Nov. 25-Dec.1, 2024

Weather | 11/25, cloudy, 33°, 51° | 11/26, p. cloudy, 17°, 43° |11/27, cloudy, 33°, 43° | 11/28, cloudy, 21°, 35° | 11/29, sunny, 15°, 31° | 11/30, cloudy to p. cloudy, 19°, 29° | 12/1, sunny, 20°, 31° |

• Monday, 11/25: Cutting Firewood
  
  • Our high for the day was recorded just after midnight. The thermometer dropped as the day progressed and our recorded low temperature was at 10 p.m.
    
  • We cut firewood in the north woods, next to the north yard. I sawed up small trees and branches dropped out of trees while Mary loaded firewood pieces into the trailer behind the 8N Ford tractor. We took a snack break and Bill joined us after that break. We hauled a full trailer load of firewood to the machine shed, where we stacked big logs. Bill and I stacked firewood small enough to forego the splitter into the woodshed. Mary hauled firewood into the house directly from that load.
    
  • We showed Bill the giant puffball mushrooms sitting near a cedar tree at the north edge of the north woods, where I parked the tractor and wagon. He took a photo of one of the mushrooms (see below).
    
  • Mary cooked up an excellent barbecued pork loin meal with a huge winter greens salad.
  • With an expected overnight low temperature in the teens, we covered the winter greens with plastic.
    
  • We watched three more episodes of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
  • The stars were exceptionally bright when we walked the dogs on their last outing of the night.

  

  A giant puffball with Bill's size 11 boot as a reference.
  

• Tuesday, 11/26: Trip to Town
  
  • I drove to Quincy to buy fresh vegetables for dipping during our Thanksgiving dinner. It felt like the only two people who weren't on the the road and on the streets of Quincy were Mary and Bill. That's what I told them when I got back home. I also filled some plastic jugs with gasoline for firewood sawing and moving purposes. Gas was $2.59 a gallon in Lewistown.
  • I saw several occasions of farmers running no-till planters directly over corn or soybean stubble. It must mean winter wheat is a hot commodity right now.
  • A buck deer is hanging in the tree next to one of our neighbor's house. It will be there for months. Those jerks never handle deer meat correctly. They should have their hunting privileges revoked.
    
  • Meanwhile, Mary moved hay to the floor of the chicken coop. Cooler temperatures are in our forecast, so we add hay to give the floor of the coop some insulation value.
    
  • Mary also racked up leaves and put them in the top of the compost bin.
  • Bill reviewed a bunch of the data programming lessons that he's been using to teach himself the process for the last half of this year.
  • Mary made a delicious meal of hot venison sandwiches for our midday meal. Along with it were big salads. Some of the winter greens are showing a little wilt, due to cold temperatures.
    
  • We watched the rest of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
    

• Wednesday, 11/27: Second Raking of Spiced Apple Wine
  
  • During our morning dog walk, we heard and saw snow geese. That often foretells the arrival of falling snow in a few days.
  • Mary saw an eastern bluebird gobbling up wild rose hips next to the lilac bush in the west yard.
    
  • Mary baked two pumpkin pies and made up some cranberry sauce out of fresh cranberries.
  • Bill continued studying data programming lessons.
    
  • Bill and I racked the spiced apple wine for the second time. There was an abundance of fines. Since the last of the brew bucket went into a half-gallon jug, about 80 percent of it looked like applesauce baby food. We moved the liquid off the top through a hose, then pumped what we could out of the jug with an auto-siphon and dumped it into a screened strainer. Then, we dumped the strained liquid through a fine nylon mesh bag. The process took out a bulk of the residue from the jug. We got two cups of liquid out of an eight-cup jug. With the liquid from the three-gallon carboy, we got 375 milliliters over three gallons. The specific gravity was 0.999. We added 0.5 grams of Kmeta to the wine. We tasted a little bit that was leftover. It was very acidic and spicy. It was quite good.
    
  • Bill picked out a movie that we watched, which was the 1995 film, Sense and Sensibility.
    

• Thursday, 11/28: Thanksgiving 2024
  
  • Mary started preparing a Thanksgiving meal at 10:30 a.m. She baked a 22-pound turkey with stuffing inside. Other dishes included homegrown sweet potatoes, a green bean/French fried onion casserole (our garden beans), mashed potatoes (professionally mashed by Bill), turkey gravy, French dip for dipping veggies, and sliced, raw radishes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, green onions, and celery. We also had her yummy cranberry sauce that she made yesterday. We shared a bottle of last year's spiced apple wine. The meal was amazing. We needed wheelbarrows to move our stomachs around the house after eating.
  • While Mary fixed dinner, I split firewood in the machine shed. I ran the splitter's engine until the gas ran out in the small gas tank for that engine. It sits all summer, which isn't the best with gasoline from Missouri that contains corn ethanol, that deteriorates with time. My efforts gave me about five wheelbarrow loads of mainly maple firewood. Two loads went into the house and three were stacked in the woodshed. Some oak and ash firewood is wet and will need to dry in the machine shed.
  • After eating, Mary removed meat off the turkey carcass that we either refrigerated or froze. Then, Bill and I took the carcass and dumped it near the ladder deer stand in the north woods. Coyotes will make it disappear overnight.
  • I called Mom and we talked for awhile. Temperatures are getting down near zero in the morning in Circle, MT. They have a skiff of snow, but Glasgow got three inches, so Hank and Mom agreed it best if they stayed at their prospective homes for Thanksgiving. Mom baked a Cornish game hen, with Thanksgiving trimmings, for her meal, today.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I played Rummy. Mary won. Bill took second. I was last with half the score of Mary and Bill. It was fun.
  • Some of our Christmas cactus plants (Mary calls them Thanksgiving cactus) are blooming (see photos, below).

