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.