Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2021

Weather | 11/28, 29°, 43° | 11/29, 29°, 57° | 11/30, 33°, 55° | 12/1, 0.09" rain, 37°, 60° | 12/2, 47°, 61° | 2/3, 37°, 57° | 12/4, 33°, 45° |

• Sunday, 11/28: Bill Leaves, Cutting Firewood & Fast Fermentation
  
  • Bill packed up and left at 1:30 p.m. Initially, his car didn't start, yet he started it yesterday. I gave it a shot of starting fluid, twice. On the second try, it started. Later, after he returned to St. Louis, it started fine.
  • I cut up 2 ash trees that fell down near the cow barn in the center of our property, loaded the cut firewood into the 8N Ford's trailer, and drove the load home. We used some of the ash firewood for our evening fire. It's so much better than the weeping willow wood we've been burning. Willow firewood has the heat content of ice.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project and the evening chores.
  • We watched the 2017 movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas, about Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol. It's a really good movie.
  • A check of the parsnip wine showed the specific gravity to be 1.020. Fermentation is moving along very quickly. It should be ready to move into a gallon jug tomorrow.
    
    
• Monday, 11/29: Racked Parsnip Wine
  
  • I received a call in the morning from The Home Brewery in Ozark, MO related to an order I made last night for corks, airlocks and wine yeast. He said the yeast is out of stock, but will be in stock in a week. I told him to wait and send it all when the yeast arrives. It was very thoughtful for him to call.
    
  • Mary cross stitched, and watered the garlic planted in the far garden. She also thawed  ingredients for making a batch of salsa, tomorrow.
    
  • A specific gravity check gave me a reading of 1.006 on the parsnip wine, so I racked it into a gallon jug and a 750-ml wine bottle (see photo, below). I added about 90 ml of spring water to top up the wine bottle. The wine must bubbled for a couple hours after I racked it, but died off soon after the racking.
  • I checked the bottles I need for future wine and called a woman with wine bottles she saved for crafting to see if she had any that once had corks in them. Apparently, making "crafty" things out of wine bottles is a thing some women do. After a check, she has only 8 bottles made for corking. We agreed I'd pick them up at her home in Quincy tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.
  • I moved 2 wheelbarrow loads of firewood from the trailer behind the 8N Ford tractor to the woodshed.
  • We ate all Thanksgiving leftovers, except for turkey meat, today.
    

  

  Parsnip wine after 1st racking. Bill says
  it looks like I have too many eggs in the eggnog.
  It needs to go through a whole lot of settling!
  

• Tuesday, 11/30: A Salsa-Making Day
  
  • Two wood ducks flew from the field to the SE of the house, north to Wood Duck Pond, while we walked the dogs this morning. Before we walked, we saw a hawk in a persimmon tree, just east of the house, with blue jays all around it pestering the hawk. It flew off to the east before we opened the door.
  • Mary had a big day preparing and canning a big batch of salsa. She canned 13 quart jars, and 1 pint jar.
    
  • I called a guy who had 4 coolers for sale for $15, which is a good price. He lives in Shelbina, MO, which is 35 miles south of us. I drove the pickup there and got them. After a good cleanup, they're perfect for full wine bottle storage.
    
  • I then drove to Quincy, IL. I returned the foundation vents I bought at Menards. They never closed, even when the temperature was 13 last Friday. I bought new foundation vents at Lowe's. They cost $2 more per vent, but if they work, they're worth it. I got 5 bottles of white grape juice for future garlic winemaking, some hen feed, and bought the 8 bottles from the Kate, the crafting woman, for $5. I bought gas on the way home. It was $2.99 a gallon.
  • I also called a woman who runs a custom event planning business in Quincy. Kate suggested her as someone who has lots of empty wine bottles. This new person is Sandy Blickhan, who runs Something Borrowed. She said she's been working on a big project, involving lots of empty wine bottles, that she's abandoning, so she has a need to get rid of several bottles. She's going into surgery next week, but will gather up all of her bottles that once were corked and give me a call to work out arrangements for me to pick them up. She will let them go for $5 a dozen. That's a great price. New bottles run $15 to $35 a dozen. 
    
  • Mary fixed up turkey meat, potatoes with Ranch dressing, and acorn squash for a nice meal. For dessert, we each ate a quart of thawing muskmelon. I cracked open a bottle of homemade blackberry wine. What a feast!
  • Below is a photo of Mary's Christmas cactus in full bloom.

  

  Mary's Christmas cactus (tree in background).
  

• Wednesday, 12/1: We're Bulging with Salsa
  
  • Mary made her last batch of salsa for the year...2021 batch number 4. It's also the last canning episode for 2021. She canned 13 quarts of salsa, today. The total on the shelves is 46 quarts. We're in the salsa now!
  • I worked on an interesting Christmas project. Hope it works out. That's all I'm going say about that!
  • In the evening, a big flock of Canada geese flew over the house. They were lifting up as they flew over us and you could hear the wind rushing over their wing feathers. One goose squeaked with each wing beat, sounding as though it had a rusty joint.
  • We watched the 1994 movie, Little Women.
    
    
• Thursday, 12/2: Katie Starts New Job Tomorrow
  
  • A text from Katie informed us that she's in Atlanta. Her plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties, so she switched flights, putting her into Anchorage 3 hours late. She got her new job and begins her new work in the UIC Anchorage headquarters tomorrow morning.
  • Mary did a couple loads of laundry, some cross stitch, and vacuumed flies out of  windows. She also did the evening chores.
  • I worked on my Christmas project.
  • I also worked up a new 5-gallon batch of garlic wine. It was a long haul. I started at 2:30 p.m. and ended at 2:30 a.m. I popped 100 bulbs of German extra hardy and Music pink garlic. That produced 465 cloves, which I peeled. I had 5 bad cloves. The good cloves were sliced in half (see photos, below). Then, I ground the 460 good cloves in the food processor instead of slicing them by hand. The ground garlic was placed in a nylon mesh bag. Next, 2.5 gallons of white grape juice and 2 gallons of spring water was added to the brew bucket. The pH was 3.2, so I didn't add acid blend. Five ground Campden tablets went in, along with 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient. I added 8 pounds, instead of 6 pounds, 10 ounces of sugar called for in the recipe. This gave me a specific gravity of at 1.100, instead of 1.105 to 1.110 prescribed by the recipe. I figured that 14.4% alcohol at a 1.100 specific gravity is fine. The alcohol is 15.1% with a 1.105 specific gravity, or 15.7% at a 1.110 specific gravity. More alcohol does not make the wine better. The brew bucket has a very garlic smell, giving the house a strong odor.
    

460 garlic cloves.

Slicing garlic cloves in warm, silly MU booties.

• Friday, 12/3: Buck, Garlic Wine Yeast, Seed & Tree Ordering
  
  • We saw a limping buck in the west field as we opened the coop to let the chickens out in the morning. He ought to be safe. Tomorrow is the opening day of the firearms anterless deer season.
    
  • Mary washed 2 loads of clothes. She also figured out garden seed requirements for next year.
  • I checked the garlic wine must's pH. It was too basic at a 4.4 reading, so I added 5 teaspoons of acid blend and brought it down to 3.5, which is perfect. I added pectic enzyme, then worked up a yeast starter with Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast, a champagne yeast. I fed the yeast starter 2 ounces of garlic wine must heated to 95° to 97° throughout the day. The wine's specific gravity was still at 1.100 when I pitched the yeast into the brew bucket 11 hours after adding the pectic enzyme.
  • I worked on my Christmas project for 30 minutes.
    
  • I did online research and decided on getting a Liberty apple tree and a Porter's Perfection crab apple tree. We then ordered garden seeds and apple trees from Fedco. They were out of 2 onion seed varieties and acorn squash seed, so we ordered onion seeds from Territorial Seeds and Table Queen acorn squash seed from Victory Seeds.
  • I also ordered a Missouri Conservation 2022 Natural Events Calendar. 
  • Katie texted that all went well on her first day at the new job in Anchorage. Her first project involves new elementary school construction at Bethel, AK. She said Friday is a good first day for a job, because she can hit the ground running on Monday.
  • Mary and I reviewed online design ideas for building a conservatory, or sunroom/greenhouse into a home.
    
