Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2022

Weather | 11/27, 0.93" rain, 37°, 43° | 11/28, 27°, 49° | 11/29, 35° in AM, 25° in PM, 63° | 11/30, 18°, 32° | 12/1, 13°, 43° | 12/2, 37°, 58° | 12/3, 15°, 31° |

• Sunday, 11/27: Bill Returns to St. Charles
  
  • We received nearly an inch of early morning rain that ended right before we got up.
  • Mary made chimichangas for our midday meal. I picked leaves off the winter greens that we enjoyed on top of the chimis. The greens tasted wonderful.
    
  • Bill left for his apartment in St. Charles in the early afternoon. The company he works for is doing an inventory this weekend, so he will be working through the weekend.
  • Right before Bill left, I stepped out the door and told the neighbor's black Labrador retriever to go home. He was scratching his ears with his hind legs as he ran home. Last night, we heard coyotes howling and one of our neighbor's dogs giving off a high-pitched series of yelps. That dog was frightened. Damn neighbors! Bring your dogs in at night, you fools! These are the same people who have 2 dead deer hanging from a tree, untouched, except for field dressing, since the opening day of season, which was Nov. 12th. That venison meat is surely inedible. They did the same thing last year. What a waste!!! Those kind of hunters don't belong owning a hunting rifle or any hunting license.
    
  • We worked up Christmas lists and ordered Christmas presents. This activity went into the early morning hour. I have a couple leather craft 3-dimensional project instructions I got a few years back. I went through both projects lists and ordered 5 additional leather working tools that I don't have. Grandad Robison's Craftool leather tools that I inherited are old enough to have different identification numbers on them then what is used today. Modern numbers start with a letter, such as a "B" for bevelers, or a "P" for pear shaped shaders. The old tools were identified only with numbers. It took me a long time to match what I have to what I need for these 2 projects. One of our happy discoveries was a 4K Ultra Downton Abbey: A New Era DVD for only $10.
    
    
• Monday, 11/28: A Slow Day
  
  • We laid low for the day.
  • I cleaned electronic devices. They all show very bright screens, now.
  • We got another egg from our chickens. If we did things correctly, we'd knock off the unproductive hens. But, we don't do things right, so geriatric hens live to see another day.
    
  • Mary and I took a hike to Wood Duck Pond. It's a pretty location. Various trails are filled with deer tracks. Raccoon and deer tracks were in the sand on the pond's shore. A big rotten oak with a 2-foot trunk near the dry creek bed fell over. It isn't far from my old deer stand. We saw a flock of wild turkeys fly away as we climbed Black Medic Hill.
  • We watched the 2001 movie, Bridget Jones Diary.
  • I ordered vitamins from Swanson Vitamins in Fargo, ND.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/29: Temperature Drop
  
  • We saw a high in the 60s around 3 p.m. At 3:30, the temperature was 51°. Forty-five minutes later, it was 39°. By bedtime, it was 25°.
  • In the morning, while taking wood ashes to the pile near our compost bins, I watched a dozen wood ducks fly overhead. 
    
  • We had another quiet day. I went down several internet rabbit holes. I looked for pH paper for winemaking purposes and found some at a good price on Etsy. I'm waiting until after Christmas to order anything related to making wine. In the evening, I looked for automotive solutions for firewall and under-the-hood insulation. Mice and squirrels have eaten a lot of that material on the Buick and the GMC pickup. I found several. Most are expensive. I found a reasonably-priced solution called Fatmat from Ohio.
  • I took Amber and Plato on the same walk that Mary and I did yesterday. They really liked all of the smells along the way.
  • We watched the 1994 movie, Little Women.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/30: Long Dog Memory
  
  • I took the dogs on a walk on the east loop trail. During the summer of 2021, Amber got nipped by the electric fence around the near garden. She still remembers it. When I tried to start by walking by the near garden, I called and called and called Amber. Instead of coming to me, she ran to the porch and sat down. So, instead of starting on the south leg of the east trail, I took the north leg and she came running along. At the end of the walk, she trotted right by the electric fence, which is now off. So, Amber has no problem walking by it at the end of the walk, but don't force her to walk by that dreadful ass-zapping fence to start the walk!
  • Karen said they received 3 inches of rain from the storm that went through, yesterday.
    
  • I split firewood currently sitting by the splitter that Bill and I gathered up last week and hauled 5 wheelbarrow loads to the woodshed and stacked them. Two pieces from the base of oak trees filled two wheelbarrows once they were split. One wheelbarrow load of firewood went into house.
  • I worked on updating my wine diary based on entries I wrote on these pages. I was way behind. I only got to the first week of May, with several winemaking adventures yet to record.
    
    
• Thursday, 12/1: Splitting Wood & Online Stuff
  
  • We spotted a bald eagle circling high above our property. A strong south wind gradually blew the large bird northerly.
  • I walked the dogs to my Bobcat Deer Blind in the north woods and back home. Both dogs got very alert as we neared the blind. There's obviously a lot of wild animal smells at that point, deep in the north timber.
    
  • I finished splitting the wood next to the splitter and put 2 wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed and 1 load into the house. A stack of green wood and another stack of wet cherry needs to be restacked inside the north machine shed wall, where it can dry.
  • I identified a unique oak tree we see on our property. It has course bark that resembles alligator skin and a leaf without pronounced lobes. It's called Blackjack oak. HERE is a link showing its leaf and bark. One of the oak trees Bill and I cut down for firewood last week was a blackjack.
    
