June 26-July 2, 2022

Weather | 6/26, 67°, 78° | 6/27, 55°, 81° | 6/28, 54°, 82° | 6/29, 61°, 89° | 6/30, 64°, 88° | 7/1, 0.01" rain, 70°, 85° | 7/2, 3 drops of rain, 58°, 79° |

• Sunday, 6/26: Bass Fishing & Bill Leaves For His Home
  
  • After breakfast, we went fishing. We decided to rename Swim Pond to Bass Pond. We don't swim in it anymore. When people started dropping dead from a brain-eating ameba, we stopped. Fishing was great. My first cast brought in a fish. Bill caught the largest bass. It gulped down the lure and Bill had a tough time removing the hooks. With both Mary and Bill, they had a larger fish chasing the smaller fish caught on a lure and getting reeled in to shore. Bill and Mary fished the south shore. I walked to the north shore and fished. Black-eyed Susan flowers are growing along the pond. On the north shore, pink mimosa flowers are blooming from plants that are climbing small cedar trees.
  • After walking back home, I checked for ticks, and with Mary and Bill's help, we used packing tape and pulled 10 seed ticks off my pants. The moral to that story is always check for ticks if you've been bushwacking through tall plants. I sharpened 2 fillet knives while Bill set up sawhorses and a chunk of plywood for filleting fish. I got busy filleting 8 bass.
  • Bill vacuumed out his car. He turns in the 2010 car to a dealer on Tuesday. He has the 2019 car that he bought and will start driving it to work, tomorrow.
    
  • Mary fixed up fried bass, corn-on-the-cob, and baked potatoes covered in fresh chives. It was a great meal.
  • Bill left for his apartment in St. Charles at 3:45 p.m.
  • Mary watered the garden while I picked black raspberries. We now have 10 quarts in the freezer.
    
    
• Monday, 6/27: Gardening Stuff
  
  • I worked up a batch of EM-1 microbial inoculant in a half-gallon glass jug to spray on trees and garden plants. I set it outside to heat in the sun, allowing it to brew for a few days. It's pH is 4.0. When the pH is 3.8, it's ready to use.
    
  • The crop dusting airplane, or as Mary calls it, "the annual sprayer plane of death," flew directly over our house a million times as it made an approach to the runway at the dairy that's a mile west of us. It happens every year at this time as they throw Roundup on everything.
    
  • Mary weeded 20 hills of muskmelon and watermelon plants in the far garden.
    
  • I mowed grass and weeds in the near garden, using a bag on the mower to catch grass clippings. A few wheelbarrow loads of grass mulch went around the hills of plants where Mary was weeding.
  • While moving buckets and tubs containing strawberries, I cleaned weeds and strawberry runners out of them, transplanted 2 new strawberry plants started from runners, and started 3 more runners to replace old strawberry plants.
  • We're experiencing voles eating off roots of new garden plants. Between the underground varmints and the damn deer munchers, it's a heck of a year to try to raise any fruits or veggies.
    
  • I picked more black raspberries and started our 11th quart bag in the freezer.
    
    
• Tuesday, 6/28: More Gardening Slavery
  • Deer snort at us every day. This morning, a deer gave a warning snort while we walked the dogs in the north yard.
    
  • I killed several Japanese beetles by tossing them in soapy water. They're mostly on the Sargent crabapple tree and on weeping willow branches.
    
  • Mary weeded the entire squash row of the far garden. It was tough going, since most of the weeds are encased in clay soil. They break off at ground level. She shredded a Band-Aid that was protecting a hand wound, caused by initially jamming a thorn in her hand while weeding the melon patch.
    
  • Mary also planted bean seeds in the far garden.
    
  • I finished mowing around the near garden and mowed about 2/3rds of the way around the far garden. I collected in a mower bag. I mulched all of the 20 muskmelon and watermelon hills, 4 pumpkin hills, and started mulching squash plants.
  • I picked more black raspberries. Their numbers are dwindling. I saw red blackberries, so picking will soon start for them.
  • We're hearing chimney swift babies chirping through the walls of the chimney when we're on the second floor of our house.
    
    
• Wednesday, 6/29: Gardening, Of Course!
  
  • Mary planted 29 hills of sweet corn. With that, all garden plantings are finished for the year.
  • Mary also pulled weeds around some of the tomato plants.
    
