Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2022

Weather | 10/30, 0.02" rain, 47°, 58° | 10/31, 0.21" rain, 46°, 64° | 11/1, 37°, 69° | 11/2, 43°, 72° | 11/3, 53°, 74° | 11/4, 63°, 73° | 11/5, 0.85" rain, 41°, 59° |

• Sunday, 10/30: Finishing the Last Deer Blind
  
  • We woke to falling rain.
    
  • This morning, flocks of cedar waxwing birds were enjoying the fruit in the persimmon trees.
    
  • I cut the rest of the limbs off the weeping willow tree (the weeping willow stump has to come down this winter) and wove the branches into the hog panels at the Bobcat Deer Blind. There were still panels to fill, so I cut branches off unwanted cedar trees and wove them into place, finishing the job of building walls to disguise me while hunting in that blind. Eventually, I want to build a roof over this blind, like I did this year with my other 2 deer hunting blinds, but I ran out of time to do that this season.
  • While I was working on the last weaving job, a deer snorted at me from west of my location. After I finished, I sat for awhile to see if I'd see anything, and I did. A buck crossed the valley north of me. When I left to walk home, that same deer was on the trail I use to walk out of the woods, but near the west field. It snorted at me and ran off to the west. 
  • This finishes my work on deer blinds. I'm done a day later than I wished to be finished, but it's okay. I still want to put up a short deer stand I have stored in the cow barn that possesses an 8-foot aluminum ladder bolted to a 2x4 and plywood platform. I'm going to put it on a cedar tree near the start of the trail to Bass Pond. In past years, Mary witnessed deer crossing the field near this location while waiting for me to return after hunting from deer stands in the woods.
    
  • With a slight rain, today, leaves were coming down like snow in the woods.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas and venison fajitas that we ate for our midday meal. She also enjoyed some cross stitch work.
  • Mary picked 28 persimmons. Today's rain probably helped them fall off the trees. Mary found only one pecan nut. They're essentially finished.

Bobcat Deer Blind viewed from the north.

Bobcat Deer Blind viewed from the south.

Inside Bobcat Deer Blind.


 
View from Bobcat Deer Blind, starting north and rotating clockwise 360 degrees.
North and east views are across a creek bed to a nearby slope.

• Monday, 10/31: Halloween
  • Birds were extremely plentiful during our morning dog walk. Cedar waxwings and robins were eating crabapples out of the Sargent tree. Two chickadees followed us all the way down the lane, then back to the house, and finally to the chicken coop.
  • I saw a buck in the north woods this morning. It grunted and went off running to the north.
    
  • Mary made a zucchini chocolate cake.
  • She also made venison stroganoff for our main meal.
  • I went through the Kieffer pears we stored away after picking them 2 weeks earlier. A dozen went bad, so I have 20 left.
    
  • I removed seeds from the persimmons stored in the refrigerator. Mary picked more that I also deseeded. These persimmons gave me over 3 pounds of fruit in 2 quart bags. Just over 17 pounds of persimmons are in the freezer. I have enough to make a 5-gallon batch of wine.
  • An attempted pumpkin carving of Amber, our Viszla/pitbull dog, didn't go very well. The Jack-o'-lantern I created made Amber look like a pig (see photos, below), even though I sometimes call her "Little Piggy Doggy."
  • We enjoyed 2 big pieces of cake, each, because we were piggies, and a bottle of pumpkin wine while watching the 1993 movie, Hocus Pocus.

Photo of Amber I used for carving a pumpkin.

My poor attempt at an Amber Jack-o'-lantern.

• Tuesday, 11/1: Garlic Planting Prep & Two Wines
  
  • Mary baked and froze the Halloween Jack-o'-lantern, minus any carved parts or meat burned by the candle. Four quarts of pumpkin meat are in the freezer.
  • Mary popped the last 3 garlic varieties, in prep for planting garlic. She mowed around the rows in the far garden where garlic will be planted, along with spreading grass and compost in these garden rows.
  • Finally, Mary took down the Halloween tree, which is a very dead and dried up cedar. It's back out in the north woods for storage until next fall.
    
  • I washed, then cut 20 Kieffer pears into quarters while removing the fruits' cores. All the pear pieces went in lemon water, so they wouldn't turn brown. Instead of buying spring water, I decided to try using our tap water and adding potassium metabisulfite (Kmeta) to eliminate chlorine and chloramines in the water. I measured my glass pitcher. It holds 7 cups of water. I calculated that by adding 0.1 gram of Kmeta, I can de-chlorinate the water. A tenth of a gram is a very small amount. A nylon mesh bag was filled with pear quarters alternating with a pound of chopped golden raisins. Gee, I miss William, my son. He's good at chopping up sticky, gooey raisins. After smashing the pear pieces in the nylon mesh bag, I added to the brew bucket the juice 2 lemons, a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, a teaspoon of acid blend, 0.2 grams of Kmeta, 14 cups (2 pitchers) of treated tap water, and a pound of sugar. I left the specific gravity at 1.060, because after sitting, sugar content should increase with the raisins. The pH is 3.3, which is just fine. I covered the bucket and let it sit in the pantry overnight.
    
  • I racked the apple wine for the third time. Almost an inch of fines were in the bottom of the 3-gallon carboy. This wine might need an extra fifth racking. I added 0.5 grams of Kmeta to the liquid. The specific gravity is 0.996, giving it an 11.7% alcohol content. The pH is still 3.2. The must seemed pretty clear (see photo, below), so I didn't add pectic enzyme. We tasted the wine right after I racked it and then later, after adding Kmeta. The first time it tasted harsh and metallic. Upon the second tasting, it was vastly improved.The apple taste is strong, yet subtle. With aging, it should be a good wine.
  
  

  

  A wine bottle, half-gallon and 2 gallon jugs of apple wine.

• Wednesday, 11/2: Garlic 50 Percent Planted & Winemaking
  
  • While walking dogs first thing in the morning, we watched a large number of robins fly south. There were probably 50 robins in the flock.
    
