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.