  • I finished mowing outside of the far garden, between the electric and chicken wire fences of that garden, and inside the north end and the middle of that garden. I used lawn clippings to mulch all squash plants and a couple tomato plants.
  • Mary picked more black raspberries to finish 11th quarts in the freezer.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/30: Last Day of June Gardening
  
  • I labeled the '21/'22 autumn olive wine and stored the 13 bottles on their sides in a couple coolers. Between last year and this year, we have 34 bottles of autumn olive wine.
  • I nailed several Japanese beetles in a bucket of soapy water. If you carefully edge the bucket up under a tree branch, then slap the branch downward, the bug goes sailing down into the soapy water. It works nicely.
  • Mary mowed the south and east yards. Later, she racked all of the grass up.
  • I snipped emerging persimmon trees and tall grass in parts of the chicken wire fencing surrounding gardens.
  • I finished mowing inside the south end of the near garden while Mary finished weeding around tomato plants. Mulch from all of today's mowing went on a couple rows of tomatoes. The garden looks less like an overgrown hay field (see photos, below).
  • The brewing micro-nutrient concoction has a pH of 3.8, down from 4.0, so it's officially ready to be sprayed on plants. The ultimate goal is a pH of 3.6.
  • Mary removed the old lace curtains off the sweet potato plants.
  • After a few days with hardly any strawberries, due to a stretch of above 90 heat, we finally got a nice, big strawberry this evening.
  • After dark, we noticed that the firefly numbers are dwindling.

Tomato plants and bean seed row in far garden.

Tomato plants are spaced far apart, this year.

• Friday, 7/1: Canada Day, Eh!
  
  • After several days of garden work, we took the day off (for the most part).
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, and watered the gardens twice.
  • I read information in a couple books on fruit tree insects and diseases.
  • Katie called. She's in Anchorage for a brief respite from work. Katie has experienced job-related issues that don't belong written here. Suffice it to say that she has full support from her supervisors. She was delayed on getting back to Anchorage a week due extreme fog. On the positive side, she gets to enjoy July 4th at home in Anchorage. She flies back to Point Hope on Tuesday.
  • My micro-nutrient juice has a pH of 3.5, so I moved it into the house to cool its toes.
  • We watched 2 movies. The first was the 1996 movie, In Love and War, and the second was the 1987 movie, 84 Charing Cross Road.
    
    
• Saturday, 7/2: Another Day Off
  • We went to bed late, or early in the morning, so when I woke up and looked at the clock, it was 10:40...talk about sleeping in! We sort of took another day off from outside stuff.
    
  • There are a few black raspberries out there, but we just don't care. It's time to look forward to picking other berries.
  • I balanced the checkbook while Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal.
  • I dumped several Japanese beetles into a bucket of soap water. Wild grape vines are full of stripped leaves. Growing grapes would be tough with these damn beetles around.
    
  • Mary started watering gardens. I joined to help her after finishing my Japanese beetle killing episode.
  • Corn and bean seeds are sprouting. I don't think the corn will be knee-high by July 4th, for us this year. That's okay. We'll still get what we need.
  • Persimmon trees grow very fast. Persimmon saplings that I cut to the ground about 2 months ago around the prairie fire crabapple tree are already head-high (see photo, below).

  

  Persimmon saplings around the prairie fire crabapple tree.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

June 19-25, 2022

Weather | 6/19, 56°, 87° | 6/20, 60°, 87° | 6/21, 67°, 93° | 6/22, 0.33" rain, 67°, 83° | 6/23, 61°, 88° | 6/24, 65°, 78° | 6/25, 0.04" rain, 69°, 88° |

• Sunday, 6/19: Father's Day
  
  • Mary raked up grass she mowed yesterday. She also mowed a patch between the woodshed and the machine shed left to grow tall, due to a downed elm tree yet to be cut up that's in that area. She weeded around all of the tomato plants in the far garden and put mulch around each plant. That took a lot of time and effort. Mary felt weary after dark.
    
  • I fixed 2 shorts in the positive electric fence feed wire where insulation was punctured, due to the weight of driving a lift over the lawn last fall. I used thick double-sided tape that Dad once had in his electrical connection tool box. That box is an old aluminum Umco fishing tackle box, bought in the mid-1960s. I wrapped that tape with 6 layers of electrical tape, then covered the area with a piece of old garden hose, thoroughly taping each end to repel water. After reburying the wire, I tested fences around both gardens. They register a full 7,000 volts, a good jolt to any varmint trying to munch our garden veggies.
  • I cut weeds and grass from the south-facing porch to the SE corner of the house, where the electric fence energizer sits, then to the main entrance near our home's NE corner. It looks cleaner, now.
  • The main reason to clean weeds was to drive in galvanized pipes for a better electric fence ground field. I decided against that idea. These grounds are working well, with the electric fence up to full capacity. The cut weeds and grass went around the 2 south apple trees as mulch.
    
  • Mary and I picked more black raspberries. We're almost to 4 quarts of these berries in the freezer.
    
