Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2025

Weather | 1/27, sunny, 15°, 43° | 1/28, sunny, 22°, 49° | 1/29, sunny, 28°, 53° | 1/30, 0.02" rain, fog, 30°, 45° | 1/31, 0.11" rain, cloudy, 30°, 41° | 2/1, p. cloudy to cloudy, 23°, 44° | 2/2, p. cloudy, 35°, 58° |

• Monday, 1/27: DeWalt Tools Arrive
  
  • We noticed the sparkling jewels of ice crystals on the lane when we walked Plato last night. This morning I saw frozen ice crystals that were almost a half an inch in diameter as I marched the wood ashes to the dump pile just beyond the far garden.
    
  • The DeWalt power tools were delivered today. The UPS driver left the package at the front door of our neighbor's trailer across the gravel road from us.
  • I charged the two batteries that came with the tools and pulled the trigger of both of them to test them. They seem very nice. I read up on all of the documentation that came with them.
    
  • I went down an internet rabbit hole of searching for impact sockets to fit the new impact driver. Then I went down another rabbit hole investigating how to get larger capacity batteries for the two new tools.
    
  • Bill informed us that he's visiting us this weekend.
  • Katie reported that there are extremely icy streets in Anchorage today (see photo, below).
  • Last week, Katie sent us a photo of her recently acquired business card (see below).

Anchorage streets of ice.

Katie's new business card.

• Tuesday, 1/28: Scouting Firewood Trees
  
  • I put Ethanol Shield into the two-cycle gas can for chainsaws and the weed trimmer and into one five-gallon gas can, along with the gas tanks for the wood splitter and the two lawn mowers. I started and ran both lawn mowers for about five minutes to circulate Ethanol Shield through the carburetors.
    
  • Plato and I took a walk to the southeast, so I could scout for standing dead trees to cut for firewood. I found a few in a couple gullies. At one point, we spooked up a barred owl that flew only a few feet away and looked at us. I backed us out to leave it alone. There is a great deal of new small oak tree growth into the field and near big oak trees. Plato really enjoyed sniffing for wild things while on the walk.
    
  • After sunset, I watched 35 trumpeter swans fly east to west in the sky south of us. I also heard coyotes howling from the north field.
  • Warming outside temperatures signify an increase in Asian ladybugs and flies inside the house. Mary and I both sucked bugs with the shop vac throughout the day.
  • For years I've tucked Amber into bed in the chair in our bedroom and now, every night before going to bed, I step to the chair and then turn away, realizing once again that she's no longer there.
    

• Wednesday, 1/29: Firewood Fiasco of 2025!
  
  • Immediately after waking up, we saw five deer grazing on shrubs west of the house (see video, below). They all looked very healthy.
  • I greased the clutch needle cage bearing on the small chainsaw and checked the chain. It's still sharp.
  • Plato and I walked north, giving me a chance to look for standing dead firewood trees. I found several.
    
  • Mary and I drove the 8N Ford tractor and trailer to the east edge of the north woods, where I cut down four red oak trees that grew from the same stump. I cut two of them up into firewood chunks, along with a cherry branch. Mary loaded the trailer. We'll have to go back tomorrow for the other two trees.
  • On the way back home, I drove the tractor on the old trail. I don't know what I was thinking, because the new trail that I made last fall is much easier to navigate. The tractor spun out on frozen ground on a hill in that old trail. Mary was back home to get some evening chores done. I walked home to let her know the news. After loading tractor tire chains in a wheelbarrow, I went back to the tractor. I unloaded the firewood out of the trailer, unhooked it from the tractor, and then pushed the trailer by hand down the hill. Without installing tire chains, I backed the tractor down the hill, hooked on the trailer, and then drove it over to the new trail and up the hill. Next, I loaded firewood into the wheelbarrow and pushed it through the snow to reload the trailer. Partway through the reloading, Mary showed up to help. I drove it home and we unloaded the firewood. We were very tired after loading and unloading a few times!
  • Mary vacuumed flies and bugs while I cleaned the chainsaw. Our insect house is insane with bugs when outside temperatures rise above freezing. On the positive side, Mary and I both spotted a honey bee while outside today.
  • On our nighttime walk for Plato, we had coyotes howling to the west and south of us, simultaneously.
    
  Deer viewed through our west living room window.
  

