March 10-16, 2025

Weather | 3/10, sunny, 35°, 71° | 3/11, sunny, 45°, 69° | 3/12, p. cloudy, 30°, 69° | 3/13, sunny, 40°, 76° | 3/14, clear, but mucky skies, thunderstorm, 0.13" rain, 55°, 82° | 3/15, cloudy to snow, 32°, 51° | 3/16, 5" snow to sunny, 0.33" moisture, 23°, 47° |

• Monday, 3/10: Pickup Brakes & Fly Tying
  • The first thing I did prior to working on the pickup was to cut up pieces of a 2004 Mid-Rivers wall calendar (I bet I'm the only one on earth with several of these relics), fold two pieces and tape them to the underside of the rusty wheel wells of the truck. Smooth card stock is easier to bump the head into, compared to jagged, rusty metal. I also wore a beanie for protection and moved all toolboxes away from my working area.
  • I spent a lot of time trying to remove the parking brake cable on the driver's side rear brake assembly. It finally broke free inside the mechanism. I disconnected the hydraulic brake line, then tapped the parking brake assembly free from the axle housing. Next, I jacked up and blocked the passenger side rear of the pickup and took apart that brake. It is bad, but not quite as shot as the other side. After removing the four parking brake assembly bolts, I quit for the day. Those four bolts are super tough to turn. This time I went out and in several times and squirted healthy amounts of penetrating fluid on the threads, which helped. I'm close to ordering parts.
  • Mary was the grand bug vacuumer of the day. Hordes of Asian ladybugs marched into the house. It was pretty much an all day event. We're completely sick and tired of them!
  • The third lesson on fly tying put on by the Missouri Department of Conservation involved make two flies: the Pheasant Tail Nymph and the Garbage Scud (see photos, below). The first fly is supposed to resemble the larvae of a mayfly. The scud is supposed to look like a freshwater shrimp. A stretched piece of a plastic bag is tied to the top of the scud fly to make it look like the shiny crustacean shell on a shrimp, hence the name "garbage" in Garbage Scud. We also practiced using the whip finishing tool. It was a nice break from reefing on wrenches on an old rusty pickup.
  • An increasing number of spring peeper frogs are singing from various ponds. Snow geese are still milling about.

Pheasant Tail Nymph imitating a mayfly larvae.

Garbage Scud resembling a freshwater shrimp.

• Tuesday, 3/11: Ladybugs, Butterflies & Brake Parts
  • The massive Asian ladybug vacuum sessions continue. Mary ran the entire house with the shop vac five times and I did it twice. The first time on my shift was to beat back bugs on the first floor level so Mary could make a batch of flour tortillas without squished ladybugs in the dough. We live a really great house!
  • I finished removing parts off the passenger side brakes of the pickup this morning.
  • I spent most of the afternoon chasing down brake parts and supplies to finish the brake job. It took time as I changed my mind on brands of some of the brake parts. A sticking point is what I'm going to use to remove the stub of a small bolt that broke off, which holds down the parking brake shoes. I still don't have a solution.
  • I attended a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex on early spring butterfly arrivals. There are several butterflies that overwinter in leaf litter, or inside dead, hollowed out trees here in Missouri and show up now.
  • I ordered $525 worth of brake parts and supplies this evening.
  • We notice several eastern bluebirds and cardinals singing from everywhere.

• Wednesday, 3/12: More Pruning & Pickup Parts Order
  • An eastern phoebe came home for the first time this season. We saw it and heard it today.
  • We heard a turkey gobble to the east before sunrise, while we walked Plato. It's the first time this spring that we heard a turkey.
  • In the late morning, we walked Plato to Bass Pond. There's a cave-in near the bank on the south side that looks like it was created by a muskrat. Several American lotus dead leaves and stalks are near the southeast corner of the pond. The water level is very low. We saw medium sized bass swimming near the shore. The water recently turned over in Bass Pond and looks murky.
  • Mary pruned to where she could reach on the big pie cherry, big Bartlett pear, and the Prairie Fire crabapple trees.
  • I did an online search on solving how to handle the broken bolt holding down the driver's side parking brake shoes of our pickup. One solution is to drill a new hole slightly off-center, run an appropriate tap through and insert the bolt in a new location. Mary found an old Craftsman tap and die set in a metal cabinet in the machine shed. We once bought it at an auction in Circle, MT. It doesn't have any taps I can use, but a thread measuring gauge gave me a 24 reading on the threads. A micrometer told me that the small bolt is 3/16" thick. After a couple hours of online searching, I discovered a 3/16" bolt is really a #10 screw. I need at least four inches of length and most taps and small drill bits are shorter. A tap extension is $80+, which is too expensive. More online research revealed that pulley plug taps are up to 12 inches long. 
  • I ordered a six inch long #10 pulley plug tap, some cutting oil, and an appropriate six inch long drill bit from a company called MSC Industrial Supply...problem hopefully solved.
  • We saw several V's of snow geese flying eastward this evening.
  • I have five packages coming to me from all over the country, due to my RockAuto.com order. I went with them for brake parts, even though Amazon has some of the items I need for less money, because Amazon takes up to two weeks before they fill orders. RockAuto filled my order within 12 hours after I placed it. They have facilities all over the country, which is why parts are coming to me from five different places.

