couple show drying bark on the grafted-on scions, indicating death. Hopefully, the roots are still alive and I can attempt bud grafting in a few weeks on those rootstocks.
    
  • I drew up a new dandelion wine recipe from a combination of online recipes I found and started a batch of dandy wine by bringing 7 pints of spring water to a boil and dumping in the 3 quarts of dandelion blossoms, then letting it cool. It smells like water after boiling corn on cob. I will let is sit for 2 days, then add other ingredients. This recipe includes an orange, 2 lemons, a lime, and some ginger root...ought to be interesting!

Hewe's Virginia Crabapple graft.

Baldwin apple tree graft.

Wickson apple tree graft.

Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree graft.

• Saturday, 4/24: First Mowing
  
  • I mowed the east yard on both sides of the driveway, along with inside and outside of the near garden. We didn't mow earlier, due to me harvesting dandelions for wine and the desire to keep the flowers intact. That resulted in super dense and high grass, so in some places I had to mow using only a quarter of the width of the mower's deck. There was a lot of hay on the ground after I finished.
  • Mary filled 2 wheelbarrow loads of dead grass from the near garden and dumped them near the dry pond, east of the far garden. She then raked up the grass I mowed and added it as mulch to most of the 2 rows in the near garden.
  • She also fertilized the garlic in the far garden.
  • We noticed today that barn swallows and whippoorwills are back for the season. We also have big herds of bunnies of all sizes. We counted 7 while finishing up evening chores, then Mary counted 3 more that were bouncing around, using our trails. I had a 3" long baby bunny hopping around the strawberry buckets while I moved the strawberries out of the woodshed and into sunlight in the morning.
    
  • We also saw 3 doe deer while watching from our bedroom as they wandered through just east of the far garden in the evening.
    

April 11-17, 2021

Weather | 4/11, 41°, 62° | 4/12, 41°, 61° | 4/13, 35°, 58° | 4/14, 33°, 53° | 4/15, 32°, 54° | 4/16, 35°, 57° | 4/17, 0.19" rain overnight, 0.15" in afternoon, 42°, 61° |

• Sunday, 4/11: Haircut Day
  
  • I gave Mary a haircut...her first of this year, so there was a great deal of chopping and hacking. She said the scissors kept saying, "Wucka, wucka, wucka!" I keep telling Mary that she needs a haircut like mine. She says she doesn't want to look like a cancer patient.
    
  • I racked the grapefruit wine. After pulling the wine off the fines, a gallon and a beer bottle's worth reduced down to just a gallon jug. There is still a tiny essence of sulfur, but it's a lot better. It possesses a good grapefruit flavor. The specific gravity is 0.994, the same as it was a month ago, which means yeast production is stopped. I'll let it sit another month, when it might be ready for bottling.
    
  • Mary baked up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. YUM!
    
  • I changed the air filter on the Cadillac.
    
  • Mary made a shopping list for tomorrow's trip to Quincy.
    
  • On a nighttime dog walk, we could hear toads singing near Bluegill Pond.
    
