Sept. 23-29, 2024

Weather | 9/23, 0.27" rain, 57°, 53° | 9/24, 0.58" rain, 59°, 69° | 9/25, sunny, 53°, 75° | 9/26, sunny, 52°, 75° | 9/27, cloudy, 59°, 69° | 9/28, cloudy, 59°, 80° | 9/29, sunny, 56°, 80° |

• Monday, 9/23: Misty Day
  
  • We experienced a lot of misty rain and wet weather.
    
  • I turned the blade around on Mary's lawn mower so that the correct cutting surface was in place. I also changed oil on the mower's engine.
    
  • I searched online and found pH paper for wine, which is rated at 2.7 to 4.3. It's made by Hydrion, which I've found to make the most accurate pH testing strips.
    
  • Mary spotted a new bird, an American redstart, out of the west living room window. The bird was clambering around in the Kieffer pear tree with some tuffed titmice. HERE is a link to that bird.
    

• Tuesday, 9/24: Cataract Pre-op
  
  • An early morning rain gave us over a half inch of precipitation.
    
  • I ran to Quincy for a pre-op appointment with the cataract eye surgeon. They performed several eye measurements. Due to my severe astigmatism, I'm going to get Toric lenses, which corrects for this phenomenon. It also equals a healthy bill. Fortunately, we have funds that will mostly cover the cost.
  • I shopped for a couple items after the appointment.
    
  • Mary baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
  • I moved compost from the furthest east bin to on top of compost in the furthest west bin, which will give us a place for depositing the waste after butchering 27 chickens. We were planning on starting butchering tonight, but I didn't have enough time to get preparations done, so we'll butcher starting tomorrow night.
    
  • While doing a little squirrel hunting, I watched a barred owl fly from the ground up into a tree just beyond where I hunt. I shot a squirrel out of a tree, but I couldn't find it, even after Mary joined in on the search.
  • Mary checked a pecan on a lower branch. It was a tiny bit early, but the husk came off. Pecan nut picking is nigh.
    

• Wednesday, 9/25: Butchering Postponed
  
  • Mary saw a pair of double-crested cormorants fly to the southwest while walking dogs in the morning.
  • I dropped a squirrel out of a pecan tree, but couldn't find it, again, this morning.
    
  • I cut grass on the trail to the killing cone with the Stihl trimmer fitted with the metal blade. Then I raked up the grass and put it in the east compost bin to use as a cellulose sponge for chicken butchering remains. I then mowed the killing cone trail while Mary operated wheelbarrows moving grass clippings to the compost bin.
    
  • While I had the trimmer in hand, I whacked down weeds and small saplings on the trail to the new deer blind in the north woods, north of machine shed.
  • I also cut down some of the grass between lane to the far garden and near garden north fence. Mary moved that grass to the compost bin. We still need more grass to build a larger compost bin cushion.
    
  • Mary picked Bartlett pears. A couple were bad. She wrapped up eight pears and stored them in a drawer at the top of the stairs. This was a very quiet pear year.
    
  • Mary also picked about a half plastic shopping bag of green beans. She reports more are on the way.
  • Mary picked a few tomatoes and a bunch of ripe hot peppers (see photo, below). The peppers are destined to have sewing thread put through their bases, then hung up in the upstairs south room, where they dry.
    
  • We watched 2018 movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, instead of butchering chickens, because we were too tired to process chickens into the freezer. Mañana is our current motto regarding chicken butchering.

  

  Hot Portugal (red) & Ho Chi Minh (yellow) peppers.

• Thursday, 9/26: Butchering a Third of the Roosters
  • I shot a squirrel in the morning, in-between walking/feeding dogs and letting out chickens. It was very high atop a pecan tree and came down just a few feet in front of me.
    
  • I whacked down the rest of the grass between the trail to the far garden and the north fence of the near garden. I added that to the cellulose cushion in the east compost bin.
    
  • Mary hung up all of the hot peppers that she picked yesterday.
    
  • She also picked about a quarter of grocery bag of green beans.
  • Mary harvested and shucked husks off the rest of the hazelnuts.
    
  • I got the machine shed ready for chicken butchering by hanging up lights, laying out cardboard and three old Mid-Rivers wall calendars under where I hang a hook that I hang chickens from to skin them, and laid out buckets of water where we need them. I also patched up a couple places on the killing cone with aluminum tape.
    
  • I sharpened 10 knives that we use in processing chickens.
    
  • Starting at 8:30 p.m., we butchered nine chickens, or a third of the total 27 that we need to process. They were medium to large in size, but still tender and easy for Mary to cut up. They ate well. Several had large amounts of fat.
  • Stars were out and quite beautiful when we started butchering. By the end, clouds filled the sky. These clouds were part of the weather system associated with Hurricane Helene that was making landfall at that moment as a category 4 storm in Florida.
    
