Feb. 16-22, 2026

Weather | 2/16, p. cloudy, 40°, 61° | 2/17, cloudy, 45°, 58° | 2/18, sunny, 48°, 63° | 2/19, cloudy, 0.01 rain, 35°, 64° | 2/20, cloudy, 21°, 36° | 2/21, p. cloudy, 19°, 35° | 2/22, sunny, 10°, 27° |

• Monday, 2/16: Snow Geese in Big Numbers
  • Mary and I saw a huge bunch of about 1,000 snow geese this morning as they flew low over the house. They were heading west and were led by a duck. They were flying low enough for us to hear the wind rushing over their wings.
  • We heard our first robin "tea leaf" song this morning, a sure sign that spring is coming.
  • At noon, Mary and I walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond and noticed the ice is gone off the top of the water. We also looked at Bass Pond. The water is down about 3.5 feet, exposing several dead American lotus plants. I turned a lotus seed head over and a seed fell out. It's the size of a hazelnut and looks like an acorn without the acorn's cap. We need to work at eradicating these plants, because they're taking over Bass Pond. 
  • I spent hours looking online for chainsaw sharpening parts. There are three sharpening tools that I use on the large chainsaw, but need for the other two chainsaws that have smaller teeth on their chains. One is a file guide holder that puts the round chainsaw sharpening file at a correct 30-degree angle and the other is a file guide, which holds the round file. The final item is a depth gauge used to measure the rakers ahead of the teeth to see if they need filing down after teeth of the chain are sharpened.
  • We vacuumed bugs over and over and over, again.
  • On an evening walk around the west field, Cooper saw several bob white quail running into the north woods. He froze and watching them with keen attention, then sniffed where they ran.
  • I finished and sent off a survey of the fly tying class.
  • While walking Cooper on his walk prior to bedtime, Mary and I heard snow geese flying overhead in the dark.

• Tuesday, 2/17: First Blackbirds
  • I received a nice reply from TJ, one of the fly tying instructors of the online class I took in January and the beginning of February. It was after I sent in a survey of the class. Here are some of his words..."Dick, after reading this over, I feel like you actually understand how and why we have done many of the things that we did. That is very appreciated...Hopefully we see you next year. Thank you for the kind words."
  • Mary and I saw more snow geese heading west, today.
  • While walking Cooper around the west field, we saw a big deer track in the mud at the southwest corner of the field that was 3.75 inches long. We also heard three different Carolina wrens singing in the north woods when we walked to the end of Bobcat Trail. 
  • Every time I feed Cooper and I move him into the living room to allow the cats in the entry room to finish their meals, he gives me a big tongue smack up the side of my face after thoroughly licking crumbs from his bowl. He's very generous with his saliva.
  • Mary and I did some housecleaning.
  • I checked clean wine bottle numbers and I have enough for the three batches of wine that are overdue to get bottled.
  • I did a little more work on the house plans.
  • I saw and heard a few red-winged blackbirds in the east yard trees at sunset, which were the first of the season.
  • I received the The Orvis Fly Patterns Index in today's mail. Unfortunately the book came with a moldy smell with several of the back pages stuck together. It soaked up water at one point. The seller said it was in "good" condition. It was not.

• Wednesday, 2/18: Downy Woodpecker Makes a Home
  • During morning chores, Mary and I spotted four trumpeter swans in flight. We're wondering if they decided to stay here and nest. We also saw a bald eagle and several more Vs of snow geese.
  • A downy woodpecker put a big hole into the top of the trunk of the old weeping willow tree (see photo, below). Mary watched the woodpecker emerge from the hole and fly off to the big cherry tree.
  • Bill showed up at around 11 a.m. He's here until Sunday.
  • Bill and I walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond, east on the dry creek bed, and then home via an old east/west path.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex session entitled "Oddballs Under the Surface," about freshwater jellyfish, tetras, and shrimp that live in ponds, lakes, and streams in Missouri. It was very interesting.
  • I contacted the customer service department of thriftbooks about the moldy fly tying book I received yesterday. A representative emailed me back to tell me that they will send me a different copy of the book and that I can either keep the current copy or throw it away.
  • Mary made three pizzas and we played two games of Trivial Pursuit. Mary won both games. We also enjoyed the last bottle of 2021 pear wine, which was exceptionally good.

