August 26-Sept. 1, 2024

Weather | 8/26, sunny, 73°, 94° | 8/27, sunny to T-storm, 0.05" rain, 75°, 96° | 8/28, cloudy, 0.28" rain, 68°, 89° | 8/29, sunny, 70°, 91° | 8/30, cloudy, 69°, 83° | 8/31, sunny, 61°, 83° | 9/1, sunny, 60°, 79° |

• Monday, 8/26: High Heat & Cherry Wine Racking
  
  • We're hot! However, our high didn't reach the National Weather Service's prediction of 99°, so there's some solace in that fact. Everywhere you look, trees are losing their leaves. Our big cherry tree is almost bare. It's been a tough summer for trees.
  • Mary dusted books in the sunroom, where she found nine spiders behind the books. This immaculately sealed house strikes, again.
    
  • I racked the cherry wine for the fourth time (see photo, below). Both Batch 1 and 2 had the same readings. The specific gravity was 0.993 and the pH was 3.3. Both batches received 1.1 grams of Kmeta. All containers had a lining of fines on the bottom. Remaining liquid for each batch filled a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, a 750-ml wine bottle, and a 12-ounce Jarritos bottle. We tasted about 200 ml of leftovers from Batch 1. It has a very strong black cherry flavor and is very delicious. This cherry wine gives your mouth a feeling of fullness. It's young, so it ought to be really good with time. It sits another month in the pantry before it gets a final racking and bottling.
  • I noticed that when Bill helped me on the last cherry racking a month ago, he got funny with the white grease pencil. Instead of writing #2 on a jug, he wrote # poop. Nice!
    
  • While I dealt with wine, Mary watered all of the garden plants. She threw away three bell peppers that scalded in the intense sun. Losing green peppers isn't as important as keeping the plants alive. Some Black Prince tomato plants have dried leaves. They are on the west row and share roots with persimmon trees, so Mary upped the water amount to all plants.
    
  • Mary had a hummingbird buzz her in the garden. She said they sound a lot bigger than their actual size.

  

  A little over 11.5 gallons of cherry wine.

• Tuesday, 8/27: Hottest Day & Thunderstorms
  
  • Since we experienced the hottest day of the summer, today, we stayed inside.
    
  • Mary and I washed a pile of dishes. My winemaking activities, yesterday, added to the load.
    
  • Rainy weather crept up on us right when we were planning on going outside to water gardens. Thunderstorms developed around us and eventually gave us rain. Online radar showed the storms weren't moving. They looked like an ameba that was oozing outward and inward. We heard thunder for about five hours. Midway through it all, we were at a center point, with storms all around us. We ran outside and did chores, quickly, because we knew it wasn't going to get any better.
    

• Wednesday, 8/28: 20 Hormworms!
  
  • Another rather hot day outside meant we stayed indoors as long as we could, today.
  • Mary finished dusting the sunroom books.
    
  • I put winemaking stuff away in the west room, a neglected chore that was literally stacking up. Two S-shaped airlocks had mold developing that I had to eliminate with bleach. I don't like these airlocks that look like THIS. They are hard to clean. I prefer the three piece airlocks that can be taken apart and cleaned that look like THIS.
  • Mary and I watered gardens, but wet soil from recent rain resulted in less watering. 
    
  • After dark, we went hunting for hornworms while using a UV flashlight. We found 20 worms. They are bright lime green in the blacklight and show off like a neon sign. The only problem is dozens of bugs bombard your face while attracted to the light as you search the plants for worms. It was a healthy haul at collecting worms.
    

• Thursday, 8/29: Catbird is Strawberry Thief
  
  • There was no solid food eating for me today, due to preparing for tomorrow's colonoscopy. At one point in the evening, I was sitting on the couch with Juliet, one of our cats. My stomach rumbled loud enough to startle her. She had big, wide eyes and looked about as if to say, "What was that weird noise!"
    
  • Mary watered garden plants. It was really hot and humid.
    
  • We watched as a catbird jumped down from the Granny Smith apple tree to eat poke berries ripening on huge plants under that tree. Later, Mary heard it in the cedar trees next to the near garden. She figures it's probably our offender who is taking bites out of some of the ripe strawberries.
    

• Friday, 8/30: I Get to Eat!
  
  • We drove to Quincy, where I had the colonoscopy. Quincy Medical Group's hospital is in the old Bergner's store in the Quincy Mall. The building is unrecognizable since this new hospital went in. Two pieces of good news from my visit. My colon is good and today's colonoscopies are fast. We got there at 10 a.m., and we left at 11:30 a.m. Mary drove home, since driving wasn't allowed after anesthesia.
    