  • We removed blankets from the winter greens, but left the plastic on them through today and overnight.
  • I spent several hours in the evening investigating how to get the Feedly RSS reader to work on our Amazon Kindle tablets. Amazon only allows their apps on Kindles, but geeks come up with ways to bypass Amazon's dictatorial stipulations. After a failed attempt, I finally got Feedly to work on my Kindle. My next task is to get it running on Mary's newest Kindle.
    
    
• Friday, 12/2: High Winds
  
  • I got the migraine flashing eye thing while emptying woodstove ashes first thing in the morning, but these days, the headache side of migraines is much less than it was in my younger years. With two acetaminophen pills, I'm good to go.
  • Wind gusts to 40 mph kept me inside. Cutting up firewood while in the timber during windy conditions isn't the best idea. Dead trees get blown down during wind events and it's best to avoid the woods.
  • Mary saw a red-tailed hawk land in a short elm tree along the lane. She went out to chase it away, but it already left once she was out the door.
  • I wrote on 29 labels for the recently bottled blackberry wine.
  • I collected a bowl of leaves from the winter greens. We added them on top of chimichangas that Mary made for our main meal.
  • We watched the 1995 movie, While You Were Sleeping.
  • I added more to my wine diary, catching up to mid-August.
    
    
• Saturday, 12/3: Anterless Deer Season
  • Today is the first day of anterless deer hunting season. Fortunately, we have all of the venison we need this year, so I stay warm and inside. Everyone else must have the same idea. We didn't hear a single gun shot all day.
    
  • A strong northwest wind blew early in the day, but slowly died off into the afternoon.
  • Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup.
  • Just after the sun set, we watched a great horned owl hooting while it was sitting on top of a power pole south of us and next to Bluegill Pond. Mary said it was a male, which has a higher pitched voice. A lower-pitched great horned owl, that Mary said was a female, answered his call. We couldn't see her, but based on the sound, she was just west of him in the woods. We looked at him through binoculars. Every time he hooted, he bent forward in a courting display.
    
  • I labeled and stored 29 bottles of 2022 blackberry wine in a couple coolers.
    
  • I looked up the ingredients to making garlic wine and discovered that I need white grape juice that I currently don't have in supply. That delays making garlic wine.
  • We watched two movies. One was the 2017 movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas. Dan Stevens plays Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer is a perfect Scrooge. Then, we watched another 2017 Dan Stevens movie, Beauty and the Beast.
  • Between the two movies, we shared a bottle of 2021/2022 blackberry wine. When we pick the berries one year and I make the wine the next year, I include both years on the name. This wine possesses a deep red color that works well with Christmas decorations (see photo, below). It's very smooth and fruity and a very nice tasting wine.

  

  Blackberry wine has a festive color.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Nov. 20-26, 2022

Weather | 11/20, 13°, 43° | 11/21, 27°, 49° | 11/22, 21°, 55° | 11/23, 35°, 58° | 11/24, 0.01" rain, 41°, 54° | 11/25, 27°, 55° | 11/26, 25°, 54° |

• Sunday, 11/20: Bill Arrives, Bringing Warmth With Him
  
  • We woke to a cold morning, but temperatures rose to above freezing. By noon, we removed blankets from the winter greens and Mary opened each end of the plastic over the greens to air them out. The arugula and spinach look tough, but all other greens are thriving. 
    
  • Bill drove in at around 10:30 a.m. He is visiting for a week. Bill is looking forward to not making a decision about anything, since making decisions is what he does all day at work.
  • We unloaded parts to three 2'x3'x5' metal and wood shelving from his car and stacked the parts in the freezer and laundry rooms. They will be nice additions to get better organized.
  • I thumbed through all of the rest of the American Heritage magazines that we got for free from the Quincy (IL) Library bookstore. The magazine became smaller and not as good in the 1990s, after Forbes bought it. I looked it up and Forbes sold the magazine in 2007 to Edwin Grosvenor, whose great-grandfather started National Geographic. The printed version of American Heritage was suspended in 2013. It restarted in electronic form in 2017.
  • After chores, Mary fixed 3 pizzas that we ate while playing Yahtzee. We enjoyed one beer that Bill brought with him and split it 3 ways. It was a Samuel Smith's (made in England) nut brown ale. We also enjoyed the last bottle of 2021 blackberry wine, which was really good. Aging vastly helps the taste of blackberry wine, which is also very good without aging. We had a great time.
    
    
• Monday, 11/21: A Slow Day of Visiting
  
  • Mary and I talked quite a bit with Bill, making for a lull in outdoor activity.
  • I did some quick Messenger texts with my cousin, Marjorie. She was getting ready to pack to catch a flight from Jerusalem. She spent 11 days at UAE and then 8 days in Israel. Her former husband, Steve, works in the UAE as a VP at American University in Ras Al Khaimah.
  • Mary made flour tortillas, then chimichangas, for our midday meal.
    
  • Bill and I racked the Kieffer pear wine for the second time. The specific gravity was 1.000, which gives it an alcohol content of 10.2%. We added 0.4 grams of potassium metabisulfite after racking it to a brew bucket. About a half inch of fines were in the bottom of each gallon jug. We put the liquid into a gallon jug and two 1.5-liter bottles. Mary, Bill, and I tasted it. The wine had a strong pear flavor. Bill says it tastes like autumn olive. There was also a strong yeast taste, because I didn't rack the wine early enough and let the must sit on top of excessive fines for too long. Hopefully, aging will remove the yeast taste.
    
