April 26-May 2, 2020

Weather | 4/26, 37°, 67° | 4/27, 45°, 72° | 4/28, 0.18" rain, 52°, 74° | 4/29, 0.02" rain, 47°, 52° | 4/30, 44°, 66° | 5/1, 43°, 77° | 5/2, 57°, 79° |

• Sunday, 4/26: It was a sunny and wind-free day. Mary washed dog bedding, sheets, and furniture covers. I thought I was going to make dandelion wine, but I only did stage 1: picking dandelion flowers. Each flower is stripped of only the yellow pedals without any green parts...a slow process. I was eager to get 9 cups for a award-winning recipe. Four and a half hours later, I finally gathered a quart, enough for a different recipe, which is the one I'll use. This is only enough for making 1 gallon. I can't imagine gathering enough to make 5 gallons...it would take you a week of just plucking dandies, or an army of pluckers! And, Mary refuses to join my army. I refrigerated my quart of yellow dandy flower pieces to make wine tomorrow. It was Pollinator Day, with several blossoms and flowers busy with bees (see videos below). The garden got watered twice. Several seeds are sprouting. Mary mowed, trying to duck the goon ball in the lawn chair plucking dandy bits. We built an outside fire after finishing chores and had a weinie roast while the sun set. We watched 3 chimney swifts fly in from the south, take a few laps around the house as if to say "We're home!" and then dive down the chimney. That's the end of wood stove fires until fall. We heard 3 whip-poor-wills when it was almost dark. Then, we heard an American Toad trilling...they're very loud and have neat sound. Finally, when we were packing up to go in, we saw 2 instances of a long string of Elon Musk's communication satellites fill about 2/3 of the sky. They're very bright, alarming, and obnoxious. One person shouldn't have the right to fill the world's night sky with that kind of light pollution.

MacIntosh Apple Tree Blossoms

Sargent Crap Apple Tree Blossoms

Honey Bee on Dandelion

Sweat Bee on Dandelion (Eastern Meadowlark & Chipping Sparrow songs)

• Monday, 4/27: It was somewhat of a cloudy day. From a want list we've developed over several days, we figured costs of items and what we want to spend our tax refund money on. We ordered a new Tilley hat for Mary. She bought her present one in 2007 and the top is starting to rip up. From Fedco in Maine, I bought 5 bottles of various kinds of orchard spray, grafting wax, Parafilm grafting tape, and PVC grafting tape. Mom's birthday money to me that originally went towards a grafting seminar, but got refunded since that event was canceled, paid for the grafting supplies. I picked a few more dandelions. Mary mowed. We raked grass from the front east yard. I got a package sent from Ruby Hollembeak of photos and a photo album that I'd left behind at Delta Jct., AK. Texted her and thanked them for sending it to me. She said to call Scott (her husband) anytime. We saw a bald eagle in the morning. Mary took a photo (see below) of a Swallowtail butterfly on cherry blossoms. Garden report: most all of the radishes have sprouted, along with some lettuce, spinach, and some peas. Out of 52 strawberry plants, 30 are showing green leaves. All apple rootstock have buds with leaves starting to develop. Our largest Sargent crab apple is in full bloom (see photo below).

Swallowtail butterfly in cherry blossoms.

Sargent crab apple in full bloom.

• Tuesday, 4/28: Woke at 5 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up, walked dogs, and raked some more of the lawn that Mary mowed yesterday. Eventually, I raked up all of the mowed grass and added 9 feet of mulch in the far garden. Mary took out all of the firewood stored inside the house and the metal wood rack and moved the firewood to the woodshed and the rack to the machine shed. She also made flour tortillas. In the evening, I went through all of the dandelion pedals with tweezers and a fork and removed any green bits and bugs. That's sure tedious work. This dandy wine better taste good, because preparing it is very time-consuming. I put the dandy pedals in a nylon mesh bag and poured boiling water over them in a brew bucket, covered that and set it into the pantry. The recipe calls for me to stir and squeeze the mesh bag 3 times for the next 3 days.


• Wednesday, 4/29: I ordered underwear from JC Penney. I also reviewed ordering some more wine making equipment, but didn't order anything. Through the day, I did the mandatory dandelion blossom squeezing of the bag in my wine brewing bucket. Mary made a pear cake. It was cold in the house, so I turned on our portable 4-foot electric baseboard heater in the living room and we huddled around the electrical fire...no woodstove now, because we don't want to smoke out the chimney swifts. We watched 2 movies, Monuments Men and London has Fallen. 


• Thursday, 4/30: Mary did 2 loads of laundry and mowed the lane. I moved firewood from the trailer to appropriate locations. I now have a ton of wood to split. I also finished filling in Churchill's grave and moved cement blocks that covered his grave to a new location to the north of the Machine Shed. Mary watched an American Kestrel fly with several turkey vultures. We have gobs of honey bees in the crab apple. The lilacs are blooming.


• Friday, 5/1: I made waffles for breakfast. Mary did 2 loads of laundry. Had smoked scrambled eggs for our main midday meal and finished off a bottle of pear wine that we opened yesterday. It's much better, more refined, with a soft pear taste to it. The order of orchard tree spray is shipping via FedEx, so I changed its delivery to Walgreen's in Quincy, IL. Bill texted us that his hours are cut to 35 per week and hopes that is only temporary. In the evening, I removed the dandelion pedals from my batch of wine...it smelled like an old, slightly rotten bale of hay, so I hope the wine tastes better than what it smells like. Added to the wine brew the following: zest from 3 oranges and 3 lemons, then the juice from those fruit, 3/4 pound of minced golden raisins, and yeast nutrient. Juicing out oranges that have had their outer skins scraped off is like working with small water balloons. All of this sounds like a simple chore, but it took me 4 hours...a lot of time is eaten up with sanitizing everything. While chopping up raisins, I had an entire collection of pets nearby. I turned around and there was Holly sitting on my portable table that I sanitize so I have a place to put sanitized items. "Damn it, get the hell off!" I shouted, and all the pets scattered. They ended up with Mary, who was in the sun room copying an online cross stitch pattern. After finishing, my wine must smelled like a citrus fruit stand. It now waits 12 hours, then I add pectic enzyme and yeast. The oak trees are pollinating...you can especially smell them during night dog walks. 