White blossoms of Thanksgiving cactus plants.

A closeup. Mary took these photos.

• Friday, 11/29: Christmas Decorating
  
  • We saw our coldest morning this autumn of 15°. It makes the heat from the woodstove even more appreciated.
  • Two very large red-tailed hawks flew by the west side of the yard in the morning that Mary spotted. At first she thought they were eagles, because they were so big.
  • I saw an invitation by my graduating high school class for a class reunion in July. The cost of all the events they plan is over $100. No thanks! I don't need to spend $100 to see a bunch of people I don't care about.
    
  • We got evening chores done early in order to take a Thanksgiving call from Katie. She cut a white spruce Christmas tree through a program on the Anchorage military bases that cleans up small trees for conservation purposes of preventing fires. The permit is only $10. She is very happy with the tree. She is doing well with her job and her military duties.
  • Bill, Mary, and I put up the Christmas tree. We decorated it and places around the house (see photos, below). We listened to Christmas music and enjoyed a bottle of parsnip wine, along with turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie.

This year's Christmas tree is decorated.

Christmas figurines on the record & CD cabinet.

Some of Mary's Christmas ornaments created since 1997.

Bill hanging decorations on the Christmas tree.

• Saturday, 11/30: Fourth Racking of Jalapeño Wine
  • We're experiencing colder temperatures. We saw a couple of snowflakes, but that was all. Mary kept the chickens in the coop until late morning.
  • Bill and I racked the jalapeño wine for the fourth time. There was just a tiny bit of fines. The liquid has a deep brown color. The specific gravity was 0.993, a change of a tiny bit from 0.992 about six weeks ago. We didn't lose much liquid in the racking. After filling a three-gallon carboy, about 200 ml was left. We drank the leftover liquid. It has a strong pepper taste, yet fruity. There is a bit of warmth, but not overwhelming. It's very good. I probably will bottle it in 2-3 weeks.
    
  • Mary made three pizzas. We ate all but two pieces while playing a game of Triopoly. Mary won. Bill took second. I brought up the rear. It was fun.
    

• Saturday, 12/1: Bill Leaves
  
  • Bill helped me with some deer blind/stand items. First, we walked down to the Wood Duck Deer Blind, removed the lauan plywood roof on the blind, and stored it in the machine shed. Then, we took down the Four Trunk Deer Stand and hauled it back home. I plan on dismantling this last deer stand. I feel safer with two feet planted on the ground while hunting deer, rather than hoisting my butt in the air on a stand that's waving back and forth to the rhythm of wind-blown tree trunks. Besides, deer blinds are warmer.
    
  • Mary and I loaded Bill up with a couple acorn squash, the last two pieces of pizza, a small bit of popcorn, and whatnot, before he left to return to his St. Charles apartment. He's returning here in a couple weeks for a Christmas visit.
    
  • I messaged Bill on how the Minnesota Vikings won by one point, then he sent me a link to a Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) game, which I watched. The New York Sirens beat the Minnesota Frost just 19 seconds into overtime, by the score of 4-3. It was fun to watch. I also watched some NFL football game recaps.
    
  • We read books and enjoyed cups of tea in front of the woodstove's nice wood heat into the evening.
  • On the last dog walk, Mary heard the lone yip, yip, yip of a coyote not too far north. It was probably near where I left the two deer carcasses in the north woods.
    

Nov. 18-24, 2024

Weather | 11/18, 0.29" rain, 54°, 64° | 11/19, 0.25" rain, sunny, 49°, 59° |11/20, sunny, 35°, 47° | 11/21, cloudy, 31°, 41° | 11/22, cloudy, 35°, 39° | 11/23, fog to sunny, 23°, 45° | 11/24, sunny to cloudy, 38°, 65° |

• Monday, 11/18: Rain, Minestrone Soup & Knife Sharpening
  
  • I woke at 5 a.m. to see if deer hunting was an option today. It was pouring rain outside, so I said the heck with it and went back to bed.
    
  • Rain fell for a good part of the day.
  • Mary made a big batch of minestrone soup. I picked eight kale leaves that she put into the soup. She uses a gallon bag of frozen homegrown tomatoes and can of tomato paste. It tastes much better than the three cans of store-bought tomato juice that we once bought to put in the soup.
    
  • Mary put together a shopping list that we'll use tomorrow.
    
  • We both vacuumed flies and Asian ladybugs. 'Tis the season.
    
  • Around 12:30 p.m., I sat for five minutes in the Boys' Fort blind just north of the machine shed and saw three deer run through the woods just north of me. I wasn't hunting. I was just looking at the compass and what would be a good wind direction for that hunting location. Since deer could approach from all directions in the north woods, there is no good or bad wind direction.
    
  • I sharpened knives for the rest of the day. I've had problems sharpening three curved Victorinox boning knives that Mary prefers using. The problem is that the three stones in the knife sharpener are concave on the surface, due to wear over time. So, I unscrewed the hold-down pieces and turned the stones over, giving me completely flat surfaces. From that point forward, knives sharpened very nicely. 
  • I did a bunch of cleanup while turning the stones over in this Norton Abrasives Multi-Oilstone. There was probably a quarter inch of fine metal particles in the bottom of the oil reservoir. Mary says the sharpener came with the grocery store in Lewistown that her grandfather bought and operated from the mid-1950s to the 1960s. Herman, Mary's uncle, had the sharpener when he ran that same store from 1964 to 1978. I found it out in the machine shed. So, we're the third owner of that knife sharpener. Mary looked it up online and it has a long history of use in America's meat industry. It does an excellent job.
    
