May 27-June 2, 2024

Weather | 5/27, 0.03" rain, sunny, 54°, 77° | 5/28, 0.10" rain, sunny, 53°, 76° | 5/29, sunny, 47°, 73° | 5/30, sunny, 52°, 78° | 5/31, p. cloudy, 57°, 73° | 6/1, 0.38" rain, cloudy, 60°, 73° | 6/2, cloudy, 59°, 80° |

• Monday, 5/27: Cherries Galore on Mary's Birthday
  
  • It's Mary's birthday, today. She turns 58.
    
  • Katie called. She's doing pet sitting in her spare time. Her vehicle's engine died, so she's looking for new wheels. She and I texted about a potential vehicle after the call.
    
  • Bill and I picked a bunch of cherries. The large cherry tree is really producing fruit. It's loaded with red, ripe cherries...the best year, ever. I picked high on the tree and Bill picked on the ground and from a three-step ladder. We put away a little over six quarts, today. The grand total in the freezer is 19 quarts from this year. There are a lot more cherries still on the tree (see photos, below).
    
  • Mary made a Mississippi Mud cake. It's amazing. 
  • She received a yearly renewal subscription to International Artist magazine from Katie, a unique washers game and a cross stitch project called Black Moon Cat from Bill. She says the cross stitch pattern will be a large ornament. Mary started that project, today.
    
  • The elderberries are already blooming, which is really early in the year.
    
  • Bill helped get TNT on our TV and we watched the Edmonton Oilers/Dallas Stars playoff game. The Stars won 5-3.

Bill's photo looking up the big cherry tree.

The top of the big cherry tree is loaded with fruit!

• Tuesday, 5/28: A Fun Game
  
  • Bill and I picked five quarts of cherries. We now have 24 quarts in the freezer.
    
  • We had a thundershower and more rain later in the afternoon.
  • Katie and I texted back and forth about various vehicles she's looking at.
    
  • Bill, Mary and I played a game of Rummy, enjoyed pots of Yunan loose leaf tea, a very yummy 1.5-liter bottle of 2023 cherry wine, popcorn, and some Mississippi mud cake. Bill wrote down weird things I said while playing the game and rattled them all off after the game was over. We laughed so hard it hurt.
    

• Wednesday, 5/29: Bill Returns to His Apartment
  
  • Bill left for his apartment in the early afternoon.
    
  • Mary mowed between the two sheds and a bit of the west lawn, adding grass clipping mulch to the near garden's south row.
    
  • I picked another five quarts of very ripe cherries from the top of the big cherry tree. There are now 29 quarts of new cherries in the freezer.
    
  • Katie and I had more texted discussions about vehicles.
    
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 5-2. The series is tied at 2-2.
  • We went to bed early for us...normal time for most people. Mary wants to pull all of the garlic tomorrow and I still have gobs of cherries to pick.
    

• Thursday, 5/30: Cherries & Garlic
  
  • I woke up right at daybreak and watched a fat opossum walk by the house on the lane. I'm guessing all of the cicadas are wonderful snacks for an opossum as it crawls along branches in nighttime hours, eating them. I also spotted a small deer crossing the lane just south of the house.
    
  • I picked just over six quarts of cherries. We now have 35 quarts of this year's cherries in the freezer. I used a new method. Two tarp straps secured the tall orchard ladder to the 10-foot step ladder. By carefully slipping branches between the rungs, I'm able to move this ladder combination near the center of the tree and pick ripe fruit in the tree top. These are cherries just donated to the birds in past years. Abundant cicadas are keeping birds away from ripe cherries that I'm able to pick this year. Plus, our cooler springtime temperatures mean the ripe cherries aren't going bad. There are many more ripe cherries left in that tree.
    
  • Mary pulled all six varieties of garlic from the far garden and laid them out to dry in the shade of the pecan trees. This is the best looking garlic that we've ever grown. Nice helpings of our compost prior to planting and sufficient, but not drowning, rains helped produce a great garlic crop. Mary and I hung several bundles of garlic from the rafters of the machine shed, where they'll dry through the summer. Mary says when garlic is all hung to dry, it's a great time of the year.
  • Mary picked two bowls of ripe pie cherries that we ate as dessert, tonight. They're tart, but tasty.
    

• Friday, 5/31: Cherries & Katie's Vehicle
  
  • While walked dogs on their morning outing, I noticed they were keenly aware of something with their noses in the air. Then, a deer snorted at me just a few feet east of us and ran away.
    
