April 23-29, 2023

Weather | 4/23, 29°, 57° | 4/24, 32°, 63° | 4/25, 44°, 64° | 4/26, 39°, 63° | 4/27, 39°, 70° | 4/28, 41°, 72° | 4/29, 0.14" rain, 47°, 63° |

• Sunday, 4/23: Light Frost
  • Frost covered parts of the ground in the morning, but it didn't harm fruit trees. We uncovered sheets and blankets from garden plants and they were fine, too.
    
  • I installed two fire alarms that I bought in 2019...nothing like getting them up right away! They replaced one in the kitchen and another in the upstairs north bedroom.
    
  • On a walk with the dogs on the north loop trail, both Amber and Plato trotted along very apprehensively, with their noses in the air, sniffing. I'm guessing they were sensing coyotes. I saw ripples in Bass Pond from fish surfacing.
    
  • A late afternoon fruit tree tour showed that all is well. I'm sure I saw a coddling moth in newest bug trap in the McIntosh tree.
    
  • Katie sent images of a newspaper in Mississippi, where she's pictured while working on an Air National Guard project (see below).
    
  • Before nightfall, we covered plants again, since we're under another freeze warning.
    
  • We watched the 2022 movie, Marry Me.

• Monday, 4/24: No Frost Damage
  
  • We took blankets and sheets off all of the garden plants, hopefully for the final time. There is no frost damage in the garden or on fruit trees. Mary also removed lace curtains off the peas that are up. Without these in place, robins yank the sprouting peas out of the ground.
    
  • We watched a turkey hen walk up the lane toward the house this morning. It wandered along, nipping at the tops of grass shoots. The turkey dodged into the grass and went east prior to getting to our front yard.
    
  • I talked to the nurse at the Lewistown Clinic to have them change the prescription for glucose monitor strips to me using them two times a day. When I called Sam's Club, they told me I can't get them paid by Medicare until May 20th. Last week, they said May 14th. In frustration, I said I will try someone else. The limitation is universal among all pharmacies. Online research gave me the answer. Medicare limits payment for the strips to 100 in 90 days for patients who do not take insulin, which is my case. Most people test more than this limitation allows and just pays full price for them when Medicare doesn't kick in, which is what I'll do, since I want to monitor it closer for a bit, yet.
    
  • Mary mowed between the woodshed and the machine shed and under the clothesline, then put grass mulch around pea plants, spinach and radishes in the near garden.
    
  • I finished tightening electric wires around the near garden.
    
  • I planted all of the rest of the Antonovka apple seeds. So far, I have two tiny trees growing.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/25: Mulching Blueberries & Spraying Apple Trees
  
  • This morning after breakfast, Mary watched a male and a female bluebird, along with a phoebe. The bluebirds were on the clothesline post and the phoebe was on the 2x6 that forms the T of the clothesline post. They would grab huge caterpillars and then bash the huge worms on the top of the wood of the clothesline. They obviously got into a large cache of big caterpillars.
    
  • I called Sam's Club. The pharmacy put me back on the one-time-a-day prescription for strips. Buying 100 strips for my reader costs $79 without Medicare...YIPES! The pharmacy woman I talked to suggested I get a Sam's Club Member's Mark reader, strips, and lancets for when I want to take glucose readings more than once a day, because all of those items are only $25. That's what I'll do.
    
  • Mary mowed parts of the west lawn and put grass mulch on the blueberries.
    
  • She also put sulfur on blueberries.
  • I replaced the wooden sticks that solidify all three chicken wire gates in gardens with new persimmon sticks.
    
  • I pounded pieces of brick into the ground to solidified 8 metal posts supporting the fence around the Esopus apple tree.
    
  • I walked the puppies west to Bobcat Deer Blind. We went down the west hill from there and looked at the redbud tree blossoms (see photos, below).
    
  • I assessed all fruit trees and figured what needed spraying. It's too early to spray insecticide, because there are still blossoms on everything. Starting at sundown, or around 8 p.m., I sprayed most of the apple trees. I finished around 10:15.
    
  • While spraying, I heard two raccoons fighting one another to the east. A skunk walked by me somewhere to the northeast and boy, did it smell. Way off to the northeast, coyotes howled.

Pink red bud tree blossoms are tiny, like pea flowers.

• Wednesday, 4/26: Additional Glucometer
  • We heard a turkey call to the north, this morning. But it wasn't from an actual turkey. It was from what we call a tree monkey, or a human in a tree stand. That's because it's a constant call with no pauses.
    
  • Mary did a bunch of house cleaning, and in the process, tossed nine old acorn squash. That's pretty good, considering that we started last fall with over 50 squash.
    
  • I went to Quincy and bought a cheaper Member's Mark glucometer and strips from Sam's Club. It wasn't $25, like I was quoted over the phone, because their price tags aren't accurate to recent price hikes, but it was under $40. I can now make more than one blood glucose test a day without fussing about Medicare payments. I also picked up a couple food items at Aldi.
  • Traffic on the way home was insane. I was passed three times on Highway 6, because I was only driving the speed limit...how dare I be slow and fuddy-duddy in my beater pickup! Each pass was with a double solid center line while going uphill!
  • A fruit tree tour indicates a lot of pear fruit that will need culling from the Kieffer and Bartlett trees. Mr. McIntosh is almost done with blooming. Bug traps need replenishing.
  • Mary says we'll need to order more onion and lettuce seeds. This is the second year the initial onion planting is a failure. It's been too cold, even though the seeds went into the ground on a hot day.
    
