Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2024

Weather | 9/30, sunny, 57°, 80° | 10/1, sunny, 55°, 68° |10/2, p. cloudy, 39°, 71° | 10/3, sunny, 46°, 83° | 10/4, cloudy, 57°, 80° | 10/5, sunny, 57°, 87° | 10/6, sunny, 55°, 73° |

• Monday, 9/30: Cleaning the Coop
  
  • A bunch of robins were flying about in the morning. They obviously flew in overnight.
    
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • I cleaned the chicken coop. I moved many wheelbarrow loads of chicken manure, old hay, and dust to the compost bins. After I finished, Mary put new hay on the floor and all chickens seemed very happy.
    
  • Mary brought in house plants that were outdoors through the summer, after cleaning them with a garden hose.
    
  • She also watered gardens.
    
  • We moved in the Halloween tree and decorated it with orange lights, a few cobweb and bat spherical decorations, and several cross stitch ornaments handcrafted by Mary. The tree is an old cedar tree with bare branches, which is perfect for Halloween...very stark.
    

• Tuesday, 10/1: Left Eye Cataract Surgery
  
  • We got up by 5:30 a.m., because I had to get breakfast done by 6 a.m., due to the fact that I had cataract surgery scheduled for 1:05 p.m., today.
    
  • After sunrise, I hunted squirrels for a couple hours. I shot four of them.
    
  • We left around 10:30 and shopped a little bit in Quincy.
    
  • After they got me all prepped for surgery, we waited for almost two hours, due to the fact that there were three people ahead of me. The gurney chair they put me into was extremely uncomfortable. Once they wheeled me into the operating room, the back went down and I was fine. Anesthesia is applied, but not enough to knock you out. A plastic device was put in my left eye to keep the eyelid open and a laser cuts a tiny incision into the top side of the eye, enabling the insertion of a minuscule tube, through which the cataract and old lens is sucked out and a new lens is installed. It's absolutely amazing technology. They used a new technique that eliminates the need for applying several types of eye drops for a week. Instead, the medicine goes in with the new lens. It means that I see what they describe as a lava lamp. I think it more resembles octopus ink, because it's a swirling, ever-changing amount of black material. The doctor placed a plastic shield over the outside of that eye and sent me home.
  • Once we left the hospital, we snarfed a lunch that Mary prepared this morning. Mary drove us home.
    
  • We watched the vice presidential debate.
  • A barred owl and a screech owl were calling after dark from the north woods.
    

• Wednesday, 10/2: Driving, Driving, Driving
  
  • At 9:20 a.m., we had a follow up appointment at the eye surgeon's office. My eyesight after they removed the eye guard was 20:60 through the octopus ink. The doctor said by Sunday the swirls will fade away and I'll see better out of the left eye. I was informed that I can bend over, something I had to avoid after surgery, yesterday. I can also drive, which I did, after Mary drove us to the doctor's office.
    
  • We got home in time for a phone call from the doctor's office, telling me that there was some higher pressure in my left eye and that I needed to get prescription eye drops. 
  • After Mary fixed a midday meal, I drove back to Sam's Club in Quincy and picked up the drops, then drove back home, again. That was a poor job by the doctor's office at letting me know about the eye drops.
    
  • The nurse told me that since the lenses in my glasses cannot be easily removed, I should blacken the left lens of the glasses. Mary found some black construction paper that we cut out and taped over the left lens of my glasses. It's only temporary. By this weekend, I probably won't need the glasses.
  • Mary picked beans and watered all gardens.
  • I picked some winter greens that we enjoyed on top of chimichangas. They tasted great.
  • The mailbox flag fell off the mailbox. A lightweight plastic wedge hold the entire contraption into place. Since I couldn't find that cheap wedge, I installed a small screw that has a double nut on it to hold the flag in place. This is better than the garbage supplied with the mailbox.
    

• Thursday, 10/3: Processing Green Beans
  
  • Instead of hunting squirrels, I chased them away. I'd sit on a stool at the east end of the machine shed and watch. Twice I saw squirrels. When I did, I'd walk forward quickly while clapping my hands and shouting. I don't want to operate a gun while my eye heals from cataract surgery.
    
  • I didn't do much today, because I'm trying to abide by the rules laid out by the eye surgeon, which includes not lifting anything over 10 pounds, not touching the left eye, and avoiding bending over too much. I'm also supposed to avoid dust or dust-producing activities, such as using a saw.
    
  • Mary made a big batch of vegetable soup.
  • She also cut up, blanched, and froze 40 small packages of green beans. It's a long, monotonous job cutting up each green bean, so while chopping away, she listened to several CDs of Great Courses World War I: the "Great War". I listened to several lectures, too.
    
  • We watered gardens. Mary marched and poured while I sat on a stool and filled waterers. Mary said some of the acorn squash are large enough to be one meal. Usually, Mary cooks up two acorn squashes for a meal for the two of us.
  • Below is one of Mary's newest cross stitch Halloween ornaments.

  

  A new cross stitch ornament entitled "Midnight Meeting."

• Friday, 10/4: Harvesting Gardens
  
  • While walking puppies this morning, we saw lightning and then heard distant thunder as a storm system skirted by us to the northeast. A few raindrops plopped on the kitchen window.
    
  • I chased squirrels away from pecan trees, again.
    
  • I cleaned up the used cooler that we most recently bought from the Salvation Army. It was filthy in the store, but cleaned up quite nicely.
    
  • I tightened up the double nuts holding the flag on the mailbox.
  • Mary harvested produce from the gardens. She picked 53 acorn squashes and moved them to the south upstairs bedroom to cure. It was a good amount out of just six hills. Mary picked all of the tomatillos, which was over 100. She normally puts 60 in one batch of salsa. She picked more green beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and all of the ripe hot peppers. The peppers almost filled a four-gallon bucket.
  • I fed four sliced up cucumbers to the chickens. They loved the juicy veggies.
    
  • I transplanted two strawberry plants I started several weeks ago from shoots.
    
  • We checked for pecans and collected 48. It won't be as successful of a pecan year as last year. Squirrels have really cleaned them out, despite my efforts to curtail their raids. There are several paper pecans, but it's a little too early fro picking them.
    
  • Mary and I watered the gardens. By cleaning out all of the tomatillos and squashes, there is less to water.
    
  • The octopus ink swirls (medicine) that I see in my left eye are diminishing and the vision is improving. By blocking vision of my right eye, I can see pretty well.
    
  • Below is another new cross stitch ornament that Mary made for the Halloween tree this year.

  

  "The Deed is Done" Halloween cross stitch ornament.

• Saturday, 10/5: Better Distance Vision
  
  • I'm noticing better distance vision in my left eye. Mornings start out blurry, but as the day progresses, vision improves. The octopus ink swirls of medicine in the eye are more like concentrated dots that seem like flies darting about. In the afternoon, I noticed the details of leaves and twigs as I looked about. My left eye is getting similar to how you view the world with new glasses.
    
  • Mary froze a gallon bag of tomatillos and eight packages of sweet peppers. She also strung up five loops of hot peppers to dry.
  • I labeled and stored the second batch of cherry wine, involving 27 bottles, in the cooler I recently cleaned. I still have 28 bottles of the first batch of cherry wine to label and store.
    
  • Our newest pullet, Jasmine, is blending in nicely with all of the other hens and Leo, our rooster. She loves to eat sunflower seeds, so she goes right into the coop with other chickens, even if they try to peck her.
    
  • We watered gardens, again, where I sat on a portable bench and filled watering cans while Mary marched them back and forth and dispensed water. During resting moments, I enjoyed the sharp vision of my left eye while watching butterflies, dragonflies, and tree branches swaying in the strong south, southwest wind.
    
  • We watched the 2022 film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
  • Below is the final ornament that Mary cross stitched this year for the Halloween tree.

  

  This Halloween ornament is called "Flight Navigation."