  • I picked more cherries. We're running low on quart freezer bags. I checked Dollar General online, since that's the only grocery store in Lewistown, and discovered that 19 bags in a box costs $5, which is insanely high. So, I'm opening existing bags from the freezer and stuffing them to maximum capacity. I probably picked the equivalent of another five quarts. Some cherries are becoming too ripe.
    
  • Mary made pizza and did all of the evening chores while I pitted cherries.
    
  • Katie bought a used vehicle (see photo, below). HERE is the Marketplace listing of it, which is a 2010 Mazda CX-9. She negotiated the price down by $500. It is an AWD, which should help in the winter. It's powered by a Ford 3.7-liter V6 engine, built by Mazda. Owners give it high marks. Katie needed wheels, since her Jeep's engine died.
    
  • I watched Game 5 of the Oilers/Stars NHL series. Edmonton won 3-1.
  • Mary watched the Beauty and the Beast film while I watched hockey.

  

  Katie's new wheels, a 2010 Mazda CX-9.

• Saturday, 6/1: All Day Picking Cherries
  
  • Rain fell overnight. We woke to light mist that turned to a cloudy day.
  • After deciding this was the last day for picking cherries, I picked all day and stored bowlfuls of unpitted cherries in the fridge. There are still cherries in the top center of the big cherry tree that I'll let birds eat. Or, I'll grab some to eat out-of-hand. After an evening meal, I pitted cherries until 3 a.m. At the end of pitting cherries, I was eating a bunch of them, just so I could get through them faster. The extra ripe ones are real yummy. Since I'm filling formally frozen bags to a stuffed capacity, I don't know exactly how much I picked today, but I'm guessing it was 10-12 quarts. That puts us at 50+ quarts of this year's cherries, which is a new record. The best year in the past was 2020, when we froze 29 quarts.
    
  • Mary noticed that a brown thrasher and a catbird are sharing nursery duties in the forsythia bush outside our east door. She said the catbird enters from the top of the bush and the brown thrasher enters from bottom.
    
  • Mary performed an egg experiment. She sprayed cooking spray in a 12-cup muffin tin, placed an egg into each individual cup, dropped a pinch of salt on top and stirred each egg gently, then froze the tin of eggs. Our eggs are larger than most, so freezing expanded them up and slightly out of the cups. Plus, the muffin tin tilted slightly, since our chest freezers contain mounds of frozen food. Consequently, it was a bit messy. After three hours, she popped each one out by pushing on one edge with a spoon, put them in a gallon freezer bag and ran them back into the freezer. This might be a way to store eggs, now that we have an abundance of them, so we have some through winter months, when egg output is low. Frozen like this, they are only good for baking or scrambled eggs.
    
  • I answered an ad in Marketplace from someone who lives two counties west of us and is asking for old mowers, tillers, and trimmers with motors. We have nine items that fit this category that we want out of here and I said he can have them for free. He's showing up late Monday morning with a trailer to haul them away. It will be nice to clear up room in the machine shed, which often seems like a collection of old junk.
    

• Sunday, 6/2: Collecting Junk & Picking Raspberries
  
  • While filling waterers prior to letting the chickens out of the coop, we spotted a baby bird walking around under the forsythia bush and along the house foundation. It had absolutely no fear of us and was eating greens. Mary looked it up and it was a wild turkey baby. We think it was lost, but was hopefully found by its mother, since we didn't see it later on.
    
  • Mary heard chimney swift nestlings in our chimney while sitting in the living room this morning.
    
  • I pulled out old mowers, tillers, etc., swept them off, and lined them up just inside the machine shed openings. I put air in the tires of Uncle Herman's riding mower and rolled it near the east opening. Next to it went the old Gravely mower, which is too heavy to maneuver. Getting rid of nine pieces of junk opened up a lot of space inside the building.
    
  • Mary found several wild black raspberries and picked a little over a quart. They look and smell amazing.
    
  • While picking raspberries, Mary found a bunch of cherry pits on the ground just north of the Kieffer pear tree. She thinks the summer tanager picks them off the big cherry tree, flies to his favorite perch and eats them. There goes my notion that birds aren't eating cherries!
  • I picked some ripe cherries, but this time, I ate them.
    
  • In the evening, I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. They play the Florida Panthers to try to win the cup.
    

May 20-26, 2024

Weather | 5/20, p. cloudy, 67°, 86° | 5/21, 0.01" rain, cloudy, 64°, 83° | 5/22, sunny, 57°, 73° | 5/23, sunny, 46°, 81° | 5/24, 0.22" rain, 60°, 73° | 5/25, sunny, 48°, 77° | 5/26, 0.47" rain, 59°, 73° |

• Monday, 5/20: Ripening Sweet Cherries
  
  • Mary mowed the lane. Midway through mowing, she came stumbling down the lane to the house with a stitch in her side. Sitting down inside in air conditioning and having a drink of water fixed the problem.
  • Mary also cut garlic scapes. The garlic plants are starting to turn yellow. Harvest is nigh.
    
