August 28-Sept. 3, 2022

Weather | 8/28, 69°, 87° | 8/29, 0.81" rain, 70°, 91° | 8/30, 59°, 83° | 8/31, 52°, 83° | 9/1, 60°, 87° | 9/2, 0.01" rain, 63°, 87° | 9/3, 60°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/28: Apples, Muskmelons & Katie's Flight
  
  • I finished slicing all pecked apples, then ground up 11 to 12 quarts of apples slices, giving me a grand total of 33 pounds, 13.3 ounces of applesauce in the freezer. I'm almost done processing all Esopus apples. I sorted remaining Liberty apples and put what I call seconds into the fridge. We have 8 pounds, 6 ounces of good apples and 17 pounds, 3.1 ounces of seconds in the fridge, for a grand total of 25 pounds, 9.1 ounces. I need to slice up a final bucket of blemished apples. Today, I was able to slice apples in half the time it once took me, which is good. I've been at this for an entire week! As soon as all apple slicing is done, I'll make apple wine and cider. After dark, I sliced half an ice cream pail of apples.
    
  • While watering gardens, Mary found 2 ripe muskmelons (see photo, below). She watered the entire far garden before I was done grinding apple slices and free to help her. I watered the near garden while she picked 7 hornworm eggs.
  • Katie flew with her Air National Guard unit from Anchorage to Hawaii. She sent the photo and video of the flight that I included, below.
  • After dark, Mary processed the 2 muskmelons. They were so ripe, they put an amazing aroma throughout the house and were deep, deep orange inside. They tasted amazing. They're well worth the effort of daily watering. She froze 3 quarts. It will be our fruit this winter when supermarket prices are sky high.
    
    

Our 1st very ripe muskmelons.

Katie's photo inside a C-130 cargo airplane.

A few seconds of Katie's flight to Hawaii.

• Monday, 8/29: Glorious Rain!!!
  
  • Mary picked 2 buckets of tomatoes, and from that, processed and froze 4 gallons of them. She also checked and then picked 2 muskmelons, processed them and added 3 more quarts to freezer. Mary checked pears. They're as hard as rocks. She says some of the hazelnuts will be ready early next week. The hops are a no-show this year. They probably dried out with the lack of rain in August.
    
  • I sliced up roughly a bucket of apples. I finished off all Esopus apples and finished blemished Liberty apples. I worked on 10 to 12 at a time. I'll do a final grinding up of apple slices tomorrow and start making apple wine and cider. After 8 days of apple slicing, I'm starting to see them in my dreams.
    
  • Thunderstorms blew up right overhead and we received a much needed rain in the evening. For the first time in weeks, we didn't water the gardens. It was wonderful! This is the first substantial rain since July 26th.
    
  • With lightning still showing to the south, I walked our lane to get the mail. A doe and her fawn were eating grass on the lane south of Bluegill Pond and I almost walked right up to them. The fawn spotted me first and darted off to the west. The doe saw the fawn bolt and dashed off to the east. While walking back from the mailbox, I saw the doe disappear into the west woods, following her fawn's scent.
  • Our chicks are 11 weeks old, today. Despite buying pelleted food, they still pour half of the feed on the floor. I just sweep it off the floor, complete with chicken poo, feathers, and hay, and pour it right back into the feeder. Still, they're growing larger and several barred rock cockerels are crowing each morning, making Leo, our rooster, mad. He crows even more, and loudly. In 3-4 weeks, chicken butchering needs to join our agenda.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/30: Apple Wine, Cider, and Blackberry Wine
  
  • I moved 4 containers of frozen ground up applesauce outside and on the porch to thaw. Later in the day, I moved them to the south end of the woodshed, so they caught the heat of sunlight. In late afternoon, I brought them inside, carved about half of the thawed applesauce off each chunk, put the other frozen chunks back in the containers and put them on the Buick's hood to catch the last of the sun. After dark, I finally broke the last frozen applesauce into bits. Frozen applesauce is hard to thaw!
  • I ground up the last of the apple slices, filling 2 ice cream containers that I put back into the fridge. After some research both online and in winemaking books, I came up with apple wine and apple cider recipes.
  • Mary mowed the lane. She also picked a muskmelon and a few strawberries.
  • Mary found 3 hornworm eggs while I stomped grass down around the inside and outside of all gardens in an attempt to get the electric fence charger to work better. It didn't help. Mowing is in order. We didn't water gardens...YAHOO!
    
  • I made a 1.5-gallon batch of apple wine and another 1.5-gallon batch of apple cider. I first put all 46 pounds of applesauce into 3 large stainless steel bowls. Dipping from each bowl in succession, I filled 2 nylon mesh bags that Mary held open in 2 different brew buckets. Each bag held roughly 23 pounds of applesauce. I added to each brew bucket 3 quarts of spring water and 1.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient. I checked the sulfur content, due to crushed Campden tablets I put in while slicing and grinding apples. It was off the charts, so I didn't need to add more. The pH was 3.2, so no acid blend was needed. The starting specific gravity was 1.030, so only 4 ounces of sugar went into the cider brew bucket to put the specific gravity at 1.034, which should yield 5% alcohol. One pound, 14 ounces of sugar went into the wine brew bucket, raising the specific gravity to 1.085, resulting in 11.79% alcohol in the end. I set both brew buckets into the pantry.
  • I racked two 5-gallon half-full carboys of blackberry wine. This was its second racking. It went into a different 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, a 750-ml wine bottle, and a 330-ml beer bottle. All of the extra jugs and bottles were necessary because I was just shy of filling a gallon jug once the 5-gallon carboy was full. The specific gravity was 0.992, giving it a 12.3% alcohol content. Mary and I tasted it. It was fruity with a stronger blackberry flavor than the last blackberry batch. It might get better flavor when made during summer months, when yeast finishes faster. The 2 carboys this wine came from contained dried crud from early stages of foam, so I left them to soak with a water/OxyClean solution. After washing dishes for the third time, we got to bed really, really late...at 4 a.m. I should have known not to work on 2 wine projects when the second one started at 11 p.m.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/31: Garden Produce & Yeast Starters
  
  • Mary picked a bucket and a half of tomatoes. She then froze 4.5 gallons of tomatoes. Mary also picked 65 hot peppers and froze 2 quarts of them. We now have enough hot peppers for a year's supply of salsa production. Mary picked 2 muskmelons and froze 2 quarts of that fruit. Processing produce took all afternoon.
    
