July 17-23, 2022

Weather | 7/17, 0.73" rain, 66°, 84° | 7/18, 61°, 87° | 7/19, 63°, 89° | 7/20, 66°, 88° | 7/21, 63°, 89° | 7/22, 61°, 93° | 7/23, 72°, 93° |

• Sunday, 7/17: Blackberry Picking & Fertilizing Garden
  
  • Overnight, we received a beautiful rain.
    
  • Mary and I picked more blackberries, adding 5 quarts to the freezer. We now are 9 quarts away from our 80-quart grand total goal, which includes 30 quarts from last year.
    
  • I mixed up three 2-gallon batches of fertilizer and sprayed all garden plants. I also sprayed the 2 newest apple trees, all small cherry trees, and 3-4 hazelnut bushes. I added Spinosad to the gallon I sprayed on corn, to kill corn borers and corn ear worms. We noticed some early damage on one hill of corn plants. All garden plants look wonderful (see photo, below) and show significant growth since my last fertilization, which was last Saturday.
  • All of our large apple trees show a lot of leaf defoliation from Japanese beetles. The large and medium cherry trees really look bad (see photo, below). I hope they survive.
    
  • Mary made a venison General Tso dinner that included a freshly-picked zucchini and this year's snow peas. It tasted great. She now uses my garlic and jalapeño wine while making this dish.
  • I tasted the end of the bottle of the jalapeño wine. It isn't as hot and tastes good. I noticed quite a bit of residue in the bottle. I need to use more time and add a 5th racking to my wine in order to eliminate this final residue. So far, cherry and jalapeño wines show extra stuff in the wine after it ages.
  • Several trips, with the .22 rifle in hand, to the McIntosh tree revealed no squirrels.

Beans (back, left), 3 rows of tomatoes (center), and
corn (foreground, right) in the south end of far garden.

Defoliated leaves on medium (foreground, left) and
big (background, right) cherry trees.

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• Monday, 7/18: Blackberries & Chimney Swifts
  
  • We had a very berry breakfast with 15 blackberries, each, and several strawberries on our breakfast oatmeal. The strawberry plants are back kicking out several berries each day.
    
  • Mary made a wonderful midday meal of venison biscuits.
  • She also washed a big load of towels, did some cross stitch work for pleasure, and checked the gardens. All plants look good.
    
  • Mary heard chimney swift chicks from the top of chimney while she was hanging towels on the line.
    
  • I picked 3 quarts of blackberries from Bramble Hill and that surrounding area. We only have 6 quarts of blackberries left to pick to get to our quota of 80 total quarts of berries.
    
  • I see more Mac apples on ground, so I need to do more squirrel elimination. I hunted in the evening. I heard 2 squirrels in the woods, but they ventured into the north woods.
    
  • Mary saw a Baltimore oriole male and female pair when she got mail. They must have a nest near Bluegill Pond.
    
    
• Tuesday, 7/19: Squirrel Hunting & Blackberries
  
  • I woke up just after 5 a.m. and went squirrel hunting next to the Mac apple tree. Then, I hunted in 2 locations in the north woods between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. At 5-7 p.m., I hunted north of the chicken yard, then at the Bobcat deer blind. I never saw a single squirrel. During deer hunting season, in the fall, squirrels are everywhere. Now, they only sneak out to take a bite out of apples and tear them off trees. Oh well, I did spend time in the woods. It's a nice place to be on a hot day, because temps are cooler under the shade of trees. I saw several huge swallowtail butterflies throughout the woods.
    
  • Mary did 3 loads of laundry and cleaned house.
    
  • Mary and I both picked blackberries. We are now less than 2 bags shy of reaching our 80-quart quota. Mary says she's done picking fruit off those spiny bushes, although she is willing to pick for breakfast oatmeal and a blackberry pie.
    
  • Mary created a shopping list.
  • A Japanese beetle was munching on corn...damn!!!
    
    
• Wednesday, 7/20: Shopping Trip
  
  • We shopped in Quincy today. Once we got into town, we were slowed by 2 car accidents within 2 blocks of one another on Broadway, the main drag through the town. I found a glass pitcher at Salvation Army that I can use for decanting wine. We bought an Old Timer 3-knife set that was marked way down at Farm & Home. I also picked up some hunting trail reflective marking tacks. They're always sold out by hunting season time. We also purchased hen and chick food, chicken grit, and basic groceries.
    