  • I kept hearing an odd, high-pitched chirp in the pecan trees just outside the east end of the machine shed. Then I heard the telltale sound of nuts getting crunched up. Only a squirrel eats nuts with that sound. Mary looked it up and we were hearing flying squirrels. HERE is the sound of a flying squirrel. After identifying the sound, Mary watched a flying squirrels fly from a pecan tree to the maple tree just outside the machine shed.
  • We also heard barred owls, coyotes, and disturbed geese through the night. Mice were scurrying about inside the machine shed, too. On one trip to the killing cone, we heard something scurrying in the bushes behind us. I looked with a hat light and spotted two yellow eyes in a nearby tree. Then, it turned and we could see that it was a large opossum.
    
  • After cleaning up, we finally got to bed by 4:30 a.m. Hopefully, we can start earlier, tomorrow.
    

• Friday, 9/27: Chicken Butchering Night 2
  
  • I cleaned up buckets after a night of processing chickens. While tossing chicken feet in the north woods, I figured out a direct route through the timber to get to a path I smashed down a week ago to a location where I'll put the aluminum ladder tree stand.
    
  • Mary picked about half a grocery bag of green beans. four large tomatoes, and several sun gold tomatoes.
  • We both took two-hour naps.
  • I resharpened seven knives for butchering.
  • A cloudy day opened up to partly cloudy skies at night.
  • We butchered nine more roosters starting at 8:15 p.m. We finished up at 3:50 and got to bed by 4:45 a.m. It seems like these birds got tougher in just one day. The first three were solid white ones. We think they're White Plymouth Rock chickens. They were big and tough to skin, yet easy for Mary to cut up. They completely filled gallon freezer bags.
  • Even though a north wind blew hard, we still heard the squeaking sound of a flying squirrel. Supposedly, flying squirrels show up well with a blacklight. Mary tried it, but our tiny UV light isn't strong enough. She flashed the blacklight on dried up mushrooms on an elm log next to the woodshed and discovered that they were fluorescent green with fluorescent orange streaks.
  • We butcher three chickens at a time. Between the first and second batches, the bucket under the killing cone that catches blood, was tipped over. We think it was done by an opossum.
  • We watched the Pleiades stars rise in the east, followed by Orion and then the moon. A bright planet, Jupiter, was in the Gemini constellation.
  • I heard a loud bang of something hitting a grain bin roof. In the morning light, we noticed that a dead branch, approximately three inches in diameter, fell out of a pecan tree.
    

• Saturday, 9/28: Chicken Butchering Done!!!
  
  • I shot one squirrel in the morning. It crawled up a very low branch on the other side of the grain bins from me, then appeared just above the grain bin roof, where I got it. When I walked around to the other side of the bin, I noticed the dead branch described in yesterday's blog.
  • I did my morning chicken butchering clean up routine while Mary picked green beans.
  • Again, we each took a two-hour nap.
  • I resharpened eight knives used for butchering. These large chickens dull the knives while skinning them and cutting the meat into pieces.
  • We butchered the last nine roosters, starting at 8 p.m. and ending at 4 a.m. Stars were shining brightly through most of the night. There was only a slight north breeze. We heard flying squirrels, barred owls, and coyotes. We're guessing a raccoon scurried down a nearby black walnut tree and ran off on one of our visits to the killing cone. Two of the chickens were big and tough Delaware birds. Mary says if they were humans, they'd be shaving right now. This batch of chickens would have been 16 weeks old as of Monday, 9/30. We should have butchered them last week, when they were probably not as mature, but it was too hot at night back then. Our freezer is stuffed with another year's supply of chicken meat. Now, we can get some much needed sleep.
  • We're noticing small puffball mushrooms all over the yard.
    

• Sunday, 9/29: Taking Out Coop Wall
  
  • I cleaned up butchering buckets for the last time and put away lights, extension cords, and ladders. When I tossed chicken feet into the north woods, I noticed that only four feet were left from the past two days of throwing them in that location. Some critter enjoyed them.
    
  • Mary swept and mopped in the house.
  • I took down the wall that separated the hens from the chicks inside the chicken coop. I moved wall parts into the machine shed. I intended to also clean out the coop, but there wasn't enough time for that. Beside, I was beat tired.
    
  • Jasmine, the lone pullet from this year's chicks, seems to be blending in with the older hens. Of course, there's a pecking order that the flock establishes with the new addition, but it eventually works out. The hens and Leo, our rooster, are enjoying getting into the large north chicken yard. They weren't allowed in there while the cockerels were around. Today was their first time in that area in a couple months.
  • Plato's eyes are back to normal. He's eating like a champ. His limp is improving and Plato's disposition is normal and happy.
    