  • I toured all of the fruit trees. Sweet cherries are ripening (see photos, below). I don't see any pear fruitlets, even on the the Kieffer pear tree. It's a good aspect to the Bartlett pear trees. They took a beating with fire blight last year. They both look healthy this year and can recover without putting energy into growing fruit. Granny Smith is full of fire blight. There are plenty of growing fruits on the Empire and McIntosh trees, although Mac has dying branches, as does the Kieffer pear tree. I saw slight leaf curl, probably from leaf roller insects, at the top of the Gold Rush apple tree. All other trees look great.
    
  • I finished putting the chicken wire bunny fence up and installing a chicken wire gate. Next, I need to stake the bottom of the chicken wire sections into the ground, then turn on the electric fence.
    
  • There is a noticeable pulsating cicada noise in all of the trees. Mary heard several black-capped chickadees singing in the trees. They were probably happy with all of the tasty bugs to eat.
    
  • In the evening, I listened to Game 7 of the Oilers/Canucks playoffs. Edmonton won 3-2 and advance to the NHL Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars. Vancouver scored their two goals at the end of the game in an exciting finish.

The sweet cherries are ripening.

This tree is spindly, but produces lots of fruit.

• Tuesday, 5/21: Weather Skipped Us
  
  • Today was hot and very humid, with 40 mph south wind gusts, so we didn't feel like being outside.
  • Mary cut more garlic scapes while I picked sweet cherries (see photo, below). We pick cherries, even when they're slightly orange, or near ripe, before the birds bite into them. If we didn't pick them early, we wouldn't get any cherries. I noticed a few cherries nearing a ripe stage in the large pie cherry tree. Picking cherries is hard when blasts of wind blow branches helter-skelter.
    
  • My cousin, Marjorie, sent word that her daughter had a baby girl. She sent photos, including a video of her son showing Dorothy a picture of the baby. They were visiting Dorothy when news of the baby came through.
    
  • We were in a Level 4 of 5 from the National Weather Service for severe weather risks, today. Twice, we noticed big thunderstorms on the radar that looked like they might hit us, but in each case, the edge of the warning area was just a mile or two northwest of us. The last storm was constantly roaring with thunder. When it was nearest to us to the northwest, it was like someone flipped a switch, and there was no more thunder at all. There's something about our location that turns off a lot of thunderstorms. Later, on the last dog walk of the night, we saw lightning to the southeast, somewhere in Illinois, and to the south, probably near St. Louis.

  

  The first cherries picked this season. All are sweet cherries.

• Wednesday, 5/22: First Quart of Cherries in Freezer
  
  • The loudmouthed wren discovered our bedroom air conditioner and perched on top of it to yell at us, this morning. He woke Mary for good. I heard it, but fell back asleep.
  • When we opened the chicken coop this morning, ripe mulberries were on the ground from last night's strong wind. The hens loved them and gobbled them up, pronto.
    
  • Mary mowed the south end of the far garden and started mowing the middle area. It's hard going, since that grass is well established and tough.
    
  • I picked cherries from the large pie cherry tree and filled a quart freezer bag. The large ladder I purchased last fall is excellent. There is no part of that tree that I can't reach, especially with my homemade pickers. These are plastic Coke bottles that have long holes sliced into one side of them and taped to an old broom handle and a long, peeled persimmon sapling.
    
  • We watched the 2018 film, Black Panther. We liked it.
    

• Thursday, 5/23: Mowing & Picking Cherries
  
  • I sharpened the old mower blade and Mary mowed most of the east lawn. She used a bag to collect grass and mulched most of the longest row of the south end of the far garden.
  • I picked a little over three quarts of pie cherries off the large tree, only making it two-thirds of the way around the tree on the tall ladder. A continuous supply of cicadas equates to fewer birds eating cherries this year. 
  • Occasionally, I chased cicadas away during my cherry picking session. They're really noisy when you send them off branches. They sort of squawk at you. Cicadas look like creatures from outer space. They're black, with gold wings and red eyes. Together in nearby trees, they sound off in a throbbing noise. Collectively, from surrounding timber, the cicadas sound like the continuous release from an aerosol can.
    
  • Mary startled a rose-breasted grosbeak and an eastern phoebe off the top of the big cherry tree, so I guess some birds are getting to the cherries. The grosbeak flew to a nearby mulberry tree, where berries aren't ripe, yet.
  • When Mary came back from retrieving mail, she noticed that the swamp dogwood blossoms are filled with large butterflies, such as tiger swallowtails, giant swallowtails, and monarchs.
    
