Nov. 24-30, 2025

Weather | 11/24, 0.05" rain, cloudy, 43°, 54° | 11/25, 0.31" rain, cloudy, 45°, 51° | 11/26, p. cloudy, 31°, 37° | 11/27, sunny, 21°, 39° | 11/28, cloudy, 14°, 37° | 11/29, 12" snow, 27°, 31° | 11/30, cloudy, 15°, 25° |

• Monday, 11/24: Autumn Chores
  • Coyotes were howling to the east and southeast during the morning hours.
  • Mary added hay to the chicken coop floor in preparation for cooler temperatures predicted later this week. She also moved a bag of chicken feed, some grit, and oyster shell to the coop.
  • When I drove the tractor yesterday I noticed vapor coming from the radiator and smelled antifreeze. This morning I checked the radiator and could see liquid, but I added a little over a gallon to fill it. I need to do a better job of regularly checking antifreeze levels in that tractor, because the 8N Ford's engine was obviously overheating, yesterday. 
  • Mary raked leaves and added four wheelbarrow loads to the compost bin.
  • When I walked down to the mailbox, several Bob White quail flew away from nearby cedar trees.  
  • I moved several loads of dry firewood from the machine shed to the woodshed. Then I split the ash firewood logs that were sitting next to the splitter and stacked the split pieces in the machine shed to dry.
  • We watched two movies, which were Trading Places (1983) and The Holiday (2006).

• Tuesday, 11/25: Shopping...Again
  • A young barred owl sat in a maple tree in the east yard in the early morning hours while we were outside. Blue jays harassed it.
  • I drove to Quincy and got fresh veggies for our Thanksgiving meal. I also picked up a kitchen faucet at Home Depot. Our current faucet is 10 years old and leaking. It's old enough that new cartridges for it are non-existent. Stores were pretty busy with shoppers. I also canceled the protection plans on our cell phones. It's just an added expense that make no sense for us. We keep phones on a shelf while we're home and look at them at breakfast and in the evenings. We're not hauling them around with us much at all. I gassed up the pickup at Lewistown on the way home. It was $2.55 a gallon.
  • I realized once I arrived home that I forgot to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. Damn! 
  • Mary cleaned house while I was gone.
  • A cold front rolled in after dark and west wind gusts hit over 40 mph. I woke at 4 a.m. (11/26) with the house shaking on a huge wind blast.

• Wednesday, 11/26: Plato Died
  • Plato died at 3:07 a.m. (11/27/2025). He hasn't eaten for several days and hasn't accepted water for three days. Today, he would walk outside, but collapse. Two of us would carry him inside. We stayed with him in shifts after dark to comfort him. Plato was the best pup we've ever owned. He got along with all animals. Cats rubbed up against him all the time. Plato was easy to train and obeyed extremely well. He will be greatly missed.
  • Bill showed up around noon. He's maybe here for five days. Anywhere from 6 to 11 inches of snow is predicted this weekend, along with wind gusts over 20 mph. Bill might leave early for his home to avoid getting snowed in at our place.
  • I drove to Quincy and got a prescription and some winemaking ingredients. Shoppers were thicker than yesterday. Wind gusts over 40 mph blasted from the west/northwest, giving me a tailwind on the way to town and a headwind driving home.
  • We watched two movies that Bill selected. They were Grumpy Old Men (1993) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). 
  • I left partway through the last movie to comfort Plato, who was at the other end of the house on his bed. He didn't like heat from the woodstove for the past couple days. When the movies were over, Mary and Bill joined me, so I went to bed around midnight and set the alarm for 4 a.m. to relieve Mary. Bill retired at 1:30 a.m. Mary woke me at 3:20 to have me help her move Plato after he died. We put him in the back of the pickup and locked it up. Bill and I will dig a grave tomorrow.

• Thursday, 11/27: Thanksgiving 2025
  • Bill and I dug a grave for Plato near where Mary and I buried Amber in January. I peeled out clay ground with a mattock and Bill dug out the lumps with a shovel. We finished within 30 minutes of eating turkey dinner. Bill and I were both sore and tired. I'm sure glad Bill was here to help. He mentioned it was the second time he dug a hole through the Thanksgiving holiday. The last time was when Bill helped dig out our waterline when it had a major leak.  
  • Mary fixed up a marvelous Thanksgiving meal with a big turkey that gave us several leftover meals of meat. All dishes tasted wonderful, including our homegrown sweet potatoes. We had a bottle of cherry wine with our meal.
  • Bill picked out the 1998 film, You've Got Mail for us to watch. Mary grabbed a Keeping Up Appearances Christmas show that we watched while eating pumpkin pie.