Sept. 16-22, 2024

Weather | 9/16, sunny, 63°, 87° | 9/17, sunny, 59°, 87° | 9/18, p. cloudy, 58°, 87° | 9/19, sunny, 61°, 89° | 9/20, sunny, 68°, 91° | 9/21, 0.08" rain, 65°, 79° | 9/22, 1.13" rain, 67°, 61° |

• Monday, 9/16: Second Racking of Jalapeño Wine
  • Plato had a great day! He ate all of his food, marched around the front lawn, even though he still limps on his front left foot, and seemed perky. He's getting better.
    
  • I chased one squirrel away in the morning and saw no more through the rest of the day.
    
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the second time to eliminate lees on the bottoms of all containers. The specific gravity was 0.992. After adding 0.6 grams of K-meta, Mary and I tasted it. The wine is nice and warm, without being overwhelmingly hot. "It's actually delicious," Mary said. I lost about 375 ml of liquid in the process, putting the remaining wine in a 3-gallon carboy and a 750-ml bottle. It now sits for a month in the pantry.
    
  • Mary cut down all six varieties of garlic hanging in the machine shed rafters, cut off the tops, pulled out the best bulbs to plant in November, and stored all of the remaining garlic bulbs in old grapefruit bags. There were lots of large bulbs that were nice and firm with this year's garlic crop. We think it helped that we hung them to dry a good distance away from the inside of what gets to be hot metal siding.
  • Mary and I both watered the gardens.
    
  • I saw a deer on the lane when I got the mail. I think it followed me back home, since I also heard deer footsteps opposite from me through the cedars beyond the south end of the far garden. 
  • There was a big 96-gallon garbage bin at end of our lane from our new trash pickup provider. They are quick at handling business, which is far better than the last company we used.
  • Pairs of geese flew over our house right at sunset, which seems to be a daily occurrence. A big flock flew over to the woods north of our house, too.
    

• Tuesday, 9/17: Cutting Hen Yard Weeds
  
  • I spotted a crow-sized bird flying in from the east this morning, then I heard the loud and unique call of a pileated woodpecker in the north woods. They are quite large and when they tap on trees, the sound echoes loudly through the timber.
    
  • Squirrels are back in the pecan trees. I saw three when I checked in the morning and they were very sneaky at running away from me.
    
  • I cut tall hen yard weeds that I'm tired of trying to scramble through while rounding up wayward hens when we're putting the chickens to bed each evening. A couple giant ragweed plants were about 6-8 feet tall. They sent out big clouds of yellow pollen dust when I cut them down with the metal blade of the trimmer. I hauled off about six loads of weeds with a pitchfork. The hens loved pecking at motherwart seeds.
    
  • Mary picked and husked a heaping basket of hazelnuts. She keeps thinking she's about done picking them and then comes in with even more nuts. The bushes are surprisingly productive this year.
    
  • I helped Mary water gardens as a full moon rose on the eastern horizon. It was exceptionally big and bright. Later, we saw a partial lunar eclipse.
    
  • The jalapeño wine is clearing out just one day after racking it.
    
  • It was a rough day for Plato, because the secondary membranes of both eyes were swelled shut. Mary cleaned them out with a clean wash rag several times through the day. One redeeming factor is that he ate very well. I read online where allergies often contribute to swollen canine eye membranes, so we fed him one Benadryl during supper and another prior to bed. It really helped. He's getting better at walking on the sore ankle.
    

• Wednesday, 9/18: Smashing Down Trails
  
  • I shot two squirrels this morning while watching hordes of them scamper away in the tree tops.
    
  • Mary checked the acorn squash. They are not ready, yet. She picked several hot and bell peppers, plus tomatillos, and froze them. Mary also made jalapeño refrigerator pickles.
    
  • Mary watered all of the gardens.
  • I drove the 8N Ford tractor and smashed down weeds and grass to make initial trails to future deer hunting sites. I drove over trails four times. Some places are so thick with weeds that I'll also need to whack down vegetation with the trimmer and the steel blade.
  • Standing up on the tractor, I saw where American lotus plants have taken over about a quarter of Bass Pond.
    
  • I removed the cow and hog panels, along with a metal fence post, that was the Bobcat Deer Blind. I drug the 16-foot cow panel, with dried up red cedar branches woven into it, through the woods to the tractor/trailer parked at the edge of the west field. That was sure a strenuous chore. I'll use some of this fencing to build the North of the Machine Shed deer blind.
  • From a distance, I noticed that a large tree came down west of the Bobcat Trail.
    
  • Plato had a better day. One eye is still swollen and gets regular cleaning by Mary. He's moving around better, but still limping. When Mary let both dogs out in the late afternoon, they spotted me with the tractor outside of the machine shed. Amber barked and jumped off the porch. Plato followed. When he hit the ground, all four feet went out from under him and he landed on his chest. It didn't seem to bother him. Plato is eating like a champ.
    

