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.