    
• Saturday, 12/4: Doe Deer Season Begins
  
  • Today is the start of firearms anterless deer season. This morning, some dingbat was plinking away with a shot every minute. He was shooting just east of our property line. Such an action makes no sense, when ammunition is nonexistent in area sporting good stores.
    
  • Mary paid bills and worked out adding monies to various savings funds. She washed sheets, made flour tortillas, then chimichangas covered in winter greens for our main meal.
  • I went to the cow barn deer stand to go hunting. It's a cow barn in the tiniest sense. This is a small metal building with a partial concrete floor. Some of the tin covering the building is deteriorating. I lean a deer stand built with a metal ladder on the building's front. The seat of the deer stand lays perfectly on the metal building's roof. Sitting on it, I face east. Wind was blowing from the east, making it a perfect location. I didn't see any deer. Instead, I saw lots of squirrels and a black opossum. They're usually white or tan, not black. I heard splashing in Dove Pond, located just west of the cow barn through cedar trees. At sunset, a flock of ducks blasted off the pond. I think they were teal ducks.
    

Nov. 21-27, 2021

Weather | 11/21, 39°, 55° | 11/22, 21°, 35° | 11/23, 24°, 53° | 11/24, sprinkles, 40°, 57° | 11/25, 0.04" rain, 21°, 29° | 11/26, 13°, 41° | 11/27, 29°, 57° |

• Sunday, 11/21: Autumn Olive Wine Bottling
  
  • Bill and I cleaned up bottles I put in OxiClean about 2 months ago (cutting trees and putting on a roof with a lift got in the way). Those bottles were only supposed to be in that solution for a week. Needless to say, the labels came off easily.
  • We racked the second batch of autumn olive wine I made this year. The specific gravity is still 0.990, giving it a 12.34% alcohol content. The acidity is 0.625 tartaric, which is close enough to 0.650. There were very few fines. We tasted it. The wine contains a good autumn olive taste, but with a tang. It's very smooth. We added 4.75 Campden tablets. The other quarter tablet went into cork soaking solution. We bottled 25 750-ml bottles. We soaked the 3" long solid corks for 3 hours, which wasn't quite long enough. Some of the corks are slightly wider and don't go all the way into the bottles. I re-corked 3 bottles.
  • It was nice to take a day off from deer hunting. A strong NW wind, with gusts over 30 mph, blew all day.
  • Mary cross stitched and did the evening chores.
  • Mary saw a pair of bald eagles flying side-by-side, circling over the house, and calling.
    
  • I built a small fire outside and we cooked up smoked scrambled eggs. We drank a bottle of Bill's strawberry wine. It's very good. We also ate one of the Sweet Dakota Rose watermelons. They are known as a long keeper and, indeed, that's what we experienced. This watermelon was picked in early September and we're eating it the week of Thanksgiving. That's amazing.
  • I texted Katie, asking how she was coping with low Alaska temperatures and she replied that she is sitting in the Atlanta airport. She flew out of Venetie, AK, yesterday around noon. She wrote, "It's so hot down here! It was -26 the morning I left Venetie, and to be honest, I think I was pretty acclimated to it."
    

• Sunday, 11/21 Addendum: Stuff I Forgot
  
  • Bill aired the Minnesota Vikings game via his smart phone and a Bluetooth speaker while we worked on bottling wine. He tuned into KROX, out of Crookston, MN, the same town Katie was born in. It was fun listening to the Vikings beat the Packers and it was a stroll down memory lane listening to radio ads from an area where we once lived. We even heard an ad for a lumber yard in Red Lake Falls, MN, the exact town we lived in from 1990 to '92.
  • I worked up a recipe from 2 other parsnip wine recipes.
    

• Monday, 11/22: Shot a Young Button Buck
  
  • I didn't like the parsnip wine recipe I developed, so after talking about it to Mary & Bill, I looked up ideas online. Most parsnip wine recipes are from the UK. I like one by a woman in New Brunswick, Canada. Her recipe is simple, a factor I prefer.
  • Mary made a delicious venison stew and biscuits meal.
  • I left for the Wood Duck Deer Stand at 3:10 p.m. and was on the stand and loaded my rifle by 3:25 p.m. The air was very calm, with a hint of a breath of air out of the southwest. I didn't see a thing, other than an army of squirrels running around like kids at a county fair's amusement ride section. They made a ton of noise. As the sun faded away, I heard turkeys flying into trees south of me. At 5:10, just five minutes shy of the end of legal shooting time, I heard loud footsteps west of me. It took awhile before I saw 2, maybe 3 deer. The leader, stood still and looked up my way on the far edge of the dry creek bed. While looking through the rifle's scope, I noticed the deer didn't have a rack. It walked across the dry creek bed toward me. I took a right-handed shot and hit it through the shoulders. It dropped instantly. After a couple hours of silence, other than raucous squirrels, the report of my 30:30 rifle firing was extremely loud. The deer turns out to be a button buck (see photo, below). The meat will be very tender and good.
  • After telechecking the deer in through my phone, I texted Mary and Bill that I got it, then walked home. They were dressed for helping field dress a deer as I walked through the door. They headed out while I changed to lighter clothes, poured gas in the 8N Ford tractor, and drove it to Bramble Field, just SW of where I shot the deer. Mary and I field dressed it and hauled it through the woods, while Bill held flashlights, knives, and saws for us. After driving it home in the trailer behind the tractor, we washed the body cavity out and hung it up from a machine shed rafter. It's below freezing, tonight, which is a perfect temperature for hanging a deer. We'll be butchering venison in the morning.

  

  A button buck I harvested at 5:10 p.m. today.
  

• Tuesday, 11/23: Deer Butchering
  
  • We butchered the button buck deer today, and added 27 packages of venison into the freezer. With venison from last year, we have a grand total 58 venison meals in the freezer. Mary says if I get another deer, it has to be a young one, because we're limited on freezer space. This was a deer with a long body, which gives us more meat. With an overnight low of 24°, we had nice, cool meat today. It looked like very nice venison. I deposited the carcass in the north woods for our wildlife friends.
  • Today was the last day of firearms deer season. Anterless season runs Dec. 4-12. I might hunt during that season, but I don't have to, since we have enough meat.
  • Bill washed 2 loads of his clothes and bedding. It's cheaper for him to wash at our house.
    
  • We watched the movie Forrest Gump, which was Bill's choice. 
  • We enjoyed some beer Bill brought with him, as we watched the movie. One was a Russian Kölsch beer and the other was a vanilla porter. Both tasted good.
    

• Wednesday, 11/24: Smoke & Shopping
  
  • I opened the curtains upon waking and there was a young red-tailed hawk in a walnut tree in the east yard. A cardinal and several blue jays were pestering it. The hawk flew off to the east the moment Mary stepped onto the porch.
  • As we walked down our lane for the morning dog walk, we smelled smoke from burning grass and a few black pieces of grass floated down from the sky on a strong south wind. Concerned some idiot lit off a fire in gusty wind, we jumped in the car, drove east, then south to Highway 156, then west to try to find the fire. We didn't find it. Then, we drove back to near the house and took a small gravel road south until it turns into a dirt road. Still we couldn't find the fire, so we went home. Bill and I later saw the smoke from a fire lit by a farmer about 2-3 miles due south of us. Today was a poor day to be burning anything.
    
