June 30-July 6, 2025

Weather | 6/30, 0.11" rain, cloudy, 68°, 85° | 7/1, sunny, 65°, xx° | 7/2, xx°, xx° | 7/3, xx°, xx° | 7/4, xx°, xx° | 7/5, xx°, xx° | 7/6, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 6/30: A Little More Rain
  • Mary trimmed forsythia branches that shot out this spring into walking and parking areas. She also cut back some Virginia creeper vines that are trying to capture our legs as we walked up the porch steps.
  • We waited for oncoming rain that finally arrived in the late afternoon. We got just over a tenth inch of rain.
  • I walked down to the mailbox to get shifting cable clips that arrived in the mail. Our mail delivery person can never seem to close any mailbox door. She always leaves them open by about an inch, so if rain or snow is eminent, the mail gets wet. What a doofus!!!
  • A recommended fix that I've found on several videos dealing with riding mower spindle bolts that break when they are removed is to tap threads into new spindles. I checked and I have the correct tap to make those threads. My attempt to start tapping threads was detoured due to oncoming rain that required doing evening chores early.
  • With rain starting to fall, we could only get nine hens and Leo, our rooster, into the coop. We got tired of playing chicken games and left the remaining six hens out to get soaked by rain. At sunset, Mary opened the chicken door and six bedraggled, wet hens went into the coop, one by one.
  • Mary discovered that there is a cardinal nest in the forsythia next to our main door. A cat bird followed Mary into the woodshed and kept picking up odd bits off the woodshed floor and throwing them around, like Leo, our rooster, does when he's protecting his flock of hens.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of 2023 pumpkin wine after dinner. It's much improved with aging. This wine once had a strong sulfur taste. It has floating stuff in it, so I filtered the wine through some paper towels and into the glass pitcher. Drinking it chilled is delightful. The taste includes a cinnamon spice element and pumpkin flavor. It's nice and refreshing.

 

June 23-29, 2025

Weather | 6/23, sunny, 73°, 91° | 6/24, sunny, 72°, 91° | 6/25, sunny, 73°, 92° | 6/26, sunny, 75°, 92° | 6/27, 0.47" rain overnight, partly cloudy, 68°, 87° | 6/28, sunny, 69°, 89° | 6/29, 1.48" rain, cloudy, 69°, 77° |

• Monday, 6/23: Pickup Problems
  • Mary and I moved the riding mower deck to the back of the pickup. When I went to drive off in the pickup, I could not get the vehicle into drive. Later, I hooked the 8N Ford tractor to the front of the pickup with a chain. Mary put the pickup into neutral and steered it as I pulled it back into its parking spot with the tractor.
  • Right after I discovered the pickup wasn't moving forward and I was starting to look online for answers, the welder called. I already texted him that I wasn't moving the pickup. He told me that he will be at the dairy tomorrow, doing a welding job, and will drive here to put the weld on the mower deck. That was very nice of him.
  • I did a bunch of online research. I think my problem is a worn out shifter cable. RockAuto.com has them from $39 to $113. I'll need to order one.
  • Mary watered all garden plants and smaller trees. She reports everything is doing well.
  • Mary mowed more and mulched to the near the end of the row she's filling in the near far  garden. I mowed the lane so when the welder visits tomorrow, our lane looks like someone lives here. 
  • Mary checked a patch of blackberries south of the house and discovered that most of that patch is gone, but what is there has green blackberries.

• Tuesday, 6/24: A Free Weld
  • On our morning walk with Plato, we saw a doe with twin fawns on the lane ahead of us. Plato was great at just watching them and not barking or running towards them. The fawns still had spots. All three deer looked very healthy.
  • Hudson Welding showed up around 9:30 in a pickup. They had a big Lincoln welder in the back of their pickup powered by a portable generator. Tony, the eldest, who welded our trailer a couple weeks ago, stood by as his son and grandson did the work. A quick rust clean up with a grinder and a 30-second weld was all it took. When I asked how much I owed, Tony said I didn't owe a cent...they did it for free. That was really nice. Prior to showing up, they just left the dairy west of us, after doing some welding. The dairy gives them regular work. After they left, Mary and I moved the riding lawnmower deck to the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor inside the machine shed.
  • I jacked up the driver's side front end of the pickup, installed a jack stand, and removed the underneath half of the pickup's shift cable. Once I disconnected the cable, I grabbed the lever on the side of the transmission and easily moved through all of the gears, thereby verifying that the problem isn't inside the transmission, but probably in the cable. Prior to removal, I took several photos of the cable's routing underneath the pickup. 
  • I had to take frequent breaks, due to hot, humid conditions. While removing a tiny C-washer that holds the two halves of the cable together, the canvas tarp under me got wet just from sweat dripping off my arm. Mary also had to take several breaks from the heat.
  • Mary performed more of her mowing/mulching dance. The near far garden is now mulched and only requires additions here and there where older mulch has decayed.
  • For a second day in a row, Mary added a couple loads of green clover leaves to the hens and chicks. All of it gets gobbled up by all chickens.
  • In the evening, we enjoyed a bottle of 2022 blackberry wine. It's very mellow with a good berry flavor. Aging greatly helps enhance the taste of homemade wine.

• Wednesday, 6/25: Pickup Shifting Problem Found!
  • Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup. Somehow a dinner of salty liquids seems right after sweating outside in hot, humid conditions.
  • The riding lawnmower parts arrived, but were delivered to the trailer across the gravel road from us. Alma, the Hispanic woman who lives there, drove her pickup to us and delivered the two packages, which was very nice. She doesn't speak English, but her two infant daughters smiled at me and said, "Hi!" 
  • I successfully removed the upper half of the pickup's automatic transmission shift cable. Once I uncovered the floor mat, I found the culprit that hindered correct shifting of the transmission (see photo, below). The outer sheathing of the cable deteriorated to the point that the cable moved sideways instead of up and down the inside of the cable's wrapping. Based on YouTube videos, rotten cable sheathing on the floor and inside of the cab is a common breaking point of these shift cables. I was tickled that I guessed what the problem was, based on symptoms of a rotten shift cable. Up until today, my prognosis was only conjecture.
  • There is a bugger a clamp wire (see photo, below) under the dash that wraps around the shift cable and keeps it above a steering column knuckle. Most videos skip the difficulty of removing this beast, but there's plenty of online chatter about how tough it is to deal with this scummy thing. I battled with it for a couple of long sessions, interspersed with online searches trying to figure it out. I finally got the idea from watching a guy lay on the pickup floor, enabling the ability to push up on the wire to remove it. I copied the technique and got it out. I'm not looking forward to installing the "beast".
  • My body tells me that it doesn't like twisting around a pickup seat on the pickup's floor and reefing on parts deep under the dash. I have sore muscles and joints in weird places.
  • I ordered all of the parts needed to fix the shift cable, including brackets and pins. It's predicted to be here by July 1-2. Meanwhile, we'll keep feeding cut clover to the chickens in an attempt to stretch hen and chick feed.

Bad shift cable that was above pickup's floor.

This clamp wire was difficult to remove.

• Thursday, 6/26: Quiet Day
  • We took a day off from going outside and cooking in the heat and humidity. Our bodies needed a rest.
  • Strawberry production is dropping way back with the onslaught of high temperatures.
  • The pickup parts that I ordered were shipped today.
  • We watched the 2001 film, The Wedding Planner.
  • Lightening flashed across the sky from an approaching thunderstorm from the west as we walked Plato on his nighttime outing. After we crawled into bed, heavy rain pelted the roof, giving us nearly a half inch of moisture.

• Friday, 6/27: Removing Old Garden Plants & Other Vile Weeds
  • Mary cleaned snow pea, radish, spinach, and lettuce plants out of the near garden in preparation for planting new garden plants. Radish plants had flowers and seed pods on them. Snow pea plants were turning brown. Lettuce plants were pure slime. Mary would remove a group of lettuce, then wipe her hands on the grass.
  • I did a bunch of weed whacking, taking out tall grass and weeds surrounding the compost bins and then walking down to the mailbox and removing tall weeds and grass growing around it and our neighbor's mailbox. Some of the weeds there were poison ivy vines.
  • Plato feels a little low, today. I think he got too many tick bites, recently. We found nine ticks in his ears yesterday! 
  • We got sidetracked on a YouTube severe weather site called Max Velocity late at night. A 22-year old and recent college graduate of meteorology, Max Schuster, runs this site and is quite good. He was covering live a tornado outbreak near and south of Bismarck, ND. He points out active radar indicating tornado developments and has live video from three different storm chasers as they're spotting tornado activity. Watching his feed is so addictive that we didn't get to bed until the wee hours. I looked at his YouTube site this morning (6/29) and he does a tremendous daily job in a 10-minute weather forecast for the entire country.