  

  A hole in the weeping willow stump made by a downy woodpecker.

• Thursday, 2/19: Bottling Apple Wine
  • Mary made a cherry crisp with the last of the pie cherries in the freezer. Most all cherries went into cherry wine this year.
  • Mary raked leaves and put three wheelbarrow loads on the top of the compost pile to add organic matter to it. She also put new hay in the chicken coop.
  • Bill washed two loads of laundry and changed the oil in his car.
  • I washed 18 bottles and then Bill and I bottled the apple wine that was made almost six months ago. The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.998, which gives it an alcohol content of 9.96 percent. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta. We filled 17 bottles and corked them. Bill, Mary and I tried the leftover wine. It has a good apple flavor that will probably enhance with age.
  • Mary did a couple chores and then we got a thunderstorm around 4:30 p.m. It was our first thunderstorm of the year.
  • While I walked Plato to the gravel road and back, Mary and Bill saw several flocks of snow geese flying east after the rain. We also saw snow geese in the morning. A big flock of gackling geese flew west to east in the afternoon.
  • Bill threw the lacrosse ball for Cooper. The puppy loved it.
  • Mary heard our first killdeer of the season.
  • The three of us ate popcorn and watched Clear and Present Danger (1994) and Sister Act (1992).

• Friday, 2/20: 69th Birthday
  • I'm 69 today...don't feel that old.
  • Mary baked a turkey. It was a great midday meal.
  • Mom called. A blizzard went through Circle earlier this week, but this winter has been mild in eastern Montana.
  • Katie called. There is a good snow pack in Anchorage, so outdoor activities are plentiful for her. She's involved with several projects at work.
  • I split larger firewood pieces from the first mulberry tree I cut down last week and put four wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed.
  • There are fewer snow geese flying overhead.
  • Cooper and I raised a flock Bob White quail that were midway down our lane.
  • We watched the 2017 movie Murder on the Orient Express.

• Saturday, 2/21: Bottling Parsnip & Jalapeño Wines
  • We saw four deer run away to the west as we were walking Cooper on his first walk of the day.
  • Bill and I racked and bottled parsnip and jalapeño wines:
    
    • Parsnip - The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.999. The alcohol content is 9.3 percent. We filled 20 bottles of this wine. Mary, Bill and I tasted the leftovers. It was very good. It has a bit more earthiness than previous versions, probably because all of the parsnips were homegrown and fresh out of the garden.
    • Jalapeño - The pH was 3.5 and the specific gravity was 0.992. The alcohol content is 11.27 percent. We corked 15 bottles of this wine. We all tasted leftovers. It was warm, but not terribly hot. It has a strong green pepper flavor.
  • Mary heard snow geese, so we still have a few going through.

• Sunday, 2/22: Deer Antler Shed
  • Bill left to return to his St. Charles apartment around 1 p.m. He starts his new job tomorrow.
  • For a late afternoon long walk, I took Cooper for a walk on a loop to the east. I found the shed of a deer antler on the trail that Bill and I walked just on Wednesday. It is a rack with four points (see photo, below).
  • Mary and I saw several flocks of snow geese flying north when I was playing fetch with Cooper.
  • I worked a couple hours on our house plan.

  

  A deer antler I found while walking Cooper.

  
   

Feb. 9-15, 2026

Weather | 2/9, sunny, 18°, 57° | 2/10, sunny, 37°, 53° | 2/11, sunny, 23°, 49° | 2/12, cloudy, 30°, 55° | 2/13, sunny, 28°, 58° | 2/14, cloudy to 0.08" rain, 35°, 54° | 2/15, fog to sun, 37°, 59° |

