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.