Oct. 21-27, 2024

Weather | 10/21, sunny, 45°, 77° | 10/22, 0.01" rain, sunny, 53°, 79° |10/23, cloudy to sunny, 53°, 59° | 10/24, sunny, 33°, 69° | 10/25, 0.44" rain, sunny, 53°, 63° | 10/26, sunny, 33°, 60° | 10/27, sunny, 32°, 63° |

• Monday, 10/21: Racking Jalapeño Wine
  • Autumn tree leave colors are glorious (see photos, below). Bill took these photos in the evening, with the sun low on the west horizon.
  • Bill and I racked the jalapeño wine for the third time. The specific gravity was 0.992, which was the same as when it was racked five weeks ago. The pH was 3.1. We racked directly into another 3-gallon carboy and a 375-ml bottle, so I only lost a half wine bottle of liquid. We tasted the remaining wine. It's a dark amber color that looks like it would be hot. But, it's a perfect drinking wine. The wine is warm and peppery, but it doesn't burn the tongue at all. It tastes great.
    
  • I husked 40 more pecans to reach my goal. I realized that my numbers are off, because I figured each month at four weeks, and 4 x 12 is 48. There are 52 weeks in a year, so I'm low by four weeks. I'm tired of this job, so we might make due with hazelnuts that Mary harvested earlier this autumn.
    
  • Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs for hours. They weren't quite as bad as on Saturday, but there were still enough to vacuum non-stop for most of the afternoon.
    
  • Mary fixed up tasty pizzas with homegrown green peppers and tomatoes. They tasted really good. We played a game of Monopoly while eating pizza and enjoying 2023 cherry wine. Bill won by building on the three properties just shy of the "Go To Jail" corner. He forced Mary out of the game, first, then knocked me out when I didn't have enough money to pay $50 to get out of jail. At the end of the game, he had over $11,000 in cash and property. It was fun.

Autumn colors from north edge of west field.

Similar photo, but showing the big Bartlett pear tree.

• Tuesday, 10/22: WOW...One Hundredth Inch of Rain!
  
  • We received our first moisture since September 24th, but it didn't rain at the house. We know this because dust on vehicles was untouched. Less than an eighth of a mile away at the rain gauge, we measured 0.01 inch of rain. Radar showed an entire front to the east of us when we woke, which had just moved through us. This property location is really weird at drying up rain chances.
    
  • Bill changed oil in his car. He used a 4' x 3' piece of three-quarters inch thick plywood to block wind, allowing the oil to drip straight down.
    
  • Gusty southwest winds kept Asian ladybugs down a little bit. But, they were still buzzing around in the wind.
    
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 2 p.m.
    
  • Mary vacuumed more bugs inside the house.
    
  • Mary picked up a bunch more nuts from under the paper pecan tree. I took husks off 85 pecan nuts. I figured a new goal of 3,750 after realizing my mistake that 3500 only accounted for 48, instead of 52 weeks in the year. I have 3,646 at the end of today, so I need 104 more to reach my new goal.
  • I saw an American kestrel fly north to south over the tree tops in the late afternoon.
    
  • Squirrels kept trying to raid the pecan trees after the sun set. They are so pecan crazy that they now have no regard for owls lurking about at that hour.
    

• Wednesday, 10/23: Lane Tree Limb Trimming Is Done
  
  • Mary collected more pecans from under the trees. I husked 80 nuts. I'm only 24 shy of my new goal. There are more than that many nuts in the bucket yet to have husks removed.
  • Squirrels are just as prominent as they've always been. I chased away many with bullets. My aim was horrendous, today.
  • We had a few drops of rain around noon, but not enough to show in the rain gauge.
    
  • Mary trimmed cedar branches off 10 trees along the last third of our lane, finishing the job of nipping back tree limbs that were nearly touching our pickup as we drove to or from the house.
  • Mary saw an American kestrel near Bluegill Pond.
  • Mary made a shopping list, since we're going to Quincy, tomorrow.
  • Katie sent Bill, Mary, and I a Christmas wish list. Now we all need to do the same.
  • We went almost a month without seeing eggs from our hens, because they were molting. Eggs first started showing, one egg every couple days, about a week ago. Mary collected two eggs when we put the chickens to bed tonight.
  • Mary took two photos of autumn colors just north of the east end of the machine shed (see below).

Oaks with red and orange. Hickory is yellow.

Maple yellow leaves & pecan leaves are still green.

• Thursday, 10/24: Quincy Library Book Sale
  
  • We went shopping in Quincy. Our first stop was at the library book sale, where we loaded two Mid-Rivers canvas bags with books. The place was packed with people when we arrived. I found a very good 1970s-vintage Rodale Press book called The New, Improved Wood Heat. Mary found a number of good books. At 50 cents an inch, the price is hard to beat. We ended up with 14 books and a movie for $8.75.
  • We picked up a set of new sheets at the Salvation Army for $20, along with some vinyl records and a DVD movie. For the first time in years, we found Stash tea at Walmart. As you can see, little things make us happy.
  • On the way home, I bought gas at $2.79 a gallon in Lewistown, MO.
    
