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.