August 29-Sept. 4, 2021

Weather | 8/29, 0.01" rain, 70°, 89° | 8/30, 66°, 83° | 8/31, 0.58" rain, 67°, 78° | 9/1, 63°, 78° | 9/2, 56°, 78° | 9/3, 0.15" rain, 63°, 75° | 9/4, 67°, 71° |

• Sunday, 8/29: DUCK! Incoming Food
  
  • Mary cut the tips off a huge bunch of green beans, processed them, and froze 15 pkgs of beans.
  • She scooped, then froze 1 more package of muskmelon. We now have 30 quarts in the freezer, which is our quota. However, if we can't keep up with eating them, more muskmelon quarts might end up frozen. A 1.5 gallon amount of tomatoes went into the freezer.
    
  • Mary picked 40 ears of corn. That's the end of harvesting corn. Any remaining ears of corn are rubbery and we have enough. Instead of processing them after dark, we found room for them in the refrigerator. We need to open the fridge door slowly, or something will fall out.
  • Mary and I picked another 1/3 of a bucket of tomatoes. Mary picked 8 more muskmelons. We ate one for an evening fruit meal. Mary found a bunch of worms...too exhausted and in a "who gives a hoot" mood to count.
    
  • I picked and froze 3 quarts of autumn olives. I first went to several trees near the gravel road on the south side of our property, but most of the fruit was orange, therefore it wasn't quite ripe. After running home with thunder booming overhead, I went east to a tree loaded with deep red berries (see photo, below). That tree has so many berries, the branches droop to the ground. While picking berries, I heard a loud buzz, looked up, and there was a hummingbird checking me out.
    
  • As usual, we had thunderstorms roar toward us, diminish to vapor, then build back up over top of us and rain elsewhere.
  • We watered all garden plants late into the evening. Fortunately, we aren't watering corn...WAAHOOO!!!
    
  • We watched a nighthawk fly over us late in the evening. Mary frightened a squirrel with baby in its mouth from under the front steps. It ran to a cedar tree next to the woodshed and scared a rabbit from under the tree. I heard whip-poor-will to the NE after sunset. Mary saw a bald eagle.
  • The pantry smells of autumn olive wine yeast, muskmelons, and tomatoes...kind of a weird combination.
  • The wine brew is foaming (see photo, below), but a check of specific gravity shows no change.

Deep red autumn olive berries.

Yeast making foam in autumn olive brew bucket.

• Monday, 8/30: Cleaning Out Freezers
  
  • Mary defrosted our 2 large freezers. In the process, she threw out 2018 corn, one 2015 chicken, and 2019 pears. It all became donations the local wildlife. Surely, some raccoons and opossums loved the corn.
    
  • I went shopping in Quincy, mainly because the chick food ran out. All store employees wore masks, but most shoppers didn't. I call it defiant stupidity. "You can't tell me what to do...GASP, GASP...I can't breathe!" I wore a mask. I'm not a lemming.
    
  • Mary processed and froze 40 cobs of corn. We're now all done with corn.
    
  • We picked another batch of tomatoes. Mary picked 4 muskmelons. I picked a nice number of strawberries. We both watered gardens. Mary found 11 hornworms and 2 army worms.
    
  • We enjoyed a bottle of blackberry wine with Reuben sandwiches in the evening. It's 3 months since I bottled it and it's absolutely divine.
  • The yeast in the autumn olive wine is perking along (see video, below), with the must at a specific gravity of 1.065.
  Yeast bubbling in autumn olive wine.
  

• Tuesday, 8/31: A Good Rain
  
  • We woke to falling rain...YIPPEE...we don't have to water the garden!!! It rained until noon.
  • I picked autumn olive berries and froze another quart for a grand total of 6 quarts in the freezer.
    
  • Mary froze 6 more quarts of muskmelons, since we can't keep up with what's coming out of the garden by just eating them. She froze 8 quarts watermelons and 2 gallons of tomatoes.
  • Mary picked 1 muskmelon. We're finally coming to the end of this fruit from the garden. Unfortunately, we have 5 sitting in the pantry, waiting to be eaten. Mary picked some ripe hot peppers. We both picked tomatoes.
  • We heard geese for the first time in several weeks. I saw 3 deer on our lane while walking to the mailbox, and a big owl on an electric pole while walking back from the mailbox.
  • The autumn olive wine specific gravity was 1.045 at noon and at 1.020 at 9 p.m. It's fast-moving yeast, which is generating its own heat. The temperature is at 78°. A more common brewing temperature is 65°.
  • Katie called and talked to Mary while I was working on wine. The school superintendent, the person involved with the school's grant, and someone else, visited this week. Katie gave them a tour of the project. They were happy with the work. There's 2-3 weeks left of work to do, then some downtime until the roof metal arrives. She's not sure what she will be doing during that time. Katie is feeling better. In Mississippi, Matt, who she lives with, reports that there were only a couple downed branches, the electricity stayed on, and the house is too far inland to be involved with any storm surge from Hurricane Ida. Katie had a call from someone doing a survey on burn victims, who asked if she was getting out in the community and if she's doing her own grocery shopping. Katie's reply was that there's no grocery store nearby to shop in. The woman asked, "How do you get your groceries?" Katie replied, "We order them and they come in on a plane." The woman replied, "Wow! You really are in the boonies!"
    
    
• Wednesday, 9/1: Autumn Olive Wine Transfer
  
  • I woke an hour before Mary did and couldn't go back to sleep, so I checked the autumn olive wine. The specific gravity was at 1.005, beyond the 1.010 mark when it's to be moved into glass containers attached with airlocks. I was squeezing juice from the mesh bag of autumn olive berries when Mary got up. I gained an extra 3 quarts of liquid after compressing the bag. The liquid went into a 5-gallon wide mouth carboy, a half-gallon jug, a 750-ml wine bottle and a 330-ml beer bottle, all with clear glass. The wine bottle got a bulk of the sediment, so foam immediately started pushing into the airlock tube. I pulled the airlock, replaced it with a hose with the other end blowing into a quart Mason jar half-filled with water. All 4 containers bubbled throughout the day.
  • I spotted a pickup shell for $25 at Palmyra, a half-hour drive from home, so I drove the pickup there to view it. For the price, I should have known it was trash. A sliding window on the passenger side was gone and molding on the driver's side was coming loose. GOODBYE! I bought 2 foot-long sandwiches at Subway in Palmyra and drove back home.
  • While leaving home in the pickup, I spotted over a dozen vultures on the gravel road just beyond our property. They were feeding on a dead young deer. Dried blood on the road indicated that a car hit it and someone then dragged the body to the road's edge.
    
