Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2026

Weather | 1/26, sunny, -10°, 13° | 1/27, sunny, -2°, xx° | 1/28, xx°, xx° | 1/29, xx°, xx° | 1/30, xx°, xx° | 1/31, xx°, xx° | 2/1, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 1/26: Deer, Fly Tying & Texts
  • When we opened curtains on our bedroom windows this morning, we saw more the six deer wandering around in the east yard.
  • I took the pup on a walk to the Wood Duck Deer Blind. While down near the dry creek bed, I saw a Cooper's hawk flying about in the tree tops and looking at us. Cooper, the dog, and I noticed a great deal of coyote tracks in the snow.
  • Mary and I watched bluebirds drinking water that was dripping off the roof on the south side of the house. They were all fluffed out, due to the cold temperatures.
  • I practiced fly tying in the afternoon, making a scud and a hare's ear nymph fly (see photos, below). I used an orange seed bead ordered through 123stich.com, an online cross stitch company that Mary gets supplies from. It is the head of the scud fly. I viewed several online videos on how to apply dubbing to the thread, since I was failing miserably at dubbing the flies.
  • I also attended the sixth online fly tying class between 5:30-8:00 p.m. We learned to tie three flies and a jig. I also got tips on dubbing techniques from the instructors.
  • Mom texted that the storm missed her in Montana, but they went through a couple nights with lows of -22° and -25°. 
  • Karen texted that the electricity came on in the early evening hours.
  • Katie texted that she's camping in a tent in Florida and loving the sunshine with temperatures in the 40s while everyone else is freezing.

Scuds tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

Hare's Ear Nymph tied in class (left) & tied today (right).

Jan. 19-25, 2026

Weather | 1/19, p.cloudy, 1°, 15° | 1/20, cloudy, 11°, 35° | 1/21, sunny, 23°, 39° | 1/22, p. cloudy, 13°, 34° | 1/23, cloudy, -2°, 5° | 1/24, 3" snow, 0.22" moisture, -8°, 3° | 1/25, cloudy, 1°, 15° |

• Monday, 1/19: Shopping Trip
  • I drove to Quincy, IL, to pick up a couple prescriptions and get a few items, especially pet things. A new 12-quart plastic dish pan for holding pet water and a dog toothbrush and peanut butter flavored toothpaste I bought at Menards. In the last couple weeks I've been looking at a Stihl cordless pruner for limbing trees I've cut down for firewood, or removing large limbs while pruning trees. It's a battery-operated chainsaw with a six-inch chain. I bought this Stihl GTA 40 from Farm & Home. I also bought two bags of Diamond Performance dog food that contains 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat for Cooper.
  • Speaking of the pup, Mary did some housecleaning with the ever-present help of our newest furry friend, Cooper. She reported that sweeping floors was an adventure with a dog glued to her side. He was either standing behind her, bumping the back of her legs, or standing in the pile of dirt she was sweeping...a lot of togetherness.
  • Mary saw a flock of about 100-150 snow geese flying east to west, which would be the first of north-migrating snow geese heading across the state to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Missouri. She also saw about 75 trumpeter swans flying back and forth over our property.
  • Katie flew to and from Barrow, AK, while checking a childcare center project she's working on and took several aurora photos through the airplane window. One is shown below.

  

  Northern Lights, taken by my daughter while flying to Barrow.

• Tuesday, 1/20: Firewood, Flies, and the Puppy
  • I split the rest of the oak firewood and moved a wheelbarrow load to the house and a load to the machine shed. I heard trumpeter swans flying overhead throughout my time outside.
  • I read the manual to the new chainsaw pruner and charged its two batteries. There are several precautions to heed while operating it, just like any chainsaw. 
  • I tied some versions of two flies that were covered in past fly tying classes. They were the foam beetle and the ant. In both cases, I used varying colors (see photos, below).
  • Mary went through all of the old seeds and figured out what we need for the upcoming gardening year. We then placed an order for seeds from Fedco.
  • We're realizing that Cooper isn't drinking enough water, so Mary mixed some chicken soup base with water to encourage him to drink. It seems to work. He's filling out more, so we cut his food back from six to four cups of dog food, daily.