    
• Monday, 4/12: Shopping Day
  • Mary and I went on an 8-hour shopping trip to Quincy involving 12 stops. It was tiring. 
  • We bought a Stihl MS 170 chainsaw, a 2nd chain, a sharpening file/guide and 3 additional files, a carrying case, and a package of 2-cycle engine oil from Farm & Home. Now, I have a small saw for cutting limbs that weighs 8.6 pounds, versus my other chainsaw, an MS 361, that weighs 12.3 pounds. The heavier saw becomes a burden when I'm raising it up to cut branches that are shoulder high. It's also a saw that maybe Mary could handle, if she so desires.
  • We got our money back from Menards on the order I made on March 3rd for shelf brackets. My order was out of stock and they had no idea when any would be available. I won't order through Menards, again. 
  • A sign at Sam's Club's door indicated they were administering COVID shots. I asked at the pharmacy and Missouri residents can get it. Shots start tomorrow. After midnight at home, I set appointments for us for 4/14 and canceled our appointments in Kahoka, MO. Later, the next day (4/13), we received a call from Sam's Club that the appointments were canceled. CDC canceled all Johnson & Johnson shots, due to blood clot issues. This would have canceled the vaccinations in Kahoka, too, since they were also Johnson & Johnson shots.
  • We ran into Emily Stollberg, who I worked with at Petco, while shopping at the Salvation Army store. She quit Petco and got a manager's job at Salvation Army. She said Petco changed for the worse as a place to work. I'm glad I left when I did.
  • We watched the 2006 movie, The Queen, that we bought at Salvation Army earlier.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/13: Katie's Birthday
  • Twenty-nine years ago today, our daughter was born in the hospital at Crookston, MN. Kathryn Elizabeth was 9 lbs., 6 oz. I was editor of the Red Lake Falls Gazette. Keith Axvig, my boss, let me drive the company station wagon back and forth from Red Lake Falls to Crookston to visit Mary and Katie in the hospital. It was a happy (and exhausting) beginning of our family.
  • Mary received a call that our COVID shot reservations are canceled, due to concerns with blood clots caused by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
    
  • Mary froze and put away food that we bought yesterday. She also cut several new asparagus spears and fertilized citrus trees.
  • I transplanted 6 more strawberry plants with a grand total of 19 in 4-gallon buckets. There are 4 more strawberry crowns with green leaves yet to be transplanted, but more might wake up that are without greenery at this moment.
  • While I was inspecting my coveralls for ticks on the porch, about 75-100 white pelicans flew right over the house. I heard this weird sound, then looked up and there they were. The sound was their wing beats. They settled down into Wood Duck Pond for the night.
  • Blossoms are showing on most all of the apple trees and the large pie cherry tree.
  • I got migraine headache during dinner and then slept for an hour after eating. My headaches aren't what they were when I was younger.
    
    
• Wednesday, 4/14: More Pelican Sightings
  
  • While drinking our morning coffee, we spotted white pelicans circling out our south living room window and ran outside to watch them (see photos below). They were circling to soar higher. They are very large birds. Mary read that their wingspans are 95-120 inches, almost 8 to 10 feet wide.
  • I labeled and stored the 19 bottles of 2021 autumn olive wine. We now have 56 bottles of wine, with more on the way. I need to build wine racks for storage.
    
  • I finished transplanting strawberries by adding 7 more in single 4-gallon cat litter buckets, for a grand total of 26. There are also 9 crowns without leaves in a tub of potting soil to allow any that might be alive to wake up and start growing.
    
  • Mary did some housecleaning.
  • We had venison stroganoff with asparagus spears sauteed in homemade garlic wine with sliced garlic cloves. The garlic wine is lighter and nicer than the cheap chardonnay wine Mary has used in the past.
    
  • We talked to Katie, since we missed calling her on her birthday. Besides making up future Air National Guard drills, she's taking a class usually reserved for officers on how to organize a construction project. She'll be in Fort Walton Beach, FL through Friday, then off to Alaska, when her employer tells her to fly north later this month.
    
  • I ordered molasses, vitamin pills, and loose leaf tea from online sources.

American white pelicans circling to gain altitude.

Pelicans & a jet trail, not a bird afterburner!

• Thursday, 4/15: First COVID Shots
  
  • I called the Lewis County Health Department. They weren't giving COVID vaccinations, but took our names for a future session. I looked online and Moderna shots were available today at Hannibal's Walmart pharmacy, so I signed us up for 3:40 p.m. appointments, then we drove to Hannibal, MO, and got our first of 2 shots. Our second shots are set for May 13th. We bought a couple things and went home. The shots affected Mary to where she's feeling woozy. I just have a sore arm.
  • We saw 17 more pelicans circle to gain altitude in the morning wind.
    
  • We watched 2 movies: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Sweet Home Alabama (2002).
    
    
• Friday, 4/16: COVID Vaccination Resting
  
  • We stayed quiet for most of the day. Mary has a low fever, aches, dizziness, and a sore throat after yesterday's COVID vaccination. I have a sore left arm where the shot was administered, which grew progressively worse through the day. By bedtime, it felt like someone drilled a nail in my shoulder. I now realize that I use my left arm a great deal.
    