  • We watched the 1987 movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and John Candy. Bill owns the DVD. We need to get a copy of it. We ate cheese and crackers that Bill brought with him.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/22: Quincy Shopping for Fresh Veggies
  
  • Bill and I went to Quincy in the pickup to get a few things. I picked up a Sam's Club shipment of 3 large bags of powdered milk, which should last about 10 months. We got fresh veggies for Thanksgiving dinner and some cat litter at Sam's Club. All stores were packed with people.
  • On the drive home, Bill and I saw several swans in the disked-up corn fields on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. Their all white bodies were easy to spot on the dark earth fields.
    
  • Mary fixed venison stroganoff, which was ready when Bill and I returned home.
  • Today is the last day of the regular firearms deer hunting season in Missouri. We have not heard rifles shots for the past several days. Next is a youth (age 15 and under) season on Nov. 25-27, then the anterless firearms deer hunting season, when antlered bucks cannot be hunted, is on Dec. 3-11. Finally, there's an alternative deer hunting season on Dec. 24-Jan. 3, when blackpowder guns, center-fired pistols, airguns, longbows, crossbows, and atlatls are allowed. Apparently, Missouri's deer herd is thriving resulting in longer hunting seasons. We have enough venison, so I'm done hunting.
  • On a dog walk prior to sunset, a large flock of red-winged blackbirds flew north to south over us. While walking back after delivering the garbage can to the end of our lane, I saw a V of snow geese heading southwest. Mary says we have an Eastern bluebird hanging around the yard.
  • We watched the 2021 movie, The Kingsman, that I picked up at Walmart, today. Then, we watched the 2010 movie, Leap Year, which was Bill's selection.
  • Mom texted that Hank surprised her on Sunday with a visit. He gave her a BB gun as a birthday present, so she can sting mule deer in the butt. They've eaten her flowers and strawberry plants. She's driving to Glasgow tomorrow (11/23) to visit Hank for Thanksgiving, which means she doesn't need to cook a turkey. Today, she helped serve 68 people a Thanksgiving dinner at the Circle Senior Center.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/23: Wood Gathering & Pie Making
  
  • Mary made two pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.
    
  • Bill and I loaded all of the weeping willow logs into the trailer behind the 8N Ford tractor. These logs were once at the bottom of a pile and consequently wet, rotten, and in some cases, growing roots and twigs. We took them to the ravine down the hill and east of the house and threw them in. Then, we drove further east, cut down 2 oak trees and cut them up into firewood. Bill loaded most of the firewood into the trailer. I helped after I finished cutting up the dead trees. One branch was green. We drove home and unloaded the firewood in appropriate locations.
    
  • Mary raked leaves from under the pecan trees and filled the compost bin.
    
  • I built a fire and we had a wienie roast. Once finished, the sun set to the west (see photo, below, that Bill took). We heard trumpeter swans and snow geese, but couldn't locate them in the sky.
    
  • Mary and I read in the evening. Bill had fun with his hockey video game.

  

  Sunset with Kieffer pear tree in foreground.

• Thursday, 11/24: Thanksgiving
  
  • Mary made a Thanksgiving meal, baking a 20.3-pound turkey. She also made dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, our homegrown sweet potatoes, a bean casserole using green beans from our garden, Ranch dressing dip and a bunch of veggies. After 2 helpings, we were stuffed.
  • Mary carved the rest of the meat off the turkey. A gallon bag of breast meat went into the fridge and 4 quart bags of dark meat went into the freezer for future turkey pot pies. Mary and I hauled the turkey carcass to the north woods, where all that was left of the second deer carcass was part of the hide.
  • I called Mom. She's enjoying Thanksgiving Day at Hank's house in Glasgow, MT. We talked for a little while. Then, Bill talked to his grandmother.
  • We watched two movies, eating a large piece of pumpkin pie between the movies. They were the 1998 movie, You've Got Mail, and the 2003 movie, Johnny English.
  • While walking dogs after the movies, we heard coyotes howling from north, northeast, and east.
    
    
• Friday, 11/25: Winemaking
  • I spotted six trumpeter swans out of our south living room window as they lifted off from our neighbor's pond and turned in flight to the west.
  • Mary ironed two sets of curtains that we used in our house in Circle, MT. She hemmed one panel that she plans to give to Bill for windows in his St. Charles, MO, apartment.
  • Bill and I worked on three different wines through the day.
  • First, we racked the blackberry wine for the fourth time, then bottled it. The specific gravity is 0.992, resulting in 12.3% alcohol. The pH is 3.3. Once we racked all containers into a brew bucket, we had 5.75 gallons of wine. We added 1 gram of potassium metabisulfite, then bottled and corked 29 bottles of wine. We tasted it. This wine was very fruity, a great blackberry flavor, with a bit of a tang. Somehow, brewing this variety, starting in the summer, produces a better tasting wine.
  • Next, we looked at the apple cider. Bill noticed that it was mostly clear, except for about an inch in the bottom of both gallon jugs, which was slightly cloudy. We decided to let it sit another month. The pectic enzyme I added a month ago gave the cider a clearer appearance than the apple wine, in which I didn't add pectic enzyme.
  • Next we racked the apple wine and added 1.25 teaspoons of pectic enzyme. It has a tiny bit of fines. We tasted the apple wine. It tastes good. Mary says the apple flavor is subtle, but will probably come forward with aging. Bill said it has a strong apple flavor, but not as strong as when eating an apple. The specific gravity is 0.998, increasing slightly from the 0.996 reading on 11/1.
  • Finally, we racked the jalapeño wine for the third time. It had a minimal amount of fines, but as it swirled into the carboy, a fine bit of mist moved across the top of the container, so there's some material still in that wine. The specific gravity is still at 0.990. We tasted it. Bill says it's milder and more fruity than last year's batch. We didn't add anything to this wine.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I played a long game of Michigan Rummy. It was my lucky day. We quit around 1 a.m. I won. Mary was a close second and Bill took a close third. It was fun.
  • Katie texted her mother that she won't be visiting us during Christmas.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/26: Up Goes the Christmas Tree
  