  • Bill & Katie called me for Father's Day. Bill enjoyed the AC in his apartment, after enduring temperatures over 100 at work last week. He picks up his new car late this week. Katie was reminded by her superiors to take some time off, so she flies back home to Anchorage on Thursday, returning to work via Kotzebue on the following Monday.
    
    
• Monday, 6/20: Last Day of Spring
  
  • Our chicks are a week old, today. We have one Australorp chick that's a lot smaller than the rest of the chicks. It has a pasty butt. Mary cleaned that off this morning and in the evening. It's not eating, or moving much. We don't think it will live very long. All of the other 30 chicks are doing great.
    
  • Mary made venison General Tso. It contained snow peas from the garden, which were quite good.
  • She also did 2 loads of laundry.
  • I strung a new wire at deer head height on the far garden's electric fence to help discourage deer from jumping the fence.
  • I took a rake and tried to find an electrical feed wire that once ran from the far garden to an electric fence we had around the asparagus and an old strawberry beds years ago. I could not find it. Where that once was is a jungle, today. I'm trying to find that wire so I can feed the electric charge from the near garden a fence to build around the Esopus apple tree. I had 6 Ziplock sandwich bags on apples on that tree. Three are gone. I hope some deer has indigestion!
    
  • Mary started and I later helped her pick more black raspberries. We have close to 5 quarts, now.
  • A daylily Katie gave Mary years ago is blooming (see photo, below).

  

  Blossoms on Mary's daylily.
  

• Tuesday, 6/21: Summer Solstice
  
  • Katie sent me the following text, "Happy solstice. I haven't seen the sun set in six weeks!"
  • The pasty butt chick died overnight. It never developed wing feathers. The remaining 30 chicks are running around and looking fantastic with secondary wing feathers.
    
  • Mary mowed part of the north yard.
  • She also cleaned out all of the snow pea plants and mulched that row in the near garden. Mulch was added to cucumbers, zucchinis and new strawberry plants.
  • I watched about 5 videos on how to change the carburetor and adjust it on the Stihl trimmer. Then I changed it and adjusted the carb. I switched to the steel blade and cut tall grass, weeds, and even trees growing on the Swim Pond trail. It was 93° when I did this. A tank of gas lasts longer with the new trimmer carburetor. It still hesitates midway through a tank. I'm now convinced I have bad gas. I whacked half of the trail when the fuel ran out. I ran out of gas, too. The inside air conditioners are fantastic when you're hot and beat tired.
  • Mary went into chores and watering gardens as I picked another bowl of black raspberries, adding another quart to the freezer. A curious hummingbird visited me while I picked berries on the west edge of the west lawn.
    
  • We finished up with everything outside after 9 p.m., taking full advantage of the longest day of the year.
  • When we went to bed, lightning constantly flashed, thunder roared, and rain beat down on the roof. We fell fast asleep.
    
    
• Wednesday, 6/22: Mowing & Whacking
  
  • I drove to Prairieland FS, between Lewistown and LaBelle, to buy gas for the trimmer. I need at least 90 octane. They don't sell it. I went from there to LaBelle and again, Casey's in LaBelle sells only 87 octane gas. So, I drove back to Lewistown's BP station and bought 1 gallon of 91 octane gas. When we first moved to Missouri, we had bad gas from that BP station, but that was 13 years ago. Maybe it's better, now.
  • Mary mowed parts of the lane where poison ivy doesn't grow. I mowed the east side of the lane, where it looks like we planted poison ivy on purpose.
  • I finished taking out tall grass and weeds on the Swim Pond trail. The pond is high with murky water.
  • While Mary watered the garden, I cut down Styrofoam coolers that were once used to ship tropical fish to the Petco store in Quincy. They just threw these coolers away, so I kept several when I worked there. I heated the end of a foot-long piece of heavy wire and made cuts with the hot wire, holding it with vise grips and grasping the pliers with welding gloves. Eventually, I want to use the foam as insulation in the chicken coop. The Suburban and the Buick were filled with these old Petco fish coolers. While using the Buick, I put the coolers that were in that car into the pickup bed. We're using the pickup tomorrow for shopping, so I had to break several down and fit them back into the Buick.
  • One of our barred rock 10-day old pullets has already figured out how to hop onto the lowest rung of the roost. The chicks are developing nicely.
  • Mary picked another quart of black raspberries.
  • In the evening, Mary drew up a shopping list for tomorrow's trip to Quincy.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/23: Quincy Shopping & Mexican Baby Shower
  
