Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2022

Weather | 11/27, 0.93" rain, 37°, 43° | 11/28, 27°, 49° | 11/29, 35° in AM, 25° in PM, 63° | 11/30, 18°, 32° | 12/1, 13°, 43° | 12/2, 37°, 58° | 12/3, 15°, 31° |

• Sunday, 11/27: Bill Returns to St. Charles
  
  • We received nearly an inch of early morning rain that ended right before we got up.
  • Mary made chimichangas for our midday meal. I picked leaves off the winter greens that we enjoyed on top of the chimis. The greens tasted wonderful.
    
  • Bill left for his apartment in St. Charles in the early afternoon. The company he works for is doing an inventory this weekend, so he will be working through the weekend.
  • Right before Bill left, I stepped out the door and told the neighbor's black Labrador retriever to go home. He was scratching his ears with his hind legs as he ran home. Last night, we heard coyotes howling and one of our neighbor's dogs giving off a high-pitched series of yelps. That dog was frightened. Damn neighbors! Bring your dogs in at night, you fools! These are the same people who have 2 dead deer hanging from a tree, untouched, except for field dressing, since the opening day of season, which was Nov. 12th. That venison meat is surely inedible. They did the same thing last year. What a waste!!! Those kind of hunters don't belong owning a hunting rifle or any hunting license.
    
  • We worked up Christmas lists and ordered Christmas presents. This activity went into the early morning hour. I have a couple leather craft 3-dimensional project instructions I got a few years back. I went through both projects lists and ordered 5 additional leather working tools that I don't have. Grandad Robison's Craftool leather tools that I inherited are old enough to have different identification numbers on them then what is used today. Modern numbers start with a letter, such as a "B" for bevelers, or a "P" for pear shaped shaders. The old tools were identified only with numbers. It took me a long time to match what I have to what I need for these 2 projects. One of our happy discoveries was a 4K Ultra Downton Abbey: A New Era DVD for only $10.
    
    
• Monday, 11/28: A Slow Day
  
  • We laid low for the day.
  • I cleaned electronic devices. They all show very bright screens, now.
  • We got another egg from our chickens. If we did things correctly, we'd knock off the unproductive hens. But, we don't do things right, so geriatric hens live to see another day.
    
  • Mary and I took a hike to Wood Duck Pond. It's a pretty location. Various trails are filled with deer tracks. Raccoon and deer tracks were in the sand on the pond's shore. A big rotten oak with a 2-foot trunk near the dry creek bed fell over. It isn't far from my old deer stand. We saw a flock of wild turkeys fly away as we climbed Black Medic Hill.
  • We watched the 2001 movie, Bridget Jones Diary.
  • I ordered vitamins from Swanson Vitamins in Fargo, ND.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/29: Temperature Drop
  
  • We saw a high in the 60s around 3 p.m. At 3:30, the temperature was 51°. Forty-five minutes later, it was 39°. By bedtime, it was 25°.
  • In the morning, while taking wood ashes to the pile near our compost bins, I watched a dozen wood ducks fly overhead. 
    
  • We had another quiet day. I went down several internet rabbit holes. I looked for pH paper for winemaking purposes and found some at a good price on Etsy. I'm waiting until after Christmas to order anything related to making wine. In the evening, I looked for automotive solutions for firewall and under-the-hood insulation. Mice and squirrels have eaten a lot of that material on the Buick and the GMC pickup. I found several. Most are expensive. I found a reasonably-priced solution called Fatmat from Ohio.
  • I took Amber and Plato on the same walk that Mary and I did yesterday. They really liked all of the smells along the way.
  • We watched the 1994 movie, Little Women.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/30: Long Dog Memory
  
  • I took the dogs on a walk on the east loop trail. During the summer of 2021, Amber got nipped by the electric fence around the near garden. She still remembers it. When I tried to start by walking by the near garden, I called and called and called Amber. Instead of coming to me, she ran to the porch and sat down. So, instead of starting on the south leg of the east trail, I took the north leg and she came running along. At the end of the walk, she trotted right by the electric fence, which is now off. So, Amber has no problem walking by it at the end of the walk, but don't force her to walk by that dreadful ass-zapping fence to start the walk!
  • Karen said they received 3 inches of rain from the storm that went through, yesterday.
    
  • I split firewood currently sitting by the splitter that Bill and I gathered up last week and hauled 5 wheelbarrow loads to the woodshed and stacked them. Two pieces from the base of oak trees filled two wheelbarrows once they were split. One wheelbarrow load of firewood went into house.
  • I worked on updating my wine diary based on entries I wrote on these pages. I was way behind. I only got to the first week of May, with several winemaking adventures yet to record.
    
    
• Thursday, 12/1: Splitting Wood & Online Stuff
  
  • We spotted a bald eagle circling high above our property. A strong south wind gradually blew the large bird northerly.
  • I walked the dogs to my Bobcat Deer Blind in the north woods and back home. Both dogs got very alert as we neared the blind. There's obviously a lot of wild animal smells at that point, deep in the north timber.
    
  • I finished splitting the wood next to the splitter and put 2 wheelbarrow loads into the woodshed and 1 load into the house. A stack of green wood and another stack of wet cherry needs to be restacked inside the north machine shed wall, where it can dry.
  • I identified a unique oak tree we see on our property. It has course bark that resembles alligator skin and a leaf without pronounced lobes. It's called Blackjack oak. HERE is a link showing its leaf and bark. One of the oak trees Bill and I cut down for firewood last week was a blackjack.
    
  • We removed blankets from the winter greens, but left the plastic on them through today and overnight.
  • I spent several hours in the evening investigating how to get the Feedly RSS reader to work on our Amazon Kindle tablets. Amazon only allows their apps on Kindles, but geeks come up with ways to bypass Amazon's dictatorial stipulations. After a failed attempt, I finally got Feedly to work on my Kindle. My next task is to get it running on Mary's newest Kindle.
    
    
• Friday, 12/2: High Winds
  
  • I got the migraine flashing eye thing while emptying woodstove ashes first thing in the morning, but these days, the headache side of migraines is much less than it was in my younger years. With two acetaminophen pills, I'm good to go.
  • Wind gusts to 40 mph kept me inside. Cutting up firewood while in the timber during windy conditions isn't the best idea. Dead trees get blown down during wind events and it's best to avoid the woods.
  • Mary saw a red-tailed hawk land in a short elm tree along the lane. She went out to chase it away, but it already left once she was out the door.
  • I wrote on 29 labels for the recently bottled blackberry wine.
  • I collected a bowl of leaves from the winter greens. We added them on top of chimichangas that Mary made for our main meal.
  • We watched the 1995 movie, While You Were Sleeping.
  • I added more to my wine diary, catching up to mid-August.
    
    
• Saturday, 12/3: Anterless Deer Season
  • Today is the first day of anterless deer hunting season. Fortunately, we have all of the venison we need this year, so I stay warm and inside. Everyone else must have the same idea. We didn't hear a single gun shot all day.
    
  • A strong northwest wind blew early in the day, but slowly died off into the afternoon.
  • Mary made a big batch of chicken noodle soup.
  • Just after the sun set, we watched a great horned owl hooting while it was sitting on top of a power pole south of us and next to Bluegill Pond. Mary said it was a male, which has a higher pitched voice. A lower-pitched great horned owl, that Mary said was a female, answered his call. We couldn't see her, but based on the sound, she was just west of him in the woods. We looked at him through binoculars. Every time he hooted, he bent forward in a courting display.
    
  • I labeled and stored 29 bottles of 2022 blackberry wine in a couple coolers.
    
  • I looked up the ingredients to making garlic wine and discovered that I need white grape juice that I currently don't have in supply. That delays making garlic wine.
  • We watched two movies. One was the 2017 movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas. Dan Stevens plays Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer is a perfect Scrooge. Then, we watched another 2017 Dan Stevens movie, Beauty and the Beast.
  • Between the two movies, we shared a bottle of 2021/2022 blackberry wine. When we pick the berries one year and I make the wine the next year, I include both years on the name. This wine possesses a deep red color that works well with Christmas decorations (see photo, below). It's very smooth and fruity and a very nice tasting wine.

  

  Blackberry wine has a festive color.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Nov. 20-26, 2022

Weather | 11/20, 13°, 43° | 11/21, 27°, 49° | 11/22, 21°, 55° | 11/23, 35°, 58° | 11/24, 0.01" rain, 41°, 54° | 11/25, 27°, 55° | 11/26, 25°, 54° |

• Sunday, 11/20: Bill Arrives, Bringing Warmth With Him
  
  • We woke to a cold morning, but temperatures rose to above freezing. By noon, we removed blankets from the winter greens and Mary opened each end of the plastic over the greens to air them out. The arugula and spinach look tough, but all other greens are thriving. 
    