• Saturday, 5/2: I texted Mom for a bit. She talked about when Dad did sales work for Teslow's (out of Great Falls, MT) in the early '60s, Hutterites wanted to trade him dandelion wine for whiskey. She said it's working up to be a dry year in eastern Montana. I added pectic enzyme to my dandelion wine, then added Red Star Premier Cote des Blancs yeast, the same yeast I used when making pear wine. The specific gravity was at 1.127, higher than yesterday's reading of 1.120, obviously getting an additional sugar boost from the soaking raisins. My hydrometer indicates the alcohol at 17%, if I take it down to 1.000 on specific gravity. Mary mowed the far garden. I took apart some supports on the north corners of the far garden fence and then weedwhacked the north end. We didn't use that garden last year, so several lower wires are under decaying tall grass. Mary and I raked most of what she mowed and added another 11 feet of mulch to a row we're building on to bury weeds and make a garden bed. Lightning striking north of us made us quickly finish our mulching chore. Unfortunately, we didn't get any rain. The garlic is in need of water. Most seeds are sprouting, except for shelling peas and 2 lettuce varieties. We saw our first hummingbird in the comfrey patch.

April 19-25, 2020

Weather | 4/19, 43°, 63° | 4/20, 36°, 65° | 4/21, 40°, 59° | 4/22, 0.03" rain, 47°, 67° | 4/23, 51°, 69° | 4/24, 51°, 65° | 4/25, 0.67" rain overnight, 43°, 59° |

• Sunday, 4/19: Because I continue to see tiny bubbles occasionally rising in my grapefruit wine, I researched this. First, I used yeast that survives up to 18% alcohol (wow), since it's a champagne yeast. Second, potassium sorbate doesn't destroy yeast, it prevents it from reproducing. Third, time eventually kills yeast and sometimes it takes 2 months for yeast to thoroughly die out. Jack Keller, a guy with tons of online info about wine making, advocates letting wine age in large containers for 3 months to 2 years. He talks about killing yeast by putting carboys in a fridge for 3 months, thereby bypassing potassium sorbate. "Look out honey, I'm taking over the fridge." That won't happen. I'll just wait to bottle until there are no more bubbles. It might take awhile. We spotted gobs of bees and flies of all kinds in the pear blossoms. Mary planted all but a tiny bit of the near garden with the early produce, including onions, shallots, radishes, shelling peas, snow peas, lettuce, and spinach. I got all of the strawberry buckets filled with soil. After the rotten wood, the following layers went in...autumn leaves, grass clippings, compost, then a mix of mole hill mound soil, purchased topsoil and timber sand from the north woods. I had to mix soil twice and the second batch had too much clay in the sand I got, so was a little gloopy. During that adventure in getting sand, I got to the bottom of a gulch and noticed that my boots wanted to sink very quickly, which made me step fast before getting sucked into quicksand. Bill texted his mother a photo (see below) with the following words, "Donut shaped apple cinnamon muffins, cause why not?"

Bill's doughnut muffins.

• Monday, 4/20: It was a warm, sunny, and windy day with a few sprinkles, but not enough to get us wet. Mary mowed in, around the near garden, and around the compost bins. She made turkey pot pie for our main meal. I planted 50 strawberry plants in 17 cat litter buckets while Mary moved them to the north end of the near garden. The strawberry plants were in excellent shape with lots of roots. I also moved the 10 buckets of apple tree root stock to the near garden. Mary added mulch to all 27 buckets of strawberries and trees. I helped as she  watered the garden twice. Already, some of the peas are showing movement. Now, everything is in the sun and behind an electric fence. The cherry trees are starting to bloom. Both pear trees are all white with blossoms. Yesterday, the first person in our county to get COVID-19 virus, someone in their 80s, died at Quincy's Blessing Hospital, plus 4 more cases of the virus were discovered in our county. Three of those 4 are family members.


• Tuesday, 4/21: Mary's order was shipped via FedEx, so I altered its destination to the Quincy Walgreen's store, so we'll get it. It's supposed to be in tomorrow, so I'll run to town on Thursday. Mary washed towels and dried them on the line. She mowed and mulched the far garden. Some of it was grass that wasn't mowed since early summer of last year making it rough going. I had a migraine, but these days I don't get a headache, only the fuzzy eyesight and a less-than-perfect feeling. I picked up unused soil and layers of plastic sheeting I had down in the machine shed. I weed whacked the near garden fence. Two times, I helped Mary water seed beds in the near garden. We're starting to see the beginnings of strawberry leaves. We watched the 2003 movie Master and Commander. After an online look, I unfriended Garry Johnson on Facebook when seeing a comment about blocking the Bill of Rights due to press coverage. Seems as though the First Amendment, which allows for press coverage, is part of the Bill of Rights, so I highly disagree with that Circle Montana mental midget. 


• Wednesday, 4/22: Mary's order arrived at the Quincy Walgreen's today. I researched fixing the chimney where stucco in sloughing off the outside of the chimney and splits in the bricks are starting to occur. Decided that building a platform on the roof peak would be the safest option and decided to do that in the late summer/early fall. Mary made macaroni casserole and put together a shopping list. We watered the garden twice and then took a hike in the north woods. The redbud, apple, and cherry trees are blooming and yellow violets are showing up in various areas in the woods. There is also a light blue violet that Mary discovered is called the Missouri Violet. We heard a woodcock while walking dogs at night. Usually, they're done by now.


• Thursday, 4/23: I went shopping in Quincy. When I pulled into Walgreen's parking lot, people were going in and out of the store, but when I got out, a woman was announcing that the store was closed and would reopen in the morning. Later, KHQA announced that someone was in that store who had a confirmed case of COVID-19 and they closed it to thoroughly clean inside. Here's that article. Shopping involved bouncing back and forth between stores to get everything. Not a single margarine tub in Walmart, but returned to Sam's Club and found some. TP is out everywhere, not that we need any. Bought crappy paper towels, but at least found some. Aldi is limiting canned goods, so found more beans at Walmart. Most everywhere, you stand in line outside the store before entering. There was a lot more traffic. About half of all people are wearing masks and a few more wearing gloves. All but Aldi employees are wearing masks. Most not wearing anything are elderly and construction worker types. Back home, Mary did house cleaning and watered the garden once. We had nachos and watched The Martian 2015 movie. I have to go back to Quincy tomorrow to pick up the package at Walgreen's...if only FedEx could find our home, but in 10 years, they've only delivered to our residence twice and often delivered to some other address.


