Dec. 17-23, 2023

Weather | 12/17, 33°, 45° | 12/18, 25°, 33° | 12/19, 15°, 41° | 12/20, 26°, 51° | 12/21, 43°, 57° | 12/22, 0.07" rain, 43°, 51° | 12/23, 49°, 57° | 

• Sunday, 12/17: A Firewood Day
  
  • I walked the dogs to the east, down Black Medick Hill, north on the dry creek bed, then back home via Bramble Hill. As we walked, I assessed the best route to drive the tractor to get firewood in the east woods. We saw lots of deer tracks on all of the trails.
    
  • With the prospect of high winds tomorrow, which means it's not wise to be in the woods, I cut firewood today. I drove to the bottom of Bramble Hill and cut up a big maple tree that recently fell down just north of there. It was about 18 inches thick at its base. It made for a full load in the trailer. 
  • Mary showed up as I was nearly finished loading the firewood into the trailer. For two days she's had a Buff Orpington hen hide under the coop when she's trying to put all of the chickens into the coop for the night. Mary had to return several times to the chicken yard before it finally showed up to go inside.
  • Mary and I finished loading the trailer with firewood, then unloaded all of the big chunks and stacked them next to the woodsplitter in the machine shed.
  • A surface element switch is going out on our kitchen stove. While Mary was making tortillas, the large element she always uses stayed red hot and never cycled off while the setting was on eight. She had to turn off the stove to get that element to shut down and when it did, there was a loud click from within the stove. I checked old blogs and discovered I replaced it in 2017. I found a new one on repairclinic.com for $44, then other switches on different websites for half that price. I'll order a new one tomorrow.
    
    
• Monday, 12/18: Fourth Racking of Jalapeño Wine
  
  • We experienced strong northwest winds, with gusts to 40 mph.
    
  • Mary made a huge pot of minestrone soup. We ate some of it. With winds howling outside, this was a perfect hot soup day.
    
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the fourth time (see photo, below). We tasted the leftovers. This wine seems mild at first, but the aftertaste reminds you in a strong way that it's made from hot peppers. The specific gravity is 0.993 and the pH is 3.1. In past versions, I bottled this wine on the fourth racking. It always develops floaties, so I decided to go another month in the carboy with this variety. I pulled a small amount of fines off during this racking. We even tasted the dregs with the fines in it and they weren't too bad. The clear glasses of leftover wine was really good!
    
  • We watched a movie.

  

  Fourth racking of jalapeño wine, plus leftovers!

• Tuesday, 12/19: Cookies!
  
  • After opening bedroom curtains this morning, we saw three deer walking to the west on the trail to the ponds.
  • Mary and I reviewed the pear wine and perry (pear cider). The pear wine looks clear and ready to bottle. The perry is almost clear, but with a hint of cloudiness. I'll rack the perry and let it sit for another month and bottle the pear wine.
    
  • I pulled the cook stove away from the wall, removed the back panel, then the surface burner switch, recorded the part number and then ordered the part from a parts store in the Twin Cities for a little over $20. It was in the mail by the end of the day.
    
  • Katie messaged me that she got the Christmas care package that we sent her. It took 10 days to get to her through the U.S. Mail, which I thought was pretty speedy. She said temperatures have been moderate, with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s.
  • Mary baked a batch of butterscotch oatmeal cookies. Of course, we had to test one each.
    
  • I cut up more firewood next to where I sawed up a downed maple tree two days ago. This time I cut up a standing dead ash tree. The firewood pieces, ranging from eight inches in diameter to half-inch kindling sticks, filled the trailer to the top of the sides. I unloaded the trailer back home to appropriate locations. Ash always sounds like baseball bats slamming together when you stack this firewood.
    
  • I updated the wine diary to Oct. 29th. There's so much to write about...so many wines that were made.
    
    
• Wednesday, 12/20: Perry & Firewood
  
  • We saw three deer in the far garden first thing this morning. Mary didn't want them grazing on garlic plants, so she opened the bedroom window and tapped on the outside of the house. They easily jumped over the garden fencing, but didn't go far. As they slowly walked north I saw a total of six deer. I had two deer scamper off when I walked the lane to get the mail this evening.
    
