April 20-26, 2026

Weather | 4/20, sunny, 32°, 66° | 4/21, sunny, 54°, 77° | 4/22, cloudy, 57°, 78° | 4/23, p. cloudy, 54°, 83° | 4/24, 0.55" rain, 54°, 68° | 4/25, sunny, 42°, 76° | 4/26, sunny to thunderstorms, 49°, 79° |

• Monday, 4/20: Mowing, Mowing, Mowing...Keep Those Mowers Rolling!
  • There was widespread frost on the ground this morning, with a low of 32°.
  • I noticed an oak tree that blew down near the beginning of Bobcat Trail that would make good firewood.
  • Mary and I both mowed. I mowed the lane, the east yard between the house and the lane and most of the south yard. Mary mowed between the sheds and the west yard.
  • Mary put grass mulch around the two new bushes, the rhubarb, and the raspberry transplants. I added grass mulch to the south row in the near garden.
  • I noticed rabbit chewings on the new strawberry plants, so Mary added old laced curtains over the strawberry containers and held them in place with several clothes pins.
  • We heard a wild turkey gobble to the east northeast in the late afternoon. Today is the first day of spring turkey hunting season. 
  • I watched Game 1 of the Edmonton Oilers/Anaheim Ducks NHL game. The Oilers won 4-3.

   

• Tuesday, 4/21: Mowing & Birth Certificate
  • On the noontime walk with Cooper around the north field, I noticed the spring green color of the leaves on the honey locust trees (see photo, below). This tree's pea-like leaves arrive with a distinct yellow-green color.
  • Mary mowed the area directly north of the house, which is the worst lawn to mow, due to mounds built up by moles digging in the earth. She also mowed the east lawn across the lane from the house. I mowed the rest of the south lawn and the south orchard. Mary progressed with grass mulch on the south row of the near garden and I put mulch around five of the eight small apple trees in the south orchard.
  • I also added baling twine to the Antonovka and the Colville trees to keep them more upright through heavy winds.
  • My birth certificate arrive in the mail from Florida. I'm now legal. For over 69 years I've been an alien blob. Now I'm a legal human. I feel better already.
  • It was windy all day, but especially after dark when we heard a maple tree that's growing too close to the southwest corner of the house scratching on the outside wall. I need to cut that tree down before it damages the house.
  • I finished Alexander Kent's 21st novel, For My Country's Freedom. The later novels by this guy are getting very predictable.

  

  The bright spring leaves of a honey locust tree.

   

• Wednesday, 4/22: Mowing, Body Mad at Me
  • Mary mowed east of the machine shed and around the grain bins. Since poison ivy is trying to take over that part of the lawn, she didn't collect any grass clippings. I mowed the western orchard path, then inside and outside of the near garden, minus between the fences.
  • My body is screaming at me for pushing a mower for three straight days. 
  • Something ate on the newly transplanted pink lilac bush. I'm suspecting a rabbit. There are nice green leaves on the top of the Carpathian walnut sapling and the basket willow, along with all five of the transplanted raspberry plants.
  • I watched two hockey games at once. They were the Oilers/Ducks and the Wild/Stars games. I'd switch between the games as one or the other went into intermission between periods. The last game went into double overtime and ended at close to 1 a.m. I was rooting for the Wild. They lost 4-3. I rooted for the Oilers in the other game. They lost 6-4. I guess I jinxed both teams.

   