    
• Thursday, 4/27: Bug Stew...Oh, Yummy!
  
  • Another Antonovka apple seed sprouted that I'll use as rootstock for grafting apple trees. Three have sprouted out of 14 seeds. They're supposed to have a 33% germination rate. Two more sprouts and I'll see 35%.
    
  • Mary weeded the far garden. She found cockle burr plants everywhere. We haven't noticed cockle burrs for several years.
    
  • She fish fertilized the garlic, strawberries, and herb plants.
  • Mary spotted purple finches, then noticed that all of the seeded-out dandelions growing under the bottom electric fence wire in the near garden had their seeds removed. Purple finches love dandelion seeds. They're on their way north. We also saw the first of a red-headed woodpecker for the season.
  • I cleaned up and refilled my five apple tree bug jugs with switchel. As the molasses/vinegar/water concoction dries up, what's left is a thick dead bug stew. The rinsed out bug stew went into the compost pile. I tied bottles into the trees with plastic baling twine in a new way that better centers the twine to the top of each bottle.
  • An assessment of Mr. McIntosh revealed a few blossoms, so spraying for insects is delayed so as to not kill pollinators.
    
  • I tied twine from cages to two of my newest apple trees. They were starting to lean.
    
  • While getting mail, I found a crunched up egg on our lane. It was large and white with gray spots. It turns out to be a wild turkey egg.
  • I also had two bob white quail fly away to the southeast while walking down the lane.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of pumpkin wine in the evening. It's very good. Mary reports that I need to make more pumpkin wine to make room in the freezer. There are 42 packages of frozen pumpkin meat. I used 17 packages to make my last batch and it was one cup shy of 9 gallons. I told Mary that I need to ask Bill to rent a cement truck in order to mix up our next creation of pumpkin wine. Heads up, Bill...guess what you're doing next time you visit here.

  

  Plato sniffing in newly emerging mayapples.

• Friday, 4/28: Chimney Swifts Arrive
  
  • I made a half-gallon container of EM-1. It brews for a few days in the heat of the sun. EM stands for essential micronutrients.
    
  • In the afternoon while Mary was hanging out laundered towels, she heard and saw the chimney swifts that arrived from the Amazon forests. The flying cigars were chittering about at dusk, too.
    
  • Mary mowed the south and middle parts of the far garden and put grass mulch in a couple rows in that garden.
    
  • I sprayed spinosad, an insecticide, on the McIntosh tree. When I finished, it was too late to start spraying Surround. It will have to wait, since gusty winds are predicted for several days.
    
  • Several dead moths are in the fruit tree bug traps. I suspect some are coddling moths, which put worms into apples.
    
  • There are still a couple blossoms in pear trees. All fruit trees are blooming for a very long time span this season.
    
  • I spooked a doe deer that ran across the lane near Bluegill Pond when I got the mail.
  • A motorized paraglider flew over our house near sunset (see photo, below). It's rather an odd site to see.

  

  A motorized paraglider flying over the house.

• Saturday, 4/29: Seeds & Trimmer Assembly
  
  • We ordered two types of onion seeds and a package of lettuce from Fedco. It's year two of the second attempt at germinating onion seeds.
    
  • Mary cooked up the last pumpkin that was harvested last fall and put two quart bags of pumpkin meat in the freezer. A New England pie pumpkin was tossed, but the Diablo pumpkins stored amazingly well.
    
  • I planted radish and lettuce seeds in two more winter greens tubs. By staggering plantings, we hope to have these two crops for a longer time frame.
    
  • I started putting together the new Stihl trimmer. It's taking longer than expected. Farm & Home, where I bought it, partially assembled it, but they did it wrong. They had the bicycle handle on backwards. That's probably because inside the manual, the drawings show it backwards. The front cover of the manual shows it installed correctly, as do online photos. Also, Farm & Home put the clip where the harness is attached below the bicycle handles, which would tangle the harness up into the handles. Rain drops halted assembly of the trimmer. I hauled it all inside and will finish putting it together tomorrow.
    
  • We experienced a solid rain around 5:30 p.m. Delaying my application of the Surround kaolin clay spray on the McIntosh apple tree, yesterday, was the right decision.
    
  • We enjoyed two pots of loose leaf tea and popcorn while watching the 1996 movie, Twister and the 2013 movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
  • A couple barred owls and two or three whip-por-wills were calling all at the same time when we walked puppies on their last outing of the night.
    

April 16-22, 2023

Weather | 4/16, 0.03" rain, 37°, 43° | 4/17, 33°, 61° | 4/18, 39°, 66° | 4/19, 51°, 77° | 4/20, 0.11" rain, 57°, 72° | 4/21, 37°, 55° | 4/22, 32°, 43° |

• Sunday, 4/16: Rain, Mist, Wind Outside, Warmth & Turkey Dinner Inside
  
  • Light rain and mist filled most of the day. A nice, warm wood fire made all humans, dogs, and cats happy in our house. The only time we saw sun was at sunset, when tree tops were gold (see photo, below).
    
  • High winds are tough on fruit blossoms. Below is a photo and video of pear blossoms last week.
    