  • Mary laundered sheets and some shirts.
  • She also finished hemming a large set of curtains for Bill.
    
  • I talked with Bill a bunch.
    
  • I vacuumed Asian ladybugs that are always creeping into the house through our immaculately tight windows.
  • We got 2 eggs from our chickens, which were the first eggs in about 6 weeks. I guess they're finished with molting.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I put up and decorated the Christmas tree. We also put up Christmas decorations around the house.
    
  • After decorating, we ate the last of the pumpkin pie and shared a bottle of parsnip wine (see photo, below). It's beautiful when poured into a glass. Bill and I started making it a year ago. It doesn't taste anything like cooked parsnips, which is good. Mary said it has a citrus/earth taste. Bill said you can taste lemon, and at the back of the tongue, a carrot flavor. I think it gives your mouth a full feel and it's quite good. It's supposed to be the best after 2 years of aging. If so, parsnip wine ought to be really great in another year, because it tastes very good after one year of aging. Our main purpose for tasting it was to determine if we're planting parsnips next spring, because Mary is drawing up a seed purchase list, soon. Parsnip seeds are on the agenda.

  

  Good tasting parsnip wine, with a gold color.
  

  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  

Nov. 13-19, 2022

Weather | 11/13, 26°, 37° | 11/14, 19°, 43° | 11/15, 2" snow or 0.21" moisture, 30°, 37° | 11/16, flurries, 20°, 29° | 11/17, 17°, 37° | 11/18, 15°, 27° | 11/19, snow flurries, 16°, 29° |

• Sunday, 11/13: Processing Venison
  
  • Last night, on a final check of the deer hanging in the machine shed, I heard something scratching up the trunk of the maple tree at the northeast corner of the machine shed. It moved as I moved around the tree. I saw something small leap to a branch. I think it was a flying squirrel, since regular squirrels aren't out after dark, but flying squirrels are nocturnal.
    
  • We got a late start in the morning, since we were tired from previous days of firewood splitting and yesterday evening's deer field dressing activity.
  • I sharpened 5 knives. Mary taped plastic down on the kitchen table.
  • I skinned the button buck deer hanging in the machine shed. For the first time, ever, I didn't use the Herter's knife with WGM engraved in its handle. The initials stand for Willis G. Melvin. My grandfather put his initials on the knife years ago. Instead of that knife, I used a skinning knife made by Old Timer. It has a curved blade and is excellent when used for removing the pelt. My only problem involved cold fingers while working with a hide cooled to 26°. I had to go inside 3 times to warm my hands over the woodstove.
  • After eating lunch, we processed the deer. Mary cleans fat off the outside of animal portions. I separate muscle groups and give meat chunks back to Mary. She removes silver skin, which is thick heavy skin across the meat. If not removed, silver skin contracts and makes the meat very tough. She then cuts the meat into half-pound pieces. Once we're done with a section, such as the hind quarters, Mary rinses the meat off with tap water, wraps the meat in plastic wrap. Two wrapped pieces go into a zippered freezer bag. Each bag is marked with my name, the date I shot the deer, the Missouri Dept. of Conservation deer tag confirmation number, our address, and what kind of meat is in the package, such as roast, stew, or loin. We got 31 pieces of venison out of this deer, which is surprising, since the bullet wrecked both shoulders. It was a deer with a long body, and as such, it produced more meat.
  • Mary cleaned up inside as I did outside. We finished evening chores partway through the last of our butchering. I finished the last bit of chores as darkness fell.
  • We watched 4 episodes of Keeping Up Appearances. It was fun.
    