• Friday, 11/28: Collecting Firewood
  • A leftover from Thanksgiving Day is a photo (see below) of Mocha and Gandalf on the top of the fridge staring at Mary, who at that moment was carving a big turkey.
  • Bill, Mary, and I spent the day cutting and hauling firewood. Mary and Bill first looked for dry firewood to the west. Mary reported several pieces west of the house in the woods south of Frog Pond, so I drove the tractor to the edge of the woods. We took two wagon loads out and stacked most of the firewood in the woodshed. We were all very tired after a day of firewood work.
  • An immature bald eagle flew over us at one point. 
  • Mary gave the chickens more hay on the floor of the coop.

  

  Turkey vultures, Mocha & Gandalf, watching Mary carve a turkey.

   

• Saturday, 11/29: Foot of Snow and Christmas Decorating
  • We experienced heavy snow from the time we got up until about 2:30 p.m. At times, big wet snowflakes the size of golf balls fell to the ground (see video below). We're estimating that we got a foot of snow.
  • Bill wanted to get his car down to the end of our lane, so he and I first walked down the lane to the gravel road. A lone tire track in the snow on the gravel road showed that someone drove down it a couple hours earlier. Bill and I put chains on the rear tires of the tractor after unhooking the trailer and moving it aside. Installing chains on the big-lugged tires is not easy and takes over an hour. Meanwhile, Mary shoveled out all of the trails from the house to various buildings.
  • After we got chains on the tractor, I drove up and down the lane to mash down the wet snow. I drove four times up and down the lane. The tire chain connection on the inside of the left tire caught on a bolt sticking through the through the tractor's fender, so I stopped, got tools, and Bill and I removed that bolt and rewired the connection on the chains. I finished smashing all of the snow down.
  • Bill easily drove his car to the end of the lane and parked it next to the big cedar tree next to the gravel road.
  • After snow quit falling, huge flocks of robins filled our yard and area trees.
  • Mary made three pizzas that we devoured as we played several hands of Rummy. We also enjoyed the last of 2024 apple wine. It was a perfect pick by Bill to match the taste of pizza.
  • The three of us put up the Christmas tree and other decorations around the house as we listened to Christmas music.
  • Once decorations were up, we ate the last of the pumpkin pie and enjoyed a bottle of parsnip wine.
  Big snowflakes falling.
  The sounds are from the woodstove contracting in the heat.
  

• Sunday, 11/30: Bill Travels Safely
  • Bill decided he wanted to leave around 1:30 p.m. to give him plenty of daylight time to get to his St. Charles apartment. He and I walked down the lane and then east on the gravel road to beyond our neighbor's house. A couple tire tracks were in the snow on the gravel road. One was a vehicle with aggressive tread for tires, providing potentially good traction. Most importantly, snow levels dropped significantly since yesterday to about 4-5 inches deep. After a midday meal of turkey leftovers, Bill went to leave, but his car had no traction. We got out his shovel and dug out under his car, which was high centered on snow that froze into a chunk. He asked that I drive while he pushed and on the second attempt his car rolled free. He drove slowly out of sight. When he called from Lewistown to inform us that he made it, Bill said that the mile of driving on the gravel road was the scariest driving he's ever experienced. He was fishtailing the entire stretch. Later, when he texted from his apartment, he said the deepest snow was right at our house.
  • We hope future days off for Bill are a little bit more relaxing. In five days, he experienced a pet's death, digging a grave, trudging firewood out of the forest, digging out of a foot of snow, chaining up a tractor, and skiing in his car down a snow-covered road. 
  • In the afternoon we watch four deer pawing at the frozen snow under the Kieffer pear tree while munching away on yummy pears. The fruit must taste good. The deer were there for probably an hour.
  • One, or all of our pullets are laying little eggs. We're getting one egg a day and that started on Thanksgiving Day.
  • The regular mob of robins were in our yard before dark. They really like taking shelter in the big cedar trees.