  • I listened to Game 1 of the Oilers/Stars Western Conference NHL playoffs. Edmonton won 32 seconds into the second overtime by a score of 3-2.
    

• Friday, 5/24: A Little Rain, More Gnats & Cherries
  
  • We had clouds, with a thunderstorm in the morning, spits of rain in the afternoon and a tiny afternoon rain. The sun shone at sunset.
  • I picked about a quarter of a quart shy of five quarts of cherries. I went back to the halfway location around the big cherry tree that I reached on the big ladder yesterday and only got another third around the tree. I found three bird-bitten cherries today, mainly at the very top. About a quarter of a quart of cherries came out of the sweet cherry tree. Mary and I tried one, each. They're tart, but very good.
  • The tiny bits of rain gave the nasty gnats a rejuvenated boost. Bug dope didn't faze them. I wore a head net to keep them at bay. About 50 of the tiny buggers buzzed my head as I picked sweet cherries. Atop my big ladder, they weren't quite as bad, but I kept wearing the netting on my head. I got a few bites on my wrists.
    
  • Mary did some housecleaning and made a huge pile of flour tortillas.
    

• Saturday, 5/25: Third AC In, Mowing, Cherry Picking
  
  • Mary spotted a common yellowthroat warbler out the west living room window. The bird seems to like the coppiced black walnuts that are on the west side of the house.
    
  • Mary did a major houseclean.
    
  • Mary mowed the south lawn, part of the north yard, and inside the near garden. She put grass clipping mulch on the south row in the near garden.
    
  • I gave our third air conditioner a fast wash with the garden hose and installed it in the upstairs north bedroom. I taped it into place on the inside, then went outside and installed pieces of vinyl siding and aluminum tape to keep water and bugs out. This Haier unit was bought in 2009 and still works like a charm.
    
  • I picked three quarts of pie cherries in only two hours. The top of the big cherry tree is loaded with red, ripe cherries and once I get high in my tallest ladder, I'm right in the middle of them, along with my screaming buddies, several red-eyed cicadas. They yell whenever my arm or hand gets close to them and fly away. Their surging call in the trees sounds like they're singing, "Day-yo, Day-yo," but they never finish the rest of the stanza of that song.
    
  • I listened to the NHL Game 2 between Edmonton and Dallas. The Stars won, 3-1. Boo! The Stars played better than the Oilers, tonight.
    

• Sunday, 5/26: Bill Arrives
  
  • A turkey hen showed up at the east end of the near garden right as Bill arrived in the late morning. It dodged into the bushes. Later, as Bill was unloading his car, it burst up into the air and flew north.
    
  • Bill and I picked cherries for just a little while, filling three quarts for the freezer.
    
  • Bill helped get a streaming version of ABC on our TV and Bill and I watched the New York Rangers/Florida Panthers playoff game. The Rangers won 5-4 in overtime.
    
  • Mary mowed the north and part of the west yard and put more mulch into the near garden.
    
  • We watched two movies...Harriet and News of the World.
    
  • A little bit of rain fell while we were watching movies.
    

May 13-19, 2024

Weather | 5/13, p. cloudy, 60°, 78° | 5/14, 0.75" rain, 58°, 65° | 5/15, 0.11" rain, p. cloudy, 55°, 75° | 5/16, cloudy, 60°, 78° | 5/17, sunny, 56°, 81° | 5/18, sunny, 60°, 83° | 5/19, p. cloudy, 50°, 87° |

• Monday, 5/13: Quincy Trip & Turkey Dinner
  
  • Our forecast called for a 90 percent chance of rain. Only a few drops fell as radar showed rain clouds drying up as they approached us.
  • Mary watched a caterpillar on a motherwart plant in the chicken yard rid itself of some tiny piece of tan debris that was on its back.
    
  • I drove to Quincy to pick up some coffee beans that were shipped via FedEx. I diverted the package to the Walgreen store. I also bought four 20-foot lengths of 3/8-inch rebar that I cut up with a hacksaw to fit in the pickup.
  • On the way back home, I noticed newly spread out gravel on the road at the end of our driveway. I also noticed a new dog kennel with a dog in it behind our neighbor's house. No loose horses, no cow/calf in their pasture, and dogs in a kennel all points to major changes at that residence...all to the betterment of neighbors like us.
    
  • While I was gone, Mary baked a turkey. Upon returning home, we enjoyed a very yummy meal, complete with mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and a bottle of 2021 pear wine.
  • Katie called from the airport at Santiago, Chile to wish Mary a belated happy Mother's Day.
    