Ant flies tied in black, olive, and red thread.

Foam beetles with black, red, and yellow foam.

• Wednesday, 1/21: Bill Arrived & Firewood
  • Bill's last day at his job was on Jan. 9th. He was uncomfortable with a lack of training for his position. Ironically, he was asked to write and created a 40-page piece on his job duties before he left. In the days since leaving, he's interviewed for some promising prospects. Bill showed up here around noon for a five-day visit, which might be cut short due to a forecast storm coming through here and St. Louis this weekend.
  • Cooper didn't like the looks of Bill at first. It took all day for Cooper to warm up to Bill.
  • I used the new Stihl chainsaw pruner to cut up branches on the end of a downed red oak tree just west of Frog Pond. I'm impressed with what it can cut. I got up to a five-inch cut on hard, dried oak wood. I had to adjust the fit of the chain on the small bar. I'm used to a tighter fit on my chainsaws. It has to be looser on this little battery operated pruner. I finished cutting up this tree with the small Stihl chainsaw.
  • Mary cooked a 16-pound turkey, so we enjoyed a turkey meal with mashed potatoes and a green bean casserole. It was great!
  • Bill helped me load firewood into the wagon behind the 8N Ford tractor. This was a full load. We stacked small pieces in the woodshed, then we stacked larger chunks in the machine shed, next to the wood splitter. With subzero temperatures predicted soon, I need to boost up our firewood supply.
  • We watched two films that Bill selected, which were Stranger Than Fiction and Captain America: The First Avenger.

• Thursday, 1/22: Firewood & a Lost Tundra Swan
  • Mary cleaned the DVDs and the shelving that holds them. The entire time, Cooper huddled at Mary's feet, hiding from Bill. We think the pup associates Bill with his former owners, who were young men, and he doesn't want to return to his former living condition.
  • Mary put more hay in the chicken coop with colder temperatures predicted.
  • Mary and I saw a northern harrier hawk for the first time this year.
  • I cut up a large oak branch that came down in the southwest corner of the field. I used the tiny chainsaw groomer to cut up small branches and the small chainsaw to cut up the rest of the branch. Bill helped load and unload a full trailer load of firewood.
  • I split more firewood, putting wood into the house and several more wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed.
  • A big V of snow geese went over in the evening while flying east. Mary watched a flock of seven trumpeter swans go over with one swan emitting a different call. After listening to the sound of different swans online, Mary discovered she heard a tundra swan, which is a waterfowl that is way off course. This bird should only be on the west or east coast, not in the center of the continent in winter.
  • Bill decided he will go home tomorrow. The prediction is that St. Louis will get 5-10 inches of snow. He wants to get back to avoid the traffic during the storm. 
  • I took in the fifth online fly tying class while Mary and Bill played Yahtzee.
  • We watched the 2016 film, The Finest Hours.

• Friday, 1/23: Single Digit Winter Temperatures
  • We had single digit temperatures throughout the day, so all humans, cats, and dog huddled around the woodstove for most of the day. I'm sure glad I spent a couple days building up our firewood supply. Red oak and ash burns nice and hot, which is much appreciated on colder days.
  • Unfortunately, cool outdoor weather means Cooper gets much shorter walks. He's settling in to our routine of living. Cooper still clings to us anytime we move about the house, but he is a lot calmer. His weight is better and his ribs are less pronounced. We're sure he didn't get enough food from previous owners.
  • Bill left for his apartment around 2 p.m., so he can be in St. Louis before snow falls.
  • Remembering that yesterday's "snow geese" had the same markings as Canada geese, we decided that they were actually cackling geese. The problem is cackling geese sound very similar to snow geese. Mary saw another flock of cackling geese fly east over the house this evening while walking Cooper and agreed that their call is similar to that of snow geese.
  • I texted with Karen. She and Lynn are expecting to get hit with freezing rain during the upcoming winter storm.
  • A multitude of trumpeter swans flew back and forth, going east and west, before and during sunset.
  • We enjoyed two pots, each, of Harney & Sons jasmine tea while reading during the evening.