  • I racked the perry (pear cider) for the fourth time. There was between 1-2 inches of very loose fines at the bottom of containers. I thought I did pretty well at getting the most liquid off those fines by losing only a quart of must. I was left with 3.75 gallons. Unfortunately, the resulting liquid was cloudier. The specific gravity is 1.004 and the pH is 3.1. The resulting liquid went into a 3-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, and a 750-ml wine bottle. Mary and I tasted it and this time, after more aging, we liked the perry. It's tangy with a touch of bitterness. Mary said it tastes like green olives. I think it's got a pear taste, but also an essence of cinnamon. We think it might be good on a hot summer day.
    
  • I took the small chainsaw, along with the tractor and trailer, north to the east side of the north woods and cut up dead oak limbs and small dead hickory trees. Mary helped by scouting out dry firewood before I showed up. She also helped load the trailer. We came back with another wagon of wood, which mainly went into the woodshed. Anything wet was stacked in the machine shed.
    
  • Mary put new hay on the floor of the chicken coop and raked leaves that went into the compost bin.
  • Mary made chocolate peanut clusters. They're in the freezer solidifying. We tasted tested one each...YUMMY!!!
    
    
• Thursday, 12/21: A Veggie Run
  
  • Mary heard snow geese flying over the north woods this morning. She couldn't see them, due to low clouds.
  • I went to Quincy on a veggie run. Mary chops and cleans up radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and celery and we dip them in Ranch dressing dip as part of our Christmas eats, along with other goodies Mary bakes or creates. We decided yesterday that I should go today, since tomorrow, the day before Christmas weekend, might be worse for Christmas shoppers. Stores were busy today, but I found everything we needed.
  • Mary swept and mopped floors.
  • I was going to make a batch of garlic wine, but we decided to wait. Nothing deadens the Holidays like the "BO" smell of garlic wine in the making.
  • The hickory and oak limbs that I cut up for firewood yesterday really kick out heat from the woodstove.
  • Tonight, while walking the puppies, we heard deer snorts very close to us. They came from Bluegill Pond. My guess is this deer was about 50 away from us.
    
    
• Friday, 12/22: Lime Zingers!
  
  • Light rain, mist, and then fog kept conditions wet outside. The first full day of winter felt like spring. I'm starting to think we live in northern Florida.
    
  • I called on a credit card charge that we didn't make. Over the past month, we were dinged with two charges at about $400, each, to National General Insurance in New York, and $200 to Comcast in Maryland. Two of those three charges were successfully dropped. The second New York charge was made the same day I called in the first erroneous charge and since it was for roughly the same amount, I didn't realize we were charged twice until I talked to the Wells Fargo representative, today. Wells Fargo is removing all of these charges, thank goodness.
    
  • Mary made lime zinger cookies. My contribution was cracking about 55 hazelnuts that Mary crushed and put in these cookies. Lime zest, plus the juice of the limes, also go into them. Mary freezes the cookies after bringing them out of the oven and letting them cool. They make a wonderful addition to pots of tea.
    
  • The cook stove burner switch came in today's mail, so I installed it. The appropriate burner works like a charm.
    
  • I cleaned 10 wine bottles, which, when added to the 19 bottles already cleaned, give me enough for the pear wine that is ready to bottle.
    
  • This evening as it was darkening outside and while Mary closed the west curtains in the living room, she spotted four deer walking through our west yard. They were two young ones, probably born this summer, and two does. One doe was a really big. The young deer were frisky and running around, playing.
    
    
• Saturday, 12/23: Bill Arrives For Christmas
  
  • The day started with dense fog that ended around 8:30 a.m.
  • Bill showed up for a Christmas visit around noon.
  • Mary made a pistachio tort, which is Bill's favorite dessert.
    
  • Bill and I racked the pear wine for the fourth time and bottled it into 27 bottles. The specific gravity was 0.999, giving it a 10.6 percent alcohol content. The pH is 3.0. The taste: very good and fruity.
  • We watched movies that Bill picked out.