• Monday, 2/9: Pizza, Firewood & Fetch
  • We experienced very warm temperatures for what's officially wintertime.
  • I saw online that today was International Pizza Day, so Mary made a midday meal of pizza.
  • I cut up the second dead mulberry tree southwest of the house and pulled another wagon load of mulberry firewood back home. Mulberry blasts a bunch of sparks when you place the firewood on hot red coals in the woodstove.
  • We let Cooper outside for the first time without leash. He comes immediately when we whistle, so we thought we'd give it a try. He runs everywhere all at once. Mary got a tennis ball and played fetch with him. He loves the game, runs very fast after the ball, and often grabs it in midair. Fetch is a great way of wearing him out. Cooper slept soundly in his chair this evening.
  • Bill texted that he will visit us between Feb. 18-22. He starts his new job on Feb. 23.
  • When I finished up evening chores, I heard an odd cry from the west woods. When Mary brought up various wildlife sounds from online sources, we identified it as a cry from a bobcat. It kind of resembles a baby's cry.

• Tuesday, 2/10: Yummy Apple Slush & Midge Flies
  • We tried the apple slush made in September from Liberty and Porter's Perfection apples that were sliced up in the food processor. It tastes absolutely wonderful in a bowl of hot oatmeal with blackberries and pecans. It's an excellent way to store apples in the freezer and eat them many months later. We'll do a lot more of this in the future.
  • I gave Mary a haircut. We save a lot of money by not paying a hair stylist. Mary told me, "Always trust your bald barber."
  • Cooper just loves it when we throw a ball for him to fetch. I tossed a tennis ball for him today. He usually caught it on a first or second bounce. Cooper even flips it out on the ground for us to pick up. We haven't had a dog as enthusiastic about fetching a ball as is the case with Cooper. I remember Molly, our first golden retriever, would look at me after throwing a ball as if to say, "You threw it, you go get the damn thing."
  • I tied three midge flies using different colored feathers and thread (see photos, below). These are tied on the tiniest of hooks.
  • Mary and I watched the 1983 film, The Right Stuff .

  

  Midge Flies: Tied in class (far left), all others tied today. Tied with feathers from our rooster (far right).

• Wednesday, 2/11: A Month with Cooper
  • As of today, we have had Cooper for four weeks. Mary took photos of him while on a walk that I sent to the All Gods Creatures animal shelter in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where we got Cooper, to show them how well he's filled out (see photos, below). He was a bag of bones, initially. I played a game of fetch with him. This time I used a white ball that Bill found at a pickle ball court in St. Louis. Looking up the logo on that ball online, it turns out it's a lacrosse ball. Cooper goes through a tennis ball in two days. This lacrosse ball might last longer. He loves the game of retrieving a ball and it's good exercise for him.
  • The package of fly tying items came J. Stockard arrived today after traveling from the east coast to the west coast and back to here. I unpacked the 24 items that were in it.
  • I tied two Dark Cahill wet flies (see photo, below). They turned out kind of rough. This was a fly pattern that we never had enough time to make in the fly tying class. I used some sticky dubbing wax that I got today and it greatly helps. I used too much glittery dubbing on the second fly. Natural dubbing is nothing more than fine animal hair. It makes the body of the flies. Both flies have wings that are too long. It wasn't a good day for me for making flies, so I quit.

Cooper at full attention on Bobcat Trail.

Cooper isn't skin and bones, anymore.

Dark Cahill Wet flies that are kind of messy.

• Thursday, 2/12: An Opossum in the Coop
  • While walking Cooper at predawn, Mary heard a wild turkey gobble for a second morning in a row. This time it was to the south. This is really early in the year.
  • I drove to Lewistown and bought tractor and chainsaw gas, along with a book of stamps at the post office.
  • I put some of the beads I use for fly tying into small circular holders.
  • I received The Book of Fly Patterns, by Eric Leiser in today's mail. It looks like an excellent book.
  • Mary found a large opossum in the chicken coop when she was putting the chickens away for the night. She used a shovel to coax it into a large plastic garbage can. I hauled the opossum to the bottom of Bramble Hill and let him out. He meandered off into the woods.
  • I saw a V of about 30 cackling geese go overhead while finishing evening chores.
  • Mary started an online family book club suggested by Katie. The first discussion was about an article in historyextra.com about U boat living conditions during WWII.