• Sunday, 10/6: A Great Sweet Potato Crop
  
  • Mary dug up the sweet potatoes, filling two milk crates out of 10 hills. Some were really big (see photo, below). This year's crop did exceptionally well. Sweet potatoes grow in abundance, here, as long as the voles stay away, which they did this year.
    
  • Mary also picked more green beans, helping to fill a plastic grocery bag in the refrigerator.
    
  • I labeled and stored the 57 bottles of cherry wine, batch one. Including the 2023 cherry wine, we now have 81 bottles of just that variety of wine. It's a good thing we like cherry wine!
    
  • I occasionally checked the Vikings/Jets football game score from London, where they played, today. The Vikings won and are 5-0 on the season. The only other NFL team without any losses so far this year is the Kansas City Chiefs, another team we follow.
    
  • We had lettuce, kale, and tomato sandwiches, all produce from our gardens. Alongside the veggie soup, the sandwiches were very good.
  • I chased squirrels away from the pecan trees all day. I wonder if it's the same two squirrels that I'm giving a Bronx cheer to, but I doubt it.

  

  This foot-long sweet potato was our largest this year.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Sept. 23-29, 2024

Weather | 9/23, 0.27" rain, 57°, 53° | 9/24, 0.58" rain, 59°, 69° | 9/25, sunny, 53°, 75° | 9/26, sunny, 52°, 75° | 9/27, cloudy, 59°, 69° | 9/28, cloudy, 59°, 80° | 9/29, sunny, 56°, 80° |

• Monday, 9/23: Misty Day
  
  • We experienced a lot of misty rain and wet weather.
    
  • I turned the blade around on Mary's lawn mower so that the correct cutting surface was in place. I also changed oil on the mower's engine.
    
  • I searched online and found pH paper for wine, which is rated at 2.7 to 4.3. It's made by Hydrion, which I've found to make the most accurate pH testing strips.
    
  • Mary spotted a new bird, an American redstart, out of the west living room window. The bird was clambering around in the Kieffer pear tree with some tuffed titmice. HERE is a link to that bird.
    

• Tuesday, 9/24: Cataract Pre-op
  
  • An early morning rain gave us over a half inch of precipitation.
    
  • I ran to Quincy for a pre-op appointment with the cataract eye surgeon. They performed several eye measurements. Due to my severe astigmatism, I'm going to get Toric lenses, which corrects for this phenomenon. It also equals a healthy bill. Fortunately, we have funds that will mostly cover the cost.
  • I shopped for a couple items after the appointment.
    
  • Mary baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
  • I moved compost from the furthest east bin to on top of compost in the furthest west bin, which will give us a place for depositing the waste after butchering 27 chickens. We were planning on starting butchering tonight, but I didn't have enough time to get preparations done, so we'll butcher starting tomorrow night.
    
  • While doing a little squirrel hunting, I watched a barred owl fly from the ground up into a tree just beyond where I hunt. I shot a squirrel out of a tree, but I couldn't find it, even after Mary joined in on the search.
  • Mary checked a pecan on a lower branch. It was a tiny bit early, but the husk came off. Pecan nut picking is nigh.
    

• Wednesday, 9/25: Butchering Postponed
  
  • Mary saw a pair of double-crested cormorants fly to the southwest while walking dogs in the morning.
  • I dropped a squirrel out of a pecan tree, but couldn't find it, again, this morning.
    
  • I cut grass on the trail to the killing cone with the Stihl trimmer fitted with the metal blade. Then I raked up the grass and put it in the east compost bin to use as a cellulose sponge for chicken butchering remains. I then mowed the killing cone trail while Mary operated wheelbarrows moving grass clippings to the compost bin.
    
  • While I had the trimmer in hand, I whacked down weeds and small saplings on the trail to the new deer blind in the north woods, north of machine shed.
  • I also cut down some of the grass between lane to the far garden and near garden north fence. Mary moved that grass to the compost bin. We still need more grass to build a larger compost bin cushion.
    
  • Mary picked Bartlett pears. A couple were bad. She wrapped up eight pears and stored them in a drawer at the top of the stairs. This was a very quiet pear year.
    
  • Mary also picked about a half plastic shopping bag of green beans. She reports more are on the way.
  • Mary picked a few tomatoes and a bunch of ripe hot peppers (see photo, below). The peppers are destined to have sewing thread put through their bases, then hung up in the upstairs south room, where they dry.
    
  • We watched 2018 movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, instead of butchering chickens, because we were too tired to process chickens into the freezer. Mañana is our current motto regarding chicken butchering.

  

  Hot Portugal (red) & Ho Chi Minh (yellow) peppers.

• Thursday, 9/26: Butchering a Third of the Roosters
  • I shot a squirrel in the morning, in-between walking/feeding dogs and letting out chickens. It was very high atop a pecan tree and came down just a few feet in front of me.
    
  • I whacked down the rest of the grass between the trail to the far garden and the north fence of the near garden. I added that to the cellulose cushion in the east compost bin.
    
  • Mary hung up all of the hot peppers that she picked yesterday.
    
  • She also picked about a quarter of grocery bag of green beans.
  • Mary harvested and shucked husks off the rest of the hazelnuts.
    
  • I got the machine shed ready for chicken butchering by hanging up lights, laying out cardboard and three old Mid-Rivers wall calendars under where I hang a hook that I hang chickens from to skin them, and laid out buckets of water where we need them. I also patched up a couple places on the killing cone with aluminum tape.
    
  • I sharpened 10 knives that we use in processing chickens.
    
  • Starting at 8:30 p.m., we butchered nine chickens, or a third of the total 27 that we need to process. They were medium to large in size, but still tender and easy for Mary to cut up. They ate well. Several had large amounts of fat.
  • Stars were out and quite beautiful when we started butchering. By the end, clouds filled the sky. These clouds were part of the weather system associated with Hurricane Helene that was making landfall at that moment as a category 4 storm in Florida.
    
  • I kept hearing an odd, high-pitched chirp in the pecan trees just outside the east end of the machine shed. Then I heard the telltale sound of nuts getting crunched up. Only a squirrel eats nuts with that sound. Mary looked it up and we were hearing flying squirrels. HERE is the sound of a flying squirrel. After identifying the sound, Mary watched a flying squirrels fly from a pecan tree to the maple tree just outside the machine shed.
  • We also heard barred owls, coyotes, and disturbed geese through the night. Mice were scurrying about inside the machine shed, too. On one trip to the killing cone, we heard something scurrying in the bushes behind us. I looked with a hat light and spotted two yellow eyes in a nearby tree. Then, it turned and we could see that it was a large opossum.
    
  • After cleaning up, we finally got to bed by 4:30 a.m. Hopefully, we can start earlier, tomorrow.
    

• Friday, 9/27: Chicken Butchering Night 2
  
  • I cleaned up buckets after a night of processing chickens. While tossing chicken feet in the north woods, I figured out a direct route through the timber to get to a path I smashed down a week ago to a location where I'll put the aluminum ladder tree stand.
    
  • Mary picked about half a grocery bag of green beans. four large tomatoes, and several sun gold tomatoes.
  • We both took two-hour naps.
  • I resharpened seven knives for butchering.
  • A cloudy day opened up to partly cloudy skies at night.
  • We butchered nine more roosters starting at 8:15 p.m. We finished up at 3:50 and got to bed by 4:45 a.m. It seems like these birds got tougher in just one day. The first three were solid white ones. We think they're White Plymouth Rock chickens. They were big and tough to skin, yet easy for Mary to cut up. They completely filled gallon freezer bags.
  • Even though a north wind blew hard, we still heard the squeaking sound of a flying squirrel. Supposedly, flying squirrels show up well with a blacklight. Mary tried it, but our tiny UV light isn't strong enough. She flashed the blacklight on dried up mushrooms on an elm log next to the woodshed and discovered that they were fluorescent green with fluorescent orange streaks.
  • We butcher three chickens at a time. Between the first and second batches, the bucket under the killing cone that catches blood, was tipped over. We think it was done by an opossum.
  • We watched the Pleiades stars rise in the east, followed by Orion and then the moon. A bright planet, Jupiter, was in the Gemini constellation.
  • I heard a loud bang of something hitting a grain bin roof. In the morning light, we noticed that a dead branch, approximately three inches in diameter, fell out of a pecan tree.
    

