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

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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.