  • Mary turned the ground for 3 rows of garlic in the far garden and planted Music Pink, German Extra Hardy, and Siberian garlic varieties. She said growing sweet corn in formerly clay-bound soil vastly improved the ground, because it's more friable.
    
  • Sugar content in the pear wine must increased with an overnight soak, with the specific gravity moving from 1.060 to 1.074. Trying to reach 1.080, I added 2 ounces of sugar and the specific gravity didn't change. I added another 6 ounces of sugar and the specific gravity overshot the mark to 1.088. I added 2 cups of water to drop it to 1.078. That's close enough. Including yesterday's amounts, added water was 1 gallon and added sugar was 1.5 pounds. I put 0.75 teaspoons of pectic enzyme into the brew bucket, since my total liquid amount is now 1.5 gallons. I created a yeast starter with Red Star Cote des Blanc wine yeast. This time I added a pinch of sugar and a pinch of yeast nutrient to the mix, making the yeast respond quicker. I pitched it about 6 hours later and the yeast was bubbling by bedtime.
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the second time. The specific gravity is 0.990, giving it an alcohol level of 12.2%. The pH remains at 3.5. I added 1.2 grams of Kmeta. The remaining liquid filled a 6.5-gallon carboy and two 750-ml wine bottles (see photo, below). This equals 7 gallons and almost 3 cups of wine. The fines weren't deep, but they were rather chunky. This wine sat for almost 2 months, when I usually rack it after just a month, which probably contributed to fines resembling sedimentary rock. Mary and I tasted the wine and it's not as hot as last year's jalapeño wine, which is what I wanted. It has a stronger alcohol taste, probably due to 2 months of sitting on the fines. Aging will improve its taste.

  

  Jalapeño wine after 2nd racking.

• Thursday, 11/3: All Garlic Planted!
  
  • Mary turned over soil and planted the last 3 garlic varieties, which are Georgian Crystal, Samarkand, and Shvelisi. She wanted to get all garlic in the ground prior to rain that's predicted for tomorrow.
    
  • A check of the Kieffer pear wine showed a specific gravity of 1.069, a drop of 11 points. The yeast is bubbling right along.
    
  • I dug into the west room closet to count remaining wine bottles. I have 120 left to clean up. A count of bottles required for existing wines in the pantry and future wines scheduled for making into early next summer showed I need 200 bottles. I called a guy near Kahoka, MO, who is advertising wine bottles for 50 cents, each, and asked if I could buy 100 bottles from him. We agreed I'd visit him tomorrow at 10 a.m. to pick them up.
    
  • I measured the aluminum ladder deer stand's height and a cedar tree I'd like to put it in. It will work, but, unfortunately there's a second cedar just north of there that would block my northern view.
    
  • I washed 7 milk crates, a big round tub, and a large plastic tote to use to put wine bottles into when I buy them tomorrow. I also threw 2 cardboard wine bottle boxes into the pickup.
    
  • In the evening, I looked up the route to take to get to the guy I'm buying bottles from in the morning. He is 30 miles northeast of us.
    
    
• Friday, 11/4: Wine Bottle Buying
  • I drove north, northeast into Clark County to Sam LaFrenz's house that's deep into an oak forest and bought 100 wine bottles. They're all washed and in good shape. It took a long time, because Sam, a 79-year old retired teacher, had a long-winded story about everything. I showed up at his place at 10 a.m. and left at 11:30 a.m. He once raised grapes, but quit after getting tired of battling animals eating his crop. He still makes grape wine, but buys his grapes from a country store.
  • While I was gone, Mary did some mowing until rain drops started falling.
  • She also paid bills and did some cross stitching.
    
  • When I got home, Mary made a pork loin dinner topped with barbecue sauce, corn on the cob, yellow potatoes, and a salad made from winter greens that I picked.
  • The Kieffer pear wine's specific gravity is 1.031. I'll be racking it tomorrow.
    
  • I unloaded bottles. I got nine 1.5-liter bottles out of the deal. Those bottles are double the size of regular 750-ml bottles, so it's as if I got 9 extra bottles. Of course, I also got two 375-ml bottles...half the size of 750-ml bottles. They are really good bottles. One bottle has CSJ  formed into the glass. Mary looked it up. It was a California wine called Chateau St. Jean, that goes for $50-$90 per bottle. I stuffed used corks in several bottles that will sit, uncovered, in the west room's closet.
  • We put chickens away into the coop early, with pending rain predicted. It started raining hard around 6 p.m. and it rained all evening and into the night.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/5: Racking Kieffer Pear Wine
  
  • Our high for the day was at 5 a.m., when the center of a low blasted through. Mary saw the temperature when she got up to use the bathroom. She was so surprised by such a high temperature that she had to look at the thermometer twice. We had mist and a strong southwest wind until 2:30 p.m. When the sun popped out, I let the chickens out. It was too nasty for them earlier in the day.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • While she did that, I racked the Kieffer pear wine for the first time. The specific gravity was 1.013. I squeezed the nylon mesh bag until the pear and raisin pieces in the bag were about the size of a softball, which is amazing, considering it was about 18 inches tall when I first put the ingredients into the bag. I got a little under 2 gallons of juice, which I transferred into two one-gallon jugs (see photo, below). I added about 6 ounces of distilled water to each jug to top up the contents. There was a little foaming in the jugs, starting about an hour later, but only a tiny bit of foam entered one airlock. The Kieffer pears give off a stronger pear smell in the wine, compared to Bartlett pears. It will be interesting to see if there's a difference in taste.
  • We read magazines and enjoyed two Brown Betty pots of tea...a nice, quiet evening.

  

  Kieffer pear wine after 1st racking.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Oct. 23-29, 2022

Weather | 10/23, 60°, 79° | 10/24, 67°, 73° | 10/25, 1.24" rain, 41°, 42° | 10/26, 0.17" rain, 33°, 57° | 10/27, 36°, 59° | 10/28, 32°, 61° | 10/29, 33°, 61° |

• Sunday, 10/23: Bill Goes Home & More Deer Blind Construction
  
  • I made waffles for breakfast.
    