• Saturday, 6/28: Mow, Mulch, Mow, Mulch, Mow, Mulch
  • Mary finished cleaning old plants out of the near garden.
  • She mowed the east yards and mulched where the snow peas were in the near garden. This row will be planted with sweet potatoes and two hills of zucchinis.
  • I mowed inside the near far garden, then between the fences and outside the electric fence on the south and east sides of the entire far garden. I added more mulch on rows already mulched in the near far garden. Mary wanted to finish mulching her future sweet potato row, so I switched to putting down mulch on that row in the near garden. Together, we finished it.
  • After bathing, we were back viewing Max Velocity on YouTube. We're hooked! Tonight, there were tornadoes near Clear Lake, SD. That weather traveled across Minnesota and then hit the west side of the Twin Cities with tornadoes and winds to 80 mph.
  • Plato is eating very little and not venturing very far when outside.

• Sunday, 6/29: Second Racking of Pea Pod Wine
  • Thunderstorms hit us today and dumped almost 1.5 inches of rain. The first storm started right after we finished morning chores. Then it stormed off and on until 2 p.m. It was cloudy for the rest of the day. 
  • I racked the pea pod wine for the second time. The pH was 3.1 and the specific gravity was 0.990, which gave it a 12.45 percent alcohol content. The fines were rather solid and looked like a moonscape. The liquid is still cloudy. Mary and I tasted it. The wine has a strong alcohol essence, which hopefully fades with aging. There is a nice flowery flavor, with a hint of a snow pea taste. The fines dumped into the sink at first looked like cottage cheese, then congealed into a slime as it seemed to grow. I flushed it all down the sink before a monster emerged!
  • Mary saw a male Baltimore oriole. We watched two cedar waxwings chase one another around in the cedar trees east of the house. An eastern towhee sang from those same cedar trees all afternoon.
  • A quick march around to blackberry brambles close to the house revealed mostly green berries, but we did see one red berry in the north yard.
  • Plato ate last night's meal today around noon, with Mary hand feeding him. He's gradually getting better.
  • On our last walk with Plato, frogs were singing from everywhere...a big frog night.
  • Our chicks ended their third week of life today and are starting to look like gawky teenagers with patches of feathers growing here and there. Their side of the coop was cooler (in the 80s) today and they seemed happy. 

June 16-22, 2025

Weather | 6/16, sunny, 64°, 87° | 6/17, sunny to T-storm, 0.63" rain, 63°, 87° | 6/18, 0.42" rain, 65°, 75° | 6/19, sunny, 58°, 83° | 6/20, cloudy to sunny, 67°, 87° | 6/21, sunny, 74°, 90° | 6/22, sunny, 75°, 91° |

• Monday, 6/16: Hannibal Trip & Snow Peas
  • We decided we aren't planting melons, pumpkins, or corn this year, so a drive to tame the far far garden isn't so urgent. It's overgrown with tall weeds, grass and head-high persimmon saplings that need removal by September, when garlic goes in that area a couple months later.
  • I checked online and called Tractor Supply in Hannibal to located chick grit, which they have on hand. So, I drove to Hannibal. I got the wrong spark plugs for the riding mower's engine when we were last in Quincy, so I exchanged them for the right plugs at the Farm & Home store in Hannibal. It's a much better store than the one in Quincy, which is odd, since their headquarters is in Quincy. I picked up oranges, lemons, and ginger, ingredients for pea pod wine, at Walmart (it's better than the Quincy Walmart store) and bought gas for 2.56 a gallon. I grabbed chick grit and then I picked up two foot-long subs at Subway. On the drive home, I noticed a lot of traffic on Highway 61.
  • Mary picked snow peas and strawberries while I was gone. She also mowed part of the west yard and started mulching another row in the near far garden. 
  • I changed the spark plugs on the riding mower.
  • After dark, I picked stems and flowers off the snow peas Mary picked today. It came to just under three pounds. I need four pounds to make a gallon of pea pod wine.
  • Each evening we hear the call of a wood thrush in the north woods. It has such a wonderful multi-note sound. HERE is their call.

• Tuesday, 6/17: Rain Stops Outside Work
  • The house wren is back stuffing branches on top of our fencer unit. I removed sticks two times today.
  • Mary mowed more in the west yard and mulched into the far garden until an approaching thunderstorm halted outside activities.
  • I disassembled an air conditioner for the upstairs north bedroom and was in the middle of cleaning it out when the same thunderstorm forced me to stuff all parts into the back of the pickup and quit for the day.
  • We received another good rain. Blackberries ought to thrive this year. 
  • A quick text to the local welder in LaBelle, MO, revealed that he can weld the crack in the riding mower deck and I can take it to him anytime.
  • After our rain, bees were busy visiting the motherwart blossoms in the chicken yard. They must hide under the leaves during a rain, then flip to the top as soon as the rain drops stop falling. 
  • The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year beating the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1, in Game 6. Professional hockey is over for another season.

• Wednesday, 6/18: Rain & Two Wines
  • We had rain throughout most of today, but the stars were shining when we walked Plato on his final outing.
  • Mary picked strawberries and several blueberries (see photo, below). We'll enjoy them tomorrow on top of waffles.
  • Mary picked the last of the snow peas. This year's snow pea crop was the best, ever, due to cooler temperatures and plenty of rain.
  • I took stems and flowers off enough snow peas to get 4.18 pounds of pods, which is enough for making a gallon of pea pod wine. 
  • I racked the dandelion wine for the third time. The pH was 3.2 and the specific gravity was 0.994, which is about the same as a month ago during its second racking. By using a narrow 1/4-inch hose, I was able to leave just a trace of liquid and put the remaining must into exactly the same size containers (see photo, below). The leftover fines were minimal.
  • I started a gallon batch of pea pod wine. I zested two oranges and two lemons. Afterwards, I juiced the fruit. I thinly sliced 1.7 ounces of ginger root after peeling it. I washed four pounds of snow pea pods in the sink, brought a gallon of water to a boil, then added the pea pods and the fruit zest to the pot and maintained a low boil for 30 minutes. Mary helped me scoop out mushy pea pods that became compost fodder. Mary held a mesh bag open while I poured the pea pod liquid through it to catch more pea pods, peas, and fruit peels. Added to the bucket was another quart of water, a one pound, 12 ounces of sugar, the fruit juice, 1.5 teaspoons of acid blend, and 0.2 grams of Kmeta. I put the sliced ginger in a mesh bag and added that to the brew bucket. The specific gravity was 1.085 and the pH was 3.1. A weird odor of peas and fruit filled the house. I hope the final product tastes better than that smell! But, the parsnip wine also smells weird while making the must, yet parsnip wine is really good. After covering the bucket with a flour sack towel, it sits in the pantry for 12 hours.

Strawberries & blueberries picked today.

Fines (left) & newly racked dandelion wine (right).

• Thursday, 6/19: Bunny 1, Robin 0
  • Mary watched a rabbit run over a robin on the lane while we were walking Plato this morning. The poor robin was literally flattened!
  • I added a half teaspoon of pectic enzyme and 0.8 grams of diammonium phosphate (DAP) to the pea pod wine after eating breakfast. Through the day, I worked up a starter batch of Red Star Premier Classique, or Montrachet, yeast. When I pitched the yeast at night, the specific gravity of the wine was 1.082 and the pH was 3.3. The yeast gave off an instant aroma, so I think this will be a very fast acting fermentation. It smells very nice.
  • We ate wonderful tasting waffles covered with strawberries and blueberries for our midday meal.
  • I finished cleaning the air conditioner for the upstairs north bedroom and assembled it. I'll install the AC in the room's window tomorrow.
  • Mary mowed most of the rest of the west yard and mulched more in the near far garden.

• Friday, 6/20: Heat Increases With Start of Summer
  • On the first day of summer, we saw an increase in outside temperatures. Summer is here right on schedule.
  • I installed the air conditioner in the upstairs north bedroom, packing taped the inside, installed pieces of vinyl siding on the outside sill and flexible foam board on the outside on both sides of the unit to shed rain water. I noticed moisture condensing on the side and underneath the outside of the AC. In past years, I covered the outside bottom of the housing with aluminum tape to keep bugs out. With moisture condensing in that area, it's a poor idea, so I left it open. Instead, I covered gaps where you see light around the unit through clear packing tape from the inside with masking tape. Hopefully, blocking light from blasting through clear tape will keep nighttime bugs away. A second AC running upstairs keeps that level nice and cool.
  • I also put flexible foam board into both sides on the outside of the AC in our bedroom and masking taped the inside to block light and keep nighttime bugs away. 
  • While I had the extension ladder up, I chopped off Virginia creeper and hops vines that were starting to cover both windows to our bedroom. Our house is starting to look like a hobbit home with all of the green vines growing up the east side (see photo, below).
  • Mary started sweet potato slips that will soon be ready to plant.
  • She also picked strawberries, which are slowing down, and a meal's worth of snow peas to add to tomorrow's General Tso dish. Temperatures in the 90s predicted for this week ought to halt snow pea production and make all lettuce bolt. We might wilt, too! Thank goodness for air conditioning.

