April 14-20, 2025

Weather | 4/14, sunny, 53°, 61° | 4/15, sunny, 37°, 59° | 4/16, sunny, 34°, 73° | 4/17, cloudy, 55°, 77° | 4/18, cloudy, 0.01" rain, 63°, 75° | 4/19, cloudy, 0.05" rain, 41°, 59° | 4/20, cloudy, 0.77" rain, 43°, 59° |

• Monday, 4/14: Deer, Dandies, & Gardens
  • We saw eight deer during Plato's morning walk right at sunrise. Three ran off to the west in the south field. Another five snorted from the southeast field and ran off to the east. There's no shortage of deer around here.
  • Our resident barred owl landed on a couple tree this morning, just south of the house, while looking for breakfast.
  • I picked more dandelion blossoms, putting in two hours and adding 47.4 grams to the bag in the freezer for a grand total of 128.6 grams. I'm 48 percent done.
  • Mary turned over the rest of the soil in the north row of the near garden.
    
  • I mowed grass inside and outside of all fences in the near garden. I also mowed grass inside the south end of the far garden, where three rows of garlic plants are growing well. I saw where deer stomped down the chicken wire fence in two places surrounding that garden.
  • White blossoms in the McIntosh apple tree and the Sargent crabapple tree are buzzing with bees, despite 30 mph gusts.
  • Bill told us that he won a ticket in an inter-company drawing to the 4/15/25 St. Louis Blues vs. Utah NHL hockey game. He will be viewing the game from the McBride Suite, which is nearly at rink level, right behind one of the goals (see image, below).

  

  The blue area will be Bill's seat in the game.
  

• Tuesday, 4/15: Bill at Enterprise Center
  • I picked dandelion blossoms all day. My total for today was 60.2 grams out of 14 dozen flowers for a grand total of 188.8 grams. I have 70 percent that I need for a one-gallon batch of dandelion wine.
  • Mary turned over more soil in the near garden. She dug up enough of the southern row of that garden to plant what she's planning for this month.
  • We had wind gusts to 30 mph, but it didn't keep bees out of the fruit tree blossoms.
  • Bill attended the NHL game in the St. Louis Enterprise Center, watching it from the McBride Suite (see photos, below). He suggested that the next time the Winnipeg Jets play the St. Louis Blues, I should join him in watching the game. Well, as a result of St. Louis beating Utah 6-1 in this game, the Blues face the Jets in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I joked in a message to Bill, asking him if the next games count for his suggestion. He said yes, but I told him I was only joking. I'm sure tickets to a playoff game are much higher priced, as compared to regular season tickets.
  • Mary and I shared a 2023 bottle of spiced apple wine. It tasted great. Apple from the Empire apple tree are so-so, but this wine made from those apples is wonderful.
    

Bill's view of the ice sheet from the McBride Suite.

He said the suite even comes with a buffet.

• Wednesday, 4/16: Dandies Picked & April Seeds Planted
  • We heard a house wren for the first time this season. It only spouted off for a few minutes in the morning, then was silent for the rest of the day.
  • I finished picking dandelion blossoms with an all-day push to get it accomplished. I picked 21 dozen flowers, gaining 84.4 grams for the day, with a grand total of 273.2 grams. I now need to buy some other supplies (fruit, yeast, ginger & golden raisins) to make this wine.
  • Mary planted seeds she has scheduled to sow in April in the near garden. They include snow peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and parsnips. She watered all seeds and covered the snow pea seeds with lacy white curtains. This is needed to keep robins from uncovering the seeds. Robins don't eat the seeds, but blue jays do once the seeds are uncovered.
  • I checked the strawberry plants. The leaves are mostly green, with a few stripes of yellow in some leaves. We'll keep the lace curtains over them for a couple more days, then open everything up.
  • When I was near the Sargent crabapple tree, it was buzzing with bees in the blossoms. All pear trees are thoroughly green, absent white blossoms. The lilacs are starting to bloom, giving off an amazing aroma.

