September 19, 2012 – Wednesday morning

5:47 AM

We have a breathtaking sunrise this morning to welcome in the newest member of the Milligan Family. A baby girl will be born later today to niece Ashley and her husband, Brent, in Appleton, Wisconsin, just down the road from Green Bay. Hmm, I wonder if she'll be wearing green and gold diapers?

The fire in the wood stove feels good. With temperatures well below freezing, I arose at 5 to come downstairs and get a blaze going before getting in the shower. Surrounded by the warmth that only a wood fire can produce, I could easily nod off to sleep.

Tuesday was a busy one. I managed to work only half a day.  Free from the confines of the office by noon, I hurried home and gathered a large bag of ripe tomatoes for Sheri. Those, along with two large cabbages, a cantaloupe, squash, and peppers, all went to town. Since she has numerous siblings, nieces, nephews, and of course, Grandma, I don’t worry about the vegetables going to waste.

A visit with Brother Yooper Mark was next. Neither of us have had the time to simply gab for the past several weeks. I’ll be glad when I’m not so busy. The four of us haven’t had supper together in months. Like Mark said sometime ago, we saw each other more when I was in Alaska. That’s okay, I’m going to slow ‘er down here in the next week or so and make time for my friends and family. Life’s too short to ignore what's really important.

I stopped at the post office to mail out an iPad charger Uncle Terry forgot. I also included a piece of chinking/rock that he found and took a liking to the day we visited Mansfield and the old church.

And finally, after a trip to the bank to get some cash, I visited my buddy, Barber Bob, and got a badly needed haircut. Bob had just gotten back from purchasing a new car. He said it had so many gismos that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to drive the thing.

My barber is never in a hurry, that’s for sure. When one gets his hair cut at Bob’s, he’s there for an experience. Having one’s locks shorn is merely a byproduct. I walked from his shop almost an hour after entering… and I didn’t have to wait to get into the chair.

Arriving home to a mixture of rain and sleet, I rescued the clothes I’d hung out on the line earlier in the day and began the process of picking pumpkins. Temperatures were to dive into the twenties. Frost on the pumpkin is one thing; having a pumpkin freeze only to turn to mush before Halloween is another.

I’m not sure what the average weight of the giant squashes is, possibly thirty pounds? By the time I loaded them into the two-wheel cart, plus carried about that many more to the barn one at a time, my arms were burning. Once the weather returns to normal, I’ll set those that still are green in the sunlight to finish turning bright orange.

The biggest disappointment of the garden this year was a failure to grow decent onions. From a bag of Spanish onion sets purchased at Home Depot, I harvested an onion bag full, but they aren’t of the best quality and are quite small. I’m going to have to be a more discriminating shopper next spring when it comes to purchasing onion bulbs.

I also picked all the rest of the green tomatoes and put them on newspaper in the furthest corner of the basement. Hopefully, they’ll last well into the fall and early winter as they ripen slowly.

And finally, late Tuesday afternoon and well into the evening was spent grading assignments. Though my eyes were ready to fall from my head, I felt so much better getting caught up on the huge backlog of reading material that had been electronically submitted. I think by the end of today, everything will be back on track and learning can once again resume in ALST 300.

Poor Sargie didn’t get home until 9:30 last night. We had a late supper and went to bed. She has to open today, so her night was brief.

I’ll work at the camp this morning then travel to Iron Mountain and Kingsford to attend my two-hour substitute teacher meeting where I’ll learn how to teach. It will be a long day for me.

The blueberries are turning a brilliant red

Thursday brings an influx of ladies to the camp for a three-day fall retreat. I’m told there will be two volunteers helping me register the rampaging herd of mostly senior Christians. I’ll do book work on Friday and I think after that, I’ll be finished and once again retired. Stay tuned.

So goes the tales from the house on Pentoga Road…

A month ago, the garden was so alive. Now, it's used up, finished, and ready to be tucked in for a long winter's nap. But, just like Frosty, it promises to be back again someday.