• Saturday, 1/24: Cahill Flies
  • Mary did some cross stitching.
  • She also kept the chickens watered. In cold weather, we just take a gallon waterer out to the chicken coop several times throughout the day, then remove it at night. The oil-filled electric heater in the coop set at 900 watts kept the inside of the coop at 20° when outside temps hovered around 0°.
  • I watched a couple videos on how to make a Cahill fly, since it involves using a wood duck feather and turning it into mayfly wings, which is not an easy task. Then I made another light Cahill fly and a dark Cahill fly (see photo, below). On the dark fly, I used part of a feather from our rooster's tail for the wings and tail of the fly. It's sure fun to create something that looks similar to a bug.
  • Five deer showed up before darkness fell and ate grass and dead weeds under the Kieffer pear tree, west of the house. Mary recorded a video of two deer fighting one another (see below).
  • The cold water line running to our kitchen sink temporarily froze up. It happens when we get subzero temperatures with an east wind. Mary set up an electric heater with a fan behind it, blowing warm air through opened cabinet doors to under the sink. Within an hour, the pipe was thawed. We kept the heater and fan running through the night. The upcoming electric bill is going to be a whopper!
  • We watched the first half of a Ken Burns PBS documentary entitled Leonardo da Vinci. It's quite good. We also had two pots, each, of some Harney & Sons hot cinnamon tea, which is absolutely amazing.

  

  Cahill flies tied in class (left) and today (middle & right). 

   
  White-tailed deer in a boxing match (see at end).
  

• Sunday, 1/25: Winter Storm & Relatives
  • I walked Cooper through the snow on a loop of the north field. He really moves along very quickly. Each time he saw a lone leaf tumbling in the wind over top of the snow, he attacked the leaf with gusto.
  • While I was walking the pup, Mary saw two bald eagles. A mature bald eagle was flying overhead and an immature bald eagle was perched in a tree east of the house.
  • Trumpeter swans are flying, again, after a hiatus from moving about, yesterday.
  • I tied flies demonstrated from past classes (see below). They were Hendrickson and Gray Olive Shrimp flies.
  • Mary cut material for future cross-stitch projects.
  • We watched the last half of the Leonardo da Vinci documentary. It's very good.
  • Katie traveled to Panama City, Florida for National Guard training. She was delayed in the SeaTac Airport for several hours and had to make new arrangements for connecting flights. She made it into Atlanta at night and to Panama City at 11:11 p.m. She got to her final destination at 1:15 a.m. on 1/26, spending 20.5 hours traveling. 
  • Karen said that they got 1/2 to 3/4 inch of ice at their home in Cleveland, GA. Their power went out at 1:40 p.m. They moved into their travel trailer and fired up a generator in the trailer for lights and electricity. "We're good," she said.
  • Bill said that about 10 inches of snow fell at his apartment in St. Charles, MO. 

Hendrickson light (left) and dark (right) flies.

Gray Olive Shrimp with black (left),
gray (center) & olive (right) thread.

Jan. 12-18, 2026

Weather | 1/12, cloudy, 26°, 47° | 1/13, cloudy, 37°, 52° | 1/14, sunny, 19°, 45° | 1/15, sunny, 7°, 30° | 1/16, cloudy, skiff snow, 29°, 39° | 1/17, cloudy, skiff snow, 7°, 13° | 1/18, cloudy, 7°, 27° |

• Monday, 1/12: Doctor's Visit & Jigs
  • A big flock of over a hundred Canada geese flew over us this morning.
  • I went to Lewistown for my visit with Dr. Abueg. He said my glucose numbers look fine and the medication will stay the same. Besides giving them blood for testing, I received a flu shot. Huge numbers are coming into the Lewistown Clinic with flu symptoms. Test results from analyzing my blood came in later in the day. My A1C is 7.4. My doctor said foods eaten at Christmas always elevated blood glucose levels and as long as we stay under 7.5, all is good. All other levels were within good ranges.
  • I made a number of jigs today (see below), which was the last fly type that we learned during last Thursday's class.
  • I attended the third online fly tying class. We learned to tie the J&M Special, Renegade, Mating Black Midge, and an ant fly. A couple of these flies have polypropylene fibers to form the body, which float, thereby making these dry flies. All of the flies tied in today's class have hackle collars, resembling small insect wings.

