Nov. 19-25, 2023

Weather | 11/19, 31°, 59° | 11/20, 0.08" rain, 40°, 44° | 11/21, 0.20" rain, 37°, 44° | 11/22, 27°, 45° | 11/23, 31°, 47° | 11/24, 25°, 37° | 11/25, 23°, 41° | 

• Sunday, 11/19: Big Parsnip Crop
  
  • Mary and Bill dug the parsnips out of the ground in the near garden. We suspected voles ate up the roots, but such was not the case. It is a big crop (see photos, below). Some parsnip roots were two feet deep. Bill and Mary did a lot of digging. They filled two milk crates with parsnips. Mary scrubbed them all and let them dry. They currently put a strong aroma in the back porch closet that smells like a very good stew tonight. Mocha, our youngest cat, wants to gobble the roots up. Other cats think it smells interesting, but Mocha is quick to grab a root and start gnawing. Now I need to make parsnip wine, which we've found tastes marvelous.
    
  • Mary raked leaves from under the pecan trees and put them in the compost bin. She also added more hay to the floor of the chicken coop.
  • I watched trees grow in the afternoon. In other words, I went hunting, but didn't see any deer. I was in the Cherry Deer Blind. I heard several footsteps to the northwest of me, and then a few minutes later, heard a coyote howl southeast of me, near Bass Pond. I probably heard coyote footfalls. There were lots of birds flitting about. I saw crows, jays, juncos, robins, chickadees, titmice, and cedar waxwings. I heard cardinals. When I walked home, the same owl that circled above me a few days ago performed the same trick. I heard only one gunshot south of me, so I think deer are really hunkered down and not moving.
    
  • Mary made a really yummy batch of chicken tortellini soup.
  • We watched a 2023 movie that Bill brought with him, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It's good.

Bill with a very long parsnip plant & root.

All of the parsnips laid out to dry in the grass.

• Monday, 11/20: Three Wines
  
  • Bill and I worked on three different wine varieties. Recently, I've stored small amounts in beer bottles. That's unwise. On both occasions where I had half bottles, vinegar developed after a month in the pantry. I need to stop this practice.
    
  • We gave the pear wine a third racking. The specific gravity was 1.000 and the pH was 3.0. The must went into a 5-gallon carboy, and a half-gallon jug. We threw out the vinegar that was in a  beer bottle. The taste test: it's a bit alcoholic, because it's green, but it's going to be a good wine.
    
  • Bill and I racked the spiced apple wine for the fifth time and bottled it into 15 bottles. We added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. The specific gravity was 1.000, and the pH was 3.1. The taste test: mmmm, mmmm, good. This is going to be a new favorite.
    
  • We gave the perry, or pear cider, a third racking. It's extremely cloudy. We added 0.4 grams of Kmeta and a tablespoon of pectic enzyme. The specific gravity is 1.004. The pH is 3.2. The resulting liquid went into a three-gallon carboy, and a one-gallon jug. We threw out another  bad tasting vinegar from half of a beer bottle. There was lots of liquid waste, with racking from four one-gallon jugs. Taste test: It tastes weird. Bill said it has the flavor of pineapple juice left over from dinner, or that someone tried to make artificial mango, but missed the mark. Mary said it was bland, but with an odd thing going on in the corner, in the dark. I think perry is not in our future.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/21: Shopping and Michigan Rummy
  
  • I shopped in Quincy for raw vegetables used for our Thanksgiving meal, ingredients for making parsnip wine, and hen food.
    
  • On the way back home, I saw an accident on the two west-bound lanes between West Quincy and Taylor, MO. The rear wheels of a grain-hauling semi trailer ran over a Lincoln Town Car. News reports indicate the driver of the Lincoln was passing to the right of the semi, on the shoulder of the highway, when the semi turned right onto a county road, and rolled over the car. The driver of the Lincoln was air lifted to Blessing Hospital in Quincy. He was in serious, but stable condition.
    
  • Mary did a bunch of house cleaning, then made pizza.
  • After eating, Bill, Mary and I played Michigan Rummy. I had insane luck of winning with poor cards while keeping others from collecting on great hands of cards. I heard, "You bastard," all night long. There were lots of laughs and great fun.
  • Today is the last day of regular deer hunting season. I decided to forego the last two days, since deer just aren't moving much. I'll get back to the hunting scene during the anterless deer hunting season, which is Dec. 2-10.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/22: Parsnip Wine
  
  • Bill and I made a 4-gallon batch of parsnip wine. Bill cut bad parts off parsnip roots, threw out tiny roots, and chopped up what remained. That took two hours. A total of 17 pounds, 1.2 ounces of parsnips was reduced to 14 pounds, 12.8 ounces. It equals 19 percent waste, not the seven percent I originally estimated. I chopped four 15-ounce boxes of white raisins, then worked zest off eight lemons and juiced them. We boiled the parsnips in two sessions in the big 15-quart pot, using a total of three gallons of water (1.5 gallons each session). We ran the liquid through the wire mesh strainer and into the brew bucket. Cooked parsnips still taste yucky, like they did two years ago. Bill found that parsnip dipped in lemon juice was pretty good. After tossing the parsnip pieces in the compost pile, the following was added to the brew bucket: raisins and lemon zest in a mesh bag, lemon juice, a cup of strong tea (two tea bags), six quarts of apple juice, 0.7 grams of Kmeta, and four teaspoons of yeast nutrient. We set the brew bucket in the pantry to sit overnight.
    