  • We got home around 3 p.m.
  • I husked 20 more pecans for a grand total of 3,746. Four more and I reach my new goal. Squirrels are just as messy as usual.
  • Mary roared through evening chores. An approaching storm showed on the radar. By around 5:30, we heard thunder and it was raining around 6 p.m.
  • We reviewed our newly acquired books throughout the evening.
  • Around 10 p.m., more storms were approaching from the west. Lightning flashed as we walked the puppies.
    

• Friday, 10/25: Help With Drought Conditions
  
  • We experienced rain overnight, which is much needed, since the National Weather Service now shows us as being in a severe drought. We woke to falling mist, but the sun broke out by 10 a.m.
    
  • Mary collected more pecan nuts with husks on them. There are fewer, now, but several are still on the tree.
    
  • I husked 54 pecans for a grand total of 3,800. I've husked 1,457 nuts this year. No wonder my fingers are brownish green!
    
  • I watched an invading squirrel army arrive in our pecan trees at sunset. I think a squirrel appeared once every two minutes. They're absolutely nuts for pecans. I shot three of them.
    
  • We watched the 2018 film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
  • Below are more autumn color photos that Mary took on a late morning dog walk to the north.

Bright gold color of mulberry leaves.

Deep red oak leaves.

• Saturday, 10/26: More Pecans & Popping Garlic
  
  • Mary did her last pecan pickup under the trees. Squirrels continue to rip them off and send them to the ground.
    
  • I husked 105 pecans while a northeast wind blew in my face. The grand total is now at 3,905.
  • Squirrels are just as thick as ever. This summer was obviously a boom on raising baby squirrels. Last year, squirrel visits quit after I shot a few. This year they just keep on invading the pecan trees. I shot two squirrels, today.
  • Mary popped cloves from garlic bulbs on three of the six varieties. These are big cloves that she will plant this upcoming week.
    
  • I enjoyed a plentiful wildlife walk to the mailbox as darkness was seeping into the landscape this evening. A deer was eating short grass on the lane near Bluegill Pond and trotted a few yards east, then stood and watched me walk by on the lane. I think it had a rack. As a rabbit bounced into the grass, an owl flew low across the lane. Then, on the way back home I saw two deer a few feet east of the lane looking at me while I walked by them. It was a doe and a yearling perfectly silhouetted against the grass of the southeast field.
    

• Sunday, 10/27: Garlic Planting Prep & Pecan Husking Record
  
  • Mary popped the rest of the garlic designated for planting. She then turned over the ground on the first of three rows destined for garlic planting. Mary added a good amount of compost. She says that she's ready to plant garlic in that row tomorrow.
    
  • Meanwhile, I husked 160 pecan nuts for an updated grand total of 4,065. It was the most pecans I've husked in one day. Husks are coming off nuts easier, now, probably because the nuts are more mature. I picked up a partial bucket of more nuts scattered under the paper pecan tree, put there by squirrels. Mary and I agreed that today was the last day for working the pecans, but I couldn't resist collecting another day's worth of nuts to husk. Mary says I've turned into Scrat, the saber tooth squirrel in the Ice Age animated movies. Tomorrow is the last day of husking...I promise. Mary says she doesn't believe me.
    
  • Squirrels were as plentiful as always. I shot one. I tried using my Ruger 22 rifle. It's so in need of getting sighted in that I would have been better off throwing bullets by hand. I went back to the Marlin rifle, which is very accurate.
  • While looking through scopes of the two rifles, I noticed that vision in my right eye has improved. It's not quite as good as the left eye, but very close to perfect, plus it still will probably get better.
    
  • After the sun set, I kept hearing leaves rustling in the woods, thinking it was from squirrels. I shot at a fox squirrel. It ran down the tree and a few steps into the woods. Then I didn't hear it, so I stepped to the edge of the woods to investigate. At that point I saw a deer walking east to west across the north yard. It stopped at the wood's edge, trying to figure out where I was. Then another deer ran north from just inside the woods and the original deer I spotted followed the running deer. 
  • I also watched a sharp-shinned hawk swoop in under the paper pecan tree branches and grasp a small bird. It flew to the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor in the machine shed, right next to me. The hawk realized my presence and immediately jumped to a new location inside the shed, then flew out and somewhere to the west. The whole time, the tiny bird was peeping while in the claws of the hawk. 
  • Finally, as I was leaving, a third deer, with a very gray coat of hair, was walking west to east across the north yard. When I reported to Mary all of the deer activity, she said I should be able to tag a deer from my newest deer blind just north of the machine shed when hunting season begins.
    
  • We watched the 2005 film, Corpse Bride.