Oct. 3-9, 2021

Weather | 10/3, 0.24" rain, 60°, 73° | 10/4, 50°, 73° | 10/5, 60°, 70° | 10/6, 0.21" rain, 61°, 65° | 10/7, 61°, 75° | 10/8, 56°, 79° | 10/9, 58°, 77° |

• Sunday, 10/3: Animal Sightings
  
  • A helicopter went by overhead this afternoon, heading east. Mary watched a vulture that was initially higher than the helicopter drop in elevation to catch the draft from the exiting helicopter and glide in the wake super fast. After awhile, it was flying normal speed. It was like a surfer catching a wave, but in the air, instead of in water.
    
  • In the evening, we watched 2 ducks of fairly good size fly out of Bluegill Pond. Mary looked them up and they were a pair of American wigeons, a first sighting of that variety on our property.
    
  • After dark, the night sky was bright with stars and the Milky Way was out if full force. We noticed bats flying about, because their dark form showed up against the lighter night sky.
    
  • We saw a firefly tonight. We've never noticed a firefly in October.
    
  • While butchering our last 3 chickens, we both saw a meteor fall to earth in the NE horizon.
  • Butchering our last chickens went fast...started at 7:45 and finished at 9:15 p.m. With 9 chickens from last year and these 27, we have a total of 36 frozen chickens. We're set with chicken meat. We're celebrating the end of 2021 chicken butchering with a bottle of blackberry wine.
  • I racked the autumn olive wine for the 3rd time. It's clearing up nicely (see photo, below). A quick taste revealed a more significant autumn olive flavor in the wine, but with a strong taste of alcohol. Aging will mellow the alcohol. The specific gravity is still 0.990. The transfer filled a 5-gallon carboy and a 333-ml beer bottle.
    
  • Katie texted that she flew out of Alaska the other night and saw an amazing display of northern lights.

  

  Autumn olive wine after 3rd racking.
  

• Monday, 10/4: Lift Arrival
  
  • The driver from United Rentals, delivering the 45-foot lift, called at 7:22 a.m. and we agreed to meet at Johnnie's gas station in Ewing. I led him to our driveway, where he backed into it and ran the lift off the flatbed. The driver asked me how old I was. When I told him, he said he watched me run up to the semi and hoped he could get around like I do at that age. First, I don't think I'm old. Second, I ran...so what? Later, he asked if he wanted me to have him drive the lift to the house. "Why?" I asked. "So you don't have to walk," he answered. I told him it was no big deal and thought to myself, walking as much as I do is the reason why I can run.
  • When I got to the house with the car, Mary was letting chickens out for the day. Sunny, our lone pullet from this year's chicks, blended in quite well with the other adult chickens. She's taller than our 2 other Buff Orpington hens.
    
  • After driving the lift to our house, I read the heap of a mess of an operation's manual that no one ever reads tucked in a plastic case on the lift's cage, then tested it. There are several switches to multiple appendages for this lift.
  • Mary washed 3 loads of laundry, while I cleaned and put away chicken butchering things.
  • Since rain is predicted on Wednesday and Thursday, we decided to cut down the weeping willow tree, first, so our roof isn't exposed to rain. I used the lift to raise myself up into lower branches and cut them down with the small Stihl chainsaw. Mary hauled branches away into various piles based on dryness and size. We extracted 3 medium-sized limbs (see photo, below).
  • We quit branch removal and I removed the wall inside the chicken coop that was separating hens/rooster from chicks. Sunny was upset when she got inside, because her coop grew larger and all those big chickens were pecking sunflower seeds off the floor. She'll get over her concerns soon enough.
    
  • Mary had me cut a dead cedar tree. We trimmed its branches, scratched it through the house while scaring dogs and cats and we set it up in the Christmas tree stand in the living room. I strung orange lights on it and we hung some of Mary's cross stitch ornaments on it (see photos, below). It's pretty, in a sort of Corpse Bride way. Mary says it's just as she imagined it should look.
    

The lift and stubs from removed branches.

The decorated Halloween tree.

One of Mary's cross stitch ornaments.

Another cross stitch ornament.

The top of the Halloween tree.

Top of tree and another cross stitch ornament.

• Tuesday, 10/5: Weeping Willow Limb Removal
  
  • Using the lift and the small chainsaw, we cut down tree limbs all day (see photos, below). I'm guessing that a quarter to a third of the limbs are gone. We still have several top limbs to remove. I'm going from the bottom to the top on the tree. Cleaning out the branches really opens up the area to light. The woodshed, which was shaded by that tree, is much brighter inside, now. A plus with working on this tree is I'm learning the nuances of operating the lift. It's quite a machine and unlike last year's towable lift, this one is self driven by a keen 3-cylinder Kubota gas engine. The morning's gas-up proved this engine operates very efficiently on fuel. One change I made after banging my elbow on the hard plastic console while starting the chainsaw is to start the saw on the ground, then go up in the lift with the chainsaw idling.
    
  • Mary did a load of laundry. Increasing clouds forced her to dry several of the heavier socks inside.
  • Mary picked a more than average share of strawberries. Cooler weather makes them grow berries well. Strawberry crowns are throwing out an abundance of leaves.
  • Leaves on the ash trees are turning a reddish/bronze color...very pretty. The emerald ash borers haven't found us, yet. We hope they stay away.