• Thursday, 1/30: More Firewood Collection
  
  • Mary and I tried to get outside right after breakfast to get more firewood, but a steady light rain prevailed, so we stayed inside until around 11:30 a.m.
  • We went back to our two remaining red oak trees that I took down yesterday. Fog swept through the woods and moisture dripped from tree branches. I sawed the two trees into firewood chunks while Mary loaded the trailer. I also found a couple oak limbs and I sawed them up. We unloaded the trailer after we ate our midday meal. I now have a bunch of red oak firewood to split.
    
  • Mary found the remains of two giant puffballs in the field near where she loaded the trailer. They are dirty greenish/yellow and resemble old rotten sponges.
  • Back in my days working for Mid-Rivers Telephone in Circle, MT, I took yearly trips to Washington, D.C. for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) annual meetings. This involved flights in and out of the Reagan National Airport in D.C., so the airplane and helicopter crash that occurred last night really gets my attention. Landing at Reagan involves swooping down over the Potomac River and setting down right smack in the middle of the city. It's in tight quarters, compared to landing in Denver, where you're out in the country. Besides, that city is a very busy place.
    

• Friday, 1/31: It's "Tator, Tator, Tator" Nearly Spring
  
  • We woke to fog that turned to mist. Clouds broke while the sun set. During our nighttime walk with Plato, heavy frost crunched under our feet.
  • Mary heard the springtime "tator, tator, tator" song of a tufted titmouse this morning.
    
  • I didn't clean up the small chainsaw that I used yesterday, so I did that today.
  • Mary did a major housecleaning.
  • I heard several trumpeter swans while they flew by to the north of the house. I never saw them. Swans are amazingly loud.
    
  • I checked online about a chainsaw trying to quit when you first start it, a phenomenon that the small saw is doing, and it's possibly a clogged muffler screen or a dirty air filter. I'll check both in the near future.
  • After noticing that a Lear jet crashed in a Philadelphia neighborhood tonight, I checked to see if my cousin, Marjorie, was okay. The crash site is about six to eight miles north of her, so she's fine.
    

• Saturday, 2/1: Racking Spiced Apple Batch I
  
  • Bill arrived around 11 a.m. from his apartment in St. Charles. Plato is always very happy to see Bill and greets him with enthusiasm.
    
  • Bill and I worked on the two batches of spiced apple wine. 
  • We added a clearing agent called Super-Kleer K.C. to batch I. It involves a two step process. First, an item called Kieselsol, also known as silicon dioxide, is added to the carboy. It is negatively charged and attracts positive ions. After an hour, Chitosan is mixed with an ounce of warm water and added. It has a positive charge and attracts negative particles. I removed some wine to add the second part. Chitosan is a shellfish derivative. It is suppose to clear the wine in 12 to 48 hours by settling out particles. This will not work if too much pectin is in the wine, which is possible with an apple product.
  • We racked spiced apple batch II for the third time directly into a second carboy. No Kmeta was added. The specific gravity was 1.000 and the pH was 3.0.
  • Mary, Bill, and I tasted both batches of spiced apple wine. It was very tangy. The spices rang out loud and clear, especially with batch I. They were both very delicious.
    
  • Mary cross stitch on a black moon cat ornament.
  • We watched the 2023 film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. We also watched the 1994 movie, Maverick. Bill picked out both movies.
    

• Sunday, 2/2: Chainsaw & Trimmer Maintenance
  
  • I cleaned up both chainsaws and the trimmer. Upon removing the small saw's muffler, I discovered the muffler screen was installed incorrectly, so that it only partially covered the exhaust port. I burned the carbon out of it with a torch and installed it the right way. I also cleaned the air filter, which is rather unimpressive with twinky engineering. I changed the spark plug in the small chainsaw, too. I cleaned the air cleaner element in the big chainsaw and in the grass trimmer.
    
  • Growth of what once was a small oak tree near the burn barrel means we need to find a new location to burn, so I whacked down dead grass east of the north yard where I'll move the burn barrel once I've cleaned out the old barrel. It's actually three huge rims for a military vehicle that were once welded on top of one another and not a barrel.
    
  • Bill took a hike around our property. He saw some bobwhite quail on our lane and lots of snow geese flying overhead.
    
  • Mary made three pizzas that we ate while we played Michigan Rummy throughout the evening. There were many missed attempts where a player went out before money cards could be played. Bill took a photo of two remaining hands of cards on one such event (see below). On one occasion, I had a hand of a straight sequence from the five of spades to the Jack of spades. It was a fun time.
    
  • Mary, Bill and I shared a 1.5-liter bottle of pear wine while we played cards.
  • My spiced apple wine clearing experiment is showing some clearer liquid, but it's not crystal clear, as advertised. It takes 12 to 48 hours and the longest amount of time ends tomorrow at 4 p.m.

