June 4-10, 2023

Weather | 6/4, 0.09" rain, 61°, 90° | 6/5, 60°, 83° | 6/6, 52°, 86° | 6/7, 67°, 78° | 6/8, 55°, 80° | 6/9, 50°, 81° | 6/10, 61°, 82° |

• Sunday, 6/4: Rain, Cherries & Movies
  
  • I caught the checkbook up-to-date and then Mary figured savings and paid bills that go out in tomorrow's mail.
  • Mary's hand is still swollen from the bee sting she received two days ago. She stayed inside. Just going outside makes it blow up.
  • Motherwart plants filled with blossoms in the chicken run are loaded with bumblebees of all sizes. The same is true of the persimmon blossoms at the west end of our yard, but in these flowers we also see honey bees and butterflies.
    
  • I picked three more quarts of pie cherries from the big cherry tree. We now have 13 quarts of 2023 cherries in the freezer. A few more cherries came off the sweet cherry tree.
    
  • While stepping down off the step ladder from picking cherries, I heard a hen cluck, turned around and saw Sherbert, our orange barn cat, run from the west machine shed opening to the trees between there and the chicken run. That wild cat knows how to survive without becoming a wild thing's lunch.
    
  • A thunderstorm gave us some rain this evening. We needed it and could stand more rain. This rain gave us a reprieve from watering the garden.
  • On this day in 1940, the British rescued their army off the beaches of Dunkirk with a fleet of private fishing boats, so we watched Dunkirk (2017), followed by Darkest Hour (2017).
  • While watching the movies, we enjoyed popcorn and a bottle of 2022 apple wine. This wine has a wonderful smell and a good apple taste. It should improve even more with aging.
    
    
• Monday, 6/5: Winding Down Cherry Picking
  
  • I'm almost done with picking cherries. There was only enough picked today to add one more quart bag to the freezer to give us a total of 14 bags. A raccoon got into the top of the big cherry tree last night and cleaned several ripe cherries off the branches. It also mashed over a branch that I accidentally broke at the crotch and smashed down a thinner branch. I used the orchard ladder to get to the top of the tree and sawed those two branches off. It really opened up the center of that tree, which is probably a good thing. I started a 15th bag. There might be enough unripe cherries to ripen and fill that bag.
  • Fire blight killed several branches on the Esopus apple tree, along with the big Bartlett and Kieffer pear trees. All three of these trees might die from the disease. It's also in the Sargent and Prairie Fire crabapple trees, and the Granny Smith, Empire, and Gold Rush apple trees, but not as bad as in the first three mentioned earlier.
    
  • Pollinators are currently enjoying the sweet clover and swamp dogwood blossoms along our lane. We watched several great spangled fritillary butterflies in the dogwood flowers (see photos, below). Honey bees are going nuts in the sweet clover.
  • The bee sting on Mary's hand improved today. The swelling is going down. She was even able to wash dishes using hot water and go outside with laundry and water the near garden.

Mary took this photo of a great spangled fritillary.

Here are two on swamp dogwood blossoms.

• Tuesday, 6/6: Yes, More Cherries!
  
  • Last night on the final dog walk, the rising moon was blood red, probably due to Canadian fire smoke.
    
  • I picked another quart of pie cherries for a grand total of 15 bags, then started a 16th bag. There are still a few unripe cherries left to pick.
  • Mary picked the first snow peas. She said she's happy to get any peas, due to the recent heat.
    
  • Mary mowed the east yard and placed a final grass mulch around the onions and parsnips, which all look very good.
    
  • I nipped, whacked and mowed the west edge outside the far garden electric fence (see photos, below). Small persimmon trees invaded that area over the past few years, so I removed saplings and branches with the long-handled loppers and made three stacks to be hauled off. Then, I whacked the tall grass with the Stihl trimmer and mowed it all up with the bagger on the mower. Grass mulch went on old garlic beds in the far garden.
    
  • Mary killed her nemesis, a red paper wasp that stung her. Fold down the chicken door to close it during the past few days and there is a wasp building a nest. Tonight, Mary watched it carefully and it suddenly flew at her. She defended herself with a chicken waterer. Mary heard the wasp hit the bottom of the waterer with a hard thunk. A few days ago, that was her hand. She promptly got the Dawn/water solution, sprayed that wasp, and killed her, and took her nest down. Mary is now convinced that's what stung her. Red paper wasps are known for painful stings when defending nests.
    