In the lift, with safety fall vest and chainsaw helmet.

Sawing down a weeping willow tree limb.

• Wednesday, 10/6: Rainy & Inside
  
  • Rain predictions kept us from running the lift. I did use the extension ladder to get on the north roof, which is gently sloping, and cut down branches I could reach with the small chainsaw. I hauled them to our ever-growing piles of limbs.
  • Mary made 2 pizzas. We ate one for our midday meal and one for supper.
  • I went online to the JLG lift website and found the operation manual for this lift, since the manual with the lift is mainly unreadable, due to moisture damage. The key pages detailed how the lift can tip over. Wording was obscure on the paper manual with the lift. I now have a better understanding of what not to do.
    
  • A solid rain went through around 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
  • We checked 2 of the 212 Bartlett pears we have stored for ripening. I cut them in quarters and we ate them. They're juicy, tasty and ready. In checking my wine recipe, I realized I need to get lemons. I'll do it in the morning, because we need to make pear wine, pronto. Jack Keller's book indicates the pear skins can stay on. That will make pear wine making much easier. Rain is predicted tomorrow, so it will be a great day for making pear wine.
    
    
• Thursday, 10/7: Pear Winemaking
  
  • Mary cored and cubed 100 Bartlett pears (more like 130, because 2 small pears we counted as one pear) and 12 Kieffer pears while I drove to Quincy and bought lemons, plus a few groceries at Sam's Club and Aldi. It was shopping day for Quincyites, because both stores were full of people.
  • When I got home, Mary was still working on pears. She ended up filling 3 very large stainless steel bowls with cubed pears in a ReaLemon/water solution to keep them from browning. Keeping skins on the pears made this job easier.
    
  • Once she finished, I chopped 3 pounds of golden raisins, squeezed juice from 13 lemons, and crunched 5 Campden tablets in the mortar and pestle. I then added a handful of raisins to each 5 handfuls of pear cubes into the nylon mesh bag, smashed the pear pieces down with my fists, added another 2 layers, and kept going until all raisins and pears were in the tube-shaped bag. This method is better than using a potato masher, because I gained over 2 gallons of pear juice. Next, I added lemon juice, Campden tablet powder, 2 tablespoons each of acid blend and yeast nutrient, 2 gallons, 1.5 quarts of water, and 7.5 pounds of sugar. Last year, I used 5.5 pounds of sugar. Last year's pears were super ripe. This year, they are just ripe, not nearly rotten ripe, so the pear must required 2 more pounds of sugar. The specific gravity was 1.079 and the pH was at 3.5...just perfect. I wanted to get to 6.5-gallons of liquid, but I ended at 5.5 gallons. With the full nylon mesh bag in the brew bucket, the level goes above 8 gallons and there's no room left for more liquid. I told Mary I need a bigger brew bucket and she responded that I can barely move this bucket when it's full. She's right.
    
  • Mary fixed up nachos and we watched the Corpse Bride movie while enjoying a bottle of 2020 pear wine.
  • We got just a few drops of rain, while east of us, thunderstorm clouds developed and rain fell on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.
    
    
• Friday, 10/8: Winemaking, Tree Removal, and Garden Harvest
  
  • Winemaking got late yesterday, so the first order of activities today, after eating strawberry waffles, was cleanup. 
  • I added pectic enzyme to the pear wine must and got a package of Red Star Côte des Blancs going as a starter batch. Prior to going to bed, I pitched the yeast into the pear wine brew bucket. The specific gravity was at 1.082, which is just right for about 12% alcohol.
  • Mary picked 29 acorn squash, 4 more Diablo pumpkins, 2 New England long pie pumpkins, plus a surprise muskmelon from the garden. We ate the muskmelon as dessert for supper. She also cleaned out the rest of the hazelnuts.
  • I took out the lower branches near the house on the weeping willow tree. Fortunately, heavy branches hinged down while I was cutting with the chainsaw and fell straight down, but away from the house roof. I got the big chainsaw out and cut up larger branches after they dropped to the ground. It really cuts up wood in a hurry, compared to the small chainsaw. But, the small saw is perfect for trimming branches, or taking up in the lift.
  • Mary reports that it's time for us to eat winter greens once a week in order to thin them out.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/9: Bill is Traveling
  
  • Bill called. He's going to Greer, S.C. between Oct. 17-21 to train workers at that location on the company's inventory software. His friends, Mike and Erin, are moving soon and he will help them move.
  • A check in the morning of the pear wine showed a healthy yeast fizz and the specific gravity of 1.080.
  • Mary processed and froze 11 quarts of Jonathan apples. With 11 quarts in the freezer from last year, we have 22 quarts, total.
  • I switched chains on the small chainsaw and cleaned out the exhaust screen.
  • I removed more branches from the weeping willow tree. Several branches have carpenter ant holes in them. Others are dead. These are reasons why this tree has to go. A strong wind against weak branches could result in house damage. Our branch piles are getting larger. The view out of the upstairs north bedroom window once was just tree branches, but now we can see from the chicken coop to the parked cars.
  • We ate jelly on biscuits, popcorn, and pears while watching the second Harry Potter movie.