  • We enjoyed a bottle of last year's cherry wine. It sure is good.
    

• Tuesday, 11/19: Shopping & Deer Hunting
  
  • There was an additional quarter inch of water in the rain gauge from rainfall overnight.
  • We went shopping in Quincy, IL, today. The entire town was packed with tottering old duffs, as if all of the senior homes let out for a grand day of shopping. Thanks to our son, Bill, who says we shop like we're on a mission to take out Osama bin Laden, we chuckled to ourselves as we marched through the stores. Mary was thrilled to find two more big frozen turkeys for 88 cents a pound at Walmart. We now have four in the freezer.
    
  • After getting home and emptying the pickup, I went hunting. I got to the Four Trunk Deer Stand at 2:45 p.m. A steady wind switched from the southwest to the west. I didn't dress warm enough and froze my ass off. Every year I initially seem to forget how cold the wind feels while sitting up in the air in a deer stand. I heard one shot in the valley on property west of our land around 3:30 and then I heard a goonball shooting an AK-15 style rifle in rapid-fire fashion to the distant west. A hunter like that isn't really hunting. I never saw a deer. I did hear something moving north to south a ways west of my location, but beyond my vision. It might have been a deer, or maybe a coyote.
    
  • Right before legal shooting ended, I heard an American woodcock. That's odd. Woodcocks aren't usually heard around here in November. I also watched a red-bellied woodpecker drink rainwater out of a hollowed out part of a hickory tree where a branch once broke off. That was a cool sight to witness.
    
  • While I went hunting, Mary vacuumed flies and Asian ladybugs. Flies by the hundreds were on the windows and the ceiling of our bedroom. They're all smashed into a shop vac, now. 
  • Mary also did the evening chores. She picked two large strawberries...amazing for late autumn.
    

• Wednesday, 11/20: Plenty of Deer, But None Harvested
  
  • Strong west northwest winds blew throughout the day.
  • Mary vacuumed bugs. There were fewer, because a strong wind and cooler temperatures kept them at bay.
    
  • Mary replaced the rain gauge cylinder. She threw the old one out, because it had a crack in it. We bought a new cylinder this summer.
    
  • I went deer hunting in the Boys' Fort Deer Blind in the morning and the Black Medic Deer Blind in the evening. 
  • When I first got to the Boy's Fort around 6 a.m., I heard a deer walking west of me. It wasn't snorting, but it was breathing loudly to try to catch my scent. Luckily it was upwind from me. But, it walked on and wasn't around by the time I could see when daylight arrived. Later, I saw a flash of a deer running by the other side of the cedar trees north of me.
  • I got to the Black Medic Deer Blind by 3 p.m. At 3:30, two young deer blasted by my blind just 10 feet away. They came and went so fast uphill from the blind, I barely was able to see them. About two minutes later, a deer stepped into view northwest of me, again uphill from the blind, and looked northeast, where the first two deer came from. I think it was a young buck. By the time I cocked my rifle, it was gone. A few minutes before I left, a deer southeast of me, again uphill from the blind, snorted at me. Maybe going there during an east wind would be best while I looked for deer uphill of the blind.
    

• Thursday, 11/21: Venison in the Freezer
  • A very strong west northwest wind was blowing when I got up at 5 a.m. It blew all day.
  • I hunted in the Boys' Fort Deer Blind. I arrived at 5:55 a.m. At about 7:40, a deer ran from the west field into the north woods west of me. It paused a couple times while walking north through the timber. It paused with most of its body behind a big oak tree trunk, but I focused my rifle on the neck and made a left-handed shot, hitting my target perfectly. It bucked up into the air and ran toward me, then fell down next to a gully. It was a spiked buck with three points.
  • I walked back home. Mary was feeding chickens. We went back to the deer and field dressed it, then hauled it up the hill to the north edge of the woods behind the machine shed. It was extremely heavy. I drove the tractor to that area. We loaded the deer and drove it to the hydrant and cleaned the body cavity out with a hose. Then, we took it to the machine shed and hung it from the middle rafter.
  • It was 10 a.m. when we got back inside the house, so instead of breakfast, we ate lunch, which was four bowls of minestrone soup, each.
  • We spent the rest of the day butchering the deer. It was a deer with a long body and massive muscles. I called it an Arnold Schwarzenegger deer. We're guessing it was a two-year old. We froze 51 meals of venison meat. It feels good to have a bunch of venison in the freezer, again.
  • Today the stupid idiot crop duster was flying in and out of the airport at the dairy that is west of us. We had 35-40 mph gusts, which is no condition for spraying herbicides from an airplane. Besides, what the heck is green that needs killing at this time of the year?
    
  • Mary spotted a bald eagle in a tree near Bluegill Pond while she was walking the dogs. It flew off. Later, we think we saw that same bald eagle, along with three big ducks or small geese that were flying just beyond it.
    

• Friday, 11/22: Another Deer
  
  • Since yesterday's butchering lasted until after dark, I didn't get up early for morning hunting. Instead, we enjoyed a breakfast of waffles.
    
