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.