Sept. 4-10, 2022

Weather | 9/4, 65°, 77° | 9/5, 63°, 75° | 9/6, 58°, 77° | 9/7, 57°, 82° | 9/8, 57°, 84° | 9/9, 53°, 84° | 9/10, 54°, 84° |

• Sunday, 9/4: Jalapeño Wine, Monopoly & a Movie
  
  • Mary picked over 30 ears of corn, a muskmelon, and over 70 jalapeño peppers.
  • Bill and I started a 6.5-gallon batch of jalapeño wine. He chopped up 3.75 pounds of black raisins while I cut up just over 5 pounds of peppers (see photo, below). I ran the chopped peppers through the food processor, then we filled a nylon mesh bag with peppers and raisins, alternating between the two as we poured items into the bag. This year's peppers were both red and green. Combine red and green chopped peppers and the juice coming out of the bottom of the bag looked brown/green, resembling a sample from the neighboring dairy's cow poop pond. But, it smelled nice. We added 5.75 gallons of water, 4 7/8 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, 9 3/4 teaspoons of acid blend, 1.2 grams of potassium metabisulfite (a better form of Campden tablet for sterilizing wine must, because it contains potassium, instead of sodium), and 10 pounds of sugar for a specific gravity of 1.075 (sugar content should increase to a specific gravity of about 1.085 after soaking raisins for a day). I set it in the pantry to sit overnight.
  • We played Monopoly. Bill won. He owned both utilities, 3 of the 4 railroads, and hotels on the cheapest property on the board. There were no monopolies on all other properties. This was the first time we've ever seen the bank go bankrupt (see photo, below). Bill ended the game with $13,156. He had most all of the money. We had a great time.
  • We watched the 2006 movie, Stranger than Fiction, that Bill selected.

Bill, the mad raisin chopper, with his pig-sticker,
and me, chopping jalapeño peppers.

Empty bank (top) & Bill's big wad of cash.

• Monday, 9/5: Labor Day
  
  • I added 3.25 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the jalapeño wine and created a starter of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast early in the day. Before bed, the specific gravity checked out at 1.083, which is close enough to 1.085, so I didn't add any sugar. The pH is 3.5, which is perfect, so no additional acid is needed. I pitched the yeast into the brew bucket and it started fizzing soon after that. Almost 2 gallons of tap water went into this batch, because I ran out of spring water. Usually, I don't use tap water, due to chlorine in that water, but we haven't smelled chlorine in the water for several months. Chlorine kills yeast in homebrewing. The fact that the yeast started off without a hitch confirms the lack of chlorine in our tap water. I looked up last year's jalapeño wine brewing and this yeast is very fast acting.
  • Bill left around 3 p.m., after eating a chicken dinner that Mary worked up.
  • Mary and I were tired. It was cloudy all day, so we elected not to water the gardens.
    
    
• Tuesday, 9/6: Corn, Watermelons, Cider, & Wines
  
  • Every time we go into the chicken coop, we see bald-faced hornets. They don't bother us. They buzz around, hunting flies. Every once in awhile, a hornet will grab a fly, rest a bit, and eat it. They must have a nest nearby and use the coop as happy hunting grounds.
    
  • Mary picked the rest of the corn (see photo, below), 2 muskmelons, and 16 watermelons (see photo, below). She checked 1 watermelon in the morning and determined that most of the watermelons are ripe. 
  • Mary processed and froze corn, 2 muskmelons she picked the last couple days, and a watermelon.
  • I checked the jalapeño wine and the specific gravity is 1.079. It's fizzing nicely, putting a nice aroma into the house.
    
  • The apple cider had nearly an inch of fines at the bottom of the carboy, so I racked it into two 1-gallon jugs, a 750-ml wine bottle, and a 330-ml beer bottle. Mary and I tasted it. The cider is really tart and filled with residue...so much so that the apple taste is barely there. I think it will take a long time to clear the cider. The specific gravity is at 1.003.
  • Again, the apple wine had excess residue at the bottom, so I also racked it into a 3-gallon carboy. The must is also quite cloudy. It tastes better than the apple cider. It's still early on both of these items. The apple wine's specific gravity is 0.997. I didn't add any potassium metabisulfite, since I overdid it on this sanitizing agent when I sliced ground up the apples.
    
  • Mary watered gardens and did most of the chores. Today's garden produce gathering knocked corn and watermelons off the list of garden plants requiring watering...YAHOO!!!
    
  • Mary heard a mockingbird in our yard while she was picking corn.

Corn, cooling after boiling, ready for packaging.

A wheelbarrow full of watermelons.

• Wednesday, 9/7: Lots and Lots of Tomatoes
  
  • A check of the jalapeño wine showed a specific gravity of 1.036. It's fizzing with great gusto. Racking it into a carboy will probably happen tomorrow morning.
    