  • Bill drove in at around 10:30 a.m. He is visiting for a week. Bill is looking forward to not making a decision about anything, since making decisions is what he does all day at work.
  • We unloaded parts to three 2'x3'x5' metal and wood shelving from his car and stacked the parts in the freezer and laundry rooms. They will be nice additions to get better organized.
  • I thumbed through all of the rest of the American Heritage magazines that we got for free from the Quincy (IL) Library bookstore. The magazine became smaller and not as good in the 1990s, after Forbes bought it. I looked it up and Forbes sold the magazine in 2007 to Edwin Grosvenor, whose great-grandfather started National Geographic. The printed version of American Heritage was suspended in 2013. It restarted in electronic form in 2017.
  • After chores, Mary fixed 3 pizzas that we ate while playing Yahtzee. We enjoyed one beer that Bill brought with him and split it 3 ways. It was a Samuel Smith's (made in England) nut brown ale. We also enjoyed the last bottle of 2021 blackberry wine, which was really good. Aging vastly helps the taste of blackberry wine, which is also very good without aging. We had a great time.
    
    
• Monday, 11/21: A Slow Day of Visiting
  
  • Mary and I talked quite a bit with Bill, making for a lull in outdoor activity.
  • I did some quick Messenger texts with my cousin, Marjorie. She was getting ready to pack to catch a flight from Jerusalem. She spent 11 days at UAE and then 8 days in Israel. Her former husband, Steve, works in the UAE as a VP at American University in Ras Al Khaimah.
  • Mary made flour tortillas, then chimichangas, for our midday meal.
    
  • Bill and I racked the Kieffer pear wine for the second time. The specific gravity was 1.000, which gives it an alcohol content of 10.2%. We added 0.4 grams of potassium metabisulfite after racking it to a brew bucket. About a half inch of fines were in the bottom of each gallon jug. We put the liquid into a gallon jug and two 1.5-liter bottles. Mary, Bill, and I tasted it. The wine had a strong pear flavor. Bill says it tastes like autumn olive. There was also a strong yeast taste, because I didn't rack the wine early enough and let the must sit on top of excessive fines for too long. Hopefully, aging will remove the yeast taste.
    
  • We watched the 1987 movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and John Candy. Bill owns the DVD. We need to get a copy of it. We ate cheese and crackers that Bill brought with him.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/22: Quincy Shopping for Fresh Veggies
  
  • Bill and I went to Quincy in the pickup to get a few things. I picked up a Sam's Club shipment of 3 large bags of powdered milk, which should last about 10 months. We got fresh veggies for Thanksgiving dinner and some cat litter at Sam's Club. All stores were packed with people.
  • On the drive home, Bill and I saw several swans in the disked-up corn fields on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. Their all white bodies were easy to spot on the dark earth fields.
    
  • Mary fixed venison stroganoff, which was ready when Bill and I returned home.
  • Today is the last day of the regular firearms deer hunting season in Missouri. We have not heard rifles shots for the past several days. Next is a youth (age 15 and under) season on Nov. 25-27, then the anterless firearms deer hunting season, when antlered bucks cannot be hunted, is on Dec. 3-11. Finally, there's an alternative deer hunting season on Dec. 24-Jan. 3, when blackpowder guns, center-fired pistols, airguns, longbows, crossbows, and atlatls are allowed. Apparently, Missouri's deer herd is thriving resulting in longer hunting seasons. We have enough venison, so I'm done hunting.
  • On a dog walk prior to sunset, a large flock of red-winged blackbirds flew north to south over us. While walking back after delivering the garbage can to the end of our lane, I saw a V of snow geese heading southwest. Mary says we have an Eastern bluebird hanging around the yard.
  • We watched the 2021 movie, The Kingsman, that I picked up at Walmart, today. Then, we watched the 2010 movie, Leap Year, which was Bill's selection.
  • Mom texted that Hank surprised her on Sunday with a visit. He gave her a BB gun as a birthday present, so she can sting mule deer in the butt. They've eaten her flowers and strawberry plants. She's driving to Glasgow tomorrow (11/23) to visit Hank for Thanksgiving, which means she doesn't need to cook a turkey. Today, she helped serve 68 people a Thanksgiving dinner at the Circle Senior Center.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/23: Wood Gathering & Pie Making
  
  • Mary made two pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.
    
  • Bill and I loaded all of the weeping willow logs into the trailer behind the 8N Ford tractor. These logs were once at the bottom of a pile and consequently wet, rotten, and in some cases, growing roots and twigs. We took them to the ravine down the hill and east of the house and threw them in. Then, we drove further east, cut down 2 oak trees and cut them up into firewood. Bill loaded most of the firewood into the trailer. I helped after I finished cutting up the dead trees. One branch was green. We drove home and unloaded the firewood in appropriate locations.
    
  • Mary raked leaves from under the pecan trees and filled the compost bin.
    
  • I built a fire and we had a wienie roast. Once finished, the sun set to the west (see photo, below, that Bill took). We heard trumpeter swans and snow geese, but couldn't locate them in the sky.
    
  • Mary and I read in the evening. Bill had fun with his hockey video game.

  

  Sunset with Kieffer pear tree in foreground.

• Thursday, 11/24: Thanksgiving
  
  • Mary made a Thanksgiving meal, baking a 20.3-pound turkey. She also made dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, our homegrown sweet potatoes, a bean casserole using green beans from our garden, Ranch dressing dip and a bunch of veggies. After 2 helpings, we were stuffed.
  • Mary carved the rest of the meat off the turkey. A gallon bag of breast meat went into the fridge and 4 quart bags of dark meat went into the freezer for future turkey pot pies. Mary and I hauled the turkey carcass to the north woods, where all that was left of the second deer carcass was part of the hide.
  • I called Mom. She's enjoying Thanksgiving Day at Hank's house in Glasgow, MT. We talked for a little while. Then, Bill talked to his grandmother.
  • We watched two movies, eating a large piece of pumpkin pie between the movies. They were the 1998 movie, You've Got Mail, and the 2003 movie, Johnny English.
  • While walking dogs after the movies, we heard coyotes howling from north, northeast, and east.
    
    
• Friday, 11/25: Winemaking
  • I spotted six trumpeter swans out of our south living room window as they lifted off from our neighbor's pond and turned in flight to the west.
  • Mary ironed two sets of curtains that we used in our house in Circle, MT. She hemmed one panel that she plans to give to Bill for windows in his St. Charles, MO, apartment.
  • Bill and I worked on three different wines through the day.
  • First, we racked the blackberry wine for the fourth time, then bottled it. The specific gravity is 0.992, resulting in 12.3% alcohol. The pH is 3.3. Once we racked all containers into a brew bucket, we had 5.75 gallons of wine. We added 1 gram of potassium metabisulfite, then bottled and corked 29 bottles of wine. We tasted it. This wine was very fruity, a great blackberry flavor, with a bit of a tang. Somehow, brewing this variety, starting in the summer, produces a better tasting wine.
  • Next, we looked at the apple cider. Bill noticed that it was mostly clear, except for about an inch in the bottom of both gallon jugs, which was slightly cloudy. We decided to let it sit another month. The pectic enzyme I added a month ago gave the cider a clearer appearance than the apple wine, in which I didn't add pectic enzyme.
  • Next we racked the apple wine and added 1.25 teaspoons of pectic enzyme. It has a tiny bit of fines. We tasted the apple wine. It tastes good. Mary says the apple flavor is subtle, but will probably come forward with aging. Bill said it has a strong apple flavor, but not as strong as when eating an apple. The specific gravity is 0.998, increasing slightly from the 0.996 reading on 11/1.
  • Finally, we racked the jalapeño wine for the third time. It had a minimal amount of fines, but as it swirled into the carboy, a fine bit of mist moved across the top of the container, so there's some material still in that wine. The specific gravity is still at 0.990. We tasted it. Bill says it's milder and more fruity than last year's batch. We didn't add anything to this wine.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I played a long game of Michigan Rummy. It was my lucky day. We quit around 1 a.m. I won. Mary was a close second and Bill took a close third. It was fun.
  • Katie texted her mother that she won't be visiting us during Christmas.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/26: Up Goes the Christmas Tree
  
  • Mary laundered sheets and some shirts.
  • She also finished hemming a large set of curtains for Bill.
    
  • I talked with Bill a bunch.
    
  • I vacuumed Asian ladybugs that are always creeping into the house through our immaculately tight windows.
  • We got 2 eggs from our chickens, which were the first eggs in about 6 weeks. I guess they're finished with molting.
    
  • Mary, Bill, and I put up and decorated the Christmas tree. We also put up Christmas decorations around the house.
    
  • After decorating, we ate the last of the pumpkin pie and shared a bottle of parsnip wine (see photo, below). It's beautiful when poured into a glass. Bill and I started making it a year ago. It doesn't taste anything like cooked parsnips, which is good. Mary said it has a citrus/earth taste. Bill said you can taste lemon, and at the back of the tongue, a carrot flavor. I think it gives your mouth a full feel and it's quite good. It's supposed to be the best after 2 years of aging. If so, parsnip wine ought to be really great in another year, because it tastes very good after one year of aging. Our main purpose for tasting it was to determine if we're planting parsnips next spring, because Mary is drawing up a seed purchase list, soon. Parsnip seeds are on the agenda.

  

  Good tasting parsnip wine, with a gold color.
  