• Thursday, 9/19: Defrosting Freezers & Building New Deer Blind
  
  • Mary saw a hawk dive straight down into the far garden from a persimmon tree in the east yard this morning.
    
  • I shot at six squirrels. My aim stunk, this morning, so they safely ran away.
    
  • Mary defrosted our two big chest freezers and rediscovered a few items that were buried. After a year, this becomes a big chore...one that Mary dislikes very much.
    
  • I cleaned branches and brush on a trail to a new blind location in the north woods north of the machine shed.
  • I started building that deer blind. Using hog fence that once was on the Bobcat Deer Blind, I established four sides. I installed six pieces of long and thin cedar poles to corners and the entrance, wiring them into place. I wired in two cedar roof poles between tops of corner poles. Once I get two more roof poles in place, I'll install old barn metal on top for a roof. Finally, I'll stack and wire to the hog fencing logs along all sides to conceal most of me inside the blind.
    
  • Mary watered gardens by herself as I worked on the deer blind. She says there seems to be a truce between her and hundreds of yellow jackets in the gardens. As long as she doesn't bother them, they leave her alone.
  • Plato walked further down the lane today and he doesn't seem to have as much of a limp. We still are battling eye membrane issues, but Benedryl helps. He's eating food extremely well. The Petco highly digestible canned food features a lot of water with torn apart chicken. I think it's hideous, but Plato loves it. I call it vulture puke.
    

• Friday, 9/20: Our New Friend, Sassy
  
  • Today was shopping day. Mary stayed home to help Plato and I made a lone trip to the asphalt heat sink called Quincy, which was in the lower 90s.
  • For the second morning in a row, my marksmanship stunk as I sent squirrels running by firing bullets by their ears.
    
  • Mary took care of our big puppy, Plato. He walked to the rain gauge on the lane, this morning, which is the farthest he's gone in several days. His limp has improved and so has his eye membrane. She also did some cross stitch fun and a little housecleaning.
    
  • Mary watered the far garden. I helped her water the near garden after doing a couple evening chores.
    
  • I've noticed a young phoebe bird following me around every morning when I'm squirrel hunting. This evening as I filled watering cans, this phoebe landed on where my suspenders clip to the back top of my pants. It's very friendly. It settled on a watering can and the nearby garden fence (see photos and video, below). Usually, phoebes fly away when you approach. This one is rather tame. Mary named it Sassy, because it knows no fear.
    
  The friendly phoebe on a nearby watering can.

Mary taking a photo of our phoebe friend.

And here's Mary's photo of Sassy, the phoebe.

• Saturday, 9/21: Wonderful Rain
  
  • Mary worked on cross stitch projects most of the day.
    
  • I worked on my newest deer blind (see photo, below) that Mary calls the "boy's fort in the woods." I installed the rest of the cedar roof poles and slid two pieces of old metal barn siding on top for a roof. Then, I sawed up pieces of an old tree on the ground just in front of this blind and wired the sections of logs to the front hog fencing. I need to add more hog fence to get the front of the blind higher, so I found a piece between hazelnut bushes that was put there years ago to stop deer from marching through and eating hazelnut branches. Mary stumbles on these old hog fence pieces while picking nuts and hates them, so I'll use the hog fencing to build deer blinds.
    
  • Mary and I got chores done, early, because rain was arriving soon. This was the first evening in several weeks that we didn't need to water the gardens. It rained a lot throughout the night. That's great! We really need moisture. We got over an inch of rain.
    
  • We watched the 2016 film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

  

  The boy's fort in the woods deer blind.

• Sunday, 9/22: Bottling Cherry Wine
  
  • More rain fell today. It sure is nice to get some moisture.
    
  • Mary finished two Halloween cross stitch ornaments.
    
  • I racked and bottled the cherry wine (see photo, below). I corked 54 bottles. Since five were 1.5-liter bottles and one was a 375-ml bottle, it was the equivalent of 58.5 bottles in the 750-ml size. Both batches have a specific gravity of 0.995 and a pH of 3.2. Batch 1 has an alcohol content of 10.74 percent and Batch 2 is at 10.1 percent. Mary and I tasted leftovers and fines, which all tasted very good. It has a very strong cherry flavor and goes down extremely smoothly. It also has a reddish-orange color. This is a very good wine and it hasn't aged, yet, so it's going to probably improve with time.
    
  • When we walked the dogs tonight, a small opossum was sitting on our porch, just behind several Virginia creeper leaves. We left it alone. It wasn't harming a thing and was probably hiding from the rain.