• Friday, 2/13: Shopping & Cooper Points
  • When Mary opened curtains in the living room this morning, she saw seven deer just south of the house. Some were very close to the apple trees, so she tapped on the window and they moved off to the west.
  • Mary saw the start of snow geese heading west while she walked Cooper this morning.
  • I went shopping in Quincy. Walmart was busy changing the location of everything, so finding items was difficult. Why do stores do this? I got new sharpening files for the small pruning chainsaw. The main reason I went to town, to get a prescription, was delayed because Sam's Club Pharmacy is out and needs to reorder the item.
  • Mary found a little opossum in the chicken coop when she was putting the chickens to bed. It ran out the chicken door and scooted away.
  • Mary reported that Cooper was a very good boy today. He didn't get into any trouble when she was outside for a long time hanging up laundry. She threw the rubber ball for him to retrieve until he was forced into submission. On the morning walk, she saw him go into a full point at some wild animal in the bushes. Mary looked up whether dogs with the Vizsla breed in them point and discovered that the Hungarian word for point is "vizsla," so the answer is yes, Vizsla dogs point.

• Saturday, 2/14: Movie Binge
  • We saw several large Vs of snow geese flying over us heading west today. We also saw cackling, Canada, and Ross's geese.
  • It was a quiet day for us.
  • Mary made a Mississippi mud chocolate cake. We had a piece, each, with some cherry wine.
  • I wore out Cooper with a long period of a game of fetch.
  • As it rained outside, we did a three-movie binge and watched Must Love Dogs (2005), Notting Hill (1999), and Marry Me (2022).

• Sunday, 2/15: Moving Firewood & Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!
  • I unloaded mulberry firewood from the trailer. This was wood that I cut on Monday.
  • We heard our first eastern meadowlark of the season.
  • Many geese of all kinds flew over the house today. I saw four trumpeter swans fly low over the gardens. We thought they were gone to the north with warmer temperatures, but I guess we still have a few.
  • It was a massive Asian ladybug day. Mary and I each vacuumed bugs twice, which means the house windows, ceilings and floors got bugs sucked from them four times today. Oh, how I want a tight house that keeps bugs outside!
  • Each evening I watch several YouTube videos from the Winter Olympics. It's so fun watching sporting events that aren't normally featured, such as all types of skiing, ski jumping, speed skating, curling, and the biathlon. Of course, I watch a little hockey from the Olympics, too. 

Feb. 2-8, 2026

Weather | 2/2, cloudy, 27°, 37° | 2/3, cloudy, 19°, 30° | 2/4, sunny, 9°, 29° | 2/5, cloudy, 19°, 47° | 2/6, sunny, 37°, 46° | 2/7, sunny, 16°, 36° | 2/8, p. cloudy, 21°, 46° |

• Monday, 2/2: Warmer Temps & Fly Tying
  • Most of the snow that's covered the ground for several days melted with warmer temperatures.
  • Mary and I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail. Under a tall oak tree halfway down Bobcat Trail, we found bits from honey comb on the snow. Some animal found and tore apart a beehive.
  • We cut back Cooper's food to three cups a day. His ribs aren't showing so much and we're probably more at a maintenance feeding amount, now. 
  • I sharpened one of the chains of the big Stihl chainsaw. I also greased the clutch bearing on that saw. We bought that saw in 2009. Steady maintenance keeps it going strong.
  • I heard trumpeter swans and saw four cackling geese fly overhead while doing evening chores. Mary heard Canada geese to the north. 
  • I attended the eighth and final online fly tying class where we tied three flies. They were the zug bug, the case caddis, and the midge. The last fly was extremely small! TJ, one of the instructors, went through all of the flies we created through the eight classes, detailing how to fish each one. This series of classes was the best in all fly tying classes I've attended.
  • Mary started an extremely rough sketch of a future house. I looked up charts for various size lumber to use as floor joists to gain strong floors.