• Thursday, 4/23: Shopping & Fly Tying
  • I noticed that Circle, MT is under a blizzard warning. In texts with Mom, she said it's true, and that it's snowing and blowing. Mom said that yesterday's high was close to 90 and she had windows open with the fan on. This morning, she has the heat on.
  • I drove to Quincy, mainly to pick up two prescriptions. I grabbed a few other items while in town.
  • After cleaning the house, Mary finished mowing the far north yard.
  • A couple rain drops fell after I returned home, but that was the end of it. 
  • Mary and I did a quick tour of a few transplanted items, such as the bleeding heart, basket willow, and the Carpathian walnut. All are progressing with nice green leaves appearing.
  • I took in a fly tying Webex. This one featured Pat Rigby, a tech specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation office in Kirksville, who has tied flies for over 20 years. He keyed in on making soft flies that sink. They're made with chicken hen feathers...hey, I have tons of free hen feathers! These are flies with a slim profile that are easy to make. He used yarn in the place of dubbing, "because I'm lazy," he says. The flies he makes look great and in some cases, it took him just seconds to make them. I left a comment about how his fly tying speed blew me away and he said, "Tie 10,000 flies and your speed increases." He winds the thread backwards on the hook (counterclockwise) from the way we were taught to wind it. Pat promoted trying all kinds of colors. He notices that dark patterns work better in muddy water, compared to bright and flashy flies. He uses flashy stuff in super clear water.
  • I ordered a fly tying book recommended by TJ, who hosts the monthly fly tying Webex.

   

• Friday, 4/24: Hobby Day & Watching NHL
  • We had over a half an inch of rain just after midnight. We heard it pouring on the roof while we were in bed.
  • After several days of pushing lawnmowers, we decided that today is hobby day and not a work day. 
  • I walked Cooper on his noontime walk to Wood Duck Pond. As we were getting close, I could hear a lone turkey gobbling to the east. The normally dry creek bed was flooded and the gobble sound was coming from across the water, from the slope on the east side of the woods. I called Cooper and we went back up the trail as to not disturb the turkey. Bass Pond is full of muddy water.
  • Mary cross stitched a Halloween pattern entitled, Scarie Sadie, of a black cat and bats in front of a full moon.
  • I tied two soft flies (see photos, below) based on the Webex I attended yesterday. One involves red thread, one of our rooster's feathers for a tail, Kreinik (metallic thread I bought when JoAnn's went out of business) used as ribbing, and a Rhode Island red feather tied on a #12 hook with a 1X shank. The other fly involves olive thread, a turkey feather tail, Kreinik ribbing, a body of two peacock hurls, and a barred rock feather tied on a #10 hook with a 2X shank. I tied these flies in an hour and a half. Pat, who I watched on Webex, probably could have tied both of them in two minutes.
  • Bill texted that he received a raise today after only two month on the job. He also was named Problem Solver of the Quarter and won a $150 gift card to the restaurant of his choice on Wednesday. His new job is an obvious good fit for him.
  • An online search revealed that by typing a certain number (*3001#12345#*) on an iPhone, you can get detailed information on 5G signal strength received from the cell tower. I went around the house searching for the strongest signal and found it in the upstairs south bedroom near the top of the south wall. At that point, it was equivalent to three bars of 5G. I leaned a six-foot step ladder against the inside of that wall in the bedroom and put the modem on it. This gave me an uninterrupted signal to the laptop hooked to the TV located downstairs in the living room. This is the modern version of wiggling a rabbit ear antenna on top of your television, circa 1972.
  • I watched Game 3 of the Ducks/Oilers Stanley Cup Playoffs. Anaheim won, 7-4. They deserved to win. Edmonton played the worst game I've ever seen them play. They're not going to make it beyond Round 1, if they continue on their current path. The Ducks are ahead in that series, two games to one.

Soft fly with red thread & dark feathers.

Soft fly with olive thread and white feathers.

• Saturday, 4/25: Bill Is Here For a Day
  • Each time after we get a big rain this spring, mobs of small ants fill the inside of our mailbox. I cleaned them out of the mailbox right when Bill arrived.
  • Bill showed up around 11 a.m. He's here for just one day.
  • Mary planted several pepper seeds in Styrofoam cups. 
  • Mary and I toured the newly transplanted plants (see photos, below). Two of the three yellow coneflowers are coming through the ground. Two of three blue phlox are thriving. All three Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants are looking great. Critters are nibbling on the pink lilac and basket willow bushes, but they both contain leaves. The rhubarb and the bleeding heart plants both look great. All five purple raspberry plants are up and growing leaves. The Carpathian walnut is sending out a big leaf bracket. I might need to remove the blue plastic protection tube and build a larger hardware cloth protector for it.
  • Bill and I watched Game 4 of the Stars/Wild hockey playoffs. Minnesota won, 3-2, in overtime. It was a really good game. The series is tied 2-2.
  • Mary made pizza that we enjoyed with some 2024 cherry wine while playing several games of Azul. Bill won most of the games. Mary and I won one game, each. It was fun.