  • I made yeast starters for apple wine and cider. I selected Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast for the wine and Lalvin R2 yeast for the cider. After adding must to the starters throughout the day, I pitched the yeast into brew buckets at bedtime. Before adding yeast, a check of specific gravity yielded 1.075 for the wine, which means it lost sugar. I added 10 ounces of sugar, for a grand total of 1.5 pounds, to bring the specific gravity to 1.087. The cider had a specific gravity of 1.040, so sugar content increased. I left it alone. I accidentally put my finger through the large nylon mesh bag holding fruit in the wine brew bucket. It's too delicate. I pulled up the material, twisted it, and tied a string around the twisted material. Now I wait for the yeast to take hold and work on the applesauce and juice.
    
  • Mary watered all gardens and did most of the evening chores.
  • I mowed grass and weeds in one pass on the outside and inside of all electric fences. Using a bag on the mower, I collected grass and added mulch around the big Liberty apple tree. After Mary found a wire tangle and I found a wire touching a metal post that I fixed, the electric fence charger showed a complete charge pulsing through the wires.
  • Mary heard a wood duck near Bluegill Pond while getting the mail. I saw a flock of them flying north of the far garden while I was mowing there.
    
    
• Thursday, 9/1: Apple Processing
  
  • Mary and I sliced, processed, and froze all of the Liberty seconds apples that I stored in the fridge. Actually, I scrubbed all of them, Mary cored and sliced them, and I made sure slices were separated after they hit the lemon/water solution in bowls. I learned Mary's super fast way of slicing apples. It was just a few ounces shy of 15 pounds and filled 2 big stainless steel bowls (see photo, below). We kept skins on, since the fruit was soft. Mary blanched the slices in boiling water for 2 minutes, cooled them, and then bagged them. We put 14 quarts of apple slices in the freezer. It felt great preserving our own apples, instead of buying them from Edgewood Orchard in Quincy.
  • After finishing apples, I took apple waste into the north woods and spread it out on a deer trail. It will be gone in no time.
    
  • I checked the apple wine and apple cider. Both are bubbling along nicely. The cider has a specific gravity of 1.035, down 5 points. The wine has a specific gravity of 1.072, down 15 points. We tasted the cider. It's oh, so good. We can smell the apple wine and apple cider yeast all over the house.
    
  • Mary and I watered gardens. Mary didn't find any eggs or hornworms.
    
  • We watched the 1995 movie, A Walk in the Clouds.
  • Karen and Alison put photos on Facebook about Karen and Lynn visiting Alison at her SC home.

  

  Almost 15 pounds of Liberty apple slices, equaling 14 quarts in the freezer.

• Friday, 9/2: Racking Apple Cider
  
  • Mary did some housecleaning.
  • I cleaned up both of our hand grinders, applied mineral oil after drying them, wrapped them in newspaper and putting them away. I was going to get rid of the smaller one that we got when we lived in MT, but decided against it.
  • The specific gravity of the apple cider was 1.011 in the early afternoon. The apple wine's reading was 1.037.
    
  • Mary and I watered the gardens. Mary spotted corn that was ready, so she picked 15 ears.
  • We watched 2 Vs of Canada geese fly over the place at sunset. They're really huge.
    
  • After supper, Mary processed the corn and froze them. 
  • I racked the apple cider (see photo, below). At that point, after dark, the specific gravity was 1.010. I first put most of it into two 1-gallon jugs. Foam started filling airlocks, so I got Mary to stir the top of the foamiest jug while I sanitized a 3-gallon carboy. I collected about 2.5 gallons of must after squeezing the nylon mesh bag. That gave me enough headroom in the 3-gallon carboy to handle foam. Yeast gives the cider a butterscotch milkshake appearance. Bill says it looks like early beer, but lighter colored. It put a strong aroma throughout the house. Now, I let it sit. The apple wine will be ready to rack tomorrow.

  

  1st racking of apple cider using Lalvin R2 yeast.

• Saturday, 9/3: Racking Apple Wine & Bill Visiting
  
  • The apple wine's specific gravity is 1.017, which is close enough, so I racked the wine into three 1-gallon jugs and a 750-ml wine bottle. The big mesh bag slit open while I squeezed it to remove juice, so I threw it away with the leftover mash. We tasted the last little bit. It's wonderful. I put the apple wine next to the apple cider in the pantry (see photo, below). The wine is lighter in color, compared to the cider.
  • Bill arrived in the middle of me racking the apple wine. He's here for just a couple days. He averaged 41.1 mpg with his vehicle on his drive up from St. Louis.
  • Mary picked 3 buckets of tomatoes. She put 5.5 gallons in the freezer. One unripe muskmelon exploded out in the garden, so she decided not to water muskmelon plants. She picked an almost ripe one.
  • Bill made pizzas while Mary and I watered the gardens. We got to watering late, because a thunderstorm developed north of us in what looked like rain. It thundered, but no rain.
  • Prior to watering gardens, I spotted several dragonflies circling above the maple tree just north of the house. Bill caught a video of them that I put below.
    
  • Bill picked out and we watched the 2006 movie, Failure to Launch, then an episode of BBC's season 2 of Sherlock. We shared 2 bottles of British beer that Bill brought with him on this visit. It was good.
    

  

  Apple Cider (left) & 4 containers of apple wine.
  

   
  
   

  
  Dragonflies circling above a maple tree in our yard.
  

August 21-27, 2022

Weather | 8/21, 60°, 82° | 8/22, 58°, 83° | 8/23, 60°, 82° | 8/24, 60°, 85° | 8/25, 63°, 88° | 8/26, 61°, 85° | 8/27, 63°, 89° |

• Sunday, 8/21: Liberty Apple Tree Picked & Final Green Bean Processing
  
  • I woke before the sun rose and sat on the south-facing porch, just a few feet from the Liberty apple tree. I soaked several woodpeckers with my water cannon. One flew first to the apple tree, and then to the top of the power pole in the yard. "Ahah," I cried. I can reach there with my water cannon. That bird received a double shower. I also sorted the apples I picked yesterday into 3 groups...apples pecked by woodpeckers, those with blemishes, and perfect apples ready to eat.
  • While sitting there, a hummingbird grabbed nectar from nearby comfrey blossoms. It suddenly spotted me and hovered a couple feet from my face while looking me over, then flew away. That was neat!
    