• Tuesday, 2/3: High Water Bill Shock
  • The water bill that came in yesterday's mail was a shocker. They claimed that we owed over $1200 and used 81,000 gallons of water in one month. The date listed of when they read the meter was June 4, 2025. I looked it up and if you put 81,000 gallons in a tank, it would be 36 feet in diameter and 21 feet high. Mary said, "I wonder when we installed the Olympic swimming pool in the midst of subzero temperatures...polar bear dip, anyone?" I opened the cover to the underground meter near our outdoor hydrant and recorded the reading, then called the water district office. The woman I talked to said the reason for the goofy bill was that our monthly readings have been estimated for several months and someone would have to come to our place and get a reading. I gave her today's numbers off the meter. She thanked me and said she would call me right back once she figured out the correct amount. That call was at 11:30 a.m. Since I never had a call back, I called the office at 3:15 p.m. asking if she figured out the correct bill amount. She said it's been a very busy day, which indicates they had a major goof up in all of the bills that were sent out and most all customers were calling the office. The correct amount was a two digit number, instead of a four digit figure. I've suspected for about a year that the new readers that they installed a couple years ago, which were supposed to be read automatically at their office, weren't working. Amounts of water that we supposedly used each month remained the same, even though we use significantly more water in summer months for watering gardens. This billing snafu proved that point.
  • While Mary finished dusting books, I sharpened the second chain of the big Stihl chainsaw.
  • I started reworking house plan drawings, drawing a 24x78 foot rectangle. It looks like a mobile home. We'll see how this looks with rooms drawn into the plan. We've worked and reworked house plans for over a decade. We need to get beyond the "plans" stage!

• Wednesday, 2/4: Jassid Fly Tying & Garlic Wine Decision
  • Mary and I did accounting things this morning. I balanced the checkbook and she paid the bills.
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and Bobcat Trail at noon. He already knows the trails very well. Bobcat is a vague trail that was cleared years ago, but Cooper stopped where we always stop and turned to retrace his steps. He's a quick learner. Mary and I walked Cooper in the evening on a loop around the north field.
  • I tied two versions of the Jassid dry fly (see photo, below). In one I used a hen chicken's breast feather and light brown thread. The other involved a white feather and white thread. After tying them, I looked online. Jassid is a family name for leaf hoppers. A correctly tied Jassid fly has much smaller wings than what we were taught in the fly tying class. The Jassid fly was first developed in 1952. Mary worked on a cross stitch project while I tied these flies.
  • Since I'm late at making garlic wine, and from past experience, when I make this wine by this time of the year, its taste isn't as good, we decided to forgo making garlic wine this year. We figured out that we need 26 bottles for cooking purposes until I make a batch in early December, which is the exact number of garlic wine bottles we currently have in stock.

  

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

• Thursday, 2/5: Chainsaw Sharpening & Splitting Firewood
  • A fly tying order I placed a few days ago with J. Stockard in Connecticut showed up in California this morning. It's the second time this has happened. An former order went to Florida. Someone or some machine in the Springfield, MA post office needs an education in U.S. geography.
  • I sharpened both chains of the small Stihl chainsaw and greased its clutch bearing. I also checked the chain on the Stihl chainsaw pruner. It's still sharp. All three Stihl saws have different sized chains. I need to get proper sharpening equipment for the two smaller saws.
  • I split the rest of the firewood sitting next to the woodsplitter in the machine shed. All of the red oak was damp, so it went into a crisscross stack on the inside of the machine shed's north wall. One wheelbarrow load of ash firewood went into the woodshed. The rest was damp and went into a quick heap in front the the splitter. I'll stack it tomorrow.
  • Outside temperatures are higher, so we're back to vacuuming bugs in our house...yuck!
  • Cooper had a good day, today. He sometimes veers back to poor behavior, but then he thinks about things after corrections and gets better. Chasing cats is a major no-no. Biting human hands is another. Knocking food bowls out of kilter prior to eating is a really big mistake. But today there was none of that. He learns fast.