  • I went to the new Wood Duck Deer Blind and was in place by 3 p.m. 
  • Around 4, I caught a glimpse of a deer walking through trees southwest of me. Shortly after, a flock of wild turkeys walked along the Wood Duck Pond shoreline north of me. I counted 14 turkeys. They came closer to about 20-25 feet away (see videos, below). Turn on the sound of the videos and you can hear them scratching in the leaves. They walked directly in front of the blind just 10 feet away. At that point, I didn't dare move for fear of spooking them. At one point I had birds to the north (my left), in front of me, and scattered to the south (my right), all at the same time. Eventually, every single turkey flew up into the trees above me to roost for the night. They were walking around me for 45 minutes before they roosted.
    
  • Once all of the turkeys were perched up in the trees, I heard louder footsteps. Then I saw deer walking from the woods, southwest of me, and onto the flat stretch near the dry creek bed. It was 5 p.m. One deer came into clear view. I raised up the short-barreled 30-30 and slid it through a slot in the hog fence and made an accidental crunching noise as the barrel settled on a couple willow sticks woven in the fence. The deer looked my way and snorted. I took a left-handed shot and it went down immediately. As I emerged from the blind, a buck bellowed from the hill in front of me, a young deer ran in front of me to the pond, several deer snorted from the woods behind me, and turkeys flew out of the trees above me. I walked to the deer. It was attempting to move its head to get up, so I dispatched it with a second shot. I texted Mary, walked home, and collected flashlights, field dressing knives and a field bone saw. Mary walked as I drove the tractor back to Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • I ran out of gas in the tractor and walked back home to retrieve a can of gas. While I was gone, Mary heard coyotes singing near the Bass Pond dam, which is close, so she walked down to the downed deer and waited for me. Besides the coyotes, she heard the turkeys in the trees above her quietly clucking.
  • It took extra time to field dress the deer, which was a mature doe, because she was a little bit tougher. The meat will still be good, since doe meat is always great. With Mary leading the way and holding the rear feet and me hauling the front feet of the deer, we transported her up the hill to the tractor, loaded her, and drove back home. We cleaned the body cavity with a garden hose and hung her in the machine shed overnight. Soon after, the predicted overnight low of 29° showed on the thermometer. It's a perfect temperature for chilling venison meat. We'll butcher first thing in the morning. There will be plenty of venison in the freezer when we're done with this deer, so my hunting season is now over. The two deer I harvested came from sitting in my two newest deer blinds.
    
  • We both heard flying squirrels in the pecan trees just outside of the machine shed tonight as we were hanging up the deer. Their squeaking noise is very identifiable, once you know that sound.
  Wild turkeys with Wood Duck Pond to the right in this video.
   
More turkey video...Happy Thanksgiving!!!.

• Saturday, 11/23: Butchering Second Deer
  
  • All day was spent butchering the doe I harvested yesterday. I first sharpened four knives. It took me two hours to skin the deer. After eating a midday meal, Mary and I deboned the hind quarters, packaged up the venison pieces, and froze them. After evening chores, we removed shoulder meat, along with inside and outside loins. Mary packaged them as I cleaned up in the machine shed. All told, we froze 36 meals of venison from this deer. With the 51 meals from this year's buck, we have 87 meals of venison added to the freezer from this deer hunting season. I. Am. Done!!!
    
  • While Mary and I were cutting off the last meat from the deer, a young opossum walked up the path to the front door of our house. Plato was barking, which drew my attention. It probably smelled the deer meat and was hiking up to see when it could find. It ran off once I showed up.
  • We also had a mixed bag of birds eating on venison bits outside the porch, before I collected it all up to get rid of it.
    
  • I took hair off both of the deer we harvested this year to use for tying flies in the future. Fly tying shops sell deer hair. It's nice to get it for free.
  • Using the tractor and wagon, I drove the carcasses, hides and buckets of fat residue to the north woods, near where the Four Trunk Deer Stand is located. Wild creatures clean this all up in just a few days.
  • While I was loading items in the trailer, I heard several shots to the south. When you hear more than one shot, it's usually from an hunter who is a poor marksman, who keeps trying to hit an animal, but never quite gets it done. I'm happy to be finished hunting deer, because with the saturate the woods with bullets approach, deer are going to become very scarce. They get low when the bullets keep flying.
  • They aren't scare, yet. While walking dogs in the late afternoon, Mary and I saw seven deer cross the lane in front of us.
    

• Sunday, 11/24: Bill Arrives
  
  • Bill arrived around midday. He's visiting us for a week.
    
  • I cleaned up and put the last of the butchering items in the machine shed away, including lights, extension cords, ladders, and buckets.
  • An opossum meandered around the yard this afternoon, digging here and there and eating grubs (see video, below). We named him Homer.
  • We heard a great deal of traffic on the gravel road through the day. It involved a lot of rattling trailers, which means the guy from St. Louis who owns property west of us, who always brings deer hunters onto his place, took all of his stuff out of the woods and went home.
    
  • We had a mid-afternoon wienie roast outside. Mary made a big salad, to go along with hotdogs, since temperatures are expected to drop into the teens by next weekend, which will probably kill off the greens. A flock of red-winged blackbirds serenaded us from the maple tree tops. Tufted tit mice were also peeping at us.
    
  • Bill picked out the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to watch. We viewed three episodes.
  Homer, the opossum, searching for grubs in our lawn.
  