  

  Unplayed cards in a game of Michigan Rummy.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Jan. 20-26, 2025

Weather | 1/20, sunny, -5°, 16° | 1/21, sunny, -11°, 7° |1/22, cloudy, skiff of snow, 7°, 32° | 1/23, sunny, 9°, 20° | 1/24, p. cloudy, 1°, 28° | 1/25, p. cloudy, 23°, 43° | 1/26, p. cloudy, 19°, 34° |

• Monday, 1/20: Cold Day & Racking Garlic Wine
  
  • We experienced another cold morning. As it warmed up, the northwest wind picked up, making it feel chilly.
  • When I emptied the wood ashes this morning, I spotted a deer in the east field looking at me. At first I thought it was a wooden stump, but then I saw a distinct head and ears. It never budged.
  • We kept chickens inside their coop. A heater and the sun keeps the inside of the chicken coop in the 30s when it's quite a bit cooler outside.
    
  • I racked the garlic wine for a second time. Fines in the carboy were over an inch deep. The specific gravity was 0.098 and the pH was 3.2. I lost more than a wine bottle and a beer bottle worth of liquid, most of that in the form of fines. I added just a smidgen less than two cups of water to the five-gallon carboy to bring the level up into the neck of the container. It won't lesson the wine's flavor much. This wine has a very strong garlic smell. The wine now sits for a month in the pantry.
  • Mary and I watched the 2003 movie, Lord of the Ring: Return of the King, while enjoying two pots of Tippy Yunan loose leaf tea and big buckets of popcorn. Through these movies, our cat, Gandalf, occasionally watches the screen as they keep mentioning his name.
    
  • The outside temperature was -3° when we went to bed, so I stoked the fire and added more firewood.
    

• Tuesday, 1/21: Cordless Drill Purchase
  
  • I woke at 4:30, saw that it was -10° outside, and opened the woodstove door to discover a few red, glowing coals. After adding four chunks of red oak firewood and waiting as the fire took off, I went back to bed after 15 minutes of fire babysitting. When we got up a couple hours later, the living room was warm even though it was -11° outside.
  • Our midday and afternoon high was 5°. Besides chores, my only outside adventures were walking trips down to our mailbox where a UPS package of cross stitching material, a USPS package of cross stitch floss, and a USPS package of waterproof cold weather gloves were waiting.
  • While emptying wood ashes this morning, I heard two pileated woodpeckers, one to the south and the other to the north, pounding on trees like dueling banjos. It seemed like they were communicating with one another.
  • Mary made a wonderful venison stew with biscuits four our midday meal, which is perfect for a cold winter day.
    
  • Katie texted that she was in Prudhoe Bay today and the temperature was 14°, when we were -5°.
  • Mary took photos of a sunlit Christmas cactus blossom (see below). It's an uplifting vision when it's cold outside.
    
  • Mary spotted a 40 percent off deal on a DeWalt 20-volt cordless drill and impact driver, plus two batteries and a storage bag on Amazon that was written about in Popular Science. I texted Katie asking her if it was a good deal. She said it was an amazing deal, even though the batteries were small. I ordered it. I'll get larger batteries in the future. There are many, many times when I need this for when I'm too far away to stretch an extension cord.
  • I had a couple small glasses of 2023 persimmon wine. It's pretty good when chilled and much improved from a year ago. I just might have to make it, again, but let it age for at least one year.
    
  • A southeast wind picked up after dark, moving outside temperatures upward so that by midnight we reached our high of the day of 7°.

A Christmas cactus flower backlit by the sun.

A closeup of the same blossom.

• Wednesday, 1/22: Haircut & Snow
  
  • A pair of red-shouldered hawks flew past the west window of the living room this morning.
  • I gave Mary a haircut in the living room, near the woodstove, or the warmest spot in the house.
    
  • We ate a completely homegrown dinner for our midday meal (see photo, below).
    
  • A great horned owl pair called to each other from the southwest woods, so they've probably mated and eggs are on the way. HERE is the neat call they make.
    
  • Just before darkness settled in, a skiff of snow fell on us. We decided to delay our shopping trip to Quincy until Friday. The snow wasn't much, but we don't want to deal with zooming traffic in potentially slippery conditions.

  

  A homegrown meal of chicken, green beans, and sweet potatoes.
  

• Thursday, 1/23: Working Inside on a Windy Day
  
  • We experienced a very windy day with blasts out of the northwest. It all died at sunset.
    
