April 24-30, 2022

Weather | 4/24, 0.12" rain, 53°, 65° | 4/25, 41°, 51° | 4/26, 29°, 59° | 4/27, 37°, 71° | 4/28, 1.17" rain, 49°, 53° | 4/29, 0.73" rain, 49°, 59° | 4/30, 0.03" rain, 57°, 69° |

• Sunday, 4/24: Blooming Trees
  
  • Rain was falling when we woke. It abruptly ended at 9 a.m., and the sun came out.
  • We watched 2 deer browse on twigs at the far edge of the west lawn while we were eating breakfast.
    
  • Pear petals are falling like snow. The McIntosh apple tree is in full bloom (see photos, below).
  • On our tour of fruit trees, Mary looked at a pie cherry tree we thought died last year and found a live twig that grew off the main dead shoot. She cleaned the dead grass from around it and moved a cow panel wired into a circle around that tiny tree. That gives us 6 pie cherry trees. If they all live, we'll be swimming in pie cherries in a few years.
  • We found a cucumber beetle munching on new leaves in the small Bartlett pear tree. I nailed it with Dawn soap spray. We also see signs of something eating Esopus apple blossoms, but haven't seen the culprit, yet.
    
  • Mary and I visited the north woods. A redbud tree is in full bloom (see photos, below).
  • Mary baked a blackberry pie.
  • We watched 4 indigo buntings picking weed seeds off the ground in the near garden. They are beautiful.
    
  • I picked more dandelion petals, adding 30 grams, for a grand total of 74.5 grams.
  • I tied more chicken wire to persimmon posts in the near garden. I added a stretch of new chicken wire and wrapped it around the remaining posts, so I could uncover strawberry plants to let them get sunlight without the fear of rabbits chewing them to the ground.
  • Mary harvested more asparagus shoots, which we ate prior to our supper.
    
  • We enjoyed pots of tea, deviled eggs, toast, and blackberry pie while watching the movie, Miss Potter.

The McIntosh apple tree in full bloom.

McIntosh apple blossoms, taken by Mary.

Redbud tree blossoms, taken by Mary.

A redbud tree in full bloom.

• Monday, 4/25: Near Garden Fully Planted
  
  • Mary did a load of laundry, which dried within minutes in the ever-blasting winds that seem to blow day and night.
  • I picked 28 grams of dandelion petals. The grand total is 102.4 grams in the freezer. I'm 38% of the way to 270 grams for a gallon batch of wine.
    
  • Mary planted the rest of the near garden, which included onions, shallots, lettuce, spinach, and radishes.
  • I wired new chicken wire onto old, extending the wire to the end, then finished tying the wire to persimmon posts in the near garden. I then made a chicken wire gate, cut hold-down stakes for between the posts and drove them into the ground. I'll need about a dozen more. The old chicken wire bends all over the place and needs to held down with many stakes.
  • At one point, we heard crows raising a racket in the west woods, so I walked west to chase them away. Crows continually calling often means they're harassing an owl on a nest. A few steps beyond the west yard and they disappeared. On the way back, I saw an eastern towhee. They have a white belly, a black body, with a burnt orange band on their sides, which make them quite striking.
    
  • We covered the strawberry plants with plastic and the radishes in 3 tubs with blankets for frost that is forecast for overnight.
    
  • Mary baked a chicken, complete with sweet potatoes, and potatoes with turkey gravy for an excellent supper. We also had asparagus shoots for an hors d'oeuvre and blackberry pie for dessert.
  • A text from Katie indicated that the vet thinks that nothing is abnormal with her dog, Prancer. They took a fecal sample to be tested and prescribed probiotics.
    
  • Here are a couple more photos taken by Mary from yesterday's walk in the woods.

Keys on the red maple tree and a rare
gray-hooded ding-dong.

Newly emerging mayapple plants.

• Tuesday, 4/26: Dead Hen & Midnight Spraying
  
  • When we opened the chicken coop door in the morning, there was a dead chicken. It was a 4-year old golden comet hen. She died of natural causes. We now have 8 hens and a rooster.
  • A quick check of fruit trees revealed hundreds of honey bees in the McIntosh apple and Sargent crabapple trees. They both have a loud buzz.
    
  • We have probably a couple dozen hops plants growing next to the NW corner of our house. They are all volunteer plants.
    
  • I plucked 23 grams of dandelion petals, with a total of 125.3 grams in the freezer.
    
  • Mary made minestroni soup and did 2 loads of laundry.
  • I cut 21 hold-down stakes and added them to spots along the chicken wire fence in the near garden. Then, I added stiffeners between each post.
  • Mary fertilized the garlic and strawberries, along with adding some iron to the strawberry plants. She watered seeds a couple times.
  • Winds were finally low, today, but I had to wait until sundown for bees to go to sleep before I could spray the fruit trees. I started spraying at 8 p.m. and ended at 1 a.m., with a half hour break to eat. Streptomycin went on the 2 Bartlett pear trees and the Sargent crabapple, since all suffered fire blight last year. Immonox, or the fungicide, myclobutanel, went on all apple and cherry trees and sulfur was applied to all apple trees.
  • A whip-poor-will sounded off in the west woods right after sundown. Barred owls occasionally told me to knock it off as I sprayed.
  • Below are a couple more photos by Mary of our walk in the woods a couple days ago.

Rue anemone flowers.

Spring beauties.

• Wednesday, 4/27: Bees & Return of Chimney Swifts
  
  • Mary did 2 loads of laundry that dried quickly in the strong south wind.
    