  

  The three leaves in the middle are those of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant.

  
  

New leaves of a bleeding heart plant.

Rhubarb leaves are looking great.

Two of the five purple raspberry plants.



Blue phlox leaves are the tiny ones in the middle.

 

 

• Sunday, 4/26: Bill Leaves
  • After filling up his cooler with nine dozen eggs, we said goodbye to Bill. Our egg supply is still healthy, but at least we can see a little bare space in our fridge!
  • Yesterday, a tick traveled up my right leg and bite four times along the way. Since that leg was horribly itchy, I refrained from wearing pants. I stayed inside and washed dishes while Mary went outside and mowed. She mowed the chicken yard and the trail to between Bass Pond and Dove Pond.
  • I watched Game 4 of the Ducks/Oilers playoffs. The Ducks won in overtime, 4-3. Edmonton's defense is to pass the puck to the opposing team in front of their own net. It's not a key to success. The Ducks are ahead three games to one. One more loss by Edmonton and they're out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Round 1.
  • It rained a little bit prior to bedtime.

April 13-19, 2026

Weather | 4/13, p. cloudy, 61°, 81° | 4/14, 0.15" rain to cloudy, 65°, 86° | 4/15, 0.09" rain to cloudy, 60°, 76° | 4/16, 0.85" rain overnight, sunny, 58°, 80° | 4/17, sunny to thunderstorms, 1.96" rain, 58°, 81° | 4/18, sunny, 39°, 55° | 4/19, sunny, 34°, 55° |

• Monday, 4/13: Ongoing Issues
  • Today is Katie's 34th birthday, so we wished her a happy birthday online.
  • Fedco answered my email. We'll send the plants back to them, after we repair their box. I asked how to handle the label, but didn't hear back from them, today.
  • Mary turned over a bit of the near garden soil and weeded the garlic plants that were filled with wild buckwheat.
  • A guy from the Lewis County Rural Electric Co-op showed up and did nothing, because he says they need to bring in a bucket truck and the ground is too wet to move the heavy truck onto our lawn in order to be close enough to the pole. They could climb the pole, but he said he would let one of the younger guys do that. "Call us back if there are any changes," he said. I guess we wait until the pole and the transformer catches on fire before they actually fix the issue!
  • I ordered new checks from walmartchecks.com about 10 days ago. Unfortunately, I forgot that a central Illinois banking company bought our bank and the routing number changed. We were allowed to use our checks until they ran out. I failed to put the new routing number on my order for new checks. When I called the, I was put on a holding pattern at about 12:30 p.m. and they would call me back. The call-back came in at 3:30 p.m., but I had the sound off on my phone and missed the call. I'll try again, tomorrow.
  • I picked four dozen dandelion flowers. I'm at 50.1 grams and need 270 grams of dandy blossoms for a one gallon batch of wine, so I've got a long way to go! 
  • The new o-rings and air filters for the old lawnmower came in today's mail. These o-rings fit and oil and gas caps of the big Stihl chainsaw perfectly.
  • Bill called. He's doing well at his new job. He was invited to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game that was against the Boston Red Sox. Boston won. Bill's friend from high school, Craig, has a job where the office is just one block away from Busch Stadium. So, they drove to the parking lot where Craig works, then walked to the stadium, which was nice. Bill said the Cardinals have a big guy who looks huge when seen with the rest of the team. This guy hit a home run on his first up-to-bat.