  • Mary finished all green bean processing for the season and put 22 servings of plastic sandwich bags of beans in the freezer. It took most of the day.
    
  • Mary also picked a half a bucket of tomatoes and tomatillos.
  • I picked all of the apples off the Liberty apple tree. They were ready. The apples slipped off the tree, easily. I sorted them as I picked the apples. The chore took all day. This will stop my constant daytime defense of apple trees. Neighbors won't hear cuss words followed by the bang of firecrackers exploding. I won't bore Mary with woodpecker/apple conversation. Most importantly, I'll get more than 5-6 hours of sleep.
  • We watered gardens. Mary did the far garden while I watered the near garden and all small fruit trees and blueberry bushes. Mary found 4 hornworm eggs and no worms. Lower temperatures might be slowing down the moths that lay these eggs.
    
  • We're seeing raccoon sludge that we shovel off our driveway every morning. It's raccoon dung after they're finished eating the farmers' field corn.
    
    
• Monday, 8/22: Tomato Freezing, Apple Processing & Onion Harvest
  
  • I woke up after a full 8-hour sleep, went outside and was greeted by absolutely no woodpecker calls. "Oh, what a wonderful morning, oh, what a wonderful day!"
    
  • Mary cut up and froze 2 gallon bags of tomatoes and one gallon bag of tomatillos. She is just one bag shy of enough tomatoes to process a batch of salsa and just a bag shy of enough tomatillos for our yearly supply of 4 batches of salsa.
    
  • I handled all of the apples I stored over time in the refrigerator that I cleaned up after birds pecked them. We have 3 buckets of pecked apples that I recently picked, but those in the fridge were from prior to my recent apple picking. Processing the fridge apples involved a lot of shaving off oxidized and brown parts, quartering each one, carving out seeds in the core, removing any bug damage, then slicing and dicing them into small pieces. From advice on an online WineMaker Magazine article about making apple wine and hard cider, I used 3/4 teaspoon of pectic enzyme (this breaks down apple chunks into liquid) and 1 Campden tablet (restricts fruit browning) per gallon of apple chunks. I went through all pecked apples and culled out 6 of the worst, processed them and added good chunks to the container. I wound up with 5 quarts of apple pieces I put into the fridge (see photo, below). I'll either use these in a mesh bag to make wine or cider, or use a press to turn them into juice.
  • Mary pulled the onions. Two small ones were eaten by voles, so it was time to harvest them. She cut the tops off and they are all curing in the back porch closet. Open that door and it smells like an old-fashioned hamburger joint.
    
  • Mary watered all gardens and did all of the outdoor chores while I chopped away on apples. She found no hornworms and 7 hornworm eggs. "Maybe I'm finally having an effect out there," she said. The tomato patch would be devastated if not for her daily hornworm and worm egg pickings.
  • Four different times I walked to the iron scrap dump at the end of the north yard and threw out scrapes from slicing and dicing apples. Each time, the previous scrapes were all gone. Bunnies, raccoons, opossums, deer, or whatever critter was out there, ate them up, quickly. They've also cleaned out every apple that was on the McIntosh tree. It's impossible to defend that tree. It's too close to squirrel-laden trees and too far away from the house, so I've designated it my sacrificial apple tree. I also noticed a recent deer bed-down spot in the tall grass next to the iron scrap metal dump. We're just visitors in this game preserve we live in.

  

  Approximately 5 quarts of apple chunks.

• Tuesday, 8/23: Apple Slicing and Dicing & Garden Watering
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas. She also watered all gardens. Mary killed 3 hornworm eggs and 1 worm.
  • I checked out a couple hand-crank grinders we own that I might use to grind up apple slices prior to putting them into the fruit press Katie gave me for last year's Christmas.
    
  • I cut up another 5 quarts of pecked apples, taking out bad parts, of course. I'm getting faster at it, but I still have a long way to go. Each of these 5-quart amounts weigh just a couple ounces over 7 pounds. Various apple wine recipes call for 7 to 20 pounds of apples per gallon of wine, so I have enough to make a gallon right now. I'll keep slicing and dicing to get the pecked apples cleaned up, then see where I go from there. I need to act soon, because the fridge is filling up with apples and Mary says garden produce is coming in to be refrigerated, soon.
  • I finished apple duty in time to help Mary with the end of garden watering and final chores.
  • The National Weather Service says we're abnormally dry. That's why we water gardens daily.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/24: Processing Apple & Garden Produce
  
  • I washed and then set up a hand grinder. I ground up apple chunks that were in the fridge to make applesauce and ran them through the apple press (see photos, below), processing a few ounces over 14 pounds of apple slices.
  • Mary picked nearly a full bucket of tomatillos, another bucket of tomatoes, a full bucket of bell peppers, some hot peppers, and some cucumbers. She washed, cut, and froze a gallon and a half of tomatoes. She also froze a gallon bag of tomatillos. We now have enough tomatillos. We don't need to water them, anymore.
  • I asked and Katie texted back that she flew out of Venetie, AK, today. She flies to Hawaii for a military job on Saturday.
  • Mary and I watered gardens. It goes faster, now that we're not watering beans, onions, and tomatillos. She found 7 eggs and no hornworms.
    
  • I sliced up between 2-3 quarts of pecked apples, while removing bad parts. After working the hand-crank grinder, I realized that I don't need to slice them so thin, which will save time by making just 3 long slices in each quarter of an apple. I finished all of the pecked Esopus apples and now have half a bucket of pecked Liberty apples to handle.
    
  • Bill called. Because he used Pell Grants for college, Biden's student loan forgiveness policy announced today has a chance of knocking $20,000 off his student loan debt. Details are forthcoming. We talked about apple wine and cider that I'm making. He is visiting us over Labor Day weekend.
  • On the nightly dog walk, we heard raccoons fighting near Bluegill Pond.
    

Grinding apples into sauce.