  • I looked up rear brake parts for our pickup, decided on brake part makers based on experiences written by others on message boards and recorded prices for items I think we need to fix the truck's brakes.
    
  • Mary and I picked strawberries that tasted divine on the waffles I cooked up. I ate three waffles for supper, which is enough to fill a barge. So much for the nurse's advice to eat lightly on the day of surgery.
    
  • We hunted for hornworms on the tomato, tomatillo, and pepper plants after dark with the UV flashlight. We found 43 worms, a new record for this year. 
  • As we were outside looking for worms, the St. Louis neighbor who owns property west of us was ripping around on a couple of loud four-wheelers at 10 at night. What an idiot! We were hoping he drove his noisy ATV into a tree or a ditch.
    

• Saturday, 8/31: Cutting Hay & Removing the Mailbox
  
  • Mary cut hay in the east yard with her scythe. That's a lawn area that we haven't mowed in a couple months, so it's full of tall grass and plantain with seed heads. Chickens will love it come wintertime and eat most of their bedding.
    
  • I saw a large buck with a rack run to the west as I got near the end of our lane while getting the mail.
    
  • I took our mailbox off the post and painted the plywood board under the mailbox that's lag bolted to the top of the post with Semco liquid membrane. This waterproofs that wood and hopefully makes it last longer. I put five coats on the wood. This Labor Day weekend allows me enough time to repaint the mailbox, allow it to dry, apply lettering, and get it back up prior to receiving mail on Tuesday.
    
  • While I painted, two different large ATVs drove by on the gravel road. There were four guys on one of them. Tomorrow is the first day of dove hunting season, so I'm guessing they're here from St. Louis for that. I'll never understand the rationale for shooting a dove. Only the breast meat is consumed, which is probably half a mouthful. Plus, doves are harmless. Why shoot the symbol of peace?
    
  • Mary picked six cucumbers that she fixed up into a big cucumber salad for dinner.
  • Hops cones are developing (see photos, below) and starting to emit a bitter pale ale aroma.
    
  • After dark, we picked 24 hornworms. Most of them came off the five Jet Star tomato plants in the near garden. Stars were very bright and steady. The Milky Way was bright enough to cast shadows in the gardens, which are mostly surrounded by trees, effectively cutting out city lights from Quincy, which lies 30 miles east of us.

Hops cones growing up the east house siding.

Hops cones on maple tree hanging over north roof of the house.

• Sunday, 9/1: Mailbox Paint Job
  
  • Today is the first day of dove season, so this morning we heard several shotgun blasts from the property north of us. When Sept. 1st is on a weekday, we seldom hear shots. This year, with Sept. 1st falling on Labor Day Weekend, it sounds like the infantry arrived.
    
  • My main job involved painting the mailbox, today. I first peeled off lettering, then removed left-behind stickum and old paint chalk with paint thinner. I gave all surfaces a light sanding, then cleaned the sanding dust and mold in grooves off with paper towels and our ammonia/vinegar/alcohol cleaner. The bottom got a coat of Rust-Oleum brown rust paint and the top received one coat of bright yellow Rust-Oleum paint.
    
  • We watered gardens. Some of the tomato plants are small trees and more green tomatoes are showing.
    
  • We watched the 1988 movie, A Fish Called Wanda.
  • Our pup, Plato, isn't eating much. He did consume a can of dog food, today, so we looked online and decided I'd run to Quincy and get some additional cans at Petco. He just won't touch the current dry dog food that Amber gobbles up with gusto. We moved the dog blanket downstairs so he could sleep on the main floor, overnight.
    

August 19-25, 2024

Weather | 8/19, sunny, 62°, 81° | 8/20, sunny, 56°, 79°| 8/21, 0.03" rain, cloudy, 60°, 76° | 8/22, p. cloudy, 52°, 75° | 8/23, p. cloudy, 52°, 83° | 8/24, cloudy, 67°, 79° | 8/25, sunny, 69°, 92° |

• Monday, 8/19: Tall Thistles
  
  • We have thistles along the path between our gardens that reached eight feet tall (see photo, below). I carefully smelled a thistle flower. It has a wonderful aroma. Mary says it smells of honey.
  • I sharpened Mary's lawnmower blade. It was almost as sharp as a round log!
    