   

• Tuesday, 4/14: Transplanting Plants We Didn't Order
  • We woke at 3:15 a.m. with the sudden loud cracking of thunder overhead. Mary and I jumped out of bed and unplugged appliances.
  • While walking Cooper around the north field around noon, I noticed that water was puddled up everywhere.
  • The dog ends up sloppy after splashing through all of the puddles on trails, so Cooper gets a complete wash down on the front porch each time he goes outside. Today is the three-month anniversary of driving up to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, to get Cooper.
  • I successfully called walmartchecks.com and changed the routing number on our check order. Calling first thing in the morning helped. When you call during midday hours, it takes forever to get through.
  • An email from Fedco came with a label to print out and directions that a FedEx truck will pick up the package tomorrow. The problem is that we don't own a printer. I sent an email back that I'll drive to Quincy and have FedEx print out the label and asked if they could compensate me. A return email told us to keep the contents of the box and plant everything. That news totally changed our plans for today. 
  • Mary and I planted three Blue Moon woodland phlox plants in woods north of the machine shed near a pond that only fills when we get big rains. We also planted three corms of Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants at the same location. I marked each planting with tall sticks. We planted a Frances Red Basket willow in the north yard between the Four Brothers (two pin oaks, an American Elm, and a pecan tree) and the McIntosh apple tree. We don't care if deer eat it, so we're not putting a fence around it. We planted a Miss Canada lilac near other lilac bush in the west yard. Finally, we planted yellow coneflower roots west of our livingroom's west window, near where we have a yearly stand of purple coneflowers that Mary planted in 2010. Not including dahlias that are planted later, we have four more items to put in the ground. Cloudy conditions and nighttime rains mean you couldn't ask for better transplanting weather. We hope the plants survive. Most all have pale yellow leaves. They've been in a dark box too long.
  • I found two morel mushrooms in the woods where we planted the phlox and Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants. We left them behind. These mushrooms are very treasured by locals who bread and deep-fry them. We know that years ago, people grabbed them out of these woods, so we want to leave them alone to build up their population.
  • All of the strawberries that we planted on Sunday are looking very good, with nice green leaves.
  • Mary harvested several asparagus spears. Some shoots were already too large to eat and she left them to grow. She lightly cooks them in garlic wine...very yummy!
  • With a high reaching 86°, it's a bit hot for living without an air conditioner. However, we have predicted lows in upcoming days in the 30s, so it's still too early for running an AC. We cooled the house down like my grandfather used to do in Maryland, with open windows and a big fan.
  • Before any AC goes in, we'll need to insist on the electric company fixing the short at the transformer, which we heard and saw at night while walking the puppy.

   

• Wednesday, 4/15: Yellow Violets & More Transplanting
  • I walked Cooper around the west field and down Bobcat Trail, where the yellow violets have really multiplied (see video and photos, below). Mary got seasick watching my video and went back to take the photos.
  • I picked blossoms off eight dozen dandy flowers. I have a grand total of  75 grams and I need 270 grams to make a gallon of wine. Is it any wonder that I hate this time-consuming job?
  • Mary transplanted most of the rest of the plants we didn't order, but received on Saturday from Fedco. She put the Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart in middle of the four brothers trees in the north yard. I need to add protection around that plant. Mary planted the Wild Columbine in a pot located in the shade next to the woodshed. She also put the Victoria heirloom rhubarb in a large pot. It will be there until we can dig up a place for it in the middle of the far garden. The five Royalty Purple Raspberry plants went into ground south of the far garden, near the compost bins and next to other wild raspberry plants. The only set of plants yet to put in the ground are three different kinds of dahlia bulbs. Mary plans to plant them after May 1.
  • A thunderstorm rolled through after dark, with a strong downpour of rain, giving us 85 hundredths of an inch of precipitation.

Yellow violet close-up taken by Mary.

Spring Beauties along our Bobcat Trail.
 

Yellow violets and an active puppy dog on Bobcat Trail.