• Friday, 4/24: I drove to Quincy, picked up the FedEx package at Walgreen's, got items I couldn't find yesterday at Walmart, got spring water for wine making at County Market, then got gas at Fastlane on the way home for $1.27 a gallon. That's the price we once paid for gas almost 30 years ago when we lived in Roseau, MN. It was raining hard when I bought gas, with lightning hitting close by, so I waited a few minutes before I drove back home. At home, Mary planted chives in a container and weeping willow tree cuttings in a tub. We watched the BBC 6-hour version of Pride and Prejudice. I slept through several parts of it. Got to bed really late. It was raining and quite wet when we walked the dogs just prior to bed.


• Saturday, 4/25: Cloudy most of the day. Most all pear blossoms are done. Cherries and apples are blossoming, now. Mary ordered items for her birthday, since some cross stitch items are often on back order and it might take several days/weeks for them to come in. She also made 4 loaves of bread. I tried to figure out why we have a $10 increase in our cell bill, but can't make heads or tails out of the online bill. On a text chat with U.S. Cellular, that person didn't have access to my bill, so I cut that short. Tried calling and got a message that they are swamped and would rather customers communicate some other way. Decided to call the local office on Monday. Spent time online looking for pickups. A lot of junk out there. Spotted a nice one at Big Lake, MN...for some reason my wife doesn't want to drive that far...amazing. We walked the dogs on the east trail, half of which isn't mowed. Blue periwinkles are starting to bloom. There were big fish swirls in the Swim Pond. We saw 3 deer, a doe and 2 yearlings, just outside our west living room window at sunset. Since they were close to eating cherry tree branches, I went out, clapped my hands, and sent them away.

April 12-18, 2020

Weather | 4/12, 0.35" rain, 35°, 69° | 4/13, 26°, 43° | 4/14, 26°, 48° | 4/15, skiff of snow, 27°, 49° | 4/16, 3" snow, 27°, 36° | 4/17, 0.79" rain, 29°, 43° | 4/18, 27°, 58° |

• Sunday, 4/12: It warmed up to a high in the early afternoon, then dark clouds arrived with rain and temperatures dropped drastically. We read internet news in the morning. I looked up wine info related to floaties in the wine...decided not to worry about it. Also, checked out online wine yeast purchasing potentials. We did most of our chores early when we saw dark clouds arriving from the SW...always the direction for a real dumper of moisture. After dishes, I drilled a hole in the center of a screw cap to a vitamin bottle to use to keep rubber stoppers in place in 1-gallon jugs while brewing wine. Then, I racked the grapefruit wine into a new jug. Prior to racking, I checked the specific gravity. It decreased slightly to 0.990 on one hydrometer and 0.998 on another. Since I added refrigerated must during the last racking, I expected this change, because the refrigerated must wasn't as far along as that in the jug. Tasted some of the wine used to check specific gravity. It's more mellow, still bitter, a strong grapefruit taste, sort of similar to beer with high amounts of hops in it. After racking, I added a crushed Campden tablet and potassium sorbate to kill all yeast. I'll let it sit for 10 days to ensure all yeast is deactivated, then bottle it. Below are 6 wine racking photos.

Black modified bottle cap to hold stopper.

Wine flowing from first jug and dregs.

Wine flowing into second jug.

Racking from the first jug to the second jug.

Dregs (left), racked wine (center),
and yeast killing material (right).

Wine ready to wait 10 days until bottled.

• Monday, 4/13: Found a birthday ecard and forwarded it to Katie on her 28th birthday. She called around noon while on the way to a friend for a birthday meal. She had to leave her home, because of an inspector that needed to visit the house. She's decided to remove the fence when she leaves, since the landlord who once said she'd reimburse Katie the $1000 it took to put up the fence is now saying she won't do that, even though the landlord sold the house with a fenced yard. Katie is trying to find work, since she's not sure anything will develop as far as employment in Alaska this year. Mary did some house cleaning and made vegetable soup. I fiddled with html code for most of the afternoon to get my wine making photos to appear correctly above. It took a lot of trial and error, internet searches, and cuss words.


• Tuesday, 4/14: Even though we continue to get cold morning temperatures, the pear blossoms are staying on trees...amazing. I spotted an article in The Atlantic about Petco groomers bitching on how they have to work through the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Passed the article onto Shane Mace, my old Petco boss. We chatted for quite a bit. He now manages the Fenton, MO store, which he said averages $9000 in daily sales, but they're down to $5000 a day. Mary did more house cleaning. I took the tractor/trailer on the north edge of the north woods and cut a chainsaw gas tank's worth of firewood, hauled it to 2 locations near the tractor, when stacked it on the trailer. With a much sharper chain, a gas tank full cuts nearly double the amount of wood that I used to cut. I came back home with a monstrous stack of firewood on the trailer (see photo below). The sun had already set while I stacked the last of the wood on the trailer. About every minute, I heard one after another deer snorting to the NW of me, obviously on their normal evening routine walk and not liking a human where he shouldn't be located. I had sore muscles in the evening after bench pressing oak firewood logs up the hill at my outdoor exercise gym. Checked wine, it still bubbles just a little bit. Damn yeast in this batch is exceptionally robust.

Big load of firewood with Plato inspecting it.

• Wednesday, 4/15: Mary leaves the pepper plants in the upstairs south bedroom, which is closed off to cats. This morning, 4 of newly sprouted pepper plants were eaten off by mice. She reseeded those (only hot peppers) and moved her overnight storage location to the pantry. I called a wine making supply company in California asking if they can ship via the U.S. Postal Service, since Fedco can't ever find us and they said I just need to signify it when I order. Their shipping rates are the lowest I can find, so I ordered 4 varieties of wine yeast for a total of 18 packets. Two other varieties are on back order, so I asked to be notified by email when they are in. In the evening, Mocha earned her huge vet bill by catching a mouse. She's the best mouser we've ever seen. Then, she played with the dead mouse for 2 hours, sometimes tossing it 3 feet into the air (see photos below). Mary kept her hand over her drink, because she kept seeing a flying mouse at eye level as she read her book. Finally, Mocha ate it. During my night wine check, I saw 2 tiny bubbles...the yeast is slowly being strangled.