  • We shopped in Quincy. In several cases, prices are double what they were a few months ago.
  • Once we got back home, we did evening chores.
  • A few minutes after 6, we went to the baby shower party for Alma and Juan at the trailer across the gravel road from us. It involved several Hispanic families, several kids, and one chihuahua dog...about 20-30 people. The common denominator were workers at the dairy, a mile west of us. They had loud Mexican music playing on huge speakers. They served a spare rib stew and were serving Modelo Especial beer. We sat across from a young couple. Daniella was born in this country and her boyfriend, Ferdinand, was born in Mexico. She spoke fluent English and Spanish. He only spoke Spanish. He is the primary inseminator at the dairy. He said they have 5000 milk cows and 2000 heifers. Last Thursday, he inseminated 130 animals in one day. His daily record is 150. They live in Quincy and he drives here to work, every day. There were several fun games. The funniest involved blind-folded women serving their husbands or boyfriends baby food. What a mess! The evening ended with an amazing tres leche cake, made of soft cake with layers of strawberry jelly, frosting, sweetened sour cream with sliced strawberries. Mary and I were the oldest and the only non-Hispanic people in attendance. Everyone at this party was super nice, polite, and friendly. We walked home around 10:30 p.m.  
  • Karen messaged that she went to a winery on her birthday, today, and enjoyed several fruit wines.
    
    
• Friday, 6/24: Bill Arrived
  
  • Bill arrived here around 11 a.m. We were in the middle of cleaning and finished that up after he got here.
  • I planted squash seeds, since not all of the seeds came up.
  • Mary planted sweet potato plants and covered them with old lace curtains to protect them from the sun.
  • I drilled holes in 8 more Gatorade bottles to turn them into holders for moth balls, then gave them to Bill to put under his care and inside the engine compartment. I also added several moth balls to existing plastic bottles.
  • Bill and Mary picked more black raspberries. We now have 8.5 quarts in the freezer.
  • We ate nachos and watched 2 movies picked out by Bill. They were The Big Year and U-571. Mocha, our youngest cat, intently watched The Big Year, a movie about birdwatching. She keyed in on scenes depicting birds, especially closeups of a hummingbird in flight. Mary says she thinks Mocha has been sassed by ruby-throats more than once.
    
    
• Saturday, 6/25: Bottling Wine & Michigan Rummy
  
  • Mary and I saw a hawk attack a bald eagle directly above our house. The eagle, with superior wingspan, glided to the south and easily moved away from the hawk.
  • Bill and I racked the 3 gallons of autumn olive wine and bottled it into the equivalent of 14 bottles (one was a big 1.5-liter bottle). It's specific gravity was 0.990, the same as the last 2 rackings, which gives it a 12.314% alcohol content. The pH is now at 3.4. It tastes really fruity. It will be the best autumn olive wine yet made, once it ages and the stronger alcohol taste diminishes.
  • Mary watered the garden and Bill and I picked black raspberries. We now have 9.25 quarts in the freezer.
  • Mary made pizza that we enjoyed with a couple varieties of beer that Bill and his friend, Mike, made over the past couple of months. We played Michigan Rummy. Mary won, of course. For good luck, we adopted ratty-looking cat toys. We named them as we adopted them. A chewed-on green rat we called Mange. A little Booda dog became Road Kill. A sparkly little mouse was named Reno. Another sparkly mouse became Vegas. The scruffy brown rat was named Punk Rock Poop Rat. Bill would say that name real fast and for some reason, I got the giggles each time he rattled off the name. We played for 4 hours. A great time was had by all!

  

  Our good luck cat toys, from left to right, are Mange,
  Road Kill, Reno, Vegas, and Punk Rock Poop Rat.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

June 12-18, 2022

Weather | 6/12, 0.02" rain, 69°, 89° | 6/13, trace of rain, 74°, 90° | 6/14, 76°, 91° | 6/15, 73°, 91° | 6/16, 70°, 93° | 6/17, 1.04" rain, 67°, 87° | 6/18, 63°, 84° |

• Sunday, 6/12: Heat, Humidity & Coop Cleaning
  
  • Hot, humid weather kicked in, today. Time spent outside equals wet clothes from water flowing off your body.
    
  • We saw a red-headed woodpecker on the power pole in our yard during our morning dog walk.
  • Mary and I picked snow peas, then Mary processed 8 packages of snow peas for the freezer.
  • I picked the last of the pie cherries. All told, we got 13 quarts this year. We still have 20 quarts from last year, so we're sitting pretty good on frozen cherries.
    
  • Mary mowed around the compost bins, and then cleaned the chicken coop, putting used straw next to the compost bins and chicken manure in the current bin. 
  • I changed out connections between wires on the near garden electric fence to ensure solid contacts between the wires.
  • After Mary finished cleaning the coop, I installed the inner wall and door in the coop to separate our current flock of chickens from chicks that we're expecting on Wednesday. While I did that, Mary filled the coop floor with fresh hay.
    
