Dec. 15-21, 2025

Weather | 12/15, sunny, 7°, 39° | 12/16, sunny, 21°, 49° | 12/17, cloudy, 31°, 47° | 12/18, 0.19" rain, 21°, 51° | 12/19, sunny, 13°, 33° | 12/20, p. cloudy, 31°, 45° | 12/21, p. cloudy, 17°, 42° |

• Monday, 12/15: Chicks Ordered
  • A strong southwest wind this morning. It died down by sunset.
  • The forecast is for above freezing temperatures for the next several days. It ought to melt all snow, even on the north edges of the woods.
  • I ordered chicks that will arrive around June 10th. It's another group of 25 cockerels. That seems to be enough to keep us in chicken meat for a year.
  • I took down and put away all of the lights and extension cords that I had up in the machine shed for butchering deer. That's done for another year.
  • I miss life with a dog in the house, even though I don't miss the hairy dust bunnies bouncing along the floors, or climbing over the child barrier we put up at the door to the room where we store freezers that keeps dogs away from cat litter boxes. I've been looking at adopting from animal shelters, but several of them make it such a major chore that you'd think I was adopting a child from overseas.

• Tuesday, 12/16: Racking Apple Wine
  • I racked the apple wine for the fourth time. After losing some liquid in the racking process, I ended up with 300 ml of more wine than what I started with. The obvious reason is that the 3-gallon carboys made in Mexico hold more liquid than those built in Italy. The specific gravity was 0.998 and the pH was 3.1. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. Mary and I tasted the leftover wine. It's very tart and has a good, rich apple taste, which means this apple wine is the best I've made, so far. The wine is still cloudy, but who cares when it tastes this good.
  • We vacuumed bugs countless times, today. Mary emptied the vacuum and said that 90 percent of the bugs were flies. They're the bug of choice this year in our "hermetically sealed" house.
  • Canada geese aren't seen in our skies of late. We wonder if avian flu isn't killing off whole flocks of them. Mary saw 20 Canada geese fly over around noon, which is rare this winter.
  • We watched two movies. They were The Seeker (2007) and The Santa Clause (1994).

• Wednesday, 12/17: The Day of the Flies
  • We vacuumed bugs ALL DAY LONG!!! I'm amazed how many flies can emerge from the walls of this house. It seems as though every fly hatched from the dairy cow pooh a mile west of us and from pig dung a mile southeast of us came here to overwinter in our house walls. There are times when I'm sure 1,000 flies are buzzing around inside each window. The shop vac ran most of the day while Mary and I took turns sucking up bugs.
  • The reason for the influx of bugs is springlike temperatures. By bedtime, temperatures were close to 50°.
  • Mary noticed a small dandelion flower at the end of the lane, a blossom deceived by warm temperatures.
  • Deer have totally disappeared. We haven't seen any for several days.

• Thursday, 12/18: Deer Hide Tanning & Splitting Firewood
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation virtual seminar on tanning deer hides with tree bark. It was fascinating and the best Webinar I've attended. It might be something I'll try, but I'm sure it must be done outside, or in an out building. The presenter was extremely knowledgeable and went over tanning hides to result in leather and hair-on hides. He had four different files sent out as part of the lesson...very thorough.
  • While I was involved with the webinar, I glanced up and saw deer eating vegetation under the Kieffer pear tree. Like magic, all I have to do is write in this blog that we aren't seeing deer and within an hour, deer appear.
  • I split four wheelbarrow loads of red oak firewood and moved it into the woodshed. I also moved about six wheelbarrow loads of firewood that dried in criss-cross stacks along the inside north wall of the machine shed to the woodshed.
  • Our high temperature was this morning. Temperatures dropped through the day.
  • We watched two movies that were The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) and The Santa Clause 2 (2002).