  • Mary's sting still itches, but swelling is down enough that she can do activities outside.
    
  • I watched a raccoon rumbling away from the mulberry tree in the west yard after sunset. It's the same big raccoon I've seen before and probably the monster beast that smashed branches in the top of the big cherry tree.

Trimming encroaching persimmon trees.

Persimmon tree/branch piles. Compost bin in background.

• Wednesday, 6/7: Cherries & a Haircut
  
  • I gave Mary a haircut. For some reason, she refused to leave the property looking like a shaggy dog. I keep telling her to get a haircut like mine. She frowns on that idea.
  • There were more cherries to pick. I cleaned out almost everything on the big cherry tree and several sweet cherries to fill more than halfway into the 17th quart bag of cherries for the freezer.
  • Mary picked snow peas and processed eight packages for the freezer. Each bag of snow peas goes into one venison General Tso meal.
  • I cleaned out radishes in one of the winter greens bins and pulled some from a second bin. I thought they all were going to seed. Some were, but several had really big, nice radishes underneath the plants. I also weeded all of the tubs.
  • Mary worked up a shopping list for tomorrow's shopping trip to Quincy, IL.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/8: Shopping
  
  • Mary and I drove to Quincy, IL, for a shopping trip. We donated over 100 books to the Salvation Army. I switched to buying blood glucose testing strips from CVS, but I still need to wait for my doctor to get them the correct information. We thought the price for Granny Smith apples was high at Aldi until we visited County Market, where the price was $8 for a bag, compared to $4.59 a bag at Aldi. I went back to Aldi and bought a bag from them. 
  • We returned home around 6 p.m. to dogs jumping for joy upon entering the house.
  • Jeff Olsen sent copies of pages of the Roseau Times-Region that the article he wrote about me will appear in the June 10th issue. It's on the top of the front page. The article is okay...it needs editing, because Jeff repeats himself a couple times.
    
  • Mary picked a large batch of snow peas while I picked strawberries for tomorrow's waffle breakfast.
  • We watched a DVD we bought today at Salvation Army, the 2004 Disney movie, The Incredibles.
  • On the late night dog walk, the smell of skunk hit us like a ton of bricks as we stepped outside. We kept the puppies close in the near yard to let them piddle, then went right back inside.
    
    
• Friday, 6/9: Cleaning Brush & Picking 1st Raspberries
  
  • I used the tractor/trailer and hauled persimmon branches to the north edge of the dry pond, which is down the hill and east of the garden. Then I finished removing encroaching persimmon saplings and branches on the west side of the far garden, hauled them off, and mowed that area. Six of the saplings were too thick for the long-handled loppers, so I used the small Stihl chainsaw.
    
  • Mary picked the first of black raspberries and another batch of snow peas.
  • Katie texted that from a recent DNA test of her two dogs, they have a varied ancestry.
    
  • She also repotted an orchid given to her by Bill.
  • Bill called and we chatted for about an hour. He recently built a desktop computer.
    
    
• Saturday, 6/10: Picking Fruit & Fixing Garden Corner Posts
  
  • I sharpened the mower blade. It's amazing how fast this tin foil blade develops big nicks in it after mowing grass. Next time, I'm buying a mower blade from a dealer, not a cheap box store.
  • Mary picked a large batch of black raspberries, more snow peas, and strawberries.
    
  • I made waffles that we ate with lots of strawberries...delicious!
  • I worked on the four fence post corners of the far garden and got them all upright and solid. During a winter of deer feet tangling in fence wire, kicking, and yanking fence posts, followed by spring's soggy wet soil, all corner posts lean inward. After cutting out support wires, I pulled out support posts, pounded each corner post back upright, then pounded in support posts and applied new support wires. Now, I can tighten the wires around the far garden and turn on the electricity.
    
  • Mary mowed the lawn between the house and the lane, collected the grass and finished mulching a far garden row.
    
  • Mary also started new sweet potato slips. In about a week to 10 days, the slips will be ready to plant.
    
  • Several of Mary's birthday books arrived. We had fun previewing them.