July 29-August 4, 2024

Weather | 7/29, p. cloudy, 0.07" rain, 65°, 89° | 7/30, p. cloudy, 0.06" rain, 69°, 85°| 7/31, 0.27" rain, T-storm to sunny, 69°, 87° | 8/1, 1.18" rain overnight, sunny, 69°, 85° | 8/2, p. cloudy, 64°, 87° | 8/3, sunny, 67°, 89° | 8/4, sunny, 65°, 90° |

• Monday, 7/29: More Gardening
  
  • We experienced a 5 a.m. thunder shower, but it was really brief. Mary saw lightning, then turned on her cell phone to check the weather radar. She saw an L-shaped storm on the radar and we were right at the point of the L. Mary went back to bed and then heard rain pelting the roof. She said it quit right after it started, "like someone turned the faucet on and off." An aftereffect of the storm was clearer air. Bill said his early morning walk was really enjoyable, due to the good air.
    
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 2 p.m.
  • I pounded more stakes into the ground along the chicken wire fence in the near garden. The ground is exceedingly hard, with a lack of moisture. The west side is done and I'm partway down the north side.
    
  • Mary watered the near garden, then planted 10 tomato plants in the west row of the far garden. They are tall and gangly, so she buried several stems. Tomatoes are great at developing roots in buried parts of the plant, thereby increasing their viability. She has 20 more tomato and tomatillo plants to transplant.
  • On the last dog walk, the air was supremely humid. The outside temperature was 80° at bedtime, so the bedroom AC stayed on through the night.
    

• Tuesday, 7/30: Transplanting is Done
  
  • Our weather prediction of a 93° high didn't occur because thunderstorm clouds blocked the morning sun. We got a little bit of rain during a noontime thunderstorm.
  • Mary transplanted 20 tomato and tomatillo plants in two rows of the near far garden. Plants she transplanted yesterday look good. All transplanting is now finished. All that's left is to plant a row of beans. We're very late, but hopefully fall frost will hold off and we'll get some garden items.
    
  • I sawed up two little walnut trees and cut most of the trunks and branches into stakes. One of the trees sprouted up next to the south porch and the other was close to the Granny Smith apple tree. I drove stakes into the base of chicken wire fencing, finishing the south end and going partway up the east side of the far garden. I now have seven four-foot sections left on the east side and six sections left on the south side to finish staking. The clay soil is hard, so after cussing while smashing the tops of several stakes, I watered the ground where stakes were going in, waited a bit, then easily drove the stakes into place.
  • We saw five chimney swifts flying about in the evening. They might be departing soon.
    

• Wednesday, 7/31: Done Planting
  
  • A lightning flash woke me at 6 a.m., so I unplugged appliances. We stayed in bed, because it was raining and thundering outside. Consequently, we were late at getting up this morning.
    
  • I cut up coppiced walnut saplings growing from the stump of a tree I cut down last year located just west of house. After cutting these pieces into stakes, I finished driving stakes under the chicken wire fence in the near far garden. That job is all done.
    
  • Mary planted a double row of beans in the second row of the far garden and carefully mulched either side of each seed row with grass she mowed from between the garden rows. The grass mulch will hopefully preserve moisture for the seeds. We are finally done with planting in the garden.
    
  • Our local crop duster has flown his plane well after sunset for the past two days. He flies just above treetops all of the time and often buzzes over us just above our rooftop. When he crashes, which he will with all of the chances he takes, we hope it's not near us.
  • We chased away red-bellied woodpeckers all day as they landed in the Empire apple tree. Mary makes a racket by rubbing watering cans together. I usually resort to firecrackers. My fruit spraying regimen is almost non-existent this year and the woodpeckers are going after bugs in the apples.
    
  • I picked five apples off the ground from under the Empire tree that dropped, due to wind, today.
  • A nighttime look at the radar indicated an approaching storm, so we let the dogs out in the front lawn before the rain hit. Lightning was flashing in the west. When we went to bed, lightning lit up the windows and thunder roared overhead. The resulting rain amounted to over an inch. It's the most rain we've received in a day since 7/3, when we got over two inches. This rain is great for our recent transplants and new seeds in the garden.
    

• Thursday, 8/1: Day Off
  
  • After spending several days sweating to the oldies in gardens, Mary and I decided to take the day off and stayed inside soaking up air conditioned coolness.
    
  • Mary did a bunch of cross stitching.
  • After turning my brain into vegetable mush with online drivel, I went outside looking for strawberry shoots, then got Mary's help to show me where she saw one in the past. We found four new shoots. I put potting soil in Styrofoam cups and rooted these four strawberry shoots. When the shoots are established, I'll transplant them into the four buckets of soil where plants died.
    
  • I looked at all of the garden plants. Near garden plants all look great. Newly transplanted tomatoes are thin, but they need a few days after transplanting to recover. As Mary said, "At this stage, if they're alive, it's a success."
    
  • I did battle all afternoon with woodpeckers trying to attack the apples in the Empire tree. In the morning, Mary watched a phoebe chase a woodpecker off of that tree.
  • We tasted an apple that fell. It tasted good, but needs a few more days to be fully ripe.
    
  • In the evening, right after lighting off a firecracker to chase away a woodpecker, I saw a luna moth fly away. I think the loud bang startled it.
  • Mary spotted a mulberry tree among the east yard cedar trees with her binoculars that's loaded with nearly ripe red fruit (see photo, below). It's bearing fruit weeks late, which is quite unusual. Mulberries usually ripen at the same time that cherries ripen in June.
    

  

  Nearly ripe mulberries in August, instead of June.

• Friday, 8/2: Cutting Weeds & Grass
  • I cut down emerging mulberry stalks growing off the stump next to the electrical outlet on the south wall of the house where we plug in the electric fencer. Mulberry sprouts new branches from a stump within just a few days. It's a real weed.
  • While Mary made flour tortillas, I watered the bean seeds. Mary watered them again in the afternoon and reported that all plants, except one tomatillo, are looking great.
    