Turning applesauce into juice with fruit press.

• Thursday, 8/25: Mom to Get New Hip
  
  • Mom called. She decided to get her right hip replaced. A recent X-ray shows considerable wear from a year ago. It's a bone-on-bone situation. Shots only help for a few days and high-dosage Tylenol for just a couple hours. Her doctor, who has a practice in Cheyenne, WY, is from Glendive, MT, and also works in Glendive. She comes highly recommended. Mom's surgery is Sept. 13th. Karen arrives on Sept. 8th and is visiting until nearly the end of the month, which will help Mom. Based on others in Circle who went through hip replacement with that same doctor, Mom thinks she will be back to normal, soon. She's getting her place ready for recovery by installing handrails in certain places and lining up the use of a cane and a walker. In other news from Circle, MT, the weather has been hot. Grasshoppers are thick and chewing up plants. Mom recently dug up potatoes that the grasshoppers ate all of the plants' leaves. The McCone County Board decided she has to wait a year from January before she can drive for the Senior Center, again. Mom said she's gotten over being mad about that decision.
  • We're out of chick food, so I went to Quincy to buy more. With the pickup's license due at the end of this month, I got the pickup's required state inspection at Lewistown Tire. I was told that the truck's front end is very tight...good news. I got new license plate tags in Monticello, our county seat. Then, I bought animal food at Farm & Home and a couple things at Aldi in Quincy.
  • Meanwhile, Mary chopped up and froze 23 meal packages of green bell peppers. She also put 1.5 quarts of hot peppers in the freezer for making salsa. She used up some old eggs to make 2 quiche pies, one of which we ate when I returned home.
  • We both watered gardens, since a thunderstorm went by south of us dropping absolutely nothing on us.
  • Katie sent a photo taken from the air of Mount Denali's summit surrounded by clouds (see photo, below). She's back in Anchorage.
  • After dark, I chopped up 2-3 more quarts of apples, while removing pecked or bug-ridden parts.

  

  Katie captured this photo of Mount Denali from the air.

• Friday, 8/26: More Apple Gulag Work
  
  • FedEx delivered a package to our doorstep addressed to Alma, who lives in the trailer across the gravel road from us. Mary and I walked it over to them. We think it was a backpack that holds a baby, since they have a 2-month old baby girl. They thanked us for walking it to them.
    
  • Mary washed 2 loads of laundry and enjoyed some cross stitching.
  • I refrigerated the best apples in my collection, free of blemishes. Then, I sliced 8 more apples, and ground up another 6 quarts of apple slices. I now have an ounce shy of 21 pounds of applesauce. After dark, I cleaned up and sliced up 16 more apples. I started keeping some of the better blemished Esopus apples that I'm calling seconds and refrigerated them. I still have three 4-gallon buckets of apples to go through.
  • Mary and I both watered gardens. Mary found 7 hornworm eggs and no worms.
    
    
• Saturday, 8/27: Slicing Apples & Buckets of Tomatoes
  
  • On our morning dog walk, we saw a double-crested cormorant flying south. It definitely flew a little further west to avoid us.
  • Mary picked 2 full buckets of tomatoes, one of which was primarily cherry tomatoes. After sorting them, she put 3.5 gallon bags of tomatoes in the freezer. Another half a gallon of tomatoes and we have ingredients for 2 salsa batches.
  • I slogged away at slicing apples, filling one 6-quart container and starting a new container. I'm almost done with all pecked apples.
  • While watering gardens with Mary, I had a tan tree frog climb out of a watering can. It jumped off the can once I filled the container with water. It sat on the grass for the longest time. Once, when Mary approached, it jumped deeper into the grass, then changed color to a dark green to match the color of grass at ground level. I watered small trees. Mary found 3 eggs and 1 hornworm.
  • Right before going to bed very late (more like early morning), I asked Katie where she was and she texted back that she was in Anchorage. She is to report to the military base at 7 a.m. tomorrow, then she takes a 6-hour flight to Hawaii on a C-130 cargo airplane.
    

August 14-20, 2022

Weather | 8/14, 66°, 80° | 8/15, trace rain, 61°, 78° | 8/16, 0.10" rain, 61°, 80° | 8/17, 58°, 82° | 8/18, 54°, 84° | 8/19, 60°, 84° | 8/20, 63°, 82° |

• Sunday, 8/14: Bill Leaves
  
  • A check of the blackberry wine must showed a 1.086 specific gravity, so there was no need to add sugar. I worked up a starter of Lalvin RC 212 yeast all day and pitched it into the brew bucket at midnight. The must turned very dark purple through the day.
    
  • I made a batch of waffles for our midday meal.
  • Bill left for his place around 2:30 p.m.
    
  • Mary and I watered the garden. She found 10 hornworm eggs and & 10 hornworms.
  • I removed 4 apples ruined by woodpeckers. They drilled right through the zippered sandwich bags.
    
  • We now have a barred rock cockerel that's crowing. The bigger cockerels are growing fast.
    
    
• Monday, 8/15: Green Bean Work Day
  
  • In the morning, I sat for about an hour in a camp chair tucked into the persimmon saplings east of the Esopus apple tree. While looking at online news on my phone, I waited with my water cannon for dastardly apple-nibbling woodpeckers. One swooped in from the south. I nailed it with a stream of water and it flew off in a hurry in a northerly direction. There were no more woodpeckers after that incident. Damn, this water cannon is fun!
    
  • Several hummingbirds flew near me. One even checked the bottom corners of bags on apples for moisture dripping out of them.
    
  • We noticed rain coming with online radar, so Mary picked beans, while I picked tomatoes and tomatillos.
  • Mary processed what amounted to 18 quarts, and 3 individual servings in sandwich bags of green beans (see photo, below). The time-consuming part, which Mary performed, was cutting off tips and stalks of each green bean. I helped by washing some of the beans. Green bean processing took most of the day.
  • With speckles of rain, we didn't water. Mary did find 10 eggs and 5 hornworms.
    
  • We have wasteful chicks. About a third to half of their feed is dished out on the floor. A daily chore is sweeping up feed, pouring it through 2 pieces of quarter-inch hardware cloth, and putting the sieved feed back into the chick feeder. The next chick feed purchase is going to be pellets!
  • We enjoyed a bottle of pumpkin wine after dark. This time, we chilled each glass with 5 ice cubes. Drinking it like this made it taste like apple cider.
    