• Thursday, 4/16: Ticks & Dandelions
  • We picked a lot more ticks off Cooper after his noontime walk. It amounted to about 40 ticks. We've entered the height of the tick season right now. 
  • The conditions on the north loop trail are very wet with water in the trail about everywhere. The silly National Weather Service has us in a moderate drought. I beg to differ with their assessment! We've had 5.32 inches of moisture since April 1st.
  • Mary sorted and tossed bad items from stored acorn squash and garlic bulbs. She reports that they are storing amazingly well. She tossed six squash and about a bucket and a third of bad garlic bulbs. Squash should only last three months after picking. They were picked in October, so they should all be bad by January. Garlic should last six months after harvest. They were harvested around May/June. We always get some of our garlic to last until July of the next year, or 13 months.
  • I picked dandelion blossoms. I'm noticing low numbers of dandelion flowers this year. I now have just over 100 grams of blossoms. I'm contemplating making just a half-gallon batch of dandelion wine this year.
  • I changed a magazine subscription away from Fine Homebuilding to The Journal of Light Construction. The former magazine is all about high-priced ideas for construction companies and doesn't fit my interests.

   

• Friday, 4/17: WOW! The Thunderstorms
  • I picked dandelion blossoms and now have a total of 122.6 grams. I only need to get 12.4 grams to get enough for making a half gallon of wine.
  • We did chores very early in the mid-afternoon with severe thunderstorms arriving.
  • I was throwing a ball for a game of fetch with Cooper when thunder was banging in the west. Needless to say, our game didn't last long.
  • When I put Cooper inside, skies were very dark to the west and I watched seven turkey vultures riding the currents and circling right over the house. They always ride the wind currents ahead of an approaching storm. 
  • Mary took a few things out of the freezer in case power went out with our poor transformer connection and we didn't want to open freezer doors and lose cold temperatures in the freezers. Our power stayed on.
  • From 4:00 until 11:30 p.m., a long chain of thunderstorms rumbled through us. At times, the skies were green with dark clouds. Funnel clouds were recorded west and north of here. One-inch hail fell in Lewistown, just five miles north of us. We only had a little bit of marble-sized hail. We experienced very strong winds and a continuous roar of thunder. Our total rainfall was almost two inches. We now have 7.28 inches of moisture this month.
  • When we walked Cooper for his last outing, we were sloshing through water everywhere. It's a good thing we haven't planted seeds, because they would drown in our present swampy conditions.
  • A big, yet thin, tree frog parked on our east-facing kitchen window when we finally went to bed around midnight.

   

• Saturday, 4/18: Flooding Wood Duck Pond
  • In a check of the new plantings from the Fedco box of plants that we never ordered, Mary discovered that the wild columbine is dead. I noticed that three of of the five Royalty Purple Raspberry plants are greening. The basket willow and pink lilac bushes have leaves that are a bit greener.
  • Meanwhile, all of our newly planted strawberry plants are growing nicely. The garlic took a big jump in height. All of our fruit trees look great. There are new green leaves on the top of the newly planted Carpathian walnut sapling.
  • We walked Cooper to Wood Duck Pond around noon. It's flooding and the dry creek bed is very wet and under water (see photos, below). I'll have to rebuild my deer blind after the floodwaters subside.
  • I picked enough dandelion blossoms to get a total of 137 grams, which will make a half gallon of wine. I'm guessing that this spring's 3° low, along with some days in the 80s, reduced the dandelion blossoms. All that's out there are tiny flowers.
  • I watched Game 1 of the Minnesota Wild/Dallas Stars playoff hockey game. The Wild won, 6-1. That's who I was rooting for.
  • When Mary put the chickens to bed for the night, she discovered that the west fence of the north chicken yard blew down overnight, yet all of the chickens stayed inside of their yard, even though they could have marched right over the fence into the west field. They're good chickens! 
  • Mary and I read books in the evening hours.

  

  Wood Duck Pond flooding the dry creek bed and the forest floor.

  
  

Wood Duck Blind on 4/2/26 with slight flooding.

The same blind in today's higher floodwater.
 

