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.