March 25-31, 2024

Weather | 3/25, 0.58" rain, 48°, 59° | 3/26, mist, 36°, 37° | 3/27, sunny to cloudy, 26°, 45° | 3/28, sunny, 27°, 63° | 3/29, cloudy, 37°, 75° | 3/30, sunny, 50°, 65° | 3/31, cloudy, 47°, 71° |

• Monday, 3/25: High Wind
  
  • There were 45 mph southeast gusts, plus mist and rain, so outside work was out of the question, today.
  • All of the fruit tree buds have slowed down on opening. There are just a few pear blossoms open. The Kieffer pear tree, that I thought was a goner due to the high amount of fire blight damage, is now filled with leave buds. It has an amazing ability to hang on and live.
    
  • We played around online for a bulk of the day.
  • We watched The Book Thief and Babe movies.
    
  • After walking dogs on their last outing, my coveralls fell from the hook onto the concrete floor and Gandalf immediately made them into his bed (see photo, below). He was comfy there for several minutes until he went upstairs to sleep at the foot of the bed, near my feet. He seems to like me.

  

  Gandalf, after making a bed with my coveralls.

• Tuesday, 3/26: Apple Talk Gibberish
  
  • I partook in an Apple Talk webinar at 8 a.m. that was promoted by the leader of a Facebook group I belong to called Backyard Apple Growers. It was put on by University of Wisconsin folks and the main speaker was horrible. If you removed all of the times he said "Ah" and "Um", his one-hour talk could be condensed into 15 minutes. He went through exactly one item of the outline presented at the beginning of his discussion. I won't repeat listening to that gibberish!
    
  • We had a windy and misty day...not nice, outside.
  • When I took the dogs on a walk, we only got to the north yard when Amber said, "I'm getting wet, so I'm going back inside." I let her in. Then, Plato and I took a walk to Bass Pond and back. He's more of water dog than Amber.
    
  • In the afternoon, I drove to Quincy and picked up our package of Kinder's Japanese BBQ spice. That should set us up for a some time with popcorn topping.
  • On the way, I bought gas for $3.29 a gallon.
    
  • I covered the winter greens with plastic and blankets, since the predicted overnight low temperature is in the 20s.
  • Mary is still feeling punk with bad congestion, although she says it's getting slightly better.
    

• Wednesday, 3/27: Fruit Trees Surviving Frost
  
  • I walked the dogs on the north loop and found two new blackberry patches at the north end of the north field. Blackberry brambles are invading...yum, yum!
    
  • When I removed the blankets and plastic off the winter greens, I noticed that the Winterbor Kale jumped to twice its height since I removed some leaves off the plants last week.
  • I burned the rest of the shoddy cardboard stored in the machine shed. I only had two instances when burning cardboard floated off the top of the burn barrel and lit dead grass on fire. That's why we only burn after a rain and with reduced wind. I beat both fires out, quickly. An old tree-shipping box and chick box showed 2022 ship dates on them. Cardboard cleanup was overdue.
  • Mary and I took an evening tour of the fruit trees. Flower buds are plentiful. The only opened flower buds are on pear trees. Leaves are showing on pears and some of the young apple trees. We saw a tiny bit of frost damage on the small Bartlett pear tree. Otherwise, everything else looks untouched by frost. Poor old Kieffer, the ancient pear tree that we thought we'd lose to fire blight, is loaded with flower and leaf buds.
    
  • Mary's condition is improving, but it's a slow process.
  • After walking dogs at night, I checked the new house layout against the North Star, which easily showed in the nighttime sky. The northwest corner is off by just a few degrees to the east. My old layout, which put the southeast corner too close to a row of black walnut trees, was closer to aligning north, south, east, west. But, the adjusted layout better fits the yard and avoids trees. The old house is way off, but the woodshed is aligned perfectly. It was put up by Herman, Mary's uncle and a 20-year U.S. Navy veteran. He knew his navigational bearings well.
    

• Thursday, 3/28 - Saturday, 3/30: We Have COVID
  
  • Mary came down with the symptoms, first, and then I got it. Our COVID home tests confirmed we both have the virus. I mainly sleep, day and night, with a very sore throat, occasional fever, and congestion. Mary has had the same symptoms.
    
  • Katie called Thursday. She's starting to pack up in preparation for a mid-April departure to return home. She gets two weeks off, plus, Katie has 16 days of accrued leave that she also plans to use. She's thinking about taking a trip to Patagonia.
  • On Friday, I told Bill I wasn't going to make it to the Blues/Oilers NHL game in St. Louis on Monday, April 1st. I transferred the tickets to him. He asked his friend, Mike, if he wanted to go, and Mike said yes. I'm glad the tickets get used. I didn't want to spread COVID to Bill.
  • Yesterday, Mary reported seeing several small native bees and an occasional honey bee in the pear blossoms. She thinks the small Bartlett pear tree might produce fruit. I walked to all fruit trees yesterday afternoon. A ton of blossoms are coming, soon. The Kieffer pear tree is amazing. Despite rotted-out heart wood in the trunk and severe fire blight last year, it still marches on with fruit production (see photos, below).
  • Butterflies are showing. I saw a mourning cloak. Mary's noticed sulfur and admiral butterflies.

The heart of the Kieffer tree's trunk is gone.

But, it still kicks out blossoms.

• Sunday, 3/31: Feeling a Little Better
  
  • Today was the first day I didn't sleep all day.
  • We walked the pups down the Bobcat Trail and saw lots of spring beauties (see photos, below).
  • For the first time, we saw several honey bees in the fruit blossoms, especially on the Sargent crabapple tree.

Tiny spring beauty flowers at the base of an oak tree.

Pink spring beauties.