  • Mary fixed a turkey dinner. It was an extra turkey we didn't eat last year, because we thought we needed to save one in the freezer due to bird flu creating a possible turkey shortages. Well, we found turkeys in November, so this was an extra one. It tasted great, even though it was purchased November 2021.
  • I spent the day reviewing fruit tree disease and insect spraying schedules. I started a spraying diary, a spraying time table that includes limits and mixing amounts of each item, and a sheet listing trees that are susceptible to fireblight, apple scab, and cedar apple rust.

Golden tree tops from a setting sun.

Last week's Kieffer pear blossoms.

Kieffer pear blossoms taken Tuesday, 4-11-23. The tree is green, now.

• Monday, 4/17: Bug Traps With Switchel
  
  • I made gallon jug bug traps and hung them in the four main apple-producing trees. An upper portion is cut out opposite the handle. In goes water, vinegar, and molasses. I added sugar. It's an old-fashioned way to capture and kill codling moths and other bugs that fill apples with worms. The first jug I made I cut the hole too close to the bottom of the jug. I'll have to make a different one to replace that jug, that is in the Granny Smith tree. 
  • Mary and I took a tour of all trees in the evening. Apple blossoms are everywhere and seem to survive recent wind gusts. At dusk, several small flies were all over the jug trap hung in the McIntosh tree. That tree, which is big, needs more traps.
    
  • An interesting fact about the concoction in these traps. It tastes rather good. Mary looked it up. It's called switchel, a high-energy drink from the 18th Century given to farmers at harvest time, known as the original electrolyte drink. The switchel recipe was one gallon water, 2 cups raw or dark brown sugar, one cup molasses, one cup apple cider vinegar, one teaspoon fresh ginger.
    
  • All four corner fence posts of the near garden fence received broken chunks of brick that I punched into the ground near their base with a spud bar to solidify the posts. Spring thaws really soften the clay soil around them, making corner fence posts lean.
    
  • A strong west wind died at sunset, allowing me to spray trees. I dispersed a tankful of streptomycin on the two Bartlett pear trees, along with the Grimes, Esopus, and Granny Smith apple trees. Several tiny pears are showing in the big Bartlett tree. Coyotes howled a couple times while I sprayed.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/18: Springtime Pleasures
  
  • The house wren came home. I heard it through our open bedroom window this morning.
    
  • I sharpened the lawnmower blade, using the bench grinder, followed by a hand file.
    
  • Mary mowed the lane.
  • I checked the switchel bug traps. They're full of fruit flies, so they seem to be working very well. I transferred distilled water into one of my glass jugs used for brewing wine and  made a new trap for the Granny Smith tree.
    
  • I sharpened two knives after Mary said there's be no more food cooked in this house if she didn't get sharp knives while hacking away on turkey meat two days ago. Plans are to work on a knife or two each day until they're all sharp.
    
  • I made a new batch of maple syrup using Mapleine extract, which is far superior to McCormick maple extract. I used an entire two ounce bottle of McCormick extract on the first tasteless batch. This time, I used just a half teaspoon of Mapleine. The new syrup tastes better and has a deeper color (see photo, below).
    
  • I walked the dogs on the north loop trail. We spooked up a deer. After returning, I picked 10 ticks off Amber and eight off Plato. Tick season is now official. Rubber boots and plenty of bug dope meant zero ticks on me.
    
  • Mary reports three peas popping through the ground and one radish sprouting in the near garden.
  • Mary and I toured the fruit trees. We saw several tiny pears on both Big Bart and Mr. Kieffer. Leaves are showing on Calville d'Hiver, a newly planted tree. Green buds are on Gold Rush, another new apple tree. Cherry blossoms are blasting open. Both crabapple trees are in bloom. Empire shows a nice amount of pink blossoms. Grimes Golden has the most blossoms since we planted it several years ago. Esopus is in half bloom. McIntosh has a healthy compliment of white blossoms. Spring is a pretty time when you own fruit trees.
  • I looked online and wrote down wildlife ideas for carving 3-D images into leather. Some include a mouse sitting next to a bluebell, mouse in toadstool house, mouse with mushroom umbrella, tree frog on a leaf, raccoon with an apple or eating a cherry, a mama deer licking a fawn, squirrels with acorns, ladybugs, dragonflies, and butterflies.

  

  Homemade syrup...old on left, new on right.

• Wednesday, 4/19: The Great Opossum Event
  
  • While returned home from walking dogs down the lane this morning, an opossum came sauntering toward us. Mary got both dogs to sit and we waited. Amber was shaking. Opossums don't see much further than 10 feet. It gnawed on a plant and slowly waddled from one side of the lane to the other. I walked up to it and persuaded Mr. Opossum to get to the side of the lane. Mary walked both dogs by and we were good. Plato and Amber obeyed Mary's commands so well that they both received two treats, each, for being such good puppies!
    
  • The newer syrup tasted much, much better on this morning's waffles. I used up the old stuff, then started on new syrup.
  • Mary started mowing the east lawn while I sharpened another knife. When she came inside and ate, because her own body ran out of gas, I went out and mowed. We bagged the grass and put mulch around the Esopus apple tree. After Mary finished the east and south lawns, she mowed the immediate north lawn.
  • While mowing around the Granny Smith and Empire apple trees, Mary caught whiffs of the bug traps. She said they smell sour, now.
  • I walked pups to the west. While going across the west field, I found a deer antler shed.
    
