May 30-June 5, 2021

Weather | 5/30, 40°, 69° | 5/31, 0.11" rain, 52°, 61° | 6/1, 51°, 75° | 6/2, 52°, 76° | 6/3, 54°, 81° | 6/4, 56°, 83° | 6/5, 63°, 85° |

• Sunday, 5/30: A Crisp, Wine Bottling, Mowing, and a Roast
  
  • Mary made a cherry crisp, requested by Bill.
  • She also mowed the rest of the west yard, then raked it all up, and mulched the rest of a row in the far garden with grass clippings.
    
  • Bill and I bottled the grapefruit wine from the gallon jug it was aging in directly into five 750-ml wine bottles (see photos, below). The specific gravity is 0.994, so the alcohol level is 10.74%. We tasted the little bit that we didn't bottle. It is tart, with a strong grapefruit aftertaste. It's very good.
    
  • We then racked the blackberry wine from a 5-gallon carboy, a 750-ml wine bottle, and a 330-ml beer bottle into a 6.5-gallon brew bucket. We left behind a little bit of fines. The racked wine looked clear, so we bottled it into 26 wine bottles (see photos, below) with a little bit left over. It tastes smooth, with a tang, and a subtle undertone of blackberry flavor. After aging, it will be excellent. The specific gravity was the same, at 0.994, giving it an alcohol content of 12.97%, a little more than what I prefer. The pH dropped from 3.7  at the start of fermentation on March 13th to 3.3, at the end of fermentation, today. I didn't alter acid content, since it was good.
    
  • After chores, I built an outside fire and we had a wienie roast. We listened to coyotes howling to the south of us, near Bluegill Pond.
    
  • On the dog walk after the wienie roast, we saw an increase in fireflies.
  • We ate some of the cherry crisp...YUMMY!
    

Bottled 2021 grapefruit wine.

Clear bottle of grapefruit wine.

Clear bottles of blackberry wine.

Bottled 2021 blackberry wine, plus leftover fines.

• Monday, 5/31: Memorial Day
  
  • I made breakfast waffles for Bill, Mary and I.
    
  • After online stuff, and doing dishes that included yesterday's wine bottling dishes, we served up what Mary calls eggritos, which is a flour tortilla, scrambled eggs, pickles, Parmesan cheese, choice of ketchup or mustard, topped with piccallili, either inside the tortilla, or on the side. We had 4 each. Bill also had some cherry crisp.
    
  • I loaded Bill's cooler up with 12 dozen eggs. When I tried to stuff a 13th dozen of eggs into his clothes bag, he said he didn't need that many. OK, I guess! Bill said goodbye (see photo, below) and left for his apartment in St. Charles (St. Louis suburb).
    
  • Mary and I cut more garlic scapes. Three of the six garlic varieties are showing yellow leaves, which is a sign they're getting close to harvest time.
  • Other than finishing off the cherry crisp, Mary and I didn't do much more than read the rest of the day away.
  • We heard and saw a blue grosbeak outside of our south living room window.
    

  

  Bill giving his mother a goodbye hug.
  

• Tuesday, 6/1: Bird Haven
  • Our property must be a bird haven. We saw the blue grosbeak for the second time as it sat on a cow panel surrounding the sweet cherry tree. It appears to be trying to attract a mate.
    
  • Mary cut garlic scapes. She also hoed grass in compost bins, in order to keep weeds from growing on the compost. Mary weeded the north row of the near garden, taking an hour to finish that row.
  • She pinned down 7 strawberry runners into cups filled with potting soil. We now have a  total 10 new strawberry runners.
  • Mary harvested some radishes. There is a new variety, which is tan, called Zlaty, rhymes with snotty. It's very good.
  • Mary finished a cross stitch project called Witch's Brew. She did the evening chores.
  • I cut a 5-inch diameter elm tree and 2 small maple trees on the east side of our lane that UPS trucks hit with their mirrors when they drive into our yard. I cut the big pieces up and stacked them on the green wood pile north of the woodshed, then chopped up all of the branches into 4-inch pieces. Twigs were chopped with a hatchet. Thicker pieces got cut up with the small chainsaw. Elms grow with tons of branches, so this is a drawn-out job. I dumped 2 big wheelbarrow loads of chopped twigs around the root zone of the big McIntosh apple tree.
    
  • Mary determined that what I thought was frost kill on the Bartlett pear tree is actually fire blight. The last time we had fire blight on that tree, I stopped it with copper spray, so I mixed up a gallon and sprayed both Bartlett pear trees with copper. An apple tree review showed fire blight problems in several trees, so I mixed up a 2-gallon batch of copper spray and sprayed one of the Stayman's Winesap trees, the Grimes Golden, Asopus Spitzenburg, and the McIntosh apple trees. It's a very infectious tree growing year, with so much cool, damp weather. Even small walnut trees are disease-ridden.
  • Katie texted that she was going to be flying to Eek, AK, around 4 p.m. our time.
    
  • The book written by the late Jack Keller, called Home Winemaking, that I ordered using a gift card that Mom sent me for my birthday, arrived via UPS, today (see below). I told the UPS driver that I cleared trees out along the driveway and he said he didn't hit any with his mirrors. I did notice that the top of his truck brushed leaves on his way out.

  

  Jack Keller's Home Winemaking book.
  

• Wednesday, 6/2: Clean Up
  
  • Mary did some house cleaning, then she weeded the near garden for 2 hours. Her work finished weeding the south row, and all of the near garden.
  • She also checked strawberries, and we each tasted a strawberry...YUM!
  • We checked the cherries. Birds are hitting cherries that aren't even ripe, yet. I ate a pie cherry. Nice cherry taste, but it was extremely sour, which is what's expected.
    
  • I labeled the bottles of wine that Bill and I bottled on Sunday. My wine bottle storage was in apple boxes and they were too full, with collapsing cardboard walls. I decided to change to old plastic ice coolers, no long in use. I dug out and cleaned up a cooler from the back porch closet with a broken latch. Then, I cleaned an old cooler, once given to me by my folks, that's been in the machine shed for years. Finally, I cleaned a wheeled cooler we found 12 years ago on the edge of Wood Duck Pond. It had beer glass shards in it. I had to use baking soda to clean mud and algae off sidewalls. Mary's Uncle Herman said the Fleer boys zoomed a 4-wheeler right into Wood Duck Pond in the dark and needed help to get pulled out. In the process they left the cooler behind. One of those "boys" owns an auto garage and is a county commissioner, today. I was able to put all my wine in the cleaned-up coolers and label wine varieties on the outside of each of the 3 coolers. It's a great solution, because bottles are thoroughly covered, protected, in a constant temperature, and in darkness. Also, if a bottle breaks, the liquid is contained.
    