• Saturday, 9/28: Chicken Butchering Done!!!
  
  • I shot one squirrel in the morning. It crawled up a very low branch on the other side of the grain bins from me, then appeared just above the grain bin roof, where I got it. When I walked around to the other side of the bin, I noticed the dead branch described in yesterday's blog.
  • I did my morning chicken butchering clean up routine while Mary picked green beans.
  • Again, we each took a two-hour nap.
  • I resharpened eight knives used for butchering. These large chickens dull the knives while skinning them and cutting the meat into pieces.
  • We butchered the last nine roosters, starting at 8 p.m. and ending at 4 a.m. Stars were shining brightly through most of the night. There was only a slight north breeze. We heard flying squirrels, barred owls, and coyotes. We're guessing a raccoon scurried down a nearby black walnut tree and ran off on one of our visits to the killing cone. Two of the chickens were big and tough Delaware birds. Mary says if they were humans, they'd be shaving right now. This batch of chickens would have been 16 weeks old as of Monday, 9/30. We should have butchered them last week, when they were probably not as mature, but it was too hot at night back then. Our freezer is stuffed with another year's supply of chicken meat. Now, we can get some much needed sleep.
  • We're noticing small puffball mushrooms all over the yard.
    

• Sunday, 9/29: Taking Out Coop Wall
  
  • I cleaned up butchering buckets for the last time and put away lights, extension cords, and ladders. When I tossed chicken feet into the north woods, I noticed that only four feet were left from the past two days of throwing them in that location. Some critter enjoyed them.
    
  • Mary swept and mopped in the house.
  • I took down the wall that separated the hens from the chicks inside the chicken coop. I moved wall parts into the machine shed. I intended to also clean out the coop, but there wasn't enough time for that. Beside, I was beat tired.
    
  • Jasmine, the lone pullet from this year's chicks, seems to be blending in with the older hens. Of course, there's a pecking order that the flock establishes with the new addition, but it eventually works out. The hens and Leo, our rooster, are enjoying getting into the large north chicken yard. They weren't allowed in there while the cockerels were around. Today was their first time in that area in a couple months.
  • Plato's eyes are back to normal. He's eating like a champ. His limp is improving and Plato's disposition is normal and happy.
    

Sept. 16-22, 2024

Weather | 9/16, sunny, 63°, 87° | 9/17, sunny, 59°, 87° | 9/18, p. cloudy, 58°, 87° | 9/19, sunny, 61°, 89° | 9/20, sunny, 68°, 91° | 9/21, 0.08" rain, 65°, 79° | 9/22, 1.13" rain, 67°, 61° |

• Monday, 9/16: Second Racking of Jalapeño Wine
  • Plato had a great day! He ate all of his food, marched around the front lawn, even though he still limps on his front left foot, and seemed perky. He's getting better.
    
  • I chased one squirrel away in the morning and saw no more through the rest of the day.
    
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the second time to eliminate lees on the bottoms of all containers. The specific gravity was 0.992. After adding 0.6 grams of K-meta, Mary and I tasted it. The wine is nice and warm, without being overwhelmingly hot. "It's actually delicious," Mary said. I lost about 375 ml of liquid in the process, putting the remaining wine in a 3-gallon carboy and a 750-ml bottle. It now sits for a month in the pantry.
    
  • Mary cut down all six varieties of garlic hanging in the machine shed rafters, cut off the tops, pulled out the best bulbs to plant in November, and stored all of the remaining garlic bulbs in old grapefruit bags. There were lots of large bulbs that were nice and firm with this year's garlic crop. We think it helped that we hung them to dry a good distance away from the inside of what gets to be hot metal siding.
  • Mary and I both watered the gardens.
    
  • I saw a deer on the lane when I got the mail. I think it followed me back home, since I also heard deer footsteps opposite from me through the cedars beyond the south end of the far garden. 
  • There was a big 96-gallon garbage bin at end of our lane from our new trash pickup provider. They are quick at handling business, which is far better than the last company we used.
  • Pairs of geese flew over our house right at sunset, which seems to be a daily occurrence. A big flock flew over to the woods north of our house, too.
    

• Tuesday, 9/17: Cutting Hen Yard Weeds
  
  • I spotted a crow-sized bird flying in from the east this morning, then I heard the loud and unique call of a pileated woodpecker in the north woods. They are quite large and when they tap on trees, the sound echoes loudly through the timber.
    
  • Squirrels are back in the pecan trees. I saw three when I checked in the morning and they were very sneaky at running away from me.
    
  • I cut tall hen yard weeds that I'm tired of trying to scramble through while rounding up wayward hens when we're putting the chickens to bed each evening. A couple giant ragweed plants were about 6-8 feet tall. They sent out big clouds of yellow pollen dust when I cut them down with the metal blade of the trimmer. I hauled off about six loads of weeds with a pitchfork. The hens loved pecking at motherwart seeds.
    
  • Mary picked and husked a heaping basket of hazelnuts. She keeps thinking she's about done picking them and then comes in with even more nuts. The bushes are surprisingly productive this year.
    
  • I helped Mary water gardens as a full moon rose on the eastern horizon. It was exceptionally big and bright. Later, we saw a partial lunar eclipse.
    
  • The jalapeño wine is clearing out just one day after racking it.
    
  • It was a rough day for Plato, because the secondary membranes of both eyes were swelled shut. Mary cleaned them out with a clean wash rag several times through the day. One redeeming factor is that he ate very well. I read online where allergies often contribute to swollen canine eye membranes, so we fed him one Benadryl during supper and another prior to bed. It really helped. He's getting better at walking on the sore ankle.
    

• Wednesday, 9/18: Smashing Down Trails
  
  • I shot two squirrels this morning while watching hordes of them scamper away in the tree tops.
    
  • Mary checked the acorn squash. They are not ready, yet. She picked several hot and bell peppers, plus tomatillos, and froze them. Mary also made jalapeño refrigerator pickles.
    
  • Mary watered all of the gardens.
  • I drove the 8N Ford tractor and smashed down weeds and grass to make initial trails to future deer hunting sites. I drove over trails four times. Some places are so thick with weeds that I'll also need to whack down vegetation with the trimmer and the steel blade.
  • Standing up on the tractor, I saw where American lotus plants have taken over about a quarter of Bass Pond.
    
  • I removed the cow and hog panels, along with a metal fence post, that was the Bobcat Deer Blind. I drug the 16-foot cow panel, with dried up red cedar branches woven into it, through the woods to the tractor/trailer parked at the edge of the west field. That was sure a strenuous chore. I'll use some of this fencing to build the North of the Machine Shed deer blind.
  • From a distance, I noticed that a large tree came down west of the Bobcat Trail.
    
  • Plato had a better day. One eye is still swollen and gets regular cleaning by Mary. He's moving around better, but still limping. When Mary let both dogs out in the late afternoon, they spotted me with the tractor outside of the machine shed. Amber barked and jumped off the porch. Plato followed. When he hit the ground, all four feet went out from under him and he landed on his chest. It didn't seem to bother him. Plato is eating like a champ.
    

• Thursday, 9/19: Defrosting Freezers & Building New Deer Blind
  
  • Mary saw a hawk dive straight down into the far garden from a persimmon tree in the east yard this morning.
    
  • I shot at six squirrels. My aim stunk, this morning, so they safely ran away.
    
