March 30-April 5, 2026

Weather | 3/30, sunny, 57°, 83° | 3/31, sunny, 62°, 83° | 4/1, 1.20" rain, 41°, 45° | 4/2, 1.65" rain to sunny, 43°, 73° | 4/3, cloudy to 0.27" rain, 43°, 73° | 4/4, cloudy, 41°, 49° | 4/5, sunny, 35°, 59° |

• Monday, 3/30: Mowing South Yard & Orchard
  • I mowed the south yard. This is an area we neglected to mow last year, so it had tall dead grass with a few bits of green grass poking through. When I mowed around the Sargent crabapple tree, I stopped to pick up black walnuts. I tossed several walnuts between the crabapple and a neighboring walnut tree that were on our lane last fall. Now there are hundreds of them in one patch east of the lane.
  • Once finished with the south lawn, I mowed all of the triangles of tall dead grass between the paths in the south apple orchard so that the whole area is mowed. It was tough going and my muscles tell me I'm an idiot. It looks nice, though.
  • Meanwhile, Mary cleaned in the house and vacuumed more ladybugs.
  • I played fetch with Cooper. His rear leg wound broke open, again, so he will be off from fetching a ball for several days. This time, the wound was not as bad as the last time. It comes from him chewing on his hind leg while in the shelter before we got him.
  • Mary took down the second stalk of amaryllis blossoms, because the flowers were drying up. It was a bright color countering the dull browns of late winter and early spring.
  • Mary briefly heard the song of a white-throated sparrow, so we still have winter birds floating through on their way north.

   

• Tuesday, 3/31: Garden Prep & Violets
  • We were back vacuuming ladybugs, which seems to be a daily constant.
  • I mowed dead grass inside the near garden, then mowed around the outside of that garden.
  • Mary hoed weeds out of the near garden.
  • She also took hay and a bag of food to the chicken coop.
  • We heard wild turkeys gobbling to each other to the north. They weren't too far away.
  • Thunderstorms were rolling through to the north after dark. Rain didn't get to us until very early the next morning.
  • Violet blossoms are popping all over our yard. Mary took photos of them (see below).

Close-up of a violet blossom in our yard.

More violets...one of Mary's favorite flowers.
 

• Wednesday, 4/1: More Rain
  • It was raining when we woke up. We got well over an inch of rain overnight.
  • The green grass has erupted with all of the rain.
  • An English walnut tree, and 50 strawberry plants arrived in today's mail. We also got 1200 Red Rose tea bags, which is enough for a full year of tea drinking. 
  • I put off digging a hole for the tree, or dealing with strawberry plants. There's too much rain predicted in the next few days and I don't want to drown the tree or the strawberry plants.
  • It started raining again when we finished chores early at about 4:30 p.m.
  • We watched two movies that we haven't seen in several years. They were The Martian (2015) and Angels & Demons (2009).
  • Thunder and lightening started right when we ended the second movie, then buckets of rain poured down. Windows in the sunroom were originally installed incorrectly, overtop of the outside siding, so extreme rains allow water to pour in through the tops of the windows. Mary pulled the table away from the wall in the sunroom.

   

• Thursday, 4/2: Big Rainfall, Dead Hen & Fly Fishing Equipment
  • We experienced a significant amount of rain overnight and this morning. In 24 hours, we had just under three inches of rain.
  • When we let the chickens outside this morning, we found a dead barred rock hen under the east roost inside the chicken coop. That brings our numbers down to 17 hens and one old, retired rooster.
  • I noticed that the Seckel pear tree leaves look great. Last year it arrived with yellow leaves and looked like it might not make it as hot weather always crisped leaves off as they developed. This spring it looks like it wants to live.
  • We walked Cooper down to Wood Duck Pond, which is flooding into the nearby woods (see photos, below). My deer blind, which is usually quite a distance away from the pond's shoreline, has standing water next to it. When we first arrived, about two to three dozen mallard ducks flew off to the north.
  • I took in a Missouri Department of Conservation fly fishing equipment Webex. It was brief, but I learned a little bit about sizes of fly poles and reels, along with fly line requirements.
  • After the webinar, I looked at my fly pole and reel. We bought this beginning fly fishing rig at a sporting goods store in Billings, MT, around 2003-04. A good thing is the nylon backing and the fly line on the reel usually don't go bad. Unfortunately, the reel seat foot doesn't fit under the rod's rear moveable hood, which means I either need to file down one reel seat foot, or replace the rod's entire reel seat mechanism. A good point is Bill gave me a four-piece rod that can act as both a light spinning rod, or a fly rod. I will need different fly line to match that heavier spinning/fly rod.
  • Tornadoes developed north of us in Iowa late this afternoon. I saw a big mushroom-shaped thunderhead to the east of us in Illinois. We were sunny. 
  • When I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail, I noticed that gooseberry bushes are blooming, as well as an abundant number of spring beauty flowers. 