  • Mary mowed the near garden, adding grass mulch to all near garden plants.
  • I cut down weeds and tall grass in the chicken yard. Smart weed took over a big swath of the north yard, where we'll let out chicks. These weeds were flopped over and hard to get through. I took several cooling down breaks while doing this job. I also notice that four-foot high chicken wire fencing is down on about a third of the west side. It's amazing that hens don't get loose, because they could walk right through that area. I took down about half of the tall weeds in the south chicken yard. I also removed the weeds I cut in that area. I'm trying to get the yards ready for letting out chicks. We usually let them outside when they're three to four weeks old. They will be eight weeks old on Monday, 8/5.
  • We notice that chimney swifts are gone. They were last seen on Wednesday, 7/31, when five of them were zipping around the house. The swifts are now on their way to the Amazon rain forest.
  • The woodpecker battle continues over our apples.
    

• Saturday, 8/3: Chicken Yard Ready For Chicks
  
  • Mary did three loads of laundry. The last load was on the line when suddenly she heard thunder from a cloud that quickly developed. We got that load off the line right away. A few drops of rain fell, but nothing measurable.
  • Mary mowed a little more in the far garden, adding mulch to plants. She watered both gardens. She reports that all plants look good.
  • I collected cut weeds in the north chicken yard and threw them over the north fence. Then, I mowed that same yard. I clipped tree branches so we could access the north chicken yard gate next to the coop and then added three strands of wire where the chicken wire attaches to the post at that gate. I added bricks along the base of the gate. I drove two metal posts into the ground at the northwest area of the north yard and tied up loose chicken wire fencing. Tomorrow, we'll let the chicks out in the north chicken yard. 
  • Today was a day to work 30 minutes, then spend 45 minutes inside cooling down.
    
  • We saw chimney swifts in the late afternoon, but we don't think they are the birds that nest here. Our chimney is now an overnight swift hotel.
  • Today, our son, Bill, is 31. He and his friend, Mike, celebrated both of their birthdays. They went bowling, among other activities. The bowling alley offered an hourly rate, so they bowled five games in one hour, which equaled 200 bowls, or 3.33 bowls per minute.
    
  • Ironweed is blooming (see photo, below). It dresses the place up with bright pink/purple flowers.

Ironweed flowers showing off.

Ironweed flowers just south of the big Bartlett pear tree.

• Sunday, 8/4: Picked All Empire Apples
  
  • First thing this morning, I removed old dog pad filler that I use to insulate the north chicken door in the coop. I also unscrewed the board off the inside of that door, opened it, and let the chicks go outside. As usual, they were timid about the idea. Two hours later, four chicks were outside. In the afternoon, about a dozen were enjoying the outdoors. Eventually, they'll all be pouring out the door in the morning.
    
  • Mary finished mowing the near far garden. The latest transplanted items are all perking up. The garden looks much better without tall grass sitting everywhere. Acorn squash plants in the near garden are more than double in size compared to a week ago. They're also loaded with buds.
    
  • I picked all apples off the Empire tree. This year's number is 281, which is 48 percent of last year's total of 589. This year's apples are bigger than those picked last year. I look forward to seeing the number of pounds this year's apple crop produces.
  • I laughed in the evening when a woodpecker landed in the top of the Empire apple tree and looked around with disgust at not one single apple to attack in the tree...ha, ha, ha!
    

July 22-28, 2024

Weather | 7/22, p. cloudy, 58°, 83° | 7/23, sunny, 61°, 87° | 7/24, sunny, 66°, 87° | 7/25, murky sunny, 68°, 87° | 7/26, sunny, 68°, 86° | 7/27, p. cloudy, 65°, 83° | 7/28, p. cloudy, 70°, 87° |

• Monday, 7/22: Mower Fix
  
  • Mary mowed the lane.
    
  • I fixed the new lawnmower's rear flap by sawing off a piece of threaded rod slightly longer than the original rod, sliding it into place and securing each end with lock nuts. Tightening these nuts pulls the plastic supports that hold the rod into a more upright position and keeps the rod from sliding out and popping the hinge spring loose. It works beautifully. Mr. Plastic, the engineer who designed this lawnmower, should have thought of this issue.
    
  • I whacked down tall grass that once grew on both sides of the chicken wire fence in the south end of the far garden. Then, I mowed it all up and put mulch in the near garden where it is wearing thin around plants.The next chore is putting the chicken wire fence back into place.
  • I saw a hummingbird at a comfrey plant near the south porch of the house.
    

• Tuesday, 7/23: Green Garden Plants
  
  • Mary mowed the inside of the near garden and mulched with the grass clippings around all of the garden plants (see photos, below). She also watered them. They all have nice dark green leaves and look great. Mary said, "That's good compost and better than anything you can buy at the store."
  • I worked at installing the chicken wire fence around the south side of the far garden, or as Mary calls it, the near far garden. She calls the north side of the far garden the far far garden. Half of the south side, all of the west side and a beginning of the north side of the chicken wire fence is standing. I'm pushing to get it all done so the remaining garden plants can go in the ground.
    
  • We noticed a lot of woodpeckers, today. There were red-bellied woodpeckers in the Empire apple tree, a northern flicker calling from the north woods, and a pileated woodpecker banging and calling from the southwest woods.
  • We have a horde of bunnies in all sizes in our yard. They're fine, as long as they stay out of our gardens, which is why we need a chicken wire fence. I watched a small bunny hop through the electric fence, twice, but the chicken wire kept it out of the near garden.
  • The air quality is poor. On our nighttime dog walk, we smelled wildfire smoke. The sky was so murky, the moon was orange and stars went unseen. It was like we were walking on an alien planet.