  • Mary defrosted our two big chest freezers and rediscovered a few items that were buried. After a year, this becomes a big chore...one that Mary dislikes very much.
    
  • I cleaned branches and brush on a trail to a new blind location in the north woods north of the machine shed.
  • I started building that deer blind. Using hog fence that once was on the Bobcat Deer Blind, I established four sides. I installed six pieces of long and thin cedar poles to corners and the entrance, wiring them into place. I wired in two cedar roof poles between tops of corner poles. Once I get two more roof poles in place, I'll install old barn metal on top for a roof. Finally, I'll stack and wire to the hog fencing logs along all sides to conceal most of me inside the blind.
    
  • Mary watered gardens by herself as I worked on the deer blind. She says there seems to be a truce between her and hundreds of yellow jackets in the gardens. As long as she doesn't bother them, they leave her alone.
  • Plato walked further down the lane today and he doesn't seem to have as much of a limp. We still are battling eye membrane issues, but Benedryl helps. He's eating food extremely well. The Petco highly digestible canned food features a lot of water with torn apart chicken. I think it's hideous, but Plato loves it. I call it vulture puke.
    

• Friday, 9/20: Our New Friend, Sassy
  
  • Today was shopping day. Mary stayed home to help Plato and I made a lone trip to the asphalt heat sink called Quincy, which was in the lower 90s.
  • For the second morning in a row, my marksmanship stunk as I sent squirrels running by firing bullets by their ears.
    
  • Mary took care of our big puppy, Plato. He walked to the rain gauge on the lane, this morning, which is the farthest he's gone in several days. His limp has improved and so has his eye membrane. She also did some cross stitch fun and a little housecleaning.
    
  • Mary watered the far garden. I helped her water the near garden after doing a couple evening chores.
    
  • I've noticed a young phoebe bird following me around every morning when I'm squirrel hunting. This evening as I filled watering cans, this phoebe landed on where my suspenders clip to the back top of my pants. It's very friendly. It settled on a watering can and the nearby garden fence (see photos and video, below). Usually, phoebes fly away when you approach. This one is rather tame. Mary named it Sassy, because it knows no fear.
    
  The friendly phoebe on a nearby watering can.

Mary taking a photo of our phoebe friend.

And here's Mary's photo of Sassy, the phoebe.

• Saturday, 9/21: Wonderful Rain
  
  • Mary worked on cross stitch projects most of the day.
    
  • I worked on my newest deer blind (see photo, below) that Mary calls the "boy's fort in the woods." I installed the rest of the cedar roof poles and slid two pieces of old metal barn siding on top for a roof. Then, I sawed up pieces of an old tree on the ground just in front of this blind and wired the sections of logs to the front hog fencing. I need to add more hog fence to get the front of the blind higher, so I found a piece between hazelnut bushes that was put there years ago to stop deer from marching through and eating hazelnut branches. Mary stumbles on these old hog fence pieces while picking nuts and hates them, so I'll use the hog fencing to build deer blinds.
    
  • Mary and I got chores done, early, because rain was arriving soon. This was the first evening in several weeks that we didn't need to water the gardens. It rained a lot throughout the night. That's great! We really need moisture. We got over an inch of rain.
    
  • We watched the 2016 film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

  

  The boy's fort in the woods deer blind.

• Sunday, 9/22: Bottling Cherry Wine
  
  • More rain fell today. It sure is nice to get some moisture.
    
  • Mary finished two Halloween cross stitch ornaments.
    
  • I racked and bottled the cherry wine (see photo, below). I corked 54 bottles. Since five were 1.5-liter bottles and one was a 375-ml bottle, it was the equivalent of 58.5 bottles in the 750-ml size. Both batches have a specific gravity of 0.995 and a pH of 3.2. Batch 1 has an alcohol content of 10.74 percent and Batch 2 is at 10.1 percent. Mary and I tasted leftovers and fines, which all tasted very good. It has a very strong cherry flavor and goes down extremely smoothly. It also has a reddish-orange color. This is a very good wine and it hasn't aged, yet, so it's going to probably improve with time.
    
  • When we walked the dogs tonight, a small opossum was sitting on our porch, just behind several Virginia creeper leaves. We left it alone. It wasn't harming a thing and was probably hiding from the rain.

  

  The result of brewing just under 12 gallons of cherry wine.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Sept. 9-15, 2024

Weather | 9/9, heavy haze, 44°, 79° | 9/10, heavy haze, 48°, 80° | 9/11, heavy haze, 53°, 85° | 9/12, heavy haze, 58°, 87° | 9/13, cloudy, sprinkles, 63°, 73° | 9/14, cloudy, 63°, 87° | 9/15, p. cloudy, 64°, 87° |

• Monday, 9/9: Purple Painting Property Lines
  
  • I hunted in the morning and got one squirrel that was in the paper pecan tree, closest to the house.
    
  • I planted spinach seeds in the remaining tub. Hopefully, it's not too hot for them to germinate, unlike last year.
    
  • I applied purple paint on trees and fence posts along the west, north, and part of the east property lines to indicate no trespassing. Most all old paint was faded and needed refreshing. I painted from the northeast corner to the south end of Wood Duck Pond on the east property line. South of that is opposite of our neighbor's field of soybeans, which doesn't see any hunting traffic. 
  • Ben Woodruff, our neighbor west of us, still has a salt/mineral block on the ground just west of our property line with a remote trail camera aimed at it. As of this hunting season, our county is under CWD (chronic wasting disease) guidelines, which outlaws any deer baiting, such as salt blocks. If he keeps that in place, he will be violating hunting laws.
  • From our west field, north along our west property line, the woods is an absolute wilderness. In some places, it's very difficult to maneuver through the thick brush.
    
  • As I crossed the Wood Duck Pond dam to get to our northwest property corner, I saw five blue-winged teal ducks fly to the south end of the pond. The water's edge was jammed full of frogs. The dry creek bed nearest the pond's edge was stirred up with lots of deer tracks.
    
  • I saw three deer on my property line journey. Two were near the deepest gully on our west property line, one of which was a buck. It had the darker brown hair color of autumn/winter. During the summer, deer hair is buckskin red. I also saw a small doe running south along the east edge of Wood Duck Pond.
    
  • Mary cut down more hay in the east yard.
    
  • She also watered the gardens, giving plants in the far garden a deep watering. She looked for worms after dark and found nine, all in the far garden.
  • While Mary went on a worm hunt, I checked the jalapeño wine. It's specific gravity was 1.040, so I'll probably need to rack it tomorrow. The pantry smells really nice, because of the active yeast.
    

• Tuesday, 9/10: Plato Gets an Appetite
  
  • Plato is eating much better. It started yesterday and continued today. He now eats a little bit in the morning at at noon, then at least half a dish in the evening and before going to bed. I now add only half a can of wet food to about 3-4 handfuls of dry kibble, let it soak up juices in the fridge, then feed him by helping hand him pieces from the bowl. Twice today he dove his nose into the bowl to eat, too. He still has a limp from when he hurt his right front ankle on the staircase, but he oftentimes walks faster when he's outside.
    
  • I shot one squirrel in the morning. Three were in the pecan trees when I first arrived.
    
  • Mary turned hay in the east lawn.
    
  • I checked the jalapeño wine twice. The first specific gravity reading was 1.029. The second reading late at night was 1.022. I'm sure I'll rack it tomorrow.
    
  • On our first morning dog walk, we saw a red-headed woodpecker flying in formation with about four wood ducks. After sunset, we saw a barred owl on a power pole just north of Bluegill Pond.
    
  • We watched the Harris/Trump presidential debate. Harris put in a solid performance. Trump stunk.
    

• Wednesday, 9/11: Getting Plato More Canned Dog Food
  
  • Two more squirrels aren't invading our pecan trees after this morning's hunt. The squirrel armies continue to march in from the woods.
    
