Feb. 19-25, 2024

Weather | 2/19, sunny, 22°, 53° | 2/20, sunny, 29°, 59° | 2/21, p. cloudy, 40°, 71° | 2/22, p. cloudy, 43°, 64° | 2/23, sunny, 29°, 59° | 2/24, sunny, 23°, 45° | 2/25, sunny, 29°, 68° |

• Monday, 2/19: Removing Deer Stands
  
  • Bill did two loads of laundry, which is cheaper for him at our place. While outside hanging clothes, he saw a flock of snow geese.
  • Bill, Mary and I took the dogs east on a walk. We startled up some Canada geese at Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • Bill helped me take down two deer stands. I don't use them anymore, since I started hunting from blinds with my two feet firmly on the ground. The Wood Duck Deer Stand was very heavy. After taking off cinches, I tied a rope to the top, wrapped it around the tree, then we gradually lowered it to the ground and hauled it up the hill to the tractor, then drove it home. The Cedar Deer Stand in the northeast of our property was easier to take down. I still have to dismantle both of them.
  • Mary pruned 13 small trees and bushes. She reports that everything looks in good shape.
    
  • We watched two movies that Bill picked out. They were Master and Commander and Crazy Rich Asians.
  • We heard a pair of great horned owls while taking the dogs on their nightly walk.
    

• Tuesday, 2/20: I'm 67
  
  • It's my 67th birthday, today. Right before going to bed last night, I noticed a birthday greeting from Katie and a gift card to a fly tying store.
    
  • Katie called right at noon. It was 9 p.m., her time, in Saudi Arabia. She described some of the work she's doing. They experienced a strong sand storm a few nights ago. It blasted a tent and moved it 30 feet. Fortunately, no one was in it at the time. Her bedroom is an 8'x8'x20' container with a small window, not a tent. She looks forward to heading back to Anchorage in April.
    
  • Bill left for St. Charles a little after 1 p.m.
    
  • I took apart the smallest deer stand and stored salvageable pieces of wood in the machine shed. I started working on disassembling the larger deer stand. It takes time, since there are several double-nutted carriage bolts used in it that are spinning around in rotten wood.
    
  • I heard several snow geese flying high to the west overhead. I saw one flock. They're up where the wind can whisk them along.
    
  • I talked to mom on the phone. The Barbulas are doing a good job at managing the grocery store. Nicole Barbula was a high school DECA student who worked for me when I was at Mid-Rivers Telephone in Circle, MT. Mom said Jerry Curtiss is erecting a huge steel building where Community Auto once stood. Where we used to walk dogs that once was a campground of sorts, is now the home of a Dollar General store and an unfinished car wash building. Mom volunteers at the senior center as a way to stay active and visit with everyone.
    

• Wednesday, 2/21: Wood Ducks, Blackbirds & Woodcocks Arrive
  
  • While opening the chicken coop door this morning, we saw a deer in the west field staring at us. Then, three deer ran off to the west.
  • On walking the dogs to Bass Pond, we saw three pairs of wood ducks fly off from under the cedar tree branches on the west shore of that pond. It means they've arrived.
    
  • I finished taking apart the large deer stand, then stored all salvageable lumber in the machine shed.
    
  • While working on the deer stand, I saw and heard several flocks of snow geese flying west.
    
  • Mary checked the garlic plants. She reports that they are looking very nice. They are dark green and growing.
  • We heard the first "con-ga-ree" song of blackbirds, so they've arrived. We also heard the "peenting" sound of American woodcocks, which means they also arrived.
  • Today was exceedingly warm for the end of February, with temperatures reaching the 70s.
    

• Thursday, 2/22: Raking & Collecting Scions
  
  • Mary spotted two deer (see photo, below) out the west living room window at 7:30 a.m. They were chewing on new green grass sprouts growing next to the mulch surrounding the Porter's Perfection crabapple tree. We think they were last year's twins that basically grew up in our yard.
    
  • I raked pecan leaves and put four wheelbarrow loads into the compost bin.
    
  • While outside, I chased away a circling red-tailed hawk that was giving our chickens the hairy eyeball. Two hawks were then circling and calling over the east field. At the same time, I heard another hawk to the north. I think my presence finally chased them away. Our chickens were huddled outside the coop under cedar branches. They're smart and know their enemies.
    