  • Mary trimmed branches off the forsythia bush. She also trimmed dog toenails.
  • Mary pick more green beans, 3 muskmelon, and several tomatillos. We both picked tomatoes. Mary got more hornworms. Some were quite large.
  • I snipped grass from around the strawberry buckets in the near garden and marked what I thought are the buckets holding the 11 oldest strawberry plants.
    
  • We ate 2 muskmelons in the evening. They were amazing. You just don't get that taste from store-bought melons. Our property is great for growing melons.
  • Katie sent a photo of smoked caribou. She said it's tough meat, but tastes good.
    
  • The pickup tires shimmy and shake too much at 65 mph. The rims are rusty and shot. I worry about a tire blowout at highway speeds. Online research showed several rims available for $40 each at JC Auto & Truck Parts, a salvage yard 33 miles south of us in Monroe City, MO.
    
    
• Thursday, 9/2: More Garden Harvest
  
  • Mary froze 3 gallons of tomatoes and 4 quarts of muskmelon.
  • She also did 2 loads of laundry.
  • I transplanted 14 new strawberry plants into 7 buckets. With each bucket, I removed 2-year old plants, tossed them, removed the soil, added compost, wood ashes, sand, and a little potting soil to the existing soil, put it all back into the bucket, transplanted 2 new plants, then put dry grass mulch around the 2 plants. There are 8 remaining new plants that I need to transplant.
  • Mary picked 6 watermelons, a bucketful of bell peppers, 2 muskmelons, and a big New England long pie pumpkin. She and I both picked almost a half bucket of tomatoes. I picked a bowlful of strawberries.
  • I have 7 chigger bites on my left foot/ankle that itch and swell into blisters. I hate chiggers.
    
  • In the evening, I looked at online plans for a bow-roof greenhouse that looked interesting.
  • The autumn olive wine is slowing way down on CO2 emission through the airlocks.
    
    
• Friday, 9/3: Bell Pepper Processing
  
  • Mary cut up and packaged 13 bell peppers (see photo, below) into 25 bags for the freezer. Frozen green peppers are used as homemade pizza toppings and in our smoked scrambled eggs throughout the year.
    
  • I transplanted the last 8 new strawberry plants into 4 buckets, after throwing away the 2-year old plants in these buckets. We now have 53 first-year strawberry plants in 36 4-gallon buckets and 21 plants in 4 totes, for a total of 74 year-one strawberry plants. This is an improvement from this spring, when only 11 strawberry plants sprouted after enduring rabbit chewing through the winter.
  • During transplanting one of the strawberry plants, while finishing up placing potting soil around it, I noticed a tree frog perfectly camouflaged against a strawberry leaf. Mary says every summer a tree frog lives daylight hours in the woodshed, where I was parking the wheelbarrow holding new strawberry plants. I moved the frog to the shade under the weeping willow tree.
    
  • I saw a doe deer on our lane during evening twilight, when I got the mail.
  • Mary made the venison General Tso dish for an evening meal. We drank a bottle of pumpkin wine (see photo, below) with dinner. It's marvelous. You can taste the pumpkin, the raisins, and the cinnamon. The ginger is more a feeling of warmth, instead of a taste. Mary says pumpkin wine is like dessert in a glass. It's definitely a fall/winter wine and one worthy of a 5-gallon batch.

Revolution bell peppers.

Pumpkin wine is destined to be brewed in bigger batches.

• Saturday, 9/4: Son Is Home For a Week
  
  • Bill showed up around 1 p.m. He has a week off and will be with us until next Sunday. His sister gave him an early Christmas present of 2 tickets to the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day in Minneapolis. Bill and his friend, Mike, are going.
  • Mary froze 2 more gallons of tomatoes. We now have 12 gallons in the freezer.
  • I used gallon and quart liquid measuring cups with my 3 carboys at the outdoor hydrant and accurately measured them. These glass carboys are made in Italy according to metric specifications. I've noticed in the past that they don't seem to hold exact amounts. My measurements showed this to be correct. The 6.5-gallon carboy actually holds 6 gallons, 3 quarts and half a cup. The 5-gallon is really 5 gallons, 1 quart, and 3 cups. The 3-gallon carboy hold 3 gallons and a quart. Now I know.
  • Mary picked 3 big muskmelons and several tomatillos. We have all we need of tomatillos for salsa-making. I picked about a third of a bucket of tomatoes. Army worms seem to love the Rutgers variety of tomato. I also got a normal bowlful of strawberries.
  • Mary and I checked the large Bartlett pear tree. We're guessing pears will be ready to pick in a week. Four fishing lines I strung up around that tree were broken, so I repaired them.
  • I checked the fishing lines strung up around the Stayman Winesap apple tree and noticed apples on the ground, a sure sign the apples are ripe. Four apples on the ground were chewed on, but others were not. Mary, Bill, and I picked all of the Winesap apples off the tree (see photo, below). They look good and give the pantry an amazing apple smell. 
  • A quick check of the Esopus Spitzenburg apples shows they're mostly rotten. There aren't too many. I've got to do serious work on that tree.
  • Mary and Bill looked at hops plants growing next to the house and in a grove of persimmon trees.
    
  • We ate nachos and watched the 2003 movie, Seabiscuit, which was Bill's choice.

  

  Stayman Winesap apples...2nd year of fruit off this tree.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

August 22-28, 2021

Weather | 8/22, 57°, 85° | 8/23, 65°, 89° | 8/24, 70°, 92° | 8/25, 72°, 89° | 8/26, 67°, 93° | 8/27, 67°, 92° | 8/28, 72°, 89° |

• Sunday, 8/22: Mary Haircut
  
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • In the morning, I noticed that the electric fencer wasn't lighting up lights to the very top, which meant wet weeds and grass were growing into hot wires on the electric fence. That's not good with corn nearing ripeness and raccoons wandering around. So, it's time to clean weeds.
  • I mowed around the near garden, which took a bit, since the grass was knee-high. 
  • After starting to knock back grass and weeds on the outside of the electric fence around the near garden, I found the grass trimmer engine sputtering. I removed the exhaust outlet and the screening just inside the outlet was blocked with carbonized oil residue. I cleaned it with carburetor cleaner and a wire brush and it then worked like a charm. I finished whacking weeds on the outside of the near garden, then eliminated grass/weeds on the inside and outside of the far garden's electric fence. I finished as the sun was setting.
    