  

  Our vine-covered Hobbit house.
  

• Saturday, 6/21: First Racking of Pea Pod Wine
  • While doing our morning chores, a hackberry butterfly landed on Mary and took a ride to inside the house. She first noticed it in the kitchen and escorted the butterfly outside, where it continued to land of either Mary or me. The Missouri butterfly book indicates that this is a very friendly butterfly.
  • I checked the pea pod wine to discover that the fermentation was faster than I thought. It took only 36 hours for the yeast to run a full cycle. The specific gravity was at 0.998, so I racked the wine into a gallon jug and a wine bottle, leaving a good 3-4 inches for head room, since the must was fizzing and developing foam. This wine has an unexpected smell of grape Kool-Aid. I'm sure I'll be racking this wine for a second time real soon, since it seems to be moving along very quickly.
  • I removed all plastic and rubber parts off the mower deck of the riding lawnmower, getting it ready for welding. The push cap holding the front roller in place was very hard to remove and I damaged it while taking it off the roller pin. I'll just drill a hole in the roller pin and use a cotter pin in front of a washer, instead of a useless push cap. Once I removed the belt, I noticed I have another broken spindle. So, I need to order one more spindle assembly. Damn!
  • A strong south wind and the outside high temperature of 90° really dried out the wet ground from recent rains, forcing Mary to water several garden plants.

• Sunday, 6/22: Fixing Mowers & Mowing
  • Mary complained about a dull blade on her push mower. It was sharp. I looked under the oldest push mower with a shot engine. That blade is in better shape. So, I took it off, sharpened it, and replaced the blade on Mary's mower with that blade. It did a much better job. The old blade was just whipping grass, instead of cutting.
  • I removed the three blades off the riding mower deck. At first I used a two-foot cheater bar pipe on the socket wrench, but nothing budged. I added Liquid Wrench and used a five-foot pipe on the end of the wrench and finally broke the nuts. Paint from the blades came up on these nuts, which proves that these blades were never removed to be sharpened. It's not hard to imagine, since they look like they were used to mow a rock quarry. I removed the spindles. When I compared the third spindle, or the best one, to a spindle I recently bought, I noticed it had a distinct rubbing sound, compared to the new one. So, I'm replacing all spindles on this deck.
  • Before I got the blade nuts to budge on the deck, a small 2x4, blocking the blade from turning, gave way and I gashed skin off the top of my right hand. Immediately, I thought, "You stupid idiot," as I looked at my leather gloves sitting in plain sight, but not on my hands. A trip inside to apply some cayenne powder to the wound, then some antibiotic ointment, and a bandage, and all was fine.
  • Mary mowed more of the north yard and put mulch on the near far garden.
  • We saw a bright green dragonfly while walking Plato this evening. It was startling how well it blended in with the green background. Mary identified it as a young male common pondhawk dragonfly. HERE is a photo of one.
  • While I was cleaning chicken waterers, I had lightening bugs dancing all around me in the shadow of the house before sunset. Wind was blowing hard out of the south and they were staying within three feet of the lawn. It was quite a sight to see.
  • I ordered two more spindles and eight bolts to install them. These self-tapping bolts are famous for breaking off when removed. Of the 12 bolts I removed, only three didn't break.

June 9-15

Weather | 6/9, sunny, 51°, 77° | 6/10, sunny, 50°, 80° | 6/11, sunny, 56°, 84° | 6/12, cloudy, 57°, 77° | 6/13, 0.40" rain, cloudy, 68°, 73° | 6/14, cloudy to sunny, 61°, 80° | 6/15, cloudy, 63°, 83° |

• Monday, 6/9: Cleaning Chicken Coop
  • I cleaned chicken manure from the coop, hauling about 12 wheelbarrow loads to the compost bin. I also installed the wall between the chicks and the hens, with Mary's help on erecting the 2x4 studs and the door. It's now ready for chicks, which left today in the mail from Cackle Hatchery in Lebenon, located in southwest Missouri.
  • Mary picked strawberries, raspberries, and snow peas.
  • She also mowed grass and mulched the onions.
  • We're noticing more monarch butterflies this year.
  • I watched the last half of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Florida won, 6-1, and lead the series, 2-1. Edmonton was in a continuous fight, racking up a Stanley Cup Finals record number of penalty minutes. I thought the Oilers played stupid goon hockey and will continue to lose if they keep punching, instead of playing.

• Tuesday, 6/10: Shopping
  • Mary and I shopped in Quincy. We visited the new R.P. Lumber store, which is in the old ShopKo building. It's a nice store. I picked up some pins for the mower deck and a file for sharpening mower blades. Chick grit was nowhere to be found.
  • After unloading when we got home, we watched the 1996 film, Down Periscope.

• Wednesday, 6/11: Chicks Are Here
  • Our chicks arrived. We got a call at 7 a.m. from the Ewing post office. Mary plugged in the heat lamp. The bulb blew and she replaced it with a new one. I left around 7:15 and met several highway trucks on Highway J. They are seal coating the road, today, and one of the highway crew members suggested I return via Lewistown, which I did after picking up the chicks. A lit sign in Lewistown posted that J Road was closed between June 9-12, which is news to us. A state highway truck driver at J Road and 250th Street told me to hurry, because they were pouring down tar and getting close to 260th Street. I turned onto the gravel in time.
  • Mary and I counted out 30 chicks. We ordered 25 mixed cockerels and three barred rock hens. Cackle Hatchery always throws in extras. They were lively and running around right out of the box, quickly finding food and water. A couple hours later, they were settled in (see video, below).
  • Mary couldn't find the thermometer we bought this spring. I looked all over the place and actually cleaned up a chair near the outside door that became a storage dumping ground. Finally, Mary suggested it might be in the "rat's nest" of a mess on a coffee table next to the couch I sit on in the living room. Sure enough, it was in a Farm & Home plastic bag. I hung it in the chick area of the coop. It showed 95°, so I shut off the heat lamp and cracked open a window.
  • Mary picked snow peas and froze 16 bags of peas. Most of the peas came from today's harvest.
  • She also picked and froze 2.5 quarts of black raspberries, which was a big haul. Mary picked strawberries, too.
  • I picked pie cherries off two small trees near the south apple trees. I almost filled the 18th quart of this year's cherries.
  • I sharpened the blades of the two push mowers with the new file we bought yesterday.
  • I mowed between and outside of the fences of the far garden. Grass clippings went on two rows of the far garden.
  • Mary moved a queen yellow jacket out of the house. Later, that queen visited her while she was picking raspberries in the west patch. She landed on a leave near Mary and looked at her for about 30 seconds, then moved on.
  Two-day old chicks that arrived today, after settling into our chicken coop.
  

• Thursday, 6/12: Picking & Mowing
  • Mary picked strawberries, snow peas, and raspberries. All are producing huge numbers, so this gets to be about all she can get accomplished during the day.
  • Mary captured an image of a tree frog resting on a stick in a raspberry patch (see photo, below). 
  • I picked the last of the pie cherries from small trees. We put 18 quarts of this year's cherries in the freezer.
  • Ticks, ticks, ticks...this year is a massive tick season. Mary is really getting hit by them. Every venture outside is followed by a huge search and destroy session. Bug spray helps, but you still must do a thorough clothing and body search. 
  • I mowed the lane. The rear drive on the Cub Cadet push mower means I can mow our quarter-mile lane in half the time it used to take Mary to mow it with the old 83-pound lawnmower.
  • I watched Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. Florida led after one period, 3-0. After three periods, the game was tied, 4-4. Edmonton won in overtime, 5-4. WOW! What a game! The series is tied at 2-2.

  

  A tree frog in one of the raspberry patches.
  

• Friday, 6/13: Rain & Ordered Mower Deck Parts
  • Rain fell in early morning hours, then we experienced light rain all afternoon. It's nice for all plants.
  • After three days of online sleuthing, I ordered riding lawnmower deck parts. At first I thought I'd order from a Michigan company called 8Ten, but it always helps to read reviews. The pulleys they supply with their spindles are too small. Plus, I saw pictures of spindles broken from decks after 10-12 hours of use due to wimpy bolt-on tabs in the aluminum base. I went with an Ohio-based MTD-authorized parts dealer. MTD owns Cub Cadet, the brand of our lawn tractor. Prices are higher than 8Ten, but the parts are original for our mower.
  • Rabbits bit off flowers and leaves from two potted flowers left on the deck of our porch the past two nights, so I found two pieces of 3-foot high, 1/2-inch square hardware cloth and "sewed" them together with thin wire I saved that is wrapped around chicken wire rolls. Mary put this guard just outside of the flowers pots to keep dastardly wabbits away.
  • Katie sent a YouTube link to a video summarizing the all of the projects done in 2024 by her employer. It's impressive. Katie is in a group photo near the beginning of the video. HERE is a link to that video. 
  • Chicks have settled in nicely to their home in our coop (see photo, below).