  • Bill and I went back to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. We attached steel siding on top for a roof and Bill wired corners and the middle of the roof into place. I wired horizontal cedar posts between corner posts to create the bottom of my shooting windows.
    
  • Mary mowed the south and part of the north yards and mulched cherry and apple trees with grass clippings.
    
  • After a midday meal, Bill returned to his apartment in Saint Charles, MO. He takes a full week off and visit us the week of Thanksgiving.
    
  • Mary picked several more persimmons and pecans.
  • I returned to the deer blind, added hog fencing and secured it with wire. This stiffens the structure and gives me something to wire log walls into place. Then, I collected chunks of dead trees that I cut from wood blocking the way to walk up and down the dry creek bed, hauled them up the hill to the deer blind, and started stacking them to build the walls of the blind (see photos, below).

The new deer blind with hog fencing between posts.

The start of log walls on Cedar East Woods Deer Blind.

• Monday, 10/24: More Persimmons & Making Deer Blind Walls
  
  • Rain was predicted for this afternoon, so I decided to get all the rest of the logs I cut along the dry creek bed and haul them to the new deer blind before it became a wet creek bed. I hauled and stacked several large chunks of wood.
    
  • Mary picked more pecans and persimmons. She then removed the persimmon seeds and froze the fruit. We now have 6 lbs., 5 oz. of persimmons.
    
  • Rain started falling around 4 p.m., so we fed the chickens and put them in the coop. One of our newest barred rock pullets was outside of the fence surrounding the chicken run. I had to wade into the cedar branches between the coop and the machine shed to drive her south to the gate into the chicken run. She put me through a real chicken rodeo in the rain while she ran north. We couldn't find her for a couple minutes. At one point, she flew up into the mulberry tree. Finally, I was poking her with a stick while Mary pulled down on a tree bough to get her to jump off and run into the chicken yard and into the coop. I was wearing my heavy rain gear. Mary wasn't, so she got soaked.
    
  • We watched the 1944 movie, Arsenic and Old Lace, starring Cary Grant. It's a fun movie.
    
  • It rained all evening and night, a welcoming event. Conditions in the woods the past several days were pretty dry.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/25: Racking Blackberry Wine
  
  • Last night's rain continued through most of today. Autumn leaves that stayed in trees during several days of high wind gusts dropped to the ground with this rain.
  • I racked the blackberry wine for the 3rd time. It was due to be racked on Sept. 30th, so I was almost a month late. The specific gravity was 0.993, compared to 0.992 two months ago. The pH is 3.0, which is a bit high on the acidic side. The taste...WOW!!! It is tangy with loads of fruit flavor. I added a gram of potassium metabisulfite to 5.75 gallons of must. This halts oxidation, a detriment in wine. I then moved the wine to a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, and a 750-ml wine bottle. In one month, it should be ready for bottling.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project while I was racking blackberry wine.
  • Mary picked a plastic grocery sack full of persimmons. Several fell from trees during this rain. I helped her pick up pecans. We found an even dozen.
  • We watched the 2010 movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/26: Apple Cider, Persimmon Poop, & Indoor Wiener Roast
  
  • I racked the apple cider for the 3rd time. The pH is 3.1. It started at 3.2 nearly 2 months ago. The specific gravity stayed the same at 1.003. That gives it a 4% alcohol content. About 3/4 of an inch of fines were at the bottom of two 1-gallon jugs, with less in the wine and beer bottles. The remaining liquid is relatively clear (see photos, below). I added a teaspoon of pectic enzyme to help clear it further. The SO2 level is 23 ppm, which is adequate, but since the alcohol content is low, I added 0.4 grams of potassium metabisulfite to 2 gallons to boost the SO2 level to 43 ppm. The resulting liquid went into two 1-gallon jugs. Mary and I tasted the apple cider. It's very tart with a slight metallic taste. There's hardly any apple taste. We tried sweetening it with xylitol (wood sugar), sucralose, and stevia. Sweetening removed some of the tart and metalic taste. The best tasting sweetener is sucralose, which is nice, because it's the cheapest.
  • Mary removed seeds for an hour and 20 minutes from a large batch of persimmons. She compares it to playing with baby poop. Plus, she said it's the last persimmon poop work she's doing this year. "If you want more, you're doing this job," she told me. Today's 4 quarts of fruit weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, giving us a grand total of 13 pounds, 12 ounces in the freezer. We're just 4 ounces shy of enough for a 4-gallon batch of wine.
  • I took the chainsaw and some wire to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. I wired existing logs to the hog fencing on the front, or west side. I cut 3 more lengths of log, adding them to the same side, and wired them into place. That finishes the west side of the blind.
  • On the way up the hill after crossing the creek bed, a young buck deer ran from just east of the blind to the north. He stopped, turned and looked at me through the woods, then headed out of sight. On the way back home, a young deer ran beyond me at Dove Pond. Each time I walked by our pecan trees, squirrels ran off to the north. They're still hitting the nuts.
  • When we walked the dogs just before sunset, 8 wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond. That pond is surrounded by tall oak trees. Wood ducks fly almost vertically to leave that pond.
  • We lit the woodstove, let it die down to red coals, then roasted hotdogs by opening the stove door and cooking two at a time on metal skewers over the coals. They tasted great on rye bread with mustard and Mary's homemade pickle relish.
    
  • Mary worked up a shopping list. We're almost out of chicken feed, so we're shopping in Quincy, tomorrow.

Apple cider after 3rd racking.

The fines left behind after racking.

• Thursday, 10/27: Shopping in Quincy
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, IL, today. Highlights: Mary found a good pair of Lee jeans at Salvation Army. I got a nice medium weight jacket and 3 pairs of wool socks and we found a good Christmas present for someone at the same store. We found large Honeysuckle White turkeys for 98 cents a pound at Walmart and bought two of them. Last year, we paid $1.30 a pound for Sam's Club turkeys, so this was a good deal, especially since turkeys are supposed to be hard to get and priced higher this year, due to a summer bird flu involving the death of several young turkeys. We think the size of these turkeys had something to do with their lower price. One is nearly 20 pounds and the other is 23 pounds. Unlike most people, we like them big. We now have 3 in the freezer and we're set for wintertime turkey meat.
    