  • Mary and I propped up two fence posts on the southeast corner of the chicken yard. After we both heaved them upright, I drove two steel fence posts in the ground to support the old oak posts originally driven in the ground by Herman in 2008. This only kicks the can down the road until I replace the posts with treated timbers and new chicken wire.
    
  • Mary finished mowing the north yard. She saw small puffballs under the McIntosh apple tree.
    
  • I transplanted strawberry plants started from shoots. One went into a bucket never used when we got the strawberry plants this spring. I filled it with rotten wood bits and soil already mixed with old compost that we had in a garbage can in the machine shed. I also stuck two new strawberry shoots into potting mix, in case we have further plant deaths.
  • Mary picked five strawberries for tomorrow's breakfast.
    
  • I cut tall fox tail grass with hand clippers on a section of the chicken wire fence in the near garden.
    
  • We watched the first day of speeches at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speeches, including Joe Biden's address, were good. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock gave the best presentation.

  

  Thistles are 8 feet tall.

• Tuesday, 8/20: New Pickup Tags
  
  • This morning, I watched two great blue herons flying around in circles over Bass Pond while they croaked at one another. They sound like prehistoric dinosaur birds with a very distinctive call.
    
  • Mary searched for tomato hornworms and watered garden plants. There are rows of winter greens emerging in the tubs.
    
  • I got a vehicle inspection for the pickup at Lewistown Tire, then drove to our county seat in Monticello, MO, and got new license plate tags good for two years for the pickup. On the way to the license bureau, a rock flew off a Lewis County Electric Co-op truck and smacked the pickup's windshield, putting a two-inch semicircle crack at eye level just beyond the steering wheel. Luckily, I didn't get that windshield crack prior to the vehicle inspection, because it wouldn't have passed inspection.
    
  • We have shaggy mane mushrooms growing at the edge of the Porter's Perfection apple tree in the west yard (see photos, below). It's quite a classy mushroom.

A mushroom next to Porter's Perfection apple tree.

It's a shaggy mane mushroom.

• Wednesday, 8/21: New Record Player Furniture
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, today, as I tried to give the pickup's growling rear brakes the lightest touch. We picked up a piece of furniture with glass doors and drawers that we'll use for vinyl  and CD music storage. The record player Bill gave us for Christmas can go on top. We only spent $25 for it. We picked up a floor lamp to help me for evening reading. In Menards, we saw a tall monster called Bad Seed that I thought would be perfect for scaring woodpeckers off the apple trees (see video, below). For only $300, I'd have something that would work for maybe three hours.
    
  • On the evening chicken feeding time, I noticed that we have three shaggy mane mushrooms now growing next to the Porter's Perfection apple tree.
    
  • We listened to most of the Democratic National Convention for the third night. It was good.
    
  • While walking the dogs tonight, we heard a screech owl in the west woods. The dogs were both wagging their tails on an odor they defected in the grass along the lane.
  The Bad Seed monster in Menards.
  

• Thursday, 8/22: DNC Finale
  
  • Mary and I brought the record player cabinet inside from the back of the pickup and set it up in the living room. It looks nice. Dogs and cats walked up to it through the day and looked at their reflections off the glass doors.
    
  • After her tomato hornworm patrol, Mary watered the far garden. I helped her water the near garden. We have several acorn squash that are starting to grow. There's a multitude of peppers of all kinds that are developing. All of the strawberry transplants look good.
    
  • We watched the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Upon reflecting on other past conventions that I've seen, this was the most entertaining, with the most speakers. There are good people who are young who will have big impacts in the future. We watched it via the DNC website. It was so much better, because we didn't endure network dips telling us what to think. After four days of watching, Mary asked if she could read books and stay away from TV for a long time. We aren't used to gluing ourselves to a television for four long evenings.
  • Mary and I enjoyed a 2021 pear wine. Wow! It has a very nice pear flavor and aroma with an extreme golden color. This is a very good wine.
    

• Friday, 8/23: A Catch Up Day
  
  • Today was a day to catch up on things.
  • Mary scrubbed up the new cabinet and moved vinyl records into it, while putting the record player on top. It looks perfect in the corner of our living room.
  • I caught the checkbook up-to-date, cleaned air conditioning filters, and assembled the new reading light. I removed one of the three tubes to shorten its height so it shines directly on books I'm reading while sitting on my couch in the living room. I used it this evening and it works perfectly.
    
