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.