  • Katie sent some Facebook Messenger texts. Her air flight to Eek, AK, was bumpy, due to winds and storms. Building Eek's school is a large and multi-year project. She studied prints and inventoried lumber and materials on a spreadsheet. She's getting along well with her supervisor.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/3: Big Baby Birds
  
  • We heard a commotion to the east of us while walking dogs and realized that halfway down the hill was a squawking young red-tailed hawk on a tree branch with a mother hawk flying up and down in front of the branch. It was an interesting sight to see.
    
  • Mary washed 2 loads of towels, hoed a row in the far garden, cut garlic scapes, harvested more radishes, and watered the near garden.
  • She also picked about 25 cherries, mostly from the sweet cherry tree. The start of cherry picking has begun.
    
  • I mowed the south half of the far garden.
  • Next, I cut up small persimmon saplings that I cut down several weeks ago into 4' stakes to support chicken wire in the far garden. The small chainsaw is nice and light...perfect for the job. I moved 33 stakes to the far garden.
  • Katie texted a couple photos of her jobsite at Eek, AK (see photos, below).

Eek school construction site.

Roof steel beams installed.

• Friday, 6/4: Garlic and Cherry Harvest Begins
  
  • I made the appropriate breakfast for Waffle Friday.
  • I pounded 24 persimmon posts in the ground around the south end of the near garden ahead of installing chicken wire.
  • I cut the top off an old air bed, washed it, and hung it on the pickup's tailgate. I plan to use it as ground cover when I'm hunting from certain areas.
  • A check of fruit trees shows that the copper spray application stopped the fire blight.
  • Mary paid bills.
    
  • She picked cherries and put the first quart bag in the freezer.
  • Mary dug up the German Extra Hardy and Music Pink garlic varieties. Together, she and I hung those 2 varieties from the rafters of the machine shed. They are in good shape. Pulling garlic is tricky. If you leave them in the ground too long, they get diseased and start rotting. Mary said she's always happy to start drying garlic, because it's the end of a long cycle. They're planted in November, endure the winter, sprout in February, grow through spring, and we harvest them in June.
  • I saw ripe cherries higher than Mary could pick and decided to use the trailer behind the tractor to get higher and pick additional cherries. A steel fence post sunk significantly into the ground to hold up a cherry tree that died years ago was in the way. I tried pulling it out with 2 jacks. Mary grabbed the long skinny shovel she calls a spade and I call a clam digging shovel (shows my razor clam digging days at Clam Gulch, AK) and started digging. She watered the garden and did evening chores as I continued digging. After digging 4 feet into the ground, I finally removed the 7' post that showed only 2' when I started. The sun had set, so cherry picking was put off until tomorrow.
  • We ate our first salad filled with fresh lettuce, spinach, and radishes from our garden. Mary splashed homemade garlic wine on top. It was delicious.
    
  • While walking dogs on their final evening walk, we saw a large doe deer in the flashlight's beam just down the lane a few feet. Mary thought the doe has a fawn nearby.
    
    
• Saturday, 6/5: Garlic Harvest 2/3 Complete
  
  • Mary dug out 2 more varieties of garlic, which were Georgian Crystal and Siberian. It took 2 hours, instead of the one hour it took to dig up yesterday's garlic. That's due to clay-bound soil in this row. Mary and I hung 16 new garlic bundles from the rafters of the machine shed. The last of the garlic is scheduled for harvest tomorrow. So far, the garlic is in excellent shape.
    
  • Mary mowed the lane. She figured out that when one of us mows our quarter-mile lane, it involves 2 miles of walking while pushing a lawnmower.
    
  • I picked cherries, adding another quart to the freezer. I used a 6' step ladder in the tractor trailer to get to cherries high on the tree.
  • I tied chicken wire fencing to posts encompassing the south end of the far garden. I combined 2 chicken wire lengths with twine using the same knot technique I used in the '70s to attach netting to shrimp pots, which involves 2 half-hitches followed by a clove hitch. I just need to add 1 small piece of chicken wire, attach the chicken wire to a couple more posts, add the gate, and come up with a gate closure, and I'm done with half of the far garden.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of autumn olive wine while reading in the evening. It's very good.
  • Dragonflies have hatched, which is great. They catch gnats and deer flies in midair and eat them. Between the dragonflies, the birds, the spiders, and the frogs, we have almost no mosquitoes, even though we live next to the woods.
    
  • Lightning bugs have more than doubled in numbers, so now we have stars above and twinkling in the grass and timber.
    

May 23-29, 2021

Weather | 5/23, 61°, 84° | 5/24, 61°, 85° | 5/25, 0.07" rain, 65°, 75° | 5/26, 60°, 84° | 5/27, 0.24" rain, 63°, 75° | 5/28, 0.36" rain, 46°, 49° | 5/29, 40°, 61° |

• Sunday, 5/23: An Outside Sunday
  
  • Mary moved the houseplants out of the sunroom and the upstairs south bedroom to under the weeping willow tree. They thrive outside, but our sunroom is a bare room in the summer.
  • Mary transplanted her lemon and lime trees to individual pots.
    
  • She started several sweet potato slips from 4 sweet potatoes that have had their toes in water. Mary also cut garlic scapes, completed weeding of the near garden, fertilized the near garden and the strawberries, and sprayed her bay trees with Dawn soap to kill scales.
  • I scuffed up the outside of the new mailbox with 150 grit sandpaper, then spray painted gray auto primer, followed by hand painting the mailbox with sunburst yellow Rust-Oleum paint. The inside bare metal got a coat of silver/aluminum spray paint. The outside will need a 2nd coat of paint.
  • It was calm, today, so I mixed 2 batches of fruit tree spray in the 2-gallon sprayer and covered the apple and cherry trees for their second spray of the season. This batch included the newly brewed EM-1 (essential micronutrients). I used half of what I recently brewed up. The 2 Bartlett pear trees got a 1-gallon batch, minus the neem oil, which defoliates pear leaves. Spraying all fruit trees, and cleanup, afterwards, takes 5 hours. I saw evidence of cedar-apple rust on the Esopus Spitzenburg, Grimes Golden, and 1 of the Stayman Winesap apple trees, along with the large Bartlett pear tree. I think there's also some fire blight in that pear tree. The McIntosh apple tree is the best it's ever been since we've lived here. It just needed care. The sweet cherry tree is thriving. The large Bartlett pear tree is loaded with fruit, as are 2 of the cherry trees, and the McIntosh, Esopus, and one of the Winesap apple trees.
    
  • A family of barn swallows is now taking up residence in the roof of the woodshed.
    
  • Chimney swifts have a keen sense of communication that we humans know nothing about. In the morning, the 2 chimney swifts, that have been with us for almost a month, were flying around all excited. Then, in the late afternoon, 4 more showed up. Somehow, the two that arrived early knew that more of their kind were arriving.
    
