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.