Pepper plants are thriving in the near garden.

Acorn squash (foreground) & strawberry tubs/buckets (background).

• Wednesday, 7/24: More Garden Work
  
  • Mary saw a pair of hairy woodpeckers in the west yard when she opened the living room curtains first thing in the morning. It's the first time this year seeing this type of bird.
  • Mary pulled tall grass out of the west row of the far garden and finished cleaning it up. She is in the middle of next row. These garden rows grow a nice, healthy crop of grass when left alone for spring and part of the summer.
    
  • I mended two areas of chicken wire fencing on the north end of the near far garden. One was where I once spliced two sections of fencing together. It came completely undone and might have been an area rabbits were getting into the garden last year. Another was rusty and tore apart when I pulled out the fence. I didn't get very far in putting up the fence, due to these two repair jobs and the fact that hot temperatures meant more time inside to cool off.
    
  • Air quality is at 86, or moderate. It means looking up in the sky shows off a completely murky color, or a milky golden orange sky, instead of a bright blue sky. On our last dog walk, it was so humid that our clothes were instantly damp, yet the grass and our boots were dry. That was odd.
    
  • It's really hot in Montana. Mom reported that the high in Circle was 106°. She said she works the garden between 5:30-7:30 a.m., then spends the rest of the day inside in air conditioning.
    

• Thursday, 7/25: Chasing Animals Away From Apple Tree
  
  • Mary chased a deer away from under the Empire apple tree first thing in the morning. After breakfast, I chased two more deer away from the same spot. I also used firecrackers a couple times to chase woodpeckers out of that tree. There are several red apples filling the Empire tree.
    
  • Mary mowed the east yard in front of the house and put grass clippings on the west row of the far garden.
  • I installed more chicken wire fencing in the far garden, turning the northeast corner of that garden section and almost finishing the east side. I had to make several hole repairs in the fencing.
  • Mary watered all plants in the near garden. Cucumbers are getting ready to run. The sweet potatoes grew a foot in just two days and have already started to run. All near garden plants have dark green leaves.
  • Today was the first day in several weeks that the crop duster airplane was not taking off and landing at the dairy's airport, which is a mile west of us. He often buzzes by very low right over our house, which quickly becomes tiresome.
    
  • We saw a very dark orange moon on our nighttime dog walk. Each evening and night, we smell wood smoke.
    

• Friday, 7/26: An Apple Eating Deer
  
  • Mary banged on the window when she opened the curtains on the south-facing living room windows and chased a deer away. Then, while eating breakfast, I saw a deer run by while I looked through that same window. It was a doe that was eating an apple as it walked away. Mary saw  a deer during the day, and chased away a deer in the evening. She thinks it's the same deer.
    
  • Mary sorted out bad onions and potatoes stored in the back porch closet.
  • She also filled holes left by the Suburban's tires sinking into the ground. Old bricks from redoing the chimney four years ago were perfect at eating up space in those holes. Now, when Bill shows up tomorrow for a visit, his car won't drop out of sight.
    
  • Mary also mowed the area between the woodshed and the machine shed and put mulch in the west row of the far garden.
    
  • I drove to Quincy to get meds and pick up a few things. The Petco visit took time, since old co-workers wanted to talk. They asked me if I was bored at home and if I wanted to return to work at Petco. I told them I wasn't bored. I forgot my hacksaw, so before buying 20-foot long rebar rods, I bought a new hacksaw in order to cut them up to fit in the pickup. All stores were busy with customers. I returned home 4 p.m., a lot later than I planned.
  • I only got part of a 3-4 foot long bottom repair job done on the chicken wire fence, today. There wasn't enough time to accomplish more work.
    

• Saturday, 7/27: Chicken Wire Fence Installed
  
  • Bill showed up around 9 a.m. He said he couldn't sleep, so he decided to hit the road early this morning.
  • After washing a load of laundry, Bill took a long nap.
  • Mary watered the near garden, discovered more aphids, and nailed them with a Dawn/water spray, along with the ants that were farming the aphids. Blossoms are showing up on the strawberries, along with one runner.
  • I finished installing the chicken wire fence and gate on the near far garden. Then I pounded stakes in the ground to hold down the bottom of the chicken wire fence on the south side and around the southeast and southwest corners. Cloud cover meant I only took one break to cool off.
  • We received an immeasurable bit of rain around chore time. It felt nice and cool, which helped.
  • We suspect some of the chimney swifts left for their winter home in the Amazon jungle. We only see and hear two swifts flying overhead.
  • Mary made a pistachio tort and we celebrated Bill's birthday, early. His 31st birthday is on August 3rd.
  • Bill picked out two movies that we watched. They were the 1999 film, October Sky, and the 2004 movie, Shrek 2.
    

• Sunday, 7/28: Third Racking of Cherry Wine
  
  • Bill helped me rack the cherry wine for the third time. The first batch has a specific gravity of 0.993 and the second batch is at 0.995. I didn't check the pH and as Bill said, "It's acidic," so that's good enough. A solid layer of fines lined the bottom of all containers. Six gallons in batch 1 lost one cup of liquid through racking. Batch 2 lost less than a cup, so Mary, Bill, and I each tasted it. This is good wine, even though it's young. It's a lot darker than past cherry wines I've made. Remaining liquid of each batch went into a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, and a 1.5-liter wine bottle. We didn't add Kmeta.
    
  • Mary mowed part of the west lawn and finished mulching the west row of the far garden. She also pulled the rest of the tall grass and weeds in the next row.
    
  • Mary, Bill and I played Michigan Rummy and ate two pizzas. Mary made the pizza dough and Bill prepared the pizzas. Bill won the game. Mary was second and I secured the loser column. We had a lot of fun.
    