• Thursday, 3/13: Getting Ready for Storm
  • Mary pruned the Sargent crabapple tree from where she could reach while standing on the ground. That's the last of the larger trees. Hopefully, I can prune tops of the larger trees, soon. This crabapple tree is starting to show green tip on buds.
  • I pulled hay off the strawberry containers, leaving only about three inches on top.
  • I used wire brushes to cleaned rust off the wheel hub flanges, in which the rotors are bolted to, in order to make it easier to remove rotors in the future. I also used old large screwdrivers and a putty knife to scrape rust off other parts in the rear brake assemblies.
  • Weather predictions of strong storms tomorrow with wind gusts between 80-100 mph gave me a desire to prepared the pickup for wind blasts. I reattached both rear tires and wedged boards under them to widen the support underneath the vehicle. I also picked up a large piece of plywood that I've been using as a base while crawling under the edges of the pickup and stored it in the woodshed.
  • I noticed two pairs of wood ducks flying in and out of Bluegill Pond when I walked down to the mailbox this evening. They are the first wood ducks we've seen this spring.
  • Bugs were terrible, today! We could be running the shop vac continuously, but you have to give it a break. Left alone, entire windows and walls are filled with hundreds of the crawling beasties.

• Friday, 3/14: Bugs, Ad Nauseam
  
  • Mary and I vacuumed bugs almost continuously, today. We believe that over a million Asian ladybugs left our surrounding timber last fall and all crammed themselves into the vinyl siding of our house. There were times when well over 100 Asian ladybugs went into the shop vac from just one window. It's absolutely amazing. Any food preparation in the kitchen is a tag team event. One cooks while the other person continuously vacuums bugs. Living in this house would be unbearable if we didn't suck up those damn tiny tanks (ladybugs).
  • Some of the pickup parts arrived, today, via UPS, FedEx and USPS. The only bad aspect is that I got only half of the brake backing plates/dust shields. It's a two-piece unit and I got only one of the two pieces. I answered a bunch of RockAuto's online questions and included a photo. They will give me back an answer in one working day, which means I won't hear back from them until Monday or Tuesday. Oh well, not all of my parts come in until Monday. Now I'm delayed even longer, since the dust shield is one of the first items to install.
  • We had thunderstorms roll through us around 6 p.m. The really high winds, most of the rain, and tornadoes missed us. Bill reported that really bad weather also missed his location in St. Charles.

• Saturday, 3/15: Pruning
  • Winds settled down, today, so I pruned the top levels of a couple trees...the Liberty and the Empire apple trees. I only got a quarter of the Empire tree pruned, since it involves using the largest 10-foot step ladder, which is cumbersome to maneuver, due to its weight. I'm also placing Treekote on new cuts, which adds to my time up the ladder.
  • I saw a bald eagle and a great blue heron flying overhead while I was up a ladder pruning trees. Mary spotted a brown-headed cowbird. The heron and cowbird are the first of this season.
  • Mary picked up pruned branches that were lying under all trees that she recently pruned from the ground level.
  • We vacuumed bugs, of course, because they're always with us day after day.
  • After dark, we watched two movies. They were the 2020 film, News of the World, and the 2016 movie, Bridget Jones's Baby.
  • When we walked Plato, the ground was wet and snow was falling with a stiff north breeze.

• Sunday, 3/16: Snow Dump
  • We woke to quite a significant snowfall. It was about five inches deep (see photo, below). Plato loved it as he bounced over the white blanket, occasionally grabbing mouthsful. Temperatures in the upper 40s melted most of it by sundown.
  • I racked and bottled the spiced apple wine's first batch. It never thoroughly cleared (see photo, below), but I decided to bottle it, since this wine tastes wonderful and I don't care how it looks. The specific gravity was 0.999. This puts the alcohol content at 8.65 percent. The pH is 3.0. I filled and corked 14 bottles. We drank the 350 milliliters leftover after bottling, along with the 450 milliliters of dregs left in the bottom of the four containers, equaling 50 milliliters over a bottle's worth of wine. It is exceptionally tasty...spicy and very tart.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project and dusted upstairs books while I bottled wine.
  • RockAuto cannot send the missing parts of the brake backing plates/dust shields. They want me to print out a shipping label and send the parts back via FedEx. The nearest FedEx drop-off location is 24 miles east of us at the Dollar General store in Canton, MO. I can't do that, since my only transportation is the pickup, currently on jack stands and blocks. And I'm not taking a bicycle on narrow two-lane highways to Canton to get run over by a farmer-driven grain semi. Hiking 48 miles roundtrip would take all day. I'll just order a new set of dust shields and handle a refund of the current ones after I get the pickup in running order.
  • When we walked Plato on his last dog walk of the day, a single spring peeper frog was singing at Bluegill Pond with the temperature at 31°. They are hardy little souls.

5" snowfall viewed SW of our house.

Slightly cloudy spiced apple wine.