• Sunday, 4/19: Fixing Mary's Mower
  • There was spotty frost in shady places when I walked Cooper down the lane this morning.
  • We repaired the west chicken fence by pounding into the ground a couple metal fence posts at the base of fallen wooden posts and then leaning up the chicken wire fence and securing the wooden posts to the metal posts. I also drove two rebar stakes in the ground and tied a tomato cage surrounding a blueberry bush to the stakes. That cage keeps falling down in the wind, allowing rabbits to chew on the blueberry branches.
  • I made a guard out of a piece of three-foot high half-inch hardware cloth and put it around the newly transplanted Bleeding Heart plant to protect it from rabbits. 
  • I fixed Mary's push mower. I removed the air filter housing and used a small screwdriver to dig out oily dirt built up around the throttle mechanism and linkage. I changed the air filter. The old one was smelly with gas. I think it was choking down the engine. I removed the recoil pull starter assembly from the Kohler engine on a mower that died a few years ago and installed it on this mower. The recoil on the old mower we use wasn't retracting the pull starter rope all of the way. There was a nut missing of the three nuts that holds the recoil assembly on the mower we use, so I borrowed a nut off the dead mower. Once everything was put together, the mower started with just one pull, a new event for this mower. I tested it by mowing the lane to the rain gauge. It worked great. Mary is back in business for mowing the lawn, which is good, because the grass is now tall.
  • Mary dusted books to get rid of leftover dead ladybugs. Fortunately, they've finally dwindled down from invading the inside of our house windows.
  • Mary did a tour of recently transplanted plants. Most are doing well. So far, all that we've lost is one blue phlox, a wild columbine, and two of the three yellow coneflowers.
  • Mary says that the garlic plants doubled in size from the last deluge of rain.
  • A house wren showed up and is doing its "yickity, yack" song, claiming every bush and tree in our yard. A Carolina wren is telling the house wren to scram. We heard a screech owl when we walked Cooper on his nighttime outing, along with two barred owls to the east. 

April 6-12, 2026

 

Weather | 4/6, cloudy to sleet, 39°, 55° | 4/7, snow to rain, 0.35" moisture, 30°, 47° | 4/8, p. cloudy, 40°, 73° | 4/9, p. cloudy, 49°, 77° | 4/10, 0.51" rain to cloudy, 45°, 53° | 4/11, cloudy to 0.05" rain, 43°, 61° | 4/12, cloudy to 0.21" rain, 58°, 75° |

• Monday, 4/6: Dandy Wine Collection & Near Garden Prep
  • I looked online whether using whole dandelion flowers that included the green base (calyx) of the blossom is okay for making dandelion wine. It's not, because too much green makes the wine too bitter. However, a tiny bit of green improves the wine's taste. So, I don't need to be so touchy about keeping absolutely any green parts out of dandelion petal collection.
  • I picked six dozen dandy flowers in about an hour's time. Several more days of picking are in my future, but it goes a little faster, now.
  • I cleaned dead weeds and grass out of part of the chicken wire fence line that keeps rabbits out of the near garden. It amounted to about a third of that fence. I then mowed the weeds up and threw them away...too many weed seed heads to compost that stuff.
  • While Mary was hanging out laundry to dry, she heard the tapping of a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Today's Cornell Ornithology online newsletter showed how to identify woodpeckers by their tapping rhythm as they peck tree branches, giving Mary the opportunity to identify this bird that migrates through our property.
  • For a portion of this afternoon, weather websites showed that we had the worst air quality of anywhere in the world. I looked up where testing sites are located and for us, the nearest facility is a lake north of the Iowa/Missouri border. Our air was just fine. Maybe someone idled a diesel truck next to the sensor's air intake. 
  • Mary heard turkey gobbles in property west of us when she walked Cooper around the west field.
  • Every spring, narcissus flowers bloom north of the machine shed near the north wood's edge. They were planted by someone who lived here before we arrived on this property. Mary took a photo of one of the blossoms (see below). The brown tips of the leaves indicate when our low temperature hit 3° on March 17th.
  • When I walked Cooper at night, rain and sleet were falling. Fortunately, Cooper walks very fast, so time spent walking him goes quickly.

  

  An old-fashioned Poet's Narcissus blossom.