  • Mary processed and froze 2 more quart bags of muskmelon, 4 quarts bags of shredded zucchini, and finished off a gallon bag of tomatoes for the freezer.
    
  • She picked 3 more New England long pie pumpkins, a green pepper with a hole in it, a handful of green beans, several tomatoes (include 2 of the first large tomatoes), and strawberries.
    
  • Mary also watered all garden plants.
  • She took a photo of a pretty milk snake she found on the north side of the house (see below). The dried willow leaf next to the snake is about 2" long, so this is a small snake.

  

  A milk snake next to the house.
  

• Monday, 8/23: Muskmelon Ripening
  
  • We picked 10 muskmelons. Some are ripening within an hour after looking at them when they were fine. Our pantry has an amazing smell.
    
  • Mary froze spoon scoops out of 3 melons. She also picked tomatoes, beans, and strawberries.
    
  • We watered all garden plants.
  • Mary made a shopping list.
  • I finished weedwhacking the inside of the near garden.
    
  • We're noticing weird seasons this year. For instance, we still see lightning bugs at night and there are still deer flies biting. Usually, both of those bugs' life cycles end by mid-July.
    
  • A new hat I ordered from Bass Pro arrived. It's nice. Also, a Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue that Mary ordered arrived.
    
  • We ordered a 6-quart Revere ware pot. The old one Mary got as part of a pot set from her mother when we married has a faulty bottom, even though we still use it. Revere Ware doesn't exist, but their pots are very popular, and for sale, used, online.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/24: Shopping in the Heat
  
  • We drove to Quincy in the Cadillac and shopped. We saw very few masks on people in Quincy, even though their hospital is full of COVID patients. It was 95° in Quincy...too damn hot.
  • Shopping and driving in Quincy with little minded people bustling around in an all-fired hurry always makes us appreciate our quiet and in-the-country home, once we arrive back from the shopping trip.
    
  • After we got home, we found 1 rotten muskmelon in the garden. It smelled like fruity whiskey. We picked 3 more muskmelons. We watered all garden plants in just 45 minutes. We were both walking fast and panting.
    
  • Bill called. He's tired of work...not much advancement and too hot working in an non-air conditioned warehouse. He's visiting us for Labor Day week.
  • We had thunderstorms skirting by us to the next county north of us after dark. We shut chicken coop windows and went to bed late, after waiting to see if it would hit us. It didn't.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/25: We Are Garden Slaves!
  • Mary and I picked produce out of the gardens just after noon. The heat was brutal! We collected 4 muskmelons and 1 big New England long pie pumpkin. Mary picked a plastic shopping bag of green beans. Together, we picked several tomatoes and Mary got a bunch of tomatillos.
  • After an hour of scooping out the insides of 15 muskmelons (see photos below), Mary froze 13 quarts of muskmelon meat. She also froze 3/4 of a gallon of tomatoes, and 1.5 gallons of tomatillos.
  • I picked the first of autumn olives (see photo below) and froze 2 quarts of these berries.
    
  • Mary and I watered the gardens.
  • When I walked down to get the mail after sunset, coyotes were howling in the north woods and I saw the doe deer with her 2 fawns run across the neighbor's lawn across the gravel road from our mailbox. The fawns are now almost the size of Mama.
  • The humidity is high enough to condense water on our windows, due to the fact that we keep the inside of our house cooler than outside air with air conditioners.
    
  • We watched the 2013 movie Star Trek Into Darkness that Mary bought from the Quincy Library book store for $1 on our last shopping trip.

15 muskmelons, long pie pumpkins in background.

Scooping muskmelon meat for freezing.

An autumn olive tree filled with berries.

• Thursday, 8/26: A Pickin' and a Grinnin'
  
  • We were back in the heat right after noon and picked 5 muskmelons, 4 ears of sweet corn, several more tomatoes, a few green beans, and a few strawberries.
  • Mary froze another 5 quarts of muskmelons, giving us a grand total of 25 quarts in the freezer. We determined that the best tasting muskmelon is Golden Gopher, developed by...you guessed it...the University of Minnesota.
    
  • As usual, we watched a line of thunderstorms drop down from Iowa, split just north of us, and go right by us. Thunderstorms and high winds took out electricity outside of Quincy, IL, east of us.
  • We watered all gardens.
  • Divergent light from the sun setting and shining through and into thunderstorm clouds gave our property a weird orange glow.
  • We stepped out on the porch to look at the odd lighting and several night hawks flew over top of us, heading east.
  • We had an evening meal of omelets, corn on the cob, piccalili, cherry tomatoes, and rye toast. It was really a cheap meal, because we raised everything except the rye toast and the margarine that went on it.
    
    
• Friday, 8/27: Packing Away Food
  
  • We washed 4 food quality buckets and Gamma seal lids and filled them with flour. A 25-pound sack of flour fits perfectly into a 5-gallon bucket. Mary also put various types of pasta into a large tote, freeing up space in the pantry. The tote went into the upstairs north bedroom.
    
  • Mary pulled all of the quart bags of autumn olives out of the freezer and put them on the front porch to thaw. We had some dating back to 2018. We need to reduce items in the freezers to make room for incoming garden produce.
    
  • I made a 5-gallon batch of autumn olive wine. Twenty-four bags gave me the 20 pounds of fruit needed for 5 gallons. After tying off a full nylon mesh bag, I poured 2 gallons of boiling water over the bag of fruit. While it cooled in a sink filled with cold water, I added 8 pounds, 12 ounces of sugar to get specific gravity of 1.084...perfect for just under 12% alcohol. Yeast nutrient (6.25 teaspoons) and 5 crushed Campden tablets went into the brew bucket. I let it sit overnight, covered with a flour sack towel. I tossed 6 bags of 2018 autumn olives after using 3 bags in the wine.
    