Jigs-used hot pink UV chenille on left jig.

More jigs-used feather from our chickens on left jig.

• Tuesday, 1/13: Getting Firewood
  • I sharpened the small Stihl chainsaw chain and cleaned up the big chainsaw.
  • Mary and I surveyed where there might be standing dead trees in the north timber and found several. I took down a medium-sized red oak tree and cut it up. Then, Mary and I loaded the firewood into the trailer. It amounted to about half a wagon load that I drove home.
  • Yesterday, I filled out an online application for a two-year old dog that is skinny, but looks like Plato, but with longer ears. His birthday is Nov. 25, 2023. His name is Kiba and he's located at All God's Creatures Animal Shelter in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, which is 82 miles north of us. They texted today. We arranged that we will show up there tomorrow at 1 p.m.
  • Mary and I ate the last of the Gold Rush apples that were in the fridge. They tasted great, even though they were a little soft. These apples are good keepers.
  • At dusk, I saw hundreds of trumpeter swans flying east to west over our property. They were flying in groups of 20-25 and making a heck of a racket. Mary noticed hundreds robins flying about, too.

• Wednesday, 1/14: Our New Dog, Cooper
  • Strong north, northwest gusts blew today. Some were over 40 mph.
  • Mary and I drove to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The wind really rocked the pickup. We arrived a half hour early, so we grabbed a bite to eat at A&W, located across the street from the animal shelter. 
  • We were introduced to Kiba. He's a wild one, but we immediately noticed he's smart, food orientated, and very trainable. We left with him after about an hour. He hopped right into the pickup's front seat (see photo, below) and halfway home, he laid into Mary's lap and slept the rest of the way home. We immediately changed his name to Cooper. Once home, he responded within minutes to his new name.
  • The first activity with Cooper was a walk to Wood Duck Pond. It was a whole new world for a former city dog. He is quick and spry, so the walk was easy for him. He is underweight at 40 pounds. The guy who left him at the animal shelter had a roommate leave him with the dog. This man was leaving for another state, so he left Cooper at the shelter in November. He was neglected. He had worms, probably wasn't fed well, and he's most likely naturally thin. We think he's another Viszla/Lab cross, but maybe three-fourths Viszla, giving him a slender build. He's a new slate. He's just learning the word "no" and his whereabouts in our house. One plus is he is house broken. Cooper is a velcro dog and follows us everywhere. All cats scattered when Cooper entered the house. Our two male cats, Gandalf and Nick, eventually ventured out. Our female cats, Mocha and Juliet, are in perpetual hiding.

  

  Our new puppy, Cooper.

• Thursday, 1/15: Cooper Antics & Tying Flies
  • Five deer ran across the fields south of the house as Mary and Cooper were waiting for me to get my coat on during our morning outing with the puppy. Cooper just looked at them and didn't bark, which is perfect.
  • Mary and I walked Cooper around the West Field and down Bobcat Trail. He loved the walk, with all of the interesting wild smells. We found a piece of honeybee comb under a big oak tree on Bobcat Trail (see below). It proves what we already know...that honeybee hives are on our property.
  • Gandalf bumped into Cooper, in a form of cat love, then instantly hissed at the dog. Cooper got too close when sniffing Nick's backside, so Nick took a swipe at Cooper. The dog gives that cat a wider berth, now.
  • We're feeding Cooper 1.5 cups of dog food, four times a day, in an effort to beef him up. He eats like a tornado, scarfing his food in a matter of seconds. 
  • I emptied firewood out of the trailer, then split wood and hauled three wheelbarrow loads to the woodshed.
  • Mary added more hay to the chicken coop. The prediction is for colder low temperatures in upcoming days and additional hay helps keep the chickens warmer.
  • Mary walked Cooper along the north woods. She said for every mile that she walks, Cooper walks an additional two miles with his back and forth movement. He's the dog version of the movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
  • I practiced making flies that we learned to make in Monday's fly tying class. They were the J&M Special, Renegade, and the Mating Black Midge (see below). All of these flies are made by wrapping a hackle feather to form a collar.
  • I also took in the fourth two-hour online fly tying class. We learned to tie feathers that resemble bug wings and how to alter fly tying thread color and texture by using dubbing. After a couple hours practicing making flies and then taking in a two-hour online class, I was worn out with tying flies!
  • All of today's walks with the puppy wore out his skinny butt (see below).