  • Mary cross stitched on a Halloween ornament called Witch Silhouette that she started on New Year's Eve. She's just a few hours away from finishing it. When she does, I'll show a photo of the ornament.
    
  • I worked on the big Stihl chainsaw, but didn't get anywhere. I attempted to remove the clutch. The nut that you use to remove the clutch is so short that there's barely enough height to put a socket or regular box wrench on it, so it wants to strip out. I tried several combinations, but to no avail. I'm taking it into Quincy, while we shop tomorrow, to see if I can get some answers. I'm sure the wire that drives the oil pump is missing and the clutch must be removed to access the oil pump. I'll either get a 19mm deep impact socket to fit the new impact driver I'm getting in the near future, or have a Stihl mechanic work on it.
    
  • Katie sent her mother a bunch of pictures from her recent two-day visit to Prudhoe Bay related to a project with her job. I'll put a couple photos on here each day until I use them up. Today, these (see below) are of an arctic fox and the first sunrise/sunset of the year.
    
  • I ordered a bottle of Ethanol Shield Fuel Stabilizer that I'll pick up curbside, tomorrow, from Walmart. It's never on the shelf, but I noticed recently that it can be purchased this way. I'll find out tomorrow if this works.

An arctic fox.

First 2025 sunrise/sunset in Utqiagvik
(formerly Barrow), as seen from an airplane.

• Friday, 1/24: Amber Died
  
  • Amber passed away at 9:40 p.m. Her death was a huge surprise to Mary and I. She had some issues eating this past week, but yesterday she was back to her old self, eating with gusto and zipping down the lane on walks. When we returned from shopping today, she was laying on the cement floor and wouldn't get up. I pulled her up and onto her feet and she stumbled out the door, down the steps and laid down on the grass. Mary and I hauled her back inside. She refused food and drank only a few laps of water. Then we carried her into the living room next to the woodstove's heat. She tried to get up at one point to get on her chair, but stumbled and laid down on the dog blanket, then slowly passed away. We think she had a stroke while we were gone. She leaves a huge hole in our life. We got her in 2017 as a two-year old dog. She died at 10 years. Below are two photos of Amber.
    
  • We shopped in Quincy. Mary found a book about weeds published by Cornell University. I got three winter shirts and a Craftsman toolbox. We picked up groceries. I was going to make cranberry/apple wine with the last bag of applesauce, but not a single cranberry can be found in Quincy.
  • The Stihl parts guy at Farm & Home spotted the oil pump wire. He thought the clutch drum on my big chainsaw was warped from overheating, so we ordered a clutch drum kit. I explained how the chain rotates when the saw is at idle speed, so we also ordered three new clutch springs. I was also told that an impact wrench easily removes the clutch nut. I have one on order that shipped out today, so that should solve the problem of removing the clutch. My parts should be in Quincy in a little over a week from today.
  • I heard a fox bark at me from the north when I opened the tailgate of the pickup to unload groceries.

Amber (front) & Plato (back) on Feb. 20, 2023.

Amber on Oct. 31, 2022.

• Saturday, 1/25: The Burial
  
  • Mary and I dug a hole and buried Amber. I tested ground in three places after Mary tried test digging in a couple locations. The easiest spot was on the west side of the north yard next to the woods that was covered with leaves and vegetation. Using a mattock, I easily worked my way through six inches of frozen ground. Then, we proceeded down through clay. I broke up the ground with the mattock, then rested as Mary dug out the lumps and put them on tin that I laid out nearby. We finished the job in about three hours. I thought this task would be bad, due to the recent subzero temperatures we experienced, but it was much easier than I estimated. Mary joked that the next time we plan a pet funeral, it needs to be in May.
  • Amber was an active being. We notice that now that she's gone, all pets nap soundly and aren't greeting us at the door if we've been outside for an extended time. It seems calmer in our house, now.
  • We had an indoor wienie roast and enjoyed some 2023 spiced apple and 2023 cherry wine. Everything tasted excellent.
  • Mary counted a flock of 57 snow geese heading west, our first of this year. A ton of robins are in our yard. We heard the first cardinal "purdy" spring song of the year.
  • Below are a couple more photos that Katie sent us.

A photo Katie took of the frozen Arctic Ocean.

Barter Island, as seen from an airplane.