  • Mary saw purple martins on the electric line and a great crested flycatcher.
  • Katie walked a trail the includes Potter's Marsh, in Anchorage.
    
    
• Monday, 5/24: Mowing & Post Erecting
  
  • Mary mowed our quarter-mile long lane, which is always a chore, since half of it is uphill, both ways (ha, ha).
  • She also mowed the east yard, between the house and the lane. raked it, and mulched the near garden with those grass clippings. The clippings will hopefully help. A lot of greens are yellow, from too much rain.
    
  • I took the grass trimmer with a blade on it to the area around the mailbox location and whacked down poison ivy, so I could work there. Later in the day, I cleaned more poison ivy about 25-50 feet up our lane from the gravel road.
  • I sawed a treated 4x4" by 8' long post down to 6' long and took it along with post hole digging tools down to the mailbox location. The mail delivery woman came right when I started digging and said she left our mail at the post office, not knowing if we had a mailbox up. She said she'd deliver it tomorrow. 
  • After lunch, I gave the mailbox exterior a 2nd coat of paint, then dug a hole, installed the post, and tamped it into place with layers of gravel and dirt. Near the end of that job, our neighbor came home and I talked with him. He often leaves for work at 3-4 a.m. His young wife is scared living in the trailer, especially when he's at work in the early morning hours. They've had a red pickup drive into their driveway, then back out and leave. I told him I will write down our phone numbers and let them have them...to call us anytime and we'll show up and help. We used to have busy bodies drive up our lane, but they haven't done so since our lane looks like a grown-over cow path the past 5-8 years. The good old boy asses just need to be told to "GIT," like you'd holler loudly to a stray dog. A young Hispanic couple doesn't deserve to be scared by such idiots. We've chewed out more than one for sitting in the middle of our driveway, so there's a reputation to stay off our land.
    
  • My grafted trees are dying. I now have only 1 that's not with droopy, or dried up leaves. I think we'll buy full-sized sapplings, instead of grafting apple trees. This soggy weather spread diseases that are killing them all.
    
  • The good news is our existing trees looking great, except for bug damage and cedar-apple rust on trees east of the house. A second look at the large Bartlett pear shows frost damage, not fire blight.
    
  • We watched the 1995 HBO movie called Truman. It was good.
    
    
• Tuesday, 5/25: Mailbox Installed
  
  • I brought the new mailbox inside and placed decals on what will be the east side of the box with our name and street address. Then, Mary and I took the mailbox to the end of the lane and installed it on the post (see photo, below). The mailbox bottom is thin and wobbly on the post. I'll have to reinforce it with a treated board sometime soon.
    
  • While we installed the mailbox, the mail delivery lady arrived, apologizing for forgetting to grab the mail from the past several days. 
  • Then Rich showed up. He owns property SW of our property that he hunts on. He retired from his HyVee meat department job, after 40 years, in December. His wife broke her hip and pelvis in 2 places falling off her mother's porch a couple month's ago. Rich's wife's mother is married to Ansel Marquette, another guy who owns land south of us that he hunts on. Ansel is 89 and didn't hunt turkey this year, probably the first time he's missed hunting in his life. Rich left us to go bass fishing.
    
  • Mary cut a bunch more garlic scapes and gave them to me.
    
  • I filled two 5-gallon buckets with comfrey leaves, added the garlic scapes, put a pot of boiling water into each bucket, then filled the rest of the buckets up with water. I'm to let them sit for 7-10 days to make an herbal tea that's sprayed on fruit trees. It's something suggested in Michael Phillips' book The Holistic Orchard.
    
  • Mary started 3 strawberry runners by anchoring their ends into cups filled with potting soil.
    
  • She also replanted onion seeds in bare patches of the near garden.
    
  • Katie continues to work in the Anchorage office for UIC Construction. She texted me the following..."The PM (project manager) that I have been working for told me today that I am performing just as well and have more knowledge about construction processes than project engineers straight out of college with a construction management degree. She said the GM has been asking about my performance." Her flight to Eek, Alaska is on June 1st.

  

  The newly installed mailbox. Neighbor's
  mailbox in background needs replacing.
  

• Wednesday, 5/26: Turkey and Bob White Quail
  
  • I heard a turkey hen calling to her poults in the north field and north woods while moving grafted trees to shade under the Sargent crab apple tree in the morning. Mary and I heard the first Bob White quail call from near Bluegill Pond.
  • I laughed hard when Alison, a Homer High School classmate, saw yesterday's blog and replied with "Nancy Drew and the Case of the Broken Mail Box." I told her the drunks have a new target, and she said, "Indeed. They'll be attracted to it like moths to a flame. And, we know how that works out for the moth!"
  • I sharpened the lawnmower blade, then Mary mowed inside and outside of the far garden, the east yard beyond the lane, under the weeping willow tree, and the west yard under the clothes line. It wore her out.
  • Mary also cut more garlic scapes. I added them to my herbal tree spray brew.
  • After checking the garden, Mary gave me the first ripe strawberry. Wow! It tastes much better than store-bought strawberries.
    
  • With bits of aluminum tape, I added foil to surround exposed areas around the air conditioner in our upstairs bedroom. This keeps water and bugs outside. It involves climbing an extension ladder to the outside of the second-floor window. 
  • I also took apart our oldest air conditioner, a Haier, that we bought in 2009. It's obviously a well-built AC. I cleaned it with a garden hose, then re-assembled it, using new screws to replace rusty ones. Darkness fell before I could install it in the north upstairs bedroom, where Bill will be when he visits in a few days.
  • Katie texted that she got a new-to-her couch that was hardly used for her Anchorage apartment. She also texted about green leaves showing up on trees in Anchorage.
    
    
• Thursday, 5/27: Mary's Birthday
  • Mary turns 55 today. I made her a waffle breakfast and showed Mary her ecard on my laptop. In the evening, we enjoyed the last bottle of 2020 blackberry wine. More is in a 4-gallon carboy to be bottled. She got a Book-of-the-Month yearly subscription from Katie and a Barnes & Noble gift card that came with a birthday card from my mother in today's mail. The last of her birthday gifts ordered days ago came in yesterday's mail, after sitting in the local post office while we put up a new mailbox. She had a good, relaxing birthday, today.
  • Weather reports predict a low of 42° in a couple days, which means it will probably be 39° on our hilltop, so Mary brought in all of her house plants that she thought were outside for the summer. There is a good side to not planting the entire garden, yet!
  • I installed the north bedroom AC (even though we won't need it for the next couple days), placing packing taped on inside gaps around the AC, then putting aluminum foil and aluminum tape on outside gaps around it. There's just 1 more air conditioner left to clean and install.
  • It rained off and on throughout the day.
  • We watched the 2017 movie, Beauty and the Beast. 
  • Katie called to wish her mother a happy birthday. She's working only a few hours tomorrow, since she's helped the project manager get totally caught up and there's no more work for Katie. Monday is a holiday and Kate flies to Eek, AK on Tuesday, June 1. She has applied to Indiana State for a construction management degree.
  • Mom texted back to Mary, after Mary thanked her for the cards, that Mom won the $500 prize at Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative's annual meeting in Miles City. I worked for Mid-Rivers for 13 years. She also said Karen (my sister) and Lynn (Karen's husband) are visiting.
    
