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.