  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  

Nov. 13-19, 2022

Weather | 11/13, 26°, 37° | 11/14, 19°, 43° | 11/15, 2" snow or 0.21" moisture, 30°, 37° | 11/16, flurries, 20°, 29° | 11/17, 17°, 37° | 11/18, 15°, 27° | 11/19, snow flurries, 16°, 29° |

• Sunday, 11/13: Processing Venison
  
  • Last night, on a final check of the deer hanging in the machine shed, I heard something scratching up the trunk of the maple tree at the northeast corner of the machine shed. It moved as I moved around the tree. I saw something small leap to a branch. I think it was a flying squirrel, since regular squirrels aren't out after dark, but flying squirrels are nocturnal.
    
  • We got a late start in the morning, since we were tired from previous days of firewood splitting and yesterday evening's deer field dressing activity.
  • I sharpened 5 knives. Mary taped plastic down on the kitchen table.
  • I skinned the button buck deer hanging in the machine shed. For the first time, ever, I didn't use the Herter's knife with WGM engraved in its handle. The initials stand for Willis G. Melvin. My grandfather put his initials on the knife years ago. Instead of that knife, I used a skinning knife made by Old Timer. It has a curved blade and is excellent when used for removing the pelt. My only problem involved cold fingers while working with a hide cooled to 26°. I had to go inside 3 times to warm my hands over the woodstove.
  • After eating lunch, we processed the deer. Mary cleans fat off the outside of animal portions. I separate muscle groups and give meat chunks back to Mary. She removes silver skin, which is thick heavy skin across the meat. If not removed, silver skin contracts and makes the meat very tough. She then cuts the meat into half-pound pieces. Once we're done with a section, such as the hind quarters, Mary rinses the meat off with tap water, wraps the meat in plastic wrap. Two wrapped pieces go into a zippered freezer bag. Each bag is marked with my name, the date I shot the deer, the Missouri Dept. of Conservation deer tag confirmation number, our address, and what kind of meat is in the package, such as roast, stew, or loin. We got 31 pieces of venison out of this deer, which is surprising, since the bullet wrecked both shoulders. It was a deer with a long body, and as such, it produced more meat.
  • Mary cleaned up inside as I did outside. We finished evening chores partway through the last of our butchering. I finished the last bit of chores as darkness fell.
  • We watched 4 episodes of Keeping Up Appearances. It was fun.
    
    
• Monday, 11/14: A Missed Shot
  
  • A cool 19° with a steady southeast wind blowing made me glad I didn't venture out deer hunting this morning. I'm sure my cohort at field dressing a deer, Mary, would have told me to go right back out there and do it myself if I'd have asked her for help after shooting a deer this morning. So, I stayed in bed at 4 a.m., instead.
  • Mary washed furniture covers, a set of curtains, and some clothes.
  • After taking blankets off this morning, which were covering the winter greens, we covered the winter greens this afternoon with a sheet of plastic and weighed it down with bricks. The plastic is more appropriate with 2-4 inches of snow predicted overnight.
  • I went deer hunting at the first deer blind I created this fall, the Cherry Deer Blind. I sat down inside the blind at 2:52 p.m. An east southeast wind blew into my face. 
  • At 4:12 p.m., a coyote, about the size of a large dog, walked up the line of cedar trees to my right. It stopped about 8 feet away and stared at the bottom of the blind for several seconds. It looked up at me, but I don't think it really saw me. I'm wearing a dark gray knitted face mask to cover most of my face. It helps to disguise me. So far, deer, turkeys, and a coyote look my way, but don't run once they look at me. The coyote walked by the front of the blind, then turned and headed northwest through a cut in the line of cedar trees. Once the coyote was downwind of me, he caught my scent and bolted out across the field on a dead run.
  • Just before 5 p.m., I saw the hind leg of a deer to the north of me. All of a sudden it ran back where it came from and looked in my direction. I'm sure it caught my scent. I tried a right-handed shot through cedar branches. Immediately after shooting, I saw cedar branches close to me waving around. Obviously the bullet hit them and they diverted the shot, because the deer trotted off, casually, to the northeast. I waited 10 minutes, then walked north, in case I wounded the deer. I didn't. I just missed with my shot. The lesson I learned today was that even though .30-30 bullets are known to be brush cutters, it's a better idea to wait for an open shot, free from cedar branches, before pulling the trigger. Mary was very happy that I missed, so instead of holding deer legs while I gutted a deer, we stayed inside a warm house and ate vegetable soup tonight.
  • While I was hunting, Mary raked maple leaves in the north yard and filled the compost bin to give the bin some organic matter.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/15: Mom's 88th Birthday
  
  • We woke to 2" of wet snow on the ground and on all tree branches. Snow-covered cedar trees made us want to sing Christmas carols. Most of the snow was melted by afternoon.
  • I updated the checkbook and balanced it.
    
  • I made waffles for our midday meal.
    
  • I hunted in the afternoon from the Bobcat Deer Blind. Around 4:20 p.m., I heard footsteps, but couldn't determine the animal's location. I stood up to look north, down a gully, and promptly heard a snort from behind me. A deer was walking down my trail to that deer blind, saw me move, and ran southwest to near the west field, where it snorted at me for about 10-15 minutes. It finally ran west. I didn't hear shots from the west, which means nobody is in that tree stand just beyond our property line. I only saw 2 squirrels. In past years that location was messy with squirrels. I decided I'm not wearing the woven face mask in wide open locations, such as Bobcat, where I need uncovered ears to determine footstep locations.
    
  • While I was out hunting, Mary rearranged and dusted books in the living room. She's finding lots of Asian ladybugs nesting on book edges. They end up in the shop vacuum. She's also putting books of similar subjects together and eliminating some so we don't have books stacked ahead of other books on the shelves.
    
  • I called Mom to wish her a happy 88th birthday. She had a good day. Mom's been calling bingo at the Circle Senior Center's weekly lunch events. Today, someone else insisted that Mom play, instead of calling the game. She won 2 games and then won the end-of-the-day pot of money. Her hip is much better. Mom hasn't used a cane for 2-3 weeks. Hank couldn't make it down from Glasgow, MT, due to poor road conditions. Winter set in with a vengeance, giving eastern MT about a foot of snow that is settling. Mom said she had a nice visit with Katie last month.
    
  • I made 2 big bowls of popcorn after Mary finished the living room library work.
  • We stayed up and watched the launch of Artemis I to the moon on NASA TV. Bill and Mary texted a few times after the rockets lifted off. I bet it was loud where Karen and Lynn once lived in Titusville, FL.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/16: Quiet Day
  
  • Cool temperatures with northwest gusty winds means I stayed indoors instead of hunting today.
  • Mary made flour tortillas and then chimichangas for our midday meal.
  • Mary created a month-long meal menu, then a shopping list.
  • I stuck used corks into washed wine bottles that dried over the past several days. The corks keep dust out of the bottles. I moved several bottles that need cleaning out of the west room closet and replaced them with these clean bottles.
  • I refrained from racking the Kieffer pear wine for the second time, since all airlocks I own are in use. I'll wait until an order I placed a couple days ago arrives with 3 more airlocks. It shipped today from Ozark, MO, which is on the other side of the state.
  • Mary and I put blankets over the winter greens that are already covered with plastic. Predicted low temperatures are in the teens for the next four nights.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/17: Shopping & Second Deer
  
  • While walking dogs in the morning, we heard a trumpeter swan and saw 5 big ducks. In the morning light, details were hard to see, but we're quite sure they were mallards.
    
  • We went shopping in Quincy, IL, today and so did the entire population. All stores were packed with people. Mary found 70 American Heritage hardcover magazines at the Quincy Library bookstore for free. We dropped off books and got a planter, jeans, and a purse for Mary at the Salvation Army. Then, we bought food supplies.
  • We returned home at 2:30 p.m. I helped unload the pickup, then dressed and went deer hunting at the Wood Duck Deer Blind. With cold temperatures predicted the next several days, I wanted to give it a go this afternoon, since it was a few degrees above freezing.
    
  • I got to the blind at 3:36 p.m. A west-northwest wind, gusts to 22 mph, was blowing onto my left cheek as I sat there. These blinds block a lot of the wind, making them much warmer than a deer stand, where you're out in the open, up a tree. 
  • Soon after sitting down, I saw several turkeys walk to the edge of Wood Duck Pond. Then, I saw just a glimpse of a buck west of me. Next, I noticed a deer walk to the edge of the pond. I kept watching and that deer headed north to south, opposite the dry creek bed from me. I followed it while looking through the gun's scope. I saw no antlers, so when it got directly opposite of me, I shot. It instantly went down. It's another button buck, another yearling deer (see photo, below). I never heard shots from any other hunters, so I guess I was the only one hunting within this area.
    
  • Mary, who was hauling in the last load of kindling, heard the shot, waited for a text from me, and got it while she was feeding pets. She walked to the deer while I fueled then drove the tractor to the bottom of Bramble Hill. We field dressed the deer, then hauled it to the tractor. This button buck (named this, because yearling bucks only grow a small button of an antler, instead of a full set of antlers) is heavier than the last deer I shot. We hauled it home in the tractor, washed it out thoroughly, then hung it in the machine shed. Temperatures are cool for perfect conditions for hanging venison outdoors. We'll butcher it tomorrow.
  • We watched the 2015 movie, The Intern, which we really like.