Honey bee comb found on Bobcat Trail.

J&M Special flies using red, black, and olive thread.

Renegade flies (top row) and Mating Black Midge flies (bottom row).

A worn out Cooper sleeping on his chair next to the woodstove.

• Friday, 1/16 Home With Cooper
  • A big flock of several hundred Canada geese lifted off a field just east of us and flew overhead this morning. It was an impressive number of honkers!
  • I made waffles for our midday meal. Mealtime was sandwiched by two long walks with Cooper. The first walk took in a loop around the north field. He is good on long walks, except I have to pull him away from animal nuggets. It's probably how he got worms...from eating dung. Mary spotted worms in one of Cooper's feces. They seemed to be dead. We have medication from the animal shelter that is scheduled to start on 1/19. The second walk was through the woods just north of the machine shed and into the north field, then back home. These long walks are good at exercising both Cooper and us.
  • Our two female cats ventured out of the freezer and laundry rooms and into the rest of the house after realizing that Cooper wasn't the monster they thought he was. Mocha is the most reluctant to get near Cooper. She spends most of her time on top of the fridge. 
  • We watched the BBC TV show, North and South.

• Saturday, 1/17: Racking Jalapeño Wine
  • Low temperatures are in the single digits, so we kept the heater on in the chicken coop.
  • Our outdoor walks with Cooper were truncated, since a nippy west, northwest wind was blowing.
  • The new puppy wants to roar after Mocha, the cat who is most frightened of Cooper. She doesn't like his speed. He got in trouble a couple times over chasing Mocha. We won't stand for a dog chasing cats, so Cooper gets a swift reprimand any time we see it. He also gets jealous whenever you pet a cat. He is a quick learner. Cooper automatically sits before getting handed a bowl of food, or before going outside. He also sits and stays with just hand commands, without us saying a word. We're also noticing that his muscle mass is building and not so much of his ribs are showing. This evening, Cooper spent most of the time sleeping in his chair next to the woodstove. With two big walks a day and a regular routine, he's ever so slowly calming down. Still, he's at your feet with your every move. Mary says we should have renamed him Worf, since he is such a "Klingon" dog.
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the fourth time. Since the Mexican-made three-gallon carboys are slightly larger than the Italian-made three-gallon carboys, which is what the liquid went into, I had leftovers. The specific gravity was 0.992 and the pH was 3.5, the same as the last racking. I added 0.5 grams of Kmeta. We tasted leftover wine. Heat is more pronounced with aging. Dark raisins give it a fully, richer flavor. This wine could make a good tasting Bloody Mary.
  • Mary dusted books and cleaned out bugs off three large bookshelves in the living room.
  • Many robins were in the trees along the lane when I got the mail. We didn't hear or see swans or geese today. They're hunkered down and not flying.

• Sunday, 1/18: Racking Parsnip Wine
  • Today was another cool day, but in the afternoon it got warm enough to let the chickens outside.
  • I racked the parsnip wine for the fourth time. The specific gravity was 0.999 and the pH was 3.5. I added 0.7 grams of Kmeta. We tasted the fines. Wow! It's very good. Mary says it tastes like grapefruit juice with an earthy subtext. I say it's just plain great. I'll be bottling it in a month.
  • Mary dusted the remaining living room books on the two bottom shelves, which are right at the puppy's height. He was glued to her side through the entire time.
  • Mary saw a red-shouldered hawk perched in a walnut tree in the east yard.
  • We heard a great horned owl hooting away at dusk. They're nesting in the west woods.
  • All of our cats are mixing with Cooper. Mocha is doing the cat love thing, which is standing on her hind legs and bumping the top of her head on Cooper's chin, followed by swiping her body on his legs. Gandalf is also smacking into the pup's legs with his body. Even though the cats don't like his swift movements, he is part of the pet family, now.
  • Cooper had a really good day. He obeyed instructions well, and seems to be a lot more relaxed. He sleeps soundly in his soft chair in the living room. At night, he snores away in another soft chair in our bedroom. When we first brought Cooper home, he was leery of the steep stairs, but now he roars up and down the steps with ease, sometimes leaping down the bottom five steps with one jump. He's an extremely agile runner and can navigate the entire house in a matter of seconds.

