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.