  • Hops cones are forming vines all around the outside of our house. We live in a hoppy house!
  • The woodpeckers won. The Granny Smith apple tree grew only a handful of apples this year. I noticed today that the last nice looking apple on that tree now has a woodpecker hole in it.
  • The shaggy mane mushrooms near the Porter's Perfection apple tree grew and now resemble the wide-brimmed hats sometimes worn by Asians.
  • We noticed that the electric fencer unit was down to only two red lights showing when we walked the dogs on their last outing, so I checked garden electric fence wires. Five wires on the northwest corner of the far garden fence were wrapped up. A rabbit, opossum, or a raccoon really got shocked. Two wires near the bottom were wrapped around each other about 10 times and then those wires were wrapped around the bottom wire. Above that, two more wires were wrapped up. Undoing all that mess took up quite a bit of time, in the dark, while holding a flashlight.
    

• Saturday, 8/24: Watering & Whacking
  
  • We experienced clouds all day, so the predicted high of 90 was never reached...yahoo!
    
  • With anticipated temperatures in the high 90s in upcoming days, Mary picked the most ripe green peppers. We had some in our midday meal of fajitas.
    
  • I weedwhacked under just over half of the electric fence wires in the far garden. As a way to keep down dust, I watered the ground just prior to running the string trimmer. It was effective. One two-gallon watering can full of water moistened the soil for about the distance between two or three fence posts. It's much better than eating dust while doing this job.
    
  • I helped Mary water gardens. The vine plants...cucumbers, squash, and sweet potatoes...are inching toward fences. We have several cucumbers and squash developing. We continue to get a handful of strawberries every day. They're a tasty addition to our morning oatmeal or waffles.
    
  • Every morning we hear more and more crowing from our developing cockerel chickens (see photo, below). This is the calmest group we've ever raised. They are a cinch to round up and herd back into the coop every evening.

  

  11-week old chickens. All but the front white one are cockerels.
  We will add her to our flock of hens.

• Sunday, 8/25: Helping Plants in the Heat
  
  • I mowed a little piece of grass around my winter greens, then used the clippings to mulch a thin layer of grass around the sprouts in each tub. The idea is to keep the ground cool around the winter greens during midday heat. I also installed a white lacy drape over top of the plants to lessen the afternoon sun.
    
  • I weedwhacked the rest of the far garden electric fence. It was hot, so long cooling breaks inside were necessary. We destroyed a gallon of iced tea in just a half a day.
    
  • Toward the end of my weedwhacking and after doing some serious housecleaning, Mary did a deep watering job on both gardens and picked worms and worm eggs. The huge acorn squash leaves showed signs of heat stress and were wilting prior to receiving water.
    
  • Since Mary suspected a greater worm infestation in the gardens, we went out after dark with an ultraviolet light flashlight to look for more worms. Besides the three she found during daylight hours, we discovered six more worms at night. They show up as brilliant green under a UV light.
  • A waning moon and Jupiter added to stars of the Milky Way after we finished.
    

August 12-18, 2024

Weather | 8/12, 0.72" rain, cloudy, 63°, 67° | 8/13, cloudy, 63°, 77°| 8/14, 0.24" rain, cloudy, 64°, 77° | 8/15, 0.09" rain, p. cloudy, 68°, 87° | 8/16, 0.67" overnight rain, p. cloudy, 64°, 88° | 8/17, p. cloudy, 65°, 79° | 8/18, p. cloudy, 63°, 81° |

• Monday, 8/12: A Good Rain
  
  • We experienced a nice morning soaking rain. Garden plants were squeaking with joy (see photos of near garden, below).
  • Mary and I stayed inside and did mundane jobs, like balancing the checkbook and washing a ton of dishes.
  • I chased red-bellied woodpeckers out of the Granny Smith apple tree all day. Firecrackers send them flying in a hurry.
  • Every morning except Friday, we eat oatmeal topped with sliced Granny Smith apples, cut-up pecan nuts, blackberries, cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Friday mornings I make waffles. We've been buying nutmeg from Quincy's Farm & Home, but they switched brands recently, resulting in tiny containers for the same price that taste like bitter bark dipped in turpentine. Mary and I both looked online. Mary found a California company named The Spice Way that sells ground nutmeg in two-pound amounts, so I ordered some. We'll freeze what we don't initially use. That ought to last us for awhile. 
    

Peppers (left) & sweet potatoes (right).

Strawberries (near) & acorn squash (next).