  • Mary and I were both beat tired after a full day outside slogging through hot humidity.
    
  • Our firefly population keeps increasing. It's quite an amazing show at night in all of the trees.
    
    
• Monday, 6/13: First Raspberries & Garden Staking
  
  • I saw a Baltimore oriole feeding on ripe mulberries just outside the south living room window.
  • We received an email that our chicks were shipped from Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, MO, today.
    
  • Mary and I picked snow peas in the morning and she picked more in the evening.
  • I pulled rebar stakes that we put next to pecan trees we planted in 2011 to keep the small trees upright. They've all grown and are self-supporting. We need the stakes for holding up garden chicken wire fencing.
  • While walking the wheelbarrow for holding rebar stakes down the lane, I spooked up a doe and her fawn, who were eating shrubs along the lane.
  • I walked through several fields of poison ivy to get to these stakes. We should rename our acreage poison ivy farm, where "everyone is itching to go!"
  • Mary shoveled out, I mean cleaned, the house. Left to its own devices, the house develops pet hair minions that bite at your feet...a symptom of too many hairy cats and dogs. 
    
  • Mary and I mowed the inside of the far garden. I did the south end and Mary got the north end.
  • I pounded in 2 metal stakes for a gate and 12 persimmon wooden stakes for 4 corners of a future chicken wire fence on the south end of the far garden.
  • Mary picked black raspberries for the first time. She reports that several more raspberry bushes are growing. 
  • Mary also noticed that gooseberry bushes, which normally contain quarter-inch spines, grow inch-long spines after deer chew on them.
  • Mary took a photo (see below) of an eight-spotted forester moth on the Virginia creeper vine growing near our main door to the house. These daytime moths love Virginia creeper and grapes vines.
  • Fritillary butterflies are feeding on purple milkweed that's now blooming north of the machine shed (see photo, below).

An eight-spotted forester moth.

Fritillary butterfly on purple milkweed.

• Tuesday, 6/14: 32 Hills Planted & Pickup Fixed
  
  • Mary and I picked snow peas. I pick strawberries every morning and Mary picks them every evening. We always have enough to go with morning oatmeal. They are so much better tasting than store-bought strawberries.
    
  • Mary made venison/vegetable soup for our main meal.
  • She also planted pumpkin, acorn squash, muskmelon, and watermelon seeds in 32 hills at the north end of the far garden. Each hill received a couple shovels of compost and a couple trowel fulls of wood ashes. She started at 3 p.m. and watered all seeds by 8 p.m., with evening chores in the middle of it all.
  • Cucumbers sprouted in the near garden through the day.
    
  • I worked on our pickup all day and installed a new crankshaft position sensor connector. Once upon a time, weeping willow branches shaded our vehicles from evening sun. But, I gave that tree a severe haircut last fall, so the hot sun blazed away at the front of the pickup all day. I used an old dog blanket to guard my arms and body from the excessive heat while leaning over the front fender to work. After pulling electrical wires from plastic loom, I had to delicately slice open heat shrink surrounding about 3 feet of wiring to expose the 3 very thin, 18-guage wires leading to the sensor connector. I used a Rapala fillet knife. Got a new connector installed and back together to discover I had a dead battery. After charging the battery, the pickup started like a charm...YAHOO!!! I removed the blocks that were under the pickup for a month. It's ready for tomorrow's trip to the Ewing Post Office for our new chicks.
  • The Stihl trimmer carburetor I ordered arrived today.
    
  • We don't know how it can be, but there were even more fireflies blinking in the trees and grass on the nighttime dog walk. The full moon was especially bright. It gave off a green tint in the night sky, which was quite unusual.
  • My high school friend, Alison, asked me about a tree with the bark torn off down the lane from her house in SC. Here's a link to her photos. It looks like the work of a black bear.
  • Alison informs me that only her Facebook friends can view her photos, so I added 4 photos she took (see below) of the tree that was debarked by a black bear.

Alison's bear-decorated tree-1st view.

Alison's bear-decorated tree-2nd view.

Alison's bear-decorated tree-3rd view.

Alison's bear-decorated tree-4th view.