  • I burned all of the cardboard boxes we had in the machine shed, along with 2 cat litter buckets full of bag worms picked off cedar trees.
  • I reviewed online dandelion wine recipes.
  • Mary and I walked around and viewed all of the fruit trees. Blossoms are on cherry and apple trees. Several hops vines are showing at the NW corner of the house and near the Keiffer pear tree. These hops are purely volunteer plants. We never planted them.
    
  • While we were reviewing the Bartlett pear trees, a great blue heron flew over, squawking loudly. Mary saw 2 bald eagles in the early afternoon.
  • It was calm for the first time in weeks, today, but predicted nighttime rain means no fruit tree spraying. Besides, my arm isn't up to hoisting around a spray tank.
    
  • We watched 2 episodes of the TV show, Star Trek: The Next Generation.
    
    
• Saturday, 4/17: Blossom Abundance
  
  • The Sargent crabapple tree looks like a huge snowball, with its full complement of blossoms (see photo below).
    
  • Mary felt a little better from the COVID shot, but still not perfect. My arm is better, but I felt it more in the evening.
  • Mary did some cross stitch.
  • I picked dandelions for future wine. I pluck them in the lawn and freeze the blossoms. From my reading I learned that a quart equals 90 grams. I need 3 quarts, or 270 grams, to make a gallon of dandelion wine.
  • A thunderstorm blew up while I was picking, so I picked some whole dandelion flowers and took them inside to finish.
    
  • More green leaves are showing up on previous barren strawberry plants. Now, only 3 plants are without leaves.
  • We heard the first Henslow's sparrow during the final dog walk of the night.

  

  The Sargent crabapple in full bloom.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

April 4-10, 2021

 Weather | 4/4, 47°, 77° | 4/5, 52°, 78° | 4/6, 55°, 79° | 4/7, 0.84" rain, 57°, 67° | 4/8, 0.08" rain, 45°, 53° | 4/9, 45°, 69° | 4/10, 2.06" rain, 43°, 45° |

• Sunday, 4/4: Easter Sunday
  
  • We enjoyed an Easter Sunday dinner outside, roasting pork loins on an open fire. Mary and I shared a bottle of 2020 pear wine...it matched excellently with pork. After eating, we brought the dogs outside. Once they sniffed, play-fought with one another, they rolled out in the grass and enjoyed the sun. We then ate some deviled eggs Mary fixed up before we did our roasting outside. Later in the evening, we had slices of an apple pie Mary baked in the morning. All of the food was amazing.
  • I set up a sheet of plywood on top of the wagon in the machine shed as a place to transplant strawberries, but our extended Easter meals got in the way of getting anything done.
  • Katie texted that she was at Hoover Dam.
  • Mom enjoyed Easter dinner at Patti Schipman's ranch. It's very dry in Circle, MT.
    
  • We heard a brown thrasher for the first time this morning. 
  • Today was the warmest day so far this year, so I wore shorts while outside, today.
    
  • I found hyacinths blooming next to the north woods. I want to mark them with old wire border fencing, so I can transplant the bulbs in the fall to better locations. We see them easily in the spring, but by fall, the plants are buried in weeds and brush.
  • The pear trees are showing tinges of white with emerging blossoms.
  • I finished Patrick O'Brian's 18th novel in his Aubrey/Maturin series of stories called The Yellow Admiral, and started the next novel, entitled The Hundred Days. Mary found an accompanying atlas and another book, a historical guide, in Thrift Books that I might get.
    