  

  The result of brewing just under 12 gallons of cherry wine.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Sept. 9-15, 2024

Weather | 9/9, heavy haze, 44°, 79° | 9/10, heavy haze, 48°, 80° | 9/11, heavy haze, 53°, 85° | 9/12, heavy haze, 58°, 87° | 9/13, cloudy, sprinkles, 63°, 73° | 9/14, cloudy, 63°, 87° | 9/15, p. cloudy, 64°, 87° |

• Monday, 9/9: Purple Painting Property Lines
  
  • I hunted in the morning and got one squirrel that was in the paper pecan tree, closest to the house.
    
  • I planted spinach seeds in the remaining tub. Hopefully, it's not too hot for them to germinate, unlike last year.
    
  • I applied purple paint on trees and fence posts along the west, north, and part of the east property lines to indicate no trespassing. Most all old paint was faded and needed refreshing. I painted from the northeast corner to the south end of Wood Duck Pond on the east property line. South of that is opposite of our neighbor's field of soybeans, which doesn't see any hunting traffic. 
  • Ben Woodruff, our neighbor west of us, still has a salt/mineral block on the ground just west of our property line with a remote trail camera aimed at it. As of this hunting season, our county is under CWD (chronic wasting disease) guidelines, which outlaws any deer baiting, such as salt blocks. If he keeps that in place, he will be violating hunting laws.
  • From our west field, north along our west property line, the woods is an absolute wilderness. In some places, it's very difficult to maneuver through the thick brush.
    
  • As I crossed the Wood Duck Pond dam to get to our northwest property corner, I saw five blue-winged teal ducks fly to the south end of the pond. The water's edge was jammed full of frogs. The dry creek bed nearest the pond's edge was stirred up with lots of deer tracks.
    
  • I saw three deer on my property line journey. Two were near the deepest gully on our west property line, one of which was a buck. It had the darker brown hair color of autumn/winter. During the summer, deer hair is buckskin red. I also saw a small doe running south along the east edge of Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • Mary cut down more hay in the east yard.
    
  • She also watered the gardens, giving plants in the far garden a deep watering. She looked for worms after dark and found nine, all in the far garden.
  • While Mary went on a worm hunt, I checked the jalapeño wine. It's specific gravity was 1.040, so I'll probably need to rack it tomorrow. The pantry smells really nice, because of the active yeast.
    

• Tuesday, 9/10: Plato Gets an Appetite
  
  • Plato is eating much better. It started yesterday and continued today. He now eats a little bit in the morning at at noon, then at least half a dish in the evening and before going to bed. I now add only half a can of wet food to about 3-4 handfuls of dry kibble, let it soak up juices in the fridge, then feed him by helping hand him pieces from the bowl. Twice today he dove his nose into the bowl to eat, too. He still has a limp from when he hurt his right front ankle on the staircase, but he oftentimes walks faster when he's outside.
    
  • I shot one squirrel in the morning. Three were in the pecan trees when I first arrived.
    
  • Mary turned hay in the east lawn.
    
  • I checked the jalapeño wine twice. The first specific gravity reading was 1.029. The second reading late at night was 1.022. I'm sure I'll rack it tomorrow.
    
  • On our first morning dog walk, we saw a red-headed woodpecker flying in formation with about four wood ducks. After sunset, we saw a barred owl on a power pole just north of Bluegill Pond.
    
  • We watched the Harris/Trump presidential debate. Harris put in a solid performance. Trump stunk.
    

• Wednesday, 9/11: Getting Plato More Canned Dog Food
  
  • Two more squirrels aren't invading our pecan trees after this morning's hunt. The squirrel armies continue to march in from the woods.
    
  • The jalapeño wine's specific gravity was 1.014, so I racked it into a 3-gallon carboy, one 750-ml and one 375-ml wine bottle (see photo, below). CO2 gas came out of this wine throughout the day (see video, below).
    
  • I drove to Quincy to buy more wet dog food for Plato, along with other pet and chicken supplies.
  • Plato is eating like a champ. I cut the wet food down to a quarter of a can per dog food bowl. Each bowl also gets four handfuls of dry kibble and a couple spurts of warm water. I stir it all together and let it sit in the fridge and then feed it to him. He went through two bowls of food, today. He's still limping, but moving a little better.
    
  • Mary washed jackets and coats, in preparation for cooler temperatures. She also turned the hay in the east yard.
    
  • Mary picked a bucket of tomatillos and peppers from the gardens.
    
  • Our evening worm hunt revealed only one culprit. Mary says we'll drop down to checking for worms every three nights, instead of every other night.

  

  2024 jalapeño wine after 1st racking.
  

  
  

  CO2 production in the jalapeño wine.
  

• Thursday, 9/12: Pickled Jalapeños
  • I got two more squirrels during my morning hunt.
    
  • Today, Plato ate the amount of food that he eats in a normal day.
    