• Friday, 12/19: Racking Parsnip Wine
  • I racked the parsnip wine for the third time. Instead of using an auto siphon, I used a long piece of clear hose. This doesn't always work, because the hose wants to curl up in the bottom of a carboy. To get around this problem, I used a thick hose inside the carboy. I only lost about 300 ml of fluid after racking three containers. The specific gravity was 1.000 and the pH was 3.5, readings that were the same as the last racking on Nov. 9th. The remaining liquid filled a 3-gallon carboy and a gallon jug. Mary and I tasted a tiny bit of the wine. WOW!!! It's remarkably good.
  • Mary cleaned a couple fans. One runs in our bedroom at night and the other Bill uses when he's visiting us. She also oiled them. They run much better.
  • We're not seeing many birds, except bluejays, and a few Canada geese that Mary saw during morning chores and I saw during evening chores.
  • Most of the snow is melted. The prediction is for a high of 68° for us on Christmas Day, which might break a record.

• Saturday, 12/20: Racking Pear Wine
  • We heard a goose cannon going off several times in the morning. That means someone has planted winter wheat southwest of us and there are enough geese to trigger the cannon. A goose cannon is powered by propane and lets off a loud booming explosive sound that scares the birds away, so they don't eat winter wheat leaves. Here is a LINK to a goose cannon.
  • I racked the pear wine for the third time. I tried using the same technique of moving the wine through a clear hose, but it didn't work. A five-gallon carboy is too high for gravity flowing through thin tubing to overcome. With nearly a quarter of liquid left in the carboy, flow stopped and I ended up using the auto siphon to finish the job. The specific gravity was 0.999 and the pH was 3.5, which was a 0.2 increase in pH from the last racking. The resulting liquid filled a 5-gallon carboy and a 1.5 liter bottle. Mary and I tasted the 10 ounces that was left after racking. The wine tasted somewhat like apple cider, with a kick. The pear taste, which is subtle, will probably shine through with aging.
  • We watched two movies, which were The Monuments Men (2014), and Auntie Mame (1958).

• Sunday, 12/21: Winter Solstice
  • Mary made a batch of lime zinger cookies. I helped a tiny bit by cracking hazelnuts. While I was doing that, Mary zested and juiced several limes...what a wonderful aroma! Lime zingers are rather so-so coming out of the oven. They have a much better flavor after they are frozen. We tested three, each, in the evening hours while reading books. YUM!
  • I split more red oak firewood and moved the last of the crisscrossed firewood that was drying to the woodshed. There are four wide trunk sections left next to the woodsplitter.
  • Mary heard trumpeter swans to the northeast. Their distinct call echoes way off into the distance.
  • Mary and I celebrated winter solstice with a bottle of 2022 dandelion wine. It's wonderful tasting liquid and very gold in color. Mary picked it out, because it's made from the epitome of spring flowers.

Dec. 8-14, 2025

Weather | 12/8, p. cloudy, 8°, 29° | 12/9, p. cloudy, 29°, 47° | 12/10, cloudy, 29°, 31° | 12/11, cloudy, 21°, 30° | 12/12, cloudy, 25°, 31° | 12/13, 1" snow, 11°, 23° | 12/14, sunny, -3°, 14° |

• Monday, 12/8: Firewood Hunting & Racking Jalapeño Wine
  • Mary saw a juvenile bald eagle fly south over her head as she attended to chickens this morning. It checked her out, then turned back north and headed on.
  • I split three chunks of firewood from a red oak tall stump and moved two wheelbarrow loads to the woodshed.
  • I walked north hunting for standing dead trees that we can cut up for more firewood. I found a few in the woods immediately north of the machine shed and then several more further north.
  • Mary made a food chart for 2026 that records all food stored in the freezers, plus bottles of wine stored in coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
  • Blue jays are frequenting the spot in the east yard where we rinsed out the doe.
  • I racked jalapeño wine for the third time into a three-gallon carboy. The specific gravity was 0.992 and the pH was 3.5. Mary and I drank the remaining 8 ounces. It tasted really good. Obviously, a majority of red jalapeño peppers, combined with the dark raisins that we used for the first time, results in a milder jalapeño flavor.