  

  Another button buck, our 2nd deer of the season.

• Friday, 11/18: Our Venison Supply Is Full, As Is Our Freezer
  
  • We processed the second deer today and put 32 packages of venison in the freezer. It was pretty good, considering both shoulders were damaged from the bullet. This deer ate well and had quite a bit of fat. It was also quite hairy, with long black hair on its chest and back. There is a strain of white-tailed deer around here with black winter hair. The immense hair blocked the visibility of entry and exit wounds until I skinned the button buck. My shot hit the base of the left neck and exited the point of the right shoulder. The meat was very cold, due to sub-freezing temperatures. We finished butchering after sunset and I drove the remains to the middle of the north woods, where the remains of the deer we butchered on Sunday, 11/13 were completely gone. All that was left behind was coyote scat and the white excrement from an owl or a hawk. We now have 73 venison packages in the freezer, so we're set for the year. I won't be sitting in a blind with a rifle until next fall. I used 6 bullets this deer season...3 to sight in the rifle, 2 to harvest 2 deer, and only 1 missed shot.
    
  • Strong west winds blew all day. We kept the chickens inside the coop. Fortunately, the machine shed protected me from the gusts, even though I went inside a few times to warm up my hands.
    
  • We texted with Bill, who is bringing us metal shelving that was destined for the dump from his place of work. He also has plywood, but cannot fit it into his car. I'll make a trip in the pickup in the near future to get it.
  • We watched the 1958 movie, Auntie Mame.
  • We also went through several issues of American Heritage magazines.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/19: A Cleaning Day
  
  • It was another cold day with temperatures never getting above freezing.
  • At noon while Mary was giving new water to chickens in the coop, she heard a scream, looked up, and saw a red-tailed hawk chasing a Cooper's hawk. The Cooper's hawk performed a sharp turn to the east while the red-tailed hawk took a rest in the McIntosh apple tree.
  • Mary and I both did several house cleaning chores. Mary swept the whole house, then mopped our bedroom floor. New throw rugs we've slowly picked up over the past several months went down in the bedroom. They're really nice. She dusted all DVDs and put away books that were off shelves. I vacuumed bugs, rugs, and cleaned sinks, then did some Christmas present wrapping.
    
  • We did some reading in the evening.
    

Nov. 6-12, 2022

Weather | 11/6, 41°, 62° | 11/7, 33°, 53° | 11/8, 33°, 59° | 11/9, 50°, 77° | 11/10, 60°, 75° | 11/11, 0.30" rain, 25°, 33° | 11/12, 24°, 29° |

• Sunday, 11/6: Fixing Up Another Deer Hunting Location...You Can't Have Too Many
  
  • When Mary opened the living room curtains this morning, a ruby-crowned kinglet flew up just outside the window. It's passing through on its way south. Mary says they usually fly through late winter, or early spring, when they're heading north.
    
  • I gave Mary a haircut.
  • I made waffles for breakfast and Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal.
  • Mary found 39 books to donate.
    
  • Together, Mary and I checked out potential deer stand locations and decided the cedar and the American elm tree location on the Bass Pond Trail that I originally picked out is best.
    
  • I took down 4 strands of barbed wire fence between 3 fence posts and coiled up the wire. This will allow deer to walk right by the cedar/elm trees. Then I moved the aluminum ladder deer stand from the cow barn to the cedar/elm location. I sawed 3 limbs off the north side of the cedar tree and put the stand in place. I cinched up 1 ratchet strap around 2 limbs and the trunk of the tree and through slots in the 2x4 platform of the stand. I ran out of time. Plans are to add a second ratchet strap to make it good and secure.
    
  • In the evening, a flock of 5 wood ducks flew right over top of me. They're very pretty.
    
  • After letting the dogs out right at sunset, I spotted a squirrel in the pecan tree closest to the house and said to the dogs, "There's a squirrel." Plato briefly ran south, the complete opposite direction from that tree. Amber slowly walked to the tree, looked up, and spotted the squirrel. It ran to the ground, then due north. Amber tore after it, followed by Plato. They had their fun for the evening.
  • I washed 10 bottles from the recent collection I bought.
    
    
• Monday, 11/7: House Cleaning & Finishing Tree Stand
  • We watched a large female red-tailed hawk sit in the Keiffer pear tree while we drank our coffee this morning. It searched the ground below it for something to eat.
    
  • Mary was mainly inside, washing bedding and some clothes, replacing 35 gallons of water stored in 1-gallon containers in case the running water stops flowing, dusting books and sorting them, and sweeping.
  • I finished putting a second ratchet strap on the aluminum ladder tree stand. I also nipped several small branches out of the way. I wired up a semi-circle of hog fencing in front of the deer stand platform and wove cedar branches through the fencing as a small blind to hide me from deer eyeballs (see photos and videos, below). In the process of cutting off a cedar branch, I broke a wooden handle off the long-handled nippers that we bought years ago in Montana.
  • At noon, I harvested a bowl of winter greens that we enjoyed on top of taco noodles.
  • I looked up a sample ballot, then online information to determine how we want to vote tomorrow.
    
  • I washed 10 more wine bottles.

Aluminum Ladder Tree Stand viewed from NE.

The same deer stand viewed from SW.

View from the Aluminum Ladder Deer Stand.
Turn on your audio to hear me describe the view.

View inside the blind build around the tree stand.

• Tuesday, 11/8: Mulching Garlic & Sighting In the Gun
  
  • After getting up and opening the curtains on the west living room window, we noticed the bottom third of the moon was blocked in what was the end of the lunar eclipse.
  • When we walked to the chicken coop to let the chickens out for the day, 6 squirrels scurried out of the pecan tree nearest to the house. It is a domestic pecan tree, compared to the wild pecan trees that we get a few nuts from. This domestic pecan tree never seems to have a long enough growing season to develop mature nuts, so the husks stay on, harden, and never open, therefore the inside nut never develops. Squirrels are grabbing them and crunching them open, but there's nothing inside. That doesn't stop them from swarming the tree. This evening I let the dogs chase squirrels. As they ran into the north woods, Amber stood at the edge of the timber and woof, woof, woofed at them.
    
  • We drove to Lewistown this morning and voted. There was a line with lots of people waiting to vote. Okay, it wasn't a whole lot of people, but normally Mary and I are the only ones in the place. Today, there were 3 people ahead of us in line and a couple others behind us when we got to the poll workers.
    
  • This afternoon, Mary put a layer of compost on the three rows of garlic. Then, she mowed a section of the west lawn, bagged the grass, and used those lawn clippings to mulch the garlic. The garlic planting project is done for this year.
    
  • I cleaned the Marlin long-barreled .30-30 rifle (I own a second Marlin .30-30 rifle with a shorter barrel) and the Marlin .22 rifle that I recently used to hunt squirrels.
    
  • I sighted in the .30-30 rifle. After two shots at the target, I only moved the scope one notch to the left and one notch down. I hit the bullseye on the third shot. It's ready for deer hunting season, which starts this Saturday, Nov. 12th.
    
  • Bill called after sending us his Christmas wish list. He is training South Carolina employees at his St. Louis location. The company manager asked that Bill inventory stock that was ordered, but not needed. It amounted to $1.5 million worth of inventory. Bill will be visiting us for over a week starting Nov. 20th.
    
    
• Wednesday, 11/9: Plant Cleaning & AC Removal
  • Mom texted that it was 10° this morning in Circle, MT, with a couple inches of snow on the ground. There's a blizzard warning in ND and SD, and eastern MT is on the edge of that weather.
    
  • Mary moved the last three big house plants outside, washed them with a watering can and warm water out of the sink, then let them dry. Once dry, the ficus tree attracted several wasps. I helped her haul the huge ficus tree outside. When going back inside, she got tired of me telling her that pushing a hand truck up a set of stair wouldn't work, grabbed the trunk and hoisted it into the sunroom by herself.
  • Mary mowed the west yard and put mulch on fruit trees and blueberry plants.
  • She also washed rugs.
  • We enjoyed a chicken pot pie for our evening meal.
    
  • I removed our 4 air conditioners. Mary helped with the big ones. Each had squadrons of Asian ladybugs hidden in cracks. We vacuumed a lot of bugs, today.
    
  • I started moving willow logs into the machine shed, next to the splitter. Small logs went into the woodshed. We figure by the time we get to them at the bottom of the pile, they can be used for quick fires in the spring. I also took the chainsaw to longer willow branches in the outdoor stack of willow logs and in the machine shed. Once cut up, they went into the woodshed.
    
  • I marked 14 wine bottles that I previously washed up with a white grease pencil dot, stuck corks partially in them to keep out dust, and put them in the west room closet.
  • We enjoyed a wonderful bottle of 2021 blackberry wine. It's one of our favorites.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/10: Baking Bread & Splitting Willow Firewood
  
  • We saw a small flock of red-winged blackbirds flying south while we walked the dogs this morning.
    
  • Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. We had a Sound of Music evening meal of Red Rose tea with jam, jam and bread (freshly baked, that is!).
    
  • Mary also put a wheelbarrow load of hay in the chicken coop.
    
