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."