March 20-26, 2022

Weather | 3/20, 34°, 69° | 3/21, 50°, 71° | 3/22, 0.54" rain, 44°, 59° | 3/23, 0.16" rain, 39°, 41° | 3/24, 0.18" rain, 31°, 42° | 3/25, 36°, 53° | 3/26, 29°, 46° |

• Sunday, 3/20: Fruit Tree Cleanup & Spraying
  
  • I used several tanks of gas in the weedwhacker to clean tall grass and brush from under and around the rest of the fruit trees on this mostly sunny day. This included the 2 Bartlett pear trees, 2 apple trees south of the house, 5 small cherry trees SW, west, and SE of the house, and the large McIntosh apple tree in the north yard. On the small trees, I unwired and moved out the circled cow panels, grubbed out the grass, pulled dead weeds and grass from right next to each tree, then reinstalled the cow panels. I also whacked down a trail between cherry trees SW of the house, to the sweet cherry tree, by the lilac bushes (which are showing green leaf buds), and to the east end of the clothesline.
    
  • Mary did 2 loads of laundry, spent a bunch of time sucking bugs, and did some housecleaning.
  • A south wind blew all day, but it died enough at dusk, with just a slight SE breath of air, for me to put copper spray on the 2 Bartlett pear trees, the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree, and the Grimes golden apple tree. I used a hat light to view where I sprayed. A hatch out of small moths flew through the Esopus tree as I sprayed. Coyotes howled all around me and a great horned owl hooted to the west. I finished at 8:30 p.m.
  • Bill texted that he tried the November 2021 autumn olive wine and said it is really nice and light and tasted "polished," even though it's not a year old. So, we tried a bottle (see photo, below). It's very good...better than past autumn olive batches. I think the difference is lower amounts of Campden tablets and no potassium sorbate prior to bottling, which isn't needed for making a dry wine.
    
  • We watched 4 episodes of Downton Abbey's 6th season.
  • The yeast in the blackberry wine is lasting a long time. It still bubbles, but the foam on top is dwindling.

  

  Two glasses of very good Nov. 2021 autumn olive wine.
  

• Monday, 3/21: Bugs & Old Electric Fence
  
  • It was national bug day for Mary. It's not how many times she vacuums bugs, but how many hours spent at it, which was over three hours, today. Outside, flies by the thousands are all over the exterior of the house.
  • A tour of all of the fruit trees with Plato and Amber revealed that green tip buds are showing on the Bartlett pear trees and the McIntosh apple tree. Silver tip buds (the first swelling) are on the Esopus Spitzenburg and the Grimes golden apple trees. Cherry trees and the south apple trees are still dormant. The Sargent crabapple is the furthest along, with about 3/8" of green showing on buds.
    
  • I cleaned up old electric fence wires of a big area in the east yard that I once put up to guard the asparagus bed and strawberry beds. We've since discovered that deer and rabbits don't harm asparagus. Invading grass, mold, and rodents nail strawberries on the ground. Plus, persimmon saplings took over that area, so an electric fence is unnecessary. Three very long strands of wires were buried under years of tall grass growth. They had to all be pulled out from under dead tall grass, which was quite a chore. I rolled all of the wires up on an empty spool that once held new wiring, completely filling the spool. I recovered a dozen steel fence posts from the fence. I moved four poles to the Esopus apple tree. They will be four corners of a fish line fence for that tree. Four more went to the Grimes apple tree and the final four went to the skinny mystery apple tree south of the house.
  • High-stepping through the dead grass and the small persimmon trees, I noticed several dead persimmon saplings, all with a black band of bark about a foot above the ground. Some disease killed them. I suspect fire blight, except that usually starts at branch tips. We don't want these little trees there, anyway, so I'll be cleaning them out.
  • Rain started falling just after dark. It was a light rain, but steady.
    
    
• Tuesday, 3/22: Mist & Walnut Coppice Removal
  
  • Intermittent rain or mist fell throughout the day. Mini ponds are everywhere.
    
  • Mary cleaned cabinets in the west room. She also made flour tortillas.
  • A tour of the fruit trees: the big Bartlett pear is showing green tipped buds, none on the small Bartlett, thorough green tip buds on McIntosh apple tree, gray going to green on Esopus Spitenburg apple tree, gray tip buds on the Grimes golden apple tree, 1/2" green on Sargent crabapple, dormant on skinny mystery apple tree, green tip on Liberty apple tree, small pie cherry trees are dormant, sweet cherry and large pie cherry are showing bud swelling.
    
  • I took down 5 tall coppice branches that grew out of an old black walnut stump resulting from when I cut down a lightning-damaged tree about 10 years ago. They were interfering with growth and the well-being of 2 apple trees in the east yard. They were about 20 feet high. There's one more to remove, but it leans northerly and without the help of Mary on the end of a long rope, it will hit the Esopus apple tree when I cut it down. I sawed up all branches larger than an inch thick into firewood lengths and stacked them behind the woodshed. Long skinny branches are stacked in a pile, ready to be hauled off. It rained hard at the end of me hauling off firewood-length pieces in a wheelbarrow, soaking me down a bit. It wasn't a downpour...more like thick mist.
  • Katie texted great news. She went through a job evaluation and received a 10% pay raise, which boosts her salary, considerably.
  • The blackberry wine keeps bubbling, but at a slightly diminished rate.
    