  • Sweet potatoes are blooming (see photo, below). Their flowers distinguish them as part of the morning glory family.

Just part of the green beans processed today.

A pretty sweet potato blossom.

• Tuesday, 8/16: Barn Swallows Fill the Sky
  
  • We had a big barn swallow explosion. There were dozens of them swooping through the air. We figure they're migrating through and cleaning up on bugs over our property.
    
  • I made waffles for a noontime meal.
    
  • I also guarded apple trees from woodpeckers. They're even attacking unripe pears in the Kieffer pear tree, which is an occurrence we've never seen in prior years. Something is amiss. Maybe there are too many woodpeckers. Maybe their food is diminished in the woods. It's an odd year.
    
  • Mary picked some more green beans.
  • We both watered the gardens. A significant rain would help.
  • I checked the blackberry wine. The specific gravity is 1.068.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/17: Shopping Trip
  
  • I shopped in Quincy, IL, and in Hannibal, MO, today. I went to Hannibal to buy firecrackers to use as a way to keep woodpeckers away. There's a huge fireworks store south of Hannibal. I now own 1280 more firecrackers. It was only $8. I looked for 30-30 ammo in 2 places in Quincy and 3 places in Hannibal, but it doesn't exist. I found gas at $3.17 in Hannibal. It's $3.51 a gallon where I usually buy fuel. The new chick feed is in pellets. It was a long day of shopping.
  • Mary guarded the apple trees at home, while I was away. She said her war cry and a water cannon are quite effective. When I got home, I saw 3 woodpeckers in 5 minutes. Mary says it's because of me that they show up.
  • Mary picked and processed some tomatoes and tomatillos.
  • We watched the 2017 movie, Wonder Woman, that I got from the Walmart $5 bin, today.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/18: Whip-poor-will Farewell
  
  • I checked the blackberry wine midday and before bed. Its specific gravity was 1.037 at noon and 1.027, later. Tomorrow it goes into a carboy.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, then chimichangas for our main meal.
    
  • I was going to harvest apples off the Liberty tree, but when I checked, they wouldn't release after lifting them up on the branches, so they're not ripe. I'll leave them. Instead, I found slightly pecked ones, cut off bad parts, washed and wrapped them in plastic, put them in Ziplock bags, and stored them in the fridge.
    
  • Mary picked more green beans.
  • Mary and I watered gardens. She searched and found 8 hornworm eggs and 6 large hornworms. This after-sunset search was aided by a blacklight flashlight. She said the worms glowed vividly with this light.
  • I learned today that Marilyn Weaver Wythe died. Marilyn was in my Homer High School graduating class. She was airlifted to Anchorage for an operation, put in an induced coma and never recovered. I remember her as a really nice person.
  • We heard a whip-poor-will in the evening. We haven't heard one for quite some time. It's probably time for it to head south.
    
    
• Friday, 8/19: Guarding Trees, Picking Produce, & Racking Wine
  
  • I woke up after 6 a.m., went outside and sat in a chair near the Esopus apple tree where I could also see the Liberty tree. I shot the water cannon at woodpeckers and lit off several firecrackers. I soaked one bird. They're persistent, but so am I.
  • We tried small slices of our homegrown apple on oatmeal with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. WOW!!! It's very good.
  • The blackberry wine's specific gravity is 1.020, so I racked a little over 6 gallons of must into two 5-gallon carboys. This wine foams profusely, so I figured 2 gallons of air space is enough to handle foam and it is.
  • Mary picked green beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, hot peppers, and cucumbers. It took 2 hours. I took a couple plastic shopping bags of old cucumbers out to the hens, sliced them up, and fed them to the chickens.
  • I cleaned etch and scratch marks off a glass pitcher with Brasso while guarding apple trees from woodpeckers in the afternoon.
  • We watched storm systems go by to the north of us, so we watered gardens...AGAIN!!! Our watering is keeping garden plants productive. Mary found 13 eggs and 2 hornworms.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of autumn olive wine made in November 2021. This wine tastes better at room temperature, as opposed to chilled.
    
    
• Saturday, 8/20: Pickle Day
  
  • Mary made 12 quarts of dill pickles. The cucumbers that were made into pickles were bright green this year (see photo, below). I fed unused cucumbers to the chickens and we ate a cucumber salad in the evening.
    
  • Mary picked the last of the green beans. She also took a close look at the onions and decided that they will be harvested tomorrow.
    
  • I chased woodpeckers by first emerging outside at daybreak with my trusty water cannon and a pocket full of firecrackers. I continued chasing them all day. I discovered on a University of New Hampshire website that woodpeckers hit apples more during dry periods. We've seen 0.36 inches of moisture in August and since 8/1, woodpecker apple eating increased drastically. At the end of the day, my cousin, Margie Rose, sent me a funny Far Side cartoon related to woodpeckers.
    
  • We pick pie cherries before they are completely ripe so that birds don't ruin them. Mary and I decided we'd do the same trick with the apples. So, I picked all of the apples off the Esopus Spitzenburg tree.
  • While I was picking apples, Mary started watering gardens. All of the rain clouds developing over or near us, today, moved into Illinois to water them, not us. I joined her on the garden watering detail once I finished apple picking. I watered the near garden while Mary searched for worms. She used the blacklight flashlight, again. Mary found 9 eggs and 7 hornworms.
  • The blackberry wine quit foaming, but the airlocks are still burping CO2 gas. Over an inch of fines line the bottoms of both carboys, so racking the must off the fines is imminent.

  

  Freshly washed cucumbers ready for pickle making.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

August 7-13, 2022

Weather | 8/7, 72°, 92° | 8/8, 77°, 81° | 8/9, 58°, 81° | 8/10, 56°, 83° | 8/11, 56°, 87° | 8/12, 61°, 83° | 8/13, 61°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/7: License Plate Holder for Bill
  
  • I saw a hawk diving toward our chicken coop, while looking out the living room window, so Mary and I ran outside. The hawk slowly circled upward and drifted to the northeast. We watched little birds chase it. Mary identified it as red-shouldered hawk.
    