Mocha staring at mouse.

Mocha about to fling dead mouse.

• Thursday, 4/16: Woke to 3 inches of wet snow on everything. During morning dog walk, we took photos of blossoms with snow cover (see photos by Mary below). Most of the snow was gone by the afternoon. Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal. It started snowing in the evening and went to heavy rain. We watched the Crazy Rich Asians movie. No bubbles in my wine...the yeasties are finally dead!

Snow-covered unopened redbuds.

More redbuds.

McIntosh apple blossoms in snow.

More McIntosh apple blossoms.

Snow-covered forsythia blossoms.

Bartlett pear blossoms in snow.

More pear blossoms in snow.

And again, snow-covered pear blossoms.

• Friday, 4/17: A cold day, so we stayed inside. Pear blossoms are still there, but this "spring" weather is really making it hard on them. I balanced our checkbook, which was easy, since we're not spending money. Mary made a turkey dinner with the last bird we had in the freezer that we bought around thanksgiving time. Enjoyed it with half a bottle of pear wine, which is tasting better...more of a pear taste and more mellow. Mary and I discussed where we want to spend money. We looked online and ordered her some bras. Mary chased a Cooper's hawk away from an oak branch SW of the house. Katie texted Mary. She got a job that starts Monday. Katie worked all day trying to find a place to rent and ran into difficulties...high prices for slum dwellings, plus several scams. Nighttime online news review revealed that the first COVID-19 case surfaced in our county in a nursing home. There are 30 cases now in Adams County (Quincy), IL. 


• Saturday, 4/18: I saw a deer in the field south of the house while walking the dogs in the morning. Even though the wind was howling out of the SW today, we noticed native pollinators in the pear blossoms, such as hover flies, small bees, and small flies. We ate leftover turkey dinner. It was great. After I sharpened the blade, Mary mowed the quarter-mile lane and a chunk of the lawn. I got 4 more buckets of rotten wood and put a third to half of a bucket of wood in the remaining strawberry buckets. Then, I went to the stream in the north woods and dug up 2 buckets of sand. I noticed that this stream is turning into a deep gulch in some places. Walked the dogs to the Swim Pond and then to Rose Butt Field. When we walked up to the pond, a Great Blue Heron flew off, followed by 2 swirls from large fish in the pond...either catfish or grass carp. My yeast came in from Williams Brewing in CA...pretty good service for ordering it on Wednesday. Since I saw several gooseberry bushes while getting rotten wood, I investigated making gooseberry wine. They say it's very good wine, so I'll have to give it a try. The nighttime check of my grapefruit wine was I saw 5 tiny bubbles in a minute of observation...damn, that yeast is supposed to be dead!

April 5-11, 2020

Weather | 4/5, 34°, 59° | 4/6, 41°, 63° | 4/7, 57°, 78° | 4/8, 0.01" rain, 55°, 85° | 4/9, 34°, 52° | 4/10, 27°, 55° | 4/11, 0.04: rain, 40°, 63° |

• Sunday, 4/5: We looked at online news in the morning. Mary paid the bills and figured our money status. I traced out the face mask pattern onto graph paper for Mary. She mowed about 2/3 of the far garden, including outside of the electric fence. I took over mowing and 20 feet later, ran out of gas. Filled with gas and the engine was misfiring. Took it back to the Machine Shed, emptied the gas, filled with gas out of a different gas can and it misfired really bad, so I put it away to work on it another day. I hauled another wagon load of big rock from below the Swim Pond dam to finish filling the tractor tire ruts in the Machine Shed. Took a second trip to get gravel to fill in between the large rocks. Now, instead of 2 water-filled canals, I have a rock bed to drive the tractor on. A barred owl must have a nest in the tree, above where I saw the owlet. Each time I drove up to below the Swim Pond dam, the adult owl flew away from the top of that broken-off tree. Reading local news in the evening, we learned that 4 more people were diagnosed with coronavirus in Quincy, IL, bringing the total to 7 for Adams County.


• Monday, 4/6: Mary sent out bills and vacuumed bugs, twice. She made a mask for me (see below photo), which turned out quite nicely. The pattern called for a pipe cleaner sewed into the nose area...hell, might as well use a soap bubble for as much good as that would do. I cut a large paper clip to size, bent back the ends to prevent snagging, doubled it and used that for a nose piece. It worked great. Also discovered that bespectacled surgeons wash glasses with dish soap, rinse, then let dry and the resulting film defogs glasses for a couple hours. I cut out 1/4" hardware cloth to cover holes in my 4-gallon cat litter buckets that we'll plant apple tree root stock and strawberries in (3 holes per bucket x 27 buckets = 81 pieces), then covered each hole with gravel. Took wheelbarrow to north woods with 4 buckets and filled them with rotten wood, then filled 12 of my buckets a third full of that rotten wood. The weeping willow tree is buzzing with bees, so I put a video of that on Facebook.

Face mask that Mary hand sewed.

• Tuesday, 4/7: Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. I drove to the Walgreen's store in Quincy and picked up our 2 packages...1 of Sam's Club powdered milk and a Fedco shipment of strawberry plants and apple tree root stock. Quiet in Quincy, but still gobs of people wondering around with no protection. The Illinois governor used Quincy as an example of asses not protecting themselves from NOVID-19 virus. Used my new mask and gloves to go into Walgreen's, then wore them while driving home. Dumped mask into bucket of soap water, washed hands, and changed clothes immediately upon arriving home. Mary hand washed the mask and hung it on the outside line to dry. After midday meal, Mary and I put autumn leaves, mowed grass, and topsoil in 10 of my buckets and planted the apple tree root stock (see below photo). Mary then fertilized the blueberries, mulched them and the asparagus. She also picked some asparagus that we ate after dark. I collected more rotten wood from a downed oak tree near Frog Pond. After baths, we enjoyed fresh bread and jam, asparagus in wine, and a bottle of homemade pear wine. The wine is mellowing and tasting more like pears. It kicks you ass, though...half a bottle per person is really too much. Katie texted Mary that her college announced today that the rest of school is online for this semester. She started looking for a job. Plus, the home she rents out sold and she has to find a different place to live by May 8th. 