    
• Monday, 11/14: A Missed Shot
  
  • A cool 19° with a steady southeast wind blowing made me glad I didn't venture out deer hunting this morning. I'm sure my cohort at field dressing a deer, Mary, would have told me to go right back out there and do it myself if I'd have asked her for help after shooting a deer this morning. So, I stayed in bed at 4 a.m., instead.
  • Mary washed furniture covers, a set of curtains, and some clothes.
  • After taking blankets off this morning, which were covering the winter greens, we covered the winter greens this afternoon with a sheet of plastic and weighed it down with bricks. The plastic is more appropriate with 2-4 inches of snow predicted overnight.
  • I went deer hunting at the first deer blind I created this fall, the Cherry Deer Blind. I sat down inside the blind at 2:52 p.m. An east southeast wind blew into my face. 
  • At 4:12 p.m., a coyote, about the size of a large dog, walked up the line of cedar trees to my right. It stopped about 8 feet away and stared at the bottom of the blind for several seconds. It looked up at me, but I don't think it really saw me. I'm wearing a dark gray knitted face mask to cover most of my face. It helps to disguise me. So far, deer, turkeys, and a coyote look my way, but don't run once they look at me. The coyote walked by the front of the blind, then turned and headed northwest through a cut in the line of cedar trees. Once the coyote was downwind of me, he caught my scent and bolted out across the field on a dead run.
  • Just before 5 p.m., I saw the hind leg of a deer to the north of me. All of a sudden it ran back where it came from and looked in my direction. I'm sure it caught my scent. I tried a right-handed shot through cedar branches. Immediately after shooting, I saw cedar branches close to me waving around. Obviously the bullet hit them and they diverted the shot, because the deer trotted off, casually, to the northeast. I waited 10 minutes, then walked north, in case I wounded the deer. I didn't. I just missed with my shot. The lesson I learned today was that even though .30-30 bullets are known to be brush cutters, it's a better idea to wait for an open shot, free from cedar branches, before pulling the trigger. Mary was very happy that I missed, so instead of holding deer legs while I gutted a deer, we stayed inside a warm house and ate vegetable soup tonight.
  • While I was hunting, Mary raked maple leaves in the north yard and filled the compost bin to give the bin some organic matter.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/15: Mom's 88th Birthday
  
  • We woke to 2" of wet snow on the ground and on all tree branches. Snow-covered cedar trees made us want to sing Christmas carols. Most of the snow was melted by afternoon.
  • I updated the checkbook and balanced it.
    
  • I made waffles for our midday meal.
    
  • I hunted in the afternoon from the Bobcat Deer Blind. Around 4:20 p.m., I heard footsteps, but couldn't determine the animal's location. I stood up to look north, down a gully, and promptly heard a snort from behind me. A deer was walking down my trail to that deer blind, saw me move, and ran southwest to near the west field, where it snorted at me for about 10-15 minutes. It finally ran west. I didn't hear shots from the west, which means nobody is in that tree stand just beyond our property line. I only saw 2 squirrels. In past years that location was messy with squirrels. I decided I'm not wearing the woven face mask in wide open locations, such as Bobcat, where I need uncovered ears to determine footstep locations.
    
  • While I was out hunting, Mary rearranged and dusted books in the living room. She's finding lots of Asian ladybugs nesting on book edges. They end up in the shop vacuum. She's also putting books of similar subjects together and eliminating some so we don't have books stacked ahead of other books on the shelves.
    
  • I called Mom to wish her a happy 88th birthday. She had a good day. Mom's been calling bingo at the Circle Senior Center's weekly lunch events. Today, someone else insisted that Mom play, instead of calling the game. She won 2 games and then won the end-of-the-day pot of money. Her hip is much better. Mom hasn't used a cane for 2-3 weeks. Hank couldn't make it down from Glasgow, MT, due to poor road conditions. Winter set in with a vengeance, giving eastern MT about a foot of snow that is settling. Mom said she had a nice visit with Katie last month.
    
  • I made 2 big bowls of popcorn after Mary finished the living room library work.
  • We stayed up and watched the launch of Artemis I to the moon on NASA TV. Bill and Mary texted a few times after the rockets lifted off. I bet it was loud where Karen and Lynn once lived in Titusville, FL.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/16: Quiet Day
  
  • Cool temperatures with northwest gusty winds means I stayed indoors instead of hunting today.
  • Mary made flour tortillas and then chimichangas for our midday meal.
  • Mary created a month-long meal menu, then a shopping list.
  • I stuck used corks into washed wine bottles that dried over the past several days. The corks keep dust out of the bottles. I moved several bottles that need cleaning out of the west room closet and replaced them with these clean bottles.
  • I refrained from racking the Kieffer pear wine for the second time, since all airlocks I own are in use. I'll wait until an order I placed a couple days ago arrives with 3 more airlocks. It shipped today from Ozark, MO, which is on the other side of the state.
  • Mary and I put blankets over the winter greens that are already covered with plastic. Predicted low temperatures are in the teens for the next four nights.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/17: Shopping & Second Deer
  
  • While walking dogs in the morning, we heard a trumpeter swan and saw 5 big ducks. In the morning light, details were hard to see, but we're quite sure they were mallards.
    
  • We went shopping in Quincy, IL, today and so did the entire population. All stores were packed with people. Mary found 70 American Heritage hardcover magazines at the Quincy Library bookstore for free. We dropped off books and got a planter, jeans, and a purse for Mary at the Salvation Army. Then, we bought food supplies.
  • We returned home at 2:30 p.m. I helped unload the pickup, then dressed and went deer hunting at the Wood Duck Deer Blind. With cold temperatures predicted the next several days, I wanted to give it a go this afternoon, since it was a few degrees above freezing.
    