• Tuesday, 12/9: Sawing Firewood
  • Mary uncovered the two layers of plastic and blankets off the tubs of greens and after 11 days in the dark and going through single digit outside temperatures, they all looked pretty good. The multiple coverings really work.
  • I greased the clutch bearing and changed the chain on the big chainsaw.
  • I cut down three trees in the north woods and sawed them up. One was a medium-sized ash. The second was a small red oak and the last one was a large red oak. All of the wood was very hard. I already need to sharpen the chain I put on the chainsaw just today. Mary helped me fill the first wagon load of firewood. I filled the second wagon load with 11 pieces of the base of the big red oak, some of which were two foot in diameter. They were heavy and a chore to hoof out of the woods to the wagon. All firewood was dry except for outer edges that fell into the snow.
  • I watched three deer run east as I backed the tractor and trailer to the edge of the north woods. 
  • We watched The Polar Express (2004) and the first Downton Abbey Christmas special (2011).

• Wednesday, 12/10: Online Discoveries
  • We had a major thaw overnight so that when we opened the bedroom curtains, what just yesterday was a lawn full of snow was now bare ground and slightly green grass.
  • Strong northwest wind gusts to 41 mph blew through the night and well into today. By evening, all was calm.
  • Blue jays enjoyed the wind once it started to wane in speed. They would turn themselves perpendicular to the ground and let the wind carry them across the lawn, then right themselves and go back and do it, again. 
  • After lugging monster red oak firewood chunks yesterday, I did absolutely no physical activity today.
  • I discovered a place in Ely, MN called Henry's Shoe Repair that will make chopper mittens out of moosehide based on a traced outline of your hand for $40. I might give them a try. The old chopper mitts that Mom & Dad gave Mary and I for Christmas in 1990 are finally wearing out.
  • I also found a place in Bloomfield, Iowa called AW Metal that sells everything related to building post frame buildings. It's 84 to 94 miles away, depending on which route you drive. It might be a good source for laminated posts, trusses, metal roofing and siding, and hardware for constructing a new home.
  • I like today's calendar image (see below). It reminds me of Clancy, my Basset Hound when I was a kid.

  

  This looks like Clancy, my pup when I was a pup.

• Thursday, 12/11: Antique Fly Tying
  • Mary heard a rifle shot from Rich's property this morning. He's next to our southwest property border. Deer are scarce now that we're near the end of the anterless hunting season. It ends on Sunday, 12/14/25.
  • I split firewood and moved four wheelbarrow loads of mostly red oak into the woodshed.
  • I took in a webinar about making antique flies. The first fly was one made in England by a Roman in 200 AD. The next four flies made came from a nun in England in 1492 who described making fly fishing line out of horse hair and dying it. Poles were 14 feet long. All of the flies that they made had a body made by wrapping black wool yarn around the hook shank. Chicken, duck, or goose feathers replicated bug wings. Using feathers off the tips of each opposing bird wing puts natural curves in the correct position to exactly reproduce the curl on the two wings of a bug. A book used as a reference for old fishing flies for this Missouri Department of Conservation webinar is Favorite Flies and Their History, by Mary Orvis Marbury. It's a book I want to get.
  • They closed schools in this county over a skiff of snow that fell this afternoon. It's hardly enough to cover the ground. Geesh!!!

• Friday, 12/12: Shopping
  • Right after I wrote in this blog that we weren't seeing deer, a doe and two fawns were eating grass next to the Empire apple tree, right outside our south living room window.
  • We went shopping in Quincy. Friday isn't the best day. I suspect that several factory workers do four day work weeks and take Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Also, weather predictions for the area indicate we're in for snow and cold temperatures. That's probably why there was no toilet paper in Sam's Club! Today, all of the stores were full of large crowds, so a few items on our list weren't on the store shelves...such as popcorn. Oh, popcorn exists, as long as you want popcorn seeds with all kinds of unnatural goo on them. We just want plain, unadulterated popcorn seeds. They were not to be had on this shopping trip. 
  • We did find 50-cent-a-pound frozen turkeys at Walmart. We picked up two. We would have bought three, but some guy has several pounds of frozen applesauce in the freezer that isn't converted to apple wine, yet!
  • Upon driving up the lane on returning home, we spotted three rabbits running across the area where we park the pickup. We are temporary residents in this wildlife sanctuary.
  • We watched two movies, which were A Christmas Story (1983) and While You Were Sleeping (1995).