  • We returned home by 4:30 p.m., unloaded, put chickens to bed, then I picked persimmons while Mary picked pecans.
  • Seven wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond when we walked the dogs before sunset.
    
    
• Friday, 10/28: Mowing & Finishing Deer Blind
  
  • I made a batch of waffles for breakfast. This was the first time in months that we didn't have homegrown strawberries on our waffles. Daily frosts make for bad strawberry fruits, even though the plants are still green.
  • We vacuumed dust and dirt from behind our refrigerator.
  • Mary popped 3 kinds of garlic in preparation for planting them
    
  • I took the large nippers and cut down all corn, tomato, and tomatillo plants in the far garden.
  • Mary mowed the area south of the far garden, which includes grass around the compost bins and near where we dump wood ashes. She put grass clippings around the Granny Smith and Empire apple trees.
  • I finished stacking and wiring logs into place on the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind (see photos and video, below). I finished by cutting several cedar boughs from trees I took down when clearing a wider path on the trail to the Wood Duck Deer Blind and stuck them along all edges of the roof of this blind. I think it will be a good location.
    
  • When I first stepped into the forest, deer snorted in the field just south of these woods. I never saw them. You cannot walk in the woods quietly with so many recently fallen and crunchy autumn leaves on the ground. I saw deer tracks in the sand of the dry creek bed.
    
  • Mary picked a dozen more pecan nuts while I found 7 persimmons.
  • After sunset, I watched a buck deer run south to north on the edge of Dove Pond.
  • We watched the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz.
     

  

  Inside the new deer blind.

  
  

West or downhill side of the new deer blind.

East or uphill side of the new deer blind.

View from Cedar East Woods Deer Blind starting
north and rotating 360 degrees, counterclockwise.

• Saturday, 10/29: Garden Plant Cleanup & Final Deer Blind Work
  
  • Mom sent some text messages. She's in Glasgow, MT, visiting Hank for the weekend. Her hip is doing better. She notices a marked improvement over the way her hip was prior to her surgery. "I should not have waited as long as I did," she texted.
    
  • I sharpened the mower blade.
    
  • Mary cleaned out corn and tomato plants from the south side of the far garden. "That was an awful job," she said. Mary told me it's the least favorite garden job that she performs yearly.
    
  • I marked the trails to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind and to Bobcat Deer Blind with reflective tacks.
    
  • I also nipped a few woody shrubs on the path to Bobcat Deer Blind. Then, I wired 3 pieces of hog fencing to better hide my presence in that deer hunting location. It's a proven spot that I've used ever since we moved here in 2009.
    
  • This weekend is the first youth firearms deer hunting season. Hunters must be age 6 to 15. Mary ran into Zelma and Ansel Marquette while getting the mail. They were visiting their grandson, who is hunting on Ansel's land, which is adjacent to our SW property line. Ansel, who is 90, told Mary he doesn't hunt anymore. He owns property south of us, too, and told Mary several pears are under a tree at that location that we could have, if we wanted. Near sundown, we heard one shot from that SW location. It's the only shot we heard all day.
    
  • Mary heard the song of a white-throated sparrow. She said it's known at the Peabody bird, because it says, "Peabody, Peabody." She usually only hears them sing in the early spring, before they head north.
  • Mary and I picked persimmons and pecans. The numbers are dwindling. Squirrels are now hitting bad pecans nuts. We think wild nuts number are really low. It will be a tough winter for squirrels.
    

Oct. 16-22, 2022

Weather | 10/16, 39°, 61° | 10/17, 29°, 43° | 10/18, 22°, 48° | 10/19, 19°, 50° | 10/20, 32°, 69° | 10/21, 42°, 78° | 10/22, 58°, 85° |

• Sunday, 10/16: More Deer Blind Work
  
  • We let several Virginia creeper vines grow around the front door this summer. The leaves are bright red this fall. Mary took photos (see below).
  • It was pizza day. Mary made a pizza for our midday meal and another for our evening meal.
  • She also did 2 loads laundry.
  • Partway through the afternoon, Mary felt slightly sick, due to the COVID booster shot we got on Thursday.
    
  • I walked the dried creek bed near Wood Duck Pond from below my new deer blind south to where a fence crosses it and sawed up dead trees that fell over the creek and blocked deer from walking the bed. Several very large trees were in the way. I hauled a number of 3- to 4-foot pieces to the blind and stacked them under the hog panels that I wired to steel posts and stapled to the dead cedar tree. I started to weave weeping willow branches through the hog fencing of the deer blind.
    
  • Mary and I picked the first persimmons that fell after several windy days from the large persimmon trees in the east yard.
  • Mary watched a red admiral butterfly land on Plato's nose for a second, then fly away.
    
  • We watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
  • Stash Tea has a weekend 25% off sale, so we ordered several bags of loose leaf tea, some green tea, and 3 boxes of turmeric chai tea.
    
  • Even though temperatures were expected to be at freezing or below, overnight, a constant wind through the night made it impossible to keep covers on strawberry or winter greens, so we left them off.

Virginia creeper autumn red leaves.

Deep reds of Virginia creeper leaves.

• Monday, 10/17: Keifer Pears Prior to Hard Freeze
  
  • Since Mary picked our last big bunch of strawberries for the season, with lower 20s predicted as an overnight temperature, I made waffles that we topped with strawberries.
    
  • Mary and I picked up more persimmons that fell to the ground. I looked in Jack Keller's Home Winemaking book and 3.5 pounds of fruit are needed per gallon of wine. We'll easily get enough to make a gallon, if not more. He says persimmon wine is very good. Mary picked up another bunch of fallen persimmons at sundown.
    