  • I got to the blind at 3:36 p.m. A west-northwest wind, gusts to 22 mph, was blowing onto my left cheek as I sat there. These blinds block a lot of the wind, making them much warmer than a deer stand, where you're out in the open, up a tree. 
  • Soon after sitting down, I saw several turkeys walk to the edge of Wood Duck Pond. Then, I saw just a glimpse of a buck west of me. Next, I noticed a deer walk to the edge of the pond. I kept watching and that deer headed north to south, opposite the dry creek bed from me. I followed it while looking through the gun's scope. I saw no antlers, so when it got directly opposite of me, I shot. It instantly went down. It's another button buck, another yearling deer (see photo, below). I never heard shots from any other hunters, so I guess I was the only one hunting within this area.
    
  • Mary, who was hauling in the last load of kindling, heard the shot, waited for a text from me, and got it while she was feeding pets. She walked to the deer while I fueled then drove the tractor to the bottom of Bramble Hill. We field dressed the deer, then hauled it to the tractor. This button buck (named this, because yearling bucks only grow a small button of an antler, instead of a full set of antlers) is heavier than the last deer I shot. We hauled it home in the tractor, washed it out thoroughly, then hung it in the machine shed. Temperatures are cool for perfect conditions for hanging venison outdoors. We'll butcher it tomorrow.
  • We watched the 2015 movie, The Intern, which we really like.

  

  Another button buck, our 2nd deer of the season.

• Friday, 11/18: Our Venison Supply Is Full, As Is Our Freezer
  
  • We processed the second deer today and put 32 packages of venison in the freezer. It was pretty good, considering both shoulders were damaged from the bullet. This deer ate well and had quite a bit of fat. It was also quite hairy, with long black hair on its chest and back. There is a strain of white-tailed deer around here with black winter hair. The immense hair blocked the visibility of entry and exit wounds until I skinned the button buck. My shot hit the base of the left neck and exited the point of the right shoulder. The meat was very cold, due to sub-freezing temperatures. We finished butchering after sunset and I drove the remains to the middle of the north woods, where the remains of the deer we butchered on Sunday, 11/13 were completely gone. All that was left behind was coyote scat and the white excrement from an owl or a hawk. We now have 73 venison packages in the freezer, so we're set for the year. I won't be sitting in a blind with a rifle until next fall. I used 6 bullets this deer season...3 to sight in the rifle, 2 to harvest 2 deer, and only 1 missed shot.
    
  • Strong west winds blew all day. We kept the chickens inside the coop. Fortunately, the machine shed protected me from the gusts, even though I went inside a few times to warm up my hands.
    
  • We texted with Bill, who is bringing us metal shelving that was destined for the dump from his place of work. He also has plywood, but cannot fit it into his car. I'll make a trip in the pickup in the near future to get it.
  • We watched the 1958 movie, Auntie Mame.
  • We also went through several issues of American Heritage magazines.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/19: A Cleaning Day
  
  • It was another cold day with temperatures never getting above freezing.
  • At noon while Mary was giving new water to chickens in the coop, she heard a scream, looked up, and saw a red-tailed hawk chasing a Cooper's hawk. The Cooper's hawk performed a sharp turn to the east while the red-tailed hawk took a rest in the McIntosh apple tree.
  • Mary and I both did several house cleaning chores. Mary swept the whole house, then mopped our bedroom floor. New throw rugs we've slowly picked up over the past several months went down in the bedroom. They're really nice. She dusted all DVDs and put away books that were off shelves. I vacuumed bugs, rugs, and cleaned sinks, then did some Christmas present wrapping.
    
  • We did some reading in the evening.
    

Nov. 6-12, 2022

Weather | 11/6, 41°, 62° | 11/7, 33°, 53° | 11/8, 33°, 59° | 11/9, 50°, 77° | 11/10, 60°, 75° | 11/11, 0.30" rain, 25°, 33° | 11/12, 24°, 29° |

• Sunday, 11/6: Fixing Up Another Deer Hunting Location...You Can't Have Too Many
  
  • When Mary opened the living room curtains this morning, a ruby-crowned kinglet flew up just outside the window. It's passing through on its way south. Mary says they usually fly through late winter, or early spring, when they're heading north.
    
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • I made waffles for breakfast and Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal.
  • Mary found 39 books to donate.
    
  • Together, Mary and I checked out potential deer stand locations and decided the cedar and the American elm tree location on the Bass Pond Trail that I originally picked out is best.
    
  • I took down 4 strands of barbed wire fence between 3 fence posts and coiled up the wire. This will allow deer to walk right by the cedar/elm trees. Then I moved the aluminum ladder deer stand from the cow barn to the cedar/elm location. I sawed 3 limbs off the north side of the cedar tree and put the stand in place. I cinched up 1 ratchet strap around 2 limbs and the trunk of the tree and through slots in the 2x4 platform of the stand. I ran out of time. Plans are to add a second ratchet strap to make it good and secure.
    
  • In the evening, a flock of 5 wood ducks flew right over top of me. They're very pretty.
    
  • After letting the dogs out right at sunset, I spotted a squirrel in the pecan tree closest to the house and said to the dogs, "There's a squirrel." Plato briefly ran south, the complete opposite direction from that tree. Amber slowly walked to the tree, looked up, and spotted the squirrel. It ran to the ground, then due north. Amber tore after it, followed by Plato. They had their fun for the evening.
  • I washed 10 bottles from the recent collection I bought.
    
    
• Monday, 11/7: House Cleaning & Finishing Tree Stand
  • We watched a large female red-tailed hawk sit in the Keiffer pear tree while we drank our coffee this morning. It searched the ground below it for something to eat.
    