• Tuesday, 8/13: Making Salsa
  
  • Mary thawed out produce frozen from last year's garden to make 14 quarts of salsa. Bags of tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers were chopped, along with onions and cooked up in a four-gallon stock pot. Then she canned them in quart jars. Mary had just enough salsa to fill the 14th jar, with only a couple teaspoons left over at the end. All canning lids sealed. This equals 28 meals for the two of us. Mary has enough frozen ingredients for one more batch of salsa.
    
  • I whacked weeds and grass from under the lowest electric wire in the near garden. This was only the second trimming of the year, so it took a lot of time. Today was a good time for weedwhacking, because moist soil from recent rain meant I wasn't stirring up a dust storm with the trimmer. I also buzzed away grass encroaching along all rows of the garden and around the strawberry tubs and buckets. I knocked off heads of tall green foxtail grass that grows through the chicken wire fence. If I used the string trimmer to take out this grass, I'd cut up the chicken wire fence. So, I let it grow, but cut off the seed heads that spring up above the top of the fence.
  • Mary looked for hornworms and found one egg, that she destroyed. The recent rain really boosted dark green leaves and fast growth on garden plants.
  • While checking for worms, we watched a large group of dragonflies flit about over the weeds and grass east of the far garden. They were catching bugs. We also spotted a doe deer beyond the garden's north end. It peered at us for a couple minutes, then ran off down the hill to the east.
    

• Wednesday, 8/14: More Nice Rain
  
  • Rain and achy, overused arm muscles as a result of running a trimmer for hours, yesterday, kept me inside. The nice part was the rain, which turns green plants even greener.
    
  • I calculated needed spiced apple wine ingredients and added what I need on our shopping list.
    
  • I looked up hops wine recipes and watched a scary video of a British homebrewer while he made apple/hops sparkling wine. His airlock was black with mold. He started transferring liquid by sucking on the end of a hose...great hygiene! He constantly added sugar by saying, "I'll add just a little bit," and then dumped in a big gob. On the final taste test, he said, "It's surprisingly sweet." What a shock! I don't think I'll follow is goofy example.
  • Mary's hornworm search turned up the first one of the season. It was little and the only one in both gardens.
  • Acorn squash plants are expanding exponentially. I expect them to be knocking on our front door by the end of the growing season.
  • During evening chores, Mary and I watched as thunderclouds developed overhead while moving southeastward. At the same time, lower clouds zoomed to the northwest. Humidity levels were swimmable throughout the day.
    

• Thursday, 8/15: Flea Battle & Nighttime Thunderstorm
  
  • After the noon dog walk, we found two fleas on the dogs. Both puppies got a thorough going over with the flea comb. Mary poured baking soda on the carpet and on the dog blanket in the north bedroom, let it sit, then vacuumed it all up. The soda desiccates fleas and their eggs, plus it reduces old dog bed odor. We'll keep looking, but we haven't seen any fleas since then.
    
  • While Mary made a pizza for our midday meal, I worked up a "to do" list of items I need to accomplish prior to Oct. 1st, when I have my first cataract surgery. I can't lift heavy items for a few days after that, so some tasks must be done before that date.
    
  • I pulled weeds out of four of the six winter greens tubs and threw away the fine mesh that was covering those tubs, which is shot. The hardest weed to pull is lamb's quarter. It has wide and massive roots. Once finished, I'll add soil and plant leafy winter green seeds.
    
  • On Mary's daily check of tomato hornworms, she found three worm eggs. Mary noticed that some acorn squash female flowers bloomed today. There are more tomato blossoms and several mail cucumber flowers. She counted roughly 15-25 jalapeño peppers on each of the four plants, which means we should have more than enough to make jalapeño cooking wine.
    
  • After midnight, a thunderstorm, with high southwest winds and downpours of rain, went through our property. The house shook at one point. I jumped out of bed and looked outside to see the power line dancing and tree branches moving about. It was a fierce storm, but short lived. At 2 a.m., I woke with Plato going downstairs. I followed him and plugged in the fridge and freezers. Jupiter was shining brightly in the east sky and lightning was lighting up the east horizon over Illinois. Plato and I went back upstairs to bed. Plato sleeps on a blanket in the north bedroom.
    

• Friday, 8/16: Brake Assessment
  
  • We woke to small branches down all over the place from last night's storm. A maple tree growing too close to the northwest corner of the house has a top that's bent over. Two wood posts at the southeast corner of the chicken yard are leaning over more than before and will need straightening, soon. Mary noticed a tiny bit of hail damage in the easternmost row of the far garden. Trees helped protect most of the garden plants.
    