  • Bill and I went shopping in Quincy. It was Edgewood Orchard's last day of the season, so we bought a 1/2 peck of Jonathan apples from them. I got items to make the greenhouse on our south-facing porch at Menards. We got another turkey to eat later in the year from Sam's Club. We also got veggies for the Thanksgiving meal from a couple food stores. The whole town of Quincy was packed with shoppers.
  • Mary baked 2 pumpkin pies and several flour tortillas while we were gone. She also did some cleaning.
  • After getting home and finishing evening chores, Mary fixed up chimichangas with fresh winter greens. 
  • We tried the first bottle of 2021 grapefruit wine. It's very good. The wine tastes like alcoholic grapefruit juice. Bill says it has an olive taste to it.
  • Mary whipped up some homemade cranberry sauce for tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal. I felt lucky enough to be around to lick the spatula...yum, yum!
    
  • Light rain is falling tonight. It's so nice to have a solid roof over our heads.
    

• Thursday, 11/25: Thanksgiving Day
  
  • Mary made a glorious Thanksgiving Day meal with a 20-pound turkey, homegrown sweet potatoes and beans from our garden in the green bean casserole. There were mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and Mary's cranberry sauce from a recipe she dreamed up, which makes it extra good. We also had radishes, green onions, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, and olives, all to be drawn through dip Mary made from whole milk Greek yogurt, Miracle Whip, and ranch dressing mix. Bill selected blackberry wine, which he said matched the turkey similar to the way cranberry sauce goes well with turkey. He was right. After two big helpings of everything, we didn't have room for the pumpkin pie, again, made from a homegrown pumpkin.
  • While Thanksgiving meal prep took place, I used info from a Popular Mechanics article signifying baking soda and water as the best way to take labels off wine bottles. It does work, although I had one bottle label that seemed like it was put on with Contact cement. I cleaned labels off 10 bottles.
  • After eating, Mary cleaned meat off the turkey for future meals. Mary and I marched the turkey carcass to the north field and left it for the wild, furry friends.
  • Bill helped me start a brew of parsnip wine. I scrubbed parsnips from our garden while he cut out bad parts and sliced them. Our garden parsnips gave us only 2 pounds. We added 2 store-bought parsnips to get 3 lbs., 14 oz., which is close enough to the 4 pounds needed for a 1-gallon batch of wine. We boiled them for 15 minutes, until the slices were soft, but not mushy. We all tasted them and agreed parsnips aren't worth growing, again. After dipping out the parsnip slices and pouring the liquid through a wire mesh strainer, we added a can of apple juice concentrate, zest and juice from 2 lemons, and a pound of golden raisins that Bill chopped up, which we put in a nylon mesh bag. A crushed Campden tablet went into the mix, along with a teaspoon of pectic enzyme. We covered it to let it sit overnight.
  • Katie called while we were making parsnip wine. She made apple crisp, a caramel sauce, and added ice cream, which she took to a turkey dinner party. She came back with turkey meat and trimmings. She should get notice by Monday of getting hired for her new UIC job in Anchorage. She's planning on moving her pets north via air flights in March. Katie also plans on selling most of her belongings in Gulfport, such as vehicles, and picking up newer items in Anchorage. The date of her medical work in Seattle for her burns is Jan. 14th. Flights haven't been arranged for that, yet, but I'll be with her in Seattle. They'll use lasers to knock out hard tissue in burn areas, which stops itching that she has today. She'll be knocked out, so that's where I come in, to help her get home to a hotel room after the work is performed. Katie said they wrapped up the work in Venetie, AK, and the school district was happy with the repair done to their school. She said they worked through several sub-zero days while putting steel on the school's roof.
    
  • I put 29 wine corks into a bowl of water to soak for corking jalapeno wine, tomorrow.
  • Mary, Bill, and I played Michigan Rummy from 9 p.m. until around 1:15 a.m. Mary kicked our butts. Twice, she won on bad hands of cards, leaving both Bill and I high and dry with handfuls of paying cards. Her winning ways were uncanny! At the end of the game, the combination of Bill's chips and my chips were less than all of Mary's chips. We had a lot of fun and laughs. Midway through the game, we ate pumpkin pie.
    

• Friday, 11/26: Dusting Books & Handling Wine
  
  • While opening up chickens at the coop in the morning, the hens put up a fit, then Mary spotted a young red-tailed hawk in tree branches south of the coop. At first, the hawk looked like a broken branch, but when the branch flew, we knew it was a hawk. I chased it southward and noticed major animal trails in the south pasture.
    
  • Mary stayed out of the kitchen all day, a reprieve from yesterday's kitchen work.
  • She dusted and cleaned out the books and book shelves in the living room, since parts of them become smothered by a Christmas tree for a month.
  • Bill and I finished the parsnip wine and bottled the jalapeño wine. 
  • Concerning the parsnip wine, we added a strong cup of tea (2 teabags in a cup), a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, 2 quarts of water (for a total of 5 quarts), and only 13 ounces of sugar. Parsnip wine recipes call for 1.75 to 2 pounds of sugar per gallon, which would produce knockout amounts of alcohol. Specific gravity initially was 1.074, with a goal of 11% alcohol. The pH was over 4.4, which is way too basic, so I added 2.5 teaspoons of tartaric acid, which brought the pH down to 3.4. I created a yeast starter with Red Star Premier Classique (Montrachet) yeast, adding wine must to it throughout the day. I pitched the yeast starter into the brew bucket 7.5 hours later and by bedtime, a nice aroma already penetrated the pantry. The pH when I added yeast was 1.079.
  • Bill and I washed and sanitized 29 bottles. We racked the jalapeño wine from 2 containers into a bucket. Since the specific gravity was unchanged, at 0.990, for 13.76% alcohol, we elected not to add Campden tablets or potassium sorbate. Hardly any fines were at the bottom of the carboy and half-gallon jug. It tasted wonderful...hot, but really good. We had 600 ml left after bottling, plus 3 cups with fines in it. Between the 3 of us, we drank all but 1 cup with fines. This is not a wine to be slugged down. It's a sipping wine that certainly heats up your insides. The 3-inch long solid corks soaked for 18 hours, which is too long. If I didn't get them into the bottles all the way, they simply oozed back out of the bottle's neck. I threw away 3 that couldn't be squeezed tight in the handheld corker after a day and a half of soaking. We corked 25 bottles of jalapeño wine.
    

• Saturday, 11/27: Waffles, Wine, Pizza, & Christmas Tree
  
  • Since we had turkey omelets yesterday morning, this morning I made waffles. It was a smokey time of it. Two smoke alarms went off.
  • I racked the pear wine for the 3rd time. It's very clear, yet after draining the carboy, the leftovers held a large amount of fines. We had a small taste test. It's marvelous and the best pear wine I've ever made. The specific gravity is 0.999, compared to 1.000 the last time I racked it. The wine went right back into the 6.5-gallon carboy, after I cleaned and sanitized it. I added 1 cup of spring water to top the liquid up to the neck of the carboy.
  • A check of the parsnip wine showed good fermentation and a specific gravity of 1.070, down from 1.079 when the yeast went in yesterday.
  • Mary got out all of the Christmas tree boxes and decoration tubs.
  • Bill made 3 pizzas. While Bill did this, he played Patrick Stewart reading A Christmas Carol on his bluetooth speaker. We also drank an IPA beer Bill supplied made by Breckinridge Brewery in Colorado.
  • Katie texted that she bought Christmas presents and seven boxes are arriving here to our address.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I put up the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music and sipping China Yunnan tea. Great fun was had by all.
    

Nov. 14-20, 2021

Weather | 11/14, 33°, 39° | 11/15, 30°, 57° | 11/16, 29°, 61° | 11/17, 0.01" rain, 47°, 50° | 11/18, 26°, 40° | 11/19, 19°, 45° | 11/20, 26°, 55° |

• Sunday, 11/14: Preparing Lift for Departure
  
  • Northwest wind gusts up to 41 mph meant for a poor hunting day and I didn't hunt all day.
  • On the first morning dog walk, Plato caught a whiff of something and was upset through the entire walk. Then, on the way to the house, Mary and I caught the smell of a skunk. While dumping ashes from the woodstove, I noticed the strongest skunk smell near the electric fence of the near garden, right next to the hydrant. We think a skunk got zapped by the electric fence, let go with a little of its stink, and rambled off.
    