  • I spent all day splitting weeping willow logs into firewood. The heat content of willow is poor, but it's great for a quick fire in the fall or spring. I'm stacking it in the back of the woodshed, so it will be ready for us in the spring. I filled up a ring's worth of wood with the willow I split today (see photo, below). I'd move logs off the pile that's been stacked on the lawn between the machine shed and the chicken coop, stack them in front of the splitter, split that stack, then move the split firewood to the woodshed with a wheelbarrow, and stack it in there.
  • Mary started helping me once she was done with baking bread. Together, she and I moved all the rest of the good weeping willow logs into the machine shed. Then, we split and stacked more firewood in three sessions running the splitter. Logs that were on the bottom of the stack on the lawn are too wet, with roots on the bottom and sprouts on the top. Yes, weeping willow is really a weed. I plan on tossing those logs into a ravine that's down the hill and quite a ways east of the house.
  • Rain was predicted for 2 p.m., then at 5 p.m. By the time of this writing at 9:50 p.m., it still is west of us. They're predicting a skiff of snow in the morning. I'm hoping to finish splitting weeping willow tomorrow, then split the hardwood that I already have stacked near the splitter. I also must get the east end of the machine shed ready for butchering in case I harvest a deer Saturday morning. The prediction is for a low of 25° early Saturday morning. We're always colder, so it'll be around 22°, with northwest wind gusts up to 22 mph. It's going to be nice and toasty!

  

  One ring of willow firewood in our Quonset-shaped woodshed.

• Friday, 11/11: More Split Firewood
  
  • We enjoyed waffles that I made for breakfast.
  • Mary and I started splitting firewood first thing after breakfast. We finished splitting all of the weeping willow logs, split a few elm logs, then split all of the oak, hickory, and cherry logs that we collected a couple weeks ago from the east woods. We finished around 4 p.m. with about half of the second ring finished in the woodshed (see photo, below). This is the best collection of firewood stacked in the woodshed prior to deer hunting season going back several years.
  • Squirrels are swarming the pecan tree that's north of the house and east of the woodshed. Mary watched a woodpecker fly away from that tree with a pecan.
    
  • The weather prediction calls for northwest gusts to 22 mph starting at 1 a.m. and continuing until sunset. I've decided to forego getting up at 4 a.m. to freeze may ass off in the wind while waiting for a deer to march by. I'll wait for an afternoon hunt.
  • Mary and Bill traded song links on texts to one another into the night.
  • I washed 10 more wine bottles. I also stuck corks in 12 dry, clean bottles and stored them in the west room's closet.

  

  Half a ring added to firewood stack in the woodshed.
  Freshly cut hardwood is brighter than year-old willow.

• Saturday, 11/12: Opening Day of Hunting Season...One Shot, One Deer
  
  • We woke to a cloudy and cold day. I stayed in bed until just after 7. Squirrels stayed in bed, too. I only saw one on the pecan tree today.
  • Mary made a big batch of vegetable soup.
  • I strung up five lights in the machine shed in order to butcher deer.
  • Mary cleaned and sorted books into new locations. She's finding Asian ladybugs hidden behind books. If these bugs aren't removed, they stain the edges of a book's pages orange.
  • I hunted in the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. A northwest wind blew up the hill and into my face. The blind is cozy and blocks wind quite well. 
  • I started hunting at 2:50 p.m. Thirty minutes later, a 10-point buck walked by the blind just north of me. He had a nice rack, but looked haggard. There was no rump on it. The buck literally ran its butt off chasing does. The meat in that deer probably tasted only slightly better than a piece of cast iron. Since I'm more interested in quality food over a nice set of antlers, I let that deer walk on by. It walked up the hill so close to my blind that I could have hit it just by throwing a piece of wood. Eventually the deer was downwind of me. He stood for about 5 minutes sniffing the air. At one point, he looked right at me. I didn't even blink, so the buck turned, then trotted northeast and jumped the fence to the east. About 15-20 minutes later I saw it walking west just a little further north of me. The buck turned north at the dry creek and I saw it later under the distant trees northwest of me.
  • About a half hour later, 12 huge turkeys walked across the forest floor just down the hill from me. They were fun to watch. As a couple pecked and scratched at the ground, in the same fashion our chickens do, another would play sentinel and watch for danger. Then, the guard would scratch and another would take on the lookout role. Eventually, they were down at Wood Duck Pond making all kinds of turkey calls. Before nightfall, I heard them flying up to roost in treetops.
  • The end of legal shooting today was 5:23 p.m. At 5:15 p.m., I started getting ready to leave. Then a deer walked by, south to north, just in front of the blind. As I slid the gun from left to right across the top of the horizontal cedar log used as a ledge to the blind's window, the gun's sling caught on quarter-inch high branch nubbins, making it impossible to see through the scope. The deer stopped to eat some brush. I saw it didn't have antlers, so I executed a right-handed shot. Shooting a .30-30 rifle under roofing tin is really loud! It dropped and died immediately. One shot...one deer...that's the way I like to hunt, using the least amount of bullets, possible. It's a young button buck (see photo, below). Them's good eatin's!!! As I walked to the deer to make sure it was dead, several deer snorted at me from the north and east. As I turned the bend into the north yard while walking home, more deer snorted at me.
    
  • I texted Mary that I got a deer after I electronically notched the deer tag. With it getting dark, Mary figured we were free on working on deer, tonight. When she got the text, she said, "Damn it!" She walked behind me as I drove the tractor. We field dressed the deer, then hauled it down the hill, across the dry creek bed, and into the wagon behind the tractor. The whole time we handled the deer, snowflakes filtered down through the timber. Once we got home, we rinsed out the body cavity real well with the garden hose. Then, we hung it in the machine shed for the night. Temperatures are perfect overnight for hanging venison. It's predicted to hit 19°. We'll process the venison meat tomorrow.

  

  I harvested this yearling button buck this afternoon.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2022

Weather | 10/30, 0.02" rain, 47°, 58° | 10/31, 0.21" rain, 46°, 64° | 11/1, 37°, 69° | 11/2, 43°, 72° | 11/3, 53°, 74° | 11/4, 63°, 73° | 11/5, 0.85" rain, 41°, 59° |

• Sunday, 10/30: Finishing the Last Deer Blind
  
  • We woke to falling rain.
    
  • This morning, flocks of cedar waxwing birds were enjoying the fruit in the persimmon trees.
    
  • I cut the rest of the limbs off the weeping willow tree (the weeping willow stump has to come down this winter) and wove the branches into the hog panels at the Bobcat Deer Blind. There were still panels to fill, so I cut branches off unwanted cedar trees and wove them into place, finishing the job of building walls to disguise me while hunting in that blind. Eventually, I want to build a roof over this blind, like I did this year with my other 2 deer hunting blinds, but I ran out of time to do that this season.
  • While I was working on the last weaving job, a deer snorted at me from west of my location. After I finished, I sat for awhile to see if I'd see anything, and I did. A buck crossed the valley north of me. When I left to walk home, that same deer was on the trail I use to walk out of the woods, but near the west field. It snorted at me and ran off to the west. 
  • This finishes my work on deer blinds. I'm done a day later than I wished to be finished, but it's okay. I still want to put up a short deer stand I have stored in the cow barn that possesses an 8-foot aluminum ladder bolted to a 2x4 and plywood platform. I'm going to put it on a cedar tree near the start of the trail to Bass Pond. In past years, Mary witnessed deer crossing the field near this location while waiting for me to return after hunting from deer stands in the woods.
    
  • With a slight rain, today, leaves were coming down like snow in the woods.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas and venison fajitas that we ate for our midday meal. She also enjoyed some cross stitch work.
  • Mary picked 28 persimmons. Today's rain probably helped them fall off the trees. Mary found only one pecan nut. They're essentially finished.

Bobcat Deer Blind viewed from the north.

Bobcat Deer Blind viewed from the south.

Inside Bobcat Deer Blind.


 
View from Bobcat Deer Blind, starting north and rotating clockwise 360 degrees.
North and east views are across a creek bed to a nearby slope.

• Monday, 10/31: Halloween
  • Birds were extremely plentiful during our morning dog walk. Cedar waxwings and robins were eating crabapples out of the Sargent tree. Two chickadees followed us all the way down the lane, then back to the house, and finally to the chicken coop.
  • I saw a buck in the north woods this morning. It grunted and went off running to the north.
    
  • Mary made a zucchini chocolate cake.
  • She also made venison stroganoff for our main meal.
  • I went through the Kieffer pears we stored away after picking them 2 weeks earlier. A dozen went bad, so I have 20 left.
    
  • I removed seeds from the persimmons stored in the refrigerator. Mary picked more that I also deseeded. These persimmons gave me over 3 pounds of fruit in 2 quart bags. Just over 17 pounds of persimmons are in the freezer. I have enough to make a 5-gallon batch of wine.
  • An attempted pumpkin carving of Amber, our Viszla/pitbull dog, didn't go very well. The Jack-o'-lantern I created made Amber look like a pig (see photos, below), even though I sometimes call her "Little Piggy Doggy."
  • We enjoyed 2 big pieces of cake, each, because we were piggies, and a bottle of pumpkin wine while watching the 1993 movie, Hocus Pocus.