  • Mary made a quart jar of pickled jalapeños for the refrigerator, which used up 25 out of the garden. They make a tasty treat to put on top of bean tortillas. She also cut up and froze green peppers that amounted to 26 sandwich bags for meals. She froze four tomatillos. Tomatoes and tomatillo plants are stalled out in the gardens.
    
  • Mary picked more hazelnuts.
  • We both picked up the hay and stored it in the second bin. Recent dry weather means it's in excellent shape.
  • I switched trash pickup providers. We haven't had garbage picked up in over two weeks. It's not the first time this took place. The old company, Community Trash, has a voice mail box filled to capacity, so you can't leave a message, and they never answer their phone. Several recent Google reviews indicate they aren't picking up trash and cannot be contacted. Unfortunately, we just paid for September. The new company, Cedar Ridge Disposal, has a website with listed business hours and someone who answers the phone. It will cost $12 less per month and they'll start picking up on Aug. 19th.
    
  • Mary and I toured the north woods for new places to install deer hunting blinds/stands. I'll dismantle the Bobcat Blind and create a new blind next to a double trunk tree behind the machine shed and the chicken yard overlooking gullies to the north, west, and south. A game trail runs right by it. I'll move the aluminum ladder stand to further north in the north woods, just beyond the first gate in a shagbark hickory tree near where I first erected a stand when we moved here in 2009. The idea with both of these locations is to get away from west and north edges of our property, where deer hunting pressure is high.
  • The jalapeño wine continues to release CO2, which means the yeast is still very active.
    

• Friday, 9/13: Squirrel Hunting Day
  
  • I pretty much hunted squirrels all day and wound up getting five. They are really thick this year.
  • Mary and I watered gardens. I watered the far garden while Mary made tortillas, then she watered the near garden while I hunted.
    
  • We both husked hazelnuts that Mary picked yesterday.
    
  • Plato had a bad morning. He barely moved and wouldn't eat his morning or noon meals. Then, he got lots better and ate his last two meals with gusto. By nighttime, Plato was doing very well.
  • In the evening prior to sunset, I saw a doe deer, who had her dark brown winter hair coat, munching on shrubs about 15 feet southeast of where I'm going to put a deer blind north of the machine shed. It proves the point that it's a good deer hunting site.
    
  • Karen texted me about meeting somewhere close to us for a visit tomorrow and over several texts I learned that they were camping tonight at the Army Corps of Engineer's Frank Russell Campground at Mark Twain Lake, which is just a bit over 50 miles south of us. Karen and Lynn are on their way to Circle, Montana to visit Mom, then to Forsyth, MT to visit Lynn's brother, then to Colorado to visit their son, Kevin. I told Karen I'll drive to their campsite tomorrow morning for a visit. Mary has to stay back, because of Plato.
    

• Saturday, 9/14: Visit With Karen & Lynn
  
  • I left at 8:30 a.m. to drive to Karen and Lynn's campsite, stopping at Fastlane for gas. I got there around 10 a.m. and we had a very nice visit for over a couple hours. Hopefully, they can visit us in the future. Before I left, Lynn took a photo of Karen and me (see below). They had to get going up the road to make it to a reservation at a campground near Des Moines, IA.
    
  • I picked up chick feed at the Farm & Home store in Hannibal. After getting another $20 of gas (the pickup's gas tank was very low), I grabbed two foot-long sandwiches at Subway and got home around 2:30.
    
  • I got two more squirrels while Mary watered gardens.
  • Plato is eating very well and moving around more, even though he's still limping.
  • A thunderstorm developed over Mark Twain Lake, according to online sources, right at dusk. We watched lightning to the south, but never had anything close enough to hear thunder. While looking at the lightning, Mary saw a wood duck, a great blue heron, and a common nighthawk fly over the house.

  

  Karen and I at Mark Twain Lake, MO.

• Sunday, 9/15: Yummy Chicken Soup
  
  • Today is the start of archery seasons for deer and turkey. Guns were going off to the distant west this morning. It's people going after the marble-sized taste of dove breast meat.
  • Mary heard a summer tanager this morning. It sings, "pick-a-chuck," or "a-chuck." I've been hearing that call every morning while hunting for the past several days.
    
  • I got one squirrel this morning. There weren't anymore squirrels in the pecan trees for the rest of the day. Maybe I'm making a slight dent in their nearby population.
    
  • Plato ate great this morning, but digressed and didn't touch his food on the next two feeding attempts. He ate half his food during the nighttime feeding. Today was a down day for Plato.
    
  • I checked firewood that we accidentally cut in the spring that was partially green. It's nice and dry after a summer in the heat inside the machine shed, so we're good for a small supply of fall morning firewood to fuel the woodstove.
    