    
• Friday, 5/28: Misty Day
  • After heavy rains overnight, north winds blew low clouds through that dropped mist throughout the day. 
  • Mary did major housecleaning ahead of Bill's visit, tomorrow. She also picked garlic scapes.
    
  • I raked grass inside and outside of the far garden and put clippings on garden rows.
  • Mary ordered 2 books from Barnes & Noble, using the gift card Mom sent Mary. One is The great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet, involving the 1964 Alaskan earthquake. It was printed in 2017.
    
    
• Saturday, 5/29: Bill Arrives
  
  • Bill, our son, showed up around 11 a.m. He handed Mary a gift bag for her birthday. It contained a bottle of French wine, a nice double-hinge corkscrew, and a DVD of the TV series, Star Trek: Picard.
  • It's official. My apple tree grafting skills are garbage. The last graft that showed promise is wilting and dying. Out of 10 grafts, I had 6 that sprouted, looked good for a couple weeks, then died. As Forrest Gump said, "That's all I'm gonna say about that!"
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, did some laundry, and cut garlic scapes.
  • I raked the east yard and added mulch to a far garden row.
  • We all went fishing in the late afternoon at Swim Pond. The water was high and real murky, from all of our recent rains. Together, we kept 7 larger bass. Bill tried a new lure he bought, a Tasmanian Devil. He was catching a fish on every cast of that lure. I remember that Dad owned that same lure. Bill's version is made of plastic. Mary caught fish on a Sonic, a chartreuse grub, and a red Walmart lure (what we call a Walmart Special). I caught the most fish on natural-colored Rapala minnows. We threw several small bass back into the pond. It was really fun.
  • After fishing, Bill and I filleted the fish, while Mary did evening chores. Then, Mary pan-fried the fish. There is nothing better than fresh bass.
  • Bill pulled off 15 seed ticks. Mary, who bathed in bug spray, didn't have any. Bill pulled a tick off my hat while I filleted fish. I wore coveralls, which helped.
  • After eating, washing dishes, and bathing, we watched the 1995 movie, Nine Months, a movie that Bill selected. I was snoring at one point, but was awake through the best, funny scenes.
  • Mary heard a wild turkey flew off from the west yard's persimmon tree thicket. We heard coyotes close, to the east, while with the dogs on their late-night walk.
    

May 16-22, 2021

Weather | 5/16, 0.54" rain, 47°, 67° | 5/17, 1.09" rain, 55°, 63° | 5/18, 0.66" rain, 57°, 69° | 5/19, 61°, 76° | 5/20, 0.10" rain, 61°, 79° | 5/21, 0.03" rain, 65°, 74° | 5/22, 0.29" rain, 63°, 70° |

• Sunday, 5/16: Our Wild Kingdom
  
  • While we walked the dogs first thing in the morning, 2 Canada geese were startled off our neighbor's pond south of us and flew overhead, very low, and veered off right as they got above us. They're a wonderful sight, when flying near to the ground, overhead.
    
  • I went to get another cup of coffee in the morning when Mary spotted a coyote out our north living room window. I ran outside. Silver, our silver laced Wyandotte hen, was standing on top of the chicken ramp at the coop and that coyote was looking at her. I whooped and hollered and chased the coyote west, through the persimmon saplings. I followed it and the coyote was standing just beyond the persimmons, so I clapped my hands and told it to get. I kept following. There it was, again, standing in the trail and not moving. So, this time, I really got loud. It turned south and ran off through the woods. We think it's the same coyote I photographed on April 10th. It's too cozy with our property.
    
  • I did an aphid check of my grafted apple trees, like it do daily, now, and found more aphids. They got the Dawn soap treatment. I also picked green leaves off the rootstock portions of these trees, to encourage leaf development on the grafted-on scions. This trick is working. Unfortunately, the 2 rootstocks of the Esopus Spitzenburg grafts are dying. Something went wrong in this spring's transplanting with those 2 rootstocks.
    
  • I researched online about yellowing strawberry leaves. It looks like a nitrogen deficiency, so I fertilized the strawberries with a liquid fertilizer.
    
  • Mary weeded part of the potato patch until nearby thunder sent her inside. From 2 p.m. to into the night, we had a steady rain.
    
  • Since it's wet outside, I worked on grapefruit wine. It still had a sulfur smell, so I ran it through a 2' length of 1/2-inch PCV pipe stuffed with a copper scratch pad. It worked. The copper completely wiped out the sulfur smell. Unfortunately, a piece of copper ended up in the bottom of the gallon glass jug. I did an acid test. It's at .725 tartaric. In English, this means the acid level is 7 and a quarter tenths of 1 percent of the wine's volume. White wine needs to be between .65 and .75, so it's good. I added a crushed Campden tablet and 1/8 of a teaspoon of potassium sorbate, to curtail future yeast development. Then, I filtered the wine through a mesh bag to remove the copper scratch pad bit and undissolved Campden tablet particles. The wine dropping from the funnel under the mesh bag into the gallon jug mixed too much oxygen into the liquid, so I installed an airlock and I'll let it sit a week, allowing an oxygen release. It tastes very good, especially without a sulfur smell.
  • We feel better after our 2nd COVID shots, but we're super tired.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of autumn olive wine. It sure tastes marvelous, even though it's only aged a month since I bottled it.
    
    
• Monday, 5/17: Rain, Rain, Rain
  
  • It rained all day, today, which reminds me of southeast Alaska weather. Frogs are singing, everywhere.
    
  • Mary made a zucchini chocolate cake...yum!
    
  • She also checked for garlic scapes. Some are starting to form on the music pink garlic. The Siberian garlic leaves are hip-high, which is unusual.
  • Mary made some comfrey tea, and started work on a new cross stitch kit called Flowers and Lace.
  • I check my EM-1 (essential micro-nutrients) and molasses brew daily. It's bubbling. Once the pH reaches 3.8, it's supposed to rest for 4-7 days, and is then ready to be added to spray for fruit trees. My problem is my pH test paper covers pH from 0 to 14, or the entire pH range. It's not narrow enough to distinguish between 4.0 and 3.8. I always get a reading of 4.0. So, I looked online and bought a 30-foot roll of 2.9 to 5.2 pH paper.
  • The apple/cedar galls are bleeding their orange goo that eventually spread spores which turn to orange spots on apple leaves. I picked a plastic grocery bag of these rust apples off the cedar trees. Worried that I'm actually helping to spread the disease, I then performed some online research. I'm probably right, but picking them might be worthless. Cedar/apple rust can spread up to 7 miles away. I can't pick these things off cedar trees in a 7-mile radius. It's better to select resistant trees or boost the apple trees' immune systems.
    