  • I did internet research for a front license plate holder for Bill's car, then we ordered one through RockAuto. It should arrive by Thursday and we can install it, here. Since his car came from Florida, where they don't require a front license plate, and since Hyundai doesn't build one into their cars, Bill needs to get a holder for a required front license plate in Missouri.
    
  • Mary picked veggies, including cucumbers, zucchinis, peppers, a couple tomatoes, and some tomatillos (see photo, below).
  • She also processed zucchinis and got enough in the freezer for the upcoming year.
    
  • I removed the 4 zucchini plants from the near garden (see photo, below). They were huge.
    
  • Mary and Bill found 13 hornworm eggs and 1 worm.
  • We watched 2 episodes of the John Adams miniseries.
    
  • I now have woodpeckers pecking the Liberty apples. It's the one tree that hasn't been attacked by critters, up until now!

Produce from the gardens.

8-feet of removed zucchini plants.

• Monday, 8/8: Bagging Liberty Apples
  
  • I spent all day putting zippered plastic sandwich bags on Liberty apples after noticing that the 6 bagged apples aren't being touched by woodpeckers. About 2/3rds of the tree's apples are bagged. Before that, I cut up a disposable aluminum roaster pan into strips and hung them on the tree. They somewhat keep birds out of the tree, particularly when bright sun shines. The tree looks weirdly decorated (see video, below). Each bag gets the 2 bottom corners cut out, for drainage, and a cut put in the middle of the zippered closure, for the apple stem. That, plus installing the bags on the apples, takes quite a lot of time. While installing bags, I'm removing bird-pecked and bug-infected apples. We definitely have plum curculio bugs, which leave an identifiable mark on apples. I need to improve my spray schedule next year to prevent these little bastards from infecting apples.
  • Mary made venison stroganoff for our main meal.
    
  • She also picked the first of our green beans, and propped boards under several muskmelons and watermelons.
  • Bill and Mary watered the gardens, and found 32 hornworm eggs.
  • We watched 2 episodes of the John Adams miniseries. I watched it through closed eyelids.
  New anti-woodpecker glitter & bags on Liberty apple tree.
  

• Tuesday, 8/9: Tree Frog Antics & Apple Bagging
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • She picked beans out of the garden.
  • Bill and Mary watered all gardens. They found 12 hornworm eggs, 2 hornworms, and 2 army worms.
  • Bill watched a tree frog crawl out of a watering can. Mary and Bill took it to the forsythia bush. Twice, when Mary tried to put the frog on a branch, it crawled up her arm to her shoulder. Mary said she could almost hear it say, "NO! Don't put me on that bush." Then they took it to the Sargent crabapple tree. The frog happily hopped onto a branch.
    
  • I finished bagging apples on the large Liberty tree. I put bags on about 145 apples today and about the same yesterday. I probably removed about 75-100 pecked or bug-damaged apples, so that tree had about 400 apples on it...and that was after I thinned the apples out a couple months ago. It's very shiny, with all of the plastic bags gleaming in the sunlight. Mary and Bill named it the Hall-Thanks-mas Tree. Bagging the apples works. Woodpeckers aren't in the tree. Instead, they're hitting the Esopus tree's uncovered apples. Obviously, that's my next piece of work.
  • We're seeing new growth on our newest apple trees. Since the Porter's Perfection crabapple was planted, all we saw were tiny leaves on the ends of branches. Within the past couple days, new light green leaves are appearing in several locations.
    
  • We watched the last episode of the John Adams miniseries.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/10: Outdoor Cookout
  
  • Mary mowed part of the west lawn. Bill finished mowing that lawn and the far east lawn.
    
  • Mary and Bill watered the gardens.
  • I put plastic sandwich bags on 23 apples in the skinny, mystery apple tree just south of the house. I also started cleaning up apples on the Esopus apple tree.
    
  • We enjoyed an outdoor cookout in the west yard under the mulberry tree. The meal consisted of a cucumber/tomato salad and pork loin roasted over an open fire.
    
  • After the sun set, we saw a large bat flying, along with several other bats. The moon and Jupiter rose to the east. It was a very enjoyable evening.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/11: Bagging Esopus Apples
  
  • Mary raked grass that was mowed yesterday. She mulched our two youngest apple trees.
  • I installed plastic sandwich bags on over 100 apples on the Esopus Spitzenburg tree. I never got on the ladder, because I was covering low-hanging fruit, first.
  • Bill and I took his car, drove to Lewistown, where I bought 120 sandwich bags from Dollar General. He let me drive his car. It's a really nice vehicle, rides nice and has plenty of power for a 2.4 liter four-cylinder engine.
    
  • Bill and Mary watered all gardens.
  • They looked for worms and found 15 hornworm eggs and 5 hornworms.
  • Katie flew to Venetie, AK, today.
  • After supper, I cut bad parts out of several Esopus apples that I pulled off the tree and we sampled them. These apples weren't quite ripe and still a little hard, but very delicious.
    
    
• Friday, 8/12: Fishing Day
  
  • We all went fishing at Bass Pond, formerly called Swim Pond. Mary's first fish was a 2-foot long bass. Since we want to keep fish multiplying in the pond, we returned this bass back into the water. It might be a source of future fish eggs. We all caught several fish, but kept 8 for eating. They were slow to bite. I fished most of the time with a Panther Martin spinner that resembles a bumblebee. I'd let it sink after casting, reel it in slowly, feel for soft bites and set the hook after feeling a couple nips. The tactic was very effective. I filleted the fish and Mary cooked them up. They tasted great.
    
  • I finished putting sandwich bags on apples on the Esopus Spitzenburg tree. I bagged a total of 134 apples on that tree. Various animals and birds probably did in over 100 apples. Today, I removed over 20 punctured by woodpeckers. Without covering them, all apples were doomed.
  • Bill's license plate holder and a massive squirt cannon that Bill ordered for me came in today's mail. I tried the big squirt gun out at a flying woodpecker. My aim was in front of the bird. It saw the large stream of water and took a 90-degree turn in the sky and headed east.
  • Mary picked an overflowing bowl of beans of mostly wax beans.
    
  • Mary and I watered the gardens, while Bill picked 15 hornworm eggs and 4 hornworms off various plants.
    