Ten MM 111 apple tree root stock planted in 4-gallon buckets.

• Wednesday, 4/8: I woke up with a pear wine hangover...damn, stupid person that I am! We were reading internet news through a bunch of the day. Thunderstorms developed right overhead around 4 pm...we got some rain, but not much. Mary made 2 quiche pies. Two deer ran off into the north woods while we closed up the chickens for the night. We watched the 1995 movie Apollo 13, and all of its extras, which lasted way into the night. Bill texted that a downed tree took power out at his apartment during the evening.


• Thursday, 4/9: Wind gusts from the NW were up to 44 mph, so I moved the Cadillac so weeping willow branches wouldn't hit the car. It wasn't a great outdoor day. Mary did some house cleaning, and some cross stitch work. I worked on Mary's mower, but didn't get it going. Removed the gas filter...a little crappy piece of plastic that goes into the gas tank...still ran rough. Rubber gas hose is shot and I replaced it last year. Took all plastic coverings off the top of the engine. There was a bunch of waded up grass behind the carburetor...vacuumed it out. Rechecked spark plug. An automatic choke from the exhaust, and a diaphragm plunger that operates from engine vacuum, both don't seem to be working. Put everything together and wouldn't stay running. I need to get some parts before I can completely fix this mower. I got an envelope from the Lee County Iowa Extension Service with 2 extension grafting handouts, 1 from the University of Missouri and 1 from Iowa State, that they were going to hand out at the grafting seminar I was going to attend, but got canceled because of the coronavirus. That was very nice of them. There are now 24 virus cases in Adams County (Quincy), Illinois...none in our county, yet.


• Friday, 4/10: I saw a pileated woodpecker out the upstairs north bedroom window that was taking big wood chips out of a dead branch on the weeping willow tree. They have a super red colored head. It flew off, letting out a loud chirp that I hear all of the time in our woods. With reports about chicken hatcheries swamped with orders, I checked Cackle Hatchery, where we buy chicks, and we're fine. Mary washed sheets and furniture covers. I worked on my lawnmower with seasonal maintenance. Found a mouse-chewed wire that I repaired. Cleaned spark plug and excess grass stuck in nooks and crannies. Mary mowed the lawn while I filled up 8 more 4-pound buckets with rotten wood. Then, I relieved Mary and finished mowing the front lawn area while she started raking and moving grass to mulch rows in the far garden. I helped once we were done mowing. Front lawn looks better and very green. Mary checked our strawberry plants and they're doing great in our fridge. She misted them with water. We have 2 pepper plants that have sprouted. We walked north to check out our red maple and redbud tree. The tiniest of maple keys are developing on the red maple tree. The redbud is just starting to bud. Various fruit trees are starting to bloom, which isn't great, because frost and snow is predicted in upcoming days. 


• Saturday, 4/11: We were inside swimming through internet news in the morning. Mary made flour tortillas and chimichangas. I downloaded the pdf file of the Kohler engine manual for the mowers we own and studied it. I'll have to do some diagnostic work to determine parts that I need to fix Mary's lawnmower. While doing dishes, Mary saw 3 northern pintail ducks fly by the kitchen window. Asked Katie where she would like us to obtain a gift card to give to her for her birthday. She wants to buy herself an Occidental Leather lefties beltless tool kit. I looked up online companies that sell it who also allow for the purchase of gift certificates, gave her names and she selected ToolNut. So, I did a gift certificate through them for her. Checked some food items online. We watched the 1993 Jurassic Park movie and its 1-hour special feature on how it was made...an initial movie with CGI effects. When we walked dogs late at night, lightning was flashing west, north, and east of us.

March 29-April 4, 2020

Weather | 3/29, 41°, 61° | 3/30, 40°, 61° | 3/31, 41°, 59° | 4/1, 32°, 59° | 4/2, 45°, 63° | 4/3, 0.13" rain, 35°, 55° | 4/4, 0.02" rain, 27°, 48° |

• Sunday, 3/29: The wind blew very hard out of the west all day. We had midday nachos and watched the movie, Pan. An actor in that movie has Hedlund as his last name. Looked him up online and he was born in Roseau, MN. There are lots of Hedlunds there. His parents divorced when he was young, he graduated from high school in AZ, eventually living in L.A. The movie is good, even though I wonder if the director was on drugs, due to the psychedelic colors. Mary crocheted for an hour. After chores, we walked to below the Swim Pond, looking for gravel dumped there by the renter of the land when Mary's uncle, Herman, was alive. We found it, plus big rocks put there from when fields were plowed on the property. While looking at it, I turned to the NE and saw a deer looking at us. Pointed it out to Mary. We all stood looking at each other, then it turned and bounced away, showing off its namesake, its white tail. We walked to the Swim Pond. A kingfisher flew back and forth on the opposite shore, occasionally skimming the water. Lots of fish were surfacing, some pretty good sized bass. The water that was murky a couple days ago is clearing up. We also watched a great blue heron fly by. I researched growing strawberries in containers and the cost of titrets, an item that measures SO2 in wine. Costs $26 for 10...I might just guess on my wine's sulfur content.


• Monday, 3/30: It was a nice, sunny day, without wind, a rare day in March. We heard a brown thrasher for the first in the morning. Mary washed sheets and furniture covers, then made spaghetti for our main meal. I checked out 4 gallon cat litter buckets that I drilled holes in the bottom last year, threw away some that were all chewed up by mice, kept 27 for planting strawberries and apple tree root stock in , with 4 alternates. Mary cleaned old grass that grew on the 2nd compost bin last year and said the compost in it is perfect. She fertilized the asparagus with compost and wood ashes. She then fertilized the garlic with fish fertilizer, then made kindling out of saved branches in the Machine Shed. I drove the tractor/trailer to the ash tree I downed to the east a couple days ago, cut it up, along with 2 dead cherry trees, loaded up a wagon load of firewood and drove it back home. The ground is drying up, but still squishy in places, especially on trails. Pretty tired...some of the logs from the ash tree were quite heavy.