• Sunday, 1/26: Resting Sore Muscles
  
  • Mary and I stayed inside and rested our weary grave digging muscles.
  • Mary finished her Halloween cross stitch project called Witch Silhouette (see photo, below).
  • After a little online research, I discovered I need to get some impact sockets for the impact wrench that arrives tomorrow.
  • Mary and I watched a red-shouldered hawk enjoy the sun while it sat on a black walnut branch and looked out on the far garden and beyond. It stayed in the same place for over a half an hour. These hawks have a front that's similar in the color to a robin's breast.
  • We listened as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills by a score of 32-29 to advance to the Super Bowl. It was a very close game.
  • We ate popcorn after the game. I'm noticing many times Amber antics that are now gone. She always came into the kitchen while I popped popcorn to catch any kernels that happened to fall on the floor.

Katie entitled this photo, "When you tell
your child that they'll grow into it."

The Witch Silhouette Halloween ornament.

Jan. 13-19, 2025

Weather | 1/13, sunny, 3°, 22° | 1/14, sunny, 15°, 17° |1/15, sunny, 0°, 27° | 1/16, sunny, 23°, 42° | 1/17, sunny, 26°, 49° | 1/18, sunny, 15°, 27° | 1/19, sunny, 0°, 7° |

• Monday, 1/13: Dr. Visit & Seeds, Trees Ordered
  
  • We got a text that Katie's electrical power came back on at midnight. There is a great deal of damage in Anchorage due to high winds and flooding. Katie sent us photos and there are articles in the Anchorage Daily News about it.
    
  • We had a low temperature of 3° at sunrise.
    
  • I attended a doctor's appointment in Lewistown at 9:30 a.m. My doctor wondered whether it was time to change one of my diabetes medications, based on my blood glucose numbers for the past six months, but test results that showed up in the afternoon indicated an A1C of 6.7, so I am to stay on current medications. My blood pressure was high, so he asked that I return in a couple days to get another reading before altering any medication to correct hypertension.
    
  • While the nurse took initial readings of me at the examination room, she suddenly walked to the far wall and removed a sticker that read "awesome." She said probably a kid stuck that to the wall on a previous visit. Later, while waiting for the doctor to show up, I spotted another sticker near the examination table in the room that read "game over." That's not the best message to see in such a room. I chuckled when I saw it.
    
  • Mary saw a perfect fox footprint in the snow along the path to the chicken coop. I noticed a huge deer hoof print in the snow near the far garden. Snow is great at revealing the past trek of wild animals.
    
  • Mary and I ordered 24 packages of seeds, three fruit trees, a pair of waterproof insulated gloves, and some cross stitch Aida cloth, all online. I used up a gift certificate from Katie to help pay for the fruit trees.
    
  • We watched the 2011 film, War Horse.
    

• Tuesday, 1/14: Fixing the Range Top
  
  • The high for the day was our morning and afternoon temperature. The mercury dropped at nightfall.
    
  • UPS delivered the parts to our kitchen range top, so I put the new parts in the appliance. The Y-bracket that supports the element coil on the new part was wimpy, so I removed the Y-bracket from the old element and put it on the new one. After removing the old terminal block where the element is inserted, I saw where it is very cracked and decayed. I yanked the old wiring out of the back of the old terminal block and it was very black with hardened wire insulation. Tonight, when I did two batches of popcorn on that burner, it popped up in half the time it's been taking to do popcorn. I'm glad I replaced the parts.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas and then some fajitas for our midday meal, using frozen green peppers. She's always bought fresh peppers in the past. The frozen peppers worked fine, which is better, since they're raised in our garden and we know they are handled right.
    
  • Mary watched the moon rise to the northeast. It looked like fire when it first emerged over the horizon, because it was so orange. There were also two planets in the night sky, they were Mars and Jupiter. Then, she watched the space station fly overhead. It was a busy time looking out the east door window.
    

• Wednesday, 1/15: Maintenance on Chainsaws
  
  • I greased the clutch bearing of the big Stihl chainsaw and put the new E-clip on the end of the crankshaft and outside the chain sprocket. The old missing E-clip was obviously sprung and that's why it departed, because this new E-clip is tougher to get on the end of the crankshaft. Tougher is better. It will stay. I can't find the wire underneath the clutch that drives the oil pump. I think it's gone. I need to remove the clutch to determine the oil pump status.
  • I also put the second chain on the small chainsaw. The first chain has bent drags preventing it from fitting into the slots of the bar. I'll need to try filing down the sides of these drags. If that doesn't work, I need to buy a new chain.
    
  • We saw an immature bald eagle fly over our house.
    
  • The two solid clamshell eyeglass cases that I recently ordered for my cheater glasses arrived in today's mail.
    