  • The wheel of the lawnmower ran over a small pie cherry plant east of the big cherry tree. Since the mower blade didn't chop it and because it is in a perfect location, she placed a tomato cage that's wrapped in chicken wire over the little tree. We don't have to transplant that tree.
  • I got out the small chainsaw and cut branches off several small persimmon trees that I cut a couple weeks ago near the blueberries and big Bartlett pear tree. The straightest persimmon poles I put in the machine shed. Crooked ones became firewood. I cut down a couple more persimmons to give us more room to run a tractor through to the west and I cut down a mulberry that was just west of the southwest corner of the chicken run. Firewood pieces went into a green wood stack in the machine shed. Poles went on the machine shed dirt floor and I moved branches to a pile that exists north next to the north woods. The next chore will be building an electric fence around blueberries and the Bartlett pear trees.
  • Mary made a shopping list, since we're shopping in Quincy tomorrow (4/20).
    
    
• Thursday, 4/20: Shopping Trip
  
  • We woke to an approaching thunderstorm, but we finished morning chores before it hit. After the front went through, strong wind gusts blasted the area.
    
  • Mary and I went on a long shopping trip to Quincy, IL. We left home at 9 a.m. and returned at 6 p.m. Our puppies bounced with joy when we got home.
  • We bought a new Stihl trimmer with a bike handle. I put a carb in the old trimmer last year and it still runs poorly. The estimated longevity is 10-12 years. We bought it in 2010, so we bit the bullet and got a new one. 
  • We also bought a new 3M respirator. I use it while cleaning the dusty chicken coop and we cannot find filters for the old one, whereas 3M filters are readily available.
  • Of course, we attended the Friends of the Library book sale at the Quincy Public Library. The place was packed with people...no book banning problems, here! We bought 32 inches of books at 50 cents an inch. It will come in handy when we downsize to a smaller and newer home. I contributed greatly to the new book finds.
  • We stopped at U.S. Cellular and changed our cell phone plans away from their highest plans to a cheaper fixed plan and added unlimited internet. It means our total bill goes down a few dollars, we stop using my phone as a hot spot, and we start using a router that can be accessed by phones, tablets, and the television. The router, which is usually $400 but is part of a soon-to-expire free promotion, is the size of a pencil case.
  • After evening chores, we settled down to several hours of reviewing the books we brought home.
    
    
• Friday, 4/21: Annoying St. Louis Neighbor Visit
  
  • Since flour tortillas contain so many carbs that they send my blood glucose levels skyrocketing, Mary experimented with making fajita bowls, similar to what we've ordered in the past from Qdoba. Of course, it was really good, quite filling, and didn't zonk my evening blood glucose reading.
    
  • Mary watered the near garden twice, due to strong west wind gusts that kept drying it out.
  • I checked my fruit trees. This year we have a lot of cherry blossoms on most all of our trees, even some of the small cherry trees. McIntosh is finishing up blooming and I'll soon need to spray it for bugs. All of the three new apple trees contain leaves, or buds. There are tons of tiny pears developing on Big Bartlett and the Kieffer pear trees.
    
  • I made another bug trap out of a plastic gallon jug and hung it in the McIntosh tree, so that tree holds two traps. Fruit flies and some moths are dead in the traps. Mary and I looked up coddling moths and I think I've trapped some in the Granny Smith and Esopus tree bug traps.
    
  • The neighbor who owns property west of us, Ben Woodruff, visited us to ask us one more time if we wanted to sell our land. He's obnoxious and continues to ask every year. Ben bought land northwest of our northwest corner, southwest of us and way south on Highway 156, where he's building, because as he put it, "I couldn't wait any longer to buy your property." He's proud of how there are no longer any "outfitters" putting out-of-state hunters on surrounding land. Mary explained to him that we welcomed the "outfitter," because having him and his hunters on land west to us eliminated the wild west show during deer season we experienced when we first took possession of our land. It's amusing that Ben and his friends are from St. Louis, while the "outfitter" is Travis Fleer, from Lewistown. Travis owns Lewistown Tire and is a county commissioner. Who is the outsider, here?
    
  • I set up the modem that we got from U.S. Cellular. It's high on the bookshelf above the TV. Internet service is excellent and fast. I watched part of PBS News Hour and several hockey highlights.
    
    
• Saturday, 4/22: Cold Gray Day
  
  • Strong west wind gusts and clouds kept temperatures down. After experiencing temperatures in the 70s and 80s, highs in the 40s seem downright cold for our southerly adapted blood.
    
  • Mary made cornbread with omelets for our midday meal. I had beans with just one flour tortilla in the evening, along with a big helping of fresh asparagus shoots from the asparagus bed. Blood glucose readings were in the 80s, so my diabetes meds and revised meal plans are working perfectly.
  • While Mary dusted books upstairs, I had a trial and error day getting things working on our TV connected to the new modem. It's taking a bit of time, but I'm figuring it out.
  • Due to predicted overnight frost, we covered outside garden items. A large sheet of plastic went over the winter greens bins, anchored by bricks. Mary put blankets over the strawberries and sheets over emerging sprouts in the near garden. I hauled several bricks in the wheelbarrow to Mary, who used them to anchor sheets.
  • A check of fruit trees indicated they all look great without any sign of disease. I almost stepped on a tiny bunny sitting on the trail between the cherry trees. I'm due to spray on a calm day Monday through Friday. We are too cold and windy right now for trying to spray trees.
    