  

  Sometimes you're just too tired to continue running.
  

• Saturday, 6/14: Flooded With Produce
  • Mary picked strawberries, snow peas, and black raspberries. All of the incoming produce is amazing...a huge bowl of strawberries, two grocery bags of snow peas, and 2.25 quarts of black raspberries. She picked stems and dead flowers off the snow peas in preparation for freezing them tomorrow.
  • There are tons of bees of all kinds in the persimmon blossoms above where Mary picks raspberries at the west edge of the west lawn.
  • I picked 19 more pie cherries from two small cherry trees.
  • I changed the air filter in the Cub Cadet riding mower tractor. The inside of the air filter housing was full of encrusted dirt and the filter was filthy...not recently serviced, which is what I was told.
  • I straightened up three of four corner posts in the far garden and untangled all of the electric wires.
  • I watched the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Florida was a much better team. The Oilers are duds every other game.

• Sunday, 6/15: Snow Pea Harvest Done, Now Pea Pod Wine!
  • I got a call from Katie wishing me a happy Father's Day. She's busy coordinating two future construction projects related to her job. She did some biking yesterday. Temperatures are nice, lately, in Anchorage. Katie will be working an Air National Guard construction job on Hawaii's island of Kauai for two weeks in August.
  • I also received a call from Bill for Father's Day. At work, he's trying to recruit professionals (plumbers, electricians, etc) in Rolla, Mo, for a future construction job the company he works for is doing in that community. It's located halfway between St. Louis and Springfield, MO. Bill will visit us around July 4th.
  • Mary picked strawberries and 1.5 quarts of black raspberries. She also processed 43 packages of snow peas, for a total 59 in the freezer. She's done freezing peas, so I can use the remainder in the garden for making a pea pod wine...four pounds of snow pea pods makes a gallon.
  • Mary heard a summer tanager for the first time in a month. 
  • I changed the gas filter on the riding mower tractor. The name on the gas filter I removed turned out to be a Chinese company that makes filters for air compressors. I suspect the original owner of this tractor, the father-in-law to the guy who sold me the tractor, used an air compressor filter that he had on hand. It's not designed for filtering gasoline!
  • I straightened the last corner post of the far garden and restrung baling twine around the top of the fence.
  • Mary and I watched the BBC TV series, North and South. 

June 2-8, 2025

Weather | 6/2, sunny, 57°, 84° | 6/3, 0.25" rain, cloudy, 67°, 81° | 6/4, 1.29" rain, 59°, 63° | 6/5, p. cloudy, 55°, 75° | 6/6, cloudy, 59°, 77° | 6/7, 0.29" rain, 58°, 67° | 6/8, sunny, 0.03" rain, 56°, 77° |

• Monday, 6/2: New-to-us Riding Mower
  • I drove to Quincy with the trailer to get the riding mower and ran into construction everywhere. Just a few miles down the paved road was a road surfacing crew. The driver of a dump truck told me the road was closed. I turned around (fun with a trailer behind the pickup) and drove north to Lewistown, where I finally saw the "Road Closed" sign. If you enter the road anywhere in the middle, like we do from our gravel road, you have no clue it's closed!
  • After getting cash from our bank, I followed Google Maps to the mower owner's address. When I got near the location, a construction fence loomed across the street, due to a new bridge going in nearby. I stepped through the fencing, found the house, looked at the mower, and gave the guy the money. Then I turned the pickup/trailer around, again, and drove several blocks around the neighborhood to get to the correct location. 
  • I mentioned that there was a clatter when the mower deck was on and he admitted that his wife told him the blade was hitting the deck. I thought the tractor's 25 horsepower Kohler engine seemed sound and I could fix the deck. He gave back $100 due to deck issues, so we got it for $900. We loaded it on the trailer. The tilt feature of the trailer works nicely. Two straps secured the lawn tractor. I checked and retightened the straps three times on the way home. 
  • I returned home via 260th Street all the way from Highway 6, which involves several miles of gravel, to avoid the closure of J Road. Still, I had to drive about an eighth of a mile on J right when they were resurfacing that exact stretch. The guy driving the grader told me to wait until he graded fresh gravel over the tar. A few minutes later, I drove on it, then to home.
  • Mary froze 12 quarts of spinach while I was gone.
  • After that, she finished weeding the onions, which isn't easy when pulling grass from around small onion plants.
  • After unloading the riding mower and parking it in the machine shed, I picked more cherries, adding 3.75 quarts for a grand total of 14 quarts of this year's cherries in the freezer.
  • Mary said she heard a red-bellied woodpecker throughout the day in the ripe mulberries growing in the cedar trees next to the near garden. These berries sort of keep birds out of our cherries. Though, I still see bird-pecked cherries under the tree.

  

  Our dust-covered riding mower parked in the machine shed.
  

• Tuesday, 6/3: A Nice Rain
  • Rain fell around 9:30 a.m. and lasted for an hour. High humidity prevailed for the rest of the day with heavy rain starting again at 4:30 p.m. Rain fell throughout the night. We've been dry enough that puddles don't exist from quite a bit of rain. In a 24-hour period, we received 1.54" of rain. The moisture should help future raspberry and blackberry crops.
  • I meant to finish picking cherries, but never got to it. Just as well, because aching muscles tell me I've gone up and down ladders too much, lately.
  • Elderberries are blooming, which is about three weeks early.
  • Mary keeps picking full bowls of strawberries. They make our morning oatmeal taste exceptionally great.
  • I did a bunch of online research related to the riding mower we purchased yesterday.
  • After spotting an 80% off sale at L.L. Bean, we ordered four T-shirts for Mary and a chamois shirt for me.

• Wednesday, 6/4: Lawn Tractor Seller was a Fibber
  • Mary and I spotted a brown thrasher fledgling in the lane this morning while walking Plato. It looked miserable and cold. We turned around and left it alone with its parents.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Webex presentation featuring chanterelle mushrooms. They never grow on wood, so the orange mushrooms growing on an elm log in our yard cannot be chanterelles.
  • I downloaded three lawn tractor manuals for our riding mower...an owner's manual, engine manual, and an illustrated parts manual. Then I checked maintenance parts on the tractor to discover that the guy who sold me the mower was full of BS. The existing air filter is dirty, so it wasn't changed five mowings ago. One spark plug is super clean and the other is fouled, so that's also not a recent job. I think whoever serviced the plugs only changed one, but not both spark plugs. The oil filter is an off-brand version sold by O'Reilly Auto Parts, proving that Farm & Home didn't change oil in it, like the seller said, since they have and sell Kohler products and would use a Kohler oil filter on an oil change. The oil on the dipstick is black, so not a recent oil change. Kohler filters and spark plugs are expensive, so I found alternative items online and available in Quincy stores. I also looked up prices of decks, discharge chutes, and blades. Of course, all are expensive.
  • Throughout the day, I saw a rose-breasted grosbeak and several cardinals eating berries in a small mulberry bush outside the south living room window.
  • Mary identified wood ear mushrooms growing on a weeping willow root on the path to the chicken coop. HERE is a link to an MDC webpage about these mushrooms.
  • Mary spotted the first ripe black raspberries after we put the chickens to bed for the night. We ate one, each. DAMN! They're really good.
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a 4-3 overtime win. It was fun to watch.

• Thursday, 6/5: Cherry Picking (Almost) Completed
  • When Mary and I walked down the lane to mail out bill payments, we found a horde of ants in the mailbox. For the second time this year, I killed them with a Dawn soap solution and wiped the inside of the mailbox out with paper towels. The war is on.
  • I finished picking cherries in the big pie cherry tree and have a grand total of 17 quarts in the freezer. There are still just a few yet-to-ripen cherries in small trees. This year, the sweet cherry tree produced very well. Cherry picking was interrupted today by a few sprinkles. I finished around the top of the big tree in the waning twilight after supper.
  • Mary picked the first raspberries of the season, collecting about 10 berries. She collects a bowlful of strawberries every evening.
  • Mary thinned apples on the Granny Smith apple tree. Just the tippy top is left to thin on that tree.
  • While working in the Granny Smith tree, Mary heard the bleating sound of a deer fawn from down the lane. They make a sound similar to a lamb, but louder.
  • High humidity and heavy dew brought out fireflies that we noticed while walking Plato on his nighttime outing. We walked to the north yard and watched them in the trees. They were exceptionally bright. While watching, we noticed a bat fly over our head a couple times.

