Weather | 11/26, 0.37" moisture from 2" snow, 29°, 33° | 11/27, 14°, 31° | 11/28, 9°, 30° | 11/29, 23°, 51° | 11/30, 37°, 57° | 12/1, 0.78" rain, 37°, 39° | 12/2, 0.03" rain, 31°, 49° |
- Sunday, 11/26: First Snow & Bill Leaves
- We woke up to two inches of wet snow on the ground. It's the first major snow that we've seen in two years. We never used snow shovels through all last winter, but we did this morning. All of the cedar trees and branches of hardwood trees are covered with big dollops of white stuff.
- Big flocks of cedar waxwings flew from treetop to treetop in our yard.
- I racked the parsnip wine for the first time. A morning hydrometer check indicated a specific gravity of 1.008. I like to catch it between 1.010 and 1.020, so I'm a little late on moving this wine with its fast-acting yeast. The pH is 3.0, a significant drop from 3.4, when I made this batch. I suspect the lemon zest and lemon juice contributed to more acid. I filled a 3-gallon carboy, a one-gallon jug, and a 12-ounce pop bottle. Foam fizzed up the neck of the carboy, so Bill and I installed a blow-off airlock. I changed it to a regular airlock a few hours later. By bedtime, the wine's color changed from an eggnog tint to a dark orange.
- Bill left for his St. Charles apartment after eating a noontime meal of Thanksgiving leftovers.
- I racked the blackberry wine for the fourth time. The specific gravity is 0.996. I added one gram of Kmeta. The remaining liquid filled a five-gallon carboy and a 330-ml bottle. Taste: This wine has more of a ripe blackberry taste. It has an extreme dark red/purple color. There was a very small amount of fines. We even drank dregs, since they weren't too murky, and it was very tasty.
- We woke up to two inches of wet snow on the ground. It's the first major snow that we've seen in two years. We never used snow shovels through all last winter, but we did this morning. All of the cedar trees and branches of hardwood trees are covered with big dollops of white stuff.
- Monday, 11/27: Early Christmas Gift
- It was a cool day, with temperatures failing to surpass freezing. We left the winter greens covered with plastic and blankets.
- Mary discovered that a torchiere lamp that I changed several years ago to hold four regular LED bulbs has copper wires showing near the plug in. I found a good electrical plug amongst my stuff and soldered it into place with butt connectors, then covered the new connection with heat shrink and electrical tape.
- I raked up pecan leaves with a garden rake in order to keep out snow clumps and put two wheelbarrow loads around the apple rootstock saplings as added cold winter protection.
- I wrote up labels for the two wines that Bill helped me bottle.
- I decided that a Christmas present I was getting myself, a raincoat, was boring, and decided to spend the money on something more interesting. Instead, I'm getting tickets to a St. Louis Blues vs. Edmonton Oilers hockey game on April 1st in St. Louis. I asked Bill if he wanted to go. The catch is I stay overnight at his place and he buys dinner. He agreed. The reason I picked an April 1st game is it's on a weekday and near the end of the season, so nose bleed seats are cheaper. Bill says that there's not a bad seat in the St. Louis Enterprise Center. He added that he would love to witness, in person, Connor McDavid, a top center for the Oilers, flying down the ice. It ought to be fun.
- It was a cool day, with temperatures failing to surpass freezing. We left the winter greens covered with plastic and blankets.
- Tuesday, 11/28: Firewood Collection
- Today was another cool day that started off very cold at sunrise with a reading of 9°. The snow is slow to melt.
- When I looked north from the house prior to walking dogs this morning, the pecan tree nearest to the house was filled with cedar waxwings flitting about on various branches and three squirrels grabbing old, hard nuts that are impossible for humans to open.
- I walked around in the north woods and cut firewood with the small Stihl chainsaw. This firewood came from small dead branches and trees. While I cut wood, Mary made a venison General Tso midday meal.
- After eating, I went back out and collected up all of today's cut firewood. I was able to move the large wheelbarrow into the timber and transported three loads to the machine shed, where I stacked the wood. It's good dry wood, but it has surface moisture from snow on one side that I brushed off. A day or two in the machine shed and it will be good to burn in the woodstove. Today's wood collection should last for about a week's worth of heat.
- At nighttime, I stuck labels on the spiced apple wine and the apple cider and stored the bottles in a couple coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
- Wednesday, 11/29: Shopping in Quincy
- I uncovered the winter greens this morning. Plastic and blankets covered them for two days and three nights. They looked wonderful!