April 9-15, 2023

Weather | 4/9, 39°, 69° | 4/10, 40°, 72° | 4/11, 49°, 77° | 4/12, 51°, 79° | 4/13, 47°, 79° | 4/14, 50°, 78° | 4/15, 0.71" rain, 60°, 75° |

• Sunday, 4/9: Easter Sunday
  
  • White pear blossoms started popping out on a sunny day. They are filled with several kinds of native pollinators, including nighttime moths. A strong southeast wind turned to calm after sunset.
  • A huge turkey gobbler fanned out his tail to show off his feathers while standing in the middle of the lane near Bluegill Pond. He was immense. We're guessing he was in the 35-40 pound range. After a couple show off displays, he walked to the pond.
  • I lit an outdoor fire and we roasted slices of pork loin on long wiener roasting sticks, while enjoying a bottle of 2021 autumn olive wine. The second course of our outdoor Easter feast was deviled eggs that Mary fixed earlier this morning. The third course was a cherry crisp, again, that Mary made this morning. An interesting point was how the wine's taste changed with each food item. With the pork, there was more of a raisin flavor. The deviled eggs brought out a citrus, cranberry taste. An alcohol flavor was more distinct with the sweet tasting cherry crisp. All told, autumn olive wine matches well with pork, but not dessert.
    
  • We don't let dogs out while we sit near an open fire, so they don't catch their butts on fire. So, after our outdoor meal, we took them on a walk to Wood Duck Pond. The edges of the pond were filled with bull frog tadpoles. Some had legs. In a couple weeks, they'll all be frogs that will "eep" at you when you walk near them.
    
  • First-of-the-year birds that Mary spotted today included a white-throated sparrow and a Carolina wren.
  • I watered newly-planted items. Some of the radishes I planted last week are emerging.

Roasting pork loin on an open fire.

Easter dinner of pork loin...yummy!

• Monday, 4/10: Pear Blossoms & Whip-poor-wills
  
  • I labeled the persimmon wine bottles, then rearranged all of my wine in various coolers to make room for the persimmon wine.
    
  • Mary gave the garlic and herbs a dose of fish fertilizer. She says the garlic looks better than its ever appeared at this time of the year. Mary attributes it to a double batch of compost and turning the soil well with the first layer of compost in place.
    
  • I installed a new spark plug in lawnmower.
  • I mowed the south end of the near garden and moved three wheelbarrow loads of grass to the three new apple trees and mulched the first layer of grass around them.
    
  • The pear trees are blossoming. Honey bees are in the Kieffer blossoms, while native bees buzz about in the Bartlett tree. The small Bartlett pear tree has one blossom, the first ever for that plant.
    
  • After dark, we heard the first whip-poor-will of the season. When Mary came outside to listen, we heard two calling. They're early in arriving. Now we need to be on the watch for chimney swifts.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/11: We Freed the Strawberries!
  
  • The weather was beautiful, today. It was not too hot, just nice and warm.
    
  • I finished mowing the middle section of the far garden, then jumped over to the near garden after Mary cleared last year's dead garden plants and row marking sticks. Tall dead grass shattered to make the finest dust. I put two more wheelbarrow loads of grass mulch on each of the three new apple trees.
  • Mary spread compost on the two rows of the near garden.
    
  • Mary and I both moved tubs and buckets of strawberry plants into the near garden. Some plants were showing signs of dryness. We watered them well, then put old lace curtain panels over the strawberry plants to protect the young plants from sun scald.
    
  • We heard the sound of Henslow's sparrows for the first time this year.
  • In the evening, I finished looking up susceptibility of all of our apple trees to common fruit tree diseases.
    
    
• Wednesday, 4/12: New Fruit Sprays & Redbuds
  
  • Each morning, our cats enjoy the view out the north window (see photo, below).
    
  • After looking where to buy it, I ordered a 25-pound bag of Surround WP insecticide. This is a fine kaolin clay that when mixed with water and sprayed on fruit forms a barrier and causes irritation and confusion to feeding and egg-laying insects, thereby repelling them. It's not harmful to pollinators, which is a big plus. Some claim it even hides fruit from birds and squirrels, which I find hard to believe. I'm more interested in keeping bugs off without killing bees.
    
  • A 15-ounce bottle of Captan that I ordered earlier this week arrived in today's mail. This is the top fungicide for knocking out apple scab, cedar apple rust, sooty blotch and flyspeck on apples.
    
  • I took the dogs on a hike to Bobcat Deer Blind. From there, I spotted several Eastern redbud trees in the little valley north of the blind. There's even a little redbud about 10 feet uphill from the blind. When I told Mary, she wanted to see the trees, so I took a second hike with her. Besides blooming spring beauties, we saw bluebells (see photo, below). On a deer trail crossing the west field, we found a new blackberry patch. While walking home, a tree fell with a big crash to the south of us.
    
  • I mowed the middle of the north side of the far garden and finished mulching around the three new apple trees.
  • Mary turned soil and raked it even in the near garden.
  • We watered the strawberries, new sod, salad veggies in the tubs, herbs and the new blueberry plant. All of the strawberries look good, except for one that dried up.
    