• Saturday, 12/13: Homemade Minestrone Soup
  • Mary made a big pot of minestrone soup. She used a gallon bag of frozen ripe tomatoes from this year's garden in the soup. Wow! It tasted wonderful.
  • We watched eight deer walk by the south side of our house, through the south orchard. They were does and yearlings. Several sniffed the air as wind blew from the north. One doe had hair up on her back and walked by pounding her front hooves on the ground. A few minutes later, while doing chores, I noticed that I could smell minestrone soup at the front door. I bet that doe smelled the soup, thought it was an unfamiliar odor, and got upset.
  • I tried mailing Christmas cards, today, but the mail delivery person didn't deliver or pick up mail. I checked online and the U.S. Postal Service works Saturday. This isn't the first Saturday that I haven't seen mail. I suspect the woman who does our mail route is just lazy. She's the same one who can't bother to shut mailbox doors. I see them all hanging open along Highway 156. She leaves our's open all of the time.
  • Temperatures dropped to single digits prior to bedtime, so I stuffed rags in the cracks around our main door. I ought to adjust the door, but I'd have to make monthly adjustments, due to the constant shifting of this house on poor foundations over ever-changing clay soil. Old sock rags keep cold air out and keep the back porch area much warmer.

• Sunday, 12/14: Mitten Mending
  • Mary and I ordered coffee beans after we discovered that Sam's Club quit selling the variety we like. We both looked online and after a bit of searching, Mary found some on Amazon for a good price that I ordered.
  • Mary mended the thumbs of the wool liners in my leather chopper mittens. I sewed up the thumb in the right-hand mitten. The leather is worn enough that this is probably the last winter for these 35-year old mittens.
  • We started and ended with cool night with temperatures below zero and in the single digits.
  • We watched two movies, which were Green Book (2018) and Love Actually (2003).
  • Today was the last day of the anterless deer hunting season. I have a hunch that the number of deer harvested this year is going to be lower than in past years, due to the cooler winter weather. Shots from neighboring properties were a lot less, this year.

Dec. 1-7, 2025

Weather | 12/1, 2" snow, 20°, 25° | 12/2, sunny, 13°, 29° | 12/3, cloudy, 25°, 39° | 12/4, sunny, 3°, 25° | 12/5, cloudy, 10°, 35° | 12/6, p. cloudy, 21°, 42° | 12/7, cloudy, 25°, 30° |

• Monday, 12/1: More Snow
  • Light snow fell all day, adding up to about two inches.
  • A nice aspect about fresh snow on the ground is all of the wild animal tracks that you see. Based on the tracks, bunnies are very active and we have quite a collection of deer wondering through our lawns. Tracks show that one deer walked right up to the west living room window. Our normal collection of deer ate pears under the Kieffer tree at various times through the day.
  • We took the day off from doing much of anything.
  • We watched two movies, which were Miss Potter (2006) and Little Women (1994).
  • Mary and I realized that this is the first time we've been without a dog since 1993. There are some activities that become automatic with dog ownership for us, such as walking the puppy first thing in the morning and before going to bed. Walking outside at night is something I really miss. Each time an apple is sliced, the urge is to feed a piece of apple core, minus the seeds, to the dog (Plato loved apples).