  • We picked 30 Kieffer pears. There are a few more higher in the tree, but too high for this monkey to reach. A number of pears already fell to the ground. Several yellow jackets were enjoying meals with the bruised pears under the tree.
  • Mary made another round of flour tortillas, then chimichangas.
  • I cleaned the rest of the cut logs out of the dry creek bed at the east side of our property. I removed 2 steel fence posts from an old nearby fence no longer in use and pounded them into the ground at my deer blind. I added a small piece of cattle panel, laid horizontally, and wired it to 3 steel fence posts and a strong branch sticking up on the downed cedar tree that forms part of my blind. I weaved more weeping willow branches into the hog panels and started putting cedar bows on top of the cattle panel roof. The whole idea is to darken my little hidey-hole, so it's harder for deer to see me when I'm in there.
  • Bill confirmed that he's visiting us over the weekend.
  • We covered the winter greens with a couple layers of blankets and weighed down edges with bricks. It was 29° with a 12 mph north wind at bedtime. Tonight is our hard freeze.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/18: "Frump" Go the Leaves
  
  • With our first solid freeze of 22°, we had our first leaf frump. That's when autumn leaves go to the ground all at once and make the sound of "frump"! All of the Virginia creeper leaves that were once bright red were dull brown and piled in front of the entrance door. Masses of yellow maple leaves covered the ground just east of the machine shed (see photo, below). Wind blew leaves out of the trees throughout the woods. Green leaves filled the ground under the persimmon trees, leaving just the fruit on the branches.
  • Mary and I saw a broad-winged hawk circling above our house.
    
  • Mary and I picked more persimmons off the ground.
    
  • Mary fixed a baked chicken, potatoes, corn on cob meal. We had the last watermelon. It was picked on Sept. 6th. They store well.
    
  • I worked on the Wood Duck Blind. I finished weaving weeping willow branches in the hog panels and continued putting cedar branches into the roof cow panel. It kind of resembles a fifth grader's fort. While walking back home, I startled some animal at the bottom of Bramble Hill. All I heard were fast foot steps. Three crows that settled into tall cedars at the top of Bramble Hill flew away upon my approach. At Dove Pond, a yearling deer crashed through the brush heading east.
    
  • Mary made jalapeño refrigerator pickles. We sampled a couple. They're good.
    
  • Mary wrapped the Kieffer pears with newspaper and stored them away.
  • She also removed seeds and froze the persimmons collected to date. It equaled 2 quarts weighing 2 lbs., 14 oz.

  

  Fallen, golden maple leaves.

  
  

• Wednesday, 10/19: Pecan Harvest Started & Wood Duck Blind Finished
  
  • Mary and I picked more persimmons off the ground, then picked pecans off low-hanging branches. Squirrels didn't eat all of the pecans, just most of them. Husks come off after a couple nights of hard freezing temperatures.
  • I finished the Wood Duck Deer Blind (see photos, below). It's cozy and when inside, I have an open view overlooking the east woods south of Wood Duck Pond. The video, below, starts with a southwest view and ends with a north view. It gives me a better perspective than I had in the deer stand it replaces. More importantly, the blind is safer than the stand.
  • I investigated another area at the south end of the east woods. While walking the dry creek bed to get there, I spooked up a large doe.
  • Mary cleaned the house.
  • She also picked more persimmons in the late afternoon.
  • I joined Mary and we picked more pecans. Their juicy husks contain orange dye that turns fingers and thumbs black when dry. We look like we have perpetually dirty hands.
  • We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.
    

The west side of Wood Duck Blind.

The east side of Wood Duck blind.

Inside sitting space of Wood Duck Blind.

Wood Duck Stand that the blind replaces.

View from Wood Duck Blind of East Woods, looking SW to north.

• Thursday, 10/20: Beetle Swarms & Deer Blind Prospecting
  
  • Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs all afternoon and into the evening. It's a yearly event on the first warm day after a hard freeze. Swarms of bastards fly out of the woods and into all buildings, and especially our house. They work their way inside and unless you vacuum them up, they're flying everywhere in all rooms. We've learned to go on a continuous vacuuming session during the swarm times.
    
  • I used reflective thumbtacks and marked the trail to the new Wood Duck Deer Stand. 
  • An autumn olive tree in the middle of the top of what we call Rose Butt Field I thought looked promising for another deer blind location. (Rose Butt Field gets its name because Mary and I once moved a deer to the middle of the field. In the dark, we put it right next to a rose bush that tickled Mary's butt as we field dressed the deer.) I crawled under that autumn olive tree and discounted its location, because you really can't see anything from it. Tall grass smashed to the ground indicates deer like to bed down under the tree.
  • I walked back to the south end of the east woods and looked for another blind location. I decided on one at the south end of the east woods, near existing game trails. I moved 2 pieces of hog fencing to the new location that I'm going to call the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind.
    
  • Mary and I picked persimmons and pecans in the morning and in the evening. I used ladders to pick several pecans. Mary found some on the ground.
    
  • We watched the last Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.
    
    
• Friday, 10/21: Bugs, House Plant Baths, & Work On New Deer Blind
  
  • We did our twice daily picking of persimmons and pecans. I used the aluminum extension ladder against one of the grain bins to collect pecan nuts high above the bins. Winds keep knocking persimmons and pecans out of the trees. Today, it blew a strong south wind.
    
  • Mary and I traded off on Asian ladybug vacuuming throughout the day. They were swarming the house for round two all afternoon.
    