  • I cut several water sprouts off the McIntosh tree to use as scions for grafting onto my three apple rootstocks that I grew from Antonovka seeds last year. I rubbed the cut ends on the wax of a toilet bowl ring that I bought just for that purpose. Then I wrapped each end in plastic wrap and put the scions in a cooler that I stored on the cement in the middle of the machine shed, where it's even cool on a hot summer day.
    
  • We own a compass. I checked it against the compass on my cell phone and there's a difference. According to The Solar House, by Daniel Chiras, true north for northeast Missouri is 6° east of magnetic north. I looked at the stakes marking corners of a future house and I'm off by about three feet at the northwest corner of the future house from true north. This is good, because when adjusted to true north, it swings the southeast corner of the home away from the line of black walnut trees between the east yard and the far garden. I'll have to establish new corner locations to make things right.

  

  Deer next to the Porter's Perfection crabapple tree.

• Friday, 2/23: Making Kindling & Removing Fence
  
  • While drinking morning coffee, Mary spotted a red-tailed hawk landing on the big Bartlett pear tree, so we both ran outside and chased it away. It flew to the north. Consequently, we decided to walk the dogs around the north field. We didn't see a hawk, but it was a nice warm sunny day for a walk.
    
  • Mary made kindling for a couple hours in the machine shed by breaking up or sawing up branches that once fell in the yard and dried in machine shed.
  • I dismantled the five-strand electric fence around the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree, including removing the eight metal fence posts and associated insulators. This tree was completely infected by fire blight last year (see photo, below), so I'm going to saw it down.
  • We watched two very excellent movies. The first one was the 2019 film, Harriet, about Harriet Tubman. It's a very impressive movie. The main actor, Cynthia Erivo, sings the song during the ending credits and it's excellent. The second was the 2020 western movie, News of the World, starring Tom Hanks. The 12-year old (in 2020) actor, Helena Zengel, is really good.

  

  Fire blight scar on Esopus apple tree trunk.

• Saturday, 2/24: Sawing Down Unwanted Trees
  
  • I watched a low-flying V of snow geese fly over our property this morning. I suspect they recently took off from a field somewhere due east of us.
    
  • Mary and I took a nice, quiet walk on the east loop with the dogs.
    
  • I used the small chainsaw to cut down the Esopus and Grimes apple trees. I cut all branches into eight-foot lengths and loaded everything in the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor. Every branch of the Esopus tree had fire blight. When I cut through a blighted area, the entire circumference of the wood was dead. After eating our midday meal, I drove the cut-up trees to the east edge of our property and threw them in a gully. It's sad, but these trees had to go.
    
  • On the trip east, I took the small chainsaw and cut up two fairly large cedar trees that were growing into fence. I also started cutting branches off a third cedar along the fence. It takes a long time to take these trees down, because you first need to remove branches to see the trunk. Then, cuts across the tree trunk must be carefully made, so the moving chain of the chainsaw doesn't bump into barbed wire. In one instance, two branches grew to completely envelop a barbed wire strand. The last time I spoke with Mr. Neisen, who owns the land east of us, he said trees along the fenceline are growing into his property, preventing him from plowing and harvesting crops along that edge of his field. He said he once took them out with a dozer and Herman, Mary's uncle, rebuilt the fence. We don't want him or his bulldozer near our property, hence the reason to work at cleaning up the fenceline. Cutting down the large honey locust trees possessing three-inch long spines will be interesting!
  • Mary and I both watched four wood ducks fly over the lane heading for Bass Pond, which is ideal for them, because they can swim to the west shoreline and hide under cedar boughs.
    

• Sunday, 2/25: Surveying Kit Purchase
  
  • More low-flying snow geese zoomed over our property this morning.
  • On our daily dog walk, while meandering by Bluegill Pond (see photo, below) and the south field, we heard our first eastern meadowlark of the year.
    
  • Mary heard the first frogs calling near Frog Pond while hanging clothes on the line.
    
  • I bought a used Dewalt survey transit kit from Facebook Market Place. I want it to accurately measure elevations while leveling ground and a gravel pad prior to building a new house. An online check into doing this without a transit revealed hokey ideas. Renting one in Quincy costs $65 a day or $140 for a week. A new one costs $400-$2000. I'll need to use one on multiple occasions. Here's a LINK to the one I found. It will come in handy.
    
  • Mary and I played Michigan Rummy in the evening. Mary won by 22 points in a very close game. There were a lot of firsts, such as collecting all of the paying cards in different games and Mary shutting me out of discarding cards in the final game.
    

  

  Our dogs sniff around Bluegill Pond. Our lane is just beyond here.