• Thursday, 4/17: Mowing & Birds
  • Mary and I walked Plato down the Bobcat Trail, and then around the west field. We looked at a number of redbud trees blooming in the woods. In nature, they prefer to grow as undercover trees within tall oak and hickory timber. Their tiny red blossoms show up, because most all other trees haven't developed leaves, yet.
  • I mowed the lane, then part of the front yard, where grass was exceptionally thick and tall. I collected the front yard grass clippings and put them under the Empire apple tree.
  • Mary mowed the lawn between the woodshed and the machine shed, along with the west yard.
  • In the morning, we heard a bald eagle cry to the north, then we saw a bald eagle fly overhead around noon. We wonder if we might have a bald eagle nest in the northeast part of our property.
  • For two evenings in row, a wood duck hen motors overhead, squawking like crazy, as it flies to the northeast.
  • Mary watered the newly planted seeds, while I did a strawberry check. The strawberry plants are greening up very nicely.
  • On our last walk with Plato, we saw lightening in the sky from thunderstorms west of Des Moines, Iowa, which is about 220 miles to the northwest. Nighttime lightning flashes can be seen for many miles.

• Friday, 4/18: Mowing, Rain, & Fred
  • I walked Plato halfway down the trail to the ponds. A meadowlark was in the top of a honey locust tree singing his heart out.
  • The Kohler engine in the old mower Mary uses was surging up and down in RPMs yesterday. I checked the air filter and vacuum hoses. They were fine. A governor spring was loose. I remembered that I replaced springs on an even older mower we no longer use, so I swapped those springs. That fixed the problem and the engine now runs smoothly, without surging.
  • Mary mowed north of the house, around the machine shed, and the lawn east of the machine shed. Several small cherry trees and violet flowers got lobbed off.
  • I mowed the south lawn where it was allowed to grow tall last year. I had to run over all areas twice in order to munch down tall chicory stalks. Mary and I endured high mounds of earth pushed up by moles. I put clippings under the Empire apple tree. With each deposit of grass clippings, I heard lots of bees visiting the apple blossoms.
  • Mary and I were rained out of our lawnmowing efforts. We had a quick downpour. Mary already had her mower under cover. I put my mower away VERY wet.
  • Our resident barred owl, whom we call Fred, was in a small maple tree in the east lawn at dusk while hunting for dinner (see photo, below). This owl lives somewhere nearby and hunts regularly within eyesight of the house.
  • We noticed several white crabapple blossom petals under the Sargent tree when we walked Plato at night. They really show up under the bright glare of a flashlight, especially when several on on the ground.

  

  Fred, our resident barred owl, in east yard.
  

• Saturday, 4/19: Hockey Playoffs Begin
  • I woke at 3:23 a.m. for a bit. Rain water was dripping off the roof. When we got up later, everything was dry, except for a little water in the rain gauge.
  • We had a lazy day, inside.
  • I watched Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the St. Louis Blues and the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets won, 5-3. I was rooting for both teams, which makes it easy, because no matter the outcome, you're always a winner. The Blues led a couple times, but the Jets played really hard in the last half of the game. Winnipeg fans wear all white clothing and wave white towels, which they call a blizzard. It's quite a visual effect.
  • I lit a fire after the game. A bunch of wood chips fell to the floor while I moved firewood into the woodstove. When I swept them up and took the chips outside, several deer ran into the woods from just west of the house.

• Sunday, 4/20: Rain, No Tornadoes, Foam Fly
  • We received a lot of much-needed rain, today. In the morning, we had 0.77 inch in the rain gauge. After doing evening chores early, sheets of rain came down and this morning (4/21), there was 1.23 inches in the rain gauge. That's exactly 2 inches between the two readings. It should help raise pond levels and ground moisture.
  • Mary and I closely watched weather radar all day. There were confirmed tornadoes on the ground south and east of us, but none got anywhere near us, thank goodness.
  • We had nice rainbows to east when the sun was setting.
    
  • I want to increase fence heights to deter deer and reviewed ideas online for how to do that. I plan to test out some ideas.
  • Mary saw a northern harrier hawk for the first time this year.
  • I made a foam spider that looks more like a beetle (see photos, below). The head cement I used for attaching eyes made them look glazed over. I have more ideas for this fly, which is supposed to be good for catching bass.
  • Mary and I enjoyed a bottle of 2022 blackberry wine. It's very good. Of all the wines I make, blackberry has the closest aroma to grape wine. One excuse we used for drinking this bottle of wine is the fact that I need four more empty bottles in order to bottle batch two of spiced apple wine that is in the pantry aging in gallon jugs right now.
  • I watched Game 1 of NHL playoffs between the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas won, 4-2, but it was a much closer game than the final score indicates.

Top view of my first attempt in tying a foam spider.

Bottom view of what really looks like a beetle.