  • Mary transplanted some of the house plants and gave several a bath outside. She also did some house cleaning.
  • I drove the 8N Ford tractor and trailer down the hill beyond the old cow barn. We call it Black Medick Hill, because it once was filled with Black Medick flowers. At the bottom of that hill, I used long-handled nippers and cut a trail through the weeds, brush, shrubs, and rose bushes and up the hill in the east woods to the new deer blind I haven't built, yet. Then, I trimmed branches off several dead skinny cedar trees that I plan on using for posts in this new blind.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/22: Bill Visits & Deer Blind Construction
  
  • Bill showed up around 11 a.m. I gave him several plastic bottles with mothballs in them to protect his car from wire-chewing mice. I added a mothball to every plastic bottle.
  • I gave Bill the choice of helping me with racking wine, or working on a deer blind. He decided to help build a deer blind. 
  • After several minutes of discussing design ideas, Bill and I cut up and wired into place lengths of dead cedar posts to make a square structure in front of a leaning cedar tree. It's the start of the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. Even though it's a baling wire wonder, it stands on its own quite well.
  • Mary picked up several persimmons and pecans.
  • She made a wonderful tasting venison stew and homemade biscuits.
  • Mary cross stitched for an hour while Bill and I were in the woods building the deer blind.
  • We watched 2 movies: The House with a Clock in Its Walls and The Corpse Bride.
  • While walking the dogs for their final outing, we saw a small black opossum trundling up our lane. Both dogs listened to us when we told them to stay and leave it alone. The opossum spun around and heading into the tall grass.
    

Oct. 9-15, 2022

Weather | 10/9, 37°, 73° | 10/10, 41°, 75° | 10/11, 0.51" rain, 54°, 70° | 10/12, 0.03" rain, 58°, 65° | 10/13, 0.03" rain, 37°, 57° | 10/14, 0.03" rain, 32°, 63° | 10/15, 29°, 61° |

• Sunday, 10/9: Deer Blind Finished & Halloween Tree Up
  
  • Mary washed jeans and jackets.
  • I went back to the Cherry blind and finished weaving weeping willow branches through the panels in the hog fencing. With a hand sickle, I knocked down weeds and grass on the knoll it overlooks. Then, I removed dead rose bushes, honey locust saplings and brush. I returned home with the tractor, then Mary and I walked back to the blind. I had Mary sit in it so I could see how much showed of a person inside the blind. It's pretty good at concealing a hunter. I took a rifle along, so I could determine how well I could see through the sights of a rifle. It was good. Photos of it are below.
    
  • Mary unearthed the Halloween tree, a dried-up cedar tree, from where she tossed it last year in the north woods. She trimmed it so it fits better through house doors. After dark, we decorated it (see photos, below).
    
  • Mary mowed part of east yard and put grass clippings around the Empire apple tree, south of the house.
  • Katie text that while in western Montana, she learned how to use a fly rod and caught some small Brook trout and the rainbow trout she's holding in the photo below.
     

The new Cherry Blind.

Fancy seating inside the Cherry Blind

.

The view from inside Cherry Blind. Deer mostly
emerge from between cedar trees at end of field.

Cherry Blind replaces Cherry Stand,
which is old and rickety.

Newly decorated Halloween tree.

Mary's newest cross stitch, "Angry Cat".

Katie with a rainbow trout in Montana.

• Monday, 10/10: Mowing Grass & Cedars
  
  • I sharpened the lawnmower blade. It was so dull, it needed time on the grinder, before I took the hand file to it.
    
  • Mary mowed all east yards and most of the south yard. She bagged the grass clippings and finished mulching around the Esopus apple tree.
    
  • Asian lady bugs were swarming, so laundry wasn't possible, today.
    
  • I cut more weeping willow branches and loaded them on the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor.
    
  • I took the tractor down the trail to Wood Duck Pond and chainsawed down several encroaching cedar and autumn olive trees to make the trail more navigable with the tractor. Some of the cedars that were only saplings a couple years ago possess 6- to 8-inch trunks. They grow fast.
    
  • We watched the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/11: Rain & Start of Wood Duck Blind
  
  • We enjoyed a half inch of rain during the morning hours. We welcomed the much needed rain.
  • Mom texted that Katie arrived last night at 8 p.m., after driving from Alder, MT, several hundred miles west of Circle.
    
  • Mary make flour tortillas.
  • She did cross stitch work. Some old plastic, glittery cross stitch stuff, called metallic embroidery thread, drove Mary into enough anger to rip it completely out of a project, throw it out, and start fresh with regular floss.
    
  • I updated and balanced our checkbook. With several grocery items, costs are about 40% higher than a year ago.
    
  • I finished snipping and hacking a trail to the future Wood Duck Blind. The Wood Duck Stand is in poor shape, so I'm happy to make a new, feet-on-the-ground deer hunting blind. Because I'm a little further up the hill, this blind is about at the same height as the old stand. I chainsawed branches off a downed tree that I'll build the blind in front of and discovered it's a large dead cedar. I cut up another downed cedar and put 3- to 4-foot logs under my backbone tree to block daylight from showing me off to deer eyes. There is a dead standing tree nearby that I need to take down, so it doesn't fall on my future blind. I left at 6 p.m., with more work to do in days ahead.
  • While walking to Wood Duck Pond, several wood ducks flew out of Dove Pond. A strong south wind knocked autumn leaves from trees. Deep in the woods, it was if it was snowing orange and yellow leaves.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/12: Firewood Collection or Winter Workout Begins
  
  • Mary made a huge batch of chicken noodle soup, using one of this year's fat chickens.
  • I cut down 4 dead trees, 2 cherry, a hickory, and a white oak, near the future Wood Duck Blind and cut them into firewood pieces. The oak tree fell right over the spot where I'll build the blind, hence the reason to take it out before constructing the blind. We hoofed the firewood over the dry creek bed, through the woods and up a slight hill to the trailer for our daily workout.
  • When I first drove the tractor down to near the bottom on the east side of our property, about 20 wood ducks flew out of Dove Pond.
  • As we neared moving the last firewood chunks, we heard turkey calls somewhere west of Wood Duck Pond.
  • We marvel on a regular basis of how lucky we are to own property that is wild and so full of many kinds of wild creatures. Most people must visit a public park to see animals we view every day.
  • Mom texted that yesterday, Katie helped Mom get her garden ready for winter. Katie texted that today they drove to Glasgow and visited Mom's friend, Hank. Katie says he's a nice guy.

A maple tree we planted in 2012 in the
north yard in front of ash trees.