  • Mary was mainly inside, washing bedding and some clothes, replacing 35 gallons of water stored in 1-gallon containers in case the running water stops flowing, dusting books and sorting them, and sweeping.
  • I finished putting a second ratchet strap on the aluminum ladder tree stand. I also nipped several small branches out of the way. I wired up a semi-circle of hog fencing in front of the deer stand platform and wove cedar branches through the fencing as a small blind to hide me from deer eyeballs (see photos and videos, below). In the process of cutting off a cedar branch, I broke a wooden handle off the long-handled nippers that we bought years ago in Montana.
  • At noon, I harvested a bowl of winter greens that we enjoyed on top of taco noodles.
  • I looked up a sample ballot, then online information to determine how we want to vote tomorrow.
    
  • I washed 10 more wine bottles.

Aluminum Ladder Tree Stand viewed from NE.

The same deer stand viewed from SW.

View from the Aluminum Ladder Deer Stand.
Turn on your audio to hear me describe the view.

View inside the blind build around the tree stand.

• Tuesday, 11/8: Mulching Garlic & Sighting In the Gun
  
  • After getting up and opening the curtains on the west living room window, we noticed the bottom third of the moon was blocked in what was the end of the lunar eclipse.
  • When we walked to the chicken coop to let the chickens out for the day, 6 squirrels scurried out of the pecan tree nearest to the house. It is a domestic pecan tree, compared to the wild pecan trees that we get a few nuts from. This domestic pecan tree never seems to have a long enough growing season to develop mature nuts, so the husks stay on, harden, and never open, therefore the inside nut never develops. Squirrels are grabbing them and crunching them open, but there's nothing inside. That doesn't stop them from swarming the tree. This evening I let the dogs chase squirrels. As they ran into the north woods, Amber stood at the edge of the timber and woof, woof, woofed at them.
    
  • We drove to Lewistown this morning and voted. There was a line with lots of people waiting to vote. Okay, it wasn't a whole lot of people, but normally Mary and I are the only ones in the place. Today, there were 3 people ahead of us in line and a couple others behind us when we got to the poll workers.
    
  • This afternoon, Mary put a layer of compost on the three rows of garlic. Then, she mowed a section of the west lawn, bagged the grass, and used those lawn clippings to mulch the garlic. The garlic planting project is done for this year.
    
  • I cleaned the Marlin long-barreled .30-30 rifle (I own a second Marlin .30-30 rifle with a shorter barrel) and the Marlin .22 rifle that I recently used to hunt squirrels.
    
  • I sighted in the .30-30 rifle. After two shots at the target, I only moved the scope one notch to the left and one notch down. I hit the bullseye on the third shot. It's ready for deer hunting season, which starts this Saturday, Nov. 12th.
    
  • Bill called after sending us his Christmas wish list. He is training South Carolina employees at his St. Louis location. The company manager asked that Bill inventory stock that was ordered, but not needed. It amounted to $1.5 million worth of inventory. Bill will be visiting us for over a week starting Nov. 20th.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/9: Plant Cleaning & AC Removal
  • Mom texted that it was 10° this morning in Circle, MT, with a couple inches of snow on the ground. There's a blizzard warning in ND and SD, and eastern MT is on the edge of that weather.
    
  • Mary moved the last three big house plants outside, washed them with a watering can and warm water out of the sink, then let them dry. Once dry, the ficus tree attracted several wasps. I helped her haul the huge ficus tree outside. When going back inside, she got tired of me telling her that pushing a hand truck up a set of stair wouldn't work, grabbed the trunk and hoisted it into the sunroom by herself.
  • Mary mowed the west yard and put mulch on fruit trees and blueberry plants.
  • She also washed rugs.
  • We enjoyed a chicken pot pie for our evening meal.
    
  • I removed our 4 air conditioners. Mary helped with the big ones. Each had squadrons of Asian ladybugs hidden in cracks. We vacuumed a lot of bugs, today.
    
  • I started moving willow logs into the machine shed, next to the splitter. Small logs went into the woodshed. We figure by the time we get to them at the bottom of the pile, they can be used for quick fires in the spring. I also took the chainsaw to longer willow branches in the outdoor stack of willow logs and in the machine shed. Once cut up, they went into the woodshed.
    
  • I marked 14 wine bottles that I previously washed up with a white grease pencil dot, stuck corks partially in them to keep out dust, and put them in the west room closet.
  • We enjoyed a wonderful bottle of 2021 blackberry wine. It's one of our favorites.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/10: Baking Bread & Splitting Willow Firewood
  
  • We saw a small flock of red-winged blackbirds flying south while we walked the dogs this morning.
    
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. We had a Sound of Music evening meal of Red Rose tea with jam, jam and bread (freshly baked, that is!).
    
  • Mary also put a wheelbarrow load of hay in the chicken coop.
    