  • A group of eastern phoebe babies are in the nest under the metal roof of the woodshed.
  • I watched the last half of the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the New York Islanders, 4-3, and the Dallas Stars beating the Colorado Avalanche, 4-1.
    

• Tuesday, 5/14: Finally Spending Gift Money
  
  • Rain fell for most of the day, especially in the afternoon.
  • After breakfast, Mary spotted a coyote in front of the south chicken yard. She and I both ran outside, but didn't see it. For good measure, I took an old broom handle and pounded on the steel wall of the machine shed to make a booming sound that echoed through the woods.
    
  • Mary baked four loaves of bread...YUM!
  • I balanced the checkbook, then spent a bunch of time online determining how to spend old Christmas and birthday money.
    
  • I made a decision to order a new Peak rotary fly tying vise. Here's a LINK to it. With this vise, instead of winding the thread around the hook, you simply turn the handle at the far end of the vise to wind the thread on the hook. I saw this type of vise in action at a fly tying class I took last year and it works very nicely.
    
  • Mary saw two ruby-throated hummingbirds fighting for the rights to a comfrey flower patch in the far garden.
  • Toward dusk, we chased deer away from our fruit trees. The first time, Mary saw a deer venture toward our cherry tree that she chased away. Later, I was down to just underpants, due to getting caught in a downpour while moving rebar from the pickup to the machine shed. Deer were munching on our south apple trees. I shouted out the south living room window and they barely moved, so I ran outside, hollering and clapping, and they leaped off, into the west woods. Mary said it was funny watching Underwear Man chasing deer.
  • While going to bed, we heard two raccoons growling and arguing at each other in the east yard.
  • I watched Game 4 of the Canucks/Oilers NHL playoff series. Edmonton won, 3-2. The final Oilers goal came with only 39 seconds left in the game.
    

• Wednesday, 5/15: Shopping & First Cicadas
  
  • Mary and I shopped in Quincy, today. It was quiet, so shopping went well. We bought a solid rubber wheelbarrow tire. Mary tried pumping up a tire on one of our wheelbarrows on Sunday, just to have it go flat, immediately. We're tired of always replacing wheelbarrow tires, so we'll try the non-pneumatic type. We also got three rolls of chicken wire fencing, plus a month's worth of groceries.
  • The pickup's heater/AC fan is making a loud noise. I suspect a mouse nest in the blower unit. We drove around Quincy with the windows rolled down. Vehicle engine noise is really loud as you motor around. I wonder what red neck asses with their stove pipe, non-muffler pickups will do when gas engines dwindle away. Will they put speakers on their jacked-in-the-air pickups so they can still drive loud rigs?
    
  • I saw the first cicada this morning. We're due to get the 13-year and 17-year cicadas this year.
    

• Thursday, 5/16: Great Spring Blossom Aromas
  
  • We're noticing more cicadas hatching out. They leave behind a complete exoskeleton on grass and tree leaves. Mary saw a robin carrying a cicada in its mouth. Insect-eating birds will be full this spring with cicadas.
    
  • We have large swamp dogwoods growing along our lane that are blooming and attracting bees of all varieties (see videos, below). You can hear a goldfinch singing in the first video. It always sounds like it's asking a question. The tiny blossoms smell like vanilla, or elderberry flowers.
    
  • Another amazing smell comes from multiflora rose blossoms. A multiflora rose grew huge in front of the electric fencer box on the southeast corner of our house. Its blossoms emit a wonderful, spicy rose perfume right now.
  • Mary cut garlic scapes, moved houseplants outside for the summer, and mended several articles of clothing.
  • I mended old chicken wire fencing that developed holes when I pulled it out of tall grass roots. I also spliced new chicken wire fencing onto the old wire, mowed the area where I'm putting the chicken wire in the near garden, and put nine more rebar posts in the ground. I'm halfway down the long north side of the garden.
    
  • I listened to the last half of the Rangers/Canes NHL playoff game. New York scored four goals in the third period to win 5-3. The Rangers advance to the Eastern Conference final. I also listened to Game 5 between the Canucks and the Oilers. Vancouver won 3-2. I got tired of constant negative comments by the Edmonton announcers, so I switched and listened to the Vancouver announcers, who gave more positive comments about the Oilers than what was coming from the Edmonton group.

Swamp dogwood blossoms on the lane attracting bees.

More blossoms with cardinals singing in the background.

• Friday, 5/17: Cool Sleeping
  
  • Mary cut more garlic scapes. All garlic plants look very good.
    