  • I did online research on removing a Stihl chainsaw clutch. I've been trying to obtain a piston stop, which is a device inserted through the spark plug hole that restricts the piston, enabling the removal of the clutch or the flywheel. They only exist in metal form for my big Stihl chainsaw. Metal piston stops can damage the tops of pistons. A better approach, outlined online, is using a length of synthetic rope inserted into the spark plug hole. It's softer and doesn't dent the top of the piston, yet stops the engine from turning over so the clutch can be removed.
    

• Thursday, 1/16: More Firewood
  
  • I sharpened the small Stihl chainsaw chain. It's so much easier than sharpening the big saw. The teeth are thin and fewer teeth are on the chain. Just three strokes with the file per tooth and it was very sharp.
  • I marched around in the woods on either side of the west field looking for standing dead trees that weren't too large to cut down for firewood. I found three perfect trees near the Bobcat Trail on the north woods side of the west field. Snow was marked with several deer tracks.
    
  • After driving the tractor and wagon down the west field and parking on the north side, we cut down three red oak trees. I cut up an oak limb and those three trees into firewood chunks while Mary started loading the wagon. Mary says she's the mule on this chore. I helped load wood into the wagon once I finished cutting up chunks. The small chainsaw did a great job. The largest trunk was about 10 inches thick. Ground near the wagon turned mushy as our boots dug into the thawing earth. The tires of the 8N Ford tractor were spinning in the snow a little as I drove back home. We emptied a full wagon load. Most of the firewood needs to be split.
  • When we walked the puppies at night, we noticed that Mars was lined up with the stars Castor and Pollux, which are at the top of the constellation Gemini. Plus, Jupiter was with Aldebaran, the red star that is the eye of constellation Taurus, the bull.
    
  • I tried the Harney & Sons green tea. It's great.
    

• Friday, 1/17: Splitting Wood
  
  • Today was a melting day and most of the snow disappeared. The ground became very soft, so it wasn't a day to go get more firewood.
    
  • Bugs, bugs, bugs meant the shop vac was very busy inside the house.
    
  • I split all of the firewood that we brought in yesterday and created two large temporary stacks in the machine shed (see photo, below). I'll move that wood to the woodshed tomorrow when the ground is frozen, making it easier to maneuver a wheelbarrow.
    
  • I saw a small deer approaching the lane at the south end of Bluegill Pond when I walked to the mailbox for the mail. It spun around and walked back into the woods. Mary and I saw three cackling geese fly over our house. With the help of an north wind, they were flying very quickly to the south. We recognized them by their call, which sounds like THIS. They're from Alaska and far northern Canada and are about the size of a mallard duck.

  

  Red oak firewood that I split today.
  

• Saturday, 1/18: Moving Firewood
  
  • A virtual fly tying course is offered by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). It involves two-hour sessions that are for four Mondays between Feb. 24 and March 17. I signed up for it. This will be a good way to get back into learning the basics, since I haven't done a darn thing with fly tying since I went to a one-day class put on by MDC in Kirksville on 1/14/23.
  • Indoor chores meant I didn't get outside until mid-afternoon. On the walk to the mailbox, a flock of robins flew over me...probably about 50 birds. They live here through the winter and hid out in cedar groves on our property.
  • I moved 11 wheelbarrow loads of firewood into the woodshed. Toward the beginning, I used the hat light that Katie gave me as a Christmas gift. It works extremely well. The newest red oak firewood burns with maximum heat for a very long time. I got the stack in the woodshed up to shoulder height.
  • We watched the 2001 film, Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring.
    

• Sunday, 1/19: Slug Day
  
  • Today was a single digit day outside, only getting to a high of 7°. Mom, in eastern Montana, was colder with -15° at her house. I see where Roseau, Minn., where we once lived, is predicted to get to -28°. Meanwhile, snow levels are so low in Alaska that they're canceling sled dog races.
  • Mary and I were indoor slugs, today. And I was more sluggish than Mary. At least she did some drawing and cross stitch work. I barely moved off the living room couch.
  • Rather than watching TV advertisements ad nauseam, I find it better to look at football game recaps on YouTube. For 10-15 minutes, you get to see the highlights and skip all of the boring nonsense. It frees up time to be a sloth in some other form.
  • Nighttime dog walks of late include spectacular star viewing. Tonight an orange moon rose to the east that was beautiful.
  • We watched the 2002 film, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
    

Jan. 6-12, 2025

Weather | 1/6, p. cloudy, 0.5" moisture from 1/5 snow, 13°, 23° | 1/7, sunny, -1°, 23° |1/8, sunny, 10°, 23° | 1/9, sunny, 5°, 35° | 1/10, 1" snow, 0.09" moisture, cloudy, 25°, 35° | 1/11, p. cloudy, 17°, 38° | 1/12, sunny to cloudy, 30°, 39° |

• Monday, 1/6: Snow Shoveling
  
  • While Mary shoveled snow for about a fourth of our quarter-mile lane, I shoveled all of our paths. We've got several...house to chicken coop, to woodshed, to west and east ends of the machine shed, to where we dump wood ashes, to the north and south sides of the compost bin, and to our lane. The snow is light and easy to toss. This evening, our muscles told us that we're not young bodies anymore.
    