  • The jalapeño wine's specific gravity was 1.014, so I racked it into a 3-gallon carboy, one 750-ml and one 375-ml wine bottle (see photo, below). CO2 gas came out of this wine throughout the day (see video, below).
    
  • I drove to Quincy to buy more wet dog food for Plato, along with other pet and chicken supplies.
  • Plato is eating like a champ. I cut the wet food down to a quarter of a can per dog food bowl. Each bowl also gets four handfuls of dry kibble and a couple spurts of warm water. I stir it all together and let it sit in the fridge and then feed it to him. He went through two bowls of food, today. He's still limping, but moving a little better.
    
  • Mary washed jackets and coats, in preparation for cooler temperatures. She also turned the hay in the east yard.
    
  • Mary picked a bucket of tomatillos and peppers from the gardens.
    
  • Our evening worm hunt revealed only one culprit. Mary says we'll drop down to checking for worms every three nights, instead of every other night.

  

  2024 jalapeño wine after 1st racking.
  

  
  

  CO2 production in the jalapeño wine.
  

• Thursday, 9/12: Pickled Jalapeños
  • I got two more squirrels during my morning hunt.
    
  • Today, Plato ate the amount of food that he eats in a normal day.
    
  • Mary made a quart jar of pickled jalapeños for the refrigerator, which used up 25 out of the garden. They make a tasty treat to put on top of bean tortillas. She also cut up and froze green peppers that amounted to 26 sandwich bags for meals. She froze four tomatillos. Tomatoes and tomatillo plants are stalled out in the gardens.
    
  • Mary picked more hazelnuts.
  • We both picked up the hay and stored it in the second bin. Recent dry weather means it's in excellent shape.
  • I switched trash pickup providers. We haven't had garbage picked up in over two weeks. It's not the first time this took place. The old company, Community Trash, has a voice mail box filled to capacity, so you can't leave a message, and they never answer their phone. Several recent Google reviews indicate they aren't picking up trash and cannot be contacted. Unfortunately, we just paid for September. The new company, Cedar Ridge Disposal, has a website with listed business hours and someone who answers the phone. It will cost $12 less per month and they'll start picking up on Aug. 19th.
    
  • Mary and I toured the north woods for new places to install deer hunting blinds/stands. I'll dismantle the Bobcat Blind and create a new blind next to a double trunk tree behind the machine shed and the chicken yard overlooking gullies to the north, west, and south. A game trail runs right by it. I'll move the aluminum ladder stand to further north in the north woods, just beyond the first gate in a shagbark hickory tree near where I first erected a stand when we moved here in 2009. The idea with both of these locations is to get away from west and north edges of our property, where deer hunting pressure is high.
  • The jalapeño wine continues to release CO2, which means the yeast is still very active.
    

• Friday, 9/13: Squirrel Hunting Day
  
  • I pretty much hunted squirrels all day and wound up getting five. They are really thick this year.
  • Mary and I watered gardens. I watered the far garden while Mary made tortillas, then she watered the near garden while I hunted.
    
  • We both husked hazelnuts that Mary picked yesterday.
    
  • Plato had a bad morning. He barely moved and wouldn't eat his morning or noon meals. Then, he got lots better and ate his last two meals with gusto. By nighttime, Plato was doing very well.
  • In the evening prior to sunset, I saw a doe deer, who had her dark brown winter hair coat, munching on shrubs about 15 feet southeast of where I'm going to put a deer blind north of the machine shed. It proves the point that it's a good deer hunting site.
    
  • Karen texted me about meeting somewhere close to us for a visit tomorrow and over several texts I learned that they were camping tonight at the Army Corps of Engineer's Frank Russell Campground at Mark Twain Lake, which is just a bit over 50 miles south of us. Karen and Lynn are on their way to Circle, Montana to visit Mom, then to Forsyth, MT to visit Lynn's brother, then to Colorado to visit their son, Kevin. I told Karen I'll drive to their campsite tomorrow morning for a visit. Mary has to stay back, because of Plato.
    

• Saturday, 9/14: Visit With Karen & Lynn
  
  • I left at 8:30 a.m. to drive to Karen and Lynn's campsite, stopping at Fastlane for gas. I got there around 10 a.m. and we had a very nice visit for over a couple hours. Hopefully, they can visit us in the future. Before I left, Lynn took a photo of Karen and me (see below). They had to get going up the road to make it to a reservation at a campground near Des Moines, IA.
    
  • I picked up chick feed at the Farm & Home store in Hannibal. After getting another $20 of gas (the pickup's gas tank was very low), I grabbed two foot-long sandwiches at Subway and got home around 2:30.
    
  • I got two more squirrels while Mary watered gardens.
  • Plato is eating very well and moving around more, even though he's still limping.
  • A thunderstorm developed over Mark Twain Lake, according to online sources, right at dusk. We watched lightning to the south, but never had anything close enough to hear thunder. While looking at the lightning, Mary saw a wood duck, a great blue heron, and a common nighthawk fly over the house.

  

  Karen and I at Mark Twain Lake, MO.

• Sunday, 9/15: Yummy Chicken Soup
  
  • Today is the start of archery seasons for deer and turkey. Guns were going off to the distant west this morning. It's people going after the marble-sized taste of dove breast meat.
  • Mary heard a summer tanager this morning. It sings, "pick-a-chuck," or "a-chuck." I've been hearing that call every morning while hunting for the past several days.
    
  • I got one squirrel this morning. There weren't anymore squirrels in the pecan trees for the rest of the day. Maybe I'm making a slight dent in their nearby population.
    
  • Plato ate great this morning, but digressed and didn't touch his food on the next two feeding attempts. He ate half his food during the nighttime feeding. Today was a down day for Plato.
    
  • I checked firewood that we accidentally cut in the spring that was partially green. It's nice and dry after a summer in the heat inside the machine shed, so we're good for a small supply of fall morning firewood to fuel the woodstove.
    
  • I cut down thistles that were going to seed along the path between the gardens. I got really hot while working that job.
    
  • The spinach seeds I planted several days ago have sprouted.
  • Mary picked a full basket of hazelnuts and I helped her husk them.
  • Mary made chicken soup out of a 2022 frozen bird. It had a lot of fat on the meat. The soup really tastes great.
  • We both watered the gardens. Green beans are developing.
  • We enjoyed a bottle of 2023 apple cider. It tastes excellent on ice, with a nice apple flavor. At just six percent alcohol, the cider has a light touch on the palate.
    

Sept. 2-8, 2024

Weather | 9/2, p. cloudy, 52°, 75° | 9/3, sunny, 49°, 79° | 9/4, sunny, 47°, 80° | 9/5, sunny, 57°, 87° | 9/6, sunny, 59°, 75° | 9/7, sunny, 47°, 69° | 9/8, heavy haze, 39°, 71° |

• Monday, 9/2: Squirrel Wars, Hay, & Perkier Plato
  
  • This morning, paint on the mailbox was nice and shiny, emitting petroleum paint fumes. I added new lettering (see photo, below) and installed it on the 4x4 post at the end of our lane. It's good for another year, unless some drunk blasts over it in a pickup, which is what happened to our last mailbox.
    
  • I hunted squirrels and got two. They're tearing into our pecans. I'm late, but the squirrel wars are on!
    
  • Mary turned hay that she cut a couple days ago, and scythed down more hay in the east yard.
    
  • We picked 18 hornworms after dark. Cooler temperatures seem to be dropping the hornworm numbers, plus we notice fewer bugs in our faces when the UV flashlight it on.
    
  • Plato wouldn't touch any food this morning. We thought he was dying. I decided not to drive to Quincy to buy food for him. Then, at suppertime, Plato ate about a quarter can of wet dog food. He walked with gusto on our last dog walk. Then, he ate the rest of the canned dog food. Plato is sleeping a great deal. Hopefully, he's coming out of whatever ails him. I'll be running to town, tomorrow, to get more wet dog food for him. We need chick food, anyway.