  • Katie texted us that she's not heading to her construction site until the 1st of the month. It's not surprising. Ellie Napoleon, an old college friend, shows photos on Facebook of snow on the ground, ice on water, and says it's cold. She lives in Scammon Bay, which is 164 miles NW of Eek. I asked Ellie about the word, Eek, since I read it means 2 eyes. Ellie said it's spelled with 2 i's, not 2 e's, in Yup'ik. So, it should be spelled Iik. As usual, English-speaking people goofed up the word.
    
    
• Tuesday, 5/18: Our Property is a Wetlands
  
  • After getting 2.29" of rain in 3 days, water is sitting everywhere. We watched a crawfish wave its pinchers at us while walking the lane with the dogs, this morning. We're also seeing little frogs hopping around everywhere. The sump pump is running regularly. It's very wet.
  • A quick look at the garden revealed that our first strawberries are developing, parsnips are sprouting (we think), more onions are sprouting, and we're seeing the start of more garlic scapes.
  • I exchanged a couple Messenger texts with Ellie Napoleon related to this winter. When I mentioned that Katie is delayed at getting to Eek, Alaska, for her job, Ellie said, "Not surprised. The area got dumped with tons of snow in the last blizzard to hit the area. It was huge and deadly. And we got hit with sub-zero temps about the same time for about a month. Thickened ice. Our river is just now getting thaw pockets but ice still mostly intact. May be a couple more weeks (or more) until it's gone. It's been dang cold, too, in the last week which doesn't help. Snowing here today." When I said I hoped it warmed up, she added, "Yes. It was a mostly blizzardy last 3 months. Terrible!! We got sun about 4 times a month and the rest was blizzards. 2021 winter was a bad one in more ways than one. It may have helped to keep covid #'s down though. Not much interacting going on during blizzard season. Lol. Silver lining."
  • Mary fixed up a shrimp dinner. I helped her shell out the shrimp. She used our homemade garlic wine and chopped garlic as a saute (see photo, below). The shrimp were delicious. We tried a bottle of 2019 pear wine. After aging almost 1.5 years, it tastes much better, and very smooth. 
  • I researched online how to do bud grafting and saved several websites. I might be able to graft buds onto apple tree rootstocks in late summer and early fall that didn't take the cleft or saddle grafts.
  • While washing dishes, we discovered a huge number of sugar ants on the counter. Out came the Terro ant killer. By bedtime, all of the bait stations were surrounded by ant armies. "Ha, ha, ha," we cried as we turned off the lights.
  • We watched the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, and the 2012 movie, Men in Black 3.

  

  Garlic wine and garlic cloves.
  Combined, they make a nice shrimp saute.
  

• Wednesday, 5/19: Fly Away Little Bird
  
  • The Eastern phoebe nestlings that survived cold temperatures are now out of the nest in the woodshed. All that's left is a wheelbarrow tire directly below the nest that's now covered in bird poop.
    
  • We saw our first lightening bug while walking the dogs on the last outing of the night.
    
  • I cleaned our largest window air conditioner with a lots of water from a garden hose, an old toothbrush, and an old wash rag. Then I installed the AC in the west living room window, sealed all edges and small gaps with packing tape. Next, I squeezed 1/4" foam board into the sides and bottom of the outside of the AC, which blocks rain from the outside entering inside the house and blocks light from inside the house from attracting bugs at night.
    
  • Mary weeded half of the near garden, and trimmed the forsythia near the house, which grew branches out preventing us from walking on the trail to the machine shed and near the Cadillac.
    
  • Mary cut tall green grass with her scythe for hay.
  • We had light rain in evening. It's so wet, I won't be surprised seeing fish swimming by our house windows.
    
    
• Thursday, 5/20: Rain & Mud
  
  • Online weather radar indicates clouds are going through us from due south to north. It's bringing very damp air out of the Gulf of Mexico. We only got a little rain, but even a small amount turns on the sump pump, since the ground is so saturated. The chicken yard would make any pig seeking mud envious.
    
  • I drove to Lewistown and bought packing tape from Davis Hardware.
  • Then, I disassembled, cleaned, then put back together a second air conditioner. I installed the AC in our bedroom east window and secured all air cracks with packing tape. I still need to tape aluminum foil on the outside to deflect rain and bugs, which is harder on this one, since I have to use an extension ladder to get to it on the second story.
    
  • Mary oiled the woodstove pipe with mineral oil, to help preserve it until the next heating season.
    
  • She cut the first of the garlic scapes, a total of 11.
    
  • Mary weeded more of the near garden, but was stopped by rain, again.
  • I sprayed a couple of my grafted apple trees for aphids after seeing wilted leaves.
  • We watched the 2014 movie, Interstellar.
    
    
• Friday, 5/21: They Went Postal!
  
  • Mary and I drove to Quincy to get a FedEx package and as we turned onto the gravel road at the end of our driveway, we noticed that our mailbox was flattened (see photos below). Someone in probably a pickup, while driving east, went off the left (north) side of the road, hit our mailbox, drove down the ditch several feet and back up onto the road. The 6x6 green treated post holding up that mailbox snapped off at ground level. If I ever see a pickup with a smashed-up driver's side headlight and front grill, along with yellow paint marks, I'll know who flattened our mailbox. Since we were on our way to town, we bought a new box and lettering at Lowe's. After returning home, I put the pancaked metal box in the car's trunk, got some crowbars, once we were home, and pried it open to reveal that there was no mail inside the box. Gravel semi trucks were rumbling through the past 2 days. We think someone driving too fast and in the middle of the road was barreling over the hill, met a semi gravel truck and instead of getting into a head-on collision, dove off the road and ran right into our mailbox.
  • After an unsuccessful mailbox shopping visit to Home Depot and a fruitful Lowe's visit, we picked up the FedEx package at Walgreens, then bought a secondhand radio/CD player, wine glasses, yarn and 4 DVD movies at the Salvation Army store.
  • The package was 2.9 to 5.2 pH paper from Taylor Scientific. I checked the pH of my EM-1 (essential micro-nutrients) brew and it was between 3.2 and 3.5. All I was getting from my other litmus paper was 4.0, or maybe a little below that number. Paper with more minute gradations of pH measurement is much better. It means this batch is done and I can spray it on plants and trees.
  • It keeps on raining...not much...but enough to prevent working outside. The constant moisture increases the ability of apple tree diseases to spread. I now have 4 of my 10 grafted apple trees that are dying. These tree might be alive in a different, less-wet spring. On a positive note, blackberry bushes are full of blossoms.
    
