Weather | 1/15, 28°, 48° | 1/16, 0.01" rain, 45°, 62° | 1/17, 35°, 46° | 1/18, 0.20" rain, 25°, 35° | 1/19, 0.25" rain, 34°, 35° | 1/20, 25°, 31° | 1/21, 17°, 41° |
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Sunday, 1/15: Wild Birds
- In the morning, I watched a juvenile red-shouldered hawk land on a small honey locust tree southwest of the house. It flew to various other perches south of the house while looking for rodents in the field. When the hawk flew closer to the yard, I went outside to discourage it from investigating our chickens and it flew east.
- I walked the dogs on a circle through the east woods. While walking down the hill beyond the cow barn, a herd of about six deer ran south.
- Mary dusted the shelves of DVDs and did a load of laundry.
- I dug out a Cabela's fly tying vise that Dad once owned. It's a good one, much better than the one I used on Saturday in Kirksville. I also rediscovered a bunch of lure making supplies that Dad owned. It's time to have fun.
- Mary and I looked up places to buy fly tying equipment and material. We spotted a nice fly tying kit of tools at Bass Pro.
- Trumpeter swans are wintering in our part of the world. We saw the lumbering white bombers flying easterly in the morning. In evening, about 30 minutes prior to darkness, I watched several flying in circles above the field east of our property. I'm guessing our neighbor spilled a bunch of corn or soybeans on the ground, which is attracting swans to that location. We think they overnight at the poop ponds next to the dairy west of us.
- We watched three Downton Abbey episodes.
- In the morning, I watched a juvenile red-shouldered hawk land on a small honey locust tree southwest of the house. It flew to various other perches south of the house while looking for rodents in the field. When the hawk flew closer to the yard, I went outside to discourage it from investigating our chickens and it flew east.
- Monday, 1/16: Sharpening Chainsaws
- We experienced a very windy day, even though the sun was out several times.
- I took the dogs on a hike to the end of the west field. Our west neighbor's deer stand just beyond our property line was used. The trampled down leaves was the telltale sign. After they sniffed about, I took Plato and Amber down the Bobcat Deer Blind Trail, then back home.
- Mary made a pumpkin cake, dusted books in the sunroom, and did the evening chores.
- I cleaned up both chainsaws and sharpened one set of chains for each saw.
- We enjoyed hard boiled eggs, jelly on toast, two pots of Yunnan loose-leaf tea, and a big portion of Mary's brandy pumpkin cake while watching the first episode of Ken Burns' The Civil War.
- I read details about fly tying in a book we have entitled The Complete Book of Sportfishing. Printed fly tying instructions make it seem extremely difficult, when it is not!
- Mary's cell phone barely holds a charge. I looked up DIY instructions on replacing cell phone batteries on ifixit.com.
- I put half of the Antonovka apple seeds I recently bought into hot water to soak for 24 hours, per instructions that came with the seeds. I ordered 20 seeds. I actually received 35 seeds.
- We experienced a very windy day, even though the sun was out several times.
- Tuesday, 1/17: Quiet Day
- I drove the tractor in the south field to pack down the grass and form a new trail to walk the dogs on. We walked it in the afternoon. The dogs loved it.
- Mary did laundry, made flour tortillas, and did some cross stitch.
- We watched four Downton Abbey episodes.
- I drove the tractor in the south field to pack down the grass and form a new trail to walk the dogs on. We walked it in the afternoon. The dogs loved it.
- Wednesday, 1/18: A Drizzly Day
- We had an entire day of drizzle...a good day to stay inside.
- We heard a robin during our morning dog walk. We haven't noticed them since sometime last fall, which isn't the case every year. We never knew robins would be more rare than trumpeter swans. We hear or see swans every day.
- I updated my wine diary, which involved December and up to today in January, when I worked on several wines.
- I started making a new wine...persimmon wine. I looked up and wrote down a recipe and then only got as far as splitting open frozen quart bags and putting the frozen chunks of persimmon fruit into a nylon mesh bag to thaw. One of my mesh bags split, leaving me only one. Half of the 17 pounds fit in the remaining bag. I put the other five bags in a big metal bowl, covered the bowl with plastic, and put the bowl in the fridge. I covered the brew bucket holding the mesh bag with a flour sack towel and put it in the pantry to let it thaw out.
- Mary dusted cookbooks on the kitchen bookshelf and made a turkey pot pie.
