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.