Feb. 26-March 4, 2023

Weather | 2/26, 27°, 53° | 2/27, 0.60" rain, 43°, 47° | 2/28, 34°, 50° | 3/1, 29°, 57° | 3/2, 27°, 41° | 3/3, mist, 32°, 47° | 3/4, 28°, 57° |

• Sunday, 2/26: Cutting Tree Branches
  
  • Mary made flour tortillas and washed a load of laundry.
  • I measured the circumference of the grain bins. I'd like to tear down those bins and build two nicer, critter-proof wooden sheds to replace them. Mary's Uncle Herman stored animal salt blocks in one of the bins. They melted and helped rust out the bottom fourth of the north side of the base section wall. The hole is big enough to allow cats, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and opossums to enter. A 45' 8" circumference means the concrete pads under the bins is 14.5' in diameter and a 10' square shed would fit on each concrete pad. Two such sheds gives us 200 square feet of storage, which is needed if we build and move from our current 1900 square foot home into a 1000 square foot new home that eventually expands to 2000 square feet.
    
  • Mary trimmed yard tree branches to give us better access for mowing under and around trees without getting poked in the eye.
    
  • I used the small chainsaw to saw up several old persimmon stakes pulled from past garden fences. They were stacked in the machine shed. I also sawed up elm branches that were thrown in a heap near the large Bartlett pear tree from cutting down an elm near the power line going to the machine shed. I helped Mary cut large oak branches off a tree in the north yard.
    
  • The first robins showed today. Several dozen sassed at me in the evening as I walked under the walnut trees in the east yard.
    
    
• Monday, 2/27: Windy Day
  
  • Rain fell overnight, finishing around 10 a.m.
    
  • Wind gusts to 50 mph blew today. We used to see such winds when we lived in Eastern Montana. Wind isn't usually that strong, here.
    
  • I received a phone call from the Lewistown Medical Clinic just four minutes after they opened with lab test results. My A1C is 9.2, which is way too high. It needs to be 6.0, or lower. My cholesterol is good. Thyroid, liver, and kidneys are all functioning fine. The doctor called in drug prescriptions. I lined up an appointment in two weeks to see the doctor on Monday, March 13th at 9:15 a.m.
    
  • I drove to Quincy, IL, in the pickup to get my medications and a few other items. I was glad the camper box is tied down with eight, instead of six, clamps to the pickup bed as I drove through high winds.
  • A U.S. government audit of the Medicare billing at the Sam's Club pharmacy meant I was supposed to come back in 2 weeks to get the test strips for the glucometer. I said that won't work and paid full price for them (just over $30). Other costs were minuscule.
    
  • While I was gone, Mary mowed down bugs with the shop vac over and over again. I did a couple rounds of bug sucking in the evening.
  • My birthday presents, a sack full of fly tying goodies, came in today's mail...YIPPEE!
    
  • We heard our first spring peepers (frogs) of the season. There were three woodcocks calling in the evening at twilight. We still a few snow geese flying overhead.
    
    
• Tuesday, 2/28: Bottling Garlic Wine
  
  • We heard the first Eastern meadowlark of the season while walking dogs in the morning.
    
  • Mary enjoyed an invigorating day vacuuming bugs. It never ends! This was a vengeance tour after she took a swig of tea and almost swallowed an Asian ladybug...YUCK!!!
    
  • I racked and bottled the garlic wine. It's nice and clear this year (see photo, below). The specific gravity is 0.995 and the pH is 3.3. I added 0.9 gram of Kbeta, then bottled and corked 25 wine bottles (750-ml). Part of a 350-ml bottle went into the fridge. We tasted the dregs. This is a cooking wine, not a sipping wine, so it wasn't great tasting. But, garlic wine is wonderful when cooking asparagus or shrimp and it's super when added to venison General Tso.
  • Snow geese are still wondering through. 
  • Woodcocks are making their "peenter" noise each evening. We even heard one late at night while walking dogs. THIS is how they sound.

  

  A clear bottle of garlic wine.

• Wednesday, 3/1: Racking Persimmon Wine
  
  • We started the morning with fog that soon dissipated.
    
  • Six wood ducks blasted out of Bluegill Pond on the morning dog walk. While Mary walked dogs in the late afternoon, 11 wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond.
    
  • We are still seeing snow geese flying around.
    
  • After sunset, we saw the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus high in the western sky. They were very close.
    
  • Mary and I vacuumed bugs all day.
    