Photo of Amber I used for carving a pumpkin.

My poor attempt at an Amber Jack-o'-lantern.

• Tuesday, 11/1: Garlic Planting Prep & Two Wines
  
  • Mary baked and froze the Halloween Jack-o'-lantern, minus any carved parts or meat burned by the candle. Four quarts of pumpkin meat are in the freezer.
  • Mary popped the last 3 garlic varieties, in prep for planting garlic. She mowed around the rows in the far garden where garlic will be planted, along with spreading grass and compost in these garden rows.
  • Finally, Mary took down the Halloween tree, which is a very dead and dried up cedar. It's back out in the north woods for storage until next fall.
    
  • I washed, then cut 20 Kieffer pears into quarters while removing the fruits' cores. All the pear pieces went in lemon water, so they wouldn't turn brown. Instead of buying spring water, I decided to try using our tap water and adding potassium metabisulfite (Kmeta) to eliminate chlorine and chloramines in the water. I measured my glass pitcher. It holds 7 cups of water. I calculated that by adding 0.1 gram of Kmeta, I can de-chlorinate the water. A tenth of a gram is a very small amount. A nylon mesh bag was filled with pear quarters alternating with a pound of chopped golden raisins. Gee, I miss William, my son. He's good at chopping up sticky, gooey raisins. After smashing the pear pieces in the nylon mesh bag, I added to the brew bucket the juice 2 lemons, a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, a teaspoon of acid blend, 0.2 grams of Kmeta, 14 cups (2 pitchers) of treated tap water, and a pound of sugar. I left the specific gravity at 1.060, because after sitting, sugar content should increase with the raisins. The pH is 3.3, which is just fine. I covered the bucket and let it sit in the pantry overnight.
    
  • I racked the apple wine for the third time. Almost an inch of fines were in the bottom of the 3-gallon carboy. This wine might need an extra fifth racking. I added 0.5 grams of Kmeta to the liquid. The specific gravity is 0.996, giving it an 11.7% alcohol content. The pH is still 3.2. The must seemed pretty clear (see photo, below), so I didn't add pectic enzyme. We tasted the wine right after I racked it and then later, after adding Kmeta. The first time it tasted harsh and metallic. Upon the second tasting, it was vastly improved.The apple taste is strong, yet subtle. With aging, it should be a good wine.
  
  

  

  A wine bottle, half-gallon and 2 gallon jugs of apple wine.

• Wednesday, 11/2: Garlic 50 Percent Planted & Winemaking
  
  • While walking dogs first thing in the morning, we watched a large number of robins fly south. There were probably 50 robins in the flock.
    
  • Mary turned the ground for 3 rows of garlic in the far garden and planted Music Pink, German Extra Hardy, and Siberian garlic varieties. She said growing sweet corn in formerly clay-bound soil vastly improved the ground, because it's more friable.
    
  • Sugar content in the pear wine must increased with an overnight soak, with the specific gravity moving from 1.060 to 1.074. Trying to reach 1.080, I added 2 ounces of sugar and the specific gravity didn't change. I added another 6 ounces of sugar and the specific gravity overshot the mark to 1.088. I added 2 cups of water to drop it to 1.078. That's close enough. Including yesterday's amounts, added water was 1 gallon and added sugar was 1.5 pounds. I put 0.75 teaspoons of pectic enzyme into the brew bucket, since my total liquid amount is now 1.5 gallons. I created a yeast starter with Red Star Cote des Blanc wine yeast. This time I added a pinch of sugar and a pinch of yeast nutrient to the mix, making the yeast respond quicker. I pitched it about 6 hours later and the yeast was bubbling by bedtime.
  • I racked the jalapeño wine for the second time. The specific gravity is 0.990, giving it an alcohol level of 12.2%. The pH remains at 3.5. I added 1.2 grams of Kmeta. The remaining liquid filled a 6.5-gallon carboy and two 750-ml wine bottles (see photo, below). This equals 7 gallons and almost 3 cups of wine. The fines weren't deep, but they were rather chunky. This wine sat for almost 2 months, when I usually rack it after just a month, which probably contributed to fines resembling sedimentary rock. Mary and I tasted the wine and it's not as hot as last year's jalapeño wine, which is what I wanted. It has a stronger alcohol taste, probably due to 2 months of sitting on the fines. Aging will improve its taste.

  

  Jalapeño wine after 2nd racking.

• Thursday, 11/3: All Garlic Planted!
  
  • Mary turned over soil and planted the last 3 garlic varieties, which are Georgian Crystal, Samarkand, and Shvelisi. She wanted to get all garlic in the ground prior to rain that's predicted for tomorrow.
    
  • A check of the Kieffer pear wine showed a specific gravity of 1.069, a drop of 11 points. The yeast is bubbling right along.
    
  • I dug into the west room closet to count remaining wine bottles. I have 120 left to clean up. A count of bottles required for existing wines in the pantry and future wines scheduled for making into early next summer showed I need 200 bottles. I called a guy near Kahoka, MO, who is advertising wine bottles for 50 cents, each, and asked if I could buy 100 bottles from him. We agreed I'd visit him tomorrow at 10 a.m. to pick them up.
    
  • I measured the aluminum ladder deer stand's height and a cedar tree I'd like to put it in. It will work, but, unfortunately there's a second cedar just north of there that would block my northern view.
    
  • I washed 7 milk crates, a big round tub, and a large plastic tote to use to put wine bottles into when I buy them tomorrow. I also threw 2 cardboard wine bottle boxes into the pickup.
    
  • In the evening, I looked up the route to take to get to the guy I'm buying bottles from in the morning. He is 30 miles northeast of us.
    
    
• Friday, 11/4: Wine Bottle Buying
  • I drove north, northeast into Clark County to Sam LaFrenz's house that's deep into an oak forest and bought 100 wine bottles. They're all washed and in good shape. It took a long time, because Sam, a 79-year old retired teacher, had a long-winded story about everything. I showed up at his place at 10 a.m. and left at 11:30 a.m. He once raised grapes, but quit after getting tired of battling animals eating his crop. He still makes grape wine, but buys his grapes from a country store.
  • While I was gone, Mary did some mowing until rain drops started falling.
  • She also paid bills and did some cross stitching.
    
  • When I got home, Mary made a pork loin dinner topped with barbecue sauce, corn on the cob, yellow potatoes, and a salad made from winter greens that I picked.
  • The Kieffer pear wine's specific gravity is 1.031. I'll be racking it tomorrow.
    
  • I unloaded bottles. I got nine 1.5-liter bottles out of the deal. Those bottles are double the size of regular 750-ml bottles, so it's as if I got 9 extra bottles. Of course, I also got two 375-ml bottles...half the size of 750-ml bottles. They are really good bottles. One bottle has CSJ  formed into the glass. Mary looked it up. It was a California wine called Chateau St. Jean, that goes for $50-$90 per bottle. I stuffed used corks in several bottles that will sit, uncovered, in the west room's closet.
  • We put chickens away into the coop early, with pending rain predicted. It started raining hard around 6 p.m. and it rained all evening and into the night.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/5: Racking Kieffer Pear Wine
  
  • Our high for the day was at 5 a.m., when the center of a low blasted through. Mary saw the temperature when she got up to use the bathroom. She was so surprised by such a high temperature that she had to look at the thermometer twice. We had mist and a strong southwest wind until 2:30 p.m. When the sun popped out, I let the chickens out. It was too nasty for them earlier in the day.
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas.
  • While she did that, I racked the Kieffer pear wine for the first time. The specific gravity was 1.013. I squeezed the nylon mesh bag until the pear and raisin pieces in the bag were about the size of a softball, which is amazing, considering it was about 18 inches tall when I first put the ingredients into the bag. I got a little under 2 gallons of juice, which I transferred into two one-gallon jugs (see photo, below). I added about 6 ounces of distilled water to each jug to top up the contents. There was a little foaming in the jugs, starting about an hour later, but only a tiny bit of foam entered one airlock. The Kieffer pears give off a stronger pear smell in the wine, compared to Bartlett pears. It will be interesting to see if there's a difference in taste.
  • We read magazines and enjoyed two Brown Betty pots of tea...a nice, quiet evening.

  

  Kieffer pear wine after 1st racking.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Oct. 23-29, 2022

Weather | 10/23, 60°, 79° | 10/24, 67°, 73° | 10/25, 1.24" rain, 41°, 42° | 10/26, 0.17" rain, 33°, 57° | 10/27, 36°, 59° | 10/28, 32°, 61° | 10/29, 33°, 61° |

• Sunday, 10/23: Bill Goes Home & More Deer Blind Construction
  
  • I made waffles for breakfast.
    
  • Bill and I went back to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. We attached steel siding on top for a roof and Bill wired corners and the middle of the roof into place. I wired horizontal cedar posts between corner posts to create the bottom of my shooting windows.
    
  • Mary mowed the south and part of the north yards and mulched cherry and apple trees with grass clippings.
    
  • After a midday meal, Bill returned to his apartment in Saint Charles, MO. He takes a full week off and visit us the week of Thanksgiving.
    