  • While walking the dogs in the evening, a barred owl hooting to the east of us added extra syllables to its normal call, which made us laugh. Toads are signing after dark, now.
    

Mocha (left) & Gandalf (right) enjoying the view.

Bluebells in the southwest woods.

• Thursday, 4/13: Katie's Birthday
  • We enjoyed a nice, sunny day. A light southerly wind blew, then died at sunset.
  • I called Skinny Raven, a sporting goods store in Anchorage that Katie frequents, to line up a birthday gift certificate for her. The woman I talked to said a morning snow just finished falling in Anchorage.
  • I charted specific sprays to use on our 11 apple and two pear trees based on each variety's susceptibility to diseases.
    
  • Mary planted snow peas, lettuce, spinach, and radishes, today. She also turned over more soil in the near garden. Where sweet potatoes grew last year, the soil is nice and friable.
    
  • I mowed the rest of the north end of the far garden and put mulch on the two apple trees we planted last year. I also used rebar to stake up portions of the chicken wire trampled by deer this past winter.
    
  • Mary watered plants and performed the evening chores.
    
  • Around 6 p.m., the wind died, so I started spraying fruit trees, beginning with the McIntosh tree at 7 p.m. Due to specific needs, I had to alter tank mixes throughout the evening/night. Wind picked back up after I ate a couple sandwiches around 9 p.m., but I kept at it, since rain is predicted in a day or so and a 24-hour dry period is required. I finished at midnight. Critters that I noticed included eyes shining back at me from under the cedar trees in the east lawn (I suspect an opossum), a bunny in front of me when I walked to the Bartlett pear trees, a woodcock picking at mulch under the Empire apple tree that flew away when I climbed the ladder, and crashing noise through the brush (sounded like deer) when I climbed the ladder next to the large Bartlett pear.
    
    
• Friday, 4/14: A Quiet Gardening Day
  
  • While walking dogs first thing in the morning, we watched four deer run west from Bluegill Pond.
  • A strong southeast wind blew all day and overnight, taking out most of the pear blossoms.
    
  • Due to spraying trees late last night, I wasn't too active today.
  • Mary planted onions, shallots, and parsnips in the near garden. All of the early spring planting is finished.
  • She also removed the old lace curtain panels off the strawberries. Those plants look great.
  • I weeded the two tubs containing radishes and lettuce. They look great.
  • I walked dogs to Wood Duck Pond and back. I spotted a coyote trotting away from us in Rose Butt Field. It looked chunky and well fed. A deer bolted toward Bass Pond from the same area. On a fence between Rose Butt Field and Bass Pond is a blooming Chickasaw plum tree loaded with native bees.
    
  • On our last walk to Wood Duck, we spotted two Bradford pear trees in the area between Bass and Dove Ponds. I tied bright red surveyor's tape around their trunks, so we know which trees to remove, later. They require an herbicide application immediately after they're cut and a heavy movement of tree sap in spring negates the herbicide, so removing them is best during fall or early winter.
    
  • The bag of Surround arrived via UPS. I heard the rumble of a panel truck and made a quick check online to see that it was delivered, then walked a wheelbarrow down to the end of our lane to pick it up. UPS indicated the package was left at the front door. It was next to the cedar tree at the end of our lane, a quarter mile away from our house, but at least it was on our property. Later in the day, I poured the Surround kaolin clay powder into two cat litter buckets, labeled the buckets, and stored them under the shop bench in the machine shed.
  • Mary fixed a wonderful shrimp dinner that we enjoyed with a bottle of cherry wine (see photo, below).

  

  Shrimp, sauteed in garlic wine, plus cherry wine to drink.

• Saturday, 4/15: Hail & Wind
  
  • Hail hit us again. This time, it was pea and marble size hail from a thunderstorm that arrived from the southwest. It knocked petals and even branch tips off the Sargent crabapple tree. This storm interrupted our evening chores. Very strong nighttime wind gusts took more petals out of fruit trees.
  • I cleaned up and put away winemaking items in the west room while Mary swept throughout the house. I also vacuumed bugs, which we haven't done for several days.
  • Two of my Antonovka rootstock seeds are growing nicely, showing secondary leaves. The first seed that sprouted didn't shed its seed coating and died. I've learned to plant them deeper to help the small plant shed the seed husk upon emerging.
  • We watched the 2012 movie, Lincoln.
    

April 2-8, 2023

Weather | 4/2, 31°, 71° | 4/3, 43°, 74° | 4/4, 0.26" rain, 43°, 85° | 4/5, 0.20" rain, 41°, 49° | 4/6, 29°, 49° | 4/7, 30°, 62° | 4/8, 32°, 66° |

• Sunday, 4/2: Ticks & Yahtzee
  
  • Strong southeast wind gusts kept us from cooking outside.
  • Instead, Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup and a pumpkin cake.
  • She also dug thistles out of the yard.
  • After washing clothes, Bill took a hike and startled a great blue heron at Wood Duck Pond, and two wood ducks off Dove Pond. He noticed trees knocked down by spring winds.
    
  • I startled deer out of the west woods while walking the dogs on the south loop trail.
    
  • I removed wire from an old orchard fence and stacked persimmon trees that I cut down a few days ago.
    
  • After working outside, I came in and found 18 seed ticks on my clothes. It's time to spray bug dope and wear long socks on the outside of pant cuffs.
    