  • I cut down thistles that were going to seed along the path between the gardens. I got really hot while working that job.
    
  • The spinach seeds I planted several days ago have sprouted.
  • Mary picked a full basket of hazelnuts and I helped her husk them.
  • Mary made chicken soup out of a 2022 frozen bird. It had a lot of fat on the meat. The soup really tastes great.
  • We both watered the gardens. Green beans are developing.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of 2023 apple cider. It tastes excellent on ice, with a nice apple flavor. At just six percent alcohol, the cider has a light touch on the palate.
    

Sept. 2-8, 2024

Weather | 9/2, p. cloudy, 52°, 75° | 9/3, sunny, 49°, 79° | 9/4, sunny, 47°, 80° | 9/5, sunny, 57°, 87° | 9/6, sunny, 59°, 75° | 9/7, sunny, 47°, 69° | 9/8, heavy haze, 39°, 71° |

• Monday, 9/2: Squirrel Wars, Hay, & Perkier Plato
  
  • This morning, paint on the mailbox was nice and shiny, emitting petroleum paint fumes. I added new lettering (see photo, below) and installed it on the 4x4 post at the end of our lane. It's good for another year, unless some drunk blasts over it in a pickup, which is what happened to our last mailbox.
    
  • I hunted squirrels and got two. They're tearing into our pecans. I'm late, but the squirrel wars are on!
    
  • Mary turned hay that she cut a couple days ago, and scythed down more hay in the east yard.
    
  • We picked 18 hornworms after dark. Cooler temperatures seem to be dropping the hornworm numbers, plus we notice fewer bugs in our faces when the UV flashlight it on.
    
  • Plato wouldn't touch any food this morning. We thought he was dying. I decided not to drive to Quincy to buy food for him. Then, at suppertime, Plato ate about a quarter can of wet dog food. He walked with gusto on our last dog walk. Then, he ate the rest of the canned dog food. Plato is sleeping a great deal. Hopefully, he's coming out of whatever ails him. I'll be running to town, tomorrow, to get more wet dog food for him. We need chick food, anyway.

  

  New paint and lettering on our mailbox.

• Tuesday, 9/3: Slowing the Squirrel Invasion
  
  • This morning, I dealt with a squadron of squirrels. Standing in the brush just east of the burn barrel, I shot at the little beasts as they romped over branches to our pecan trees. I got four and sent several others packing. At noon, I got another squirrel and another in the evening.
    
  • I drove to Quincy in the early afternoon, picking up a couple items at Aldi, then feed at Farm & Home, and finally, eight cans of wet Wholehearted dog food and a five-pound sack of chicken dry Wholehearted dog food at Petco for Plato.
    
  • Mary mowed the lane while I was gone. It was so dusty that when she blew her nose after the job was done, the tissue came away covered with blackness, just from the outside of her nose.
  • We are very dry. I noticed cracks in the ground under trees in the north woods.
    
  • Mary flipped hay that she cut down yesterday. I helped Mary pick up the first cutting of hay and we stowed it in the second bin for chicken bedding.
  • While moving the garbage can to the end of our lane, I saw a small doe cross the lane and then watch me as I walked by her. Later, I saw her on the east side of the far garden. While helping Mary water garden plants, we heard a deer snorting at us and watched two deer run away that were east of the far garden.
    
  • Plato is doing a tiny bit better. Still, he didn't eat anything during the day. He ate a tiny bit of chicken easy digestible canned food for supper. After the nighttime walk, he ate all the rest of that can of food, plus a handful of chicken dry food sprinkled over the top of the wet food. He injured his right front ankle or foot while climbing stairs a couple days ago and limps on it. We have his blanket downstairs right now, so he doesn't climb the stairs. We're going to try to ease him more and more onto dry food.
    

• Wednesday, 9/4: A Chicken Conflab
  
  • I hunted squirrels all day and shot four as a result.
  • When we put the chickens to bed, we counted one shy in the chick section. We thought a hawk or coyote hauled one away. I still had one chicken outside of the coop when Mary called out that she had all 16 hens in the coop. Aha! There was our missing cockerel. We chased him into the north chicken yard, then inside the chick side of the coop.
  • We found six hornworms in the garden after dark. Their numbers are dropping.
  • I checked the electric fence twice after dark. Bunnies wrapped up wires while going through the fence.
    

• Thursday, 9/5: Katie's Polar Bear Video
  
  • I got five squirrels today.
    
  • Two deer ran away in the north yard when I approached the pecan trees, this morning. About 10 minutes later, another deer snorted at me from the trees east of the north yard.
    
  • This morning, Plato ate a little bit of dry dog food. He's still eating only tiny amounts of food.
    
  • Bill arrived around 10 a.m. He's here for four days.
    