  • Mary picked 33 cobs of corn, 4 watermelons, 3 muskmelons, a bunch of tomatoes, and a few green beans. It's too hot for beans to set on the flowers.
  • Mary watered the far garden. I got to watering late, due to winemaking, but helped her by watering the near garden.
    
  • After baths and eating, Mary processed corn and froze the corn (see photo, below).
    
  • While walking our lane to get the mail, I heard a whip-poor-will to the west. A night hawk flew just 5-6 feet above my head. I think it was looking for a place to roost for the night. When I check the garbage can that still wasn't picked up since I took it down Tuesday night, a big praying mantis was looking at me from atop the garbage can lid.

  

  Mary wraps ears of corn with plastic. About 13-14 go into
  a 2-gallon freezer bag, then they're frozen. Taste great later.
  

• Saturday, 8/28: More Garden Harvest
  
  • I picked about a third of a bucket of tomatoes. Mary picked a few tomatillos. She checked corn and what's left isn't ready. Mary picked several green beans. I picked 3 and Mary collected 1 muskmelon. Mary found 16 hornworms, 7 army worms, and some completely unidentifiable worm drilling through a green tomato.
    
  • The first Pride of Wisconsin muskmelon ripened, so we ate it. We're not impressed. It's fine, if that's all you grow, but a couple others we grew this year are better. Golden gopher is the very best. The second best is Hannah's Choice. We got honey rock muskmelon seeds from a Burpee stand in Home Depot. These seeds grew into tiny melons with meat as hard as a rock. We once got honey rock seeds from Pinetree Seeds...much better, but expensive, now.
    
  • Mary froze 1.5 gallons of tomatoes, and 4 quarts of muskmelons for a grand total of 29 quarts in the freezer. With one more quart, we have our muskmelon quota for the freezer and we'll have to suffer and eat the rest out of the garden. The tomatoes we grow come in several colors (see photo, below).
    
  • I put 5 teaspoons of pectic enzyme in the autumn olive wine, then for 12 hours, worked up a starter of Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212 yeast for the wine. This yeast starter was bubbling nicely (see photo, below), right before I pitched it into the autumn olive wine must. Before adding yeast, I checked the specific gravity and it was still at 1.084. A pH check gave me a reading of 4.0, which is the same as my last autumn olive wine batch at this stage. Now I wait a few days.
  • I texted Katie and then she called us. Her crew has about finished up most of the project that they can finish. She put in 90 hours last week. School is back in session. COVID has greatly pushed back their order of roof metal, so it won't arrive to Venetie, AK before sometime in October, when the crew will have to return and finalize its installation. Katie caught a stomach flu bug from returning school kids. Yesterday, the village had a cookout of hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, and such. Katie ate to be polite. A few hours later, it all came back up. She can only keep down saltines and water. She's looking forward to a day off, tomorrow, so she can rest.

The multiple colors of our tomatoes.

A robust quart jar of wine yeast.

August 15-21, 2021

Weather | 8/15, 56°, 79° | 8/16, 57°, 78° | 8/17, 57°, 81° | 8/18, 63°, 82° | 8/19, 63°, 85° | 8/20, 65°, 87° | 8/21, 0.45" rain, 68°, 83° |

• Sunday, 8/15: Garden Produce Day
  
  • Mary processed 6 zucchini that looked like green baseball bats. She shredded and froze 4 quarts, for a total of 12 quarts in the freezer for making cake. She chopped and froze 8 bags that will go into minestrone soup.
  • The effective microorganisms (EM-1) brew tree/plant spraying reached a pH of 3.4 to 3.5 after starting out at 4.0, so I put it in the dark and cool pantry to rest.
    
  • Mary popped 5 big batches of popcorn for snacks.
  • I mixed up soil in 2 more totes and planted 10 more strawberry plants, 5 plants to each tote, and moved them out into the far garden. A total of 21 new strawberry plants are now planted.
  • Mary turned the hay in the middle of the far garden.
  • She also harvested some comfrey leaves and set them out in the upstairs south room to dry.
  • Mary picked more tomatoes. She found only 1 army worm, today.
  • I painted Semco liquid membrane sealant around the electrical entrance boot on roof, in the evening, after that area was in the shade. Several more layers are required.
  • After labeling the 2021 dandelion wine, I stored the bottles on their sides in one of the coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
    
  • The air is clearer and the sky shows a brighter blue. Goldenrod is now blooming. Autumn hints its arrival isn't far away.
    
    
• Monday, 8/16: Happy Not at Petco
  
  • I'm noticing that a couple of the co-workers where I last worked at Petco are mouthing off on Facebook about how masks don't work and COVID vaccinations are unsafe. I'm glad I don't work there, anymore. If I was there, I'd be fired and in jail for slapping them silly.
    
  • I sharpened the lawnmower blade for Mary and then she mowed the east yards.
    
  • I planted 6 more new strawberry plants in a tote. This one is larger and has more room. I moved it in the far garden with the other 3 totes (see photo, below). That makes 21 new plants out there and 3 new plants in buckets in the near garden. I have another 22 new plants that I'll plant after Labor Day in 11 buckets holding the oldest strawberry plants.
    
  • Mary found 1 army worm in the daily worm hunt. She picked more tomatoes. We have the best corn crop since we've lived here (see photo, below).
    
  • I cut 2-inch wide pieces of fabric. Next, I painted a layer of Semco liquid membrane on the edge of the electrical entrance boot, worked the fabric into that, painted another layer of liquid membrane on the fabric, then waited 5-10 minutes. Finally, I painted on an additional layer. I want to add one, maybe two more layers of liquid membrane on it.
    
  • The Bartlett pear top broke from too much weight. I didn't remove enough pears. Damn!
    
  • It's an amazing iron weed year (see photos, below). There is a general purple color from their flowers across most fields. White boneset flowers are starting to bloom, too.

New strawberry plants in totes.

Corn is tall with several ears forming.

Ironweed flowers are turning fields purple.

Mary took this closeup photo of an ironweed blossom.

• Tuesday, 8/17: First Watermelon
  
  • Mary picked our first watermelon of the season. It's a Verona watermelon that weighs 14 pounds (see photo, below). That's the good news. Bad news is she threw 3 muskmelons away, due to rot on the bottom of them, even though they were laying on boards to keep them from rotting. It's too wet this year.
  • Mary raked up grass and stored it in a large plastic garbage can.
    