- Thursday, 1/19: Dusting Books & Persimmon Wine
- We had light rain in the morning, then it was cloudy all day.
- Mary finished dusting all of the books, dealing with the rolling book cart in the sunroom and five shelves in the living room.
- I searched online for sturdy nylon mesh bags and found some at hobbyhomebrew.com in Carbondale, IL. It looks like a good brewing supply source that's inexpensive, ships at reasonable rates, and is located relatively close. I also ordered 100 corks. By bedtime, the order was already shipped.
- I worked on persimmon wine for most of the day. The frozen chunks were completely thawed in the brew bucket. Those in the fridge were partially thawed. Mary helped me by scooping the half-frozen baby poop-like persimmons out of the bowl and into the nylon mesh bag. After securely tying the bag, I alternately added Kmeta-treated tap water and sugar to get to a specific gravity of 1.070. That amount might increase as sugar is released from the persimmon pulp. The totals were 4 gallons, 3 pints of water and 7.5 pounds of sugar to make 5 gallons of must. The first pH test was off the charts on alkalinity. I added 3 tablespoons of acid blend to get a desired pH of 3.4. Five teaspoons of yeast nutrient went into the brew bucket. The gram of Kmeta used to treat tap water equaled the amount required for a 5-gallon batch, so no more was added. I started with the medium-sized brew bucket, but with such a big and solid 17 pounds of persimmon fruit in the mesh bag, there wasn't enough space for 5 gallons of liquid, so I transferred everything into the large brew bucket. A flour sack towel covered the top and I set the brew bucket in the pantry for an overnight soak.
- At twilight, Mary saw 20 trumpeter swans fly overhead. I saw a mess of about 200 snow geese fly just over the treetops, heading west. It's our first sighting of snow geese for the season.
- We watched two episodes of Ken Burns' The Civil War.
- Friday, 1/20: Pitching Persimmon Wine Yeast
- I made waffles for breakfast and Mary created a venison General Tso midday meal.
- I added 2.5 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the persimmon wine, then made a starter of Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast. The specific gravity is 1.073. I decided to not add any more sugar, giving the wine a moderate alcohol content. I pitched the yeast into the wine in the evening and by bedtime yeast smell drifted out of the brew bucket.
- In the morning, I saw a bald eagle flying south to north. Several flights of trumpeter swans flew over or near us at sunset. One group of five was lit up by the sun. They were beautiful. We counted 42 swans, but we heard more flying to the north.
- We enjoyed a bottle of cherry wine. It's really yummy, giving a full bodied feel in the mouth. We also drank pots of loose-leaf tea.
- We watched four Downton Abbey episodes.
- Bill texted that he requested Jan. 30th off, so he can visit us next weekend. He added that he's working tomorrow (1/21).
- I made waffles for breakfast and Mary created a venison General Tso midday meal.
- Saturday, 1/21: Sun to Snow
- After waking up, I opened the bedroom window curtains and watched five deer walk through the field northeast of the house. They were all in a group, so at this time of the year, they were probably bucks. The sun shone in the morning hours.
- Mary made two pizzas. We had one for our midday meal and another in the evening.
- Bill called while he was at work. They were cleaning out the back of the building and he saved a couple light fixtures and a 3-foot power strip for us.
- The persimmon wine had no fermentation, so I moved it to behind the woodstove. By 6 p.m. it was fizzing. I squeezed the mesh bag and took a hydrometer reading. The specific gravity was 1.072 by bedtime. It dropped only a thousandth of a degree. Of course, additional sugar may be coming out of the bag of persimmon fruit.
- I burned garbage that accumulated inside the house and a few cardboard boxes in the machine shed. The wind switched from the southwest to the east and started blowing flames close to a young oak tree, so I quit. Besides, it was time to eat.
- Mary and I took a walk in the north woods. She was looking for Christmas ferns, which are usually green this time of the year. There were none. They probably died with the below zero temperatures we had through Christmas. We did find other growing plant life, though (see photos, below).
- I added the persimmon wine details to my wine diary.
- Snow was falling by the time of our last dog walk. Mary says it was somewhere between heavy snowflakes and fluffy, freezing rain.
- After waking up, I opened the bedroom window curtains and watched five deer walk through the field northeast of the house. They were all in a group, so at this time of the year, they were probably bucks. The sun shone in the morning hours.
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| Moss at base of an oak tree in north woods. |
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| Orange Mycena is supposed to grow from June to September. Apparently, it didn't get the right calendar. |
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