  • We watched a 1958 movie, Auntie Mame, a movie that Mary wanted, which we found at the Salvation Army, today. It's interesting that Mary recently considered buying it on Amazon, but didn't want to pay $20 for it. Instead, we found a used copy today for $3. Nice!
    

Our smashed mailbox.

Broken-off post and tire track next to it.

• Saturday, 5/22: More Smashed Mailbox Info
  • After reading installation instructions on our new mailbox, I donned rain gear and did some measurements on the smashed post. The old mailbox was 42" above ground. While I was there, the neighbor across the road drove up (he was on his lunch break). He starts work at the dairy west of us at 5 a.m. Yesterday morning, several trucks were parked on the gravel road and in the grass across from our mailbox. He didn't stop to talk with the guys in the trucks, because he had to get to work. He asked around the dairy if anyone was in an accident. The answer was no. He thinks the mailbox smasher was someone who doesn't live in the area, that it happened at night, and all of the trucks and tracks down the field to the pond next to his house have something to do with it. I checked out the tracks after talking to him. The truck that hit our mailbox veered across the gravel road, went all the way down the hill and ended up in the pond. Then, a larger truck, maybe with a winch, drove down and pulled mailbox smasher truck out of the pond. There were a lot of spinning tires and deep tracks on the pull uphill from the water's edge. I bet they just finished when my neighbor went to work. I called the Lewis County Sheriff's office. They took my information and said a deputy would either call or visit. That's the last I heard from them. I'm sure they have more important matters than smashed mailboxes.
  • It rained until about 5 p.m.
  • I lightly sanded the bottom of the new mailbox and painted it with auto primer and extreme rust Rust-Oleum paint. The paint on this new box is super thin and certainly won't stand up to Missouri moist air. 
  • Mary made flour tortillas. She also cut several garlic scapes and worked on patching a pair of her jeans.
  • Katie gave Mary a year's subscription to Book of the Month Club for Mary's upcoming birthday. Mary spent time looking for books on their website.
    

May 9-15, 2021

Weather | 5/9, 1.03" rain, 38°, 49° | 5/10, 35°, 63° | 5/11, 43°, 59° | 5/12, 37°, 61° | 5/13, 33°, 66° | 5/14, 42°, 70° | 5/15, 50°, 59° |

• Sunday, 5/9: Overnight Wind Damage
  • We obviously sleep like logs. Overnight, over an inch of rain dumped on the land and a blast of wind took out some tree limbs. We didn't hear a thing. Three branches came out of the weeping willow tree and dead branches went to the ground and tilted the trunk of a dead elm tree at the west end of the machine shed in the direction of the chicken coop (see photos, below). I'll need to get busy with a chainsaw.
    
  • Katie called first thing in the morning to wish Mary a happy Mother's Day. She estimates work will start for her in a couple weeks. Katie gets her second COVID shot on Thursday. She's been hiking, lately.
    
  • Bill called next. He received his second COVID shot yesterday and is feeling ill, today. He is still planning on visiting us through Memorial Day weekend.
  • I called Mom at 5 p.m. She switched her job to driving the senior van. She goes once a week to Glendive, MT, and once a month to Miles City, MT. It's a nice change and she enjoys the work. Circle, MT received 0.8" of much-needed rain. Mom said Karen and Lynn are in Colorado, as of today.
    
  • Mary ordered her birthday gifts, early. I added the Jack Keller winemaking book that's due out on May 24th to Mary's Amazon order, using a gift card Mom gave me on my birthday. I also ordered a Waterpik.
  • Mary and I checked trees and plants. We have several tiny cherries, pears, and apples forming. The garlic look great. Two more strawberry plants died, so I now have 18. More lettuce and spinach seeds are sprouting, as well as all of the radish seeds.

Fallen willow limbs. Cherry tree in background.

Branches and leaning dead elm tree at machine shed.

• Monday, 5/10: Jack Frost Only Painted Car Tops
  
  • When I checked the morning temperature at 6 a.m., the only frost was on vehicle roofs.
    
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread, putting an amazing odor throughout the house.
  • She also finished a Halloween cross stitch ornament that she started in January. Once finished with that, she worked on a native raven cross stitch pattern.
  • I used the small chainsaw, cut up the downed limbs, and stacked the firewood in appropriate locations.
  • I studied the leaning elm tree trunk at the west side of the machine shed and decided to remove the electrical wire running from the machine shed to the chicken coop before I tackle removing that trunk. It's going to be tricky sawing that big elm trunk out of there.
  • I removed 3 wheelbarrow loads of bark, wood chips, and dirt, from the trailer behind the tractor that accumulated after 2 years of hauling firewood. I put this stuff around the base of several fruit trees. Michael Phillips, the author of 2 orchard books I'm reading, advocates doing this to build soil that mirrors a forest floor.
  • At 6:30 p.m., the wind died, so I mixed up a 2-gallon batch of fruit tree spray and sprayed 10 apple and cherry trees. I finished in the dark, using the hat light that Katie gave me.
  • Bill texted that he stayed home and didn't go to work, feeling punk after Saturday's second COVID shot. He felt much better by the evening hours.
  • Katie texted 2 photos of swans swimming on a pond in Alaska (see below).

  

  Swan photo, taken by Katie on a trail near Barbara Falls
  (South Fork Falls), near Eagle River, AK.
  

• Tuesday, 5/11: Dead Spring
  • Birds on our property are experiencing tough times. Several morning low temperatures in the 30s and low 40s equates to a low bug population, which is great for the two humans living here, but bad for insect-eating birds. The baby phoebes in the nest in the woodshed rafters are dying. Mama Phoebe is frantically trying to feed them, but she can't find adequate food. As I write this tonight, a frost advisory exists two counties north of us. I'm sitting in front of an electric heater. Birds don't have it so nice. I hope it gets warmer, soon.
  • I checked all of the fruit trees I sprayed yesterday evening. Apple and cherry leaves on the trees I sprayed are more green and lively-looking. Most importantly, bad chewy bugs are gone.
    
  • Mary made a batch of flour tortillas.
  • She also mowed 2 trails...the swim pond trail and the wood duck trail.
  • While at the swim pond, Mary saw a black-crowned night heron, which is smaller than the great blue heron.
    
  • I started brewing up a batch of soil micro organisms to enhance soil nutrient uptake and boost fruit production in orchards and gardens. The directions call for getting brewing equipment. Well, I have a closet full of such gear!
    
  • I racked the grapefruit wine. The resulting product is nice and clear (see photos, below). It's specific gravity is 0.995, a thousandth degree higher than a month ago, meaning it has slightly less alcohol, which is good. It still has a slight sulfur smell, so I'm going to get some copper scratch pads to filter the wine through. Copper removes sulfur taste or smell in homemade wine. Fortunately, it contains no sulfur taste and actually tastes very good.
    