  • Mary picked several more persimmons and pecans.
  • I returned to the deer blind, added hog fencing and secured it with wire. This stiffens the structure and gives me something to wire log walls into place. Then, I collected chunks of dead trees that I cut from wood blocking the way to walk up and down the dry creek bed, hauled them up the hill to the deer blind, and started stacking them to build the walls of the blind (see photos, below).

The new deer blind with hog fencing between posts.

The start of log walls on Cedar East Woods Deer Blind.

• Monday, 10/24: More Persimmons & Making Deer Blind Walls
  
  • Rain was predicted for this afternoon, so I decided to get all the rest of the logs I cut along the dry creek bed and haul them to the new deer blind before it became a wet creek bed. I hauled and stacked several large chunks of wood.
    
  • Mary picked more pecans and persimmons. She then removed the persimmon seeds and froze the fruit. We now have 6 lbs., 5 oz. of persimmons.
    
  • Rain started falling around 4 p.m., so we fed the chickens and put them in the coop. One of our newest barred rock pullets was outside of the fence surrounding the chicken run. I had to wade into the cedar branches between the coop and the machine shed to drive her south to the gate into the chicken run. She put me through a real chicken rodeo in the rain while she ran north. We couldn't find her for a couple minutes. At one point, she flew up into the mulberry tree. Finally, I was poking her with a stick while Mary pulled down on a tree bough to get her to jump off and run into the chicken yard and into the coop. I was wearing my heavy rain gear. Mary wasn't, so she got soaked.
    
  • We watched the 1944 movie, Arsenic and Old Lace, starring Cary Grant. It's a fun movie.
    
  • It rained all evening and night, a welcoming event. Conditions in the woods the past several days were pretty dry.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/25: Racking Blackberry Wine
  
  • Last night's rain continued through most of today. Autumn leaves that stayed in trees during several days of high wind gusts dropped to the ground with this rain.
  • I racked the blackberry wine for the 3rd time. It was due to be racked on Sept. 30th, so I was almost a month late. The specific gravity was 0.993, compared to 0.992 two months ago. The pH is 3.0, which is a bit high on the acidic side. The taste...WOW!!! It is tangy with loads of fruit flavor. I added a gram of potassium metabisulfite to 5.75 gallons of must. This halts oxidation, a detriment in wine. I then moved the wine to a 5-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, and a 750-ml wine bottle. In one month, it should be ready for bottling.
  • Mary worked on a cross stitch project while I was racking blackberry wine.
  • Mary picked a plastic grocery sack full of persimmons. Several fell from trees during this rain. I helped her pick up pecans. We found an even dozen.
  • We watched the 2010 movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage.
    
    
• Wednesday, 10/26: Apple Cider, Persimmon Poop, & Indoor Wiener Roast
  
  • I racked the apple cider for the 3rd time. The pH is 3.1. It started at 3.2 nearly 2 months ago. The specific gravity stayed the same at 1.003. That gives it a 4% alcohol content. About 3/4 of an inch of fines were at the bottom of two 1-gallon jugs, with less in the wine and beer bottles. The remaining liquid is relatively clear (see photos, below). I added a teaspoon of pectic enzyme to help clear it further. The SO2 level is 23 ppm, which is adequate, but since the alcohol content is low, I added 0.4 grams of potassium metabisulfite to 2 gallons to boost the SO2 level to 43 ppm. The resulting liquid went into two 1-gallon jugs. Mary and I tasted the apple cider. It's very tart with a slight metallic taste. There's hardly any apple taste. We tried sweetening it with xylitol (wood sugar), sucralose, and stevia. Sweetening removed some of the tart and metalic taste. The best tasting sweetener is sucralose, which is nice, because it's the cheapest.
  • Mary removed seeds for an hour and 20 minutes from a large batch of persimmons. She compares it to playing with baby poop. Plus, she said it's the last persimmon poop work she's doing this year. "If you want more, you're doing this job," she told me. Today's 4 quarts of fruit weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, giving us a grand total of 13 pounds, 12 ounces in the freezer. We're just 4 ounces shy of enough for a 4-gallon batch of wine.
  • I took the chainsaw and some wire to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. I wired existing logs to the hog fencing on the front, or west side. I cut 3 more lengths of log, adding them to the same side, and wired them into place. That finishes the west side of the blind.
  • On the way up the hill after crossing the creek bed, a young buck deer ran from just east of the blind to the north. He stopped, turned and looked at me through the woods, then headed out of sight. On the way back home, a young deer ran beyond me at Dove Pond. Each time I walked by our pecan trees, squirrels ran off to the north. They're still hitting the nuts.
  • When we walked the dogs just before sunset, 8 wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond. That pond is surrounded by tall oak trees. Wood ducks fly almost vertically to leave that pond.
  • We lit the woodstove, let it die down to red coals, then roasted hotdogs by opening the stove door and cooking two at a time on metal skewers over the coals. They tasted great on rye bread with mustard and Mary's homemade pickle relish.
    
  • Mary worked up a shopping list. We're almost out of chicken feed, so we're shopping in Quincy, tomorrow.

Apple cider after 3rd racking.

The fines left behind after racking.

• Thursday, 10/27: Shopping in Quincy
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, IL, today. Highlights: Mary found a good pair of Lee jeans at Salvation Army. I got a nice medium weight jacket and 3 pairs of wool socks and we found a good Christmas present for someone at the same store. We found large Honeysuckle White turkeys for 98 cents a pound at Walmart and bought two of them. Last year, we paid $1.30 a pound for Sam's Club turkeys, so this was a good deal, especially since turkeys are supposed to be hard to get and priced higher this year, due to a summer bird flu involving the death of several young turkeys. We think the size of these turkeys had something to do with their lower price. One is nearly 20 pounds and the other is 23 pounds. Unlike most people, we like them big. We now have 3 in the freezer and we're set for wintertime turkey meat.
    
  • We returned home by 4:30 p.m., unloaded, put chickens to bed, then I picked persimmons while Mary picked pecans.
  • Seven wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond when we walked the dogs before sunset.
    
    
• Friday, 10/28: Mowing & Finishing Deer Blind
  
  • I made a batch of waffles for breakfast. This was the first time in months that we didn't have homegrown strawberries on our waffles. Daily frosts make for bad strawberry fruits, even though the plants are still green.
  • We vacuumed dust and dirt from behind our refrigerator.
  • Mary popped 3 kinds of garlic in preparation for planting them
    
  • I took the large nippers and cut down all corn, tomato, and tomatillo plants in the far garden.
  • Mary mowed the area south of the far garden, which includes grass around the compost bins and near where we dump wood ashes. She put grass clippings around the Granny Smith and Empire apple trees.
  • I finished stacking and wiring logs into place on the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind (see photos and video, below). I finished by cutting several cedar boughs from trees I took down when clearing a wider path on the trail to the Wood Duck Deer Blind and stuck them along all edges of the roof of this blind. I think it will be a good location.
    
  • When I first stepped into the forest, deer snorted in the field just south of these woods. I never saw them. You cannot walk in the woods quietly with so many recently fallen and crunchy autumn leaves on the ground. I saw deer tracks in the sand of the dry creek bed.
    
  • Mary picked a dozen more pecan nuts while I found 7 persimmons.
  • After sunset, I watched a buck deer run south to north on the edge of Dove Pond.
  • We watched the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz.
     

  

  Inside the new deer blind.

  
  

West or downhill side of the new deer blind.

East or uphill side of the new deer blind.

View from Cedar East Woods Deer Blind starting
north and rotating 360 degrees, counterclockwise.

• Saturday, 10/29: Garden Plant Cleanup & Final Deer Blind Work
  
  • Mom sent some text messages. She's in Glasgow, MT, visiting Hank for the weekend. Her hip is doing better. She notices a marked improvement over the way her hip was prior to her surgery. "I should not have waited as long as I did," she texted.
    
  • I sharpened the mower blade.
    
  • Mary cleaned out corn and tomato plants from the south side of the far garden. "That was an awful job," she said. Mary told me it's the least favorite garden job that she performs yearly.
    
  • I marked the trails to the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind and to Bobcat Deer Blind with reflective tacks.
    
  • I also nipped a few woody shrubs on the path to Bobcat Deer Blind. Then, I wired 3 pieces of hog fencing to better hide my presence in that deer hunting location. It's a proven spot that I've used ever since we moved here in 2009.
    
  • This weekend is the first youth firearms deer hunting season. Hunters must be age 6 to 15. Mary ran into Zelma and Ansel Marquette while getting the mail. They were visiting their grandson, who is hunting on Ansel's land, which is adjacent to our SW property line. Ansel, who is 90, told Mary he doesn't hunt anymore. He owns property south of us, too, and told Mary several pears are under a tree at that location that we could have, if we wanted. Near sundown, we heard one shot from that SW location. It's the only shot we heard all day.
    
  • Mary heard the song of a white-throated sparrow. She said it's known at the Peabody bird, because it says, "Peabody, Peabody." She usually only hears them sing in the early spring, before they head north.
  • Mary and I picked persimmons and pecans. The numbers are dwindling. Squirrels are now hitting bad pecans nuts. We think wild nuts number are really low. It will be a tough winter for squirrels.
    