  • We played six games of Yahtzee. Mary won and was incredible at rolling the dice and getting yahtzees. One game, she got three of them. Between the three of us, there were 17 yahtzees in six games. On the "Player's Name" line, Bill  put Bingo, Mary called herself Mowgli, and I named myself Tick.
    
  • I enjoyed a half of a bottle of apple cider during the games. It's very mild, with just a hint of apple flavor. The cider is sour. The apple flavor comes out best at room temperature. Bill and Mary enjoyed a hazy pale ale that Bill brought with him. Beer is out of my consumption agenda, due to blood sugar concerns.
  • My blood sugar numbers are getting better, with occasional hiccups. Eat big meals and don't get exercise and the number gets too high. Lighter meals and work outside and they're better.
    
    
• Monday, 4/3: Bill Leaves & I Get Good Health News
  
  • I went to the Lewistown Clinic and gave them the list of two weeks of blood glucose readings that I recorded, paid the bill with them, and received a blood pressure check. It was 150/78...high, but better than it was on my first visit. The nurse told me the systolic, or high number, needs to be 140 or lower. She also told me my blood glucose numbers need to be under 100, and several of them are under that figure.
    
  • For our midday meal, we had smoked scrambled eggs with piccalilli, sweet potatoes, muskmelon, and pumpkin cake. Everything, including the pumpkin in the cake, was homegrown.
    
  • I received a call from the Lewistown clinic that my doctor said my blood glucose readings are great and to continue with the medications at the doses I'm currently using. I see him in three months.
  • Bill left for his apartment in St. Charles around 2 p.m.
    
  • I was concerned all day on whether the apple trees and blueberry plant would arrive, since we always seem to have problems with FedEx Ground home delivery. All ended well when a FedEx van arrived around 3:45 p.m.
  • The U.S. Weather Service is predicting a potential for severe thunderstorms and chances of tornadoes tomorrow, so we are holding off planting trees until Wednesday (4/5).
    
  • I removed the rest of the electric fence wire around the old orchard west of the chicken run. It involved three strands of wire that became buried under tall grass.
  • I signed up to attend a free pond management workshop presented by the Missouri Department of Conservation in Hannibal on Thursday (4/6) at 6-8 p.m.
    
    
• Tuesday, 4/4: Heat to Hail
  • Summer heat brewed up significant thunderstorms big enough to drop hail on us (see videos and photo, below). As Mary said, "We've lived here since 2009 and that was our first hail." Storms moving through us crossed the Mississippi River and developed into tornadoes in Illinois. HERE is a link to WGEM with weather spotter tornado photos.
    
  • I planted radish and lettuce seeds in two of the winter greens tubs of soil. The greens were a flop this past winter, due to subzero temperatures in December that instantly killed everything. While I lightly turned over the soil with a hand scratcher tool, a tiny frog jumped out.
    
  • I started removing autumn leaves from the strawberry plants stored in the machine shed. Plants are throwing out green leaves. I was cut short, when Mary arrived announcing that we needed to get evening chores done early due to storms approaching as shown on the radar.
    
  • We saw a ton of juncos in the cedars after the hail storm. We think they are moving through on their way north and dropped here, with the storm. High wind gusts prevailed after the two thunderstorms blew through. 
  • Bouncing hail, looking out east door.
    
  Hail falling, while looking to the northeast (no cars were harmed in the filming of this hailstorm).
  
  

  

  One of the larger pieces of hail.
  

  
  

• Wednesday, 4/5: Pre-Morning Storm
  
  • I woke at 3:30 a.m. with a crack of thunder, lightning flashing, and the roar of wind and rain. Gandolf, our largest cat, was on our bed, and Plato, who usually sleeps on a chair in the living room, was parked in the hallway just outside our bedroom. After running downstairs and unplugging appliances, I heard hail hitting the roof above the north entrance/freezer and laundry rooms. I looked online. The worst of a long line of storms, running from Texas into Canada, was beyond us, but ballooning up as it went east. This was the same storm that turned into a destructive tornado south of St. Louis. I was up for awhile, until things quieted down, and finally got to back to bed at 4:30 a.m. Mary slept through it all.
  • I went to Quincy and picked up glucose reader strips and a medication. I returned a wheelbarrow tire that was too small and bought a new pair of Stihl chainsaw pants. They're expensive, at $115, but are much less expensive than medical bills if a rotating chainsaw chain bites into your leg.
  • Mary made four loaves of bread. We enjoyed yummy slices of fresh bread with soup.
  • We watched the 1996 movie, Star Trek: First Contact, because today's date in 2063 is when earthlings make first contact with other beings in this movie.
    
    
• Thursday, 4/6: Pond Management Workshop
  
  • We were going to plant trees today, but got too late starting, so we put it off for another day.
  • Attempts to try to figure out effective fruit tree insecticides that aren't harmful to bees is proving frustrating. Every time I think I've got a good one, it turns out to be highly toxic to bees. Why use something that kills off your pollinators? It makes no sense to me.
  • While walking dogs on the north loop, we took a side route into the north woods and saw the start of spring beauties blooming.
    
  • I removed more leaves from strawberry containers. So far, 27 buckets and 3 tubs are uncovered. All have new growth, so this method of hibernating the strawberries really works.
    