  • After pizza, and during the game, we drank a 1.5-liter bottle of 2022 autumn olive wine. As Bill said, "It was good, then it wasn't good." The wine seemed great at first, immediately after eating pizza, but as the night wore on, the taste was too strong. I make other wines that are tastier, like cherry wine. I won't make more autumn olive wine.
    

July 15-21, 2024

Weather | 7/15, sunny, 73°, 93° | 7/16, 0.02" rain, cloudy, 70°, 85° | 7/17, sunny, 65°, 80° | 7/18, sunny, 54°, 77° | 7/19, p. cloudy, 55°, 80° | 7/20, cloudy, 58°, 75° | 7/21, p. cloudy, 60°, 80° |

• Monday, 7/15: Hot Humidity
  
  • At daybreak, I spotted a lump under the Empire apple tree. After looking through binoculars, I discovered a raccoon was sitting there eating a couple apples that fell under the tree. It lumbered off to the south.
    
  • It was really hot today. The thermometer reached 93°. We spent more time inside, cooling off, than outside in the heat. It only takes about 30 minutes before clothes are totally soaked.
    
  • I whacked down tall grass, then mowed it up on the east side of the far garden between the electric and chicken wire fences. That part of the job is done. I finished mulching the small apple trees with the grass clippings.
    
  • Mary mowed part of the north yard.
  • Dense humidity and upper atmosphere smoke put a strong orange hue on the setting sun that gave the sky a Halloween appearance.
    
  • Storms rumbled through Iowa and Illinois, north of us. We read that tornadoes touched down in Des Moines and Chicago. On our last dog walk, continuous lighting lit up the sky east of us as those storms moved on a southeastern track into Illinois. One 10-minute dog walk gave our clothes a damp feel, due to the high humidity in the outside air.
    

• Tuesday, 7/16: Dwindling Blackberries & Marquette Visit
  
  • Lightning flashes through our east bedroom window woke Mary at 5 a.m. She checked weather radar images online and saw a quick explosion of a storm line go in an unusual east to west development, starting at Hannibal. The front moved south and didn't affect us.
    
  • While walking dogs on their morning outing, about 15-20 Canada geese flew overhead, skimming just over the fields and trees.
    
  • I clipped weeds and trees growing just under the electric wire fence line of the far garden. Next, I removed support posts on the southwest corner post of the far garden and pounded them back in at a 90-degree angle. I had to replace one of the support posts, because I broke off the old one right at ground level. It took a great deal of grunting and prying with a spud bar and a mattock to get the broken steel post piece out of the ground. As a result, I only got one of the four corner posts done.
    
  • Mary picked blackberries and finished off our 14th quart, and put a third of a quart into the 15th bag. Blackberry numbers are dwindling. She says when she's done with the current bag, blackberry picking season is over.
  • When I got the mail, David Marquette drove by in a three-wheeler pulling two tiny trailers and we visited. He broke his ankle in March and his fix was wearing a leather boot tied at the top with several shoe strings. He never saw a doctor, of course. He got into an argument with Ben Woodruff, who owns land west of us. David had a radio on while tilling his garden. Woodruff had turkey hunters in land south of David. Woodruff first called David's father, Ansel, and chewed him out, then dropped by and told David off. Woodruff told David he bought hundreds of acres to put hunters out there and David is blasting ZZ Top from his radio. I told David what he does on his land is his business. I would have told Woodruff to stuff it. David is having the same problem we're having. Woodruff puts hunting stands up right on property lines. David is rebuilding a barbed wire fence on his south property line. We should do the same on our west property line.
    

• Wednesday, 7/17: Eye Exam & Shopping
  
  • I went to an eye exam at 10:15 a.m. at the Quincy Medical Group Eye and Vision Institute in Quincy. Vision in my right eye is off by just a little, but the best the optometrist could correct vision in the left eye was to 20/50. The optometrist suspects cataracts and lined me up for a cataract exam and consultation on August 5 at 3 p.m. The high level of astigmatism in my eyes means cataract removal needs to be done and new lenses placed in both eyes during surgery to correct them to good vision where all I might need is reading glasses. That will be a real treat. So with that development, I'm not getting new glasses at this time.
    
  • We shopped for the rest of the day. Mary bought a lamp at Goodwill for just $5.94 that will help her while reading in the living room. I found a threaded steel rod, washers and lock nuts for fixing the new lawnmower's back flap. We got home around 6 p.m.
    
  • We watched the 1994 movie, Maverick, that we found today in the Walmart $5 bin. We once owned it as a VHS tape. Now we have it as a DVD. It's a fun show.
    
  • It was cooler, today, which is a relief from temperatures in the 90s.
    

• Thursday, 7/18: Blackberry Picking is Done
  
  • I forgot to mention yesterday that the main reason for the eye exam, which was to check on any diabetic eye damage, was good. Eye pressures were perfect, so I don't have glaucoma. A thorough check of the retina and optical nerve showed no damage.
  • Mary picked the last blackberries, filling the 15th overstuffed quart bag in the freezer. She said several unripe red berries from her last visit were gone today. She found several berries that looked good on top, but after turning them over, she'd see a whole side of nothing but bare seeds. The latest hot spell dried up several blackberries.
  • I finished straightening up the last three corner posts of the far garden. I can tell what happens. With the electric fence turned off in late winter/early spring, deer trample fence wires and easily pull corner posts inward due to the soft ground. The only answer would be to get 10-foot long corner posts and bury over four feet into the ground. Cooler temperatures, today, meant I could finish the job without going inside to cool off every 30 minutes.
    