• Wednesday, 6/15: Chicks Arrive
  
  • We were up early to get ready for chick arrival. After installing the heat lamp in the chick's side of the coop and putting down 2 chick feeders, I checked the pickup. The battery was dead, so I put the battery charger on. Around 7 a.m., the Ewing Post Office called informing us chicks were in. The pickup started and I drove to Ewing and got the chicks.
  • These are real lively chicks (see video, below). We ordered 25 Frypan Special chicks (cockerels) and 3 barred rock pullets. We received 31 chicks and 4 are barred rock pullets. Cackle Hatchery always adds extra chicks, which is nice. The pullets are marked with an orange color on the tops of their heads. Most went to the feed seconds after we moved them out of the shipping box. Midday, we turned the heat lamp off, due to temperatures in the 90s. This looks like a good bunch of chicks.
  • We took the day off from outside activities.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch pattern.
  • I racked the dandelion wine for the 3rd time. Specific gravity was 0.996, the same as a month ago. A quick taste revealed a flowery and warm wine. It's warm, due to the added amount of ginger root. It's extremely delicious. I added a crushed Campden tablet after racking, and topped up the gallon jug with couple ounces of distilled water.
  • Mary picked more black raspberries. We picked another good batch of snow peas, which will soon finish producing pods. All newly planted seeds received a morning and evening watering.
  • Bill called. He's in the middle of buying a new car, which is a blue 2019 Hyundai Sonata with very low mileage. His work environment is hot. He will soon be training another new employee, which means his department is back to a full compliment of workers. Bill can't take Monday, June 27th, off, so he will visit us on Friday, June 24th through Sunday, June 26th.
  • We watched a new DVD we purchased, a 2010 movie called Gunless. It's good.
  
  
  Our 3-day old chicks.
  
  
• Thursday, 6/16: Garden Stuff
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • I balanced the checkbook, stalling going outside, since it was too stinking hot!
  • Mary weeded a row of the far garden where beans will be planted.
    
  • I unrolled the chicken wire for the south end of the far garden fence and installed it on posts on half of the south side and all of the east side.
    
  • Mary picked the last of the snow pea pods.
    
  • Mary and I both picked raspberries as thunder rumbles approached from the west. That thunderstorm took a nose dive south right before getting to us, so all we saw was a rainbow after it left our area.
  • I checked all fruit trees. Evidence of deer chewings are abundant and while I was looking at the big Liberty apple tree, a deer snorted at me from the woods SW of my location. It continued snorting as it went south. There are nice apples on that tree, the Esopus and the McIntosh apple trees. All trees look healthy.
  • Before going to bed, I looked at the chicks through the coop window and they looked like they doubled in size in just one day. They're doing well.
    
    
• Friday, 6/17: Rain & Putting Up Snow Peas
  
  • At 2:45 a.m., constantly flashing lightning woke me. I looked at radar on my phone. A large thunderstorm was bearing down on us from the NW, so I unplugged appliances. Mary woke when I turned off our bedroom's AC. We both slept while we got over an inch of rain. The moisture gives this year's blackberry crop a big boost.
    
  • I made waffles and even though strawberry numbers are dropping back with increased daytime heat, we had enough for our first waffle, each.
  • Mary processed and froze 15 packages of snow peas. This gives us a total of 23 packages. She plans on using them in venison General Tso. I once thought I'd make pea pod wine. It would take a field of snow peas to have enough for wine. Phooey on that idea. We have enough wine, anyway.
  • Mary finished weeding the future bean row in the far garden.
  • I nearly finished putting up the chicken wire fence in the far garden's south end. I need to install a gate and anchor down bottom stretches of the fence.
  • We both picked several more black raspberries. These berries are tiny, but extremely tasty. The first quart bag is now filled. Two quarts is enough for a Christmastime raspberry crisp.
  • A closer look at apple trees shows deer are working them over. They severely munched blueberry bushes. They're horrible this year.
  • Katie told me on a text, "I've been dealing with a lot at work. I'm planning on taking an extended weekend break next weekend."
    
    
• Saturday, 6/18: Garden Work
  
  • Mary mowed the west yard.
  • She then planted 35 tomato and tomatillo plants in three rows and part of a fourth row in the south end of the far garden. Each hole received compost and wood ashes. It took a good part of the afternoon/evening to plant everything.
    
  • I finished installing the chicken wire fence in the south end of the far garden, including adding a gate, stakes between 8-foot sections, tying down bottom of the fence, and pounding in 12 Y-stakes to hold down parts of the fence.
  • We watched a crow taking on a red-tailed hawk as the hawk flew west. A buzzard was flying near them, cheering them on.
    
  • I dug up about 10 feet of positive feed wire coming off the electric fence energizer. Under the wire was an old round steak bone and 2 shards from a glass lining of an old canning jar zinc lid. Driving over this line with the heavy lift last fall drove the wire on the sharp shards, pushing them through the wire's insulation. I left the line loose in the trench to fix tomorrow.
    
  • Mary and I watered all newly planted tomatoes and tomatillos, plus seeds and new sprouts. Five zucchinis sprouted, along with several muskmelons, watermelons and a pumpkin seed.
  • Mary and I picked a nice amount of black raspberries. We now have 2.5 quart bags in the freezer.
    