• Tuesday, 3/31: Mary washed the towels. She planted pepper seeds and put 3 big sweet potatoes in Mason jars, filled with water. She cleaned dead plants out of the near garden. I cleaned the air filter and spark plug on Mary's lawnmower. I also sharpened the blade. Mary mowed inside and outside the fence of the near garden. I unloaded firewood out of the wagon. Mary figured March 2020 weather stats...this March was the 3rd warmest and the 2nd wettest since we started keeping records in 2012. Average temperature was 44.23 degrees and rain for the month was 3.39". Last year's rain was higher, over 4". Mary found a plan for making a face mask, which we might do, so we have it when we go to Quincy on shopping trips.


• Wednesday, 4/1: I was going to put copper spray on all of the fruit trees, but a SE wind was blowing too hard. With the SE wind came the neighbor dairy spreading huge mountains of cow manure on a field that is located SE of us...ah, the odor of spring in the air! Mary did 2 loads of laundry. She also dug up about half of the near garden, getting it ready for planting. She said she noticed about 14 earthworms per shovel full. Some were huge...about 16 inches long. Mary also planned where various plants will go in the garden. I worked on the near garden fence by loosening the wire braces on each corner, then pushing down corner posts, then tightening the bracing. Tightened 2 wires running around the perimeter of the fence and tamped down soil immediately under the bottom wire. I turned on the electric fencer and it wasn't getting above the yellow color on the strength lights (red is lowest, then yellow, orange, and green is best). The bottom electric wire is rusty and touching the ground it too many places...something I'll have to fix tomorrow. We're hearing Bob White quail, now. The forsythia bushes are kicking out yellow blossoms. Mary texted Bill, asking how his first day of work was. He said he ought to take time off more often. His most troublesome worker was fired and they're offering him a new position. The returns department is a mess and they'd like him to fix it. Details are yet to be worked out. Texted Mom. Snow was falling with about an inch or 2 on the ground and it was 18° in Circle, MT.


• Thursday, 4/2: Got a text from Mom...snow and a morning temperature of 5° in Circle, MT. It was garden prep day for us. Mary dug up the remainder of the near garden, finding lots of huge worms. I replaced the bottom electrical fence wire and rusty parts of the 2nd from the bottom wire. Replaced orange bailing twine going around the top of all fence posts. Thoroughly stomped down all soil under the bottom electrical wire. Replaced bottom gate handle and 2 gate wires. Turned on fencer and still had a low reading. Fortunately, Mary was in the garden when I plugged in the fencer and initially heard a snap where vertical wires connect horizontal electrical wires, making alternating ones either hot or grounded. I replaced all of these vertical connecting wires and then had peak performance from the fencer. Now for the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom story...Nick, our mainly white cat, spotted something behind the cabinet doors under the sink. It was a fairly large black racer snake. Mary carefully grabbed it behind its head (something I wouldn't do, because it gives me the weebee geebees) and hauled it outside into the tall grass. After dark, Mocha came into the living room several times with a live mouse that she batted around, let loose and chased after. At one point she chased it into my empty moccasin and another time under the dog bed blanket. Eventually, she didn't have it. Hope she ate it and it didn't crawl off to die and stink somewhere in the house. An evening call from Bill revealed his interesting day. He took most of the day at work sleuthing the loss of 50 iPads worth over $18,000 that shipping records showed they received, but could not be accounted for. Video recordings pointed to 2 employees in Bill's department showing the movement of full boxes to a door out of the building near "going home" time, followed by the video showing an empty cart returning back into the building. Once they had video evidence, Bill's boss asked him to keep those 2 employees busy until 6:30, when police arrived to make an arrest. Good news...thieves are gone. Bad news...tasks done by those 2 employees means the only person remaining who knows how to do those tasks is Bill.


• Friday, 4/3: Our high temperature was just after we got up, then it got colder throughout the day. Spent morning online, reading news. Mary was planning on planting some seeds, but decided not to with temperatures probably dropping below freezing tonight. We got a notice that the powdered milk we ordered a few weeks back from Sam's Club is waiting for us at the Walgreen's store in Quincy. When I saw it was being shipped from the grand powdered milk cow in California via FedEx, I changed its delivery to the Quincy Walgreen's, so we'd actually see it. We also got notice that our strawberry plants and apple tree root stock was shipped from Fedco in Maine, again, via FedEx. It's due in on Wednesday, so I'll try to coordinate that so I can pick up both shipments in one visit. Mary made flour tortillas, and then chimichangas. I was going to move rocks into the tractor tire ruts in the Machine Shed, but incoming storms prevented that. We walked back down to below the Swim Pond dam to determine whether to come in with the tractor from the SE or NW. Would have to cross a quagmire of mud via the SE route, so NW is better. While walking around checking this out, I spotted an owlet with just white feathers at the base of an oak tree. Left it alone...hope it survives. I also discovered a head-high mound of gravel that we can use, A small cedar tree is growing out of the top of it and it's covered with grass. Rain started at 3:30. We watched the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, then did chores, then watched the 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows. 
• Saturday, 4/4: A cloudy to sunny day. Morning temperature was below 32°, but a warm ground prevented anything from freezing. Even the yellow forsythia blossoms stayed healthy. Honey bees are buzzing in the weeping willow tree flowers. Mary found directions online for making face masks. It was through a blog by an British woman who recommended a website called craftpassion.com, developed by a Malaysian woman, an engineer, who created face mask patterns for her kids who were suffering from allergies due to air pollution. Mary worked at creating the pattern on graft paper, but it didn't come out right. I said I'd give it a shot. She hand washed some fabric that will become masks. I took the tractor and wagon, along with a spud bar, to below the Swim Pond dam and collected up some big rocks. While driving there, I spotted an animal looking at me from the NE as I crested the hill. I thought it was a deer, but when it spun around and ran off, I realized it was a coyote, and a pretty big coyote, at that. After getting the rocks, I drove back to the Machine Shed and partially filled the tractor ruts. I'll need more rock to finish the job. Makes for a bumpy ride driving the tractor under cover, now. Asked Bill how work was for him and he said it was okay...his boss is looking for replacement workers for him. He took a fictional character personality test that told him he was most like Bruce Banner, the person who turns into the Hulk. I asked him if he was turning green and he responded, "Nope, showered this morning."

