Sept. 22-28, 2025

Weather | 9/22, p. cloudy, 61°, 81° | 9/23, .26" rain, cloudy, 62°, 71° | 9/24, cloudy, 61°, 75° | 9/25, sunny, 53°, 75° | 9/26, sunny, 55°, 81° | 9/27, sunny, 57°, 83° | 9/28, sunny, 57°, 87° |

• Monday, 9/22: Trimming Trails and Freezing Produce
  • I sharpened the steel blade for the Stihl trimmer, then whacked down tall grass and weeds on the trails to the killing cone and to the compost bins. Then I clipped down tall grass around the compost bins. I discovered a large branch that fell out of the pecan tree nearest to the house. The walnut tree next to our killing cone grew a branch that now nearly covers the cone. I'll have to cut it away.
  • I pulled out giant and yellow foxtail that grew inside the compost bins. One clump sunk its roots into about a quarter of the top of the compost. It took a lot of time beating the roots against the sides of the compost bin to get all of the compost to dislodge from the root mass.
  • I mowed the trails from the house to the compost bins and to the machine shed.
  • Mary picked more tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, and strawberries. She froze all but the strawberries. We now have five gallons of tomatoes in the freezer, which is enough for one batch of salsa. We also have three quarts of hot peppers, enough for three salsa batches. Twenty packages of green peppers went into the freezer today, with a total 49 green pepper packages in the freezer from this year.
  • A walking stick showed up on our screen door (see photo, below).
  • I picked and we ate the two Calville apples for dessert during our midday meal of venison on potatoes. Calville is by far the best tasting apple that we raise.
  • Our chicks, that are now fully grown, are 15 weeks old, today. 

A walking stick insect on our screen door.

Calville...ugly apples, but the best taste.

• Tuesday, 9/23: Rain & Squirrel Hunting
  • Rain was predicted by the afternoon, so Mary picked tomatoes immediately after breakfast and then froze more of them. We now have 5.5 gallons of tomatoes in the freezer.
  • I shoveled leftover compost from the eastern bin to the top of the middle bin and then installed a piece of tin on south side to close it up. Rust holes are forming on the north side, so I got a piece of tin that's half the height of the original tin that I will use to reinforce that side. Rain started falling, which ended my outside work.
  • It rained 3-4 hours with a steady drizzle.
  • While the rain fell, I sat where it was dry in the east end of the machine shed and hunted squirrels in the pecan trees. The little buggers are starting to grab pecan nuts. I got one squirrel. A big and wise fox squirrel spotted me and jumped from tree to tree to zip off to the north.
  • I was scheduled to view a Webex session on monarch butterflies, but forgot about it while hunting squirrels...DAMN! 
  • When we walked Plato in the evening, I went on down the lane to get the mail. When Mary and Plato turned to go back home, there was a yearling deer in middle of lane. The deer stood and looked at Plato and Mary for over a minute. Mary said Plato stood still and calmly looked back at the deer, never barking or stirring. "He was a perfect older gentleman dog," said Mary. 
  • We watched the film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald.

• Wednesday, 9/24: Getting Ready for Chicken Butchering
  • I cut up downed branches with the small Stihl chainsaw. One large branch fell sometime this summer from a pecan tree and covered the trail from the machine shed to the killing cone. I also cut down a walnut branch that grew out and covered the killing cone.
  • I set up lights in the machine shed after backing the 8N Ford tractor until the trailer behind it was just at the edge of the rain drip line on the east end of the building. The lights are needed for nighttime chicken butchering. I also put down old Mid-Rivers wall calendars to catch stuff that drops to the ground while butchering.
  • As I was setting up lights, Mary defrosted the big freezer, then created an empty space for future frozen chickens.
  • I watched a Fine Homebuilding webinar on WRB, or water-resistive barriers used in house construction. It was interesting and very informative.
  • Mary picked more tomatoes, cut ripe ones up, and froze more of them. She is now into the seventh gallon of tomatoes in the freezer.
  • We saw a cooper's hawk while walking the puppy this evening. It floated over the lane and flew off to the east, then disappeared into a cedar tree.
  • I spent a couple minutes at sunset squirrel hunting. I didn't see any, but heard one sassing in the woods to the north of me. A bird started yelling at me from the inside of the machine shed. I think it was some kind of a wren. I kept hearing something moving around on the ground in the woods. When I worked the .22 rifle's lever action to remove the bullet from the chamber, the click of the gun caused a deer to sniff quietly from the woods. It was similar to a deer snort, just a lot softer.