• Friday, 6/6: L.L. Bean Scam
  • During an online check of our credit card, I found that what we thought was a purchase from L.L. Bean was instead from a company called Prolific Market.com in London. The purchase was an obvious scam. I called our credit card company to dispute the charge. A later email from Wells Fargo asked that I contact the company to ask for a refund. There is no contact for that company. I called L.L. Bean. They have no record of me, nor are they doing an 80% off sale, so I called the credit card company to let them know.
  • I removed the deck from the riding mower and discovered another fib the former owner told me. The blades aren't recently sharpened. They look like they were used to mow a field of gravel and are extremely worn. One spindle has bearings so worn that I can tilt it from side to side. That's why the blade under it rubs on the deck. There's also a one-inch crack in the deck. I've got a bunch of work to do to get this in operational shape. I guess we're push mowing for awhile longer.
  • When we put the chickens to bed, two hens refused to go into the coop. Head-high blooming motherwart plants filled with bees make it impossible to chase chickens into the coop. When we tried to coax a hen to the coop door, the bird would walk deep into those weeds. Frustrated, we left them outside. I checked after dark and didn't see them. They probably spent the night under the coop. The next morning (6/7), they were still there and one met Mary at the gate. 
  • I watched hockey. Florida won, 5-4, into the second overtime, evening the series at 1-1.

• Saturday, 6/7: More Rain
  • Rain fell between noon and 5 p.m. It was a nice, steady, slow rain. All plants are saying, "Thank you!" The air was thick with moisture as you looked to the distance. The junk mail I pulled out of the mailbox was soggy just from soaking up damp air.
  • A cooler and slightly wetter spring means better crops. Snow pea blossoms are very plentiful in the near garden. We see tons of green raspberries and blackberries. Tiny pecans and black walnuts are showing. We've never seen a strawberry crop like the one we're getting this year.
  • Before it rained, Mary picked a bowl of black raspberries. She saw lots of bumblebees in the persimmon tree blossoms near the large raspberry patch in the west yard.  
  • I looked up costs of mower deck parts. They are quite high. I found a new mower deck in Indiana that is minus the discharge chute and spindle guards for $500. I might go with that, if shipping isn't too wild. It is shipped to the nearest Fastenal location, which for us is in Quincy, IL. I'll know more on Monday.
  • While Mary cross stitched, I did some checkbook updating and balancing.
  • The two wayward hens that spent last night outside of the coop were right there tonight when it was time to put them all to bed.
  • I heard a wood thrush in the north woods while we handled chickens this evening.
  • Low-level fog was hovering over the grass as we walked Plato at night. Dew was thick on all grass.

• Sunday, 6/8: Picking Fruit & Mowing
  • After doing more online research I learned that our riding mower's deck has a GT, or fabricated, designation. That means it has thicker steel that is welded together. The deck I'm looking at in Indiana is stamped out of thinner steel. Stamped decks are how most push mowers are made. It's something we need to consider in buying a new deck versus fixing the existing deck.
  • Mary picked black raspberries and finished a quart bag in the freezer, while starting another quart bag.
  • She also picked strawberries, and snow peas. She has enough for three bags of peas.
  • I picked a third of a quart bag of cherries from the sweet cherry tree and a small pie cherry tree that is next to the Empire apple tree.
  • Mary and I both mowed. I mowed the inside of the near far garden and the near garden, along with between and around the fences of the near garden. Mary mowed the east lawn between the house and the lane. Grass clippings went on a row in the far garden and Mary started a final mulching of the onions.
  • Our mowing was stopped by rain.
  • We saw a mourning cloak butterfly. 
  • Mary was buzzed by a hummingbird that brushed against the side of her head. She had another hummingbird do a zigzag flight in front of her while Mary was picking peas. Her bright blue shirt is a real hummingbird magnet. 

May 26-June 1, 2025

Weather | 5/26, partly cloudy, 49°, 67° | 5/27, rain, cloudy, 55°, 74° | 5/28, 0.20" rain, cloudy, 55°, 69° | 5/29, 0.05" rain, 59°, 69° | 5/30, 0.17" rain, 50°, 76° | 5/31, smoky, 55°, 79° | 6/1, smoky, 55°, 75° |

• Monday, 5/26: Bass Fishing
  • As Mary walked outside, our youngest cat, Mocha, grabbed a juvenile skink, and because Mocha was halfway out the door, the screen door swung shut on her abdomen. It didn't deter her. Mocha ran inside with a skink in her mouth. Mary was in fast pursuit on what became the Great Skink Roundup. Mary and I followed Mocha upstairs as she ran into the north bedroom. I shut the door and Mocha dropped the skink. Mary grabbed it from under a desk and took it back outside to release it. Now, every time we open the front door, Mocha is there to look for that skink.
  • Bill, Mary and I went fishing at Bass Pond. I drove the tractor and trailer loaded with our poles and tackle. The tractor knocked down the grass, making it easier for Mary and Bill to walk to the pond. We caught nine medium-sized bass that we kept and threw back several small fish. There were ticks everywhere. Bill donated lures to the giant American lotus weeds growing in the pond. He even got a lure caught high in an oak tree that we'll try to retrieve in the winter when the pond is frozen.
  • Our main mission once we got back home was to clean ourselves of ticks. This year is the season of small seed ticks. Everywhere in the tall grass is crawling with hundreds of them. 
  • While Bill and I filleted fish, Mary picked a big bowl of ripe strawberries. She also picked a bunch of greens. We enjoyed fried fish, a baked potato, and a huge salad. The fresh food was really yummy.
  • On our evening walk with Plato, Fred, the barred owl, landed on the electric line next to a power pole at Bluegill Pond near where we stood. He watched us walk on the lane. He's used to seeing us and doesn't fly away. 
  • Bill spotted a raccoon walking through the yard and heading west at dusk. Mary went outside to make sure it didn't mess around at the chicken coop. She didn't see it, but made loud noises to ensure that it moved on. 
  • We watched the 2012 film, Lincoln.

• Tuesday, 5/27: Mary's Birthday
  • For Mary's birthday, Bill gave her a big spatula and a large, foldable playing surface made of a felt/plastic material to use when playing Michigan Rummy. Katie gave her a gift card to 123stitch.com for cross stitch items. My gift of flowering plants decorates our front porch.
  • Katie called while she drove to work to wish Mary a happy birthday. 
  • Mary picked more strawberries. 
  • For the midday meal, I made waffles that we stuffed with strawberries.
  • Bill left for his apartment around 3 p.m.
  • I thinned the fruit on the Porter's Perfection apple tree. This is the first year we'll get to taste fruit from this tree, as well as several other newer apple varieties.
  • The pie cherries are ripening fast. Like everything, fruit is developing very early this year. We'll be picking cherries in a day or so.
  • Mary cut scapes off the garlic. She surmised that she will be pulling up garlic by the end of this week.
  • I watched hockey while Mary cross stitched and read. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 4-1, and now lead the series, 3-1.

• Wednesday, 5/28: Picking Cherries
  • We heard bob white quail calling in the yard while we were in the living room this morning. There are more this year than we've noticed in recent years.
  • Mary and I picked cherries. Mary noticed cherries dropped by birds on the trail to the chicken coop, so she started by picking ripe cherries she could reach from the ground and from the six-foot step ladder. Then, I took over and picked cherries from monkey levels while using the 10-foot ladder. We both chased out several birds, including woodpeckers, cat birds, and cedar waxwings. There are 2.5 quarts of new pie cherries in the freezer.
  • Mary thinned the apples on the Liberty apple tree.
  • She also started weeding onions. Mary got most of the Patterson onions weeded and part of Red Bull onions finished.
  • Mary also picked a big bunch of strawberries.
  • She cut more garlic scapes. All of the garlic will need to be pulled by Monday, because on Tuesday, rain is predicted, and we don't want to hang damp garlic up to dry.
  • I failed to mention that one of the flies I tied this spring, the Clouser minnow, was a big hit for catching bass at Bass Pond. The action of the fly in the water exactly resembles a swimming minnow and fish hit it on almost every cast.

• Thursday, 5/29: More Cherries
  • Rain fell in the morning and then again in the evening. These small rain showers are keeping plants going and us from watering gardens.
  • I picked cherries for most of the day, rotating through various sized ladders. An additional 1.75 quarts went into the freezer. We won't get as many cherries as last year when cicadas filled the appetites of birds and kept them out of the cherries.
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 6-3, to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
  • Mary had me look at glass beads at 123stitch.com, which is a cross stitch and quilting website. The beads are so much cheaper than on fly tying websites, plus they're glass beads, not cheaply-made plastic beads. I added 12 types of beads to Mary's order, along with two sizes of small zip lock plastic bags.

• Friday, 5/30: Tending Fruit Trees
  • Pie cherry picking continued from the large tree. I only made it halfway around the tree on the tall ladder before quitting for the day. I froze a total of 6.25 quarts.
  • Mary thinned apples from the Empire apple tree, which is our largest apple producer. She gleaned a third of a bucket from going around the outer edge of the tree and picking off what she could reach from the ground (see photo, below). By taking off small or insect-damaged apples that are crowded together in clumps, we grow larger and cleaner fruit...we hope! 
  • Mary also pinned five strawberry runners into cups filled with wet potting soil. After roots grow, these will replace weak plants in our strawberry plant collection. She then clipped any other strawberry runners. Mary then picked two healthy bowls of fruit.
  • Mary cut garlic scapes. She starts harvesting garlic tomorrow.
  • We noticed that raspberries are starting to ripen. 
  • Smoke from Canadian wildfires reached us today (see photo, below). A rising or setting sun or moon turns orange when on the horizon.