Jan. 5-11, 2026

Weather | 1/5, cloudy, 30°, 49° | 1/6, cloudy, 39°, 45° | 1/7, sunny, 25°, 63° | 1/8, 0.32" rain, 44°, 58° | 1/9, p. cloudy, 37°, 47° | 1/10, 0.12" rain overnight, sunny, 29°, 44° | 1/11, p. cloudy, 19°, 35° |

• Monday, 1/5: Fly Tying
  • I emptied all of the firewood out of the trailer behind the tractor and stacked most small pieces in a crisscross fashion inside the north machine shed wall. Large pieces were stacked next to the splitter. A handful of dry pieces went to the woodshed.
  • I heard lots of trumpeter swans flying around as I unloaded the trailer.
  • Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup.
  • I attended the first fly tying class put on by three Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) folks who are located in northwest Missouri. They are TJ, Mike, and Ginger. I've taken in a couple fly tying sessions from this trio. This beginner's class involves eight two-hour online meetings every Monday and Thursday and ends in early February. TJ is the main commentator. Mike is a retired MDC employee who's tied flies for decades. Ginger, another fly tying expert, handles technical issues and delivers corny jokes at the end. Together, they give out great information. They provided several kits, with hooks and materials for each fly enclosed in baggies and labeled, that were sent out over the Holidays to registered participants.
  • Today we practiced using the whip finisher, laying a bed of thread on a hook, and tied two flies, which were a Glo Ball, and a Woolie Worm (see photos, below). Each baggie of materials for each fly includes three hooks. I only made one of each fly during the class. I will make the other two of each fly in the days between now and the next class, so that I practice techniques. I also need a lot of practice at using the whip finisher, since I goof up all of the time.
     

Glo Ball...Mike puts a spinner and a weight ahead of this.

A Woolie Worm with a bit of red yarn as added attraction.

• Tuesday, 1/6: Sawing Firewood & Anchorage Snow
  • I took the small Stihl chainsaw north and cut down a standing tree that had part of its bark missing, which is a sign that the tree is dead and probably dry. It was an ash tree. After cutting it up, I loaded it into the trailer, hauled it home, and unloaded big chunks next to the splitter and small dry pieces into the woodshed.
  • I also cut up several old persimmon sticks and some large kindling branches that Mary saved in the machine shed. These pieces went into the woodshed. 
  • Mary broke up and made kindling from dried branches collected from around the yard in past months and dried inside the machine shed.
  • Mary and I watched an amazing display of trumpeter swans fly over our property. They're close enough that we can hear their wing strokes. At one point their calls sounded as if a traffic jamb was on in New York City in the 1920s and everyone was honking their old style car horns. A trumpeter swan's honking sound is heard well before you can see them in the air. Mary thinks we saw 150 swans fly overhead this evening. That's the largest number of swans that we've seen at one time.
  • Katie is thrilled with the big dump of snow that came down today in Anchorage. It will make for good skiing this weekend. She uses trash cans as an indication of how much snow fell (see photos, below). 

Snow on right trash can cleared 12 hrs ago.
Snow on left can hasn't been recently cleared.

Car recently moved in an Anchorage, AK, parking lot.

• Wednesday, 1/7: Trip to Quincy
  • I practiced using the whip finisher on a fly hook after watching several videos on YouTube and picking out a good one to follow. There are a few minute details that make all the difference in the world in making it work. I'll practice more, tomorrow.
  • I drove to town to pick up a couple prescriptions and a couple items from various stores. It was relatively quiet.
  • Our neighbor to the east of us had an old barn in which most of the roof was collapsed. It is now a smoldering pile of ashes that are smoking with steers surrounding it. If they get any closer, there will be burnt beef next door.
  • Mary raked leaves that she put on top of the compost pile and picked sticks up around the yard for future kindling.
  • Several swans flew over the house this evening.
  • A bunch of eastern bluebirds flew into the yard for the day.
  • Mary collected five eggs, today. That's a good haul of eggs for the middle of winter. 
  • We watched the last episode of The American Revolution, by Ken Burns. This documentary reveals several facts that are missed in high school history classrooms. It's very good.