  • I finished 19th book of the Captain Aubrey/Dr. Maturin sea novel series by Patrick O'Brian, called The 100 Days. Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo at the end of this book. I have only one more book to read in this series.

Grapefruit wine on Feb. 23rd.

A clearer grapefruit wine, today.

• Wednesday, 5/12: Dentist Visit
  • I had a dental appointment in Quincy to get teeth cleaned. I have no cavities or serious issues. The dentist suggested I get overlays put in to cover indents where I brushed too hard. I'll think about it.
  • I picked up a FedEx package at Walgreens. They couldn't find it right away. I showed my email of it being delivered to the pharmacy, with an acceptance signature. She took me to the pharmacy. The pharmacist asked me what was in the package. "A Waterpik," I said. "Oh," he said, while jumping over to an opened package. "We were wondering why we got this." FedEx just slammed a label over my name and address and on that label was just Walgreens and the Quincy address. So, instead of including my name, the package was just delivered to Walgreens' pharmacy. FedEx is the very worst shipping company.
  • I picked up several other groceries.
    
  • While I was away, Mary had a ruby-throated hummingbird hover 2" away from her face and look at her for about 20 seconds.
    
    
• Thursday, 5/13: First Fruit Tree Spray Finished
  
  • It was perfectly calm this morning, so I mixed up a 2-gallon batch of fruit tree spray, then sprayed the smallest and largest pie cherry trees, the old McIntosh apple tree, and my 10 grafted apple trees. I then mixed up a 1-gallon batch, minus neem oil, since neem oil defoliates pears, and sprayed the large and small Bartlett pear trees. I saw some web worms in the McIntosh apple tree and some frost leaf-kill damage in the large Bartlett pear tree.
    
  • Mary and I drove to Hannibal for our second COVID shots. Since the Aldi store in Quincy is closed for a month for renovations, we shopped at the Aldi store in Hannibal. We looked at JC Penney for shoes for Mary. Nothing was there that she liked, so we looked in Walmart and she found a pair. We got our shots and went home.
    
  • Katie got her second COVID shot, today. She said Monica, her project manager on Katie's last job, asked Katie to assist her with planning her next project. "It's an awesome opportunity for me," Katie said. She is helping to develop an emergency action plan and will be helping to develop the work order of operation. This is stuff Katie already does in her Air National Guard work. This job lasts a little over a week.
  • Karen got her second COVID shot, today.
    
  • I checked out all trees that I sprayed this morning. They look good. Mary said that the big pie cherry tree never has had leaves this bright-looking.
  • We watched the 2011 movie, Puss in Boots. It's hilarious. Then we watched the 1996 movie, Twister.
    
    
• Friday, 5/14: Post COVID-shot Blahs
  
  • Mary didn't sleep well overnight, due to aches, a fever, and a headache. I slept hard. 
  • Mary slept during the day. In the afternoon, she had a fever of 100.9. I didn't feel great, but I didn't have a fever. My arm ached, of course.
    
  • While Mary slept, I laid low and read a bunch. I watered the plants in the garden.
    
  • Chores took longer, today. After doing one chore, we'd rest for a few minutes, then do the next chore.
  • Katie had the same post-COVID shot poor feeling. She did teleworking. "I'm tired," said Katie. "I've consumed a lot of coffee today and I've been powering through a lot of dense construction documents."
  • Karen had similar post-COVID shot reactions...feverish the first night, nausea, body aches, and a headache.
    
  • We watched the 2003 movie, Under the Tuscan Sun.
    
    
• Saturday, 5/15: Still Resting
  
  • We're feeling better after our 2nd COVID shot, but we are still in a recovery mode, so it was a day of reading and occasionally snoozing.
    
  • We toured all of the fruit trees and the gardens. There is some bug damage on the 2 apple trees in the east yard, but all other trees have nice, big, green growth, with lots of small apples, pears, and cherries developing. In the gardens, the garlic is growing well, and we have several new seeds sprouting.
    
  • Mary watched a bald eagle fly over the house. She saw an eastern wood-pewee in a walnut tree west of the house. She also a heard common yellow throat warbler. They say "Witchiti, witchiti, witchiti!"
  • Katie texted, "I had a great time last night at the wine thing (wine tasting party). The wine was really good. My stuffed mushrooms were a hit, and I didn't take any home with me. I became friends with a lady from Belarus/Germany. This month, Anchorage is doing a month-long trash pickup thing. This morning, I picked up trash in Russian Jack Springs Park. This afternoon I picked up trash at Ship Creek. I bumped into a group of people with Team RWB. The mission of the group is to enrich veterans' lives by connecting them to the community through physical and social activity. They invited me to pick up trash with them. I may be in the local news, now, and I'm a member, now."
    

May 2-8, 2021

Weather | 5/2, 59°, 81° | 5/3, 0.08" rain, 61°, 77° | 5/4, 51°, 59° | 5/5, 38°, 65° | 5/6, 47°, 61° | 5/7, 39°, 69° | 5/8, 42°, 57° |

• Sunday, 5/2: One Garden Planted
  
  • I finished tying up the chicken wire fence to posts in the near garden. I only had to add a 2-foot section of chicken wire to last year's wire to enclose the garden. I took a hatchet and made stakes out of tree branch Y's, turned them upside down, and pounded them through the very bottom square of chicken wire to secure the bottom of wire between each post in the ground.
    
  • I also moved all of my live strawberries into the east end of the near garden for their permanent summer location. 
    
  • Mary planted tomato and tomatillo seeds into Styrofoam cups.
  • She also planted carrot, parsnip, lettuce, spinach, radish, onion, and shallot seeds to finish all planting of the near garden. It awaits rain and sunshine.
    
  • While outside throughout the day, a catbird went nuts with a wide variety of songs of love. Mary had a robin following her wherever she dug in the garden, picking up fat, juicy earthworms from freshly dug earth that was newly planted.
    
  • Five of my grafted apple trees show potential buds that won't develop into emerging leaves. I read that leaves emerging on the rootstocks below the grafts need to be clipped to encourage the grafts to take. I also saw a video from a guy in England who advocated leaving these rootstock leaves in place. I decided to remove the unwanted leaves, clipped them on these 5 grafted apple trees and painted over the cuts with tree seal. I hope it works.
    
  • We have a clump of daffodils blooming just beyond our south lawn (see photo below). I plan on marking them so I can dig them up this fall and plant them in a respectable flower bed.
    
  • I made the mistake of wearing shorts and tennis shoes, instead of full pants and boots during tick season, today. I know better. I pulled 3 ticks off me after outside activities, today. Tick bites balloon into blisters that weep on me.
    
  • On the last dog walk after dark, Plato was sniffing near the end of the cedar trees in our east yard, then suddenly bolted to the house with his ears held back. I shined the flashlight where he ran from, but couldn't see anything. Our guess is he smelled or sensed a coyote and ran for it. While I searched with the flashlight, he stayed at the porch as if to say, "You might need help, but I'm staying right here!"