    
• Monday, 4/5: Purple Paint
  
  • Tree trunks marked with purple paint means no trespassing in Missouri. So, once a year I walk the property borders with a can of cheap purple paint and a brush, dabbing trees along the way. Since I'm covering old purple marks, I thin the latex paint with water, so it goes further. Mary does the south border in the fall prior to deer hunting season. After a summer of fading sun, it brightens that paint to give illegal road hunters a "NOT HERE, YOU DON'T" warning. Today I painted from the SW corner to the end of our west field, which is half of our west property border. I'm doing this now, because we have a 2-day youth turkey hunting season this weekend. I was surprised at how the spring beauties (small flowers on the timber floor) weren't blooming like they usually are right now. I guess the late winter coldness contributes to the slow start.
  • After a midday meal, I transplanted strawberries. We have several shoots which Mary pinned into Styrofoam cups of potting soil last summer. Last year, I got "sand" from a north woods creek bottom to mix into soil for buckets holding strawberry plants. It was more clay than sand and several strawberry plants didn't survive the brick-hard soil. I'm dumping out these bricks, reassembling the quarter-inch hardware cloth covering holes in the bucket bottoms, collecting the nicely decayed wood chips that were under the "clay bricks" and putting them back over the holes in the buckets, then adding better soil, compost, wood ashes, with potting soil on the top. Last year, I planted 3 strawberry plants per bucket, but this year I'm planting a single plant per bucket, since last summer, the most berries came from single plants in one bucket. I transplanted 7 plants. There are 15 more to transplant, but there might be more, because each day former dried up plants awaken with tiny green leaves.
  • The Kieffer and Bartlett pear trees are snow white with open blossoms.
  • My Samba amaryllis is now in full bloom (see photo below).
  • Besides laundry and housecleaning, Mary planted hot and bell pepper seeds. 
  • Mary weeded the garlic beds in the far garden and gave them all a fish fertilizer treat. She said they perked up immediately. Our below freezing temperatures put yellow on the garlic leaf tips.
  • We're hearing pileated woodpeckers and Eastern Towehes for the first time this year.
  • Amber, the wonder dog, rolled in nice gooey 'possum poo. She got a cold bath delivered by the outdoor hydrant.

  

  The Samba Amaryllis in full bloom.
  

• Tuesday, 4/6: Pear Blossoms
  
  • Bees are collecting nectar and pollen from our 2 pear trees, which are blossoming (see photos below). The forsythia bushes are blossoming, too, but bees don't like their yellow flowers.
    
  • I finished painting purple on trees along the west and north borders of our property. All that's left is the east border, which isn't as crucial, since it mainly is opposite of a corn/bean field.
    
  • While walking and purple painting the north property line, I spotted about 50 American white pelicans floating overhead. They never flapped their wings. Instead, they rode the southerly wind. They flew south over our property, then swung around to the NW and dropped into Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • Mary weeded the 2 blueberry plants near the Bartlett pear tree, then fertilized all blueberry plants, including 3 in plastic tubs.
  • She also weeded and fertilized the asparagus bed. Mary weeded the top of old compost bins.
  • Mary saw a 5-foot prairie king snake stretched out on the lane that just looked at her as she walked by pulling the garbage can. We also saw a mouse on the lane when we walked the dogs on their last walk of the night.
  • We watched 2 movies, Little Women (1994), and The Darjeeling Limited (2007), a Wes Anderson-directed movie that's really weird and I like it. Mary said if I want to watch it again, she'll do something else (ha, ha, ha).

Keiffer (left) & Bartlett (right) pear trees.

Keiffer pear tree in full bloom.

Bartlett pear tree in full bloom.

The large forsythia bush in bright yellow flowers.

• Wednesday, 4/7: Thunderstorms
  
  • We woke to thunder. The morning dog walk was shorter than brief. Claps of thunder overhead spurred the dogs inside. A series of thunderstorms rumbled through in the late afternoon.
    
  • The past 2 days of hiking around while purple painting property lines put pain into my left ankle, so I took the day off from activities. Being a bum meant my ankle was painless by nighttime.
    
  • Mary cross stitched a lot, while I snored.
    
  • Katie called. She's been doing a bunch of hiking and visiting surrounding national parks on her days off from training. Gambling doesn't interest her, so she's seeing other sites within the region. She sent photos of the machine she's learning to use and resulting buildings. Katie's national guard training ends tomorrow, then she flies to Gulfport and then drives to Florida to do make-up drill assignments for months she missed this year. Then, she returns to Gulfport and flies to Alaska to restart her construction job at the middle of this month.
    