  

  New paint and lettering on our mailbox.

• Tuesday, 9/3: Slowing the Squirrel Invasion
  
  • This morning, I dealt with a squadron of squirrels. Standing in the brush just east of the burn barrel, I shot at the little beasts as they romped over branches to our pecan trees. I got four and sent several others packing. At noon, I got another squirrel and another in the evening.
    
  • I drove to Quincy in the early afternoon, picking up a couple items at Aldi, then feed at Farm & Home, and finally, eight cans of wet Wholehearted dog food and a five-pound sack of chicken dry Wholehearted dog food at Petco for Plato.
    
  • Mary mowed the lane while I was gone. It was so dusty that when she blew her nose after the job was done, the tissue came away covered with blackness, just from the outside of her nose.
  • We are very dry. I noticed cracks in the ground under trees in the north woods.
    
  • Mary flipped hay that she cut down yesterday. I helped Mary pick up the first cutting of hay and we stowed it in the second bin for chicken bedding.
  • While moving the garbage can to the end of our lane, I saw a small doe cross the lane and then watch me as I walked by her. Later, I saw her on the east side of the far garden. While helping Mary water garden plants, we heard a deer snorting at us and watched two deer run away that were east of the far garden.
    
  • Plato is doing a tiny bit better. Still, he didn't eat anything during the day. He ate a tiny bit of chicken easy digestible canned food for supper. After the nighttime walk, he ate all the rest of that can of food, plus a handful of chicken dry food sprinkled over the top of the wet food. He injured his right front ankle or foot while climbing stairs a couple days ago and limps on it. We have his blanket downstairs right now, so he doesn't climb the stairs. We're going to try to ease him more and more onto dry food.
    

• Wednesday, 9/4: A Chicken Conflab
  
  • I hunted squirrels all day and shot four as a result.
  • When we put the chickens to bed, we counted one shy in the chick section. We thought a hawk or coyote hauled one away. I still had one chicken outside of the coop when Mary called out that she had all 16 hens in the coop. Aha! There was our missing cockerel. We chased him into the north chicken yard, then inside the chick side of the coop.
  • We found six hornworms in the garden after dark. Their numbers are dropping.
  • I checked the electric fence twice after dark. Bunnies wrapped up wires while going through the fence.
    

• Thursday, 9/5: Katie's Polar Bear Video
  
  • I got five squirrels today.
    
  • Two deer ran away in the north yard when I approached the pecan trees, this morning. About 10 minutes later, another deer snorted at me from the trees east of the north yard.
    
  • This morning, Plato ate a little bit of dry dog food. He's still eating only tiny amounts of food.
    
  • Bill arrived around 10 a.m. He's here for four days.
    
  • Katie sent polar bear photos and a video (see below) from Kaktovik, a village she's visiting for a couple days to check on a new school build. Villagers were recently whale hunting and the whale carcasses attracted area polar bears. Katie said Kaktovik is known for polar bears. She added that there were probably 30 bears at that one location.
    
  • Mary picked up the hay that dried for a couple days and stored it in the second grain bin.
    
  • The internal door between the hens and the chicks in the coop was open this morning and again, this evening, so hens and chicks were mixed up. This morning, all birds were on their correct sides of the coop, but all of the feed under the chick feeder was cleaned out. This evening, birds were mixed up. Mary first noticed it when she counted way too many cockerels. Next, she saw Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock birds on the chick side, which are two breeds we don't have as chicks. We had three hens on the chick side and one cockerel on the hen side. Tonight, we put a brick in front of the door between the two sets of chickens. We suspect the door is somehow getting knocked ajar and allowing chickens to move through to opposite sides of the coop.
    
  • We watched the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption, a movie that Bill picked out.
  • On the evening dog walk, Amber and I spotted an opossum on the lane. We now go with two flashlights. Plato stays in the yard and Amber goes down the lane, so one of us stays with Plato, while the other person walks further with Amber.
  Polar bears at Kaktovik, taken by Katie.
  

• Friday, 9/6: Making Jalapeño Wine
  
  • I hunted squirrels throughout the day and got three.
    
  • Bill and I made a three-gallon batch of jalapeño wine. He cut up 57 young jalapeño peppers that Mary picked from the garden. The peppers weighed 2.5 pounds. Bill also chopped up 1.75 pounds of black raisins. I ran the peppers through the food processor. After putting chopped peppers and raisins in a nylon mesh bag, bright green liquid dripped out of the bag. The following went into the brew bucket: 2.5 gallons, plus 3 cups, of water, 2 grams of diammonium phosphate to feed the yeast, 4.5 teaspoons of acid blend to yield a pH of 3.2, 0.6 grams of K-meta, and 4 pounds of sugar to create a specific gravity of 1.065. We left the brew bucket, covered with a towel, in the pantry.
    
  • Mary mowed and mulched the west yard. She thought the mower was struggling and asked if I put the blade in correctly the last time I sharpened it. I looked and it's upside down, which means she mowed the lane and the west yard with the backside of the mower blade!
    
  • I saw a big doe when I got the mail and three deer just after sunset that were walking toward our south apple trees. I scared them away while wearing my hat light.
    
  • Mary made three pizzas, which we ate while playing Yahtzee. Bill won. He rolled eight yahtzees in three games. Mary took second and I was in last place. It was fun. We enjoyed 2023 cherry wine.
    

• Saturday, 9/7: Outside Cookout
  
  • I added 2 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the jalapeño wine, early in the day. I worked up a starter of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast. By nighttime, it contained a slightly green head and was milky brown in color. The specific gravity was 1.078, an increase from 1.065 yesterday, due to sugars soaking in from the raisins. The pH was 3.5. I pitched the yeast just before midnight and it immediately started fizzing in the brew bucket.
  • I got two squirrels, today, and sent several running away.
    
  • We enjoyed a wienie roast. Mary and Bill played washers. We lost a red-colored washer in the lawn. It was cool after the sun set to the east. Mary and I saw a meteor streak with a bright blue light in the west sky. Raccoons were squealing at each other from near the machine shed, which was very close to us. We also heard coyotes howling, a barred owl, and a screech owl. Bill spotted some tumbling satellites that blinked on and off as they moved across the night sky. We also spotted a bat or two. It was a really nice dark sky/steady starlight night.
    

• Sunday, 9/8: Picking & Shucking Hazelnuts
  
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 2 p.m.
    
  • About two minutes after Bill left, Mary found the missing red washer from last night's washer toss game.
  • I checked the jalapeño wine (see video, below) and it's fizzing, nicely. The specific gravity is 1.061, so the yeast is doing great.
  • Mary checked the hazelnuts and picked half a basket of nuts. We shucked the husks, gaining a few to line the bottom of that same basket. Mary says there are several more out there on the bushes.
  • I got one squirrel, today. They're very keen on my whereabouts and run away, quickly.
    
  • We watered the gardens. I picked eight strawberries.
  • Plato is slowly increasing the amount of food he's eating. Mary discovered that it's best to let him go outside, first. Next, let him drink water, then have him lay down. Finally, feed him while he's laying down. He ate four times, today. We open a can of food, pour it into his dish, add 2-3 handfuls of dry dog food, stir it up, then let it sit, covered, in the fridge. The dry food soaks up liquids from the wet food. Plato ate the equivalent of one can, plus the soaked up kibble. It's a slow recovery, but he's doing slightly better.
  The nylon mesh bag is green in the jalapeño wine brew bucket.
  