  • I looked at the pickup's brakes throughout today. We've recently noticed a grinding noise from the brakes. I discovered that lug nuts were tightened too much by some tire monkey with an air gun at Sam's Club three years ago when I had them change rims. The specifications are 140 foot pounds with a torque wrench. I turned my torque wrench to 150 and I exerted even more than that pressure to get them off. The front brakes are great. The back brakes are shot. The inside dust shields are rusted out and allowing water inside the brakes. The insides of the rear brake discs are grooved with metal rubbing. After looking at online videos, I realized the extent of rust in this pickup's rear brakes. It's severe. The big question...are these brakes beyond fixable? I might need to get a mechanic's assessment, first.
    
  • Mary dusted the living room bookshelves and found 15 spiders and one silverfish. I wonder how they got into this hermetically-sealed century old house...ha, ha, ha!
    
  • During Mary's daily garden check, she picked our first two strawberries, seven hornworm eggs, an army worm, and a very small hornworm.
    
  • We enjoyed a bottle of 2023 pumpkin wine that is a year old. Past tastings of this wine gave us a strong sulfur flavor. Tonight, it was better. We drank it iced. The pumpkin taste was prominent, without a sulfur aftertaste. A year of aging vastly improved this wine.
    

• Saturday, 8/17: Winter Greens Planted
  
  • We ate our first two strawberries from the garden with our oatmeal breakfast. They were tiny, but wonderful.
    
  • Mary mowed part of the north yard. She said she saw the remains of chewed nuts under the pecan trees, probably eaten by squirrels.
    
  • I pulled the rest of the weeds out of the winter greens tubs. One tub was splitting down the sides, so I replaced it with a tub out of the machine shed that I once cut holes in the bottom. I added compost originally made in 2019 to all of the tubs. Then I planted kale in the large tub, arugula in another tub, and three tubs with two varieties of lettuce. Last year, spinach seeds never germinated. We think it was due to high heat. So, with temperatures predicted to 90 for next Saturday, I decided to wait until the end of August before planting the spinach seeds. I covered the row of tubs with new tulle material and fastened it into place with clothes pins, then watered all newly planted seeds.
    

• Sunday, 8/18: Salsa & Tree Cages
  
  • Mary made up another batch of salsa from last year's frozen garden produce that equaled 15 quarts. She actually canned 14 quarts. The final quart went into two pint jars that are now in the refrigerator. She didn't want to take one final quart through the water bath process. All jars sealed.
    
  • I built tree cages (see photos, below) and put them around the two Antonovka rootstock saplings. Rabbits keep nibbling the tops emerging from these trees. Using quarter-inch hardware cloth and tar-coated twine, I tied a four foot by three foot piece into a column 16 inches in diameter. I attached these tree cages to a four foot rebar stake driven into the ground. Now those two saplings are protected by a cow panel from deer, a hardware column from rabbits, and a plastic tree guard from mice. Maybe they'll fare better, now.
    
  • While laying out pieces of hardware cloth, they coiled back up and the quarter-inch wires sticking out tattooed my wrist with a couple dozen holes. I had to go inside, rinse blood off my wrist with cold water, then dab the wounds with hydrogen peroxide. Good grief!
    
  • David Marquette visited while Mary checked garden plants for hornworms. He said Ben Woodruff, who owns land west of us and south of David's land, moved hunting huts from near his newly constructed fence. He was wondering if those huts went in opposite our property line. I told him I didn't know, since I haven't visited our west property line. I'll have to investigate. David was holding a half-smoked joint of pot while sitting on his three-wheeler, talking to me. He said that Rich, who owns land next to our southwest property corner, spotted David on a trail camera driving an ATV with a gun across the front on one of Rich's hunting trails. Rich brought in the game warden and a sheriff deputy to report someone was illegally hunting deer in the valley below his land. Rich told Ansel, David's father, to tell David to keep off his property. Rich is Ansel's stepson-in-law. Nice family feud that we'll stay out of, thank you very much.
    
  • We heard lots of bluebirds and nuthatches talking to one another, today. Mary said about eight nuthatches were sounding off around the yard as she walked waterers to the chickens first thing in the morning.

New tree cage around an Antonovka rootstock sapling.

Three layers of protection around second tree.