  
  

Nov. 11-17, 2024

Weather | 11/11, sunny, 40°, 59° | 11/12, sunny, 30°, 52° |11/13, 0.07" rain, cloudy, 40°, 55° | 11/14, cloudy, 45°, 47° | 11/15, sunny, 27°, 58° | 11/16, cloudy, 35°, 50° | 11/17, cloudy, 49°, 64° |

• Monday, 11/11: Moving Wood Duck Deer Blind
  
  • This morning while we were letting the chickens out, we heard snow geese flying overhead, but we never saw them. They must have been extremely high.
    
  • I checked the spiced apple wine this morning and the specific gravity was 1.028, so it dropped five thousandths overnight. The nighttime specific gravity was 1.022 for a drop of 11 over 24 hours.
    
  • Mary and I walked down to Wood Duck Pond. We first looked at the current deer blind. So many dead trees near it means it must be abandoned. It's not safe. We walked around and picked a new location for a deer blind. It's somewhat in the open, so I'll have to build a blind that is superior at hiding me from the deer. It's on the west side of the dry creek bed, opposite from where I've parked the last several years. In 2010, I had a deer stand about 100 feet further west of where I'm building this one. From this new location I can see the pond and the forest floor west of the dry creek bed as I look north and east. I can also spot animals coming down the hill to the west of me.
    
  • We spooked up two coveys of bobwhite quail as we walked around near the pond. When we first walked to the pond's edge, about eight ducks took off. We couldn't identify them, but we know they weren't wood ducks.
  • Mary mowed our quarter mile lane. Even on a cooler day, like today, that's a hard job.
    
  • I went back to Wood Duck Pond with the tractor and wagon loaded with saws and tools. I tore down the cattle and hog fences at the old blind and moved them to the new location. I'll start assembling it tomorrow.
  • On the way to Wood Duck, I spotted a bufflehead duck swimming in Bass Pond. It was nervous with the sound of the tractor, but stayed in the pond. They have a striking appearance. HERE is a link to a photo of a bufflehead.
    
  • We heard barred owls calling from all over the place about 30 minutes prior to the sun going  down.
    
  • We enjoyed a bottle of perry tonight. It was made last fall and bottled in January 2024. We drank it at room temperature, which we decided is better, because when iced, some of the flavor disappears. The spice is lighter than the spiced apple wine. The pear taste comes out nicely. It's got a light, happy flavor.
    

• Tuesday, 11/12: Garlic Mulched & Deer Blind Construction
  
  • Mary mowed part of the east yard and finished mulching the last row of garlic in the far garden. It's now good for the winter.
    
  • I wired together the cow panel and hog panels of the new Wood Duck Deer Blind. I want to be a little more discreet, so I used a four-foot square sheet of quarter-inch lauan paneling I found in the old cow barn as a roof, instead of bright silver steel barn siding. I sawed five-foot long logs from a nearby ash that fell to the ground. Then, I stacked and wired the logs into the cow panel on the west side of my semi-circle blind. I've got more concealment work that I'll do tomorrow.
    
  • I saw tracks of a large deer on the trail I'm using to get to my new blind that runs parallel to the dry creek bed. I also watched a duck gliding the west shoreline of Wood Duck Pond. Without binoculars or a scope on a gun, I couldn't see what kind of duck it was.
    
  • A huge, thick halo appeared around the moon while we were walking the puppies at night.
  • We are finally getting weather matching the month of November. Snow is expected in next week's weather prediction.
  • A check of the spiced apple wine in the morning resulted in a 1.017 specific gravity. By nighttime, it was 1.010, so I racked it into a 3-gallon carboy and a half-gallon jug. Most of the jug was applesauce slurry, so I'm expecting mostly thick fines from that container when I rack for the second time in a few days.
    

• Wednesday, 11/13: New Blind Nearly Done
  
  • While Mary made flour tortillas, I cut down a tall maple stump and finished stacking logs on the west side of the new Wood Duck Blind. A deer snorted at me from the east side of the pond while I was checking out the fold-up garden seat inside the new blind. I was talking to myself about how it all fits nicely when the deer heard me and snorted. 
  • I went home after Mary texted that chimichangas for a midday meal were ready in 10 minutes. They were topped with winter greens...yummy!
  • I walked back to the Wood Duck Blind and stuffed tall grass that I picked up along the trail to the ponds. I wove it between the sections in the hog fence. I'm amazed I haven't used this for camo in the past, because it works wonderful at concealing the inside occupant, while appearing very natural (see photos, below). I cut a couple oak branches that grew into the trail, placed them on the roof top so they draped over the side and added a heavy dead branch on top to weigh them down. Light rain started the moment I showed up for the second time and it turned to a steady rain, but I kept working to get all grass stuffed into place. I was pretty wet after driving the tractor home.
  • I got deer tags for the upcoming hunting season. It's all done online, which is nice and easy.

Southeast corner & entrance of new blind.

Northeast corner of Wood Duck Blind.

Southwest corner of blind. Stacked logs are braced.

East side of blind. My vision is through top of hog fence.

• Thursday, 11/14: Baked Bread & Finalizing Deer Blinds
  
  • Mary baked four loaves of bread, which always puts an amazing scent throughout the house.
    
  • I finished all deer hunting preparation in the field by first marking all new trails to blinds and the deer stand with reflective thumbtacks. A quick check of existing blinds and the deer stand showed all were in good shape. I added more oak branches to the top edges of the newest deer blind cut from limbs invading paths. I cut out a massive multiflora rose bush growing across the dry creek bed and other weeds and shrubs growing on the trail to the other deer blind in the west woods, the Black Medick Blind. There is a major north/south deer trail just down the hill from that blind. Finally, I checked out sitting in the new Wood Duck Deer Blind with my two 30-30 rifles. The 30-30 Marlin with a shorter barrel works best in that blind, due to its close quarters, so I'll have to put both rifles in use this year. I usually only use the 30-30 with the longer barrel.
    