  • Mary finished moving books from the downstairs west bedroom to the sunroom.
  • I drove to Prairieland near LaBelle, twice, bought diesel in 5 gallon increments, and topped off the fuel tank in the lift that will be taken away tomorrow morning. After over $6000 in rental fees over 6 weeks, we won't have that 11-ton beast on our property, anymore.
    
  • I moved and stacked good shingles that were in the lift's basket to appropriate locations in the machine shed.
    
  • I took the garden hose and a stiff scrub brush to both sides of the 8 DuraDeck panels. Then, Mary and I loaded them into the pickup.
  • I did online research on building deer stands and blinds. It's time I developed better concealment possibilities for hunting deer.
    
    
• Monday, 11/15: Mom's 87th Birthday
  • I talked with Mom this evening. She had an eventful birthday and was even taken to dinner to a new restaurant in Glendive, MT. Mom heard from lots of relatives and friends, which pleased her, immensely. We talked for about an hour about lots of things.
  • The United Rental truck driver was scheduled to pick up the lift between 10 a.m. and noon. He knocked on our door at 8:15 a.m. I knew he'd be early, since he always is early, but this is earlier than I expected. He drove the lift down the lane, loaded it, and left.
  • I grabbed receipts, tied drip flashing that I bought, but never used, into the back of the pickup, and drove to Quincy. I fueled at Fastlane. It cost $65 to put 21 gallons in the truck. Gas was $3.09 a gallon. I got credit at Menards for the flashing and 11 tubes of roofing cement that I returned. I dropped off the DuraDeck panels at Sunbelt Rentals and received credit back for 2 weeks of rental for the panels.
  • Mary did 2 loads of laundry and dusted and sorted books.
  • After lunch, I walked to Bobcat Deer Blind in the north woods and watched squirrels bounce around in leaves all afternoon. I heard a deer snort at me out of sight to the east, but never saw it. After sunset, I kept hearing footsteps, but couldn't see the dastardly deer. It turned out to be an opossum heading for the creek bed below me. I went home. After 2 days, I've fired zero bullets. Mary said, "Think of all of the money you're saving."
  • Mary mowed the grass immediately north of the house.
  • I'm not hunting tomorrow morning, because if I shot a deer, we'd have to butcher it in 70° temperatures. That's too hot! Temps below 40° are preferable.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/16: One Shot, No Deer
  
  • After updating the checkbook, I checked to make sure the rental refunds came through. They didn't. I'll be checking daily and if I don't see anything in a week, I'll be called to find out why I'm not getting a refund.
  • Mary washed a load clothes.
  • With a SSE wind blowing, I went to the Cherry Deer Stand at the NE area of our property. I didn't see anything for about an hour. Then, a doe ripped by, running SE to NW, followed by a grunting buck with short horns. A few seconds later, a bigger buck ran into sight, did a loop in front of me, then ran through the cedar trees below me, crashed through a fence and disappeared. Not more than a few minutes later, a just legal buck appeared, turned sideways to me, so I shot. It ran to the north and I thought I got it. Two more bucks showed, one with a huge rack. I let them run off. It definitely was a day of horny deer when one doe running by raised the alert sign for 5 bucks. I got out of the stand and wandered around, but never saw any blood or any sign of the deer. I walked back home and got Mary. Together, we looked everywhere near the Cherry Deer Stand, but didn't see a thing. Evidently, I pulled the rifle when I squeezed off the shot, and completely missed the deer. It was probably a good thing. Venison from bucks in a lather during rut tastes like tough leather. The deer shooting gods helped me out, today.
    
  • By pulling Mary away for a half an hour to look for a nonexistent deer, she wasn't able to rake up grass she mowed around our compost bins and in the south part of the far garden. She wants to put that grass over the rows of planted garlic.
  • I weedwhacked tall grass down on a 100-foot path just west of the Bartlett pear tree, tacked up a target and sighted in the 30:30 rifle...something I should have done before going hunting, but didn't have the time. The first shot was in the ring just outside the bullseye. I raised the scope up 2 clicks. The second shot was in the bullseye. It wasn't that far off. I definitely pulled the gun as I shot at the buck, today. It's sighted in, now, so I know for sure it wasn't a gun malfunction, just a dipshit human shooting the gun.
  • Mom says they experienced horrible winds in Eastern Montana, today. She said wind blew a semi over. A check online reveals they had gusts to 65 mph.
  • Mary scared off a flock of Bob White quail when she came rattling home with the hand truck, after taking the garbage can down to the end of our lane.
  • Bill sent us the following photo, taken by Paul Friz, a fellow member of the Truman State University Astronomy Club, of which Bill was a member. Bill says Friz works at Langley research and is a cool guy to follow on Facebook. The photo is of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.

  

  Kilauea & night sky, by Paul Friz.
  

• Wednesday, 11/17: Shopping in Quincy
  
  • We drove to Quincy for a shopping trip. When we left home, rain was falling. We think that was the only rain that fell at home. In Quincy, we ran into more rain. We made 12 stops and returned home 4.5 hours after leaving for our shopping trip. Yes, Bill, we shopped like the Navy Seals taking out Osama bin Laden.
  • Fortunately, we got home in time to get the chickens put away in their coop well before darkness fell. Amber literally smiled when we let her out of the house. I emptied the Cadillac while Mary did most of the evening chores.
  • The rain and a strong NNW wind meant deer hunting would have been miserable. We heard one shot after sunset from property to the north of us. Otherwise, it was quiet.
  • The following photo Katie took of the Aurora Borealis in the sky over Venetie, AK a couple nights ago.

  

  Northern Lights above Venetie, AK, by Katie Melvin.
  

• Thursday, 11/18: Second Shot, No Deer
  
  • Mary cleaned house, today.
  • I didn't get up early to hunt. Instead, I went to the cedar trees NE of Swim Pond for a couple hours starting at noon. A strong WNW wind veered to NNW in the 2 hours I sat leaned up against the trunk of a cedar tree. There are plenty of tracks in the trail that goes down to the base of the pond's dam. I didn't see anything but a squirrel.
  • After lunch and at 3 p.m., I walked to the Bobcat Deer Blind. A deer spooked and ran north that was standing on the trail to Bobcat. At sunset, 2 deer downwind of me snorted and ran east. At about 5:10 and with only 9 minutes left of legal shooting time, 3 does came down the valley north of me, crossed the dry creek bed and ran up the valley just west of me. I took a shot and missed, again. I just can't hit the broadside of a barn this year. I searched up the hill and didn't find anything. I walked home, shed clothes, grabbed a flashlight and searched the woods all the way to the west field...nothing. I've shot at moving deer in the past and hit them, but I sure can't seem to do it this year. Two shots and no venison for me as of today.
  • I saw a pileated woodpecker in the north woods while hunting. It was really loud and quite large. I also watched a hawk fly through trees, tipping sideways to dodge branches, then land in the top of a very large oak tree. Mary says it was probably Cooper's hawk, that has rounded wings, enabling it to navigate well through timber.
  • The full moon was rising to the east and through the trees just before I saw the 3 does.
  • I read today that the infrastructure bill recently signed into law raises federal infrastructure spending to its highest share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since the early 1980s. Who was our U.S. President in the early '80s? Ronald Reagan. Republicans in the 1980s had no problem approving infrastructure spending. But, it seems to be a problem, today. I call it yellow-bellied and two-faced. Der Führer said "Nein!" so most U.S. House GOP lemmings followed suit. That's not an impressive action.
    
    
• Friday, 11/19: Two Stints Sitting On Plywood, Viewing Deer
  
  • I got up at 4:30 a.m., ate 2 pieces of toast, and put on my winter gear. Mary walked dogs and caught the end of the lunar eclipse.
    