  • I sprayed the night before so as not to kill bees. No problem. A check of the fruit trees revealed thousands of bees swarming the blossoms. Here are bee videos that I put on Facebook. 
  • Mary mowed the quarter-mile lane.
  • I picked 36 grams of dandelion petals. Now, there's 161 grams in the freezer, with only 109 grams to go.
  • While doing evening chores, we heard the arrival of the chimney swifts. Two birds did a couple quick laps around the house, twittering as they flew, then they zinged down the chimney for a couple days of rest after their long journey from the Amazon rain forest. There will be no more woodstove fires for us until October.
    
  • Bill called. His employer is unable to hire new employees, so he gets as many overtime hours as he can stand. He and his friend, Mike Push, will bottle a new batch of beer this weekend. Bill's boss took him out to lunch today, just to be nice.
    
    
• Thursday, 4/28: We All Live In a Yellow Submarine (Or we ought to!)
  
  • Thunderstorms resulted in copious amounts of rain. Mary saw one lightning strike while looking NW through the living room west window. She saw the bolt of lightning come down and then she saw a big blue-white ball at the end of the lightning bolt. Some tree to the NW of the house took the lightning hit. Ponds and lakes of water sit all over our land. We are officially a wetland.
    
  • Mary made tortillas, chimichangas, and did some cross stitching.
  • We toured the fruit trees. Pears are done blossoming. The big pie cherry tree has over half of the buds breaking into blossoms. About 80% of the prairie fire crabapple is blossoming, as is about 95% of the Esopus apple tree. Today's rain knocked about 40% of the McIntosh apple tree's blossoms to the ground.
  • Cedar apple rust emerged on all cedar trees and on several trees, it's the most prevalent I've ever seen. Some branches have the orange jelly substance all over them. I feel fortunate that I sprayed all fruit trees Tuesday night. We'll see if that works.
  • I racked the blackberry wine for the 3rd time. Specific gravity was the same as a month ago, at 0.994. The pH dropped to 3.1, becoming more acidic. I added a crushed Campden tablet after moving all must into the large brew bucket. It then went into a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug and two 750 ml wine bottles. We drank leftovers. It's extraordinarily smooth for a green wine and tastes strongly of blackberry flavor. The wine possesses a deep purple color.
  • Tick season is here. I received tick bites on both armpits and on my right foot, mostly from tiny seed ticks. The smallest ticks are the worst at leaving one with extreme itchiness.
  • Below are photos Mary took on Sunday of violets in our yard. A decade ago, there were only a few violets, but all of our yards are filled every spring with thousands of these violets, now. Scientists say the white violets evolved, with landing strips on their lower petals, to attract pollinators. Then, pollinators smell solid-colored violets, and bounce onto all of them.
    

Dark blue violet in our yard.

Nearly white Confederate violet.

• Friday, 4/29: Weather for Ducks, Not Dogs
  
  • Today is the second day of heavy rain. Amber hates rain. When it's raining hard, she always looks like she's being scolded. Mary tells her hundreds of times that she has to poo before she can go inside. She reluctantly does her duty, then roars to the door. We think her days stationed outside at the rescue shelter in Fort Madison, Iowa, influenced her hatred of rain. Plato, on the other hand, is a true water dog and doesn't mind rain a bit.
  • By afternoon, rain quit falling and in late evening hours, bees were back in fruit tree blossoms, especially with the Sargent crabapple tree, which is a huge white snowball (see photo, below). Ground under the McIntosh apple tree is littered with petals (see photo, below).
  • I plucked 25.7 grams of dandelion petals in what must be THE most tedious task on earth. I'm just over 2/3 of the way to my goal of 270 grams, with 186.8 grams in the freezer.
  • An evening check of the garden showed snow pea germination, so we covered the new sprouts with old nylon netting curtains. It keeps birds from plucking pea shoots from the ground.
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread and did some cross stitching.

The Sargent crabapple tree in full bloom.

Petals under the McIntosh apple tree.

• Saturday, 4/30: Tour of Our Property's East Side
  
  • Mary made a venison General Tso dish for our main meal.
  • Prior to mealtime, I did more dandelion petal plucking.
    
  • Mary and I took a hike to the east side of our property, looking at places near existing deer stands where I might build deer blinds. We wanted to take a look before trees and brush leafed out...more like what it's like during hunting season, in the fall. I'm tired of climbing into trees to hunt deer. I'd rather stay with 2 feet on the ground. So, in prime deer hunting locations I want to build blinds, made mostly from natural material (branches and tree limbs), where I can sit comfortably, yet stay hidden from view by deer. We found good spots near 2 existing and productive tree stands that ought to work. Another site or two further south may fit the bill, if I get to them. Deer tracks are everywhere, especially on our own trails. I want to build these blinds soon, so deer get used to them by the time hunting starts in November.
    
  • Mary took a photo of a brightly-colored mushroom called scarlet cup (see photo, below). It's one of the few mushrooms that can grow in below freezing conditions. It's wide spread, but scarce, found on fallen twigs and branches in damp, shady places. Mary found this on the ground just below the swim pond dam.
  • There was less rain, today, but the wind is relentless. Pollinators have a rough time getting to any flowers. Pears are done blossoming, as is most of the McIntosh apple tree. Cherry blossoms are coming on strong, along with both crabapple trees, the largest Liberty apple tree, and Esopus. Our mystery apple tree has identical blossoms as the large Liberty, so we assume it's a Liberty apple tree, too. Both of these trees came from Arbor Day and were supposed to be free Sargent crabapple trees, but someone goofed and sent us more expensive disease-free apple trees. We're fine with that mistake.
  • In the evening, we read while enjoying orange marmalade on fresh bread and pots of tea. Mary went through a historical photo book on Russia. An interesting fact is that Ukraine predates Russia. I viewed online images of deer blinds made from natural materials.

  

  Scarlet cup mushrooms.