March 27 - April 4, 2022

Weather | 3/27, 22°, 43° | 3/28, 29°, 46° | 3/29, 34°, 58° | 3/30, 0.62" rain, 51°, 39° | 3/31, 0.31" rain, 31°, 36° | 4/1, 23°, 52° | 4/2, 0.02" rain, 36°, 57° |

• Sunday, 3/27: Cleaning Cupboards & Hauling Branches
  
  • When I set the woodstove ashes out on the front porch, four deer scampered about in the north yard and then ran into the north woods.
  • We uncovered strawberry plants that we put blankets over to protect them from frost. Temps in the 20s didn't affect fruit tree buds, although they're stalled out right now.
    
  • Mary cleaned kitchen cupboards, cleaning both the contents and the shelves. A few items were sorted out to donate.
  • I hauled branches all day to the gully east of the house. I trudged down and up the hill all day. First went the last of the heavy black walnut branches, then light elderberry branches, and very heavy autumn olive branches, and finally load after load of sawed-up rose branches. I used a pitchfork to load these thorny sticks onto an old kids' plastic toboggan, then towed them down the hill. It took many trips. Next, I need to saw up persimmon poles into 4-foot garden stakes, and put fishline fences around the two apple trees.
    
  • We watched a low-flying and large V of cackling geese go overhead while doing evening chores.
  • We watched the Downton Abbey movie, and the extras on the disc, the last of our Downton multi-week binge.
    
    
• Monday, 3/28: Asparagus Bed & Fishline Fence
  
  • I asked Lisa Gross, the personnel director at Mid-Rivers Communications in Glendive, MT, about paperwork I need to sign related to the pension. One option had a higher monthly dollar amount than what we currently get. Lisa explained our current option involves Mary getting a 100% monthly pension amount, in the case of my death, whereas the other option listed for a higher monthly payment is for a 50% pension after my death. We'll stay with what we have.
  • I weedwhacked a path in the high grass to and around the asparagus bed in the east yard.
  • Mary removed all dead asparagus stalks, cow parsnip greenery, old weeds, and grass from the asparagus bed. She removed a side of steel roofing from the compost bin containing 2-year old compost and added a generous helping to the asparagus bed. It's now ready to grow new shoots. YUM!
    
  • Mary also gave the garlic a batch of fish fertilizer.
    
  • I cut persimmon saplings larger than an inch in diameter into 19 four-foot long stakes for holding up chicken wire fences to hold out rabbits from getting into the gardens. The small Stihl chainsaw does this nicely. I hauled off persimmon sapling tops to the edge of the dry pond east of the gardens.
  • I then took the small chainsaw and cut down 2- to 3-foot persimmon saplings that grew from stumps of larger saplings I cut down last year. In some cases, a dozen quarter-inch in diameter sticks grew from one 2-inch in diameter stump. Persimmon trees are extremely aggressive reproducers! I meant to clean up sticks all over the east yard and all I did was make more work for myself. It's a long slog fighting against Mother Nature's work.
  • Mary filled all outside lines with 2 big loads of laundry.
    
  • I removed the 2 cow panels that were around part of the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree, cut down tall grass that grew up next to these panels with the grass trimmer, pounded in 4 steel fence posts, then tied 3 strands of 100-pound test fishline around the posts to form a deer barrier to that tree. A east wind blowing with temps below 40° meant I went inside a few times to warm my numb fingers. The fishline trick really works. Deer reaching for leaves or fruit feel this unseen resistance and shy away, not knowing what that weird feeling is all about. It's cheap and effective deer repellent for fruit trees.
  • Mary did most of the evening chores, since I finished the fishline fence right at sunset.
    
    
• Tuesday, 3/29: Low-Flying Jets
  
  • During the morning hours, we had 4 different instances when low-flying fighter jets went over the property, from east to west. We think they were practicing under-the-radar maneuvers with a strong east wind blowing while flying over variable fields and woods.
    
  • Mary cleaned ceilings in the sunroom and the bathroom. She also vacuumed bugs over and over, again.
  • Mary made a very fine tasting apple pie.
    
  • I picked up sticks in the east yard, including small branches knocked off persimmon and black walnut stalks, thousands of short persimmon stalks, and 4 piles of old branches from persimmons I cut down last year that were buried in tall, dead grass. It took all afternoon, as I hauled several wheelbarrow loads to the dry pond.
    
  • We tried some cherry wine with slices of apple pie, as an evening treat. This is wine that I recently bottled (see photo, below). It's still in a raw state, with a strong alcohol taste, even though a tart sour cherry taste peeps through. Aging will help this wine.

  

  Cherry wine from cherries off our trees.
  

• Wednesday, 3/30: New Apple Trees Shipped
  
  • We got an email that Fedco is shipping our 2 apple trees to us. One is a Liberty apple tree and the other is a Porter's Perfection, a cider apple, or crabapple tree.
    