• Tuesday, 12/2: A Deer Zoo
  • We noticed several robins and white-crowned sparrows flying about in the west yard this morning.
  • A very large deer hoof print showed up near the rain gauge on the lane. It was about the size of a cow's hoof print. We're guessing it was put there by a big buck. 
  • I fixed a 5-gallon gas can spout and then added Ethanol Shield to the gas. The additive works well at protecting small engines from the ill effects of ethanol in gasoline. All gas in Missouri now contains about 10 percent ethanol.
  • I split firewood from large logs we stacked next to the woodsplitter a few days ago. Three wheelbarrow loads were stacked in a crisscross fashion inside the north wall of the machine shed. Three loads that came off a tall red oak stump were dry enough to go into the woodshed. I have two more thick chunks to split.
  • Our lawns are a deer zoo. A herd of 5-6 deer spend extended dinner times under the Kieffer pear tree while pawing snow aside and munching on fallen pears. They're marching all over the place. Snow on the trail to the far garden is pounded down by the deer (see photo, below). They're wandering through the yard at all hours of the day. I had a young deer with a very dark coat peer around a black walnut tree at me while I walked to and from the compost bins at dusk. After I came inside, it walked with curiosity to the compost bins to check out what I was doing. This is an unusual year. In years past, you never saw deer for a couple months after the antlered firearms deer season ended. It's not the case this year.

  

  A young deer on path to the far garden.

• Wednesday, 12/3: Winterizing Chicken Coop
  • After Mary finished the morning chicken chores, she chased a murder of crows out of the north woods that were harassing a red-shouldered hawk.
  • She used a shop vac and a small brush to clean the coils of the refrigerator.
  • With single digit temperatures predicted for tonight, I spent that afternoon tightening the chicken coop. Two 10" x 25" pieces of chicken food bags went into the north coop windows to deflect cold air. I put old dog bed stuffing in the north chicken door and screwed a piece of lauan to the inside. Another piece of stuffing went into a crack on the northeast corner. I stapled a piece of feed bag over that. I put several long screws at the outside base of walls to close up cracks showing on the inside where the walls and the floor meet. I folded up pieces of feed bag and put them between the lower sash of two windows and their sills to fill air gaps. I stuck a piece of foam on the inside of the chicken door to seal off air gaps and hung the oil-filled electric radiant heater in the center of the coop.
  • Our normal herd of deer appeared at dusk to munch on pears under the Kieffer pear tree. 
  • We watched two movies and they were The Book Thief (2013) and The Big Year (2011).

• Thursday, 12/4: Deer, Deer, and More Deer
  • I did more work at tightening up the chicken coop by stuffing pieces of feed bag in cracks where the south wall meets the floor. My efforts at keeping out air leaks is working. After the sun shined through the windows, the temperature in the coop was 42°, which is good considering outside temperatures were cooler.
  • Our resident deer herd enjoying pear snacks keeps increasing. This morning, we watched an eight-point buck (see photo, below) walk to the Kieffer pear tree, eat a pear, then walk north to follow a young doe. As I was finishing up chores at dusk, I counted eight deer walking through the south orchard after having dessert under the pear tree (see photo, below). We're starting to call them deer lice, because we see them everywhere.
  • Mary and I noticed several Bob White quail tracks across the lane when we walked down to get the mail.
  • Mary saw a red-breasted nuthatch perched on the south porch. These birds are usually further north in the winter.

An 8-point buck walking to the Kieffer pear tree.

3 deer (one's behind the other) SW of our house.

• Friday, 12/5: Deer Hunting Prep
  • I walked around to all three of my deer blinds to check for deer tracks. On the way to the Boys' Fort Deer Blind north of the machine shed, I spotted two deer that looked at me for quite some time, then ran west when I left the blind. A barred owl that was in an overhead treetop swooped ahead of me as I walked out of the woods and looked at me, before flying away. There aren't many deer tracks at the Wood Duck Deer Blind. Wood Duck Pond is frozen and deer aren't visiting it. There was a mess of deer tracks all around the East Woods Deer Blind, but pulling a deer out of there would be tough. My best bet for tomorrow's start of anterless season will be the Boy's Fort Deer Blind, since it's the closest to the house.
  • I got hunting stuff ready, including all of the items I need with me when I go out in the morning. I checked that I had enough gas in the tractor and started it to make sure it ran fine. I sharpened knives needed for butchering a deer. I even made eight Ritz cracker with peanut butter sandwiches for a quick bite before I go out in the morning.