Culled apples from the Empire apple tree.

Smoke fills our skies from Canadian wildfires.

• Saturday, 5/31: Start of Garlic Harvest
  • Smoke continues to put a haze in the otherwise clear sky.
  • The ripe cherries are coming on strong. I picked four quarts of cherries today. A grand total of 10.25 quarts of 2025 cherries is in the freezer. I thought I really picked a high amount until I looked at last year's grand total, which was 39 quarts. I've picked only a quarter of the 2024 total. It was an unusual year last year with all birds stuffed with cicadas. This year half-bitten cherries are plentiful under the tree as a result of bird pecking. Plus, broken branches on top are a telltale sign that a raccoon was reaching for cherries overnight.
  • Mary pulled up three garlic varieties from the far garden, which were Music, German Extra Hardy, and Georgian Crystal. She only had five plants with rotten bulbs. All of the rest looked great. I joined Mary to bundle the garlic in bunches and hang them from the west-end rafters in the machine shed. They dry until Mary takes them down in September.
  • We see ripe mulberries in various trees. Mary and I tried one. They really have no taste and I don't see why anyone would seek them out. 
  • When we walked Plato for his night outing, a slight glow of red aurora borealis was in the northern sky.

• Sunday, 6/1: Trailer Wiring Fix & Garlic Harvest
  • A three-week online search of a used riding lawnmower that is relativity close to us yielded a result when I found a 2015 Cub Cadet with a 50" deck for sale for $1000 in Quincy. We need a faster mode of mowing grass. Via messages, I agreed with the owners that I'd visit them tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.
  • I worked on the wiring to the lights on the tilt trailer. The recent welding job melted wires near the hitch, so I cut out the melted part, which enabled me to pull out wiring that ran through rough gas torch holes cut in the metal framing. Then I drilled nine small holes in that same metal at strategic locations and added temporary plastic wiring clamps using small bolts and nuts securing the clamps through these newly made holes. At a later date, I'll add wire loom over the wires and use larger clamps at these same locations. Today, I just wanted to bring the wires up from hanging low off the trailer's framing. Once the clamps were in place, I rerouted and connected the wire with crimp connectors. I'll do a better job in the future with soldered butt connectors covered with heat shrink. This job took all afternoon and into the evening.
  • Mary harvested the last three kinds of garlic, which were Siberian, Samarkand, and Shvelisi. Mary and I bundled and hung this garlic in the machine shed rafters. All garlic is harvested.
  • The motherwart plants in the in chicken yard are absolutely stuffed with honey and bumble bees. 

May 19-25, 2025

Weather | 5/19, 1.67" rain, cloudy, 55°, 67° | 5/20, 0.09" rain, cloudy, 59°, 67° | 5/21, p. cloudy, 50°, 63° | 5/22, sunny, 43°, 61° | 5/23, sunny, 44°, 69° | 5/24, cloudy, 53°, 73° | 5/25, cloudy, 57°, 63° |

• Monday, 5/19: Thunderstorms
  • We experienced rain from thunderstorms in the morning and at night. Mary and I both bounced out of bed at 6:30 to disconnect freezers and the fridge due to lightning strikes. That storm gave us a third of an inch of rain. After dark, a slow moving thunderstorm traveled through us, constantly thundering. The nighttime storms gave us another 1.34" of rain. It was dry enough that most all rain soaked into the ground.
  • Mary cut scapes from the garlic plants. This means that we ought to be harvesting garlic in a couple weeks.
  • I put a question out in four buy and sell groups for Lewis County, MO, on suggestions for a good welder within the county to remove the old coupler on the tongue of the trailer and weld a new one in place. I got several suggestions. I selected Hudson Welding in LaBelle, run by an older guy and his two sons. They are close and seem to charge reasonable prices. I drove the trailer to the welder in the afternoon. He asked if we lived in the house north of a pond on our gravel road and when I explained that it's where Mary's uncle, Herman Hutton, once lived, he replied, "I knew Herman very well."
    
  • In the morning, Mary reported that the egg numbers coming from the hens were dwindling. At the end of the day she collected nine eggs...not dwindling at all!
  • Mary had two barn swallows zip around the house twice and pass within a foot from the brim of her hat. On the second pass, they were twittering as they flew by her face.
  • As thunder barked outside at night, I read several chapters of a book entitled Canoe Trip: Alone in the Maine Wilderness, by David Curran. It's a fun read.

• Tuesday, 5/20: Dandelion Wine Racking
  • I racked the dandelion wine for the second time. The must sat over the fines for about 2.5 weeks, but it didn't harm the taste. The specific gravity was 0.993 and the pH was 3.1. Just over 0.2 grams of Kmeta was added to the must. I lost about 750 ml of liquid, although Mary and I drank a couple small glasses of the wine. The initial taste was rather bitter from the dandelion petals, with a sub flavor of citrus, from the orange, lemon, and lime. The aftertaste was amazingly close to the taste of grapefruit juice. We thought it was delicious. Give it time to age and this will be some mighty fine wine!
  • We found out that Bill will be here from this upcoming Saturday through Tuesday.
  • In the morning, two hummingbirds flew by Mary at knee height between her and the door, as she stood on the front porch. In other words, they were about six inches away as they flew by Mary.
  • These days, when we need some lettuce or spinach, Mary just goes into the garden to pick our our "grow"ceries (see photo, below).
    
  • I finished reading the Canoe Trip book.

  

  Mary picking "grow"ceries (lettuce & spinach) in the near garden.
  

• Wednesday, 5/21: Wild Kingdom
  • We went for a wildlife walk when we took Plato on his morning stroll. First, we noticed a bunny on the edge of the lane. Then a doe deer ran out near the bunny, looked at us, then zipped back where it came from. Next, a tiny fawn, that was maybe a few days, old ran out into the lane. It tucked its head into a bush as if it thought that by hiding its head, we couldn't see its rump that was out in plain sight. The bunny was long gone, thanks to the deer circus. We turned around to give Mama and her baby some space. Finally, two wood ducks and a great blue heron flew overhead. Welcome to our Wild Kingdom!
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • I checked with the welder handling my trailer and he was working on it at that moment and said it was almost done.
    
  • While Mary cleaned house, I mowed the lane, the south orchard, and the trail by the small cherry trees west of the house.
  • Mary cleaned up a lot of garlic scapes in the far garden.
    
  • After I finished mowing, there was a message that the trailer was done. I drove to LaBelle and returned with the trailer. Mary did all of the evening chores while I was away. The welder told me that the trailer manufacturer originally welded the tongue up so well that the old coupler came off in pieces. He did a very good job putting a new one on and installing a new trailer jack.
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers/Dallas Stars NHL playoff game. After two periods, the Oilers led, 3-1. Dallas scored five unanswered goals in the third period to win, 6-3.

• Thursday, 5/22: Birds, Shopping, & a Movie
  • We had a turkey hen walk through our property in the morning hours. At 5 p.m., while Mary was looking over Plato for ticks, a turkey hen erupted into flight from the path next to the near garden and flew north. It was probably the same bird as the one we saw this morning.
    
  • I went shopping in Quincy.
  • I got two flowering plants for an early birthday present to Mary. One is a New Guinea impatiens and the other is a petchoa, which is a hybrid between a petunia and a calibrachoa. (see photo, below). The petchoa has exceptional disease resistance, improved heat tolerance and cleaner foliage than traditional petunias. Mary plans on repotting them.
  • Mary noticed all kinds of colorful birds on our property throughout the day, such as a male Baltimore oriole, rose-breasted grosbeaks, ruby-throated hummingbirds, cardinals, eastern bluebirds, and common yellowthroats. "It's like living in a tropical forest," she said.
    
  • We watched a movie I picked up for $5 at Walmart called Plane. A lot of work went into that film title. It's actually a good movie.

  

  Magnum XL orange impatiens (left) & EnViva red petchoa (right).
  

• Friday, 5/23: Ripe Mulberries & More Fireflies
  • Mary repotted the two plants I gave her yesterday.
  • It was a low activity day for me.
  • A mulberry tree that grows in the middle of the cedars south of the near garden is full of ripe, red berries. Ripe mulberries in May is quite early. This is good, since we're starting to see color on some of the pie cherries on the big cherry tree. Again, this is early, too. Mulberries help to keep birds away from cherries.
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 3-0, to even the series at 1-1.
  • We noticed quite a few more fireflies in the grass field south of the house when we walked Plato on his last outing.