  • I picked 4 large cucumbers, sliced them, and fed them to the hens. Leo, our rooster,  gives approving clucks when the cucumber slices hit the ground, as if to say, "Look here, girls!"
  • The 22 new strawberry plants still in Styrofoam cups were wilting. They were protected by leaves of bigger plants after I first pinned the runners, but now that they're separated from the parent plants, they're vulnerable to drying out in the sun. I remedied the issue by putting a correctly-sized cardboard box in the bottom of a tote and adding dried grass to the top. Then, I borrowed into the grass, stuffed the foam cup in the grass, and covered the soil at the top of the cup with more dried grass. I got a dozen plants in one tote and 10 plants in a second tote. Hopefully, the grass insulates the soil from drying out so fast.
    
  • Mary and I watered the far garden and picked more tomatoes. She watered the near garden.
  • We have hover flies by the millions. They're harmless, but annoying, as they fly near you and occasionally land to suck water off your skin.
    
  • I painted the fifth coat on the border of the electrical inlet boot to the house. I hope it's the last coat, because I hate working near a high-voltage wire. I must be keenly alert of my surroundings as I do that work.
    
  • I mixed up 2 batches of essential micro-nutrient spray and sprayed most all garden plants. I didn't spray the cucumbers or the zucchini plants, since we have all that we need. I also sprayed the smaller trees. I had to quit due to darkness. I finished at close to 9 p.m.
    
  • Mary took a nice closeup photo of a partridge pea blossom (see below).

First watermelon picked from our garden.

A partridge pea blossom photo by Mary.

• Wednesday, 8/18: Moving Hay
  
  • I cleaned up chick feed spilled out of the hanging feeder over the past weeks and dumped what was about 4 shovel loads onto the chicken run ground. For some reason, chickens, who won't touch feed on the floor in the coop, dive into feed on the ground and gobble it up. In the evening, not much feed was eaten from the feeder inside the coop, but most all of the wasted feed that I dumped on the ground outside was gone. 
  • Mary moved most of the last year's hay out of the second grain bin onto the floor of both the chick and hen sides of the coop, then gathered hay she cut 4 days prior and moved it into the second bin.
    
  • While checking the garden, we found squash bugs in the pumpkin leaves, which I sprayed with a Dawn soap and water solution for about 15 minutes. It instantly kills the little buggers. I picked tomatoes. I picked 2 large cucumbers, sliced them up, and fed them to the hens.
  • I checked my work on the roof. It looks good. The next rain will tell whether it works.
  • I watered the strawberries in foam cups. They're doing much better in their dead grass covered homes in the tops of old totes (see photo, below).
    
  • Mary harvested 6 New England long pie pumpkins and 5 bells peppers (see photo, below). The pie pumpkins now sit inside and turn completely orange when they're fully ripe.
  • I ordered a new hat, and while doing so, discovered that Tilley, the Canadian hat company we've used in the past, was sold, and now has their hats made in China, which everyone hates. So, I ordered a "Tilley-copycat" Redhead hat from Bass Pro for $21, versus $90 that a Tilley hat costs. Even if the new hat lasts a just few years, I'm still ahead of the game, money-wise.

Totes temporarily holding strawberry plants in cups.

Harvested green peppers and New England long pie pumpkins.

• Thursday, 8/19: Gardening Stuff
  
  • Mary froze the first tomatoes from the garden, along with 8 quart bags on green peppers.
    
  • She also made a chocolate zucchini cake.
  • Mary vacuumed spiders hidden in cracks and crannies throughout the house.
    
  • We checked for garden produce and picked the first 2 muskmelons. They're small, but put a nice aroma into the pantry. We also got another long pie pumpkin. I picked 4 large cucumbers, sliced them, and fed them to the hens.
  • I sharpened Mary's pruning shears and cleaned all of the AC filters.
  • We watered all garden plants.
    
    
• Friday, 8/20: Garden Produce Freezing
  
  • Mary picked 1 more muskmelon. We each took a tiny bite from the melons. They're really delicious, but small in size. Mary put up 2 quarts of muskmelon pieces. She cut open the watermelon. I tasted great, too. Mary froze 6 quarts of watermelon. We plan on freezing as many melons as possible, for wintertime fruit. We fed watermelon and muskmelon rinds to the chickens, which they love.
    
  • Mary also picked 2 zucchinis and several tomatoes.
  • I drove the pickup to Quincy, and reviewed W valley flashing at Lowe's, Menards and Home Depot. The best is at Menards. I bought animal food...dog and cat food, hen and chick food, and a bag of oil sunflower seeds for hen treats. I grabbed a couple items at Aldi.
    
  • We watched the 1999 movie, Notting Hill.
  • Thunderstorms were approaching from the west when we went to bed. Right after crawling in, we heard rain pounding the roof in intervals. No moisture below the electrical inlet boot, so my liquid membrane fix worked for its first rain test. The ultimate test will be a future day-long rain soaker.
    
    
• Saturday, 8/21: Northern Air
  
  • A north breeze brings good, clean air with a deep blue sky, today.
  • Mary picked another batch of tomatoes, 2 muskmelons, and the first handful of green beans.
  • Mary found a 4-inch hornworm in the sweet pepper plants. It's squished, now.
    
  • She made a meal of venison and gravy on biscuits.
    
  • I mowed the lane. It took all day. A quarter-mile lane gets to be a slog in the heat. I took several long breaks.
    
  • We aren't too far away from picking our first corn. There are several orange Diablo pumpkins that are coming on. We see a large number of acorn squash developing. Some of the sweet potato vines are 8 feet long.
  • Images of the U.S. military airlifting people out of Kabul, Afghanistan, reminds me of my former boss, Gerry Anderson, mentioning to me when the U.S. first went into that country that it was too similar to going into Vietnam.
    