  • Mary trimmed the forsythia bush so we can walk by without ducking to go north or to the pickup. She also cut back on the Virginia creeper vines. They grew up the porch handrail, putting feeler vines out as if the plants were trying to touch you as you walked into the house. They also were halfway across the storm door. That's all gone. Mary also did in some  motherwart plants in the chicken yard to give us a better path to the coop door. Too many tall plants in the way and we're collecting chiggers, which is not good at all!
    
  • Mary took the scythe and cut tall grass in the middle section of the far garden to make hay for our chickens. She spread the grass to dry in the sun.
    
  • I took apart and cleaned the small air conditioner that cools our bedroom. It was messy with dried insect guts and dried frog bits. I call it bug bacon. After putting it back together and replacing a few rusty screws, I installed the AC in one of the bedroom windows, taped around its inside to keep out bugs and warm air, and started it up. We now can enjoy nice cool air for sleeping.
  • Missourians call them black gnats. In Minnesota, they're known as white socks. These nasty bugs are out in full force and they love me and my ears. At the end of evening chores, I put on a head net. I can't see very well out of it, but when I wear it, I don't have to constantly swat tiny gnats out of my ears that seem to ignore bug dope.
  • Cicadas are starting to sing a little bit from the trees. Their exoskeletons, that they shed after emerging from underground, are everywhere, along with holes in the ground that indicating where they emerged. (see photos, below).
    
  • After drowning in hockey for several evenings, I decided to forego the NHL, tonight. I'm glad I did. The Stars/Avalanche game went into two overtimes. Texas won and will play the winner of the Edmonton/Vancouver series.

Cicada exoskeletons left on greenery.

Holes left in the ground after cicadas emerge.

• Saturday, 5/18: First Floor Air Conditioned
  
  • A southwest wind pushed hot southern air into us, today.
  • Mary cut more garlic scapes and turned the hay to help it dry.
  • I took apart, cleaned, assembled, then installed our largest air conditioner into the west living room window. It cleaned up nicely. Six rusty screws needed replacing. It's size means it takes me longer to clean and reassemble this AC. Now our first floor is nicely air conditioned.
  • I wore a head net while working outside and laughed at gnats that couldn't get to my ears.
  • At one point I spotted a large beetle on the storm door screening that had what looked like large eyes on its back (see below). Mary identified it as a click beetle, Alaus oculatus. It gave out a large click when it jumped off the screening. Their larvae live in decaying wood, preying on the larvae of wood-boring beetles.
  • Cicadas are growing in numbers, developing a weird noise in the woods. In the morning, it resembled a leak from a propane tank. By evening, it was louder.
  • The fly tying vise showed up in today's mail. It looks extremely well built. Thank you, Mom and Katie, whose various gift monies contributed to this nice item.
    
  • I listened to Game 6 of the Edmonton/Vancouver playoff series, where the Oilers won 5-1.

  

  A large click beetle.

• Sunday, 5/19: Picking Up Hay
  
  • Mary mowed south of the far garden and around the compost bins. She also mowed down the grass between the electric and bunny fence so she had a trail to the area between the north and south sections of the far garden. It's an area we don't garden in, because it's low and water flows through during heavy rains. It's also where Mary cut tall grass to dry for hay, which she picked up and moved to the second grain bin. She put four overstuffed wheelbarrow loads of hay into the bin.
    
  • I finished splicing old to new chicken wire on the anti-bunny fence around the near garden. Then I hacksawed and pounded in 12 rebar stakes holding up chicken wire in that garden. I'm only four posts away from finishing that project. The final chores will be installing a chicken wire gate, then cutting branches into what resemble tent stakes and pounding them into the ground between the rebar stakes to hold the bottom of the chicken wire to the ground. I already see places where rabbits have pushed the bottom of installed chicken wire out to get under the fence. These additional stakes prevent bunnies from borrowing underneath the chicken wire.
    
  • I added water and vinegar to the four switchel jug insect traps in the apple trees. Enough dried molasses was in the jugs to remix into the concoction. Only the jug in the McIntosh tree contained liquid. The other three had molasses paste. I need to replenish these jugs sooner.
    
  • The cicada sound keeps getting louder from the neighboring woods. It's like a squadron of mosquitos are approaching, but the roar is deeper than a skeeter buzz.
    
  • Humidity increased in the evening. We expected storms that blew up in Kansas to get us overnight, but the weather dried up, based on radar that we saw the next morning.
    