  • I left the house at 5:30 and walked to the Cherry Deer Stand to the NE. The moon was full and shining brightly in the west. When it was just starting to lighten, but I could barely see (well before legal shooting time), I saw 2 deer walking quietly from north to south a few feet to my east. A flock of small ducks flew over and landed in Swim Pond, south of that deer stand. For over an hour, I heard them splashing around in the water. Right as the sun started rising, a buck with only 4 points on its rack, in other words, not legal to shoot, walked out into the open just east of me, and stood there for about 20 minutes surveying things. He was a nicely filled out animal with beautiful markings. I was glad he wasn't legal. He gets to live another year. Occasionally, he raised his nose and sniffed the air. I think he was getting faint wisps of my scent. Finally, he walked off to the north. I returned home by 8 a.m. 
  • On the way home, a huge great horned owl lifted off from a bare grass spot in the north field and flew west, to the north woods. It had a huge wingspan.
    
  • Mary washed the curtains, then washed the inside of all house windows. After the curtains dried a little, she brought them in, ironed them, and hung them back up.
  • I replaced the storm door latch.
    
  • I left the house at 1 p.m. and went back to the Cherry Deer Stand. A strong south to SE wind blew, with gusts to 22 mph. I never saw a deer, but I heard deer snorts 2 different times, from deer downwind, or north of me, who smelled me on the wind. Something was rustling around beyond the cedar trees south of me, but I never saw what type of animal was making the noise. A big flock of Canada geese flew over during this rustling. I walked home at 5 p.m., with a very sore butt from sitting on a piece of plywood for hours.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of 2021 dandelion wine (see photo, below), celebrating wrapping Christmas presents the earliest we've ever accomplished this task. The wine tastes very good. Mary says the wine begins with a tang, and then moves through a warm phase, from the ginger. It finishes with a dandelion floral taste.

  

  2021 Dandelion Wine...it's yummy!
  

• Saturday, 11/20: Pig-Pen Goes Hunting
  
  • I didn't get up early to go deer hunting. After the roof job, I'm tired, these days.
    
  • Mary washed sheets.
  • Bill showed up at 12:30 p.m. He's here for a week.
  • I walked to the Southeast Cedar Deer Blind at 1:30 p.m. Even though I didn't see deer, I sure heard them. I felt as though I was Pig-Pen from the comic strip Peanuts going hunting. Deer snorted from far away to the east of me, to the west of me, and to the north of me. Then, after sunset, a shot rang out. It was the guy (nephew of the owner) on the metal deer stand just east of our property and next to Wood Duck Pond. All of the deer might have been snorting from his scent. The end of legal shooting time was 5:18 p.m. I packed it up and left then. I thought I was hearing deer moving around in the woods east of me, but when I left, I realized it was a rabbit. Squirrels are thick in those woods. Lespodeza is growing south of that area, where deer once moved around. I don't think they like moving through lespodeza and we need to work to get rid of it, because lespodeza is taking over our property, along with cedar trees.
  • Mary and Bill raked up grass she cut a couple days ago and used it as a mulch over top of the newly-planted garlic.
  • We all ate nachos and watched the 2019 movie, 1917, about World War I.
    

Nov. 7-13, 2021

Weather | 11/7, 39°, 64° | 11/8, 46°, 66° | 11/9, 47°, 63° | 11/10, 48°, 63° | 11/11, 0.36" rain, 46°, 51° | 11/12, snow & sleet that immediately melted, 35°, 37° | 11/13, 0.04" rain, 30°, 39° |

• Sunday, 11/7: More of the Same!
  
  • I pounded nails into shingles on the roof, again. I've passed the halfway mark of the valley, which isn't saying that I'm halfway done, because the roof grows progressively wider the further up you go. On the flip side, a wider roof means less time fiddling with cutting shingles and fitting them into the valley. So far, I've pounded in 22 courses of shingles on the south-facing slope, 10 courses today, and 18 on the east-facing slope, 5 courses today (see photos, below). The color of our roof was mosaic until today. I got tired of trying to mix colors, so from now on it will be striped. Since I bought other people's leftovers, I have multiple colors. We hope to be out of this house in the future. Looks mean nothing. What matters is to get a roof that doesn't leak.
  • Wind gusts were to 31 mph from the south. I knew it was windy, but my concentration was on getting more shingles on the roof, rather than the wind. There's an 80% chance of rain Wednesday night. I want to be done with the roof by then.
    
  • Mary washed furniture covers, then made venison stew and biscuits, which was extra yummy.
    
  • She also cleaned the third row of the far garden, involving hauling away rotten watermelon vines and melons and Diablo pumpkin vines. Then, Mary planted the Music Pink and German Extra Hardy garlic varieties. Garlic planting is now finished.
  • To celebrate Mary's release from bending over for hours in the far garden planting garlic, we uncorked a bottle of homemade blackberry wine that I made earlier this year. It's exceptionally tasty and works nicely with peach jelly on biscuits.

A view of our roof's progress from the lift.

A second view of the roof, from the lift.

• Monday, 11/8: Purple Paint, Parsnips & Shingles
  
  • Bill called last night after I wrote this blog just to chat. He helped his friends move most recently. The people he trained in SC told Bill he should move there. He's not interested. Bill will be here 11/20 through 11/28.
  • Mary painted trees and fence posts on the south border of our property, next to the gravel road, with purple paint. In Missouri, purple paint signifies no trespassing. It's easier than tacking up signs, which our neighbor did. Mary says his signs are made of cheap plastic and recent winds are ripping them up and blowing them away.
  • Mary also sprayed expanding foam to fill cracks and crevasses in our home's foundation. She said the SW corner foundation is leaning outward. We need to get out of this house!
  • Mary harvested and cleaned 34 parsnips from the near garden. I plan on making parsnip wine from them. Some are the size of a finger. Others are the size of beets.
  • Mary also sawed up firewood.
  • I was boring and pounded nails into shingles on the roof, all day long. I finished the sand-colored shingles and started on shingles with the fancy name of colonial slate. I call them gray flannel. I have about 6 feet left on the south-facing slope and about 8 feet left on the east-facing slope (see photo, below). 
  • The forecast is for a 20% chance of rain tomorrow afternoon and evening. I hope that means zip, zero rain for us. Wednesday calls for a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon. Again, I hope we don't get a drop. They're predicting a 90% chance of rain Wednesday night, so I need to be finished in a day or two days.
  • When Mary was off purple painting, I noticed a hawk fly by south of the house. Then, for about 15 minutes, two hawks were calling. They were red-tailed hawks. Their call is distinct and often used in movies while showing eagles soaring aloft.
  • I see where some people, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, are mad because Big Bird got a COVID vaccination. Good grief, there are more important things to be worried about, like which underwear to put on in the morning. A lot of people need to lighten up!
  • Don Kimmel, Roundup, MT, who was on Mid-Rivers Telephone's board while I worked for the cooperative, died on Nov. 4th at age 86. He was a high school classmate of Mom's in Ronan, MT. I interviewed him in 1996. He majored in physics in college to become a rocket engineer. Instead, he took over his wife's family ranch at Flatwillow, outside of Roundup. Don said Mom was the reason he wasn't salutatorian of his high school class. He was a very kind, thoughtful, and smart man.

  

  Progress on shingling the SE part of our roof.
  

• Tuesday, 11/9: Didn't Mean to Lower Mom's High School Grades
  
  • Apologies to my mother. I inadvertently lowered her high school class standing yesterday while writing about Don Kimmel. She was the valedictorian of her high school class in Ronan, MT, not salutatorian.
  • Mary spent all day cutting up the dry wood pile left behind after cutting down the weeping willow tree. She did it with a hand saw. There is a thigh-high stack of wood in the machine shed from her efforts. She's tired, tonight. Dry willow burns like gasoline. I lit a small fire in the woodstove, tonight. It's nice short-term heat and perfect for November.
    