August 8-14, 2021

Weather | 8/8, 70°, 85° | 8/9, 69°, 89° | 8/10, 0.01" rain, 74°, 87° | 8/11, 0.04" rain, 70°, 90° | 8/12, 0.35" rain, 65°, 85° | 8/13, 63°, 79° | 8/14, 58°, 79° |

• Sunday, 8/8: To St. Louis
  
  • A Facebook Marketplace listing for 2 rolls of Owens-Corning Weatherlock G, a self-sealing ice and water barrier, that I've been watching online, dropped from $50 to $35. It's something like $85-$95 at Home Depot. I will used it under the valley flashing on the SE section of the roof. I texted a message that I was interested. It was still available, so I decided to get it. The seller was in O'Fallon, a St. Louis suburb, so we asked Bill when he would be back home and if I could overnight at his place. He thought he'd be home around 8, so I decided to go. I packed a change of clothes and left.
  • I stopped at the Palmyra MO branch of our bank to get cash to pay for this item. Rain started in. I drove south on Highway 61 in a major downpour. At times, I was down to 35 mph, with semi trucks ripping by me. I stopped at the Farm & Home parking lot in Hannibal to let the storm pass. The rest of the way south, I drove in and out of light rain. I picked up the rolls of roofing material around 6 p.m.
    
  • Bill arrived home while I was en route. I drove to Bill's apartment and we decided to buy a pizza at Aldi for our meal. We ate it while watching a comedian called John Mulaney on NetFlix. There was thunder, lightning, and rain all night long in the St. Louis region, after going to bed.
    
    
• Monday, 8/9: Drove Back Home
  
  • Bill and I were up at 6:30. I fixed eggs as Bill made toast for breakfast. We both left his place at 7:30...he went off to work and I bought gas and something to drink, then drove home.
  • Mary heard the first crow from one of our chicks this morning.
  • Mary and I moved the ice and water roofing rolls from the Cadillac's trunk to the machine shed. They are really heavy.
    
  • Mary mowed the west lawn. Due to the heat, she did it in half-hour stints.
  • I figured the exact square footage of all of my shingles to make sure I have enough. I do.
  • I made up a half gallon of effective microorganisms (EM) spray to brew up. I sprayed this stuff on acorn squash and corn plants a week ago and they look great.
  • Mary watered a few plants in the garden.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/10: Raking to the Garden
  
  • We raked up the west lawn into several mounds of cut grass. We moved multiple wheelbarrow loads to the compost pile. Then, Mary mulched tomato, corn, and tomatillo plants while I stuffed buckets with grass to hand off to her.
  • The corn is filled with tassels and corn silk.
    
  • I had something on my face that I wiped away. It was a sweat bee. It stung me 3 times, just left of my mouth, and my face swelled up. I put on a baking soda paste, which reduced swelling and made me look weird with white gunk on my face. It looked like I was getting moldy in the damp air.
    
  • It rained right after we finished with raking/composting, but not for very long.
    
  • Bill texted us that temperatures were in the high 90s, with a 110° heat index, and it was even hotter feeling inside the warehouse where he works.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/11: Our Location Kills Weather
  
  • We woke to a huge white blob on the radar approaching from the west. It just missed us, gave us a little bit of rain, then it shrunk. It reappeared to the NE of us and became a storm that moved through Chicago and lower Michigan. The geography to the west of us always seems to divert hazardous weather...a nice thing when a bad storm is approaching, but bad on years we need moisture.
    
  • Mary made dill pickle relish from freshly-picked cucumbers. She canned 9 pints.
    
  • I sliced up 4 cucumbers and fed them to the hens. Leo, our rooster, always goes into a favorable clucking affair when cucumber slices hit the ground, telling the hens how great the cuc slices are to eat.
    
  • I pounded in 4 steel fence posts and installed a fish line fence around the small cherry tree right next to our large cherry tree (see photo, below). Deer munched on its leaves too much.
  • We watered the north end of the far garden (tomatoes, corn, and tomatillos) and the near garden (beans, strawberries, and parsnips). We picked our daily ripe strawberries. We also ate our first sungold cherry tomatoes that tasted great.
    
  • Katie texted that she starts flying back to Alaska tomorrow (8/12).
    
  • Bill texted that the above 90-degree heat is tiring where he works. His employer is mandating mask wearing for everyone beginning Friday (8/13). Bill said it was  unbelievably poor timing that the company couldn't have foreseen to make the announcement on the hottest day of the year. He said the general manager purchased $7800 worth of fans for the warehouse upon realizing the start of the mask requirement during a high-heat cycle.
  • Mexican music, played live on a loud PA system at the dairy farm west of us, started booming around 6:30 p.m., and played until midnight. It's peppy stuff, with lots of accordions and a deep bass beat...kind of like zydeco, or polka music. We're guessing it was a company picnic at the dairy and they catered to the nationality of most of their workers. They sure have stamina to party until midnight through our current hot, humid heat.
  • We are noticing a second hatch of fireflies. Usually, they're completely done by mid-July. Not so on this weird year.
    

  

  Fish line fence added to small cherry tree.
  

• Thursday, 8/12: Winemaking Activities
  
  • I picked some elderberries. After cutting about 6 bunches and stripping berries off them, then sorting out green berries, I had 2.2 ounces in one hour. I need 3 pounds for a gallon of elderberry wine. To heck with this noise! I decided to let the birds eat elderberries, because it's too much bother...I'd be out there until January trying to pick enough!
    
  • Thunderstorms developed all day to the north of us in Iowa. Finally, around 3:30 p.m., we got thunderstorms rolling through.
    
  • I bottled the dandelion wine into five 750-ml bottles (see photo, below). The specific gravity was still at 0.994, and the tartaric acid level was at an acceptable 0.69. I didn't add a final dose of Campden tablets and potassium sorbate this time. I want to see if bottling will work without those chemicals and if the taste is better. An initial attempt at corking the first bottle failed, so I soaked the corks in the Campden tablet/water solution for another 6 hours for a total of 8 hours. They went in nicely after the soak. These corks are longer (3") and made of solid cork, instead of glued-together cork bits, so they require a longer soaking time. We tasted the leftover wine. The dandelion flower taste was present, with a warmth after swallowing, which comes from the ginger. It will make a very good winter wine. We think even a little more ginger might improve the taste.
    
  • We watched the 2004 movie, The Day After Tomorrow.

  

  Bottled 2021 dandelion wine.
  

• Friday, 8/13: A Hen Dies
  
  • The first image I saw when I opened the human chicken coop door in the morning was a dead hen. She died of natural causes. She's been looking tough for a couple of months. We now have 10 hens, a rooster, and 28 chicks that will be 9 weeks old next Monday. We have one pullet in the new group of chickens.
    