  • Mary planted Jet Star tomato plants in the near garden where corn was going to be planted. It's too late for corn to mature in time. Jet Star plants grow into with a more compact stature, thereby fitting better into the near garden's smaller space.
  • I went around the entire far garden while pulling the bottom electric fence wire out from under grass, dead leaves, and dirt.
  • Woodpeckers are hitting apples in the two trees producing apples south of the house. They sure are a nuisance.
  • Mary had a Henslow's sparrow talking to her as she picked blackberries. We heard them this spring. During the cicada eruption, we didn't hear this sparrow. Now, we're hearing them, again.
  • I finished the Jack London biography. It was interesting.
  • Mary tried her new reading light and it worked very well.
    

• Friday, 7/19: Wienie Roast
  
  • Mary mowed the west yard. It was hard going, due to thigh-high chicory stalks. She had to go over some areas twice. She put grass clippings around the two apple trees in the west yard and mulched the blueberry bushes. She also gave the chicks and the hens some clippings that both sets of chickens devoured.
    
  • I took the string trimmer to under the bottom electric fence wire of the far garden. Dusty conditions meant I was a dirt bomb when I finished that job. Next, I tighten electric wires, turn on electricity to the far garden, then tackle a grass-infested chicken wire fence.
    
  • We built an outdoor fire and had a wienie roast. We also played a game of washers where Mary beat me, soundly. I did hit one bull's-eye, which was my first, ever. We heard the normal nighttime sounds of tree frogs and barred owls. During twilight, we heard wood thrushes, tanagers, and cardinals tweeting in nearby trees. We suspect cardinals are concerned about fledglings moving about. The moon rose to the southeast and we actually scooted closer to the fire as cool air breathed on our backs. It was a perfect night for an outdoor fire.
    
  • We wanted to drink a bottle of perry at the wienie roast, but I accidentally grabbed a bottle of 2023 pear wine and opened it before I realized what it was. It tasted as it should...like pears. I think it will be even better around Christmas, when it has aged a year since it was bottled.
  • On the east side of the north yard is a mass of wild bergamot, also known as bee balm, or horse-mint (see photo, below). It's a major attractant to butterflies and bumble bees.

  

  Wild bergamot next to the north lawn.

• Saturday, 7/20: Far Garden Electrified
  • The local media reports that we're seeing below normal temperatures for this time of the year. Great! I'll take cooler temperatures anytime.
    
  • This morning, we watched four World War II fighter planes flying north in formation. Mary looked online and the Oshkosh airshow is next week in Wisconsin. They're probably flying to that event.
    
  • Mary mowed the far north yard, where lots of rag weed is growing. It's time to knock that stuff out before it starts pollinating.
    
  • I tightened all 11 fence wires surrounding the far garden. Then, I tied three old garden hose pieces around metal corner support posts that were too close to electric fence wires, so the wires won't short out. I moved electric fence insulators so that all were at the same height on all of the posts. Finally, I hooked up power and tested the fence. It's now charged to the far garden.
    
  • A yellow-billed cuckoo started calling from the north woods. We haven't heard it in quite a while.
  • I kept hearing field sparrows throughout the day. I call them the ping-pong bird, as the sount of THIS VIDEO demonstrates.
    
  • I finished reading the book, Co. Aytch, the Civil War memoir by Sam Watkins. It's a strong reminder of the horrors of war. Watkins was quoted throughout Ken Burns' The Civil War documentary.
    

• Sunday, 7/21: Pulling Chicken Wire Fence
  
  • Mary raked grass that she mowed yesterday and used it to mulch the little Bartlett pear tree, with the last load going under the Empire apple tree.
  • I removed the chicken wire fence in the south end of the near garden, including all of the posts supporting it. This was a tedious and tough job. I pulled tall grass woven into the fence through both ways to free every inch of it. Posts were so stuck in the ground that eventually I resorted to pouring water at their base to free them from the hard and dry clay soil. It took all day just to pull the chicken wire fence free. I was really sore by day's end.
  • I found a perfect bird's nest nestled in the tall grass next to the chicken wire (see photo, below). Mary thinks it's a sparrow's nest. Grass is intricately woven into a perfect circle.
  • While Mary watered the near garden, she found an aphid army. They were all over tomato and pepper plants. Mounds of them were up and down foxtail grass blades. She sprayed them all with a Dawn soap solution. It might take several sprays to knock the aphid horde back.
  • Woodpeckers continue to knock away at our apples. Firecrackers came out today. A quick bang from one firecracker sends them off to the west woods.

  

  A nicely woven sparrow's nest.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

July 8-14, 2024

Weather | 7/8, p. cloudy, 66°, 85° | 7/9, cloudy, 0.06" rain, 68°, 73° | 7/10, sunny, 0.13" rain, 63°, 85° | 7/11, p. cloudy, 61°, 81° | 7/12, p. cloudy, 61°, 87° | 7/13, sunny, 69°, 87° | 7/14, 0.01" rain to sun, 73°, 90° |

• Monday, 7/8: Berry Picking & Small Shopping Trip
  
  • Our chicks are a month old today. I need to clean up the north chicken run and let them outside, soon.
  • Dead vehicles were lined up for so long that it seems weird to be down to just one good vehicle sitting outside. I need to locate gravel to fill in the holes where the Suburban's tires sank down into the ground.
    
  • Mary picked just over a quart of blackberries. I was wrong on my last grand total assessment. We now have 10 quarts with today's work.
  • Mary had a broad-winged hawk flew over her head and landed in a tree in the southwest timber. She heard a wood thrush singing in the north woods as she picked blackberries in the north field. We saw several chimney swifts and barn swallows eating bugs while flying over our house before dark. They are the reason our mosquito population stays low.
    
  • I drove to Montecello, our county seat, and dropped off the lower portion of the titles for the Buick and the Suburban that we recently sold to the junk dealer. In Missouri, you're supposed to get them into the license people within 30 days after selling any vehicle. Today was the 30th day after selling the Buick, so I just made it.
  • I then drove to Quincy to pick up half of my medications, chicken and cat food, and a couple grocery items. The Mississippi River is very high and just under the low part of the Memorial Bridge, which is the older of the two bridges and handles eastbound traffic going into Quincy. If the river's water level goes up a couple more feet, it will flood that bridge.
  • Thunderstorm clouds developed to the south and east at sunset and were illuminated by the setting sun. Mary took photos of the clouds (see photo, below). The cloud shown here was deep into Illinois. Mary took the photo from our second story bedroom window.
    