Red and yellow autumn ash leaves.

• Thursday, 10/13: Katie to Bozeman, We Get Boosters
  
  • Mom texted that Katie left in the morning for Bozeman, MT, where Katie flies back to Anchorage tomorrow morning. "It was fun having her here," Mom said. "We had a really nice visit."
  • We went to the Quincy Library Book Sale, arriving at 10 a.m. We bought 18 inches of books at 50 cents an inch, filling 2 canvas tote bags.
  • We picked up a few grocery items, then got COVID booster shots at Sam's Club. A couple stops after that and we returned home around 2 p.m.
  • The shots hit me harder than they bothered Mary. Although achy, I helped Mary with chores.
  • I lit a fire and we meandered through the books we purchased today, while drinking 2 pots of good, loose-leaf tea. Both of us grew progressively achy through the evening.
    
  • When we walked the dogs for their last outing, we saw frost on grass next to the lane. It was 36°, the predicted overnight low, with several hours left until daylight. We covered the strawberries and winter greens.
    
    
• Friday, 10/14: Moving Firewood
  
  • The COVID booster made Mary feel sick. She laid low for the day. A night of sleep is all I needed to feel better.
  • I unloaded firewood out of the wagon, putting some in the woodshed, but most next to the splitter in the machine shed.
  • I drove the tractor/trailer down to the turnaround at the bottom of Bramble Hill and hauled all of the remaining firewood logs from where I'm putting my next deer blind to the trailer, then drove it home. Deer visited since 2 days ago. A small cedar next to where I park the tractor was stripped of its bark by a buck.
    
  • Dark clouds filled the sky while I was hauling firewood. Along with it were 40 mph wind gusts. We've experienced 2 days of such winds, which are taking out several autumn-colored leaves.
  • After returning home and eating a snack, we quickly did chores with rain coming on the western skyline. After a small shower, it cleared and we covered strawberries and winter greens with blankets and sheets.
  • Karen texted that she and Lynn are driving to the Smokey Mountain National Park to camp and take in autumn colors, starting Monday.
    
  • We watched the 5th Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/15: We Have a Granny Smith Tree!
  
  • When I opened the curtains on the west windows this morning, I watched a doe deer walk south to north just in front of the west woods. It slowly meandered along, eating as it went.
    
  • I checked the apples from the skinny apple tree south of the house and found an apple woodpeckers attacked. I pulled it off, cut it open and found that the seeds were dark brown, an indicator the the apples are ripe. We tried pieces of that apple that weren't pecked. It's definitely a Granny Smith apple tree. I picked the remaining 22 apples (see photo, below). Mary looked online and the shape of a Granny Smith apple tree coincides with the oval shape of our tree. So, after several years, the 2 free trees from Arbor Day that were supposed to be Sargent crabapple trees are identified as a Granny Smith and an Empire apple tree.
    
  • Mary made a venison General Tso meal.
    
  • She mowed the lane.
  • Today is exactly 4 weeks away from the start of the firearms deer hunting season. I decided that I need to be finished with all deer blind preparation in 2 weeks.
  • I coiled up 4 strands of barbed wire and pulled 2 steel fence posts from fence at south end of north field.
  • Then, I used the chainsaw to cut up and move 3 trees that fell, crossing the dry creek bed where water flows after a rain into Wood Duck Pond. By removing these downed trees, it allows deer an easier access to the water's edge. It also entices them to walk by my future deer blind.
    
  • I chainsawed up cedar logs and branches and stacked the wood above and below the dead cedar tree next to the blind I'm building to block my presence from the deer. I slammed the 2 metal fence posts into the ground, which will be part of an opening to the blind. I moved pig fencing into place, then went home at 5:30 to help with chores.
    
  • I saw a small deer run away from the far garden while I did evening chores. Several walnuts dropped in the east yard after the recent high winds. There is a great deal of fruit in tops of the nearby persimmon tree.

  

  Homegrown Granny Smith apples. Those with
  a slight orange tinge are sweeter.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Oct. 2-8, 2022

Weather | 10/2, 43°, 73° | 10/3, 45°, 71° | 10/4, 39°, 72° | 10/5, 43°, 73° | 10/6, 0.04" rain overnight, 47°, 77° | 10/7, 40°, 57° | 10/8, first major frost, 29°, 59° |

• Sunday, 10/2: Final Sweet Potatoes & Replacing Woodstove Firebricks
  
  • Mary uncovered 6 more hills of sweet potatoes and evacuated several more tubers. Digging sweet potatoes out of clay-based soil is similar to an archeology dig, since soil is carefully removed with a small hand trowel, so the long tubers don't break off. She dried all of the potatoes in the grass for a couple hours (see photo, below). After sorting to size, she stored 4.5 milk crates of sweet potatoes in the back porch closet. Formally, our best sweet potato harvest involved 3 milk crates.
    
  • I shot 2 squirrels in the morning hours.
    
  • I watched a video from U.S. Stove on how to replace firebricks in our woodstove, then removed the metal cabinet on the stove and replaced the firebricks. Two pieces of angle iron screwed into the front and back of the stove secure the firebricks. I tightened several bolts and nuts on the stove. Mary and I moved cabinet out to the machine shed, where I'll wire brush rusty areas and apply new black paint.
  • Katie texted that she's in the Bozeman area waiting for lost luggage. She originally was going to drive to Circle on Tuesday, but her travel plans are now on hold while she waits for her luggage to show up.
    
  • We watched the first Harry Potter movie.

  

  Sweet potatoes laid out to dry.

• Monday, 10/3: Stove Cabinet is Painted
  
  • Mary has a very sore right arm in her bicep, near her shoulder, so she spent the day inside, and away from any heavy lifting.
  • Mary paid the bills. She also worked up a food chart of all items in the freezers, and a few other things, like acorn squash, slumgullion, and wine. When items are taken, they're checked off the chart. It's a way of keeping track of food items.
  • Mary created a shopping list.
  • I removed years of lint and rust from the inside of the woodstove cabinet with first a vacuum, then a hand wire brush and a wire wheel on an electric hand grinder. Then I painted the cabinet with flat black Rust Oleum spray paint. Once dry, I installed it on the stove.
    