• Saturday, 12/6: Second Deer in the Freezer
  • We got up at 5:30 a.m. I got dressed while eating my cracker/peanut butter breakfast snack and was sitting in the Boy's Fort Deer Blind by 6:15. The moon was so bright that I saw everything clearly while walking to the blind. A half hour later, daylight emerged as did lots of squirrels. They're really thick in the woods.
  • Around 7:30, I saw a deer at the edge of the field south of me. It was blocked from my view for a few minutes by a cedar tree. Then it ventured east. Any further and it would be too close to the machine shed, so I squeezed off a right-hand shot and instantly downed the deer. It was just north of the north end of the chicken run.
  • I walked back home, then walked to the deer to discover it was a doe. After driving the tractor with the wagon to near the deer, Mary and I field dressed it. That doe ate all night and had a bulging stomach. I drug it over the snow about 30 feet to the trailer. Mary and I hoisted it in. I'm glad the tractor had chains on the rear tires. I got stuck once while making a left turn near the large Bartlett pear tree. I backed it up a few inches, went forward again and moved right  on through on the second attempt as the rear wheels churned snow. We washed out the body cavity with a garden hose (a very cold job), then hung the deer in the cold machine shed. We then went inside and ate breakfast while the deer cooled.
  • After breakfast, I skinned the deer. Normally, we let venison hang overnight in the machine shed, but the weather prediction called for overnight rain, followed by strong northerly winds, tomorrow, so we decided to process the deer today. The Missouri Department of Conservation asks when you telecheck a doe in via a cell phone for the measurement between the eye and the edge of the nostril. It's a young doe if that distance is 4.5 inches, or less. Even though this doe was young, it measured five inches. My shot entered the top of the neck just above the shoulders. I found the bullet in the pelt outside of the lower stomach. It somehow didn't touch any of the stomach, which was amazing! This girl ate well. There was lots of fat, the fattest doe we've ever butchered. We got 32 packages of meat, but two large roasts were held out of that count. They will be used to make crock pot venison sandwiches at Christmas. The grand total of venison packages in the freezer is at 101, which includes leftover venison from last year. We're in splendid shape with enough meat in the freezer for another year.
  • Since I didn't want a chance of getting the tractor stuck in snow, I loaded the plastic toboggan with the carcass, hide, and fat scraps, and made two trips to the north woods pulling the sled by hand. This was a younger deer, but it had big bones, making the carcass heavy. When that was done, I turned the tractor around inside the machine shed. My hunting days are finished for another year...two bullets and two deer...that's the way I like to hunt.
  • While I was out in the machine shed working on the deer, I heard trumpeter swans east and southeast of us. There's no mistaking that sound.
  • After cleanup and washing dishes, we watched four deer in the dark out our sunroom windows as they moved through the south orchard. The white snow makes it easy to see them after dark. Mary used the binoculars to see them even better, since the glasses amplify the minimal light. We discovered that Gandalf was watching the deer, too.
  • We celebrated the end of our deer season with a bottle of blackberry wine, which tasted really nice. I also cleaned up two Goldrush apples that we ate. They get better with storage and are an excellent apple.
  • We watched two DVDs, which were Christmas Vacation (1989) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965).

• Sunday, 12/7: Hibernation Day
  • Our deer herd was back eating snow-covered pears under the Keiffer tree.
  • We hibernated in the house, today.
  • I caught up on three monthly bank statements and brought the checkbook to a balance on the first try, which is remarkable after three months of not looking at it.
  • After dark, on the last evening chore, I heard snow geese flying overhead.
  • I looked at a bunch of videos from a company in Hunnewell, MO, which is 35 miles south of us. They make a bunch of items for building pole barn structures that look interesting. The company is called Concrete Pier System.