  

  Rising cloud illuminated by the setting sun.

• Tuesday, 7/9: Nice Light Rain
  • Based on weather radar maps, we were on the northernmost edge of weather created by Hurricane Beryl. Rain started at noon and lasted about two hours, then fell sporadically  throughout the afternoon. This is perfect weather for recently transplanted garden plants in the near garden.
    
  • As Mary made vegetable soup, I updated and balanced the checkbook. It was a quiet indoor day.
  • Mary and I toured the pear trees. We actually have a handful of Bartlett pears growing on the east side of the large tree...just enough for eating. There are no pears on the Kieffer pear tree. All pear trees have extensive rust on leaves. A small number of leaves show fire blight damage, but nothing as severe as what they experienced last year.
  • I found one apple on the ground under the Empire apple tree. I cut it in half to discover coddling moth larvae damage on half of the apple. That's probably why the tree dropped the apple. The other half was good, so Mary and I each ate a quarter. It was green, quite tart, yet very tasty.
    
  • We watched a double rainbow develop and disappear just prior to sunset (see video and photos, below). A low sun shining through falling rain made for a high semi-circle of double color. The photos and video don't do it justice.
    
  • I watched a couple videos on bud grafting. One was by a British conservation group. The other was by a college professor in Quebec. Bud grafting is not too hard. I need to buy a couple more grafting items. I plan on grafting McIntosh buds onto two of the Antonovka rootstock saplings. It's supposed to be done in late summer.
  
  
  A double rainbow just before sunset.
  
  
  

A double rainbow viewed from our porch.

The same rainbow a few minutes later.

• Wednesday, 7/10: More Blackberries
  
  • During an early morning bathroom jaunt, I looked out the south sunroom windows to see a deer munching on our Empire apple tree, so I ran outside and chased it away.
    
  • With thunderstorm predictions flagged for the late afternoon, Mary and I decided to hit the blackberry picking scene right away. She went east and north to pick blackberries and I went west and south. Together, we then got the three remaining patches in the north field. We put two more quarts in the freezer, giving us 12 bags of 2024 blackberries.
  • Rain started to fall when we went to the north blackberry patches. Our wet shirts felt nice and cool after picking berries in the blazing sun.
    
  • I spooked up a doe and a fawn when I went to the end of the west field. The doe snorted at me as her baby joined her. Maybe it was the same deer munching on our apple tree early this morning.
    
  • Eastern phoebe fledglings are peering in our house windows while perched on Virginia Creeper vines, which is driving our cats nuts.
    
  • We experienced a steady rain for about an hour in the late afternoon.
    

• Thursday, 7/11: Mowing & Knocking Down Tall Grass
  
  • Mary mowed the lane. This is always a hot job. A quarter of a mile is a long distance to mow. The lower half of our lane gets no wind, which is perfect when snow is blowing in the winter, but not good on a hot and humid day.
    
  • I put the steel blade on the Stihl trimmer and whacked down tall grass, persimmon saplings, and lespedeza weeds around the outside of the far garden electric fence. It's about an eight- to 10-foot swath on the west and north sides of the garden and a five-foot swipe down the east side. That equals a lot of movement back and forth with the trimmer and sore muscles in the end.
    
  • When I walked to the mailbox for the mail, a doe snorted at me midway down the lane. They have a loud snort, like an out-of-tune wind instrument.
  • Mary and I stood in driveway east of the house and watched chimney swifts fly about. Whenever they fly close to one another they let out a loud chatter. Chimney swifts are fun to watch.
    
  • We have a white-feathered young cockerel that is never afraid and gets into everything while we're attending to the chickens. Mary calls him Woodstock, after the Peanuts cartoon character, because he's constantly cheeping. Put feed in the feeder and he jumps up on the top edge to peer into the feeder. Set a feed bag on the floor and he nips at it, which moves the bag, and scares the other chickens. Put your finger in front of him and he bites it. He's unique, but, no, we're not keeping him.
    

• Friday, 7/12: Berries & Weeds...It's Our Life
  
  • Mary was back on the berry trail and added another stuffed quart bag of blackberries to the freezer, giving us 13 total bags for the season. She also gathered several ticks (36) on a reversed roll of packing tape.
  • I mowed up grass knocked down yesterday around the far garden. The east and north sides are mowed and look nice. The west side is still a mess. I tossed cut lespedeza stalks into neighboring tall grass, since I don't want it put down as mulch around fruit trees.
  • Mulch from my mowing went to small apple saplings south of the house. One Antonovka apple tree is dead and the other two only have a tiny bit of leaves on top. I don't think they like our soil, plus rabbits have gnawed off new growth. Their demise eliminates this year's apple grafting plans. I think I'll start over by transplanting Sargent crabapple trees that I see starting under our current Sargent tree. They seem to thrive, here. If I can get them established, I can then proceed with grafting.
  • Our new push lawnmower has a faulty part. The hinge support to a door you open to install the grass catching bag is all plastic. It's separating, due to summer heat. I tap it back into place with a hammer, but I'll have to do something else to fix the issue. The Kohler engine is great. The Cub Cadet mower deck with its cheap plastic parts is not so great.
    
  • Since the recent remnants of Hurricane Beryl passed south and east of us, outside humidity levels are extremely high. An hour spent outside means all clothes are soaked.
    