  
  

August 26-Sept. 1, 2024

Weather | 8/26, sunny, 73°, 94° | 8/27, sunny to T-storm, 0.05" rain, 75°, 96° | 8/28, cloudy, 0.28" rain, 68°, 89° | 8/29, sunny, 70°, 91° | 8/30, cloudy, 69°, 83° | 8/31, sunny, 61°, 83° | 9/1, sunny, 60°, 79° |

• Monday, 8/26: High Heat & Cherry Wine Racking
  
  • We're hot! However, our high didn't reach the National Weather Service's prediction of 99°, so there's some solace in that fact. Everywhere you look, trees are losing their leaves. Our big cherry tree is almost bare. It's been a tough summer for trees.
  • Mary dusted books in the sunroom, where she found nine spiders behind the books. This immaculately sealed house strikes, again.
    
  • I racked the cherry wine for the fourth time (see photo, below). Both Batch 1 and 2 had the same readings. The specific gravity was 0.993 and the pH was 3.3. Both batches received 1.1 grams of Kmeta. All containers had a lining of fines on the bottom. Remaining liquid for each batch filled a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, a 750-ml wine bottle, and a 12-ounce Jarritos bottle. We tasted about 200 ml of leftovers from Batch 1. It has a very strong black cherry flavor and is very delicious. This cherry wine gives your mouth a feeling of fullness. It's young, so it ought to be really good with time. It sits another month in the pantry before it gets a final racking and bottling.
  • I noticed that when Bill helped me on the last cherry racking a month ago, he got funny with the white grease pencil. Instead of writing #2 on a jug, he wrote # poop. Nice!
    
  • While I dealt with wine, Mary watered all of the garden plants. She threw away three bell peppers that scalded in the intense sun. Losing green peppers isn't as important as keeping the plants alive. Some Black Prince tomato plants have dried leaves. They are on the west row and share roots with persimmon trees, so Mary upped the water amount to all plants.
    
  • Mary had a hummingbird buzz her in the garden. She said they sound a lot bigger than their actual size.

  

  A little over 11.5 gallons of cherry wine.

• Tuesday, 8/27: Hottest Day & Thunderstorms
  
  • Since we experienced the hottest day of the summer, today, we stayed inside.
    
  • Mary and I washed a pile of dishes. My winemaking activities, yesterday, added to the load.
    
  • Rainy weather crept up on us right when we were planning on going outside to water gardens. Thunderstorms developed around us and eventually gave us rain. Online radar showed the storms weren't moving. They looked like an ameba that was oozing outward and inward. We heard thunder for about five hours. Midway through it all, we were at a center point, with storms all around us. We ran outside and did chores, quickly, because we knew it wasn't going to get any better.
    

• Wednesday, 8/28: 20 Hormworms!
  
  • Another rather hot day outside meant we stayed indoors as long as we could, today.
  • Mary finished dusting the sunroom books.
    
  • I put winemaking stuff away in the west room, a neglected chore that was literally stacking up. Two S-shaped airlocks had mold developing that I had to eliminate with bleach. I don't like these airlocks that look like THIS. They are hard to clean. I prefer the three piece airlocks that can be taken apart and cleaned that look like THIS.
  • Mary and I watered gardens, but wet soil from recent rain resulted in less watering. 
    
  • After dark, we went hunting for hornworms while using a UV flashlight. We found 20 worms. They are bright lime green in the blacklight and show off like a neon sign. The only problem is dozens of bugs bombard your face while attracted to the light as you search the plants for worms. It was a healthy haul at collecting worms.
    

• Thursday, 8/29: Catbird is Strawberry Thief
  
  • There was no solid food eating for me today, due to preparing for tomorrow's colonoscopy. At one point in the evening, I was sitting on the couch with Juliet, one of our cats. My stomach rumbled loud enough to startle her. She had big, wide eyes and looked about as if to say, "What was that weird noise!"
    
  • Mary watered garden plants. It was really hot and humid.
    
  • We watched as a catbird jumped down from the Granny Smith apple tree to eat poke berries ripening on huge plants under that tree. Later, Mary heard it in the cedar trees next to the near garden. She figures it's probably our offender who is taking bites out of some of the ripe strawberries.
    

• Friday, 8/30: I Get to Eat!
  
  • We drove to Quincy, where I had the colonoscopy. Quincy Medical Group's hospital is in the old Bergner's store in the Quincy Mall. The building is unrecognizable since this new hospital went in. Two pieces of good news from my visit. My colon is good and today's colonoscopies are fast. We got there at 10 a.m., and we left at 11:30 a.m. Mary drove home, since driving wasn't allowed after anesthesia.
    
  • I looked up rear brake parts for our pickup, decided on brake part makers based on experiences written by others on message boards and recorded prices for items I think we need to fix the truck's brakes.
    
  • Mary and I picked strawberries that tasted divine on the waffles I cooked up. I ate three waffles for supper, which is enough to fill a barge. So much for the nurse's advice to eat lightly on the day of surgery.
    
  • We hunted for hornworms on the tomato, tomatillo, and pepper plants after dark with the UV flashlight. We found 43 worms, a new record for this year. 
  • As we were outside looking for worms, the St. Louis neighbor who owns property west of us was ripping around on a couple of loud four-wheelers at 10 at night. What an idiot! We were hoping he drove his noisy ATV into a tree or a ditch.
    

• Saturday, 8/31: Cutting Hay & Removing the Mailbox
  
  • Mary cut hay in the east yard with her scythe. That's a lawn area that we haven't mowed in a couple months, so it's full of tall grass and plantain with seed heads. Chickens will love it come wintertime and eat most of their bedding.
    
  • I saw a large buck with a rack run to the west as I got near the end of our lane while getting the mail.
    
  • I took our mailbox off the post and painted the plywood board under the mailbox that's lag bolted to the top of the post with Semco liquid membrane. This waterproofs that wood and hopefully makes it last longer. I put five coats on the wood. This Labor Day weekend allows me enough time to repaint the mailbox, allow it to dry, apply lettering, and get it back up prior to receiving mail on Tuesday.
    
  • While I painted, two different large ATVs drove by on the gravel road. There were four guys on one of them. Tomorrow is the first day of dove hunting season, so I'm guessing they're here from St. Louis for that. I'll never understand the rationale for shooting a dove. Only the breast meat is consumed, which is probably half a mouthful. Plus, doves are harmless. Why shoot the symbol of peace?
    
  • Mary picked six cucumbers that she fixed up into a big cucumber salad for dinner.
  • Hops cones are developing (see photos, below) and starting to emit a bitter pale ale aroma.
    
  • After dark, we picked 24 hornworms. Most of them came off the five Jet Star tomato plants in the near garden. Stars were very bright and steady. The Milky Way was bright enough to cast shadows in the gardens, which are mostly surrounded by trees, effectively cutting out city lights from Quincy, which lies 30 miles east of us.

Hops cones growing up the east house siding.

Hops cones on maple tree hanging over north roof of the house.

• Sunday, 9/1: Mailbox Paint Job
  
  • Today is the first day of dove season, so this morning we heard several shotgun blasts from the property north of us. When Sept. 1st is on a weekday, we seldom hear shots. This year, with Sept. 1st falling on Labor Day Weekend, it sounds like the infantry arrived.
    
  • My main job involved painting the mailbox, today. I first peeled off lettering, then removed left-behind stickum and old paint chalk with paint thinner. I gave all surfaces a light sanding, then cleaned the sanding dust and mold in grooves off with paper towels and our ammonia/vinegar/alcohol cleaner. The bottom got a coat of Rust-Oleum brown rust paint and the top received one coat of bright yellow Rust-Oleum paint.
    
  • We watered gardens. Some of the tomato plants are small trees and more green tomatoes are showing.
    
  • We watched the 1988 movie, A Fish Called Wanda.
  • Our pup, Plato, isn't eating much. He did consume a can of dog food, today, so we looked online and decided I'd run to Quincy and get some additional cans at Petco. He just won't touch the current dry dog food that Amber gobbles up with gusto. We moved the dog blanket downstairs so he could sleep on the main floor, overnight.
    