March 22-28, 2020

Weather | 3/22, 0.13" melted snow, 28°, 35° | 3/23, 31°, 45° | 3/24, 32°, 49° | 3/25, 39°, 57° | 3/26, 41°, 55° | 3/27, 41°, 55° | 3/28, 0.35" rain, 51°, 71° |

• Sunday, 3/22: It snowed most of the day, but it all melted as it hit the ground. It's a squishy step everywhere you walk. Mary made venison stew and biscuits. She also did some drawing and cross stitching. I was an internet news-reading bum throughout the day. I did take time out to order Mary a pair of boots, since her's started cracking just a couple days ago. Was going to have them delivered to home, but Home Depot's shipping was too high. Added buying another smoke alarm to make their $45 minimum for free shipping, but it's shipped from a different location, so they still charge shipping. I said, "Fine, you asses!" and had it shipped for free to the Quincy store. We'll make a reconnaissance mission, equipped with alcohol and latex glove artillery, when her boots arrive in Quincy. Bill is feeling much better and texted that it was the first day since Tuesday that he hasn't taken a acetaminophen. Katie texted that she traded some potatoes and beer bread for some homemade rabbit and sausage gumbo and some fresh eggs.


• Monday, 3/23: After I woke and was staring out the north bedroom window to the NE, I saw the following: 1) a coyote walking east to west, 2) a big raccoon lumbering south to north along the edge of our far garden, 3) two deer that headed SE, got spooked by something on the gravel road and ran to the north, and 4) two more deer deliberately walking south to north. Then I looked out the east windows of our bedroom and saw 2 more deer walking toward the house, then turned at the garden and followed it to the north, then veered NW into the woods. Then saw a barred owl land on a cedar tree near Dove Pond. We are just visitors on our land. The wildlife own the land. I was online all day. Mary drew a wine bottle and crocheted. I put part of a crushed Campden tablet in the grapefruit wine, since the bubbling was nearly stopped. It fizzed a great deal with the introduction of that powder, which would be sulfur gas being released from the Campden tablet. I tasted a tiny bit of the Campden powder mixed with distilled water and it tastes like intense rotten egg...really hideous...had to wash it down with 2 Cokes.


• Tuesday, 3/24: Mary made a batch of flour tortillas and then chimichangas. She drew a set of 3 acorn caps. I spent time online. We heard a wild turkey for first time while doing evening chores. I found several wine making suppliers online. Midwest Supply, in the Twin Cities, boosted shipping charges to close to $20, which made me look elsewhere. In the evening, I produced a chart listing various wine types I want to make, along with yeast types and unique ingredients required by each wine. Mary's boots are in Quincy, so we might go there tomorrow to pick them up and a couple items.


• Wednesday, 3/25: Even though we knew that Mary's boots made it to Quincy's Home Depot store this morning, we decided if we didn't get an email from them by 1:30 pm, we'd postpone and go in tomorrow, since there are fewer people shopping in mornings than afternoons. We got the email mid-afternoon, so we stayed home. I cut a wagon load of firewood from dead trees that are located on both sides of a creek that flows down the hill, eastward from the house. My chainsaw ran out of gas just after I downed a good sized ash tree, so I still have to go back and saw it up. I parked the load of wood in the Machine Shed. Mary cleaned house, drew a crumpled jacket, and did cross stitch.


• Thursday, 3/26: We went to Quincy, picked up Mary's new boots at Home Depot, and bought items we couldn't find the last time we shopped. This time, we found everything. The streets were quiet, and the stores were emptier, but not as vacant as one would imagine. Prior to going, I soaked 5 folded paper towels with alcohol for the 5 expected shopping stops and put them in a Ziploc baggie. We also took our boxes of latex gloves that we already own for butchering deer every fall. We wore a new set of gloves for each store we shopped in. We were the only shoppers doing that. Mostly, we saw older people wondering around as if there wasn't a care in the world, which is kind of weird with the explosion of coronavirus cases in Illinois and Missouri. It took us 2 hours to shop. Bought gas on the way home at $1.57 a gallon, the lowest price we've seen in years. After putting stuff away, doing chores and eating, we watched the 2017 version of Beauty and the Beast, 2 times, again.


• Friday, 3/27: I made breakfast waffles. Mary did more cleaning today. We both vacuumed bugs several times. The Asian ladybugs are really on the go with increased temperatures. I unloaded the wagon of firewood and cleaned and sharpened one of the chainsaw chains. Cleaning each tooth with gasoline and a brass brush, then sharpening with a round file and an appropriate jig takes more time, but the result is tremendously better than using the grinder. While working on the chain, I heard chickens squawking, ran next door to the chicken yard and a Cooper's Hawk had Goldie, the Buff Orpington hen, on the ground at the north end of the run. I ran up and the hawk flew up and landed in a tree just north of the yard. I then growled and shouted loud enough to echo off the trees and it flew away to the north. Goldie walked off just fine, after losing about 20 feathers. It was a good thing I was nearby, or she would have died. Mary made an autumn olive pie, which we snarfed half of while reading and enjoying loose leaf tea. Bill called and talked to both of us. He feels fine and actually ran yesterday. He's in his confinement until Wednesday (4/1). His place of employment is still working. He talked to his boss for an hour today, helping with a program that no one else seems to know how to use.


• Saturday, 3/28: We woke to a thunderstorm in the morning. Read a bunch online. Silly John Hendrix is still organizing for a class reunion in Homer, AK. I think it's nonsense with a worldwide pandemic escalating. Mocha first spotted it out the south window of the living room and when I looked, she was eyeballing a large black racer snake in the grass. Mary made Maid Rites for our main meal. She also gathered dandelion greens that we ate as a salad. Again, we alternated between each of us vacuuming the bugs many times today. They were thick inside the house. I took the dogs for a long walk to Wood Duck Pond. When we got into the woods next to Wood Duck Pond, five deer ran off through the woods to the south. The dogs loved the walk. Mary discovered that 3 pie cherry trees that we thought died last summer are actually alive. My wine is still bubbling and it shouldn't be. I might have to rack it again and add another Campden tablet to kill the yeast.