   

• Tuesday, 4/7: Ordering Clothes
  • Mary and I ordered some clothes. We're finding the best prices by ordering directly from the manufacturers. For instance, I bought my current Dickies coveralls in 2009 from JCPenney. Today I ordered from Dickies for significantly less money than the price quoted at Penneys.
  • Mary cross stitched while I looked for socks online to no avail. I refuse to pay $30-$60 for one pair of socks!
  • I checked the water meter, since our water bill has been exactly the same for the past three billing cycles and unusually high for this time of the year. Since I checked it the first week in February, we used about 5,000 gallons over two months, yet we're being charged for using 4,000 gallons each month. The rural water folks obviously don't read their own meters and just estimate usage on the high side. I'm calling them tomorrow.
  • Every spring, a phoebe builds a nest in the wood shed, which is a metal Quonset hut. Summer heat from sun hitting the metal is usually too hot for young chicks. The bird nests fall down each winter, yet each spring a new one appears. For the past few days, mud and moss were brought in to build this phoebe nest. It's located lower on the angle iron roof support, so maybe it will miss the heat from the metal surface above it.
  • We watched two movies that we haven't seen in years. They were Hidden Figures (2016), and Men in Black: International (2019).

   

• Wednesday, 4/8: Water Agreement
  • Southwest wind gusts blew to over 40 mph, today.
  • I called the Knox County Public Water District #1 office. They supply us with our water. They are fine with us calling in the meter reading each month. They determine bills on the 24th of every month, so I'll call in the reading on the 23rd of the month.
  • I picked only two dozen dandelion blossoms today.
  • The o-rings I ordered a couple days ago arrived in today's mail. When I replaced the o-ring on the oil cap of the large Stihl chainsaw, I discovered that my new o-rings were too small. I ordered the wrong size, so I reordered the correct size.
  • I ordered two new air filters for older push lawnmower.
  • Mary is pretty sure that a bluebird is nesting in a hole that was drilled into the weeping willow tree stump by a downy woodpecker this winter. 
  • With Cooper, I can point and say "We're going this way," after walking out the front door and he runs off in the correct direction. He's the first dog to understand directions with the pointing of my finger. Former pups that we owned would go off in any direction. Klondike was almost certain to run in the opposite direction.
  • Mary prepared a shopping list for tomorrow's visit to Quincy.

   

• Thursday, 4/9: Interesting Books
  • We shopped. The highlights are:
  • The Quincy Friends of the Library held their semi-annual book sale. Mary had to attend, of course. We only filled two canvas bags with nine books and paid $4 at 50 cents an inch. Most books were very large and heavy.
  • I made copies of the application to Florida for my birth certificate at Staples. Later in the day, we sent it out at Quincy's main U.S. Post Office.
  • On our Walmart visit, we noticed that they are making additional changes, which seem to be good improvements. For instance, they've expanded their crafts area and the sporting goods department. There are also more pet supplies. It's a better store, now. 
  • Today was a test for Cooper. We left him alone at home for just over six hours and he didn't destroy anything. He did move Mary's hand cream container kept under the chair near our bed, but he didn't bite into it and only moved it to the hallway just outside our bedroom. He was a good boy. Although Gandalf was swatting at Cooper at dinnertime. We're guessing that Cooper ran around the house all day in a fuss while looking out windows and by evening, Gandalf was sick and tired of the dog.
  • We heard loud music to the south, this evening. We also heard four-wheelers roaring around. The city folks from St. Louis are here and David Marquette, who lives to the south of us next to where the visitors camp, is playing his music loud to annoy them. This weekend is the youth turkey hunting season. 
  • During the evening, we looked at the books that we bought today. A book about canoes looks very interesting, as does the Heritage of America Cookbook. Mary spotted a recipe in it for a black walnut filling bread called potica that her father's mother used to make. Mary says it tastes wonderful. Two other interesting books were Wildflowers of Illinois Woodlands and the Missouri Breeding Bird Atlas: 1986-1992.