- Mary and I went shopping in Quincy, mainly to pick up two medications for me, but also to get some Christmas items, locally. It was quiet in Quincy, which was nice. We got back home before sunset and got chickens back inside, which was perfect.
- Most all of the snow that fell a couple days ago melted today.
- I uncovered the winter greens this morning. Plastic and blankets covered them for two days and three nights. They looked wonderful!
- Thursday, 11/30: Cherry Firewood
- Mary heard cackling geese flying to the east of us, this morning.
- Mary and I took the tractor and wagon to just south of the Bluegill Pond dam and cut firewood. I sawed down and cut up four cherry trees that completely filled the wagon. We unloaded large pieces and put them near the woodsplitter in the machine shed. The rest went into the woodshed, except for four armloads that Mary took inside and stacked next to the woodstove. Cherry is exceptional firewood. One fire gave us heat through the entire evening.
- I updated my wine diary from Sept. 1st to Sept. 22nd. There was a great deal of winemaking activity that month.
- We started to see mist and light rain at 10 p.m., when we walked the pups. By the time we went to bed, it was pouring rain, outside.
- Mary heard cackling geese flying to the east of us, this morning.
- Friday, 12/1: Wonderful Rain
- We received a nice overnight rain. All ponds are extremely low, so any moisture is welcome.
- Mary spotted a fox sparrow. Online research revealed this bird nests in Alaska and flies to the southeast U.S. for the winter. It's passing through our neighborhood.
- Mary made two pizzas and cooked one, which we ate. The second one is in the fridge for tomorrow.
- I split about half of the firewood that we cut yesterday and put by the woodsplitter. This cherry firewood is colorful with a red tinge (see photo, below). It also puts out a wonderful cherry odor. Mary could smell it partway down the lane, while walking dogs. I stacked the split wood in the woodshed.
- I racked the parsnip wine for the second time, due to over a half-inch of fines in the containers. The specific gravity is 1.003, a five thousandths drop from Sunday. The pH is 3.3, an increase from 3.0 on Sunday. I added 0.7 grams of Kmeta. Liquid filled a three-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, and a 1.5-liter bottle. The must is still cloudy and it smells good...very much like citrus.
Cherry firewood. The white pieces are hickory. - We received a nice overnight rain. All ponds are extremely low, so any moisture is welcome.
- Saturday, 12/2: The Deer Told Me Off
- Today was the start of the second anterless deer season. I got up at 5:15 a.m., ate a quick bit of peanut butter on crackers, and then walked west, northwest to the Bobcat Deer Blind. Deer snorted at me from all directions. Through my time sitting there, I had nine different deer snorting at me, usually before I could ever see them. All I ever saw were white tails from deer running away. The wind was light and variable. Add in the wet air and my scent must have been penetrating throughout the woods. At one point, I had two different deer snorting at me from the north and the west. It was one of the most frustrating times I've ever hunted. There were lots of deer, but I never was able to shoot.
- After eating breakfast, I walked to the Cherry Deer Blind and hunted. I saw nothing. I left around 2 p.m., when I noticed on weather radar that snow was approaching from the west. I heard snow geese settling in a field southeast of our property.
- We ate a pizza, did evening chores, and then I went to the Pond Trail Deer Stand without a gun, since shooting anything would have meant field dressing an animal in rain that was approaching. I saw a big coyote trot to the north along the east edge of the north woods. Then, I watched a big deer walk west to east across the north pasture. About five minutes later, another deer followed the same route. I think the first deer was a buck and the second one was a large doe. The doe caught a whiff of my scent, stood awhile, then trotted off toward Bass Pond. Both deer were too far away for a decent shot, but I didn't have a gun, so it didn't matter.
- We watched two Christmas-related movies.
- Today was the start of the second anterless deer season. I got up at 5:15 a.m., ate a quick bit of peanut butter on crackers, and then walked west, northwest to the Bobcat Deer Blind. Deer snorted at me from all directions. Through my time sitting there, I had nine different deer snorting at me, usually before I could ever see them. All I ever saw were white tails from deer running away. The wind was light and variable. Add in the wet air and my scent must have been penetrating throughout the woods. At one point, I had two different deer snorting at me from the north and the west. It was one of the most frustrating times I've ever hunted. There were lots of deer, but I never was able to shoot.
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