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.