Aug. 11-17, 2025

Weather | 8/11, sunny, 69°, 87° | 8/12, 0.33" rain, p. cloudy, 67°, 83° | 8/13, p. cloudy, 67°, 83° | 8/14, sunny, 59°, 82° | 8/15, sunny, 68°, 91° | 8/16, sunny, 73°, 93° | 8/17, sunny, 74°, 93° |

• Monday, 8/11: Cherry Wine Goes Bonkers
  • We ate an oatmeal breakfast filled with food from our property, such as pecan nuts, black raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and Empire apples from our tree. 
  • Bill left for his apartment by mid-afternoon.
  • The cherry wine yeast is fizzing along very nicely. A citrusy yeast aroma fills the house and a fizzing sound is heard outside of the closed pantry door. Specific gravity for the day was: Batch 1, 1.066, and Batch 2, 1.067 at around noon; Batch 1, 1.054, and Batch 2, 1.056; at about 11 p.m.
  • Mary checked for hornworms in the far garden and found 15 hornworm eggs, two cucumber beetles, one army worm, and one large snail.
  • I picked 16 apples off the ground under the Empire tree and threw away four of these apples.
  • A thunderstorm rolled through around midnight, giving us a brief bout of strong winds and a third inch of rain. We receive regular rains this summer, which is perfect for all growing green things.

• Tuesday, 8/12: Onions Harvested, Cherry Wine Racked
  • I went through all of the coolers of wine bottles in the upstairs north bedroom, counted wine, and compared it to my running totals. In many cases, my inventory was off. I also found two lost wines. One was four bottles of 2022 persimmon wine and the other was four bottles of 2021 pear wine. Occasionally I cleaned out the insides of coolers, along with dusting off a few bottles.
  • Mary finished harvesting all of the onions in the near garden. We now have three full milk crates of onions in the back porch closet. It smells like a burger joint inside that closet right now.
  • Mary picked a tiny bit of strawberries, one zucchini, 12 hornworm eggs, and one small worm that held onto a tomato leaf and looked like a stem.
  • I found 17 apples under the Empire tree and threw away four of them. We're eating these apples in our morning oatmeal. All seeds are black, so they're ripe and ready for picking off that tree. 
  • The cherry wine had a specific gravity of 1.032 in Batch 1 and 1.033 in Batch 2 around noontime. By about 8 p.m., the specific gravity of both brew buckets was at 1.020, so I racked the wine for the first time. It took several minutes to squeeze the four nylon mesh bags full of fruit in both brew buckets, which gave me an additional gallon of juice per brew bucket. That makes a total of 12 gallons of wine. I racked the liquid into three 5-gallon carboys, which gave each one a nice amount of headroom for foam (see photo, below). Now I wait for the yeast activity to settle down. Mary and I tasted a bit of the liquid left in the bottom of the bowl where I put the squeezed mesh bags. It was amazing, with a strong cherry taste.
   

  

  Three 5-gallon carboys of foamy cherry wine.
  

• Wednesday, 8/13: Picking Empire Apples
  • I grubbed out big weeds and tall grass from under the Empire apple tree and in the process, I found more apples that fell from that tree. Some of the poke berry plants were so big that when I pulled them out, the branches were tangled in apple branches and apples fell with their removal. Poke berries are deep purple and can be used as a permanent dye. Some poke berry juice got on my pants, so I'll have a few permanent blotches on the leg of those britches!
  • I picked apples off the Empire tree where I could reach from the ground and collected a little over three milk crates full of apples. There are even more apples that I'll need to get with step ladders. I'm trying to get them all collected before high temperatures in the 90s are predicted starting on Friday.
  • Mary picked seven hornworm eggs off the far garden tomato plants.
  • A tree frog enjoyed a daytime nap on the hand rail next to our steps (see photos, below). 
  • The cherry wine was foamy all day until nighttime. The yeast in this wine is still very active.

A tree frog resting on the hand rail near the steps.

Tree frogs, such as this one, sing to us every night

• Thursday, 8/14: Cutting Hay & Picking All Empire Apples
  • Mary watered all of the plants in the near garden.
  • She also used the scythe and cut hay down from tall grass growing in our front lawn. Mary will let it dry over a couple days and then store it in the second grain bin.
  • Mary found 14 hornworm eggs, a fuzzy caterpillar, a small hornworm, a Japanese beetle, and one tick on tomato plants in the far garden.
  • I finished picking apples off the Empire apple tree by using step ladders and reaching the fruit high in the tree. There were times when I was in the tree with tree branches poking me in the butt and apple leaves in my ears. It's a twisty and turny time of it while picking from high in an apple tree. We now have seven milk crates of apples. Three of these crates are heaping full, with the apple level well over the top of the crates. Picking the apples was the easy part. My future will be quite busy in slicing, grinding up, and then freezing bags of applesauce for making apple wine. Of course, we'll save good ones for eating.
  • I finished reading the Alexander Kent British Navy novel, To Glory We Steer, the fifth in his series of books.

• Friday, 8/15: Processing Zucs & Empire Apples
  • Mary spread out the hay today that she cut yesterday from the tall grass in the front lawn. It's drying nicely and smells so good.
  • We are back into hot temperatures in the low 90s. YUCK!
  • Mary watered most plants in both gardens. She saw an acorn squash the size of a softball. Tomatoes and peppers are developing.
  • Mary processed and froze 26 packages of sliced zucchinis. 
  • I processed about a milk crate of Empire apples, which equaled 2.5 gallons of applesauce in the freezer. I set aside 14 apples without blemishes for future eating and put them in the fridge. I've only got six more milk crates of apples to process. EGADS!!!
  • Mary picked a Liberty apple that we tasted. It's nice and crunchy, but without any apple taste...just sour and rather disappointing. Hopefully, more time ripening on the tree will improve the taste of this apple variety.
  • I started the sixth novel written by Alexander Kent entitled Command a King's Ship.
  • We continue to see fireflies on nighttime walks with Plato. It's so late in the year to still see these. Usually, fireflies quit flying about around the end of June.

• Saturday, 8/16: More Apple Processing
  • Temperatures are still stinking hot outside. I stayed inside for most of the day. Mary ventured out for short stints.
  • Mary turned the hay in the front yard.
  • She also watered the near garden. She picked off hornworm eggs in the far garden.
  • I processed a milk crate of Empire apples. There are now 4.75 gallons of applesauce in the freezer. I saved out 27 unblemished apples, so we now have 41 in the refrigerator.

• Sunday, 8/17: Apples, Apples, Apples
  • Mary picked up hay off the front yard and hauled four oversized wheelbarrow loads to the second grain bin. While walking by that grain bin later at night, I could smell the new hay.
  • Mary watered the far garden as it was getting dark. Temperatures are cooler at that hour of the day. She said that she noticed the squash leaves waving, when suddenly a big bull frog landed on her knee cap, then jumped off and headed out the garden's gate. The frog was about six inches long, including it's legs, and it weighed a lot.
  • Mary also did a hornworm patrol of tomato and pepper plants.
  • I processed 1.5 crates of Empire apples. There are now seven gallons of course applesauce in the freezer. I added 43 unblemished apples to the refrigerator, giving us a grand total 84 to eat. I'm starting to see apples in my dreams.
  • I used my hat light to do evening chores, since by the time I was outside, it was dark. Moths seem to love parking on the chicken waterers at night. As I was cleaning the waterers, I'd look down to grab another one to clean and see 6-12 moths sitting of the white plastic waterer tops. In the night, when a hat light shines light on them, the eyes of moths reflect back in vivid red, which at first seems a little frightening.