  • I cleaned the two 30-30 rifles. Mary's Uncle Herman neglected cleaning the 30-30 Marlin with the long barrel, so all I can do is clean it to a point. The shorter 30-30 Marlin rifle cleans up nice and shiny inside the barrel. I bought that one from Ansel Marquette in 2010.
    
  • FedEx has improved, slightly. They find our location. They still have issues. When the FedEx driver showed up with our shipment of oatmeal, he discovered that the folks in Quincy failed to load our package into his truck. It will hopefully show up tomorrow.
  • Mary saw a belted kingfisher while she walked our lane to the mailbox. It followed her up the lane from the mailbox, then cut in front of her to the east, continuing with its rusty chain call. THIS is what they sound like. She also watched a sharp-shinned hawk haunting the lower reaches of bushes and trees in the yard. That's why we don't have little birds in the yard right now.
    

• Friday, 11/15: Tree Skirt & Sighting In Rifles
  
  • Mary started making a Christmas tree skirt. Last year she bought a green Christmas tablecloth that has a damask holly pattern on it. Today she used our round dining room table as a pattern to cut it into a large circle, cut out a small circle in the middle, cut a slit to the middle circle, then pinned a shiny gold bias tape to all edges. She made a similar tree skirt in 2001 and it's shot. Nick and Holly (cats) were born on the old tree skirt in 2009. Holly is gone, but Nick and his mother, Rosemary, are still with us.
    
  • I sighted in the two 30-30 Marlin rifles. Initially, they both were shooting high. I believe the rifle with the shorter barrel has a faulty scope. Changes on the dial made no difference on where the shot hit the target. I just need to remember that on that rifle, it shoots two inches high at 50 yards, so I need to aim low. The rifle with the longer barrel is now zeroed into the bullseye of the target.
  • Today was perfect for sighting in guns. It was sunny and calm.
  • Mom's 90th birthday is today. I talked to her on the phone. She had a great birthday celebration. Mom told the crowd at the Circle Senior Center luncheon of how her father traded a truckload of potatoes to the sisters at the Catholic hospital where she was born in Missoula, MT, as a way to pay for the bill of her birth. She said a truck in 1934 was about the size of a large pickup, today. "So, that's what I'm worth, a truckload of potatoes," she told the group, which drew a big laugh. I didn't know it, but apparently Grandad Robison grew potatoes and sold them in the early days, while he operated a dairy at Lolo, MT.
  • We ate Aldi turkey franks cooked over the woodstove fire this evening. With Mary's homemade piccalilli relish added as a topping, along with mustard, they taste great.
  • Afterwards, we enjoyed a bottle of last year's apple wine. We're finding all apple wines are better at room temperature, because apple flavor comes out stronger.
    

• Saturday, 11/16: Firearms Deer Season Starts
  
  • Today is the first day of firearms deer hunting season, November portion. This year it is Nov. 16-26. But not for me. Lewis County is now in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone, which means that all hunters who bag a deer during the opening weekend (today and tomorrow) must take the deer to a sampling station, where they collect a lymph node sample for testing. I don't want to load a bloody deer carcass in the pickup and drive it to and from the Lewis County Fairgrounds before butchering it. Also, temperatures are high this weekend. So, I'll wait a couple days. Another factor is that with the CWD designation, our county gets an additional CWD hunting season that is Nov. 27-Dec. 1. Then, there's an anterless deer season that runs between Dec. 7-15. So, there are several days available to hunt deer beyond the opening weekend.
  • There were fewer rifle shots on the opening day, compared to what we've heard in years past. Maybe others are going with my rational of putting off hunting for a couple days.
    
  • Mary and I pulled out the last two air conditioners. As I removed them, Mary was ready with a shop vac to suck intruding Asian ladybugs. Surrounding the large AC in the living room window were hundreds of the crawling stinkers. We moved the ACs to the machine shed.
    
  • I strung several lights up in the machine shed in preparation for butchering deer. I moved the location of where I hang the deer to the middle of the building. It gives me a place to butcher deer, yet allows me to park the tractor and wagon inside the shed and not out in the weather.
    
  • Our order of tea came in from Harney & Sons. It smells absolutely wonderful.
    
  • I watched an old airplane fly overhead. It was louder than most single prop planes and it had a British Spitfire logo on it, so it was obviously an old World War II fighter plane. There certainly wasn't any stealth involved with those loud engines.
    

• Sunday, 11/17: Firewood Collection
  
  • I sharpened one of the two chains on the big Stihl chainsaw. Half of the teeth were well worn. They were all on the left side of the chain, where I must have hit something hard with the saw. It only took five strokes with a file to sharpen the right side, but 15 strokes on the left side. The sharp chain proved excellent while cutting firewood later in the day.
    
  • Mary and I took the tractor and wagon east of the garden, down the hill, to some downed maple branches. I sawed up and Mary loaded a full wagon load of firewood. Most of it was either standing, or above ground, so it was exceptionally dry and in great shape. Maple burns hot and fast, which makes it perfect for small fires when it's not too cold outside, such as is the case right now. We loaded small pieces into the woodshed and large pieces to split into the machine shed, next to the splitter.
    
  • Mary vacuumed bugs inside the house. They were mainly flies, today, and they were in a continuous motion from out to inside the house.
    