• Thursday, 9/25: More Butchering Prep
  • After a bit of housecleaning, Mary made chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies for treats while we butcher chickens.
  • Everywhere you look outside, you see sulfur butterflies. We're also seeing more monarch butterflies than we've seen in many years.
  • I set up two step ladders with a spud bar between them just east of the machine shed. We hang chickens from the bar prior to skinning them.
  • I added half a tin to the bottom north side of the west compost bin where the current tin shows rusty holes. Then I raked tall grass that I knocked down on the trail from the machine shed to the killing cone and filled up the empty compost bin with grass. Finally, I mowed the trail to the killing cone and put clippings outside of the compost bins to use in the future.
  • I added a few pieces of aluminum tape to the killing cone. I also filled four buckets with water and put them in locations where they will be needed for butchering. These four buckets sat empty next to the outside hydrant all day. By late afternoon, 22 blister beetles collected in the buckets. I'm guessing they liked the yellow/green color of the plastic in these buckets.
  • By 6 p.m., we decided to put off butchering for one more day. I was tired and still needed to sharpen several knives. We'll start tomorrow night.
  • We watched the film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
  • We didn't get very far down the lane while walking Plato at night before coyotes howled from our south field. Plato listened for a bit, spun around and headed home in a hurry. He hates coyotes.

• Friday, 9/26: Butchering Chickens Commences
  • At noon while walking Plato, a big prairie kingsnake was in the middle of the lane near the Sargent crabapple tree.
  • Mary picked and froze tomatoes. She started gallon bag number eight of tomatoes in the freezer. She also picked a few strawberries.
  • I sharpened knives for butchering chickens, plus one dull paring knife Mary uses. It totaled nine knives.
  • I attended to last minute butchering details when I found a big plains leopard frog sitting at the bottom of a bucket of water (see photos, below). I dumped it out and got new water.
  • We butchering eight cockerel chickens, starting at 7:45 p.m. and ending around 2 a.m. Around 11 p.m., coyotes howled to the south and southeast. I heard a couple barred owls early in the nighttime. Stargazing was amazing, as the Milky Way crossed the clear nighttime sky. As the celestial sky rotated around Polaris, we watched Gemini, Pleiades, and then Orion rise above the eastern horizon. I saw dozens of spider eyes shining in the grass as they reflected light back from my hat light. Mary, who walked behind me in the dark, noticed several glow worms giving off their whitish, green luminosity. Life is truly magical at night. We have two more nights of chicken butchering ahead of us. 

A plains leopard frog in a bucket of water.

The same frog, but with sky and leaves reflecting off the water's surface.

• Saturday, 9/27: Butchering Night 2
  • Mary picked more tomatoes and is close to finishing up the eighth gallon bag in the freezer. She also watered garden plants.
  • I cleaned up chicken butchering items.
  • After a midday meal of waffles, we napped in the late afternoon.
  • We went through another 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. chicken butchering session and handled eight more cockerels. Wild animals were busy. After a coffee and cookie break midway through the birds, I spotted eyes glowing back at me from the northwest edge of the far garden. I spotted them, again, about 20 feet north of the original spotting. Based on the swift and silent movement and the fact that the eyes were somewhat low to the ground, we think it was a fox. Mice did calisthenics in the machine shed, making noise and zipping all around. At one point, I caught a glimpse of something larger than a mouse...it might have been a mink, since they're nocturnal hunters. I heard coyotes howl a couple times, lots of barred owls, and the chirp sound of a flying squirrel in the pecan trees east of the machine shed. The stars were amazing on another clear night. 
  • During the coffee and cookie break, I finished Alexander Kent's eleventh nautical fiction novel, Form Line of Battle and started the twelfth book entitled Signal—Close Action!

• Sunday, 9/28: Butchering Is Done!!!
  • This morning we watched a turkey vulture at the top of a dead tree in the west woods soak up the heat from the morning sun. It spread its wings so that it looked like a thunderbird at the top of a totem pole. It probably overnighted in that tree and after we spotted it, the bird was probably there for another hour.
  • Mary picked more tomatoes while I cleaned up chicken butchering items.
  • We repeated yesterday by taking afternoon naps...a little longer today.
  • During our final night of chicken butchering we noticed how much more mature the birds were compared to just two days earlier. One barred rock cockerel was big, feisty, and extremely tough to skin and cut up. He was so big that Mary had to set meat pieces sideways in order to fit the cut-up bird into a one-gallon bag for the freezer. We decided that 15.5 weeks is the outermost limit of growing time before we need to butcher chickens. Tomorrow, these birds would have turned 16 weeks old. The eight birds left tonight were too mature. We took an extra half hour to complete tonight's butchering session, due to tougher chickens. Thank goodness it's all done! Mary and I look forward to a full night's sleep.
  • Barred owls were really talking a lot throughout the night. I also heard flying squirrels in the pecan trees several times. The stars were really amazing. I didn't hear coyotes, but when Mary walked Plato around midnight, he didn't get far before he spun around to go home, indicating coyotes were there, but not howling.