  • Mary and I picked 4.5 buckets of tomatoes. Mary picked the large ones and I picked cherry tomatoes. Then, Mary processed 6.5 buckets (2 buckets from tomatoes picked in the past), and put 12.5 gallons in the freezer. Pictured below are some of the tomatoes that ripened inside after they were picked partially green. We just need 1.5 gallons in the freezer to have all that we want for the following year.
  • While Mary slogged away with tomatoes, I watered all gardens and picked strawberries. Nestled in the mud next to the water hydrant in the yard was Leroy, the big leopard frog. He said he was friends with Jeremiah, who was a bullfrog. Leroy said the song is wrong. Jeremiah doesn't drink wine. Hoyt Axton was drunk when he wrote the song. Okay, my mind wondered a bit. Fantasies are nice when you're hauling water to garden plants.
  • In a fruit growing Facebook group I belong to, someone posted a photo of apples that look exactly like those from a tree we've been calling the big Liberty apple tree and asked what variety they are. Someone else suggested that they are Empire apples. I looked it up and I'm pretty sure that's the kind of apple tree we have. An all-purpose apple, it's a cross between a Delicious and a McIntosh apple developed by Cornell University in 1947 and released to the public in 1966. It's resistant to fire blight. So, now we finally know!
    

  

  Just a few of the tomatoes that Mary cut up and froze.

• Thursday, 9/8: Racking Jalapeño Wine & Shopping Trip
  
  • The jalapeño wine's specific gravity was 1.005, five points beyond when it should be racked into a carboy. Oh well. It will be okay. It gained volume. Instead of 6.5-gallons, I now have 7.25 gallons. I racked the wine in a 6.5-gallon carboy and a partially-filled gallon jug. This wine generated its own heat. Yesterday, its temperature was 80°. Today, it was at 78°. It also has a robust yeast population. After racking this wine, the CO2 gas release was amazing (see video, below). We think this year's jalapeño peppers are more potent. Fumes from the open brew bucket irritated my throat as I moved the wine must into carboys. It ought to be an interesting batch. We'll know in a couple months.
  • Karen flew from Atlanta to Glendive, MT, then Mom picked her up and drove her to Circle to visit Mom, today. Karen's visit is roughly to the end of this month.
    
  • We're out of chick feed, so Mary and I drove the pickup to Quincy for a shopping trip. Besides chick and dog food, we got 12 fire bricks to replace the cracked ones in our woodstove, 2 cans of high-temperature spray paint for the stove, a box of 30-30 bullets (an item which is in very low supply in stores), 2 rugs, 2 movies, and an acrylic painting book from the Salvation Army, tulle fabric for covering tubs of winter green plants, and some food items. At Menards, we got to laughing at the Halloween lawn ornament display. One was a 6-foot tall werewolf that growled with flashing eyes when it detected movement. I thought it would be great at chasing squirrels and woodpeckers out of apple trees. Another, a ghoul, showed a red chest, moved about, and showed off red, hot eyes. Each was ONLY about $350. I'll stick with my water cannon and firecrackers...they're cheaper!
  • In the middle of shopping, Mary looked at her phone and discovered Queen Elizabeth II died, today.
    
  • After chores, which didn't include garden watering, we ate nachos and watched one of the movies we bought today, Frozen. I suppose we're the last people on planet earth to watch this movie. We liked it.
  High CO2 release after racking jalapeño wine.
  
  

• Friday, 9/9: Bartlett Pears are Picked
  
  • Mary picked half a bucket of hot peppers. She also froze 7 quarts of muskmelon.
  • I cleaned two 5-gallon carboys that I filled with water and OxyClean and left to soak 10 days earlier. A pebbly residue formed in the bottom of one carboy. I had to scrub it out with a washcloth pushed into the carboy's narrow opening and manipulated by the end of my long spoon. I did it outside, where I could use a high pressure setting at the end of a garden hose. Obviously, one day is enough of an OxyClean soak.
  • Mary and I picked just over 30 Bartlett pears. We only tossed a handful. I'm surprised we got as many as we did, because it wasn't a good pear year. I think several days of rain didn't let bees pollinate the blossoms, resulting in low fruit development. The same result is on the Kieffer pear tree. Those pears aren't ready to pick.
    
  • I used the long-handled nippers and cleaned giant ragweed and maple saplings away from the south end and the entrance to the chicken run. I also trimmed back ragweed and persimmon saplings along the trail from the water hydrant to the far garden. The ragweed plants lean over, brush against your arms, leaving pollen that itches until you wash it off.
  • I cleaned branches and leaves of three of the persimmon saplings that I cut down. We then used them to poke chicks in the butt when herding them into the coop at bedtime. The chicks sometimes hide in weeds I left along fences when it's bedtime. These sticks are perfect for encouraging chicks to move into the coop.
    
  • Mary and I watered gardens. At the end, Mary picked the last of the corn. We cooked it up and included it with our supper. It was really great.
    
    
• Saturday, 9/10: Planting Winter Greens
  
  • After wrapping the 31 pears that we picked yesterday in newspaper, I stored them in a set of drawers in the upstairs landing and left the drawer partially open.
    
  • Mary threaded hot peppers on sturdy thread and hung them to dry.
  • She also made a huge batch of minestrone soup, which took about 2 hours.
    
  • I weeded the 6 tubs used for winter greens. Since saving soil is important, I carefully removed soil from the weeds' roots, which took time. I collected a small bowl of kale leaves, which went into the minestrone soup.
    
  • I planted winter green seeds, watered them, and covered them with old tulle cloth to keep out birds, squirrels, and mice. Varieties planted included Astro Arugula, Rainbow Lacinato Kale, Winterbor Kale, Fun Jen Chinese Cabbage, Red Tinged Winter Lettuce, and Tundra Spinach.
    
  • Mary picked 11 watermelons and 2 muskmelons. We're flooded with watermelon!
    
  • Late in the night, rain started falling. After letting dogs out for their nightly outing, I checked the rain gauge. Over an inch fell at that point.