   

• Friday, 4/10: Bug Bite & Katie at Palmer Career Day
  • Mary was bit four times on her left arm by a small assassin bug. She immediately took Benadryl and put ice on the area. The bites raised a big welt on her upper arm, putting her out of commission for the day. She repeated the Benadryl and ice treatment in the evening hours.
  • On my walk with Cooper around the north field, we stopped at Bass Pond where a little blue heron took off. Cooper acted different today. He came back to me regularly, checking to make sure I stuck around, a result of leaving him home alone with four cats, yesterday. Cooper ran a squirrel up a tree when we returned home and then looked up several trees to try to find the squirrel.
  • I make waffles every Friday, which was great today, because it meant Mary didn't have to spend time in the kitchen.
  • I picked blossoms from four dozen dandelion flowers. 
  • Mary and I watched the Artemis II splashdown.
  • Katie was at the Palmer Career Day and was filmed by two news organizations. She said that she was demonstrating how to operate a circular saw in the KTUU News video (1st video, below) and she was showing how to lay out studs on the top and bottom plates for framing in the Alaska News Link video (2nd video below). Here are the video links:
    
    • https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/04/09/alaska-construction-career-fair-introduces-900-students-trade-opportunities/?outputType=amp
    • https://www.youralaskalink.com/news/education/anchorage-students-explore-construction-jobs-at-palmer-career-day/article_2f9e43a4-f780-4038-bb85-baa51057631a.html 

 

• Saturday, 4/11: A Down Day
  • The assassin bug bites that Mary received are still bothersome. There's enough heat coming off her arm to melt a sandwich bag of ice cubes in about 15 minutes. The bite area on her arm is red and swollen. Mary is laying low, today.
  • I had a migraine in the morning. These days they come without much of a headache, but I felt bum and didn't do much, except to diddle online.
  • A new pair of Dickies brand coveralls arrived. I'm glad I paid attention to comments online, which indicated that they're sized on the small side. I ordered a size XL in regular and they fit perfectly. I like coveralls to be large enough to get a jacket under them. This pair has brass zippered pockets and snaps on the cuffs, making it nicer than the last coveralls I owned.
  • After a brief rain, we noticed a long box that was bent over and left on the trailer that's parked next to our pickup. The ditzy mail carrier left it without telling us it was there! It is from Fedco and contains 12 items worth $202.50 that we didn't order. Some of the items, like raspberry plants, Jack-in-the-pulpit plants, and yellow coneflower plants, are pretty expensive. The tip of the lilac sapling inside was bent at an almost 180-degree angle, since the box broke on three sides and was bent over. We itemized what was in the box. Mary misted the woody plants and put everything in our dark and cool back porch closet. I sent an email to Fedco asking what they want us to do with these items, since we didn't order them. The mailing sticker on the box had a tracking number of a package that we received from Fedco on April 1st. The Fedco shipping department really screwed up!

   

• Sunday, 4/12: Strawberries Planted
  • We planted 51 strawberry plants in the containers at the east end of the near garden. Mary cleaned out old plants and added compost to the buckets and tubs while I dug earth from mole hills in our front yard. I added the earth to the containers. Mary stirred all contents of the containers, then planted the strawberry crowns. I mowed inside and outside of the near garden to collect up grass mulch, then added it to the tops of all containers. It was a perfect day for transplants, since clouds kept bright sun from harming the newly planted items and later a nice rain watered everything.
  • It rained in the afternoon.
  • While waiting for the rain to quit, I worked at bagging up chicken feathers that we saved a few years ago for fly tying purposes that were in a plastic bin. I separated all of the bags of feathers according to how I would use them, such as hackles used to make fuzziness on a fly hook, feathers shaped like bug wings, large wing feathers used for straight fibers, and fluffy feathers used as dubbing. 
  • Meanwhile, Mary sewed blocks of fabric together for a future quilt.
  • We kept waiting for the rain to quit. It didn't, so we went out in the rain to do evening chores.
  • I started reading the 21st of Alexander Kent's British Navy novels entitled For My Country's Freedom.
  • On Cooper's final walk for the day, stars were shining and we noticed an electrical short near our electrical transformer, again. Mary has been hearing sizzling sounds near the power pole for the past few days.