August 5-11, 2024

Weather | 8/5, sunny, 71°, 91° | 8/6, cloudy,71°, 75°| 8/7, p. sunny, 64°, 79° | 8/8, 0.03" rain, cloudy, 60°, 81° | 8/9, p. cloudy, 55°, 73° | 8/10, sunny, 51°, 77° | 8/11, cloudy, 57°, 79° |

• Monday, 8/5: Cataract Assessment
  
  • We heard an eastern wood-peewee for the first time this year as we walked dogs this morning.
    
  • Mary and I went shopping in Quincy, prior to my eye appointment. I found another cooler at the Salvation Army to use for storing wine. Mary found an interesting cookbook called Charlston Receipts Repeats, featuring recipes from South Carolina's Sea Islands.
    
  • I went through my cataract assessment with Dr. Robert Weller at the Quincy Medical Group Eye & Vision Institute. I like him. He was the best at describing astigmatism, of which I have an extreme case. He said a perfect eye lens is spherical, like a baseball. My lens is more like a football. He said I also have oblong eyeballs, which creates my nearsightedness. We agreed to surgically removed cataracts in both eyes and correct my vision for distances. For a lot more money, he could also correct for close-up vision. I have no problem with just going with reading glasses. I have a pre-op visit with him on Sept. 24th. I have left eye surgery on Oct. 1st and right eye surgery on Oct. 8th. My left eye is my dominant eye. They gave me four different eye drops in each eye. Three involved dilating my pupils. One of them gave me a residue that when I washed my face later in the evening, put a bright yellow stain on the washcloth. It's really weird to wipe away a fluorescent yellow color from your face!
  • My eye surgery dates interfere with the first anterless deer season. I can't be hoisting heavy deer during the week after eye surgery. That's fine. It might be too hot to hunt on Oct. 11-13, if temperatures continue like they have through this summer. We will be done with chicken butchering by Oct. 1st, too.
    
  • We got back home by 4:30 p.m. to a happy, bouncing set of puppies. We watered gardens, then put the chickens to bed.
    
  • Most all of the beans popped out of the ground today. Plus, the vines of the acorn squash plants grew three feet in just one day.
    

• Tuesday, 8/6: Processed a Quarter of the Apples
  
  • Mary mowed our quarter-mile lane.
  • I processed 67 Empire apples into course applesauce for winemaking, putting 15 pounds in the freezer. I'm a quarter of the way through the apples. The best knife for cutting apples into quarters (see photo, below) is a long one that looks identical to a knife used by pioneers that we saw in the museum at the St. Louis Arch. It has a very excellent blade.
    
  • We had off-and-on mist throughout the day. Cloud cover kept temperatures low, which was a nice relief from summer heat.
    
  • I dumped apple cores at the edge of the north yard and noticed that all of the McIntosh apples were gone. Squirrels eat them before they develop into decent sized apples. I want to graft buds from that tree onto rootstock I planted south of the house, but I can't do that this year, because rabbits ate the tops of the rootstock saplings. Animals always teach us to adapt and grow things in ways that keep them away from our crops.
    
  • Mary took time in the evening to clean up weeds and encroaching grass in the near garden. She also checked tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers for tomato horn worms. There were none.

  

  Our old knife with a foot-long ruler.

• Wednesday, 8/7: Halfway Through Apples
  
  • After breakfast, we watched hummingbirds feeding on comfrey flowers out our west living room window. A young bird was going from flower to flower and then it was chased away by an adult hummingbird.
    
  • Mary cross stitched on a project while listening to the end of the audio book entitled George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm, who were cousins and the king of England, and the emperors of Germany and Russia before and during World War I.
    
  • I also listened to her audio book while processing apples. I sliced and ground up six dozen apples, gaining a total of 31 pounds of course applesauce in the freezer. I need roughly 12 pounds to make a gallon of wine. I want to make at least 5-6 gallons of wine, so I need to keep processing apples. I'm halfway through the apples. There are 142 whole apples left in my milk crates, or 71 a day to process in the next two days.
    
  • While walking dogs on the last outing, we saw a strong Milky Way stretching across the nighttime sky.
    

• Thursday, 8/8: Wasp Sting
  
  • Mary mowed the east yard and started to mow the west yard. She mulched next to all bean plants and started filling in mulch around far garden tomato plants. As she was moving grass mulch out of the wheelbarrow, she felt what she thought was a raspberry plant sticker. The feeling got stronger. She looked down to see a wasp pumping venom into the webbing of the thumb on her right hand. She had to fling it off her hand. She came inside in pain. Immediately after rinsing her hand in cold water, she applied baking soda paste, which was soothing. Her hand and wrist swelled. She had to go back outside and finish unloading grass, then put everything away. That wasp sting ended outside activity for a couple days.
    