  • I racked the persimmon wine for the third time. The specific gravity is 0.990 and the pH is 3.5. Even though the liquid was clear, a significant amount of fines were in the bottom of the carboy. Since I didn't add Kmeta, I moved the wine directly into other containers involving a 3-gallon carboy, gallon and half-gallon jugs, a wine and a beer bottle (see photo, below). The wine has a strong alcohol taste. There is a hint of fruit essence. It needs aging to bring out the fruit taste and settle the alcohol flavor.
    
  • We listened to the end of Chapter 7 of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, detailing when Hitler murdered his competitors in the SA (Sturmabteilung).

  

  Racked persimmon wine (foreground) & fines (background).

• Thursday, 3/2: Putting Things Away
  
  • Mom texted that she had a couple episodes of unsteadiness and visited the emergency room. Patti Wittkopp, the PA in Circle, MT, is getting Mom an appointment with a neurologist.
  • Our amaryllis flower is opening. I traded photos with Mom, who has one opening, too (see photos, below).
  • Mary swept and mopped floors.
  • I put away wine making stuff and then organized and put away fly tying materials. I included some of Dad's old fly tying stuff into the collection. I threw out several year's of computer software CDs and manuals. Some of this was to a Gateway desktop computer we bought in 2004 that we died long ago. It's amazing how much junk you save that you don't need!
  • Mary made a zucchini chocolate cake. We enjoyed cake and loose-leaf tea while watching two movies, which were Aquaman and Stardust.

Mom's amaryllis flower.

Our amaryllis flower.

• Friday, 3/3: Staking Spots For New Trees
  
  • Low clouds and mist made for a damp morning, but no measurable moisture showed in the rain gauge.
  • Karen sent me photos of blooming pear and cherry trees on their neighbor's property.
    
  • I updated my winemaking diary.
  • After getting blank bottle labels out of storage, I realized that the cooler I planned on using for storing the new garlic wine still smelled like mold, so detoured from the labeling job and washed the cooler out with 100-percent bleach. This is the third time I've cleaned this cooler. I'll air it out on the south porch for a couple days.
    
  • I measured and placed three stakes in the ground south of the existing two apple trees located south of the house. I made sure the new apple tree locations were 25 feet apart and 25 feet from existing trees. These are for three apple trees we ordered from Fedco that will arrive later this month. The Granny Smith and Empire apple trees south of the house seem to thrive with the least disease and animal damage, compared to trees in other locations on our property.
    
  • We heard red-tailed hawks on our morning dog walk. Mary saw a red-tailed hawk south of the house later in the morning. Coyotes howled nearby on the nighttime dog walk and were howling close to the house when we went to bed. Mary heard snow geese flying overhead on the last dog walk of the night.
    
    
• Saturday, 3/4: Katie Gets a Homemade Fur Hat
  
  • I spooked two deer that were near the Bartlett pear trees. It occurred while I was emptying ashes in the morning. Later, visiting moron neighbors who own land west of us roared around with a squadron of 4-wheelers and spooked four deer out of the west woods and into the our south field. Riding loud 4-wheelers is not a good way to see animals. They just run away.
    
  • Some good advice received from the doctor I visited on 2/24 led me to trying simethicone. Pains in my abdomen worried me that diabetes was wrecking my organs. It turns out to be excessive gas. I always knew I was full of it! I tried a generic version of GasX. The pain is gone, or nearly so most of the time.
  • Since I was close to running out of my experimental bottle of simethicone, I drove to Quincy, IL, and bought a larger bottle. I also picked up files for sharpening the large chainsaw chain and pork loin on sale at County Market. On the way home, I bought gas for $2.99 a gallon.
  • Mary planted 4 sweet potatoes to develop slips to plant in the garden later this spring. These came from sweet potatoes Mary dug up last fall. We still have plenty of our own taters to eat. Sweet potatoes do very well in storage.
  • Katie sent a photo (see below) of a fur hat she was given from the elderly lady who handles freight at the airport in Venetie, AK, where Katie is working right now. It's handmade from raccoon fur. Whenever Katie is at that airport, she helps this woman unload or load airfreight. The homemade fur hat was a nice gesture of appreciation.
  • On our last dog walk, we had several woodcocks calling and flying all around us as we walked down the lane. The moon was bright enough to curtail using a flashlight. It was obviously bright enough for woodcocks to do their thing, too.

  

  Katie and her homemade raccoon fur hat.