  • We got back home around 4 p.m., in time to see a crop dusting plane roaring about. Spreading poisons from the air is hitting an all-time high. It isn't working. We notice many area crops that look poor with fields that are full of weeds. The old-fashioned way of running a cultivator through fields resulted in cleaner crops.
    
  • I picked breakfast blackberries and did some evening chores while Mary watered gardens.
  • We watched the 2019 movie, Men in Black: International, that we picked up today. We liked it.
  • Bill called. He loves the cherry wine. Since Monday, he's been wearing a fan that connects to his belt and blows air up his shirt. Bill says it's wonderful to wear while working in a hot warehouse. He's going to a diaper party. It's a party celebrating the future birth of a friend's baby, where everyone has to bring diapers to get into the party.
    
    
• Thursday, 7/21: So Now It's a Raccoon!
  
  • Mary mowed the east yard.
  • I created a spot to sit at the edge of the woods, hidden by rose bushes and aromatic sumac, and overlooking the McIntosh apple tree. I can look straight up into the overhead trees for little dastardly squirrels from that spot. I left an overturned bucket with a small piece of board on top of the bucket to sit on.
  • I picked 2 quarts of blackberries to fill our quota of 80 bags in the freezer. Bugs are infiltrating the berries. I kept only about a third of all I picked today. I'm glad we're done...no more thorns in fingers and knees.
  • While picking berries SW of the house, I first chased away deer that I could hear in the west woods, then I saw a tiny fawn with spots run west and into the woods.
    
  • I helped Mary water the gardens. All plants look wonderful. I ate a ripe sungold tomato...how delightful!
  • While walking the dogs at dusk, I spotted a branch moving in the Mac tree, so I walked over. At the top of the tree was a big raccoon. After putting the dogs back inside, I chased the apple-steeling bugger away. It seems every critter imaginable likes unripe, green McIntosh apples!
    
    
• Friday, 7/22: Squirrel Hunting, Yummy Waffles & Mowing
  
  • I woke at 5:45 a.m. and hunted squirrels from the spot I fixed up yesterday. An east breeze blew at sunrise that switched to a SE wind, blowing my scent into the north woods. A deer snorted at me, followed by a squirrel chattering at the deer. I never saw anything but birds.
  • We had a marvelous waffle with berries breakfast.
    
  • I moved vehicles to the lane. Then I sharpened the lawn mower blade.
  • Mary mowed where vehicles are parked and then the yard immediately north of the house. I mowed the near garden and a swath around the outside of the electric fence of that garden. I bagged the clippings and put the grass mulch around the base of the 2 south apple trees.
    
  • Mary watered all gardens while I finished mowing. She also picked blackberries and strawberries for tomorrow's breakfast.
    
  • Today was extremely hot and humid. Clothes are soaked after working outside in this weather.
  • ARGH!!! I saw chewed apples under the McIntosh tree. I'm about ready to blast squirrels from a military tank!!!
    
    
• Saturday, 7/23: Too Much Heat
  
  • Mary laid low for the day. She was sick to her stomach overnight, getting only 3 hours of sleep. We think she overdid working outside, yesterday, in the heat. I fed her half a bowl of oatmeal and few strawberries. She made a nice batch of chicken tortellini soup, midday. By afternoon, she felt much better. That's the power of homegrown chicken!
    
  • Mary watered the gardens in the late afternoon, going outside for 15 minutes, then taking a break inside. She also picked 4 zucchinis. The 2 zucchini plants in the near garden are huge.
    
  • I raked up all of the grass Mary mowed two days ago. I removed old grass stored in the second grain bin, put it in the compost pile, swept the tarp under that grass, and put the dried grass I raked up on top of the tarp in the bin. It smells wonderful.
  • I picked 50 wild blackberries for tomorrow's breakfast. Blackberry season is almost over in the patches near the house.
  • Chimney swifts were circling about overhead while we did evening chores. Three of them chatter while taking tight turns in the sky. We also heard a wild turkey hen calling to the east of the far garden.
    
  • After dark, I found a photo of my great-grandfather's grave in Havre de Grace, MD on ancestry.com and a photo of him. Also listed were his parents, who moved from Durham, England. It got me to thinking about relatives, so I left a Messenger text with my cousin, Marjorie Rose, asking how her folks are doing.