May 6-12, 2024

Weather | 5/6, cloudy, 56°, 72° | 5/7, 0.76" rain, cloudy, 57°, 77° | 5/8, cloudy, 49°, 73° | 5/9, cloudy, 57°, 67° | 5/10, mostly to p. cloudy, 49°, 69° | 5/11, sunny, 48°, 75° | 5/12, sunny, 55°, 81° |

• Monday, 5/6: Mowing, Again!
  
  • Mary heard a yellow-billed cuckoo in the north woods for the first time this season.
  • I see lots of white blossoms in tall grass. It's too early for blackberries, so Mary thinks it's from dewberries.
    
  • Mary and I used both lawnmowers and mowed most of the rest of the yards. I put grass clipping mulch around the Empire apple tree and Mary put clippings around blueberry bushes and the small Bartlett pear tree. I mowed trails around south apple trees and west cherry trees, finishing right at sunset.
  • I watched the final period of Boston's 5-1 defeat of Florida in round two of the NHL playoffs. The Bruin's goalie, Jeremy Swayman, grew up in Anchorage. He was cut from the Kenai River Brown Bears, went on to play in Colorado, then Sioux Falls, then at the University of Maine and finally at Boston. He's very good.
  • After walking dogs tonight, we checked the recently discovered mushrooms to see if they glowed in the dark. Jack-o'-lantern mushrooms glow. These didn't glow, eliminating that possible identification. We still don't know exactly what they are.
    
  • When we went to bed a line of thunderstorms ranging from Oklahoma to North Dakota was on the west side of Missouri and approaching, so we unplugged appliances. I slept through it, but Mary woke at 2:40 a.m., checked weather radar, and discovered the storms were right on us. She said an extreme wind gust hit at 2:48 and shook the house dramatically. She was worried about the house withstanding the wind gusts after hearing the house crack. Wind lasted awhile, along with lightning and rain. She said I snored through it all. Except for oak leaves on the ground and comfrey plants flattened, everything looked fine in the morning.
    

• Tuesday, 5/7: A Day Inside
  
  • Just before sunrise, I went downstairs and plugged in all of the appliances. After plugging in the freezers, I looked out the laundry room's west window to see a buck with partially developed antlers take the top out of a volunteer cherry sapling that was near our other good cherry trees. I quickly opened the window and turned on my hat light. He, along with two other deer of varying sizes, ran away.
  • We stayed inside. Mary felt like she needed a rest. I needed inaction to settle down seed tick bites. I had one bite me seven times across my chest and armpit. I'm an itchy mess.
    
  • Mary planned the location of plants in our two gardens and did some cross stitching.
  • I brought my wine journal up-to-date.
  • A couple times a day since I fixed our mailbox I've checked at the end of our lane for horses. There are no horses whatsoever at our neighbor's corral or yard. That's a nice development.
  • We're noticing tons of small spring azure butterflies as we walk our lane.
    
  • I watched the New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in double overtime (a really long game!), and Colorado come from a 3-0 deficit to beat Texas 4-3 in overtime.
    
  • On the final dog walk, we heard several frogs singing away, along with one lone toad.
    

• Wednesday, 5/8: Mowing & Hockey
  
  • Mary heard a wood thrush in the north woods for the first time this year.
  • I ordered coffee beans and Red Rose tea online. We need our caffeine! Our local Sam's Club doesn't stock the coffee we like, so we order it online. By the end of the day, we got a notice that it's coming from Springfield, MO, and will be in Quincy, tomorrow. A similar circumstance occurs with the tea bags. Walmart quit stocking Red Rose tea three years ago, so we order 12 boxes, each with 100 bags per box, every year, directly from the Red Rose Tea website.
  • I used the old mower and mowed inside and outside of the near garden, along with the trail to the far garden, and an area between the far garden and the compost bins. I finished mulching around the Empire apple tree.
    
  • I watched two NHL playoff games: Florida beat Boston, 6-1, and Vancouver beat Edmonton, 5-4. The third period of the Panthers/Bruins game was mainly a fist fight. The Canucks, down 4-1, came back with three goals in the third period to win it.
    

• Thursday, 5/9: Lots of Grass
  
  • I mowed around the garlic beds at the south end of the far garden and put mulch around a small cherry tree next to the Empire apple tree. 
  • Grass growth is phenomenal this spring, probably due to a good amount of rainfall. The National Weather Service has us as abnormally dry. Hogwash!!! All ponds are high and boots are necessary for walks, due to moist ground.
    
  • Mary mowed the lane.
  • I started straightening the near garden corner posts, which always lean inward after winter and spring moisture softens the ground.
  • A few drops of rain fell, so I jumped in with the new mower and helped Mary finish mowing the lane. The rain never amounted to much.
  • I went back to the near garden corner posts. I just have one left before I start tightening electric fence wires, then installing the chicken netting inner fence to keep out rabbits. We have gobs of them that we see every day, especially tiny bunnies.
    