  • I removed all of the Styrofoam cups filled with potting soil that I clipped strawberry shoots into about a month ago. I lined the new plants up on the porch. They total 48. These plants look very robust.
    
  • I planted 2 new plants into each 4-gallon bucket of the 3 buckets I had left from apple grafting days. That took care of 6 of my 48 plants. They all have strong root systems. Mary suggested replacing the 11 plants that made it through last winter and grew this spring. That will use up 22 at 2 plants per bucket. So, I now need to find a home for 20 strawberry plants. I plan on using tubs, with several to a tub. 
  • I watered the 42 plants in foam cups, put them in 2 wheelbarrows (see photo, below), and moved them into the woodshed, away from ravaging bunnies. I also weeded some of the existing strawberries in buckets in the garden. There are now 36 buckets of strawberries in the near garden. Strawberries grow better for us in the buckets. The fruit rots if it gets near the earth of the garden, but stays whole up in the air in a bucket.
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
    
  • She also swept and mopped the floors of the house.
  • Mary found the first hornworm of the year on a tomato plant. She also eliminated 6 hornworm eggs. The battle has begun! She picked 4 cucumbers and 2 sungold tomatoes, that she later fixed into salads.
  • While hauling evening water to the chicks, I turned around to say something to Mary and there were 2 of our neighbors horses looking at our near garden. Mary and I whooped and hollered. I chased them, and one other horse that was halfway up our lane, south to the gravel road. Halfway down the gravel road to where they live, I met a guy in a pickup, our neighbor, who admitted he owned the horses. I told him to keep his horses home. He apologized, saying they broke down the fencing, so he lets them loose during the day. We've seen them loose, eating grass in his front yard, for about 2 months. So, in 2 months, he hasn't repaired that fence. Letting them roam freely is a bad idea, since people going to work at the dairy drive by on the gravel road right next to his yard at a high rate of speed. I'm sure we'll have to deal with him and his horses again, if someone doesn't hit a horse with a car, first.
  • Katie arrived back in Venetie, AK, this afternoon, towards the end of a work day and spent the evening catching up on company emails.

  

  Two wheelbarrows with new strawberry plants.
  The jug on porch isn't hooch, but future tree/plant spray, brewing.
  

• Saturday, 8/14: Cutting Hay
  
  • Mary cut hay with her scythe in the middle of the far garden, between the chicken wire fences of the south and north ends, where we haven't mowed. When done, she spread it out with a pitch fork. Once dried, we'll store it in the second grain bin, for using on the chicken coop floor.
    
  • Mary also looked for worms on the tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers, the 3 nightshade family of garden plants. She found 1 egg, 1 tomato horn worm, and 2 army worms. She checked all plants in the gardens, and picked a bowl full of sungold tomatoes.
  • I filled soil in a smaller Rubbermaid plastic tote and transplanted 5 strawberry plants from Styrofoam cups into it. I then used Mary's scythe to cut a path in the middle of the north end of the far garden to its center, then moved the strawberry tote to that location with the large wheelbarrow. I located 3 more old Rubbermaid plastic totes and drilled holes in the bottoms. I took one of the totes and covered the holes with quarter-inch hardware cloth, rocks, then a 2-inch layer wood chips from under the log splitter, and soil from old blueberry totes next to the woodshed.
    
  • Mom texted that temperatures have been back to 100° in Circle, MT, for several days. She's battling heat, grasshoppers, and deer in her garden. "Deer ate moss roses out of the pot on the porch last night!" she wrote.
  • I finished reading the unfinished manuscript of Patrick O'Brian's 21st Aubrey/Maturin book. It in only 3 chapters long and ends in mid-sentence. Most of the book has an accompanied typewritten manuscript, alongside his handwritten words, but the last few pages are printed with only his handwritting, which is really hard to decipher. Fortunately, I took Bill's advice, looked online, and found where 5 people transcribed his writing into a typeset format, where I read the rest of the book.
    

August 1-7, 2021

Weather | 8/1, 60°, 79° | 8/2, 58°, 77° | 8/3, 56°, 77° | 8/4, 56°, 82° | 8/5, 0.02" rain, 60°, 77° | 8/6, 0.27" rain, 65°, 79° | 8/7, 67°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/1: Thriving Garden
  
  • Mary picked 2 zucchinis to add to the 3 picked yesterday. She shredded her zucs, adding 6 quarts to the freezer, for a total of 8, so far. She also picked more cucumbers, with plans on making another batch of pickles, soon.
  • The garden is really doing well, especially the various melons (see photos, below).
    
  • We watched a doe running south, through our west windows. It looked like it was spooked. We're hoping it was from getting too close to the fish line fence around the big Bartlett pear tree. It was looking back, to the north, in the direction of that tree.
    
  • I fixed the screen door trim, which was rubbing on the door and holding it from closing correctly, by filling screw holes with wooden match sticks and wood glue, then moving the trim slightly and re-screwing the screws into place. I also replaced the handle on the screen door.
    
  • I measured the SE section of the house roof, using an extension ladder and a 25-foot measuring tape. It took some time, with several slopes and angles to consider. After writing all my measurements on paper, I figured the area on that section of the roof to be almost 600 square feet. Add 15% for waste, per online recommendations, we need 687 square feed of shingles, or almost 21 bundles. I have 18 bundles of architectural shingles, and several more of 3-tab shingles. If I get 3 more architectural bundles, I can do that whole section of the roof in just that type, which I believe would be a good option. Next, I need to assess tar paper needs vs. our inventory.
    
  • Smoke from fires in the west and in Canada filled our air, today. It was hard to tell if it was cloudy, or just smokey. By nighttime, it seemed better. We could see Jupiter and Saturn in the SE sky.

Muskmelons (front), watermelons (2nd), cucs (3rd).

Cucumbers (front), watermelons (upper, right).

Cherokee Rose Watermelon.

Diablo Pumpkin.

New England long pie pumpkin.

Verona watermelon.

One of 4 muskmelon types.

Hot Portugal peppers.

Revolution sweet peppers.

Zucchini (front), pumpkins (background).