March 15-21, 2020

Weather | 3/15, 28°, 38° | 3/16, 0.05" rain, 35°, 43° | 3/17, 38°, 51° | 3/18, 0.53" rain, 40°, 50° | 3/19, 0.35" rain, 47°, 65° | 3/20, 35°, 36° | 3/21, 24°, 45° |

• Sunday, 3/15: Mary made flour tortillas. I did research in our books and online on ways to support a leaning apple tree. Modern high-tech orchards use a trellis of cables to support wispy dwarf trees planted 2' apart and maximize apples produced by minimizing the tree needing to grow a heavy trunk. Old fashion way, or the way I would go...3x3 wooden material built into a Y and resting on concrete. Or, I might let the tree grow at an angle, graft other trees from it, and not worry about it. Karen said Erin starts working from home this week and brought her computer tower and electronic equipment home to do so. We went to bed early, since we have to be up at 4:15 am tomorrow in order to get Mocha to the vet by 7:30 to get her fixed. 


• Monday, 3/16: After breakfast, Mary put Mocha in the pet carrier...boy was the kitten mad. We took her to the vet, getting there 5 minutes early, even though we stopped for school buses and slowed for a Lewis County deputy's flashing lights. Vet said she should be coming out of anesthesia by 3:30-4:00, and we can probably pick her up around that time. We bought a couple items in County Market, Walmart. and Aldi in Hannibal. At Walmart, they were holding a staff meeting in the back and after going through the self-checkout scanner, an employee wiped it down with a sanitizing wipe. Hannibal Walmart and Aldi stores are stocked better than their Quincy counterparts. Maybe Quincy really is a shit hole, like Shane Mace, my former Petco boss, always said. While driving back home, we got a voicemail from the Iowa State Extension that the tree grafting seminar is canceled due to the coronavirus and they'll send my money back...guess I'll spend it on a grafting knife and book and practice here at home. Arrived back home at 10:30, ate, and passed the time before heading back to Hannibal to pick up Mocha. There was an interesting write-up by Ruby Hollembaek on Facebook that I shared about her grandfather going from England to Alaska and enduring family deaths and illnesses. Picked Mocha up at 3, because the vet office called early telling us to do so. Cost was $90. She's coming out of surgery just fine...sore, but eating and drinking well. We watched the Mary Poppins Returns movie and liked it.


• Tuesday, 3/17: Mary washed sheets and furniture covers. After walking through the kitchen and seeing that the cats sacrificed a mouse all over the floor, Mary gave all of the floors a good mopping. She ended up doing all of the chores, due to what I did, which was to split all of the large logs left in the Machine Shed from 3 sessions of cutting firewood, and stacking them. One of the cherry trees had a huge colony of black ants in several pieces. I banged and shook all that I could see out of split pieces, then stacked them in different locations from the rest of the wood. Started at 2:30 and ended around 7:00. Mocha is doing excellent. We feel that the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal is the best in this region. We tried a little bit of the pear wine (see photo below). It's good. The pear taste has returned and it's not so harsh. Three months of mellowing helps. I'm sure it will get better with more aging. 

The first tasting of the 2019 pear wine.

• Wednesday, 3/18: Rained in the morning. It's splishy-splashy everywhere. I swam in online news. Checked Swanson Vitamins in Fargo ND, since we ordered 4 days ago and never heard word that they shipped...they're just swamped and will get to my order, soon, which by bedtime, a message arrived stating that the package was shipped. Wish I could attach a smell file. The woodshed is filled with the aroma of cherry wood and it's an amazing scent. Frogs are really loving the weather. In the evening, the air was filled with the sound of spring peepers (frogs) and blackbirds that are migrating through. We watched the Akeelah and the Bee movie made in 2006 about a girl winning the national spelling bee. It's excellent. My Samba amaryllis has all 4 flowers blooming atop its second shoot and looks great on this last day of winter (see below).

Second blossoms of Samba amaryllis.

• Thursday, 3/19: I woke up to the sound of thunder, so I looked at weather maps on my phone and then unplugged all electrical appliances. Then a line of thunderstorms rolled through. Mary baked a batch of bread, so we had fresh bread with vegetable soup...good food on a rainy day. She also did some drawing and cross stitch. I updated the checkbook after checking a bunch of online news sources. We learned that they have their first coronavirus case in Quiincy, today.


• Friday, 3/20: Bill texted us that he felt sick, so he stayed home and contacted a Teladoc, who called him back. He told Bill it sounded like he had the flu and that Bill is low risk for getting serious symptoms from COVID-19, so he is low priority for getting a coronavirus test. The doctor recommended quarantine until April 1. Mary did some drawing and some crocheting. I moved my wine diary into a new loose leaf, zippered binder that Bill tossed out that once was a planner. I put college-ruled 5.5"x8" paper into it with dividers. It was interesting revisiting the trials of making wine. Also, added a fruit tree spraying record to it. Learned from online news that the IL governor declared a stay at home order, with only essential businesses open. When I looked at what's essential, it amounts to most everything. I also learned that there was a coronavirus death in the county Bill lives in. In the evening, I looked up homesteading, Alaska, and travel blogs to read for fun.


• Saturday, 3/21: Mary washed clothes and dried them on the line. I burned trash and boxes that have accumulated in the Machine Shed. I racked my grapefruit wine for the 2nd time (see below), removing about 1/2" of yeast poop (see below). The dregs tasted specifically like grapefruit peel, even though the color is very orange. It also has a tannin flavor, from the powder I added. It's bitter, too. Probably the taste will mellow with time. Bill is feeling better. Katie texted that she made bear bread and sent Mary her recipe, along with photos.

Tightening stopper after 2nd racking of grapefruit wine.

Yeast poop. We tasted the clear liquid above the yeast residue.