  • Mary made two pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce for tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/23: Thanksgiving Day
  
  • Katie called. She's busy with rebuilding work at the base she's at. A lot of what she's doing involves rebuilding old tent platforms. The crew at the base did a knock-up job on Thanksgiving dinner, including butter sculptures (see photo, below). She's there until April.
  • I looked up sending something to Katie and ordered, for free, a military care kit from the U.S. Postal Service, which includes six boxes, tape, and necessary customs forms. Sending to an APO address (which Katie gave me) means you pay an in-the-U.S mailing rate. I asked Katie questions about a few gift ideas.
    
  • Mary worked up a wonderful turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. We helped where we could (Bill mashed potatoes and I set out veggies and dip), but she did 99.9 percent of the work. It was really amazing. We each had two helpings, plus veggies. After eating, Mary got one gallon bag and four quart bags of meat off the bird. Mary and I marched the carcass into the north woods as a peace offering to the wildlings.
    
  • I worked on the parsnip wine through the day. I added four teaspoons of pectic enzyme. An initial specific gravity was 1.054. I added 1.75 pounds of sugar to reach a specific gravity of 1.073. The pH was 3.8, so I added a tablespoon of tartaric acid to get an acceptable pH of 3.4. I didn't add any water, even though the liquid level without the mess bag is between 3.5-4.0 gallons, on the thought that the quality of undiluted must is better than gaining a higher volume with added water. I worked up a starter batch of Red Star Premier Classique yeast and pitched it into the brew bucket eight hours later. At that point, the specific gravity was 1.079 and the pH was still 3.4.
    
  • We played a game of Triopoly. Mary won. Bill was a very close second place finisher. I was way, way behind in last place. My gambling ways hurt me. It's a good thing I don't gamble in real life!

  

  Thanksgiving meal, with butter sculptures, at Katie's base.

• Friday, 11/24: Apple Cider, Swans & Decorating Christmas Tree
  
  • Bill and I racked the apple cider for the fourth time, bottled, and corked 15 bottles. It's slightly cloudy, but I don't care, since apple cider is often cloudy. The specific gravity was 1.000 and the pH was 2.8, making it very tart. The alcohol content is 6.55 percent. It tastes good. This cider is a very light drink with nice apple zip. It will be good in the summer in the place of lemonade. It probably will taste good iced and with a twist of lime.
    
  • I checked the parsnip wine. The specific gravity is 1.073. The brew bucket contains lots of fine bubbles and it smells wonderful.
  • We heard and Mary saw trumpeter swans for the first time this winter season. She saw seven flying by to the north. They arrived a month earlier than they did last year.
    
  • We put up the Christmas tree and decorations on the tree and around the house. Up went three garlands, each covered with cross-stitch Christmas ornaments that Mary makes. Some of her ornaments are on the tree, too.
    
  • After decorating, Bill, Mary and I split a bottle of 2021 parsnip wine. Bill says it tastes like an earthy apple butterscotch, or like apple caramel candy that he tried once made by a friend's wife's brother's fiancee. The wine is very good.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/25: Rootstock Protector
  
  • A check of the parsnip wine showed it has a specific gravity of 1.047, a big drop from 1.073 a day earlier. This is fast-acting yeast.
    
  • Bill and I worked on building protection for the three apple rootstocks that are in pots. I recently bought two 10-foot long by three-foot high rolls of quarter-inch hardware cloth to make a cube to protect these saplings from mice, voles, rabbits and deer. It will also hold leaves to help insulate roots against cold winter temperatures. Bill suggested we use the old catfish rearing pen, made of PVC pipe and plastic netting, as a frame. We walked to Bass Pond, where it's been sitting for years and pulled it out of the weeds. The wooden top rotted away. We added three side of hardware cloth to the frame, but ran out of time to add the other three sides. I moved the saplings to near the west gate of the near garden, where they'll get more sunshine and flipped this newly created, but half finished, protector over them. I then unplugged the electric fence for the winter.
    
  • We found a praying mantis egg case on the frame of this old catfish pen and Bill took a photo of it (see below).
    
  • Mary raked leaves under the pecan trees and put them in the compost bin. She also added a wheelbarrow load of hay to the floor of the chicken coop.
    
  • Bill picked out movies that we watched, which included the 2016 movie, Arrival, and the 1995 movie, While You Were Sleeping.

  

  A praying mantis egg case.