    
• Thursday, 4/8: Mist/Rain
  • A steady stream of mist and rain blew through all day. We haven't had a let-up in wind, both day and night, for 2-3 weeks.
    
  • I balanced our checkbook.
  • I also investigated getting a small chainsaw for trimming branches and small 1" to 2" saplings. Hoisting the big Stihl chainsaw gets cumbersome while trimming small stuff.
    
  • Mary made a turkey dinner. For a salad, she picked tender dandelion leaves and volunteer kale from the near garden. That kale was planted in 2009 as a winter green. It volunteers every spring in the same place, even though it consistently gets pulled, yearly.
    
  • We enjoyed movie night by watching Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Crazy Rich Asians (2018).
    
  • We got emails 2 days ago that on 4/9 we could get appointments for COVID vaccines, so after midnight, I made an appointment online for the closest mass vaccination site for us, which is in Kahoka, MO, about 40 miles north of us. It's on 4/16 at 1 p.m.
  • Below is a video and photos from Katie of the gizmo that makes National Guard buildings that she is being trained to operate.
    
    
   
  Video of a machine that creates metal building pieces.
  
  
  

End wall of buildings.

Small K-span building with 1' panels.

Large K-span building with 2' panels.

• Friday, 4/9: Gardening Activities
  
  • Mary removed the chicken wire fence that encompassed most of the near garden. Once sisal twine ties were cut, the chicken wire pulled from grass and weeds, then rolled up, the 4' long persimmon stakes were pulled out of the ground. The soil is mushy from spring rains.
    
  • Mary also did some quick housecleaning.
  • I transplanted 6 more strawberry plants for a total of 13 newly transplanted in 4-gallon buckets. I put 4-5 crowns into a tub with potting soil and dead grass that may or may not be alive. Any of these that show greenery, I'll move to a full bucket. I have 11 more plants to transplant that have leaves showing.
    
  • In the evening, Mary and I walked around the north lawn and woods. A redbud tree is starting to show blossoms. We also checked cherry trees and admired the violets blooming next to the west side of the house (see photo below). When we moved here, there were just a few violets. Now, they've taken over the yards around the house. Green is starting to show behind the pear blossoms on the trees.
  • I used a rubber mallet and hit the trunk of the big McIntosh apple tree, just above the huge hollow spot at ground level, to see if bees lived in that hollow area. None emerged. I hate the idea, but I'm going to have to cut down that tree, because it's full of scab and only grows stunted and scabbed apples, passing disease to other apple trees.
  • We saw a 5' long black racer snake at the SW corner of the house (see photo below). Just off that SW house corner are a few rhubarb leaves. I must build a bed and transplant those soon.
    
  • I checked out how to build an orchard ladder, since purchasing one involves driving to Washington, Oregon, or Maine.
    
  • Katie graduated from her National Guard building school (see photos below).

Violets, that were sparse in 2009, are thick, now.

Full-grown black racer snake.

Katie graduating in Las Vegas.

Katie's certificate.

• Saturday, 4/10: Turn Off the Faucet!
  
  • We received over 2" of rain. It fell all day and night. Lakes of water are standing everywhere, creating a sloshy mess. The wind continues to howl, day and night. Today is the first of a 2-day youth turkey hunting season. They better wear a wet suit and flippers to hunt in this weather.
    
  • Around noon, a lone coyote wondered through just south of the house (see photos below). I put a video of it on Facebook. We think it was looking for mice.
    
  • I racked the 3 containers of autumn olive wine into the brew bucket, added crushed Campden tablets and potassium sorbate to stop yeast reproduction, and then bottled it into 19 750-ml bottles. The specific gravity is the same as a month ago, at 0.994, giving it an alcohol content of 12.21%. We drank the strained fines and about 2/3 of a bottle that was left over. It's got an initial taste of raisin, with after-finish taste of apricot...quite good. Aging will make it even better.
    
  • Mary created a garden plan for where everything will be planted this year.

A coyote viewed from south living room window.

The same coyote, looking at me.