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.