  • We watched a movie that Bill picked out, Men in Black: International.
  • Katie tested a text from Venetie, AK. Last year, she couldn't text using her personal phone from there. Not so, this year.
    
    
• Saturday, 8/13: Winemaking
  
  • Bill and I made 5 gallons of blackberry wine. We thawed, then squeezed 22 quart bags of blackberries, equaling 20.3 pounds, into juice and dumped them into the large brew bucket. We added 3.75 gallons of water, 9 pounds of sugar to bring the specific gravity to 1.085, 5 teaspoons of yeast energizer, and 5 Campden tablets. The pH is 3.1, quite acidic, so we didn't add acid blend. We covered it and set the brew bucket in the pantry.
  • We also racked the gallon of dandelion wine for the fourth time. It's very clear. We added 1 Campden tablet and bottled it into five 750-ml bottles. Mary, Bill, and I tasted the leftovers. Bill says it's aromatic and tart. Mary says it's warm and flowery. This is definitely my best dandelion wine that I've made...well worth the multiple hours spent plucking dandelion petals, but only for one gallon's worth.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, then fajitas for our main meal. She used a freshly picked bell pepper that was very good.
  • Mary picked several tomatoes, some tomatillos, and several beans. She also did some house cleaning.
  • Mary and I did the watering dance. She watered most of the far garden. I watered small fruit trees. She and I did the near garden. Bill picked 2 hornworm eggs and 4 worms.
  • I screwed Bill's new license plate holder onto his car's front grill and added 2 screws into the right locations that he can use when he gets his new license plate. My recommendation to Bill is to replace those screws with stainless steel screws before winter highway salt spray starts flying.
  • A woodpecker attacking a bare apple that I missed covering in the top Esopus tree turned wet after I blasted it from the water gun. It flew to the top of a tall persimmon tree, east of the apple tree, then immediately flew to the east. This water cannon is fun!
    

July 31-August 6, 2022

Weather | 7/31, 60°, 83° | 8/1, 70°, 90° | 8/2, 70°, 88° | 8/3, 0.26" rain, 72°, 83° | 8/4, 69°, 88° | 8/5, 63°, 91° | 8/6, 70°, 94° |

• Sunday, 7/31: Attending Trees
  
  • We had a light, misty rain in the morning, a phenomenon that never showed on weather radar, but was very welcome.
  • I sharpened the blade and changed oil in the mower.
  • Mary made a venison General Tso dish for our main meal.
  • I cleaned grass and weeds from around the 2 new apple trees, the south apple trees, and the big pie cherry tree.
  • The cherry tree is pouring sap down its trunk. I looked it up and cherry trees do this after an injury, which in this case is the result of a carpenter ant intrusion into a crack between branches in the tree. Another fact I discovered is carpenter ants don't eat wood, they just take advantage of hollow cavities. In other words, rot happened in this tree, first, then the ants arrived. I don't see them now, though. Draining sap also leads to yellowing leaves, which is something else we've noticed on this tree this summer. It's slowly dying. We need to look for a new tree to take it's place. This one was probably planted by Herman in 2009.
  • A bunch of downy mildew was in the shoots growing from the rootstock of the large Liberty apple tree, which I sprayed.
    
  • Mary raked grass and put the mulch on the ground under the dripline of 3 of the 4 trees I worked on. 
  • While mulching the skinny tree south of the house, we discovered it had aphids on new leaves. I sprayed a gallon of Dawn/water solution on the entire tree to try to kill aphids. Brown ants are also on the tree. I need to treat the trunk with Tanglefoot. 
  • This tree has green apples. Based on its pink blossoms, it might be a golden delicious apple tree. It's identity has been a mystery ever since we got it from Arbor Day. It was labeled as a Sergent crabapple tree, which it definitely is not. Based on its pink flowers, we first identified it as a Stayman's Winesap. Then, we called it the skinny Liberty. This year was the first time it produced fruit which are green, so it's not a Liberty. The mystery continues!
    
  • Mary watered the far garden, while I sprayed for aphids. Then, I watered the near garden, enabling Mary to search for hornworms and their eggs on tomato/tomatillo plants. She found 4 eggs.
  • While walking dogs at night, I spotted eyes in the McIntosh tree. We put the dogs inside and I went back to the tree, but nothing was there. We suspect a raccoon.
    
    
• Monday, 8/1: Garden Really Kicks In
  
  • I drove to Quincy, IL, to pick up a package. FedEx, the pretend shipping company who never finds our home, disallowed me online from redirecting the package to the Quincy Walgreens store, like we usually do, so I called on Friday to have them hold it at their Quincy receiving location, which they did on Saturday. While in town, I bought pet food, chick food, and a few other items. Bullets for my 30:30 rifle might be hard to find this year. Everyone is always out of them.
    
  • Meanwhile, back home Mary picked a handful of cucumbers, 4 zucchinis, 5 hot peppers, 8 tomatillos, and 1 tomato.
  • She also put small boards under 7 muskmelon and 21 watermelon fruits.
    
  • Mary also did some housecleaning.
  • We both watered the far garden.
  • A quick look at the skinny apple tree south of the house indicates the Dawn soap solution was too harsh. It killed aphids, but also turned green leaves partially brown. DAMN!
    
  • I picked strawberries and a some blackberries for tomorrow's breakfast. Mary watered the near garden and picked 4 hornworm eggs off tomato plants.
  • It was extremely hot and humid. A thunderstorm developed over us and moved into Illinois.
    
  • We watched the 1934 movie, It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It was good.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/2: Camping Indoors Until Garden Watering Time
  
  • Heat and humidity cools our jets about going outside.
  • I wrote up voting cheat sheets and we drove to Lewistown, MO, and voted in the primary election.
    
  • I updated and balanced the checkbook.
  • Mary baked a cherry pie from this year's cherries. We ate part of it in the evening. It was really amazing.
    
