Dec. 10-16, 2023

Weather | 12/10, 24°, 39° | 12/11, 25°, 46° | 12/12, 29°, 37° | 12/13, 26°, 46° | 12/14, 25°, 58° | 12/15, 33°, 58° | 12/16, 0.33" rain, 39°, 45° | 

• Sunday, 12/10: Deer One, Me Zero
  
  • We woke at 5 a.m. and after eating 10 crackers with peanut butter, I walked to my adopted oak tree overlooking Wood Duck Pond. A sliver of the moon was in the southeastern sky. I watched slush ice slowly form on a corner of the pond, until wave action started knocking it back. After sunrise, the sun highlighted trees on the west edge of the pond that reflected into the water for a beautiful image. A mallard pair swam close to me. I moved about a quarter of an inch. They saw my minuscule movement and immediately paddled away and out of sight. I saw no deer and went back home at 8:30 a.m.
  • I went to the Black Medick blind for a couple hours through the noon hour. I just saw squirrels. One ran across the tin above my head. They're always very curious about my presence.
  • After eating a midday meal, I went back to the oak tree at Wood Duck Pond. On the way there, deer snorted at me from the woods just north of the machine shed. A Cooper's hawk landed on a willow stump just below me. It sat there for about 5-10 minutes, then dropped down to the ground, grabbed something, and flew off to the east. Right before I left, I heard fast steps of something turning around and running away just up the hill and behind me. I suspect a coyote. I heard the clucks from turkeys and as I started walking home, a turkey flew out of a tree top just above the dry creek bed. I saw no deer. Thank goodness there was a new early anterless season this year, when I got a button buck. This is the first year I've been skunked through both the regular deer season and the traditional anterless season. This year, the deer didn't follow their normal patterns and I only recently started seeing tracks where they normally go. I guess we'll be buying more meat for the next year.
  • Mary and I celebrated the end of hunting season by sharing a bottle of blackberry wine, followed by a bottle of Kieffer pear wine. They both tasted wonderful. We watched two Christmas movies.
    
    
• Monday, 12/11: Another Medicine Trip
  
  • Last week the pharmacy refilled a prescription that wasn't empty, yet, when another ran out yesterday. I called it into the pharmacy on Saturday and got a text this morning it was filled, so I went to Quincy to pick it up, plus I got a couple other items. I eat up so much time and gas these days on getting drug prescriptions that run out about every week. It's a topic I'm going to discuss on my next doctor's visit.
  • Mary baked the one pumpkin we grew in our garden. It was significantly different from the five I bought. There were many more seeds and it was firmer and dryer, yielding more meat for the freezer. Instead of four quarts, Mary put away six quarts of meat from this pumpkin.
  • Mary also figured out our seed needs for 2024.
  • We watched another Christmas movie.
    
    
• Tuesday, 12/12: Last Of Pumpkin Processed
  
  • Mary finished pumpkin processing by cooking up the last one. She put four quarts of pumpkin meat into the freezer.
  • Our midday meal of chimichangas was covered with winter greens that I picked. The kale, lettuce, and arugula are growing nicely. It's great to have homegrown greens this time of the year.
    
  • I split the last of the firewood stacked next to the woodsplitter. Four wheelbarrow loads of mainly cherry wood went into the woodshed.
    
  • We watched two Christmas movies. 
  • I had one glass of 2022 apple wine. Patowee!!! It has a metallic taste. I'm working at getting rid of it, but don't have the heart to dump it down the drain.
    
    
• Thursday, 12/13: Pork General Tso & Harvesting Honey Locust Firewood
  
  • Since I only harvested one small deer this year, Mary decided to try the General Tso dish using a piece of pork loin, instead of venison. It tasted great.
  • Mary also made an apple crisp and worked up a shopping list for a trip to Quincy tomorrow.
  • I cut down a honey locust that I girdled several years ago. By making two cuts completely around the trunk of the tree years ago, or girdling it, I killed the tree. Honey locust trees have large two- to three-inch spines. When the tree dies and bark falls off, these spines go with the bark. Honey locust is extremely dense wood and burns hot for a long time. Once I dropped the tree, I cut it up into appropriate lengths, loaded it in the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor, and hauled it to the machine shed, where Mary helped me unload it to next to the woodsplitter.
  • Mary and I spent about an hour this evening watching the Geminid meteor shower. We saw several while listening to barred owls and coyotes mouth off.
    
    
• Thursday, 12/14: Shopping, Again!
  
  • Two deer looked at us from the west woods as we walked puppies this morning, so things are back to normal now that nobody is hunting. We also watched a northern harrier hawk flew west to east over our property.
  • Mary and I shopped in Quincy, today. We found a Krupps steamer at the Salvation Army for $10. It's never been used, but sat in someone's storage and collected dead bugs. This gives us a standby rice cooker when our current one dies. We eat a lot of rice. That was our big "find" for the day.
  • We found everything we had on our list. Stores were filled with people, but we marched through all of them quickly. This was the "buy ingredients prior to making Christmas goodies" shopping trip.
  • On the way to Quincy, we saw two mature bald eagles eating on a carcass a few feet away from the road.
  • We returned home right before sunset. Mary and I divided up and got chores done, quickly. Mary said Silver, our silver Wyondotte hen, was marching back and forth behind the gate into the chicken yard, in expectation of getting fed for the evening.
    
    
• Friday, 12/15: Deer & Snow Geese
  
  • When Mary first took the dogs out on their morning walk, three big doe deer ran away. They were just south of the big cedar trees in our east yard. When I stepped out a few seconds later, they were running into the woods near Bluegill Pond.
    
  • I put away all of the lights and extension cords I had out in the machine shed for nighttime lighting in case I got a deer during the hunting season.
    
  • I worked on a Christmas present for most of the day. Only Santa knows the details of this present.
    
  • Mary drew up a new food chart listing an inventory of all of the food in various freezers. It involves several pages of old fan fold computer paper that's hung up on the pantry wall. As food is pulled from freezers, it's marked off, giving us a running total of everything.
    
  • Mary also cleaned the new-to-us steamer. Goo Gone was needed to remove sticky residue left from packing tape that was wrapped around the electrical appliance.
    
  • I counted all bottles of wine, and put the inventory on the new food chart.
    
  • On an after-dark outside visit, I had snow geese cackling at me because they saw my head lamp. Once I turned off the lamp, they quit yelling. I think they were flying west to east.
  • Bill sent a photo of the sunrise when he arrived at work this morning (see photo, below).

  

  A sunrise photo that Bill took this morning.

• Saturday, 12/16: A Nice Rain
  
  • We enjoyed rain and mist throughout the day. The moisture is very welcome.
  • Dark clouds and outside wetness kept our activity levels down.
    
  • We wrapped most all of the Christmas gifts.
  • Katie sent a photo (see below) of a very nice Christmas ornament that she made. She added a calendar (see below) with the following explanation: "There is a USO set up in one of the tents here, and they put on lots of fun events like this."
  • We watched two movies...Monuments Men and The Big Year. Both have a Christmas scene, so we've designated them as Christmas movies. They really aren't, but who cares? Not us!

A Christmas ornament that Katie made.

The USO December calendar at Katie's base.