Sept. 17-23, 2023

Weather | 9/17, 50°, 75° | 9/18, 47°, 78° | 9/19, 54°, 87° | 9/20, 60°, 74° | 9/21, 57°, 81° | 9/22, 60°, 81° | 9/23, 0.18" rain, 61°, 80° | 

• Sunday, 9/17: First Night of Butchering Chickens
  
  • Mary watered the gardens. She decided to stop watering muskmelons, because all that's left are tiny fruit that won't be ready in time for the first frost.
  • Mary then picked up grass that I recently cut with the trimmer and filled the middle compost bin to give it a thick vegetative cushion.
    
  • I installed the two steel panels on the middle compost bin, along with a half panel to shore up a rusted panel between two bins.
    
  • After surveying the chicken killing cone, all I had to add were two quick pieces of aluminum tape to the inside of the cone.
  • I set up lights and buckets in the machine shed. Two halogen shop lights that Bill gave us look great. The bulbs aren't good. One blinked out while showing it to Mary. Another went black before I was through setting up, leaving me with just one working light. Bulbs are needed prior to deer season.
    
  • I sharpened five knives.
  • A little bit of squirrel hunting took place just after 6 p.m. I just shot at squirrels, never hitting anything.
    
  • We butchered nine chickens, starting at 8:15 p.m. This year's chickens are loud. Every single cockerel that Mary grabbed let out a raucous cry. Through the night, we watched Jupiter rise, followed by the constellations Taurus and Orion. We heard lots of barred owls. Coyotes howled occasionally, sometimes real close from the north timber. After finishing the first six chickens, we took a coffee/cookie break. The last of my halogen lights blinked out when I turned lights back on to butcher the last three birds of the night. After dealing with chicken guts all night, I noticed that my hands were nice and supple. How's that for a beauty tip? We went to bed at 4 a.m. There are two more nights of this before we're finished with chicken butchering.
    
    
• Monday, 9/18: Chicken Butchering Night Number 2
  • I cleaned up last night's chicken butchering buckets. When I tossed chicken feet on a north woods game trail, a deer ran away to the west.
    
  • Mary and I took a two-hour nap.
    
  • Mary watered gardens while I sharpened the butchering knives.
    
  • I hunted squirrels a little after 6 p.m. I shot at one squirrel that was high in a pecan tree. It scampered down the trunk, opposite of me, then ran across the yard in front of me, blowing a Bronx cheer at me as it bounded off into the woods.
    
  • We butchered nine more young cockerels, starting at 8:30 p.m. It was windy and warmer. After turning off lights for our coffee/cookie break and returning to the machine shed, there was a young opossum at the chicken feet. It stole three sets of chicken feet while we were away. Mary accidentally dunked a praying mantis in water. It was on the top edge of a bucket full of water that she poured into a bowl. She set it off on a tree branch and it shook itself. I heard normal nightly sounds of barred owls and howling coyotes, followed by barking neighbor dogs. We were in bed by 4 a.m. There are only seven more chickens to butcher. YAY!!!
    
    
• Tuesday, 9/19: Whew! Chicken Butchering Is Done!!!
  • This was a repeat of yesterday. After breakfast, I cleaned up chicken butchering buckets.
  • Mary picked more muskmelons, processed all muskmelons in the house, and froze them.
  • We had a very tasty pork loin dinner, then we took a much-needed afternoon nap.
  • Mary watered gardens while I sharpened knives.
  • A strong south wind meant no squirrels were in the pecan trees. I sat for a bit at the east end of the machine shed with a gun in my hands, but all I did was watch the tree branches blow about.
  • During evening chores, I saw tons of dragonflies flitting about in the north yard. We think they're migrating through.
    
  • We started butchering chickens late, around 9 p.m., because approaching thunderstorm clouds showed on the weather radar. We saw some lightening as we started, but thunder sounded several seconds after the lightening, giving us knowledge that the storm was 15-20 miles northwest of us. Temperatures were much warmer, around 74°, so we only worked on two birds at a time until the last three, which we did as a final group. Bugs were thick. I used cookie spray (vanilla extract mixed in water) to keep tiny bugs from trying to enter my ears. A dragonfly regularly clanged into the aluminum light fixture over my head. Coyotes sang early in the night, then barred owls took over. Initial cloud cover gave way to stars showing directly over our heads with clouds on the horizons. We got to bed at 4 a.m., again. We're glad this chore is finished.
    
    
• Wednesday, 9/20: Chickens Mingle
  • We opened up the gate between the north and south chicken yards and let the big hens and Leo, the rooster, mingle with the three young pullets. We watched for several minutes. Everyone seems to get along just fine. Although, the white rock pullet, who is almost as big as our rooster, took a swipe at Leo. She might become boss of the flock someday. We now have 15 females and one very happy rooster.
    