  • Mary heard a Baltimore oriole singing in the pecan trees when I got the mail in the evening.
    
  • I listened to a few minutes of two hockey games. The New York Rangers beat the Carolina Canes, 3-2, and Dallas beat Colorado, 5-3. The Rangers have not lost a single game in these playoffs.
  • Below are a couple spring flower photos.

Tiny wood sorrel flowers in our west yard.

Blackberry blossoms next to the north yard.

• Friday, 5/10: An Amazing Aurora Show
  
  • We woke to light fog. Clouds set in, but cleared to partly cloudy skies.
  • Mary mowed most of the north yard.
  • I straightened the southeast corner post of the near garden by first loosening all 11 electric fence wires, then cutting out wire tensioners between brace posts and the corner post. Then I pulled the corner post straight while pounding in pieces of brick around its base, repositioned the two brace posts, and added the four tensioner wires and tightened them up. I tightened all 11 electric fence wires, one at a time. Finally, I removed the old baling twine at the top of the fence and added to a new orange baling twine. This increases the height of the fence. I moved the two large rolls of chicken wire back inside the near garden area and mowed a single strip of grass really short where the chicken wire/bunny fence is going.
  • I listened to the 4-3 overtime Edmonton win over Vancouver in the NHL playoffs. That series is tied 1-1.
    
  • We tried the first bottle of 2023 apple wine. It's got a good apple taste. A little lower alcohol level brings out the flavor.
    
  • We watched the aurora for 90 minutes. The strongest solar storm since 2003 pushed viewable northern lights way south. We saw reds and greens that filled more than half of the northern sky from west to east horizons. It pulsated in rapid waves. I've seen sharper, brighter auroras in Alaska and the Yukon, but never auroras the filled so much of the sky and not not with so many pulsating waves. At times, the waves occurred approximately one per second. We also noticed the season's first fireflies. We saw bats fly overhead and we watched three meteors streak across the sky. It was an amazing show. We got to bed at 2 a.m.!!!
    

• Saturday, 5/11: Bunny Fence Going Up
  
  • Mary spotted a great crested flycatcher, the first of the season, while taking the morning dog walk.
  • At noon, we both watched a female monarch butterfly laying eggs on newly sprouted milkweed plants along the lane.
  • Most of the seeds that Mary planted for the garden have sprouted in their containers. The potting soil she used was probably acidic. Tiny amounts of wood ash that she applied is turning yellow leaves green.
  • Mary finished mowing the north lawn.
  • I started putting up the chicken wire as a fence against bunnies in the near garden. I stretched out the old chicken wire around the edge of the garden. I'm enclosing a larger area, so I found a roll of new, but unused, chicken wire in the machine shed and added it to the old wire. I then hacksawed rebar lengths and pounded in nine posts every four feet, getting about one-third down the south side. There's a lot more fencing to put up.
    
  • A Mother's Day gift from Katie arrived via FedEx. In texts to Katie, Mary found out that Katie is vacationing in Argentina and Chili, right now.
    
  • During a late night dog walk, we noticed just a very faint northern lights glow to the northwest, but it really wasn't much.
    

• Sunday, 5/12: Scything Grass & Installing Bunny Fence
  
  • Mary cut several scapes off the garlic plants, which means we'll be harvesting garlic in a couple weeks.
    
  • Mary scythed the remaining tall grass left around the compost bins and in the south side of the far garden. She piled some of the cut grass near the compost bins, but left most of it on the ground inside the garden.
    
  • I kept working at installing the chicken wire for the rabbit fence in the near garden. I finished the long south side, installing 24 32-inch rebar posts. Three posts went in the short east end and I started down the long north side. I was stalled at the end of the day by cutting out a ripped section and splicing the chicken wire back together.
    
  • Bill called Mary wishing her a happy Mother's Day. He's finding work to do, like cleaning out inventoried items on their computer, or cleaning the parking lot. He's got a guaranteed paycheck until June 28th.
    
  • I talked to mom. She said the Wooden Nickle restaurant has been closed for over a month, due to inside renovations. Nita Crocket's son and daughter-in-law bought it. They're going to hire other people as cooks. Jerry Curtiss is erecting a huge building where Community Auto used to be that takes up all space, including the former parking lot.
    
  • I listened to Game 3 of the Edmonton/Vancouver NHL series. The Canucks won 4-3 and lead the series two games to one.
  • Mary heard several whip-poor-wills calling through the night with the living room window open letting evening air into the house.