  • Mary watered the far garden while I watered the near garden and small fruit trees. I picked a cucumber and a zucchini. Mary found 2 small hornworms and 2 hornworm eggs.
  • Critters are leaving apple bits all over the ground under the McIntosh apple tree. It's sort of our sacrificial fruit tree. I'd have to camp out there day and night to defend it.
  • I send an birthday ecard to Bill. His birthday is tomorrow.
  • Katie is in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park on military building training.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/3: Bill's Birthday & Rain
  • A nice rain fell in the morning, and then off and on throughout the day. It meant we didn't have to water gardens...YAHOO!!!
  • Bill was born 29 years ago, today, in Roseau, MN.
  • Mary made fajitas for our midday meal.
  • Mary picked one medium hornworm and 2 hornworm eggs off the tomatoes and tomatillos. I harvested a zucchini and several strawberries, while Mary found a hot pepper (see photo, below).
  • I found 2 squirrel-chewed green apples under the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree. There are so many chewed apples under the McIntosh tree that the ground looks like applesauce. The carnage continues.
  • Mom texted that she visited Hank on his birthday. She drove up to Glasgow, MT on Monday morning and drove back home to Circle Tuesday morning. She added that morning driving hours are better, because of less traffic and fewer grasshoppers hitting the windshield. She says hoppers are bad this summer in eastern Montana.
  • We talked to Bill after dark. He renewed his apartment rental lease. It rose $150 per month. Bill looked around for a better deal, but rents are high everywhere, so he decided he was better off staying put. There are several advantages to his current apartment. In the recent St. Louis flood, his apartment was dry. His utilities are low. Plus, his location in St. Charles is away from the tornado alley path of other parts of the St. Louis metro area. He's driving north to our place on Saturday, Aug. 6th, for a 9-day visit. We talked about the critter-apple-eating situation. Bill's solution is that we should build a dome similar to an artist's concept of humans living on Mars to block animals from eating our apples. Sure thing, William! We'll get right on it. We also discussed that since we put a lock on the water hydrant, we don't see a big puddle surrounding the outdoor hydrant. For the longest time, we thought we had an underground water leak. We suspect someone marches through and regularly gets a drink while pouring water out on the ground. Bill suggested we ought to install a trail cam to identify who is stealing our water.
  • Mary noticed that we have so many hops vines on the west side of the house that we might consider making hops wine. We looked up recipes and found a couple. Most times, hops are added late in the winemaking process to put a unique taste into white wine.

  

  From the garden - strawberries, a zucchini, & a hot pepper.

• Thursday, 8/4: Putting Away Tomatillos
  
  • Mary washed 3 loads of clothes.
  • She also froze 10 hot peppers, 68 tomatillos or enough for 1 batch of salsa (see photo, below), and 2 tomatoes.
  • Mary also paid the bills.
    
  • I took the carburetor off the trimmer, put new gaskets on either side of it, readjusted the linkage to the carb, adjusted the high and low fuel mixture settings on the carburetor, changed the spark plug gap after cleaning the plug with a wire brush, and installed a new air filter while cleaning the air cleaner that I took out. It runs a little better, but still not at top speed.
    
  • I cut down the tall grass around the compost bins with the steel blade on the trimmer and raked the grass up into a pile.
    
  • We both watered gardens. Mary found 3 hornworms and 1 hornworm egg.
  • When I took dogs out for their nighttime outing, we smelled a skunk north of the vehicles, so I kept the dogs near the yard and close to the house. Skunks might be another animal eating apples, since they can climb trees.
     

  

  Tomatillos, freshly picked (front), husks (middle),
  and freezer-ready fruit (in sink).

• Friday, 8/5: Mowing & Cleaning
  
  • Mary cleaned the house, including vacuuming, cleaning sinks, and mopping floors. She also did 2 loads of laundry.
  • I mowed the lane so Bill's car won't have an issue with tall chicory plants smacking the undercarriage. I did it in 15-25 minute increments, due to the heat. I'm yearning for cold winter days.
    
  • Mary watered most of the garden plants. I did some of the near garden and picked strawberries.
  • Mary found a spring peeper frog (see photo, below). We hear them every spring, but never see them. This one is living in the bean row, which gets watered daily.
  • After chores, we spotted 3 bats flying in the sky at dusk. Maybe the bat population is rebounding.
    
  • I replaced the toilet seat.
  • We wrapped Bill's birthday gifts. In May, Bill wrapped a birthday gift to his mother in Christmas wrapping paper, so we returned the favor. On the last gift, we used 2 types of paper and part of a recent newspaper front page. Sometimes it's fun being silly.

  

  Spring peeper on grass blades in bean row.

• Saturday, 8/6: Bill Arrives
  
  • Bill arrived in his car that he bought last month. It's a nice looking vehicle.
  • We celebrated Bill's birthday, which was on Wednesday. He opened our presents to him. We gave him a Mr. Coffee tea maker and two 1-gallon pitchers, among other things. He said he will use it a lot.
    
  • I added a mothball to each of the mothball plastic Gatorade bottles I use to keep critters out of engine departments of vehicles and moved 11 mothball bottles to Bill's vehicle.
    
  • In the middle of working on mothball bottles, I heard the chickens loudly squawking, so I ran to the chicken yard. I arrived just in time to have a hawk swoop over the chicken coop roof right at me. It was only about 2 feet above my head. I clapped my hands and hollered at it to get out of there. It flew high and circled overhead as I yelled at it. There were 2 hawks in the sky, circling, and they eventually moved off to the east. I checked chickens. Both sets of birds, the older hens, and the young chicks, were well hidden under tall weeds and trees. The older birds were yelling and the young chicks heeded their warning calls and tucked under the weeds.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas and a pistachio tort. The tort is Bill's favorite and for his belated birthday.
    
  • Mary and I watered all garden plants very deeply, due to the high temperatures. Mary found 11 hornworm eggs and 2 hornworms. Mary had 2 juvenile hummingbirds at her elbow as she looked for hornworms and their eggs in the tomato patch. The little hummingbirds fed on tomato flowers and tried to perch on the corn leaves. These corn leaves bent down with the birds' weight and dumped them back into the air. She said it was funny to watch as they tried to perch on corn leaves repeatedly.
    
  • We watched 2 episodes of 2008 HBO miniseries, John Adams. Bill picked it out.
  • In a series of texts to Katie, I learned that she's back in Anchorage and will be flying out to Venetie, AK, where she headed a school reconstruction project last year. She's now going to take charge of the rest of Phase 2 of that project. She flies out either on 8/10, or a few days later.