  • I spent all day splitting weeping willow logs into firewood. The heat content of willow is poor, but it's great for a quick fire in the fall or spring. I'm stacking it in the back of the woodshed, so it will be ready for us in the spring. I filled up a ring's worth of wood with the willow I split today (see photo, below). I'd move logs off the pile that's been stacked on the lawn between the machine shed and the chicken coop, stack them in front of the splitter, split that stack, then move the split firewood to the woodshed with a wheelbarrow, and stack it in there.
  • Mary started helping me once she was done with baking bread. Together, she and I moved all the rest of the good weeping willow logs into the machine shed. Then, we split and stacked more firewood in three sessions running the splitter. Logs that were on the bottom of the stack on the lawn are too wet, with roots on the bottom and sprouts on the top. Yes, weeping willow is really a weed. I plan on tossing those logs into a ravine that's down the hill and quite a ways east of the house.
  • Rain was predicted for 2 p.m., then at 5 p.m. By the time of this writing at 9:50 p.m., it still is west of us. They're predicting a skiff of snow in the morning. I'm hoping to finish splitting weeping willow tomorrow, then split the hardwood that I already have stacked near the splitter. I also must get the east end of the machine shed ready for butchering in case I harvest a deer Saturday morning. The prediction is for a low of 25° early Saturday morning. We're always colder, so it'll be around 22°, with northwest wind gusts up to 22 mph. It's going to be nice and toasty!

  

  One ring of willow firewood in our Quonset-shaped woodshed.

• Friday, 11/11: More Split Firewood
  
  • We enjoyed waffles that I made for breakfast.
  • Mary and I started splitting firewood first thing after breakfast. We finished splitting all of the weeping willow logs, split a few elm logs, then split all of the oak, hickory, and cherry logs that we collected a couple weeks ago from the east woods. We finished around 4 p.m. with about half of the second ring finished in the woodshed (see photo, below). This is the best collection of firewood stacked in the woodshed prior to deer hunting season going back several years.
  • Squirrels are swarming the pecan tree that's north of the house and east of the woodshed. Mary watched a woodpecker fly away from that tree with a pecan.
    
  • The weather prediction calls for northwest gusts to 22 mph starting at 1 a.m. and continuing until sunset. I've decided to forego getting up at 4 a.m. to freeze may ass off in the wind while waiting for a deer to march by. I'll wait for an afternoon hunt.
  • Mary and Bill traded song links on texts to one another into the night.
  • I washed 10 more wine bottles. I also stuck corks in 12 dry, clean bottles and stored them in the west room's closet.

  

  Half a ring added to firewood stack in the woodshed.
  Freshly cut hardwood is brighter than year-old willow.

• Saturday, 11/12: Opening Day of Hunting Season...One Shot, One Deer
  
  • We woke to a cloudy and cold day. I stayed in bed until just after 7. Squirrels stayed in bed, too. I only saw one on the pecan tree today.
  • Mary made a big batch of vegetable soup.
  • I strung up five lights in the machine shed in order to butcher deer.
  • Mary cleaned and sorted books into new locations. She's finding Asian ladybugs hidden behind books. If these bugs aren't removed, they stain the edges of a book's pages orange.
  • I hunted in the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. A northwest wind blew up the hill and into my face. The blind is cozy and blocks wind quite well. 
  • I started hunting at 2:50 p.m. Thirty minutes later, a 10-point buck walked by the blind just north of me. He had a nice rack, but looked haggard. There was no rump on it. The buck literally ran its butt off chasing does. The meat in that deer probably tasted only slightly better than a piece of cast iron. Since I'm more interested in quality food over a nice set of antlers, I let that deer walk on by. It walked up the hill so close to my blind that I could have hit it just by throwing a piece of wood. Eventually the deer was downwind of me. He stood for about 5 minutes sniffing the air. At one point, he looked right at me. I didn't even blink, so the buck turned, then trotted northeast and jumped the fence to the east. About 15-20 minutes later I saw it walking west just a little further north of me. The buck turned north at the dry creek and I saw it later under the distant trees northwest of me.
  • About a half hour later, 12 huge turkeys walked across the forest floor just down the hill from me. They were fun to watch. As a couple pecked and scratched at the ground, in the same fashion our chickens do, another would play sentinel and watch for danger. Then, the guard would scratch and another would take on the lookout role. Eventually, they were down at Wood Duck Pond making all kinds of turkey calls. Before nightfall, I heard them flying up to roost in treetops.
  • The end of legal shooting today was 5:23 p.m. At 5:15 p.m., I started getting ready to leave. Then a deer walked by, south to north, just in front of the blind. As I slid the gun from left to right across the top of the horizontal cedar log used as a ledge to the blind's window, the gun's sling caught on quarter-inch high branch nubbins, making it impossible to see through the scope. The deer stopped to eat some brush. I saw it didn't have antlers, so I executed a right-handed shot. Shooting a .30-30 rifle under roofing tin is really loud! It dropped and died immediately. One shot...one deer...that's the way I like to hunt, using the least amount of bullets, possible. It's a young button buck (see photo, below). Them's good eatin's!!! As I walked to the deer to make sure it was dead, several deer snorted at me from the north and east. As I turned the bend into the north yard while walking home, more deer snorted at me.
    
  • I texted Mary that I got a deer after I electronically notched the deer tag. With it getting dark, Mary figured we were free on working on deer, tonight. When she got the text, she said, "Damn it!" She walked behind me as I drove the tractor. We field dressed the deer, then hauled it down the hill, across the dry creek bed, and into the wagon behind the tractor. The whole time we handled the deer, snowflakes filtered down through the timber. Once we got home, we rinsed out the body cavity real well with the garden hose. Then, we hung it in the machine shed for the night. Temperatures are perfect overnight for hanging venison. It's predicted to hit 19°. We'll process the venison meat tomorrow.

  

  I harvested this yearling button buck this afternoon.