  

  Daffodils, engulfed in a multiflora rose bush.
  

• Monday, 5/3: Day Off
  • After yesterday's garden push, we took today off.
    
  • Mary did some housecleaning.
  • A thunderstorm rolled through around 2 p.m. Once it hit the Mississippi River, it became a severe thunderstorm with hail in Illinois.
    
  • The grafted Hewe's Virginia crabapple has new leaves on both the top grafted scions and the original rootstock that are curling. I tried to figure out the problem in books and online, but to no avail. So, I sent a message to the MU Lewis County Extension Service office asking for their input.
    
  • We found a 5-to-6-foot long snake in the woodshed and identified it as a black rat snake.
  • We spotted an eastern king bird on the east garden gate, so those birds are home for the year.
    
  • I took the dogs on a walk down the east trail. Halfway down the trail, I picked and tossed ticks by the dozens off the dogs. I did that 2 more times, then finally rushed home. On the lawn just beyond the porch, I picked and killed probably about 50 ticks per dog. We think ticks are bad at the house and along our lane, but they're out in fierce numbers on non-mowed trails. Fortunately, ticks can't climb slick knee-high rubber boots, so I didn't have any on me until I started de-ticking the dogs on the lawn.
    
  • I took Mary back down the trail, because the wild blue phlox flowers, what we've been mistakenly naming as periwinkles, are blooming in the east bottom amongst the woods. She took photos of the flowers and new oak leaves (see below).
    
  • We watched the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Wild blue phlox flowers.

New oak leaves.

• Tuesday, 5/4: Cool Spring Day
  
  • Temperatures never rose above the 50s today. It's cool, for this country.
    
  • I balanced our checkbook. Mary paid bills and moved savings monies into appropriate accounts.
    
  • I got an email from the MU Extension Service's Field Horticulturist Jennifer Schutter-Barnes, who is based in Kirksville, MO, and covers 11 Northeast Missouri counties. She asked for photos of the curling leaves on the Hewe's Virginia crabapple graft, so Mary took several photos that I sent 6 to Jennifer.
  • Mary made an apple pie.
    
  • She also created a shopping list.
  • I discovered online that if a half inch of fines pile up at the bottom of a carboy, wine should be racked. Leaving the wine must on a half inch of lees too long results in a harsh taste. The dandelion wine has this much yeast poop at the bottom of the jug, so I racked all containers into a brew bucket. The specific gravity is 0.994, giving it an alcohol content of 12.21%, which is perfect. It tastes fruity, flowery, and has a tang. It's much better than last year's attempt. I racked the wine into a gallon jug and a 330-ml beer bottle. At Day 9, with fermentation finished, this is the fastest brewed wine to date. Bubbles are present after double racking, but it's probably due to oxygen mixed into the liquid. I didn't add a Campden tablet.
    
  • In the evening, I update my wine journal.
  • In the evening, we had 2 pots of tea, deviled eggs, jam on toast, apple pie, and a couple glasses of 2020 pear wine, which at 4 months of aging, tastes marvelous.
    
    
• Wednesday, 5/5: Shared Mowing
  
  • Back when I went to work daily, Mary got stuck mowing most all of the lawns. Now that I'm home, I'm trying to better share the mowing duties. Mary mowed the inside and south outside of the far garden, plus the north outside of the near garden for 1 hour. When she was done, I mowed the rest of the outside of the far garden, the rest of the outside of the near garden and the east yard for another hour.
    
  • Jennifer at the MU Extension Service office in Kirksville, MO, emailed me to say that I either had aphid issues or pesticide poisoning with my grafted apple tree. Mary and I uncurled the leaves and sure enough, we had an aphid army that moved in. We sprayed all of the grafted trees with a liquid Dawn dish soap and water mixture. This kills aphids on contact. We found more aphids in other trees, besides the aphid army in the Hewe's Virginia crab, plus a worm in the Baldwin grafted apple tree. Later, Mary rinsed the trees with water. I thanked Jennifer for her accurate analysis.
  • While we were reviewing grafted apple trees, we noticed that the nest in the rafters of the woodshed is full of eastern phoebe babies.
  • Mary was buzzed by the first hummingbird of the season. It was attracted to the red of a chicken waterer on the ground, and was snarly, because there was nothing there to eat.
    
  • Mary fertilized the garlic with fish fertilizer and added acid solution to the blueberry soil. She also did a load of laundry.
  • I read up on the apple spray mixtures. I'm already late on the first 2 sprays. I calculated appropriate amounts of various items to fit into my 2-gallon sprayer. A quick check of nighttime weather showed rain prediction overnight, so I didn't spray. I should have, because it never rained and it was a calm day.
    
    
• Thursday, 5/6: Shopping & Mowing
  
  • Mary mowed the east yard, next to the house. She raked yesterday and today's grass clippings and mulched most of one row in the far garden.
  • I shopped in Quincy, visiting 10 places...ugh! I hate shopping and the rat-race traffic. Gas is higher at $2.69 a gallon.
  • We watched the 1995 movie, Sabrina.
  • The eastern phoebe nestlings are getting bigger and saying, "EEP, EEP," anytime we walk into the woodshed.
    
    
• Friday, 5/7: The Aphid War
  
  • Mary inspected all of the grafted apple tree leaves and found more aphids. We used more Dawn spray and killed them. I removed leaves on the rootstock portion of the Hewe's Virginia crabapple, which seem to house the worst aphid infestations. I want all energy to go into new leaf production in the grafted-on scions.
  • Detaching rootstock leaves is working. I now see new leaf shoots pushing out from scion buds on the Jonathan, Roxbury Russet, and the Wickson apple grafts. That gives me a 60% take rate on my grafting efforts, with 6 of 10 grafts successful, so far.
    
  • Mary mowed the west lawn and between the sheds, raked it, and mulched more of a row in the far garden. I took the mower from Mary and mowed the north yards, finishing all lawn mowing. All that's left is mowing the lane.
  • I chopped up leftover persimmon tree branches and put the wood chips around apple and cherry trees south of the house as mulch.
    
  • Mary watered garden seeds in the near garden twice. Radish, lettuce, and a couple of spinach seeds are sprouting.
    
  • We watched the 2006 movie, The Lake House.
    
    
• Saturday, 5/8: Delayed Weather
  • Thunderstorms were predicted for us all afternoon/evening, but everything went around us and we never saw a drop, except for our final dog walk, at midnight, when it was sprinkling.
    
  • Mary cleaned house and made 2 egg quiche pies.
    
  • I mowed the lane. Oak tree pollen is everywhere. It really affected me while mowing. I found the only way to finish was to suck on a cough drop, or I'd continuously cough. After finishing mowing, I had to rest for quite awhile inside.