  • I walked to the mailbox. There was no sign of the mail carrier's vehicle. The gravel road to the east might be filled with snow drifts. There were several deer tracks in the snow crossing the lane just south of Bluegill Pond.
    
  • Wild birds were nonexistent in the morning, but we noticed a lot of wild birds in the late afternoon. We watched trumpeter swans fly overhead, with one veering off to the north to join others flying further north of us. We watched two flocks of Canada geese heading south. 
  • Juncos jump onto grass seed heads and take a ride down to the snow, due to their body weight, where they eat seeds. Once they fly off the seed head, the sprig of grass pops back into the air. I saw several juncos doing this in the far garden. All of a sudden, they all flew into the nearby trees. Then a sharp-shinned hawk swooped through. After several minutes, the juncos returned to teeter-totter the seed heads to snow level.
  • I ordered a pair of hard glass cases with carabiner clips to house my cheater reader glasses. That way, I can always have them with me.
  • The garlic wine's fermentation is fizzing away very nicely.
    

• Tuesday, 1/7: Shoveling Snow & Splitting Wood
  
  • Mary shoveled snow like a beast! She did all the rest of the lane, or about three-fourths of our quarter-mile lane in three hours. When I walked down with another shovel, she was almost done and said she promised herself that if she finished, she wouldn't do anything but sit on her butt, tomorrow. I shoveled the entry driven by the mail delivery person to the mailbox and the few feet at the end of the lane along the gravel road.
    
  • There was no mail delivery, again. Someone plowed on the gravel road, but I think it was from folks at the dairy west of us to help employees get to work. The gravel road east of us might be plugged with snow drifts.
    
  • Mary saw at least 70 trumpeter swans as she shoveled snow. She said they kept streaming through all day.
    
  • Mary and saw a bald eagle fly right over the house as we did our evening chores. It was low enough that we could hear its wing beats. It was flying really fast, but with steady flapping.
    
  • I split and stacked five wheelbarrow loads of firewood. It's a combination of ash and oak and this batch burns for a very long time, compared to the maple, which burns up quickly.
    
  • A check of the garlic wine indicated a specific gravity of 1.074.
    

• Wednesday, 1/8: Firewood Splitting
  
  • I split the rest of the firewood that we cut last Friday and put next to the wood splitter. It amounted to three wheelbarrow loads. Next, I need to find dead standing trees close to the house so we can move the firewood on a toboggan over the snow.
    
  • This evening we drank some hot cinnamon tea from Harney & Sons. Wow! It's really good. The flavor is perfect for a cold winter's night.
    
  • We watched two episodes of the HBO series, John Adams.
    

• Thursday, 1/9: Hoar Frost & Tea
  
  • There was beautiful hoar frost on all of the tree branches this morning. A slight south breeze was blowing it out of trees as I dumped ashes and it made the air sparkle.
    
  • I reviewed possible apple and pear tree purchases to use with the gift certificate that Katie gave me for Christmas. There are seven apple (Black Oxford, Crimson Crisp, Enterprise, Prima, Pristine, Redfree, & Williams Pride) and three pear varieties (Seckel, Atago, & Shinko) on my list. I ruled out plums, because two trees are needed for pollination and I don't want to spend that much money on just one kind of fruit tree. I eliminated peach trees, because I first need to build up a planting area to keep their roots above clay soil that becomes waterlogged when wet. I need to decide on two trees.
  • A check of the garlic wine showed a specific gravity of 1.039. Yeast is actively fizzing.
    
  • We watched the rest of the HBO series, John Adams.
  • Mary and I enjoyed two pots each of Harney & Sons jasmine tea...wow!!! It's really good.
    
  • Snow was lightly falling when we walked the dogs on their nightly outing.
    

• Friday, 1/10: Snow, Stove Repair & Racking Garlic Wine
  
  • We woke to an inch of freshly fallen snow. It highlighted all tree branches. Snow makes the world beautiful and fresh. It collects a variety of colors besides white. Hints of blue show in the shadows. Morning and evening pinks dance across the snow. It records the tracks of visiting wildlife. There is animal and bird history recorded all over our property in the snow.
    