  • I almost finished shingling the east-facing slope of our roof (see photo, below). All that's left is a row of shingles cut in half lengthwise and cap shingles. I still have a chunk of shingles to nail onto the top of the south-facing slope, plus cap shingles. I'm not as far along as I wanted to be by tonight. Rain is in tomorrow's forecast. I hope rain stays away, like it did today.
  • I used up all of the colonial slate (I call it gray flannel) colored shingles. I also used up a color Owens Corning calls sandstone. I call it light gray flannel. The color of the shingles going on, now, is dark brown. It probably has some exotic name, such as chocolate wafers. It's dark brown to me.
  • After a full day of working with shingles, my forearms are itchy, similar to the itchy feeling after installing fiberglass insulation. That's because today's asphalt shingles start out as a fiberglass mat that is then immersed in asphalt and covered with colored granules.
  • A truly happy day will arrive when we turn in the lift and I'm done on the roof. After a whole day up there, the evening is filled with feeling as though the floor is rocking and the ground is moving around. The higher up the roof the lift takes me, the longer the lifts arms extend out, and the bouncier the lift's cage moves on every motion I make. Reaching out through the lift's cage to swing a hammer means my shoulder and neck muscles are sore every evening. I could sand oak wood to a smooth finish by using the skin of my hands. Shingle granules roughen hands considerably.
    
  • Mary thinks the red-tailed hawk calls that we heard again, today, are from young fledgling hawks calling for food from their mother. This is probably a result a late hatch, which could be possible with the late warm weather we've experienced this fall.

  

  Concentrated on the east-facing slope (left), today.
  

• Wednesday, 11/10: ROOF IS DONE!!!
  • Starting at the break of dawn, I finished nailing all roof shingles by 3:30. Mary helped a bunch today. She used a pair of tin snips to trim 101 cap shingles into the correct shape. Mary took the cap shingles inside and placed them behind the woodstove to heat them up and make them more pliable, prior to me installing them on the roof. I finished installing cap shingles on the east/west roof peak by 5 p.m., or when it turned dark. Then, we got the clamp-on light and Mary went up with me in the lift. She held the light in various positions and handed me nails as I cut shingles in half, lengthwise, installed them and the cap shingles on the north/south roof peak. We finished at 7:30 p.m. Unlike the last time we were in the lift above the peak of the roof, we didn't have lightning flashing. This time, the moon peaked out from behind clouds, occasionally, An east, southeast wind was blowing hard, but except for a few drops of rain in the evening, we experienced no rain while working on the roof. A thunderstorm arrived around midnight, well after us leaving the roof, this time. It's sure good to be done with that job (see photo, below).
  • Besides helping me, Mary raked up a bunch of maple leaves and cut grass in an area near the compost bins to dump wood ashes in the future. Our old wood ash pile is filling in with poison ivy and it's on a hillside where the ashes wash downhill.
  • We celebrated the end of the roof job with a bottle of autumn olive wine. We were both beat tired and went to bed early after unplugging big appliances, due to lightning flashing to the west.
  • Later in the night, I woke and checked outside. Rain was pouring off the roof and there weren't any drip sounds of rain water leaking onto the ceiling of the sunroom. For the first time, ever, in this house, we finally have a solid roof over our heads.
  • Katie texted us that it looks like she's been offered a permanent full-time job with UIC in their Anchorage office involving assisting and estimating projects, and doing existing project support, such as invoicing and submittals. She still might go out and head-up projects, too.

  

  Our multi-colored roof is finished and passed a rain test, overnight.
  

• Thursday, 11/11: R & R For Us Today
  
  • We pretty much took the day off.
  • I cleaned roofing stuff out of the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor.
  • I drove the tractor to the Cherry Deer Stand as a way to break a trail through the tall grass, since I don't have time to cut a trail with the weedwhacker. I tightened a cinch strap and moved raccoon dung off the platform. A well beaten down deer trail runs through the grass right below that stand.
  • I then drove the tractor to as far as I could go on the trail to the Wood Duck Deer Stand. As I walked into the woods, a barred owl lifted off, flew to a tree, looked down at me, then flew away. Sometime this summer, a big dead oak fell and barely missed that stand. Either water washed the ground away under the stand, or the trees it's attached to grew up, because the ladder is at a steeper angle. I moved a petrified raccoon poop off the plywood platform on this stand. I trimmed downed branches and trees out of the way through the woods to the stand with the small Stihl chainsaw, then took out some small cedars so I could turn the tractor around to go back home. There are deer tracks everywhere in the woods and in the sand of the creek bottom near this stand. Two flocks of mallard ducks flew out of the shallows of Wood Duck Pond. It grew dark and that's all I had time for. I'll have to finish deer hunting preparations tomorrow.
  • A check of the lift's fuel tank shows we used more than 5 gallons of diesel last night.
  • Katie texted that she's applying steel roofing in -10° temperatures and she feels the cold more with her sensitive burn areas. Katie said she's definitely applying for the office job she was recently offered.
    
    
• Friday, 11/12: Moved the Lift & Deer Hunting Prep
  • Before breakfast, I called the water district to inform them that our water pressure was dropping. I was one of several calls this morning, reporting the same phenomenon. They are looking for the leak. After breakfast, Mary filled gallon plastic jugs until we had 33 gallons stored, in case the water quits running.
    
  • Next, we moved the lift using the DuraDeck panels. It took some puzzling to get the lift turned to cross the yard without using up all 8 panels and failing to have 2 panels to move ahead of the lift, but we did it eventually. Throughout the exercise, a strong NW wind alternated between blasting sleet and snow in our faces to showing the sun with blue sky. At different times, both Mary and I tripped while hauling the 87-pound panels and walking backwards. It took almost 3 hours to creep the lift over the soft lawn. The panels worked marvelously. Dents are in the lawn, but they will go away. Without the panels, the roof job would be impossible. It was glorious to see melted snow and sleet dripping off the end of the roof's valley with ease.
    
  • After lunch, I called United Rentals to inform them that we're done with the lift. Their driver will pick it up on Monday, between 10 a.m. and noon. I also called Sunbelt Rentals to inform them that I'm finished using the DuraDeck panels and I'll have them back on Monday.
  • I used my phone and got 3 free landowner deer tags. Tomorrow is opening day of the firearms deer season in Missouri.
  • I loaded up chainsaws, a hammer, nails, the long handled nippers and worked at getting trails to deer stands/blinds ready. Due to limited time, instead of weedwhacking trails open, I simply drove the tractor over trails a couple times to smash down weeds and grass. I cut down some small cedar and persimmon trees, where needed, with the small chainsaw. Using the nippers, I cleaned intruding multiflora rose stalks and tree branches. The big chainsaw came out to cut my way through a large oak that fell across the trail to the Bobcat Deer Blind. I started at 2 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m., when darkness fell. There are now 5 smashed-down trails to 2 deer blinds and 3 deer stands. Wind howled with 35 mph gusts through day.
  • Multitudes of birds flew around in the trees around the house all day. They were mainly cedar waxwings and robins.
  • Weather predictions are for 31° in the morning with NW wind gusts to 27 mph. I'm sleeping in and not going hunting until the afternoon, when winds will be lower and from the SW.
  • Mary did cross stitch and the evening chores this afternoon.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/13: Lots of Deer & Nothing Wrong With Their Eyesight!
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas and chimichangas.
  • I got deer hunting stuff together, then went to the Wood Duck Deer Stand at 1:30 p.m.
  • Mary sorted books and started putting them back into the sunroom bookshelves.
  • Wind was out of the west and slowly changed to SW through the afternoon. The first game I noticed at Wood Duck were turkeys. I heard a hen turkey clucking to the east of me. Next, I heard footsteps and saw a long line of turkey heads (probably 20 turkeys) walking fast to the south in a single line. They spotted me and were getting away. Next, I saw 5 mallard ducks swimming around in Wood Duck Pond. They came into my field of view a couple times. Mary and I talked in the morning about building a deer blind and taking out the deer stand at Wood Duck, so I spotted a place on the ground and moved there around 2:15 p.m. Then, a spike buck (illegal to shoot) walked south to north on the dry creek bed just west of me. It turned at the pond's edge and walked east. Then, I saw 2 deer easing their way out of the woods to the NW of me to near the creek bed. One of them saw me, snorted, and about 6-8 deer (all does and most of which I didn't see until that moment) spun around and ran away. Next, 3 does ventured out in the same area. As I'm raising my gun, a doe and a yearling to the SW of me, which I didn't see, start snorting after seeing me and the 3 does run away. The snorting doe kept it up for about 5 minutes and slowly left. I'm too visible on the ground. Mad for what I did in going to the ground, I crawled back up the deer stand. A few minutes later, a big gobbler with a large beard busted through the tree branches over my head and flew to the NW. Then, I saw another spiked buck at the water's edge, facing west. It walked to the creek's edge and another buck entered into view from the west. They circled each other, then the larger buck walked to the SW. It was growing darker and I couldn't see well enough to count the points of the rack on the larger buck, so I let it go. I saw a lot of deer, but never pulled the trigger. I was frustrated. As it grew darker, I heard turkeys flying into treetops south of me. I walked home as darkness fell. Just before Dove Pond, 2 deer stomped off in the brush. Once I entered the north field, a spotted the white flash of a deer tail as a deer ran off to the north. We're really messy with deer.
  • Predictions are for NW wind gusts above 40 mph for tomorrow and temps in low 30s in the morning. I decided to give hunting a rest, tomorrow. I won't be hunting Monday, due to returning rental equipment. The rest should help hunting chances when I return to the field on Tuesday.
  • Rain fell after dark. For the past several years, we moved books from the sunroom to the kitchen table whenever it rained. Tonight, we just sat in the warm living room and listened to rain hitting the west windows. We finally have a waterproof roof. Life is good!
    

Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2021

Weather | 10/31, 39°, 56° | 11/1, 35°, 41° | 11/2, 25°, 47° | 11/3, 23°, 49° | 11/4, 27°, 51° | 11/5, 29°, 53° | 11/6, 33°, 61° |

• Sunday, 10/31: Hot Wood Heat!
  
  • I cleaned soot out of the chimney and the woodstove pipes. The chimney was really loaded with big chunks. Some chimney swift bird egg shells were in the mix (see photo, below). They're really tiny eggs. Baby birds hatched from these eggs must be the size of honey bees. After cleaning the insides of stove pipe sections with a long-handled barbecue grill brush, I put the pipe sections back together with sealant that's good to 2000°. We fired the stove up in the evening. It's good to have real heat, again, instead of rinky-dinky electric heat.
  • I carved a cat image into a pumpkin from a photo Mary took of Rosemary, our oldest cat (see photos, below).
  • Mary made a barbecue pork loin meal, complete with a salad from our winter greens, and baked a chocolate zucchini cake. It all was yummy.
  • She also did laundry, picked and wrapped up 52 Kieffer pears, and picked some strawberries. Yes, we're still getting strawberries...simply amazing! Mary also picked a New England long pie pumpkin that was buried in grass in the far garden. She picked what she considers to be the last of the tomatoes, with expected frost arriving any morning, now.
  • Our yard was full of white-crowned sparrows in the morning hours.
  • Sun was out and a NW wind blew with gusts to 32 mph all day...a good drying day.
  • We drank the last bottle of pumpkin wine (I must make more of that yummy wine) and watched the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus  (see photo, below).

Tiny chimney swift bird egg shell.

Rosemary, with her "Go Away" face.

My rendition of Rosemary carved in a pumpkin.

Our movie, with pumpkin glowing below the screen.

• Monday, 11/1: Need More Time to Dry
  
  • A call to the Sunbelt Rental office in Quincy revealed that they have six 4x8 sections of DuraDeck, but they have no knowledge of how it works. While doing more online research, I found a Corps of Engineers study on using them to make temporary hangers for F-15 jets, which weigh about 30 tons. After about 2-4 times over the areas where the panels meet, they had a deflection of 1.5 inches. A hundred passes and they were unusable. The lift is a third of that weight, but I still think I'll wait for more drying time on the lawn. The Sunbelt Rental location in Springfield, IL has 24 of these panels. I might call them to see if they know more, but I'm skeptical about the product. Probably drying time is best without using plastic crap.
    
  • Mary took out the Halloween tree and put shattered branches throughout the house.
  • She also cooked and froze the cat-faced Jack-o-lantern & 1 New England long pie pumpkin. There's not much meat in a New England long pie. One filled half a quart, whereas, the small Diablo pumpkin that I carved a cat face into filled 3.5 quarts, and that was just the parts that didn't contain my carving. The New England long pie pumpkins are history for our garden.
  • Mary made 2 pizzas. We ate one for a midday meal and one for supper.
  • I drove to LaBelle and bought another 5 gallons of diesel. I poured all but about 1.5 gallons into the lift.
  • Mary mended clothes.
  • I added moth balls to all of the plastic Gatorade bottles in vehicle engine compartments and under vehicles that help to ward off chewing critters. 
  • We had a day of clouds. Fortunately, it didn't rain. We had just a mist drop or two. The sky cleared as the sun went down and you can tell we're in for a hard freeze. I covered the winter greens with sheets and a plastic weighed down with elm logs and sticks around all edges. The U.S. Weather Service gave us a freeze warning around 8 p.m. for overnight.
    
  • While in the middle of evening chores, we saw a huge number of robins fly overhead, heading south. It's the most amount of robins we've seen all year.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/2: We Rented Plastic Panels, After All
  
  • A call to Sunbelt Rental in Springfield, IL, revealed that the DuraDeck panels work. He told me I still will make a rut in the lawn, but they help me get over the soggy ground. He recommended I get them, so I drove to Quincy, IL, and rented 8 of them. They had 2 more that weren't in the computer at Sunbelt in Quincy. Three of the eight contain cracks, so they break up over time. The guy helping me load them into our pickup said the last guy to rent them was a billboard person, but they sat in their lot for 6 months. I got back home too late to try them out. That task begins tomorrow morning.
    
  • Before I left for Quincy, I tried and tried to remember the combination I put in the bike cable/lock holding the spare tire in the bed of the pickup, but failed to recall it. After an hour, I cut it with a hacksaw. Surprisingly, it took less than a minute to saw the cable...damn cheap Chinese crap! While in Quincy, I bought a 5-foot piece of chain and a keyed Master padlock. Keys are better for dumb farts who can't remember!
  • I also picked up 2 more gallons of roofing cement.
  • Gas was $3.19 at Fastlane. It was $2.99 a gallon just a little over a week ago.
  • Mary pulled up the wooden posts holding the chicken wire on the south end of the far garden. Due to loud suction noises while pulling posts, she's planning on no-till planting of the garlic crop this year.
  • We had a killing frost this morning. Pepper and tomato plants are black/green. But, our miraculous strawberries are still thriving. The plants looked like nothing touched them.
  • While I was not remembering my lock combination, Mary spotted a bald eagle beyond my bald head. She said, "That's a big bird." She thought it was kinder than telling me to look at the bald eagle.
  • Bill told us via texts that he is helping his friends, Erin and Mike Push, move into their new home. He's getting a bookshelf and has to make room, so he is giving us a plastic/metal coffee table thingy. 
  • Karen and Lynn are on their way home to Georgia, with their belongings in a rental truck. They left Gillette, WY this morning. Karen texted that they're in Mitchell, SD tonight.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/3: Panels Work
  
  • After I wrote this blog last night, Katie called to tell me that DuraDeck panels are great. In the job she had in 2019 helping to build the village of Mertarvik, AK, to relocate residents of Newtok, UIC used DuraDeck panels to get around in swampy tundra conditions prior to bringing in gravel to build permanent roads. Katie said the panels are amazing and they had equipment heavier than the lift I'm renting using that stuff.
  • In other Katie news, she's still waiting for metal roofing for the school in Venetie, AK. For the past couple days, the aircraft to fly the material into Venetie is down for repairs. It looks like she will be working through Thanksgiving on that job. She plans to visit us for Christmas. There is an outpatient medical procedure related to her burns that Katie will do in January in Seattle where she needs somebody to help her get back to the hotel. I volunteered to help her with that situation. Details will come in the future.
  • Mary and I moved the lift across the lawn using the DuraDeck panels (see photos, below). They worked great! At one point, the lift started to go off one  panel and the wheel was sinking. Mary waved me back on the panel. The lift would be up to the axles, if not for those panels. We did a lot of jostling of the lift to get it into position (see photo, below). 
  • I started with tar paper hanging loose on the roof (see photo, below), and spent the afternoon hammering cap nails into the bottom sections of tar paper that stayed on the roof. I also replaced three 8-foot sections near the top of the south-facing roof slope.
  • Mary popped garlic bulbs into cloves, which will be planted, soon. She did a garlic variety every half hour, so with 6 varieties, it took her 3 hours.
  • We had a second hard frost, overnight. Mary said green strawberries were semi transparent and damaged, but the plants are green and thriving, with blossoms. They are amazing.
    