  • I processed another quarter of the apples, or about 72 of them. A total of just over 44 pounds of course applesauce is frozen. Last year, a two-gallon batch from 24 pounds gave me four gallons of liquid and resulted in three gallons for bottling. I'll just double that for six gallons to bottle. So, I only need four more pounds of applesauce, but I'll probably have a little more than that. I saved 12 Grade A quality apples out to eat. We also ate two in the evening. I'll probably save out a few more. They're tasty.
  • We experienced a little rain at 5 p.m. It started raining right as I reached the mailbox. I jogged home...haven't done that in awhile. All I had was two pieces of wet junk mail.
  • Chicory is very adaptive. We continue to cut it where it grows on our lane, so since it can't send up tall shoots to flower on, it instead flowers just under the cut height of the grass. Every morning we see several deep blue, almost purple, chicory flowers in the middle part of the lane. By afternoon, they've turned pale blue to almost white. It's a daily occurrence.
    

• Friday, 8/9: Empire Apple Processing Finished
  
  • Mary's wasp-bitten hand is swollen  and itchy, today. Her respite is a frozen bag of popcorn seeds. Cold water from the tap also helps. If she lets it fall to her side, it throbs. She mostly stayed inside.
    
  • I chopped and ground up apples for the last of what I need for apple wine. I have 51 pounds, 10.5 ounces of course applesauce in the freezer in seven one-gallon zippered bags. I made sure to use up imperfect apples, giving me 43 good apples to eat. Eight apples I saved out for us to eat tonight and 35 really nice apples are now in the fridge.
    
  • We watered all gardens. All plants are kicking butt!!!
  • Mary found luna moth wings in the lane next to the near garden gate. Something ate it.
  • She also spotted a wood frog in the sweet potato patch of the near garden. It was tan, like the mulch. Looking close at it, she saw it's back was starting to turn green to match the sweet potato vines. It appeared moldy at that moment.
    
  • Mary baked eight apples. She said they were very juicy when she cored them. They were amazingly good. Last year, the same variety of apples, baked, tasted bland. We believe these apples are fresher. Plus, they were picked just ahead of being ripe...a little on the tart side. It makes a big difference in their taste.
  • We watched the 2022 movie, Marry Me.
    

• Saturday, 8/10: Transplanting Strawberries
  
  • This morning, after letting out the chicks, we heard a cockerel crow for the first time. They will be nine weeks old on Monday, 8/12. Chickens grew up very quickly.
    
  • I transplanted four strawberry shoots that I placed into cups full of potting soil a few weeks ago. They are now nice looking plants, so they went into their own buckets. I also started two more shoots that will finish all needed new plants to replace locations where a few strawberry plants died.
    
  • I mowed on both sides of the near garden electric fence and mowed inside that garden. Mulch went under the Empire apple tree.
  • Blossoms are showing on the acorn squash and cucumber plants.
    
  • Mary stayed inside. Her hand is better, but more time is needed to get it fully recovered from the wasp sting. She now sports a small black hole on her right hand where the wasp's stinger went through the skin.
  • We each ate two sliced up Empire apples as an after evening meal dessert. They sure are delicious.
    

• Sunday, 8/11: Mowing & Mulching Fools
  
  • Mary and I both mowed and mulched. Mary mowed the west yard and finished mulching the near far garden. I mowed inside and outside of the far garden electrical fence, the inside of the near far garden and the area between the far garden and around the compost bins. More than half of inside the drip line under the Empire apple tree has new mulch.
  • The grass next to the compost bins was tall and juicy, so much so that my mower just wadded it up into gooey green gobs of mush. I'd dump grass globs out of the lawnmower bag, then lift the heavy goo-balls out of the wheelbarrow. It was easy smashing down weeds and grass under the Empire tree with these grass cannon balls.
  • One weed I cut out growing into Empire was a monster-sized poke berry plant. I opened the loppers as wide as they'd go and cut a 2.5- to 3-inch poke berry stalk and then hauled that poke berry "tree" away.
  • Mary and I saw frogs hopping away from the mowers. They're all over the place.
  • I lit an outdoor fire that we used to roast hotdogs. We heard a juvenile barred owl, which sorted sounded like a high-pitched cat meow. We saw one lone lightning bug and a bat.
  • After eating, we enjoyed a bottle of last year's perry. This pear cider is good. With a hint of cinnamon in it, perry reminds us that autumn is around the corner.