• Friday, 2/6: Wind, Waffles, & Tying Flies
  • With a strong north northwest wind Mary filled the clotheslines with laundry.
  • When we walked Cooper around the west field, we found bright yellow feathers on Bobcat Trail. Mary thinks they are from a yellow-shafted northern flicker. She thinks it was killed by a Cooper's hawk.
  • Trumpeter swans are still with us, but in lower numbers.
  • I put split ash firewood in a crisscross stack along the inside northern side of the machine shed.
  • I cooked waffles for our midday meal.
  • I added rooms to our recent house plans.
  • I ordered two used fly tying books through Thrift Books. They are The Orvis Fly Patterns Index by John R. Harder and The Book of Fly Patterns by Eric Leiser.
  • I tied two versions of the Zug Bug fly that we learned in the recent class. This fly pattern was created by Cliff Zug of Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Its tail is made of three strands of iridescent green peacock swords that shimmer similar to a green bug. It's supposed to resemble a caddis larvae. I changed colors of feathers, tinsel, and thread in the flies I tied today (see below). I think the fish in Bass Pond will really chomp onto these flies.

  

  Zug Bugs tied in class (left) & today (center & right). Feathers on today's flies
  came from our chickens. Shiny tinsel in today's bodies came from a JoAnn closeout sale.

• Saturday, 2/7: Bill Has a New Job
  • We walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond. We could hear ice on the pond creaking and groaning as it expanded with the sun's heat. There were deer tracks going across that ice.
  • We suspect that Cooper is actually growing a bit taller besides filling out. If that's the case, he's a lot younger than two years old. He still eats like a Tasmanian Devil, but Mary has him holding a sit for 30 seconds while the full dog food dish is sitting in front of him prior to eating.
  • Mary heard and saw three different red-shouldered hawks at the same time when she let chickens out of the coop around 10 a.m. It seems to be a type of bird we're seeing with greater numbers. 
  • Mary vacuumed a bunch of bugs. Higher temperatures brings out more Asian ladybugs and flies.
  • Bill called around noon after he took a tour of the facility with the owner of DCRS Solutions, a company in Maryland Heights (a St. Louis suburb) that sells point of sale card readers. He was offered a logistics specialist position which involves being in charge of incoming and outgoing shipping, keeping track of inventory, along with other duties. Bill is going to okay the offer by Monday. The position fits his prior background perfectly. Bill's last day with his prior job was on Jan. 9th. It only took him 29 days to find a new job.
  • I looked for firewood in the west woods southwest of the house and found several dead trees. I found two dead mulberry trees and went back with the tractor and trailer. I cut up one of these mulberries. This yellow wood is extremely hard and produces excellent heat in the woodstove. My new small lithium battery driven chainsaw pruner is great at trimming off branches I missed with the big chainsaw that are protruding off pieces of firewood.
  • An order came in today's mail to Mary from 123stitch.com with a bunch of cross stitch stuff. Included in it were three bead storage containers where I can store beads I use for fly tying.
  • I watched a bunch of videos from the Winter Olympics on YouTube. I like this viewing much better than seeing it on broadcast TV, because I can pick what I want to watch instead of seeing figure skating ad nauseam. I watched several women's hockey games, women's speed skating (won by an Italian in record setting time), women's ski jumping, women's cross-country skiathon (gold and bronze went to two Swedish women who come from the same town), and men's downhill (insane speeds).

• Sunday, 2/8: The Great Margarine Caper!
  • While Mary and I were outside cooking up some smoked scrambled eggs in a cast iron skillet over a small fire I built, Cooper was inside our house raising hell. Besides yipping loudly, he grabbed a big tub of Country Crock margarine off the kitchen counter, drug it to inside our main entry door and snarfed about an inch of margarine. When we entered the house, he zoomed to his chair in the living room and hung his head, knowing he was naughty. We immediately gave him the message that he did the wrong thing. All of that margarine buttered up his insides and by bedtime, he threw up. In his vomit was the remains of a dog toy he once ate before we knew him. We saw it briefly when he vomited about a week ago, but then he ate it all back up. This time, Mary moved Cooper to me and she removed the vomit. It had a strong odor of margarine. Today was a tough day for our puppy.
  • While Mary did a little house cleaning, I emptied firewood out of the trailer and stacked it in appropriate places, based on its size. No chainsawing for me today. I find it better to give myself at least a one-day break from lifting the big Stihl chainsaw around, since it's quite heavy.
  • We walked Cooper a lot, thinking he needed exercise after the Great Margarine Caper. He was happy to get extra walks.
  • The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. We are happy, since we were rooting for them.