  • I spooked up a doe deer and her twin fawns while walking to the mailbox. They stood at the wood's edge and watched me walk by them.
    
  • The Hispanic couple who live in the trailer across the gravel road from us invited us to a baby shower at their place on Thursday at 6 p.m. He works at the dairy farm a mile west of us. She's due on July 1.
    

June 5-11, 2022

Weather | 6/5, 56°, 83° | 6/6, 0.34" rain, 63°, 85° | 6/7, 60°, 80° | 6/8, 0.78" rain, 61°, 77° | 6/9, 54°, 80° | 6/10, 0.17" rain, 61°, 77° | 6/11, 58°, 85° |

• Sunday, 6/5: Garlic Harvest Complete
  
  • Mary harvested the last 3 varieties of garlic, which are Samarkand, Shvelisi, and Georgian Crystal. These varieties involved full rows, so we had more to hang up. Sixteen more bundles of garlic are now hanging in the machine shed rafters. They stay there, drying, until September.
  • I straightened the 4 corner posts of the far garden, pounding in brick pieces to solidify 2 steel posts and replacing 3 brace wires.
  • I picked cherries off the big pie cherry tree in the morning and in the evening. It was about half a quart. I squirted carpenter ants several times, who are planting aphids on new leaf growth. As soon as I get off the garden electric fence detail, I need to apply Tanglefoot on the trunk of the tree. I'm actually late doing the Tanglefoot. Cherry fruit numbers are down.
    
  • I learned from Karen that Mom does her heart stress test on June 9th.
  • Mary and I toured fruit trees. Deer munched most of the blueberry plants (damn deer!) and several apple and cherry tree branches. Nicely developing apples are forming on the large Liberty and Esopus trees. Several tiny apples are on the McIntosh tree. All fruit trees look good and except for a few apple cedar spots on the large Bartlett pear and the skinny Liberty (which is not a Liberty, since its apples are green and Liberty's apples are red), the trees are disease-free.
  • Two red-tailed hawks circled above our place when we first stepped out to work gardens.
    
    
• Monday, 6/6: Quincy Shopping Trip
  
  • I tried to charge the Buick's AC refrigeration, but the AC compressor isn't running. It's probably another chewed wire. I need to build a hermetically-sealed garage for our vehicles.
    
  • Mom texted on how cool, wet, and green things are in eastern Montana, opposite from conditions last year.
  • We shopped in Quincy, driving through town in temperatures close to 90 with the windows rolled down. Mary picked up a 6,000-yard spool of eggshell-colored thread that she ordered as a birthday present. She also bought several DMC embroidery skeins and king-sized batting that was 40% off with a birthday gift card from Bill and birthday money from Mom. We got a heat lamp bulb and chick food for chicks arriving next week, plus a few groceries.
  • An ominous thunderstorm headed our way as we got home. Rain started falling at the end of me unloading the car and Mary finishing up chores. It blew and rained hard for a few minutes.
  • We ate nachos and watched the 1995 BBC 5-hour Pride & Prejudice show. We even watched a couple extras into the wee hours.
  • Lightning bugs were out in full force on the dogs' last walk.
    
    
• Tuesday, 6/7: Potting Tree Starts & Picking Cherries
  
  • Mary did some weeding of onions.
  • She also planted new strawberry plants from runners that were placed in Styrofoam cups. There is just 1 more 4-gallon bucket to put a plant in, so she stuck one more runner into a Styrofoam cup and clipped all of the other runners.
  • Mary planted tree starts. A couple months ago, Mary clipped some live weeping willow branches and stuck them in a Mason jar of water. About a month ago, we added clippings from the base of the big Liberty apple tree from shoots coming off the rootstock and put them in the same jar of water. Today she planted 5 willow starts and 4 apple starts in pots. We'll see what develops.
  • Mary also planted a pot of basil seeds.
  • She cooked up some barbecued pork loins for our main meal.
  • I picked pie cherries all day (see photos, below), starting with what I could reach from the ground, then from the 8-foot step ladder, then from the orchard ladder. We now have 3 quarts of this year's pie cherries in the freezer.
  • Our first snow pea pods are developing.
  • Mom texted that they've received almost 2 inches of rain since Sunday, which is a lot for eastern Montana. They're expecting more this week.
  • On the last dog walk, we stood in the north yard and marveled at all of the fireflies in the treetops. Each tree resembles a Christmas tree with white blinking lights. It's absolutely amazing.

Up in the big pie cherry tree.

Picking ripe pie cherries.

• Wednesday, 6/8: Rain, Weeding & More Cherries
  
  • A loud thunder clap in the sky above the house woke me at 3:45 a.m. My scattering to get out of bed woke Mary and we both scurried off to unplug major appliances. It rained very hard right at that point and in the morning sunshine, puddles were everywhere.
    