• Saturday, 7/13: Mowing Up Downed Grass in the Heat
  
  • Mary cleaned the house and made flour tortillas. She also watered the near garden. 
  • I mowed up grass cut two days ago on the west side of the far garden. This side of the garden is up against a bunch of trees. It's full of persimmon shoots that I picked out before mowing up the grass. I moved about six wheelbarrow loads of sticks away and dumped them in the field just south of the compost bins. I didn't finish. There are still two sections of fence (between metal fence posts) to mow up. It's hot work. About every 45 minutes, I need to go inside and cool down for about a half hour. There are three small apple trees surrounded with grass mulch that is about 18 inches deep. A fourth tree is partway mulched.
  • An online check of the model of our newest mower indicates several owners have the same problem with a faulty rear hatch hinge as I'm experiencing. It's a poor design.
    
  • Bill went to Six Flags St. Louis with his friend, Craig. The descriptions of some of the rides sound horrible. He enjoyed himself and said it was a good day to do this activity since St. Louis is expected to reach 96°, tomorrow.
  • Each day for the past few days, a random apple falls out of the Empire tree. I cut out bad parts and we enjoy a tasty treat. They're still tart, but we're approaching their harvest time.
  • Mary left the heat lamp off to the chicks for the night. They're old enough with a full set of feathers to go through the night in the cool.
  • An assassination attempt was made on Donald Trump by a 20-year old man with an AR-15 rifle. I hate the fact those guns are sold to the public. I'll never own one.
    

• Sunday, 7/14: Berries, Ticks, Grass & Heat
  
  • With rain approaching on the radar, I woke Mary so we could get morning chores done before it rained. I startled three deer midway down the lane while walking the puppies. One was a buck with antler spikes that were a foot long. He'll have a big rack come autumn. The rain amounted to just a few drops.
    
  • Mary picked more blackberries. High heat is drying up blackberry brambles. She is a little shy of another stuffed quart bag.
  • Through the day, Mary picked 47 ticks off her clothing. Several were just hatched and tiny.
    
  • She spooked up a deer that was in the north yard while Mary was returning from picking berries on Bramble Hill.
    
  • I finished mowing the outside of the far garden. Then I began work on the two- to three-foot area between the electric and chicken wire fences. I took down the tall stuff with the steel blade on the trimmer while throwing persimmon saplings to the outside to collect with a wheelbarrow. Then I mowed up the grass and dumped clippings around small apple trees. I'm finished with the west and north sides.
  • High temperatures mean Mary and I spend half or more of our time inside cooling off. It's a scorcher out there.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of last year's apple wine. It tastes great and surprise, surprise...it tastes like apples!
    

July 1-7, 2024

Weather | 7/1, p. cloudy, 57°, 73° | 7/2, sunny to thunderstorms, 65°, 92° | 7/3, 2.40" rain overnight, cloudy, 70°, 79° | 7/4, 0.29" rain overnight, p. cloudy, 70°, 80° | 7/5, p. cloudy, 64°, 77° | 7/6, smokey & sunny, 60°, 83° | 7/7, p. cloudy to thunderstorms, 0.91" rain, 67°, 87° |

• Monday, 7/1: Doctor's Visit
  
  • Mary mowed the lane. It took longer than normal, due to several chicory stalks that were waist high on the second half of the lane. She had to drive over them several times.
    
  • I had a doctor's appointment at 10 a.m. in Lewistown. He was fine with my blood glucose numbers, so there's no change in medications. He lined up an appointment for me to have a colonoscopy (what fun!) and a diabetic eye checkup. They took blood for a battery of tests, which the doctor orders twice a year. I like the thorough job of this doctor. My A1C result was 6.8. The number for a controlled diabetic is below 7.0, so I'm doing fine.
    
  • I dropped by the Lewistown Post Office to get stamps. Someone lost control and hit the front of the post office, putting a crack into the concrete block wall, knocking off some bricks, and putting the door off kilter. Everyone has to go through the back door for post office business until things get fixed.
    
  • I mowed inside the far garden and between there and the compost bins. Grass clippings went on the last row in the near garden.
  • At sunset, I chased a deer away from our hazelnut bushes.
    

• Tuesday, 7/2: More Heat
  
  • Katie forwarded a copy of an article showing results of a swim/bicycle/run race she was in over the weekend. HERE is a link to the article. She placed 11th overall.
    
  • It was real hot and humid today.
    
  • I called and got appointments for an eye exam on July 17 and a colonoscopy on August 30.
    
  • Mary picked more blackberries. We now have 5.5 frozen quarts.
  • I cleaned the big chick feeder and we put it in the coop for the chicks this evening.
    
  • I mowed the east lawn between the house and the lane and part of the south lawn. I finished mulching the near garden. Dark clouds rolled in from the west, which stopped my mowing.
    
  • We had a long series of thunderstorms roll through with lots of thunder and lightning after dark. Over two inches of rain fell and it all soaked into the ground, due to our dryness.
    

• Wednesday, 7/3: Bill Here For July 4th
  
  • Bill showed up around noon. He's visiting until Sunday, July 7th.
  • I clipped bushes and tall weeds from around the Suburban, getting it ready for the junk guy to pick it up.
  • Mary has a poison ivy reaction on her right arm and thigh, due to berry picking. I picked blackberries where she missed, or where she doesn't go, due to massive poison ivy growth. I collected 1.5 quarts. We now have seven quarts in the freezer, although they might be equivalent to 14 quarts, because this year the bags are overstuffed compared to how we packaged them in past years.
  • Mary had five chimney swifts zoom by her head just two feet away while she was doing evening chores. It was the entire family. "They're a friendly lot," Mary said.
  • Mary, Bill, and I played Azul. It's a fun game. We also enjoyed a big bottle of 2023 peary, or pear cider. We tried it iced and at room temperature. The cinnamon came out more when iced and the pear flavor was stronger when drunk at room temperature. It's very nice.
  • On the final dog walk, frogs were sounding off everywhere. We have a lot, based on their nightly performances. A couple rain drops fell. We got more rain overnight.
    