  • An initial glimpse out our bedroom window this morning made us think a fresh mound of dirt was dug up by a mole in the path next to the near garden. When I dumped ashes, I discovered it actually was a dead bunny. We're guessing that a fox or coyote cornered the rabbit between the electric wires and the chicken wire of the near garden, drug it to the path, ate part of it, but ran off when something startled it. I used a shovel and removed the rabbit.
    
  • Mary saw some American tree sparrows in the late morning eating chicory seeds.
  • Mary created a 2025 food chart of items stored in the freezers and wine stored upstairs.
    
  • I worked on the kitchen range/stove. One eight inch burner quite working. It gets used about 90 percent of the time and where the element snaps into the terminal block shows excess wear and tear. I cleaned the contacts with wet/dry sandpaper and bent tangs back into place. The old blue wiring is black at the terminal block from excessive heat. It works now, but I ordered a new burner and a new terminal block that includes new wiring. We bought this GE stove in September of 2009.
    
  • I racked the garlic wine for the first time. It went into a five-gallon carboy, a 750-ml bottle and a 330-ml bottle. The specific gravity was 1.013 and the pH was 3.2. The yeast in this batch took the longest time to near the end of fermentation in the history of my winemaking, yet it's still extremely fizzy (see video, below). Now it sits in the pantry to settle down.
    
  • Mary and I enjoyed a bottle of 2023 blackberry wine. It has stupendous flavor and is a truly great wine. Mary says it tastes like concord grape juice. It's very, very smooth, with no bite, just good flavor. I think a key is lowered alcohol. This wine is at 10.9 percent. It makes for a perfect taste.
    
  • I picked two apple tree varieties to buy after checking out my selections on several online websites. They are Black Oxford and Williams Pride.
  Garlic wine fermentation is really fizzy (turn up your sound to hear the fizz).
  

• Saturday, 1/11: Wildlife & Fixing Door Jamb
  
  • Mary saw a deer crossing the lane just south of Bluegill Pond while walking puppies this morning. At noon while on another dog walk, she spotted a fox crossing the lane where the deer walked earlier.
  • Mary ordered zillions of skeins of floss while using up a gift certificate that was a Christmas present from Katie.
  • A rabbit lives under the pile of brush destined as kindling that Mary stored in the machine shed.
  • Two Eurasian collared doves are wintering in the cedar trees between the chicken coop and the machine shed. Mary says they sound like wheezy whoopee cushions.
    
  • I fixed the entrance door. Back when I replaced the doorknob, I used a wood chisel to enlarge the mortise behind the strike plate. Little did I know that the shims behind the door jamb were rotten and by pounding on the wood chisel, I bowed the door jam's center away from the door. It resulted in a big air gap and after locking the door, we could open it with a slight pull...not good! I removed the interior door trim and put several new shims between that wimpy door jam and the stud. The door closes tightly and the doorknob locks securely, now.
  • After removing the door trim, hundreds of Asian ladybugs streamed out of the opened crack in the wall. I yearn for a much tighter house.
  • I decided to order a Seckel pear tree. The Seckel pear is known as possessing the best flavor of all pears. Our Kieffer pear tree is on its way out and fire blight keeps attacking the Bartlett trees. Seckel is resistant to fire blight.
    

• Sunday, 1/12: Coyote, Diabetes Record, & High Anchorage Winds
  
  • While feeding pets, Mary spotted a coyote in the north yard heading for the woods just north of the chicken coop. We watched it come back through a second time and I spotted it in the trees heading for the chicken yard, so I walked to the north end of the chicken run. While I was there, Mary saw it run away to the northeast on our trail to the ponds. It was a nice sized coyote with an orange/gray coat. It looked like it was in great shape. There are lots of bunnies to eat. He probably isn't struggling to find food.
    
  • I cleaned up my winemaking materials and put them away in the west room closet.
    
  • I recorded all of my morning and evening glucose numbers since July 1st on a sheet of paper and then rewrote them in a more presentable form to give to the doctor during my biannual diabetes checkup, tomorrow.
    
  • We both vacuumed bugs a lot, today.
    
  • The garlic wine is settling a large amount of fines in the bottoms of the containers. It will require racking very soon.
  • Katie experienced extreme winds in Anchorage. In the Hillside neighborhood, winds were up to 130 mph. When we texted with her late at night, she said she had been without electricity for nine hours. She and her pets were staying warm under covers in her bedroom. Outside temperatures were in the 40s in Anchorage.