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.