• Thursday, 7/4: Katie Runs Mount Marathon
  
  • Katie ran in Seward's Mount Marathon race. It's a three-mile run straight up a mountain and back. She placed 202nd out of 285 women racers with a time of 1:33:01. She was camping with her dogs and friends in Seward overnight, prior to the race. HERE is a link to race results.
    
  • Mary picked blackberries, and ticks, of course. We now have just under eight quarts.
    
  • I donned my respirator and swept mice poop out of the Suburban's seat areas. Wasps zinged about when I was near the driver's door, signifying at a wasp nest is probably underneath that area.
    
  • I whacked with the Stihl trimmer, and hacked with the long-handled loppers, to take out tall weeds surrounding the compost bins and the ash pile. This is so Mary can easily access both spots for transplanting purposes.
  • Rain this past week revived the mushrooms growing on an elm log next to the woodshed (see photos, below). Bill noticed that if you watched closely, clouds of spores are seen slowing drifting away from the mushrooms.
    
  • Bill picked out two movies that we watched. They were the 2022 film, The Lost City, and the 2005 movie, Hitch.

These unidentified mushrooms appeared, again, on an elm log.

Bill noticed spores drifting from them.

• Friday, 7/5: Gardening, Washers Game & Wienie Roast
  
  • Mary transplanted 16 pepper plants into the near garden. Each hole received a big helping of compost and wood ashes. After a big drink of water, all plants looked great in their new homes.
    
  • Mary also made a pumpkin cake.
  • Bill mowed in the west yard around the concrete circle where we have outdoor fires and under the clothesline.
    
  • Bill was a huge help in weeding the strawberry buckets and tubs. Since planting the strawberries on April 9th, we kept them covered with old lacy curtains and didn't touch them, due to a delay in getting the near garden electric fence operating. They were full of weeds and grass. Each container required carefully pulling unwanted weeds and grass without disturbing strawberry plant roots. We only lost a couple plants choked out by weeds. I added grass mulch. A few buckets also received persimmon bark chips. I moved all containers to the east end of the near garden and watered them.
    
  • We played washers and had a wienie roast over an outdoor fire. The washers game is similar to pitching horseshoes, only you're throwing big washers instead of horseshoes and instead of hitting a stake, you try to plunk a washer into a container. Bill is the best at this. Bill and Mary played the last washers game into darkness. They couldn't see their target and could only listen to tell where the washer landed...a dull thud meant the washer hit the grassy lawn and a higher pitched bang meant they hit the target. They needed a flashlight to find all of the thrown washers. 
  • After roasting turkey hotdogs, we settled in next to the fire and enjoyed some wine. Bill and Mary drank 2021 grapefruit wine. Mary says it's okay, but wouldn't recommend making future batches. Bill thinks not adding grapefruit rinds would make it better. I drank some persimmon wine, another wine I don't plan on making, again. It's too harsh for my taste. 
  • We heard a raccoon making a racket close to us, near the machine shed. We saw several satellites and a couple meteors. We heard a continuous tree and wood frog chorus. Coyotes howled to the south. We went inside around 11:30 p.m.
    

• Saturday, 7/6: Garden Planting & Berry Picking
  
  • I got a text from the junk dealer asking if he could show up tomorrow and get the '84 Suburban. I said yes.
  • I swept out the back end of the Suburban with a whisk broom while wearing a respirator. I looked for my keys to the vehicle, which I never found. We have Mary's keys, so that will work. The Suburban is now ready to go.
    
  • Mary planted 24 sweet potato slips into 10 hills in the near garden. She also planted four hills of cucumbers and six hills of acorn squash. All that's left to plant in the near garden is corn.
    
  • I picked nearly two more quarts of blackberries from just two places...the patch south of the compost bins and the one in the persimmon saplings near Frog Pond. There are just under 10 overstuffed quarts of 2024 blackberries in the freezer.
  • Bill washed and dried a load of laundry and a load of bedding.
  • We watched the 1996 movie, Independence Day, that Bill picked out.
    

• Sunday, 7/7: Suburban is History
  
  • After breakfast, I drew up two copies of a bill of sale for the Suburban.
  • The junk dealer showed up at 10:15 a.m., with is eldest son. He backed up his trailer to in front of the Suburban, then rolled his pickup's rear tires onto ramps to put the trailer's rear end closer to the ground. His son added their wimpy aluminum ramps to the back of the trailer. They hooked a long chain around the Suburban's front leaf spring hangers, attached a heavy come along and hand cranked the Suburban onto their trailer. It was a very tight fit, with the bulge of the tires squeezing between the trailer's railings. Both the trailer and the rear tires of the Suburban are 77 inches wide. The width of the Suburban's front tires isa little bit wider than 77 inches. They readjusted the chains and the come along four different times before it was fully on the trailer. The job took 1:45 hours. While we finished the paperwork, he told us that Herman's old lawn tractor had a cracked head and that's why it blew so much oil over. He replaced the engine. He also said he bought points and plugs for the Ford Jubilee tractor, emptied the aged gas, but hasn't got it running, yet. He asked us to let him know if we ever have any additional junked engine items and left around noon.
    
  • We had smoked scrambled eggs for the midday meal, then Bill packed up and left for his St. Charles apartment around 1:30 p.m. Every day of his visit, he studied his data software programs. He writes up flash cards that he studies, daily. Eventually, he has several tests to pass to become certified in the material he's studying. Next weekend, friends of his invited him to Six Flags, St. Louis. They paid for his entry. He will cover the parking fee.
  • Around 3:45 p.m., thunderstorms rolled in from the west. We got a good rain of nearly an inch, which was wonderful for the newly planted and transplanted garden items. It ended just prior to darkness. We mostly read books while the thunder roared.