Oct. 16-22, 2022

Weather | 10/16, 39°, 61° | 10/17, 29°, 43° | 10/18, 22°, 48° | 10/19, 19°, 50° | 10/20, 32°, 69° | 10/21, 42°, 78° | 10/22, 58°, 85° |

• Sunday, 10/16: More Deer Blind Work
  
  • We let several Virginia creeper vines grow around the front door this summer. The leaves are bright red this fall. Mary took photos (see below).
  • It was pizza day. Mary made a pizza for our midday meal and another for our evening meal.
  • She also did 2 loads laundry.
  • Partway through the afternoon, Mary felt slightly sick, due to the COVID booster shot we got on Thursday.
    
  • I walked the dried creek bed near Wood Duck Pond from below my new deer blind south to where a fence crosses it and sawed up dead trees that fell over the creek and blocked deer from walking the bed. Several very large trees were in the way. I hauled a number of 3- to 4-foot pieces to the blind and stacked them under the hog panels that I wired to steel posts and stapled to the dead cedar tree. I started to weave weeping willow branches through the hog fencing of the deer blind.
    
  • Mary and I picked the first persimmons that fell after several windy days from the large persimmon trees in the east yard.
  • Mary watched a red admiral butterfly land on Plato's nose for a second, then fly away.
    
  • We watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
  • Stash Tea has a weekend 25% off sale, so we ordered several bags of loose leaf tea, some green tea, and 3 boxes of turmeric chai tea.
    
  • Even though temperatures were expected to be at freezing or below, overnight, a constant wind through the night made it impossible to keep covers on strawberry or winter greens, so we left them off.

Virginia creeper autumn red leaves.

Deep reds of Virginia creeper leaves.

• Monday, 10/17: Keifer Pears Prior to Hard Freeze
  
  • Since Mary picked our last big bunch of strawberries for the season, with lower 20s predicted as an overnight temperature, I made waffles that we topped with strawberries.
    
  • Mary and I picked up more persimmons that fell to the ground. I looked in Jack Keller's Home Winemaking book and 3.5 pounds of fruit are needed per gallon of wine. We'll easily get enough to make a gallon, if not more. He says persimmon wine is very good. Mary picked up another bunch of fallen persimmons at sundown.
    
  • We picked 30 Kieffer pears. There are a few more higher in the tree, but too high for this monkey to reach. A number of pears already fell to the ground. Several yellow jackets were enjoying meals with the bruised pears under the tree.
  • Mary made another round of flour tortillas, then chimichangas.
  • I cleaned the rest of the cut logs out of the dry creek bed at the east side of our property. I removed 2 steel fence posts from an old nearby fence no longer in use and pounded them into the ground at my deer blind. I added a small piece of cattle panel, laid horizontally, and wired it to 3 steel fence posts and a strong branch sticking up on the downed cedar tree that forms part of my blind. I weaved more weeping willow branches into the hog panels and started putting cedar bows on top of the cattle panel roof. The whole idea is to darken my little hidey-hole, so it's harder for deer to see me when I'm in there.
  • Bill confirmed that he's visiting us over the weekend.
  • We covered the winter greens with a couple layers of blankets and weighed down edges with bricks. It was 29° with a 12 mph north wind at bedtime. Tonight is our hard freeze.
    
    
• Tuesday, 10/18: "Frump" Go the Leaves
  
  • With our first solid freeze of 22°, we had our first leaf frump. That's when autumn leaves go to the ground all at once and make the sound of "frump"! All of the Virginia creeper leaves that were once bright red were dull brown and piled in front of the entrance door. Masses of yellow maple leaves covered the ground just east of the machine shed (see photo, below). Wind blew leaves out of the trees throughout the woods. Green leaves filled the ground under the persimmon trees, leaving just the fruit on the branches.
  • Mary and I saw a broad-winged hawk circling above our house.
    
  • Mary and I picked more persimmons off the ground.
    
  • Mary fixed a baked chicken, potatoes, corn on cob meal. We had the last watermelon. It was picked on Sept. 6th. They store well.
    
  • I worked on the Wood Duck Blind. I finished weaving weeping willow branches in the hog panels and continued putting cedar branches into the roof cow panel. It kind of resembles a fifth grader's fort. While walking back home, I startled some animal at the bottom of Bramble Hill. All I heard were fast foot steps. Three crows that settled into tall cedars at the top of Bramble Hill flew away upon my approach. At Dove Pond, a yearling deer crashed through the brush heading east.
    
  • Mary made jalapeño refrigerator pickles. We sampled a couple. They're good.
    
  • Mary wrapped the Kieffer pears with newspaper and stored them away.
  • She also removed seeds and froze the persimmons collected to date. It equaled 2 quarts weighing 2 lbs., 14 oz.

  

  Fallen, golden maple leaves.

  
  

• Wednesday, 10/19: Pecan Harvest Started & Wood Duck Blind Finished
  
  • Mary and I picked more persimmons off the ground, then picked pecans off low-hanging branches. Squirrels didn't eat all of the pecans, just most of them. Husks come off after a couple nights of hard freezing temperatures.
  • I finished the Wood Duck Deer Blind (see photos, below). It's cozy and when inside, I have an open view overlooking the east woods south of Wood Duck Pond. The video, below, starts with a southwest view and ends with a north view. It gives me a better perspective than I had in the deer stand it replaces. More importantly, the blind is safer than the stand.
  • I investigated another area at the south end of the east woods. While walking the dry creek bed to get there, I spooked up a large doe.
  • Mary cleaned the house.
  • She also picked more persimmons in the late afternoon.
  • I joined Mary and we picked more pecans. Their juicy husks contain orange dye that turns fingers and thumbs black when dry. We look like we have perpetually dirty hands.
  • We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.
    

The west side of Wood Duck Blind.

The east side of Wood Duck blind.

Inside sitting space of Wood Duck Blind.

Wood Duck Stand that the blind replaces.

View from Wood Duck Blind of East Woods, looking SW to north.

• Thursday, 10/20: Beetle Swarms & Deer Blind Prospecting
  
  • Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs all afternoon and into the evening. It's a yearly event on the first warm day after a hard freeze. Swarms of bastards fly out of the woods and into all buildings, and especially our house. They work their way inside and unless you vacuum them up, they're flying everywhere in all rooms. We've learned to go on a continuous vacuuming session during the swarm times.
    
  • I used reflective thumbtacks and marked the trail to the new Wood Duck Deer Stand. 
  • An autumn olive tree in the middle of the top of what we call Rose Butt Field I thought looked promising for another deer blind location. (Rose Butt Field gets its name because Mary and I once moved a deer to the middle of the field. In the dark, we put it right next to a rose bush that tickled Mary's butt as we field dressed the deer.) I crawled under that autumn olive tree and discounted its location, because you really can't see anything from it. Tall grass smashed to the ground indicates deer like to bed down under the tree.
  • I walked back to the south end of the east woods and looked for another blind location. I decided on one at the south end of the east woods, near existing game trails. I moved 2 pieces of hog fencing to the new location that I'm going to call the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind.
    
  • Mary and I picked persimmons and pecans in the morning and in the evening. I used ladders to pick several pecans. Mary found some on the ground.
    
  • We watched the last Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.
    
    
• Friday, 10/21: Bugs, House Plant Baths, & Work On New Deer Blind
  
  • We did our twice daily picking of persimmons and pecans. I used the aluminum extension ladder against one of the grain bins to collect pecan nuts high above the bins. Winds keep knocking persimmons and pecans out of the trees. Today, it blew a strong south wind.
    
  • Mary and I traded off on Asian ladybug vacuuming throughout the day. They were swarming the house for round two all afternoon.
    
  • Mary transplanted some of the house plants and gave several a bath outside. She also did some house cleaning.
  • I drove the 8N Ford tractor and trailer down the hill beyond the old cow barn. We call it Black Medick Hill, because it once was filled with Black Medick flowers. At the bottom of that hill, I used long-handled nippers and cut a trail through the weeds, brush, shrubs, and rose bushes and up the hill in the east woods to the new deer blind I haven't built, yet. Then, I trimmed branches off several dead skinny cedar trees that I plan on using for posts in this new blind.
    
    
• Saturday, 10/22: Bill Visits & Deer Blind Construction
  
  • Bill showed up around 11 a.m. I gave him several plastic bottles with mothballs in them to protect his car from wire-chewing mice. I added a mothball to every plastic bottle.
  • I gave Bill the choice of helping me with racking wine, or working on a deer blind. He decided to help build a deer blind. 
  • After several minutes of discussing design ideas, Bill and I cut up and wired into place lengths of dead cedar posts to make a square structure in front of a leaning cedar tree. It's the start of the Cedar East Woods Deer Blind. Even though it's a baling wire wonder, it stands on its own quite well.
  • Mary picked up several persimmons and pecans.
  • She made a wonderful tasting venison stew and homemade biscuits.
  • Mary cross stitched for an hour while Bill and I were in the woods building the deer blind.
  • We watched 2 movies: The House with a Clock in Its Walls and The Corpse Bride.
  • While walking the dogs for their final outing, we saw a small black opossum trundling up our lane. Both dogs listened to us when we told them to stay and leave it alone. The opossum spun around and heading into the tall grass.