  • I did a final cleaning of all buckets used for chicken butchering and the killing cone. I took down and put away lights and extension cords, then parked the tractor back in the machine shed.
    
  • Mary picked almost a full bucket of hazelnuts, several hot peppers, and a bunch of tomatoes.
  • Mary froze two gallons of tomatoes.
    
  • I squirrel hunted earlier, starting at 5:30 p.m. I scared two away and shot one squirrel.
  • We went to bed at a normal hour, the first time in several days.
    
    
• Thursday, 9/21: Garlic Stored & Coop Cleaned
  • I hunted squirrels first thing in the morning and shot one. They're constantly sneaking in a few minutes after a rifle fires. I heard shotguns going off north of our property. Someone was probably hunting doves.
  • Mary took down all of the garlic hanging from the rafters of the machine shed, cut off the stalks, sorted out the larger bulbs for planting this fall, and stored the rest away in deep net bags that once held 18 pounds of grapefruit. She has them separated according to garlic varieties, but together the total is equivalent to three full bags, or about 54 pounds. Obviously, we like garlic!
    
  • I cleaned the chicken coop and took down the wall separating chicks from hens. Five large wheelbarrow loads of manure, feathers, and wasted hay went into the compost bin. This is an extremely dusty job, so I wear a respirator. Listening to my breathing through that mask makes me sound like Darth Vader. After I swept out the coop, Mary added new hay to the floor. Chickens were very happy with their cleaned coop and new hay. I stored the lumber of the dividing wall in the machine shed rafters.
  • Mary watered the garden. She's cutting out half of the tomato plants, since we're close to getting all the tomatoes we need.
    
  • I hunted a little as the sun set. A squirrel went high into the pecan trees, but I never could get a solid glimpse of it long enough to squeeze off a shot.
    
    
• Friday, 9/22: Gladstone Burns Down in Circle, MT
  • Mom sent a photo of what remains of the Gladstone Hotel, in Circle, MT, that burned to the ground overnight (see photo, below). This morning it was still smoldering from the basement of the old hotel. Mom said some guy was cutting flooring out of the building and a spark from the saw started the fire. HERE is a link explaining the Gladstone Hotel.
    
  • This morning, the dogs and I chased away four squirrels from the pecan trees. Through the morning, I chased several more squirrels away with firecrackers. In the early afternoon, I hunted, but saw nothing. The earlier chasing was too good.
  • Mary worked on her cross stitch pattern called Native Raven.
    
  • I racked the apple cider for the second time. The carboy and gallon jug were both filled with deep fines. After pulling liquid off the fines, I was left with 3.33 gallons. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. Mary and I tasted the cider. It had a good apple flavor and was tart on the tongue. This cider possesses full apple taste. It's a keeper. The specific gravity was 1.000, giving it an alcohol content of 6.55 percent, just about perfect for a cider.
    
  • I hunted squirrels from 5 p.m. until sunset by sitting next to the burn barrel. I shot one fox squirrel and blasted at several others with poor shots. I think I'm pulling the muzzle up by yanking at the trigger, instead of easing the shot off with steady pressure on the trigger. All of my shooting did keep squirrels from entering our pecan trees this evening.
  • Mary checked the Bartlett pears wrapped in newspaper. She says they're at least a week out from being ready. With that news, I looked up wine yeast pricing for varieties I need to order. The cost is almost double what it was from a year ago.
  • A beautiful first quarter moon was setting in the southwest when we walked the dogs for the night. The orange slice in the sky was in a strong pumpkin color.

  

  A smoldering basement left of Circle's Gladstone Hotel.

• Saturday, 9/23: Very Dark Blackberry Wine
  
  • I hunted a couple times, but only shot at a fleeing squirrel. It's a waste of time shooting at something that's on the run.
  • Mary cross stitched.
  • She also picked tomatoes, hot peppers, and hung several hot peppers up to dry.
    
  • I racked the blackberry wine for the second time. Loads of mauve-colored cottage cheese was on the bottom of both carboys. This wine lives up to its name, because it's so purple that it's almost black (see photo, below). After racking, there was 5.25 gallons of liquid. The specific gravity was 0.995, giving it an alcohol content of 10.87 percent. Mary and I tasted the wine. It has a strong blackberry flavor. There was a hint of vinegar...I hope aging takes that flavor away.
    
  • We had a thunderstorm and rain that lasted for several hours. Starting about 2:30 p.m., we heard thunder rumbles and then it rained from 6:30 to about 10 p.m. On the last dog walk, moonlight lit up the fog hovering over the south field.

    

    Very dark blackberry wine after 2nd racking.