  • Mary spotted 2 bald eagles high in the sky. She also identified a bunch of white-throated sparrows on top of the mound of weeping willow branches we have in front of the chicken run. She also saw a yellow-rumped warbler at the top of the Kieffer pear tree.
    
    

Easing the lift across the lawn.

DuraDecks bend, but keep the lift out of the mud.

We took all morning to get the lift into position.

Our sorry-looking roof, before I began, today.

• Thursday, 11/4: Roof and Garlic Planting Prep
  
  • Up at 6 a.m., we walked the dogs, I lit a fire, and we enjoyed breakfast and a pot of coffee. I fueled the lift at 8 and started in on the roof. White frost was on the ground and the roof.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, the basis for bean burritos at noon, and chimichangas after dark.
    
  • I finished replacing torn-up tar paper and completed hammering cap nails into tar paper on the whole roof. Next, I put drip edge flashing on the rakes. I used to call everything eaves. That's not right. Eaves are only the horizontal edges of the roof. Rakes are the roof edges at an angle. Then, I installed new W-valley flashing. With an old, rusty trowel, I slathered on a foot-wide by an eighth-inch thick chunk of tar at each junction in the valley flashing. Roofing nails every 2 feet anchored the flashing onto the roof. A 3- to 4-foot piece of the valley flashing is left to install near the roof's peak, then I'll waterproof all sides of the flashing. A photo I took at 6 p.m. (below) show's end-of-day progress. I hope to be installing shingles sometime tomorrow.
  • Mary removed and rolled up chicken wire fencing from the south end of the far garden. She put old persimmon posts in the machine shed. After drying, they become firewood. Mary plans on planting the first two garlic varieties, tomorrow.
  • Katie texted Mary the following message, "Just got word that the GM of construction for my company was asking my PM (project manager) what my plans were after this project is over, and was interested in having me come into the office for the next few months to help plan and estimate projects with the estimator guy who bids on projects." It will give her work through the off-season. Katie added, "Usually, people doing that have college degrees. I must be doing something right."

  

  Progress on our roof at end of today.
  

• Friday, 11/5: More Roofing/Garlic Work
  
  • We were up again at 6 a.m., but slow to get going. I didn't start working on the roof until 9. 
  • I cut, then added the last piece of W-valley flashing near the chimney, after adding a foot-long slathering of roofing cement to the top part of the next lowest piece of flashing. Then, I carefully marked with a white grease pencil where the shingles' edge will be on both sides of the valley flashing, from the top to the bottom. It's 2 inches away from the center ridge at the top to 5.75 inches from the center ridge at the bottom, or a widening of 1/8 inch for every foot down the valley flashing. Using a 4-foot level as a straight edge, I measured a half-inch wider every 4 feet and drew 2 lines down the valley. Normal people with reasonably sloped roofs use a chalk line, taking only a minute to make. Mary didn't like the idea of perching her butt at the chimney, like a vulture, while I rode the lift down to the base of the roof to pull a chalk line tight. So, it took me over an hour to draw proper lines on our stupid steeple roof. WE HAVE TO EVENTUALLY GET OUT OF THIS SHACK!!!
    
  • Mary washed 2 loads of bedding and cut small pieces of firewood with a handsaw.
    
  • There were texts and an email that I have a teeth cleaning appointment a week from today. I called during lunch hour and canceled it, because I don't know if I'll be done with this roof by then. Plus, it's on the day before deer season.
    
  • Mary planted 2 garlic types in the far garden. They were Siberian and Georgian Crystal. She also cleaning muskmelon vines out of the next row.
  • I waterproofed and sealed the sides of the valley flashing by sticking down 10- to 13-inch wide by 4.5-foot long pieces of ice and water barrier over the two sides of the 26' 4" length of the metal flashing. I first cut 14 pieces and labeled them. Next, I removed staples every 4 feet, so I could ease 2 pieces of ice barrier under the existing tar paper, but over the metal valley flashing to the mark I made this morning. Then, I'd pull the plastic backing off the ice barrier, and stick the barrier to the metal and roof. Finally, I tacked tar paper back over top of the ice barrier with cap nails. I overlapped every ice barrier length by 6 inches. I finished at the top after the sun set. Shingling starts tomorrow.
    
  • Wind blew with 20 mph gusts all day. At one point, a gust blew the bottom of a piece of ice barrier up the valley and into my face, and sent my hat over the roof top to the north side of the roof. I picked it off the other side of the roof while cleaning up for the night.
  • I fixed waffles for our evening dinner, since we didn't get any this morning. Dessert was muskmelon frozen earlier this summer. Yum, yum!
  • I saw a monarch butterfly this afternoon. We heard a great horned owl after sunset. I saw a buck running ahead of me on the gravel road, when I drove to Prairieland Farm Services to buy 5 gallons of tractor diesel for the lift. The deer had a large rack, but he wasn't a large buck.
  • Some commercial forester is cutting down timber somewhere south of us. We hear chainsaws all day. The timing is great for chasing deer our way. Deer firearms season starts on Saturday,  Nov. 13th. Archery season is already underway.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/6: Shingles Are Going Up
  
  • Roof work started at 8:30...better than yesterday. I cut tabs off 3-tab shingles and used them as starter shingles. Then I began nailing shingles on the roof, starting at the bottom. It went slow at first. I had to knock out kinks in my procedure. As the day progressed, I developed a rhythm and more got done. After the sun set, I started on the 12th course of shingles (see photo, below). I'm at the narrow part of the roof, so there's a lot more cutting and using tar to hold small pieces of shingles in place over parts of the metal valley flashing. As I go further up the roof, it gets wider, which means more hammering and less cutting and fitting shingles next to the valley.
  • Mary moved a blooming Christmas cactus from the upstairs bedroom to the living room. It's loaded with flower buds.
    
  • Mary planted the Samarkand and Shvelisi garlic after cleaning up the 2nd row of the far garden. She started working on the cleaning up the 3rd row, after she finished planting for the day.
    
  • Bugs were out is full force. Asian lady bugs were crawling over everything on the roof. Several hundred are squished under shingles. Mary experienced flies biting her in the far garden. Bug dope took care of biting flies.
  • Right before lunch, I heard a red-tailed hawk, looked up and saw 2 that were high in the sky, but dropping fast. I banged on the sunroom windows. Mary came outside and I told her what I saw. She never saw the hawks, but the chickens were hiding under the weeds along the fence line and seemed happy to see her. 
  • White-throated sparrows really like our mound of dead weeping willow branches. They have an extremely pleasing song. Mary saw a big flock of red-winged blackbirds flying south at dusk.
  • Karen texted this morning that she and Lynn made it home to Georgia, with their belongings from Wyoming, yesterday afternoon. She added that most of the U-Haul is unloaded.

  

  Mary took this photo at dusk of me on the lift
  and the shingles in the background. I'm almost
  to the point where the roof turns steeper.