  • I sharpened knives. The weather forecast predicts a 100 percent chance of rain for tomorrow. So, I only sharpened one knife to use inside the house and two knives used for field dressing venison. If I get out, tomorrow, I can sharpen the rest after a deer is hanging in the machine shed. If it's too wet for me to venture outside, I'll have plenty of time to sharpen the rest.
    

Nov. 4-10, 2024

Weather | 11/4, 0.40" rain, cloudy, 57°, 69° | 11/5, 0.58" rain, cloudy, 59°, 65° |11/6, cloudy to clear, 45°, 55° | 11/7, sunny, 31°, 57° | 11/8, cloudy, 36°, 55° | 11/9, 0.15" rain, cloudy, 45°, 51° | 11/10, sunny, 47°, 57° |

• Monday, 11/4: A Beetle Bug Day
  
  • After letting chickens out of the coop and giving them new water this morning, I counted eight squirrels leaving the pecan trees. Later, Amber had great fun chasing squirrels and woofing at them while bouncing on the ground under the trees.
    
  • Mary vacuumed a ton of beetle bugs. The temperature was a little higher, with little or no wind, creating ideal conditions for Asian ladybugs to congregate on the sides of buildings. The ceiling of the chicken coop was a mass of crawling bugs.
    
  • I used the big loppers and the Stihl trimmer fit with the steel blade to forge a path through woods next to the north yard and over the north field to a hickory tree with four trunks just inside the woods on the west side of the north field. I'll move the aluminum ladder stand to that location. I think I'll call it the Four Trunk Deer Stand.
    
  • I wove a small cedar tree through hog fencing on the east side of the Boys Fort and pounded an 18-inch piece of rebar into the ground to hold the hog fence entrance closer to the tree, thereby better concealing me inside the deer blind.
    
  • I picked some lettuce, arugula, and kale from our winter greens for a wonderful salad prior to our chicken and baked potato supper.
  • Our eldest cat, Rosemary, hasn't eaten in four days. She ate some pieces of cheese midday and some small bits of chicken meat tonight. We hope she eats more tomorrow.
    
  • I held the apple sauce intended for making apple wine in the refrigerator today. I have an eye appointment tomorrow and 10 a.m. in Quincy. We'll vote in Lewistown on the way back home. All of tomorrow's activities make it hard to attend to winemaking duties, so I'm holding off starting to make the wine until I'm back at home and not running around.
    

• Tuesday, 11/5: Final Eye Checkup
  
  • We drove to Quincy for an eye appointment at 10 a.m. We were in there for 1.5 hours, with most of the time spent waiting. Doctors want patients to get to appointments early, but they are not prompt at doing their jobs. I have perfect vision in the left eye and 25/20 vision in the right eye. Insertions have healed, lenses are in perfect locations, and retinas look good. I don't need glasses and I can continue using over-the-counter reading glasses. Floaters and flashes I'm noticing in my left eye are age-related. If they increase, I need to return to the eye doctor to have my retina investigated.
  • We bought a couple items in Quincy, then drove to Lewistown and voted. The voting precinct at the Lewistown Fire Department building was full. We returned home by 2:30 p.m.
  • We continued with feeding chicken bits of meat to Rosemary and progressed with turkey. She's eating, so we're hopefully on a road to recovery with her.
    
  • After doing evening chores, we ate and watched the 1993 movie, Dave, then watched the election results. Nothing was decided when we went to bed, but Trump was leading across the country. The constitutional amendment to ensure abortion rights in Missouri was approved.
  • Katie texted a photo of her "I voted" sticker (see photo, below). Alaska has some really cool Tlingit artwork on their voting stickers.

  

  An Alaskan "I voted" sticker.
  

• Wednesday, 11/6: First Spiced Apple Wine Started
  
  • I made up a batch of spiced apple wine. Two nylon mesh bags were stuffed with 22 pounds, 6.8 ounces of course applesauce; 1 pound, 14 ounces of chopped raisins; 0.5 ounce of cloves; six broken cinnamon sticks; and eight ounces of shredded ginger root. A gallon of juice came out of the applesauce. In the brew bucket I added a gallon of water, 1.5 pounds of sugar, and 0.4 grams of K-meta. The specific gravity was 1.060 and the pH was 3.0. I left it in the pantry, covered with a towel, to sit overnight. Once I do the first racking, I should have a little over three gallons of wine. I'll make a second three-gallon batch once this batch is in a glass carboy.
    
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project.
    
  • Mary painted fence posts and tree trunks on our south border, next to the gravel road, with purple paint to mark our property edge and indicate no trespassing to deer hunters.
    
  • We watched the 2013 film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
  • Turkey meat is a big hit with our oldest cat, Rosemary. She ate all of her meals very well, today, and even had some dry cat food on her nighttime meal. It's really good to see her getting excited about eating after a four-day session of not eating. With just two days of me ripping up chicken and turkey meat small enough for her to eat, she sticks with me in the kitchen while all other pets head into the back room with Mary to get their food.
    

• Thursday, 11/7: Winemaking, Cleaning, & Great Winter Greens
  
  • A multitude of spiders are spinning webs in the tops of small shrubs in the fields that resemble small platforms surrounded by an orb of web threads. Mary also noticed them on the late afternoon dog walk as the evening sun lit them up with gold light. They're really beautiful.
    
  • I removed our bedroom air conditioner while Mary vacuumed hundreds of Asian ladybugs that poured out of the AC's housing. They really packed into the unit and emerged as soon as we started moving the air conditioner through the window. We're at a stage in autumn when window air conditioners only leak cold temperatures into the room.
    