• Monday, 8/2: Final Pickle Batch
  
  • We picked cucumbers, then Mary made her final batch of pickles, 6 quarts, for the year. She fed extras to the chickens. Our rooster, Leo, made loud clucks, telling the hens how great the cucumber slices looked. The chicks acted like the cucumber slices were aliens from another planet and didn't touch them.
    
  • I sharpened the mower blade and checked the number of ridge cap shingles...need 100 and I have 125, so I have enough.
    
  • I used the extendable fruit picker and picked a third of a 5-gallon bucket of pears off the top branches of the large Bartlett pear tree. It's neck-breaking work. I removed 2 branches that already broke from the weight of too many pears. There are more pears that I need to remove.
    
  • Mary fish fertilized the peppers, sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, tomatillos, tomatoes, beans, parsnips, and strawberries. I mixed up a batch of spray fertilizer and applied it to acorn squash, zucchini, corn, all of the apple trees, all of the cherry trees, and blueberry plants.
  • Mary saw a doe and a fawn on the lane while getting the mail. The doe stared at Mary for a full two minutes, before deciding Mary was no good, and ran off. Our property is filled with doe and fawn deer this summer.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/3: We Own a Doe Deer Ranch
  
  • As I got the last waterer filled for the chickens during our morning chores, Mary spotted a doe deer south of her as she stood in the chicken yard. It spooked when I arrived with the chicken waterer. Mary says the does are like shy cows. They're everywhere near our house.
    
  • Mary mowed the east yards on either side of the lane in front of our house. The mowed grass completely covers the existing lawn. It looks like a mowed hay field.
    
  • I texted Mom about garden plants. She said her garden looks good only because she meticulously waters it. Her last water bill reflects the garden watering.
    
  • Due to body aches and pains, I stayed inside and balanced 2 months worth in our checkbook.
    
  • Our son is 28 years old today. We called him. Tomorrow is his last day of work for the week, as he's taking the rest of the week off to go on a trip with friends to Kentucky. They're renting an airbnb. He and all of his friends are vaccinated, but Bill says he will wear a mask whenever they're in public. We talked with Bill for an hour.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/4: Roof Repair Check
  
  • I crawled up on the roof to investigate the electrical inlet boot. There is some dried out asphalt sealant where the boot meets roof shingles. I read on the website of the company I bought a product from that's called Liquid Membrane that this item won't seal over anything that is petroleum based. I sent a message asking about 15-year old asphalt, since I doubt I can remove it. I got a voicemail from the company suggesting I try painting it on a couple spots, let it dry for 48 hours, then stick duct tape to it, pull the duct tape off, and see if their product stays in place, or is removed by the duct tape. Their product won't set correctly over top of newly applied asphalt, but it might work on old, dried-up stuff, like we have. After the sun was low in the western sky and not shining directly on that part of the roof, I painted a couple 1-inch sections on the boot.
    
  • Mary and I raked the lawns where she mowed yesterday into over a dozen big piles of grass. We put all of the mulch in the near garden where potato and carrot plants were pulled.
    
  • Mary washed clothes and made flour tortillas.
  • We saw purple leaves on tomato plants, which indicates a lack of phosphorus, probably due to excess moisture. There were also curled leaves on one of the pepper plants. So, Mary applied bone meal to the tomatoes and peppers, since it contains 8% phosphorus. I helped haul water, so she could lightly water them.
    
  • We had a clear night, without smoke from wildfires in Canada and out west. The stars and planets were very bright in the night sky.
  • Morons in Quincy won't be able to squabble about masks in schools, because the Illinois governor mandated masks for all preschool through 12th grade students and daycares, statewide, due to an uptick in COVID cases. The Missouri governor is a complete moron. He pardoned the St. Louis couple who waved guns at people peacefully protesting by their house.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/5: REC Annual Meeting
  
  • I drove to Lewistown and went through the Lewis County Rural Electric Cooperative's (REC) drive-through annual meeting in order to receive a $20 credit on our electric bill. I also dropped off bill payments at the post office and left our REC payment at the co-op.
    
  • Mary handled paying our monthly bills, and put money into various savings accounts.
  • I lined up, through Facebook Messenger texts, an arrangement to pick up another bunch of shingles from someone near Wayland, MO, north of us in Clark County.
  • We saw a doe and a fawn in the curve of the lane, next to Bluegill Pond. The fawn was two-thirds of the size of the doe and losing its spots.
    
    
• Friday, 8/6: More Shingles
  
  • I drove the pickup to Quincy, and stopped at our bank to get cash for buying shingles, to Farm & Home to get chick feed, and Aldi for a few items. Then, I drove about 35 miles north.
  • I picked up 4 1/2 packages of shingles. The couple I bought them from were once in the construction business. They were in Homer, AK, a few days before 9/11. We talked forever. When I got back in the pickup to drive home, there was a text from Mary, asking how things were coming along.
  • I stopped at Fastlane in Taylor, MO, to get gas. It's at $2.95 a gallon, now. This was the first chance I had a measuring the pickup's fuel economy. It gets 21 miles per gallon.
  • While I was gone, Mary cleaned house.
  • We ate nachos and watched the 2009 movie, Invictus.
  • We checked the garden. Plants are growing well (see photos, below).
    
  • In the evening, coyotes were howling near the chicken yard, so we went outside with a flashlight and scared them off. We don't mind wildlife, but a line is drawn if they try to eat our future food.

One of our growing Diablo pumpkins.

A string of black cherry tomatoes.

Several green Rutgers tomatoes.

• Saturday, 8/7: Clean Up Day
  
  • I unloaded shingles from the pickup into the machine shed. I got 92 more architectural shingles, with the color called Varied Heather. I say it's dark brown. The date on the paper packaging was 1/13/00, so they're 21-year old shingles.
    
  • Mary did 3 batches of laundry. I washed my hat. It needed cleaning, badly.
    
  • Mary propped up several more watermelons and musk melons. We have many of them growing in the garden.
    
  • Mary harvested the onions. They didn't do as well, this year. The ground is too wet for root crops.
    
  • She also picked 2 large zucchinis and several large cucumbers. We had cucumber salad in the evening.
  • We're getting about 12 strawberries a day (see photo, below).
    
  • We seeing lots of monarch butterflies.

  

  A daily bowl of fresh strawberries.