• Thursday, 1/8: More Fly Tying
  • We experienced a rainy day, with strong winds that started at sunset. We watched seven trumpeter swans struggling in the evening south wind, then they put themselves into a V, so they could fly better. This recent rain means grass is greening up in our yard.
  • Mary finished a Halloween cross stitch ornament and started another one.
  • I practiced using the whip finishing tool without ever referencing an online video. I have that procedure down. I made flies that we learned to make in Monday's class. In making a new Woolie Worm, I used a neck feather shed from Leo, our rooster, and burnt orange chenille that Bill gave me for Christmas (see below). I also made a Glo Ball with four colors of yarn (see below).
  • I attended another two-hour fly tying class in the evening. We tied four different flies, which were the Crackle Back, Griffith's Gnat, Woolie Booger, and jigs. I'll show photos of them as I make additional new ones.

Woolie Worm with bristles from a feather
shed from our rooster, Leo.

A Glo Ball fly made with four colored yarns.

• Friday, 1/9: Firewood, Flies, and a Movie
  • I split two wheelbarrow loads of firewood from the last ash tree that I took down and cut up. We tried some of it in the woodstove. It burns nicely and is dry.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch pattern and I made two Crackle Back flies, based on one of the four flies made in yesterday's fly tying class. The direction booklet accompanying the class suggests that a bead can be added, so I put a glass red bead on the head of one fly and a brass colored tungsten bead on the other fly (see below). I used a feather from our rooster, Leo, for the bristles on the second fly. They turned out better than the Crackle Back fly that I made in yesterday's class. I wound a little too much of a feather on the fly with the red bead, so that the bristles hide the green sparkle of the floss creating the body. The fly with the copper head has fewer bristles and shows off the body. The copper bead is made of tungsten, to give that fly weight. The other is one with the red bead is a dry fly that hopefully floats.
  • We watched the 2022 movie, Downton Abbey: A New Era, while enjoying a bottle of spiced apple wine and the last of the Christmas cookies.

Crackle Back fly with red bead.

Crackle Back fly with copper-colored bead.

• Saturday, 1/10: Reloading Webex, Firewood and Flies
  • I took in a gun ammunition reloading Webex held by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The biggest point I got out of the session was the high cost of this hobby. I looked up costs online and just the cost of primers, gun powder, bullets, and brass casings will run about $500. An additional $500, or more, goes into buying a press and dies needed  to load ammunition. Buying $1000 worth of already loaded ammo would equal enough for my needs until I'm 120 years old. I just don't use enough ammunition, especially 30-30 shells, to warrant reloading my own ammo.
  • Mary dusted books in the big bookcases of the sunroom.
  • I split the rest of the dry elm tree pieces and started splitting other elm chunks of firewood.
  • While Mary worked on a cross-stitch pattern while I made two more flies, which were Griffith's Gnats. The original one made in Thursday's fly tying class contained black thread. These two involved red and olive thread (see below).
  • We watched the 2025 film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and all of the extras on the disk that Katie gave us for Christmas.

Griffith's Gnat using red thread.

Olive thread on a Griffith's Gnat. These flies are tiny!

• Sunday, 1/11: Splitting Firewood & Woolie Boogers
  • I spent some morning time getting six months of blood glucose numbers off my meters and then arraigning the numbers on a single sheet of paper to give to Doctor Abueg when I go for my semi-annual checkup tomorrow.
  • I split and stacked six wheelbarrow loads of slightly damp ash firewood.
  • Mary dusted the narrow bookshelves in the sunroom and found hundreds of Asian ladybugs.
  • We worked on our hobbies after sunset. Mary did more cross stitch. I tied two Woolie Booger flies (see below). In the first fly, I used brown materials provided by the class. I used a fluffy feather from a barred rock chicken in place of marabou for the tail. I used red chenille, red thread, and a barred rock hackle feather to make the bristles. It will be interesting to see how these flies look when they're in pond water.

Brown Woolie Booger fly.

Red Woolie Booger fly using our chicken feathers.