• Saturday, 5/24: Bill Arrives, Hotdogs, Washers, Movies
  • I watched a hummingbird check out the new petchoa plant sitting on the front porch.
  • Bill showed up around 11 a.m. He's here until Tuesday.
  • Mary and I found four ripe strawberries. There are several big green strawberries waiting to ripen.
  • We had a wienie roast out under the mulberry tree in the west yard and played washers. Bill got very good at tossing a washer.
  • While picking greens for big salads, Mary picked some huge spinach leaves. This year is shaping up to be a great spinach growing year.
  • The swamp dogwoods along the lane are blooming and the flowers are full of all kinds of bees.
    
  • Bill picked out two movies that we watched, which involved the 2022 film, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the 1952 movie, Singing in the Rain.

• Sunday, 5/25: Owl, Doe, Vultures, a Game with Pizza
  • When we walked Plato in the morning, a barred owl, who we call Fred, flew from a tree next to the lane to a cedar tree in the south field. These big birds are super light. It was perched on a twig at the top of the cedar tree and that thin branch wasn't bending at all.
  • There is a doe who we see regularly near Bluegill Pond. Today we saw her in the afternoon.
  • On a late afternoon walk, we saw 11 turkey vultures swirling around in the sky all at once while they rode the updrafts caused by a northeast wind.
  • Bill and I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 6-1 and take a 2-1 lead in the series.
  • Mary was happy to get in some cross stitching while we watched the game. Mary says she loves it when she gets time to do that hobby.
  • Mary made some pizza that we ate while we played a game called Atlas Adventure. Mary won twice.

May 12-18, 2025

Weather | 5/12, cloudy, 52°, 81° | 5/13, sunny, 59°, 80° | 5/14, sunny, 58°, 83° | 5/15, sunny, 66°, 87° | 5/16, sun & clouds, 58°, 81° | 5/17, sunny, 52°, 69° | 5/18, sunny, 45°, 74° |

• Monday, 5/12: Tomato Seeds Planted
  • I mowed the rest of the south lawn, cleaned out tall grass around steel fence posts around the Empire apple tree and put grass mulch over those areas around Empire, along with more mulch on the Seckel pear tree. I mowed inside and between the fences of the near garden. All strawberry containers received grass clipping mulch, along with two small cherry trees due west of Empire.
  • While adding mulch to the Seckel pear, I noticed a continuous stream of cottonwood seeds flowing through the air from the big cottonwood tree just north of the machine shed.
  • Mary weeded and thinned the parsnips. There are several nice looking parsnip plants.
  • Mary planted tomato and tomatillo seeds in 33 Styrofoam cups filled with potting soil.
  • She also repotted the Gerbera Daisy that Bill gave her for Mother's Day (see photo, below).
  • Mary heard the first yellow-billed cuckoo of the season in the southwest woods. We noticed a robin fledgling in the Sargent crabapple tree during our noontime walk of Plato.
  • I watched two periods of Game 4 of the Edmonton Oilers/Vegas Golden Knights playoff game. The Oilers won, 3-0, and are ahead, 3-1, in the series. My laptop went goofy in the second intermission and was continuously stuck on the startup page. I looked online on my phone, started the computer up in the safe mode, then got it going again. I'm guessing files need to be cleaned out in the computer.

  

  The Gerbera Daisy that Bill gave Mary.
  

• Tuesday, 5/13: Bedroom AC Install
  • The two Sargent crabapple tree transplants are still alive. I keep putting water on them. The two new apple trees in the south orchard are kicking on new leaves. The jury is still out on whether the newly planted Seckel pear will live. It only has two leaves that are yellow green.
  • High temperatures for Thursday are forecast to go above 90, so I cleaned the small window air conditioner we use through the summer in our bedroom. The new cordless impact wrench made quick work of removing and reinstalling screws and nuts. The Milwaukee cordless screw bits I got from Katie are magnetically charged, so turning screws deep into the AC was much easier this time around. I spent a good couple hours washing out dead Asian ladybugs and dried bug jerky out from the inside of the AC. After putting it back together, I installed the AC in our bedroom window, filled air gaps in the single hung window with foam inserts, and sealed all surrounding air gaps with packing tape. Sleeping in the bedroom overnight was very pleasurable after the AC ran for about six hours. During the previous couple nights, temperatures were a little on the hot side. The AC's fan bearing is loud. Time will tell if it lasts the summer.
  • Mary made pizza for our midday meals for a couple days.
  • She also mowed the area between the machine shed and the two grain bins.
  • Katie has good news. She was promoted from assistant project manager to project manager, with a boost in her salary.

• Wednesday, 5/14: Cleaning Big AC
  • Mary harvested a third to half of the radishes (see photo, below). They filled almost a full gallon bag.
  • We enjoyed our first salad with radishes on spinach and lettuce, all from the garden. It was quite good.
  • After opening the steel case surrounding our large air conditioner, I was amazed at all of the dead Asian ladybugs packed inside (see photo, below). They crawled in during their autumn swarming and died during cold winter temperatures. I cleaned this large AC and put it back together. Then I cleaned sticky residue off the inside face of the unit left behind from a sticker that was plastered on it when we bought the AC. Goo Gone works well at removing old adhesive. Cleaning this large AC ate up most of today's time, so I didn't install it...a job I'll do tomorrow.
  • Mary mowed part of the north yard and mulched the onions, shallots, and parsnips in the near garden.
  • Mary saw the first eastern wood-pewee of the year.
  • I watched Game 5 of the Edmonton Oilers/Vegas Golden Knights series. The Oilers won, 1-0, in overtime to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Both goalies were excellent with no goal scored until seven minutes into overtime.
  • Mary and I shared a bottle of 2023 pumpkin wine made from pumpkins harvested in 2022. This wine was left on the lees too long after the first racking and it still has too much of an alcohol taste, even after two years of aging. It tastes okay, but not great.

About 1/3 to 1/2 of radish crop.

Asian ladybugs inside the big air conditioner.

• Thursday, 5/15: Hurray for New Green Leaves
  • I installed the large air conditioner in the living room's west window, secured it into place, used packing tape to seal all air gaps, and stuck stiff white foam board on each side outside of the the AC to shut out light and bugs. This AC is big enough to cool most of the ground floor of the house and helps clean the inside air of tree pollen, which is real high right now.
    
  • There are more leaves appearing on all of the new fruit trees, including the Seckel pear. That new additional fruit tree looked like it wasn't going to make it a few days after we planted it, so the tiny green leaves now appearing is a pleasant sight to see.
  • I watched Game 5 of the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars NHL playoffs. Winnipeg won 4-0. Dallas leads the series, 3-2.
    
  • At night, we're seeing our first fireflies. A partial moon was rising when we walked Plato on his last outing of the day. It was bright orange on the southeast horizon and it lit up a very hazy atmosphere with an orange glow.

• Friday, 5/16: Great Pipe Organ Music
  • While I was watching hockey last night, I noticed quite a few small moths and night bugs flitting about the living room and thought I better recheck all tape around the air conditioner for leaks. In the morning while writing this blog, I looked up and noticed that I failed to put soft foam between the upper and lower sashes of the double hung window...no wonder I saw bugs! I added the foam this morning.
  • A strong thunderstorm with hail from a quarter to golf ball size put a few more dents in Bill's car. That same storm system put a tornado through parts of St. Louis that killed five in the city. There was no tornado at Bill's apartment or his place of work, although he did hear a siren go off.
  • We and a strong west wind that blew extreme stink off the diary poop pond a mile west of us. Gusts were over 40 mph. At one point I heard what sounded like a .22 rifle going off and I'm guessing it was small trees blowing over.
  • Mary picked another huge batch of radishes, this time more than first picking she did on Wednesday.
  • Mary mowed the rest of the north yard, while I mowed outside the near garden and munched down poison ivy on the north side of the path between the near and far gardens. I opened the cow panel around a small cherry tree that was munched down by rabbit when we first planted it. I mowed the tall grass around it and added a deep layer of grass clipping mulch.
  • In the evening, I viewed some videos of British organist, Anna Lapwood, someone featured in a blog that Mary follows. HERE she explains how a big pipe organ works and HERE she plays Davy Jones from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I think this is really fantastic information and music.
  • I also viewed St. Louis television stations about today's tornado damage.

• Saturday, 5/17: Mowing & Hockey
  • We experienced strong winds overnight that died down in the afternoon.
  • On our noontime walk down the lane with Plato, we saw a deer run away to the west near Bluegill Pond.
  • Mary mowed the rest of the north and the east yard. I mowed the area between the far garden and the compost bins and then I mowed around the far garden fence. We both used the mowers without bagging grass clippings, just to get more ground covered.
  • I watched the Dallas Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets, 2-1, in an overtime win that knocked the Jets out of the playoffs.