  • Katie sent polar bear photos and a video (see below) from Kaktovik, a village she's visiting for a couple days to check on a new school build. Villagers were recently whale hunting and the whale carcasses attracted area polar bears. Katie said Kaktovik is known for polar bears. She added that there were probably 30 bears at that one location.
    
  • Mary picked up the hay that dried for a couple days and stored it in the second grain bin.
    
  • The internal door between the hens and the chicks in the coop was open this morning and again, this evening, so hens and chicks were mixed up. This morning, all birds were on their correct sides of the coop, but all of the feed under the chick feeder was cleaned out. This evening, birds were mixed up. Mary first noticed it when she counted way too many cockerels. Next, she saw Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock birds on the chick side, which are two breeds we don't have as chicks. We had three hens on the chick side and one cockerel on the hen side. Tonight, we put a brick in front of the door between the two sets of chickens. We suspect the door is somehow getting knocked ajar and allowing chickens to move through to opposite sides of the coop.
    
  • We watched the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption, a movie that Bill picked out.
  • On the evening dog walk, Amber and I spotted an opossum on the lane. We now go with two flashlights. Plato stays in the yard and Amber goes down the lane, so one of us stays with Plato, while the other person walks further with Amber.
  Polar bears at Kaktovik, taken by Katie.
  

• Friday, 9/6: Making Jalapeño Wine
  
  • I hunted squirrels throughout the day and got three.
    
  • Bill and I made a three-gallon batch of jalapeño wine. He cut up 57 young jalapeño peppers that Mary picked from the garden. The peppers weighed 2.5 pounds. Bill also chopped up 1.75 pounds of black raisins. I ran the peppers through the food processor. After putting chopped peppers and raisins in a nylon mesh bag, bright green liquid dripped out of the bag. The following went into the brew bucket: 2.5 gallons, plus 3 cups, of water, 2 grams of diammonium phosphate to feed the yeast, 4.5 teaspoons of acid blend to yield a pH of 3.2, 0.6 grams of K-meta, and 4 pounds of sugar to create a specific gravity of 1.065. We left the brew bucket, covered with a towel, in the pantry.
    
  • Mary mowed and mulched the west yard. She thought the mower was struggling and asked if I put the blade in correctly the last time I sharpened it. I looked and it's upside down, which means she mowed the lane and the west yard with the backside of the mower blade!
    
  • I saw a big doe when I got the mail and three deer just after sunset that were walking toward our south apple trees. I scared them away while wearing my hat light.
    
  • Mary made three pizzas, which we ate while playing Yahtzee. Bill won. He rolled eight yahtzees in three games. Mary took second and I was in last place. It was fun. We enjoyed 2023 cherry wine.
    

• Saturday, 9/7: Outside Cookout
  
  • I added 2 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the jalapeño wine, early in the day. I worked up a starter of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast. By nighttime, it contained a slightly green head and was milky brown in color. The specific gravity was 1.078, an increase from 1.065 yesterday, due to sugars soaking in from the raisins. The pH was 3.5. I pitched the yeast just before midnight and it immediately started fizzing in the brew bucket.
  • I got two squirrels, today, and sent several running away.
    
  • We enjoyed a wienie roast. Mary and Bill played washers. We lost a red-colored washer in the lawn. It was cool after the sun set to the east. Mary and I saw a meteor streak with a bright blue light in the west sky. Raccoons were squealing at each other from near the machine shed, which was very close to us. We also heard coyotes howling, a barred owl, and a screech owl. Bill spotted some tumbling satellites that blinked on and off as they moved across the night sky. We also spotted a bat or two. It was a really nice dark sky/steady starlight night.
    

• Sunday, 9/8: Picking & Shucking Hazelnuts
  
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 2 p.m.
    
  • About two minutes after Bill left, Mary found the missing red washer from last night's washer toss game.
  • I checked the jalapeño wine (see video, below) and it's fizzing, nicely. The specific gravity is 1.061, so the yeast is doing great.
  • Mary checked the hazelnuts and picked half a basket of nuts. We shucked the husks, gaining a few to line the bottom of that same basket. Mary says there are several more out there on the bushes.
  • I got one squirrel, today. They're very keen on my whereabouts and run away, quickly.
    
  • We watered the gardens. I picked eight strawberries.
  • Plato is slowly increasing the amount of food he's eating. Mary discovered that it's best to let him go outside, first. Next, let him drink water, then have him lay down. Finally, feed him while he's laying down. He ate four times, today. We open a can of food, pour it into his dish, add 2-3 handfuls of dry dog food, stir it up, then let it sit, covered, in the fridge. The dry food soaks up liquids from the wet food. Plato ate the equivalent of one can, plus the soaked up kibble. It's a slow recovery, but he's doing slightly better.
  The nylon mesh bag is green in the jalapeño wine brew bucket.