    
• Wednesday, 3/23: Spring Showers
  
  • Mucky, rainy, mist weather continues. The U.S. Weather Service puts our area in a drought. I invite any one of those dart boys (the way they forecast seems like they're throwing a dart to determine results) to sit anywhere on our "dry" lawn. The result would be an instant very wet backside.
  • Mary sorted her cross stitch patterns.
  • I ordered a birthday gift for Katie, directing it to be sent to her Anchorage address.
  • I ordered a whole bunch of winemaking stuff with the use of a gift card to The Home Brewery in Ozark, MO, that I got for my birthday from Katie.
  • We watched the last 2 episodes of Downton Abbey's final season, plus the extras.
  • Fruit tree budding is stalled.
  • Yeast in the blackberry wine is giving off the longest acting fermentation I've experienced. There's a little less CO2 release, but it's still bubbling.
  • Mary and I each drank a small aperitif glass of jalapeño wine. With aging, the wine is mellow and not as hot. It's quite good, especially accompanied by a glass of water or tea.
    
    
• Thursday, 3/24: Marshy Land, Spraying Trees
  
  • Another mooshy day started with wet snow falling. That led to mist with periods of rain that ended around 3 p.m.
  • We saw a raccoon print in the chicken yard mud this morning. 
    
  • Mary cleaned more ceilings, this time in the kitchen. She also made turkey pot pie.
  • A tour of the fruit trees resulted in no change on bud growth.
  • Dwindling wind and rain in the late afternoon, with the promise of high winds tomorrow, made me decide to spray trees. I filled the sprayer with water, set it outside, and rain fell, again, so I dumped the sprayer. After waiting, then walking the dogs, I decided to spray Immunox, a fungicide for killing apple scab, on the McIntosh and Esopus apple trees. The wind stayed light and rain skirted by to the north. One and a half gallons covered both trees just right. I finished before darkness fell.
  • The blackberry wine still burps, 2 weeks after yeast was added, which is a very long time.
    
    
• Friday, 3/25: Sunshine & Blackberry Winemaking
  
  • The sun shines bright on our old Missouri home! Northwest winds blew with gusts to 40 mph. The double whammy dried ground very nicely.
  • Mary worked on cross stitch projects, because she couldn't mop the floors.
  • She couldn't mop floors, because I racked blackberry wine for the second time. Wine drops aren't nice on newly mopped floors. Specific gravity was 0.994, producing a 12.576% alcohol content. The must is extremely reddish purple. It tastes tart with a yeast flavor. The blackberry taste will improve with aging. Lees were an inch deep in the 6.5-gallon carboy and 1/2" deep in the gallon jug. I added 6 crushed Campden tablets, dissolving 3 at a time in 2 ounces of heated distilled water, then adding the solution to the must. The must, minus the lees, went into a 5-gallon carboy and a gallon jug. A little distilled water topped up both containers. It now sits for a month, or two, prior to bottling.
    
  • Juncos are still bee-bopping around. They should be leaving in the next week. Each evening, our trees are stuffed with red-winged blackbirds. They, too, should be leaving, soon.
    
    
• Saturday, 3/26: Cleaning, Inside & Outside
  
  • Mary swept and mopped all of the linoleum floors in the house.
    
  • I used the large Stihl chainsaw and cut down the last black walnut coppice near the east yard apple trees. With the help of a step ladder, I tied a lengthy nylon rope to this coppice, that had a 4- to 5-inch base. Mary pulled on the rope while I cut the base, so it wouldn't fall on the Esopus apple tree. I sawed it up and hauled firewood chunks away.
    
  • I used the same chainsaw and cut up a huge multiflora rose bush. It stood about 7' high and had a 3-inch base. The bush involved several different plants. It was invading the space of Esopus apple tree. I also took down several nearby persimmon trees, a autumn olive bush, and an elderberry bush. The whole idea is to give the apple tree air space.
    
  • I hauled off 4 big bunches of black walnut branches. They went into an expanding gully about an eighth of a mile east of the house. I trudged them off by foot, because a tractor would leave deep ruts in the soft ground right now.
  • While I was piling up branches for my second haul, I heard pounding horse hooves approaching from the south. I ran to the lane and there were our neighbor's 3 horses next to the Sargent crabapple tree. I raised my arms and said, "Nope, you're going home." Instantly, they galloped back down the lane and to their home. They even ran into their paddock, but promptly moved out to the front lawn of that house. I walked over to tell the neighbor his horses were out. As I walked up to the house, he came outside, saying he just noticed horses walking by the window. We talked for awhile. His name is John. Nice enough of a guy, but not the one we talked to last summer when the horses invaded our property. John is a mechanic. I think his fencing is wimpy. We now have a few deep horse prints in the grass alongside the lane.
  • Near bedtime, some coyotes howled about five feet outside our living room window. All cats and dogs intensely listened to them. On our last dog walk, Plato was very tentative. He usually sleeps downstairs in a living room chair, but not tonight. Plato slept the whole night on his dog blanket in the upstairs north bedroom.