• Sunday, 5/18: Mowing, Mowing, Mowing!
  • Mary and I worked outside today, trying to get stuff done before some storms arrive, which are predicted for tomorrow and the next day.
  • Mary mowed the rest of the yards around our house.
  • I mowed the near far garden where garlic is currently growing, between the electric fence and the chicken wire fences of the far garden, and part of the middle between the two sections of the far garden. That section has many persimmon saplings growing in it that I munch up with the mower. I probably will need to sharpen the mower's blade after abusing it on tiny tree wood.
  • We have a Baltimore oriole calling and following us around the yards as we mow. These birds are very beautiful and have a wonderful song. I remember that Grandma Melvin loved orioles as they sang from trees at her Maryland home.

May 5-11, 2025

Weather | 5/5, cloudy, 43°, 63° | 5/6, sunny, 45°, 70° | 5/7, sunny, 52°, 75° | 5/8, p. cloudy, 52°, 69° | 5/9, sunny, 42°, 75° | 5/10, sunny, 41°, 81° | 5/11, sunny, 51°, 77° |

• Monday, 5/5: Slow Mail & Beating Back Grass
  • The U.S. Postal Service has tanked this month. For the first time, ever, we haven't received utility bills in the mail by the fifth of the month. Traditionally, the fifth of each month is our bill paying day, so all utilities get paid on time. Packages sent by mail are traveling back and forth between sorting stations. We are seeing packages bouncing around between multiple locations in St. Louis or Chicago. I have a package of fly tying items that was sent from St. Louis to Hannibal, and then back to St. Louis. As much as possible, we will be forced to go with automatic bill paying and forget paying bills via mail. One bill, which was garbage, was paid today, because it never changes, so we knew the amount to pay.
  • Mary mowed the rest of the west lawn. Grass clippings were used to mulch the five blueberry plants, two small apple trees in the west yard, and the newest cherry tree.
  • I cleaned out grass growing inside the hardware cloth cage around the Antonovka apple tree. I also temporarily removed the cow panel and used the trimmer to knock out tall grass, then reinstalled the panel. I did the same chore on the Goldrush apple tree, along with thinning fruits on Goldrush (see photos, below).
  • We heard coyotes yipping and howling nearby in the east while walking Plato at night.

Grass trimmed on the Antonovka apple tree.
Goldrush & Granny Smith are in the background.

Untrimmed grass around Calville (right) & Roxbury (left).

• Tuesday, 5/6: Grass Work & Birds
  • Mary did more mowing and got partway through the east yard. She mulched the sweet cherry tree with grass clipping. That tree still has blossoms on it.
  • I removed cow panels, weedwhacked tall grass and culled fruit on the Calville Blanc d'hiver (which translates to White Winter Calville) and Roxbury Russet apple trees. The Calville had a lot of tiny apples, but the Roxbury had very few, even though both bloomed profusely. I also raked tall grass that I cut and stuffed it inside cow panels around trees.
  • Mary saw a rose-breasted grosbeak, which was the first of the year.
  • She also noticed a ruby-throated hummingbird going bonkers trying to protect all of comfrey flowers on all sides of house.
  • Gnat season has begun. An ample supply of bug dope dabbed on ears, the neck, and parts of the face keeps them at bay, but they still bounce off your face.
  • More parsnips are sprouting in the near garden.
  • We ate some acorn squash with leftover turkey pot pie. It's amazing how long the squash have lasted. They're usually gone by March.

• Wednesday, 5/7: Outside, Again
  • Mary mowed the rest of the east yard and put grass mulch around a small pie cherry tree and a new apple tree called William's Pride.
  • Mary and I examined the three new trees. We're seeing a tiny bit of movement on a couple buds on the two new apple trees, but not much of anything on the Seckel pear tree. It's obvious that Fedco left our trees in the dark. They sprouted some leaves that never saw sun and are yellow. Those leaves are now dead. It wasn't a good job done by Fedco. They say they had help issues and obviously our box of trees was one of the issues. I plan to get back to them about it.
  • I weedwhacked circles in the tall grass for two new planting locations in the south orchard. I want to transplant two small Sargent crabapple trees. I'll let one grew up and graft McIntosh buds on the other sapling. I also weedwhacked paths between all of the trees in the south orchard.
  • Mary heard a common yellowthroat warbler, which was the first of the year.
  • A male house wren stuffs sticks on top of the electric fencer unit every spring. Sometimes a female wren turns the mess into a nest, but usually our outside activity forces a female wren to ignore the male wren's stupidity and goes elsewhere. I'm joining forces with the female wren and removing the sticks. I've done it for three days, straight. Today, I removed sticks twice in the day. We'll see how long this contest continues.
  • I watched the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars NHL playoff game. The Stars won, 3-2. Boo...I'm rooting for the Jets.

• Thursday, 5/8: Wild Hockey Game
  • I put labels on Batch II of the spiced apple wine and stored the 14 bottles in a cooler.
  • Mary did a bunch of house cleaning.
  • I removed the bent jack on the front of the trailer. It had quite a hodgepodge of bolts, nuts, and washers.
  • I sharpened the blade on the new lawnmower and cleaned the foam prefilter that covers the air filter.
  • I mowed all of the paths between the trees in the south orchard, along with the patch by all of the cherry trees west of the house. Grass clipping mulch went around four small apple trees in the south orchard.
    
  • I took Bill's advice and watched Game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers/Vegas Golden Knights NHL playoff series. The Oilers won 5-4 in overtime. It was a wild game. The Oilers have come from behind to win in six consecutive playoff games, a new NHL record. Their goalie, Calvin Pickard, saved a ton of really good shots on net and is the reason the Oilers won this game. Of course, it helped that the Oilers' top two players, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who were scoreless throughout regulation play, combined for the overtime winning goal.

• Friday, 5/9: Transplanting Sargent Saplings
  • There are two more small apple trees in the south orchard. I dug two holes and added amendments (cut grass, firewood bark, and compost) to the holes. I also cut down a small ash that has woodpecker holes in it, destined to die soon with damage from emerald ash tree borers. It was right next to one of my holes. I dug up two small Sargent crabapple trees under the big Sargent tree. They were shoots off a one-inch root and had no roots of their own. Even though I doubt if they'll live, I went ahead and planted them in the holes. Once I poured six gallons of water around the saplings, they perked up. I added a plastic guard around the two new saplings and a makeshift surround around both trees with scrap two-foot high fencing. If they live, one will grow to replace the current Sargent tree as an apple pollinator and I will graft McIntosh buds onto the other, using it as rootstock.
    
  • I mowed a section of the south lawn, including under the big Sargent tree, and put grass mulch around the newly planted saplings. Then I mowed the lane, so grass is short for Bill's arrival tomorrow.
  • Tiny bunnies were running up and down the lane as I mowed it. I laughed out loud seeing one of these little guys moving its legs as fast as they would go and barely getting down the road. I think there were four of these fluffy rabbits on the lane this evening.
  • Mary finished up on housecleaning.
  • While watering the near garden, Mary noticed a few onions starting to sprout.
  • Close to sunset, we smelled a skunk, but never saw it, thank goodness!
    
  • I watched the last half of the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars NHL playoff game. The Jets won, 4-0. The series is tied, 1-1.

• Saturday, 5/10: Bill Visits Us
  • Mary and I decided to take the weekend off from outside work.
  • Bill arrived around 10 a.m. Of course, Plato was overjoyed to see him.
  • I watered the Sargent crabapple saplings twice that I planted yesterday.
  • Green is showing on all three trees we purchased from Fedco this year.
  • Bill talked about how he is working on insurance compliance with subcontractors that his company uses to build homes. It's a tough go, because these tradesmen aren't keen on getting back to him, or doing paperwork. His employer, McBride Homes, builds 800 to 1,000 homes a year.
  • When we put the chickens to bed, we could not find a Rhode Island red hen. I looked several times in the chicken yard after Mary did a thorough search. I even looked for her twice after dark. We suspect she tucked herself under the coop for the evening and night. For about 10 days she's acted odd, such as staring at other chickens grabbing sunflower seeds without trying to peck any for herself. She's been wandering around in a daze.
  • We watched two movies that Bill picked out. They were the 1987 film, The Princess Bride, and the 2019 movie, Knives Out.

• Sunday, 5/11: Mother's Day
  • When we let the chickens out in the morning, the missing Rhode Island red hen was laying in the shade on the east side of the chicken coop. It didn't look well and died by the end of the day.
  • Mary picked three radishes out of the near garden. I washed them and Bill, Mary, and I each ate one. They were very good, without a hint of heat.
    
  • Bill went home by about 3:30 p.m. He's very happy to have a good job inside an air conditioned office. He plans to revisit us around Memorial Day.
  • I called Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day. The recent earthquake centered south of Knoxville, TN, shook Karen and Lynn's house in northeast Georgia, Mom told me.
  • While doing evening chores, Mary and I heard a weird bird sound. It was the song of a great crested flycatcher, the first of this year.
  • I watched the second half of the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars game. The Stars won, 5-2, and lead the series, 2-1...boo, hiss.