  • Cold and rainy weather kept us inside for most of the day.
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • Mary made a shopping list and planned the location of plants in this year's gardens.
  • We enjoyed baked chicken with sweet potatoes for our midday meal.
  • Mary and I took turns vacuuming armies of Asian ladybugs.
    
    
• Thursday, 3/31: Two Feet of New Books
  
  • We went to the spring book sale for Friends of the Library in Quincy, IL. We purchased a couple stacks of books that are a total of 2 feet high for 50 cents an inch, or $12. We also picked up some food items.
  • At Salvation Army, Mary spotted a set of dishes called Raspberry Social that she really liked. So we bought it for $40 to replace the ugly dishes Mary bought at a dollar store in Glendive, MT, 23 years ago (see photo, below). Mary looked online and a set of eight of these dishes costs $260. We got 10, instead of 8 dinner plates. We're missing 5 salad plates. Everything else is there. It's a nice improvement.
    
  • It rained light mist, with occasional sleet, that came down with gusto at times while we were in Quincy.
    
  • Mary and I enjoyed an indoor wienie roast by opening the door of the woodstove and cooking the hotdogs inside the stove over the burning logs. It was yummy.
  • We looked over all of our 2' of books. Several were American Heritage hardcover magazines to further fill up Mary's collection. I remember looking at them when I was a student librarian for Mrs. Jane Cason at Homer High School in the '70s.
  • When we drove to town, we saw a tom turkey try to ram through the panels of a sheep/hog fence along the gravel road. Finally, it flew over top of the fence. It was a huge one, with a big beard.
  • While reviewing our new books, Mary heard what sounded like little song birds. She looked out the south living room window and saw a mama rabbit inching up to the house. The sound was coming from a nest of baby bunnies...more food for coyotes, hawks, and owls.

  

  Our new dishes, called Raspberry Social.
  

• Friday, 4/1: Fruit Tree Spraying
  
  • An 4-year old hen died overnight. We called her Crook, because her comb always fell over sideways on top of her head. She was always ornery, pecking all of the younger hens. We now have 10 hens and 1 rooster.
    
  • Mary mopped floors, dusted, and put away recently purchased books.
  • Mary spent an hour to vacuum bugs. I did an end-of-the-day bug vacuum.
    
  • I sprayed Immunox, a fungicide, on all of the cherry trees, the mystery apple tree, the Sargent and prairie fire crabapple trees, the Esopus, and the Mac apple trees. This was the second Immunox spray for the Mac and Esopus trees. It took 3 hours and 3 gallons of tank mix. There is an ever so slightly movement on tree buds. This morning was ideal for spraying. It was sunny with hardly any wind and I finished spraying well before the start of the next rain, predicted for 5 a.m., tomorrow.
    
  • At one point I was on the step ladder spraying the top of the prairie fire crapapple tree when I thought the tree was hissing at me. I got off the ladder and realized a whirlwind went through and oak leaves were dropping in all of the trees just north of me, creating that sound. That was an odd sensation.
  • I checked an old pile of soil made from piling up sod removed when we made garden strips in 2009. It's too laden with deep grass roots, so forget that! I harvested 2 buckets of rotten wood from a downed oak tree in the north woods. I'll use it beyond the root zone of the two new apple trees that we'll soon receive.
  • After dark, we heard coyotes howling just outside our south living room window. They're getting a little too brave and close.
  • While on our last dog walk, we heard a lone snow goose calling. It's late for a snow goose.
    
    
• Saturday, 4/2: Bill Arrives
  
  • Bill arrived during the noon hour for a 4-day visit. He received a bonus and a 7% raise this week at work.
  • Mary and I took turns vacuuming bugs. They never end, it seems.
  • I collected up a wheelbarrow load of soil from mounds dug in the north yard by moles. I'll use it to build up soil for the 2 apple trees we'll get, soon. According to FedEx, the trees arrived in Quincy, today. I'll drive to Quincy on Monday to pick them up.
  • I also took the small chainsaw to a twig pile and sawed up another wheelbarrow load of sticks that I'll use as ramial wood chips to put just beyond the driplines of the 2 new trees.
  • While I had the chainsaw in hand, I sawed down 4 small trees, a maple, an elm, and 2 mulberry trees, that have grown in and around the lilac bushes, sapping them of nutrients and water. I also cut them up into firewood chunks. Then, I cut down 6 tall coppice branches of a pecan tree that grew out of an old stump and into the McIntosh apple tree branches in the north yard. I also cut down another small tree growing close to the apple tree. I cut all of these up into firewood lengths and left them all on the ground. I'll pick them all up and stack them, tomorrow.
  • We ate nachos and watched 2 movies selected by Bill. They were the 2019 movie, Midway, and the 2011 movie, Super 8.