Wood Duck blind, minus a roof, next to standing water.

Wood Duck Pond flooding onto the forest floor.
 

• Friday, 4/3: Native Bees & More Showers
  • A couple days ago, Katie sent a video showing her trying out a pair of skates that she recently bought (see below).
  • The big cherry tree is loaded with white blossoms and therefore, filled with several pollinators. We are lucky to have a multitude of small native bees that help in pollinating fruit trees. 
  • I did a quick round of vacuuming bugs. There are fewer, which is good.
  • We looked at ordering some clothes for both of us.
  • When I took Cooper on a walk around the west field, I saw 8-10 deer run off to the northwest right after we turned onto Bobcat Trail. Based on the size of the deer tracks I saw crossing the west end of the west field, I'm guessing they were all bucks.
  • We did evening chores early, due to approaching thunderstorms.
  • After a brief afternoon shower, we then experienced several storms rolling in from the southwest after darkness fell.
  • Mary came up with an interesting rain comparison. For the first three months of this year, we got 3.89 inches of moisture. The first three days of April gave us 3.11 inches of rain.
  Katie trying out some new-to-her hockey skates.
  
  

• Saturday, 4/4: Planting a Carpathian Walnut Tree
  • Everywhere you look around here, it's turning green. Grass is bursting with growth. Understory trees in the woods are emerging with spring leaves. Pear and apple trees are also green with leaves.
  • On our noon walk with Cooper, Mary and I walked around the south field. Cooper loves this walk, because he can run all over the place in an open field. Sometimes he forgets how far ahead of us he's roaming. Mary and I hid behind a big cedar tree at one point. Cooper noticed we weren't behind him and came running back to find us. This was a trick Grandad Melvin suggested he used to do with his Irish Setter. At the time he told me, I owned Clancy, a Bassett hound. It never would have worked with that hound. He would just follow his nose forever and never care where anyone else was located. It's much different with Cooper.
  • I planted the Carpathian walnut tree in the open area of the northeast lawn in a line with black walnut trees. It should get wind pollinated well in this location. After removing sod and digging a hole, I added four shovels of compost and bunch of shovels of wood chips and dirt from under the firewood splitter, then mixed it up. I planted the tree and added sod, placed upside down on top of the soil surrounding the tree. Then I pounded an 8-foot rebar stake in the ground and installed a 4-foot x 5-inch light plastic blue tube around the tree, wiring the tube to the rebar stake. This is to protect the sapling from chewing animals, along with giving a sapling that was in a dark box filtered light.
  • We ordered Katie's birthday gifts. Hopefully, they arrive before her April 13th birthday.
  • Mary and I enjoyed a bottle of 2022 blackberry wine. Of all of the wild wines I make, it's the closest to grape wine in flavor. It was exceptionally good. There's only one bottle left of that vintage of blackberry wine.
  • While walking Cooper on his last outing on a clear, moonlit night, we heard an American toad calling from Bluegill Pond.

   

• Sunday, 4/5: Spring Mowing
  • We had an Easter dinner of turkey franks cooked over the fire in the woodstove. It gave Mary time to do outdoor stuff, rather than spending a bulk of the day fixing food.
  • After picking up dead branches on the ground, I mowed up leaves and dead grass in the north yard under some pecan trees and started to move wheelbarrow loads to the compost bin.
  • Mary tried to mow the east yard, but the old push mower died on the first try at mowing. I need to investigate. I suspect a fuel issue, like perhaps water in the gas. She helped move  grass that I cut to the compost bin and fluff up old grass and leaves with a garden rake so that I could do a second cut with the mower.
  • I mowed without using the collection bag to knock down old grass and weeds under and around the old McIntosh apple tree that has more dead branches on it.
  • We watched two red-shouldered hawks performing a mating flight over the north woods.
  • After dark, I finished Alexander Kent's 20th novel, The Darkening Sea.
  • On Cooper's last walk, we saw an orange moon rising on the southeast horizon. It looked like a pumpkin with the top cut off.