August 19-25, 2024

Weather | 8/19, sunny, 62°, 81° | 8/20, sunny, 56°, 79°| 8/21, 0.03" rain, cloudy, 60°, 76° | 8/22, p. cloudy, 52°, 75° | 8/23, p. cloudy, 52°, 83° | 8/24, cloudy, 67°, 79° | 8/25, sunny, 69°, 92° |

• Monday, 8/19: Tall Thistles
  
  • We have thistles along the path between our gardens that reached eight feet tall (see photo, below). I carefully smelled a thistle flower. It has a wonderful aroma. Mary says it smells of honey.
  • I sharpened Mary's lawnmower blade. It was almost as sharp as a round log!
    
  • Mary and I propped up two fence posts on the southeast corner of the chicken yard. After we both heaved them upright, I drove two steel fence posts in the ground to support the old oak posts originally driven in the ground by Herman in 2008. This only kicks the can down the road until I replace the posts with treated timbers and new chicken wire.
    
  • Mary finished mowing the north yard. She saw small puffballs under the McIntosh apple tree.
    
  • I transplanted strawberry plants started from shoots. One went into a bucket never used when we got the strawberry plants this spring. I filled it with rotten wood bits and soil already mixed with old compost that we had in a garbage can in the machine shed. I also stuck two new strawberry shoots into potting mix, in case we have further plant deaths.
  • Mary picked five strawberries for tomorrow's breakfast.
    
  • I cut tall fox tail grass with hand clippers on a section of the chicken wire fence in the near garden.
    
  • We watched the first day of speeches at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speeches, including Joe Biden's address, were good. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock gave the best presentation.

  

  Thistles are 8 feet tall.

• Tuesday, 8/20: New Pickup Tags
  
  • This morning, I watched two great blue herons flying around in circles over Bass Pond while they croaked at one another. They sound like prehistoric dinosaur birds with a very distinctive call.
    
  • Mary searched for tomato hornworms and watered garden plants. There are rows of winter greens emerging in the tubs.
    
  • I got a vehicle inspection for the pickup at Lewistown Tire, then drove to our county seat in Monticello, MO, and got new license plate tags good for two years for the pickup. On the way to the license bureau, a rock flew off a Lewis County Electric Co-op truck and smacked the pickup's windshield, putting a two-inch semicircle crack at eye level just beyond the steering wheel. Luckily, I didn't get that windshield crack prior to the vehicle inspection, because it wouldn't have passed inspection.
    
  • We have shaggy mane mushrooms growing at the edge of the Porter's Perfection apple tree in the west yard (see photos, below). It's quite a classy mushroom.

A mushroom next to Porter's Perfection apple tree.

It's a shaggy mane mushroom.

• Wednesday, 8/21: New Record Player Furniture
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, today, as I tried to give the pickup's growling rear brakes the lightest touch. We picked up a piece of furniture with glass doors and drawers that we'll use for vinyl  and CD music storage. The record player Bill gave us for Christmas can go on top. We only spent $25 for it. We picked up a floor lamp to help me for evening reading. In Menards, we saw a tall monster called Bad Seed that I thought would be perfect for scaring woodpeckers off the apple trees (see video, below). For only $300, I'd have something that would work for maybe three hours.
    
  • On the evening chicken feeding time, I noticed that we have three shaggy mane mushrooms now growing next to the Porter's Perfection apple tree.
    
  • We listened to most of the Democratic National Convention for the third night. It was good.
    
  • While walking the dogs tonight, we heard a screech owl in the west woods. The dogs were both wagging their tails on an odor they defected in the grass along the lane.
  The Bad Seed monster in Menards.
  

• Thursday, 8/22: DNC Finale
  
  • Mary and I brought the record player cabinet inside from the back of the pickup and set it up in the living room. It looks nice. Dogs and cats walked up to it through the day and looked at their reflections off the glass doors.
    
  • After her tomato hornworm patrol, Mary watered the far garden. I helped her water the near garden. We have several acorn squash that are starting to grow. There's a multitude of peppers of all kinds that are developing. All of the strawberry transplants look good.
    
  • We watched the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Upon reflecting on other past conventions that I've seen, this was the most entertaining, with the most speakers. There are good people who are young who will have big impacts in the future. We watched it via the DNC website. It was so much better, because we didn't endure network dips telling us what to think. After four days of watching, Mary asked if she could read books and stay away from TV for a long time. We aren't used to gluing ourselves to a television for four long evenings.
  • Mary and I enjoyed a 2021 pear wine. Wow! It has a very nice pear flavor and aroma with an extreme golden color. This is a very good wine.
    

• Friday, 8/23: A Catch Up Day
  
  • Today was a day to catch up on things.
  • Mary scrubbed up the new cabinet and moved vinyl records into it, while putting the record player on top. It looks perfect in the corner of our living room.
  • I caught the checkbook up-to-date, cleaned air conditioning filters, and assembled the new reading light. I removed one of the three tubes to shorten its height so it shines directly on books I'm reading while sitting on my couch in the living room. I used it this evening and it works perfectly.
    
  • Hops cones are forming vines all around the outside of our house. We live in a hoppy house!
  • The woodpeckers won. The Granny Smith apple tree grew only a handful of apples this year. I noticed today that the last nice looking apple on that tree now has a woodpecker hole in it.
  • The shaggy mane mushrooms near the Porter's Perfection apple tree grew and now resemble the wide-brimmed hats sometimes worn by Asians.
  • We noticed that the electric fencer unit was down to only two red lights showing when we walked the dogs on their last outing, so I checked garden electric fence wires. Five wires on the northwest corner of the far garden fence were wrapped up. A rabbit, opossum, or a raccoon really got shocked. Two wires near the bottom were wrapped around each other about 10 times and then those wires were wrapped around the bottom wire. Above that, two more wires were wrapped up. Undoing all that mess took up quite a bit of time, in the dark, while holding a flashlight.
    

• Saturday, 8/24: Watering & Whacking
  
  • We experienced clouds all day, so the predicted high of 90 was never reached...yahoo!
    
  • With anticipated temperatures in the high 90s in upcoming days, Mary picked the most ripe green peppers. We had some in our midday meal of fajitas.
    
  • I weedwhacked under just over half of the electric fence wires in the far garden. As a way to keep down dust, I watered the ground just prior to running the string trimmer. It was effective. One two-gallon watering can full of water moistened the soil for about the distance between two or three fence posts. It's much better than eating dust while doing this job.
    
  • I helped Mary water gardens. The vine plants...cucumbers, squash, and sweet potatoes...are inching toward fences. We have several cucumbers and squash developing. We continue to get a handful of strawberries every day. They're a tasty addition to our morning oatmeal or waffles.
    
  • Every morning we hear more and more crowing from our developing cockerel chickens (see photo, below). This is the calmest group we've ever raised. They are a cinch to round up and herd back into the coop every evening.

  

  11-week old chickens. All but the front white one are cockerels.
  We will add her to our flock of hens.

• Sunday, 8/25: Helping Plants in the Heat
  
  • I mowed a little piece of grass around my winter greens, then used the clippings to mulch a thin layer of grass around the sprouts in each tub. The idea is to keep the ground cool around the winter greens during midday heat. I also installed a white lacy drape over top of the plants to lessen the afternoon sun.
    
  • I weedwhacked the rest of the far garden electric fence. It was hot, so long cooling breaks inside were necessary. We destroyed a gallon of iced tea in just a half a day.
    
  • Toward the end of my weedwhacking and after doing some serious housecleaning, Mary did a deep watering job on both gardens and picked worms and worm eggs. The huge acorn squash leaves showed signs of heat stress and were wilting prior to receiving water.
    
  • Since Mary suspected a greater worm infestation in the gardens, we went out after dark with an ultraviolet light flashlight to look for more worms. Besides the three she found during daylight hours, we discovered six more worms at night. They show up as brilliant green under a UV light.
  • A waning moon and Jupiter added to stars of the Milky Way after we finished.