  • I shot 3 squirrels in the evening. After dark I looked it up and we have 2 main types of squirrels, the bad ones and the worse ones, otherwise known as the Eastern gray squirrels, and fox squirrels. The latter has orange tinges on its paws and belly. They're bigger than the gray squirrels.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/4: Shopping Trip
  
  • Mary and I drove the pickup to Quincy, IL, to shop. We bought a $45 bookcase at Salvation Army. It's nice to just load it up into the pickup bed. We got several food items.
  • We're concerned about Katie. She's not answering texts or phone calls. On a phone conversation several weeks ago, she mentioned a fellow worker who bought Montana property that she might visit. We can't remember details. We hope she's there and not in dire need of help. In our last conversation with her, Katie said she'll wait around the Bozeman area until her lost luggage shows up, beyond today. Katie needs to contact someone as soon as she reads this entry.
  • We watched the 2nd Harry Potter movie.
  • Bill called. He's got an inventory to take during the first week of December. His workplace now forbids personal electronic devices in the warehouse. He babysat is friends' dog, Lilly, who had the runs. Bill spent an entire night awake, letting Lilly out every 2 hours. Then, he caught the Vikings/Saints football game from London the next morning and his team (the Vikings) won.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/5: Katie is Camping
  
  • Katie resurfaced with texts to us and her grandmother. She's been camping in the Ruby Valley of Montana, and still waiting on lost luggage.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • She cleaned the chicken coop and put fresh hay onto the floor. She said the area under the chick's roost was a foot deep with pooh. It's all in Gomer, as in Gomer Pile, our name for the compost bin. Mary said Leo, our rooster, was very polite and happy with the new hay.
    
  • I removed, cleaned, and installed the stove pipes. There was only 1 dead chimney swift nestling on the top of the soot pile in the bottom of the chimney. So, a nest didn't fall and wipe out the chimney swift family. The amount of soot was less this year, which means we burned dryer wood last wood burning season. The stove pipe cement I used last year, and again this year, is far superior to the pellet stove silicone I used to use between the stove pipe sections. It was still in place and harder to remove the sections. I wired brushed the insides and connecting areas thoroughly. We are now ready to use the woodstove after a 24-hour drying period for the stove pipe cement.
    
    
• Thursday, 10/6: Squirrel Hunting & Floor Cleaning
  
  • I started the day by shooting 2 squirrels, then hunted them all day. I ended up getting 2 more squirrels. They're crazy about pilfering the pecan trees for nuts. In the evening, I saw 4 more squirrels in the trees. A strong NW wind made it too hard to aim while looking through a rifle scope. We must have hundreds of them in the surrounding woods.
    
  • Mary and I moved the new bookshelf upstairs and into the north bedroom. Mary filled it with books.
  • Mary also cleaned all floors and moped them.
    
  • Mom texted that she finished a physical therapy session. The therapist told Mom that one exercise that he had her do is something that a 60-year old he's working with cannot accomplish. She walked a quarter mile on the treadmill at a pretty fast pace.
  • Mary washed towels and furniture covers.
  • The first Asian ladybugs showed up for their annual autumn house invasion.
  • Leaves are starting to turn color. Some of the brightest reds are on poison ivy leaves. Hickory trees are turning yellow and several ash trees show a deep burgundy color.
    
    
• Friday, 10/7: Frost Readiness
  
  • Mary washed, ironed, and hung curtains.
  • I installed hoops in the winter greens tubs, then put tulle over the hoops and secured it with clothes pins. This keeps out sulfur butterflies.
  • I bought gas and filled three 5-gallon cans for mowing, running the 8N Ford tractor, and the log splitter.
  • In the afternoon, I was involved in a secret mission.
  • With a frost predicted tonight, Mary picked through the gardens and collected up tomatoes, hot peppers, and 3 more acorn squash. She said there was new growth on tomato plants and squash vines.
  • Mary brought the wood rack and a couple loads of wood into the house.
  • I shot 2 squirrels at sunset.
  • We covered the winter greens and the strawberries with blankets and sheets.
    
  • We watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie.
  • When we went to bed, the outside temperature was 36° and we saw patchy frost while walking the dogs. It's toasty inside, because I lit the first fire in the woodstove for the season.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/8: Autumn Colors & Deer Blind
  
  • Right after we got up and while looking out our bedroom's east-facing windows, we watched as 5 deer walked by northeast of the house onto the trail from Bass Pond. There were no antlers, so they were does.
    
  • Mary and I took a walk into the north woods and Mary took several photos of autumn colors and huge mushrooms (see below).
  • Mary did some cross stitch work.
    
  • I checked the green apples on the skinny apple tree south of the house. They're still not ready. We're thinking it might be a Granny Smith apple tree.
    
  • I trimmed about a third of the branches that grew over summer off the weeping willow tree stump that I never cut down from last fall. It's a weed. I loaded those branches into the trailer behind the 8N Ford tractor, and added some hog fencing and tools.
    
  • After driving the tractor to the cherry tree stand near the northeast part of our property, I built a deer blind, so I can hunt deer with both feet solidly on the ground. I cut branches from under a cedar tree and stacked them on the west side. After removing an old steel fence post, I pounded it into the ground to provide me with a corner, then wired pieces of hog fence to it. Then, I wove weeping willow branches through the panels in the hog fence. I got most of the front panel covered with willow branches. I still need to work on the side panel, then cut down weeds and brush so I can see better from what I'm calling the Cherry Deer Blind.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of cherry wine. The first glass, we tried chilled. This wine is better at room temperature. When chilled, the cherry taste is hidden. It's a very good wine. Unfortunately, we didn't pick enough cherries this year to make a batch of wine.

Ash tree autumn colors.

Poison ivy vines on a pecan tree trunk.

Deep burgundy of staghorn sumac.

Huge mushroom at base of oak tree.