  • Mary cleaned our bedroom and washed all of the throw rugs in that room.
    
  • I picked greens that we added to the top of our midday meal of taco salad. All of the winter greens are growing very well (sees photos below). I continue to pick them, yet they still keep expanding upward and outward.
  • I added two tablespoons of pectic enzyme and two grams of diammonium phosphate (DAP) to the spiced apple wine brew bucket. I worked up a starter batch of Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast throughout the day and pitched it into the brew bucket before going to bed, just after squeezing the two nylon mesh bags. At that point the specific gravity was 1.065, up five thousandths from yesterday, and the pH was 3.2, meaning I didn't need to add sugar or acid blend. The yeast went to work immediately in the brew bucket. Last year I let the brew bucket sit an extra day, with the idea being to give the pectic enzyme time to release more liquid from the applesauce. The problem with that idea is wild yeast starts to kick in and eat away at sugars. I didn't do that with this batch. We'll see which approach is best.
    
  • I used a tank of gas in the trimmer and whacked weeds and grass out of the trail to Wood Duck Pond. There's a lot more to clean up on that trail.
    
  • I took down the aluminum ladder deer stand and the hog fence with old cedar branches woven through it from the cedar tree next to the trail I cleaned up today. I'll move it to the four-trunk hickory tree in the north woods.
    
  • A young deer stood on the lane and watched us as we walked toward it with the puppies this evening. At dusk, four deer were eating hazelnut bushes next to our lane. I walked outside, told them to stop eating our bushes, and they bounded off to the southwest.

Kale (left) & spinach (right) growing in tubs.

More winter greens of lettuce (left) & arugula (right).

• Friday, 11/8: Strawberries in November
  
  • Mary picked two huge strawberries out of our strawberry patch that grows in buckets and tubs in the near garden. Who would have guessed that we'd be eating strawberries on our waffles in November.
  • Mary and I moved the aluminum ladder deer stand to the north woods.
    
  • I used two gas tanks in the Stihl trimmer to knock down more grass and weeds in the trail to Wood Duck Pond. I'm now between Bass and Dove Ponds where tall sericea lespedeza grows.
    
  • I used two tie-down straps and secured the aluminum ladder deer stand into four trunks of the hickory tree in the north woods (see photo, below). I can survey the north field from that location, along with a chunk of the north woods.
    
  • The yeast in the spiced apple wine is humming right along. The specific gravity is 1.060 after 24 hours in the brew bucket. The pantry smells very good.

  

  The Four Trunk Deer Stand in the north woods.An Alaskan "I voted" sticker.
  

• Saturday, 11/9: Quiet Rainy Day
  
  • Today was a quiet day. We had misty rain for most of the day, and then fog after it turned dark.
  • Squirrels love wet weather. I saw them all over the place outside. I think they feel safer from getting nabbed by birds of prey when rain is falling.
    
  • Mary cleaned the floor and books in the upstairs north bedroom while I put away winemaking stuff and years of saved bill receipts in the main floor west room. Neither of us finished.
  • We enjoyed two pots each of Keemun tea from Stash while watching the 2001 movie, Gosford Park, which was a prelude to Downton Abbey. It's very good. Julian Fellows, who wrote both productions, won an Oscar for the screenplay of this movie.
    

• Sunday, 11/10: Mulching Garlic & Trail Cleanup
  
  • I checked the spiced apple wine twice, today. Around noon, it had a specific gravity of 1.041 and an increased temperature of 68°. It was in the 50s when I started this batch. By bedtime, the specific gravity was at 1.033. The amount of material in the two nylon mesh bags is significantly reduced.
    
  • Mary mowed the east yard and used the grass clippings to mulch two of the three rows of garlic, which are already sprouting. If these high temperatures keep up, we'll be harvesting garlic in early May, instead of June.
    
  • I used 3.5 tanks of gas in the Stihl trimmer and whacked weeds and grass from the rest of the trail to Wood Duck Pond.
  • I made a quick check of the deer stand that a relative of our neighbor to the east put near our property at Wood Duck Pond. He used tie-down straps wrapped completely around the tree to hold the metal deer stand in place. Over a few years, those straps girdled the tree and killed it. Since last year, the tree fell over and took the stand down with it. Good! I might be able to hunt closer to the pond without fear of someone from that stand aiming a rifle west and toward me. Anytime I've hunted in recent years with the pond in plain sight, I first check to see if someone is in that stand.
  • I might change the location of the Wood Duck Blind. Currently, an oak branch fell on it and smashed in the roof. It needs rebuilding. It's tucked into the hill opposite of our neighbor's property to the east and faces west. I only saw one big buck deer from there last year, whereas I saw several deer while parked behind an oak tree facing north and looking directly down on the pond. I'm also seeing more deer tracks near the pond's shoreline, compared to up and down the dry creek bed just in front of the current Wood Duck Blind. The oak tree facing the pond might be a better deer blind location.
    
  • In the evening, I ordered powdered milk and coffee through Sam's Club. Both are items the Quincy Sam's Club no longer sells, but we can buy online. I also ordered another 50-pound bag of old fashioned oatmeal through webstaurantstore.com. Finally, I ordered six varieties of loose leaf tea through Harney & Sons, based in CT. Mary read that they're a very good tea company. Stash, who we've bought tea from for years, has less loose leaf tea varieties and seems to be trending toward flavored teas...not what we prefer.