  • Mary made venison and gravy on biscuits for our main meal.
  • She finished weeding the onions, then fertilized the onions, strawberries, and herbs with fish fertilizer. Mary also spread wood ashes on the onions.
  • I picked cherries all day, adding 4.25 quarts to our 2022 cherry supply. I'm using the orchard ladder to get high into the top of the cherry tree, where loads of ripe cherries are located. Occasionally, I see opening leaves where carpenter ants are farming aphids into production. A quick squirt with Dawn soap solution puts an end to that nonsense. Scattered in the treetop branches are bird-chewed fruits, but I'm seeing fewer than past years, due to an abundance of berries in mulberry trees throughout the yard.
  • There's a cat bird that belts out the same song throughout the day. It sounds like the bird is shouting, "Don't even think it!" When I say those words right after the cat bird finishes his phrase, Mary says, "Thanks, now I'll have that in my head."
    
    
• Thursday, 6/9: Mom's Great Test Results
  
  • Great news from Mom. After getting up at 3 a.m. to travel to Billings for a heart stress test, then waiting for her skyrocketing blood pressure to settle down, she did the test, then returned home. She received a call from the cardiologist who reviewed the test results and told her that there is nothing wrong with the blood flow to her heart and that everything is good.
  • I picked 2 quarts of cherries. I'm now in the monkey level, at the top of the tree with the orchard ladder. Two hours swinging in the tree top with a NW wind blowing is enough for one day!
  • Mary picked the first snow peas...all 3 of them.
    
  • She mowed the east and south lawns. Mary raked and moved grass clippings to mulch all of the onions, shallots, the area where radishes grew, and where the pumpkin seeds will be planted.
  • I whacked grass from under the electric wires in the far garden. After finishing the outside, I walked by Mary and told her it wasn't dusty. She looked at my face and said, "But it's muddy." I was covered in mud balls.
  • Anytime I lower the RPMs of the trimmer, it wants to die and often quits. I ordered a new carburetor for it through Amazon after doing several days of research.
  • We discovered this morning that deer ate all of the blueberries and a lot of branches off the 3 blueberry bushes. You can't leave anything out in the open. We see that they're munching a lot of leaves off trees around the yard. During hunting season, I've even watched them eat rose bushes with thorns. We need to get a bigger appetite for venison!
    
    
• Friday, 6/10: Quiet Day
  
  • At 4 a.m., while on a piddle venture, I heard water dripping off the roof onto the north AC unit's metal casing, another rain to further boost outdoor plants.
  • I made waffles after a very late morning start. We took most of the day off. Muscles and joints are too tired and achy.
  • As Mary did evening chores, I picked 2.5 more quarts of pie cherries. They came from where I could reach while standing on the ground and from an 8-foot step ladder. Several more are higher in the tree.
  • We enjoyed venison General Tso as our main meal. We drank half a bottle of pumpkin wine after the meal. It's got a wonderful taste. The color of this wine is beautiful...very autumnal, like a mead.
    
  • Mary picked more snow peas.
  • I labeled 29 bottles of blackberry wine and laid them horizontally in a couple coolers. 
  • I have a total of 182 bottles (750 ml, each) of wine stored in coolers, which equals 36 gallons. There's 3 gallons of autumn olive and a gallon of dandelion wine, yet to bottle. So I have 40 gallons of wine. The legal limit is 200 gallons in a calendar year, so I'm good. My total includes several wine varieties made in previous years.
    
    
• Saturday, 6/11: Snow Peas, Pepper Plants & Electric Fence
  
  • Bill called. He's not looking forward to working next week with predicted temperatures as high as 100 in St. Louis, since he works in an non-air conditioned warehouse. He recently trained new help in his department. He needs to ask for the time off and is looking to visit us on June 25-27.
    
  • Mary and I picked several snow pea pods.
  • Mary planted 15 pepper transplants she grew from seed. Ten are various hot peppers and 5 are sweet peppers. She also planted zucchini and cucumber seeds. All were put in the near garden.
    
  • I adjusted far garden electric wires on all posts to the correct height, replaced a piece of rusty wire, tightened all 10 electric wires, and finally, connected feed wires from the near garden to the far garden. The tester gave me medium to weak readings. I still need to seek out shorts and clean up connections, but at least all garden electric fences are fired up. 
  • A few spits of rain fell as I finished checking the fence. I couldn't tell the difference, since I was already soaked from working outside on a hot, muggy day.
    
  • We enjoyed chilled pumpkin wine. It tastes good, both chilled and at room temperature. The chilled version is great to enjoy after a hot day outside.