  • I drove to Hannibal and attended a Missouri Department of Conservation pond management workshop. It was very informative and I took lots of notes. Things we need to do with our Bass Pond...1) catch a lot more bass, because the size of our fish is stunted due to too many fish; 2) keep records of the size of fish we catch; 3) add some plants for cover; 4) sink some oak trees or handmade items for minnows to hide in (pallets work really well); 5) add bluegills after bass numbers are reduced; 6) carefully remove trees from dam area so they don't create leaks. The guy who gave the presentation is a fish biologist who can visit our property to help solve any problem we might have. He specializes in assisting landowners.
  • Gas prices went up 20 cents in Hannibal last night. I went to three places listed on the phone app "Gas Buddy"  before finding a station selling gas at $2.99 a gallon.
  • Driving home in the dark reminded me of when I worked at Petco in Quincy and always drove home at night. I only saw only one deer as I got close to home. As I pulled in, next to the house, three bunnies hopped off to the west.
    
    
• Friday, 4/7: Three Apple Trees Planted
  
  • Mary and I spent all day planting three apple trees. The new trees are GoldRush, a disease-resistant variety from the PRI (Purdue, Rutgers and the University of Illinois) disease resistant apple breeding program, Calville Blanc d'Hiver, a 17th century tree from Normandy, France, with a name that means Calville white winter, and Roxbury Russet, known as the oldest U.S. cultivar dating back to the mid-17th century from Roxbury, MA. All of these are on Antonovka rootstock, which is the best for our clay soils. The blueberry variety is called Herbert.
    
  • I opened the box from Fedco. The trees and the potted blueberry bush were in excellent shape, with some green buds showing. We put the trees in buckets of water.
  • We sliced sod off three-foot wide circles around my pre-marked stakes. Then, we dug down deep enough so the roots would be covered, but not too deep to bury the grafted union. In one case, we had to build the soil back up to get the tree trunk high enough, so the graft was above ground.
  • Mary held the tree in place while I added a rebar stake to support the sapling. Chunks of sod turned upside down were put around the bottom of the hole. Then, two buckets of rotten wood bits went in followed by two buckets of topsoil, a third of a bucket of compost, a healthy scoop of sand, and the soil that we dug to make the hole.
  • I watered each tree with four gallons of water. Mary added plastic tree guards and I tied the tree guards to the stakes. We placed cow panels around each tree and wired them shut into a circle.
  • Mary put the remaining sod into depressions left in the lawn by the heavy lift we used when we replaced roofing shingles.
    
  • We didn't vacuum bugs for three days, straight, an event that hasn't happened all winter and spring.
  • I settled on spinosad as a fruit tree insecticide. It's derived from naturally-occuring bacteria discovered in soil from a defunct rum factory in the Virgin Islands. It can kill bees, but only when it's wet, so it is sprayed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., when bees aren't active. I used some of it last year, but used it only once, when repeated spraying is necessary. 
  • I ordered some Captan fungicide, which is the best at controlling apple scab, a disease spread from the old McIntosh apple tree.
    
  • While walking dogs on their last walk, Plato sniffed out a tiny bunny at the base of a tree along the lane. He wouldn't touch it, just look at it. The rabbit stayed stock still.
  • Heavy labor significantly drops my blood glucose level. Tonight, it was at 73.
    
    
• Saturday, 4/8: Herbert, the Blueberry, Planted
  
  • Mary drew up a plan for the gardens.
  • We planted Herbert, which is the variety of blueberry we got from Fedco. While Mary removed sod and dug the hole, I gathered a bucket of rotten wood pieces from an old oak tree next to Frog Pond and topsoil from mole mounds near the house. I also uncovered two old tomato cages that Mary's Uncle Herman made years ago and put them over this blueberry bush and one planted last year. This will hopefully keep deer and rabbits from chewing on them until we can get a fence up around all blueberry bushes and the two Bartlett pear trees.
    
  • I watered blueberries, outdoor plants in pots and tubs, and the sod placed yesterday in old tire tracks in the lawn. I also cleaned up buckets and roofing tins left behind from planting trees, yesterday.
  • On a dog walk on the east loop trail, we stirred up a deer. Plato woofed at it when it ran off.
    
  • Our neighbors from across the gravel road visited. They're interested in buying chickens for meat. After telling them ours weren't for sale, we told them how we raise chicken meat. They looked at our existing chickens. Juan said he bought two young chickens and wants to get more. I don't know where he's putting them. There's no outdoor structure across the road for chickens.
  • I removed leaves from the rest of the buckets and tubs containing strawberries. We have 35 buckets and four tubs. Everything has green leaves showing.
    
  • I sprayed four trees that are susceptible to fireblight with streptomycin. The first two-gallon tank load went on the Sargent crabapple tree, Grimes Golden, and the bottom two-thirds of the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree. After donning my hat light, I put the second tank load on the top of Esopus, and on the two Bartlett pear trees. A southeast wind blew all day, but quit at sundown. While I was spraying, between 7-9 p.m., it was perfectly still. I saw huge owl flying northeast to southwest when I stepped out of the house with my hat light.
  • Anytime Plato walked down the lane, today, he headed straight to the tree where he found a tiny bunny. It was still there this morning, but gone later in the day. He's okay with chasing and woofing at big rabbits, but seems to understand that baby bunnies are something you don't chase. It's as if he's concerned for the little guy.