I've brushed snow from vehicles so I could see. This was AFTER I'd swept the leaves from the hood and windshield.

October 3, 2012 – Wednesday

34 degrees

Pentoga Road

I’m having a heck of a time getting a fire going this morning. Seems I was too lazy to go out to the wood shed for kindling last night. When I looked into the wood box on the back deck, I remember thinking, “Good ‘nuff.”  Yeah… well, I’ll baby the flames along and hope they get hot enough to take the chill out of the house before Sargie gets out of bed. If not, it’ll be furnace time.

Sunday was another beautiful day. After writing, I hiked the 5.35 miles in a bit over an hour enjoying the gorgeous weather. The leaves are past prime now and I’m noticing bare places among the branches. I imagine you’re tiring of pictures of fall leaves, but hang on, within a short time, there’ll be plenty of opportunity to view those of snow, and more snow, and lots of snow. It kind of goes with the territory.

I fixed super-duper omelets for breakfast on Tuesday morning. We decided to eat our big meal of the day early so that we wouldn’t have to worry about cooking later.

It was time to play Pumpkin Fairy… she’s a Tinker Bell type who flits the world over handing out pumpkins to all the good little girls and boys in preparation for Halloween. Whoa, wait, hold on, Sargie’s the fairy… I’m merely the gardener who supplies the thirty and forty pound fruits and manhandles most in and out of the Fairymobile.

There’s still a pumpkin here for Sargie’s sister, Nancy, but since she lives clear out on the frontier, in the suburbs of Foster City, we weren’t able to drop it off.  Hopefully we’ll get to see her before Halloween. If not, Sargie can turn into the Thanksgiving Fairy and Nancy can make a pie out of the thing.

Most of the afternoon was spent at Sargie’s old home where she was packing the remaining odds and ends, mostly clothes. I made the mistake of lying down on the couch.

I didn’t realize the Sandman moved in after Sargie vacated. It was over two hours later before I opened my eyes. Two hours? I’ve not taken a two-hour nap during the day in decades. It must be caused from all the stress I’ve been under; having to put meat on the table, snapping thousands of pictures of the fall colors, eating a bowl of ice cream nightly, taking a wonderful daily stroll among the woods and lakes. I guess this lifestyle is taking its toll.

The ski jump in Iron Mountain waiting for another season of Olympic class athletes.

We arrived home well after dark last night. It didn’t take too long to unpack the little car and soon we were enjoying a bowl of popcorn and watching Dancing With the Stars. We watch little television in the evenings, but that’s one show we enjoy. No, Luke, I’ve not crossed over to the other side. I’m simply more cultural and sensitive than you.

I assumed I’d have difficulty dropping off to sleep last night, but I read for… three minutes before my eyes closed. Hopefully, I’m caught up on being lazy and can get some real work done today.

Sargie returns to the Vision Center this morning to save the eyes of the UP and America. As soon as the sun comes up, I hope to clear the garden and tuck it away for the winter.

Next on the agenda will be the barn. Now that the majority of pumpkins are gone, it can be cleaned and a place made ready for a trapping shed inside, an area for my trapping equipment and where I’ll be skinning, fleshing, and mounting the skins… assuming I get some.

And finally, I hope to end with my daily hike, something I always look forward to.

According to the weatherman, this is the last day for a quite some time that we’ll have nice weather. It’s to turn nasty, cold, windy, and there’s a 50% chance of snow with a low of 14 on Saturday night. I guess I won’t be sneaking down to the bridge over the Mighty Brule and skinny-dipping this weekend.

	Friday Overcast with a chance of snow and a chance of rain in the morning, then mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 41F. Breezy. Winds from the WNW at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Chance of precipitation 40% .
	Friday Night Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow and a chance of rain in the evening, then overcast. Low of 27F with a windchill as low as 19F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 20% with accumulations up to 1 in. possible.
	Saturday Overcast with a chance of snow and rain showers in the morning, then mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 39F with a windchill as low as 21F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 50% .
	Saturday Night Overcast in the evening, then partly cloudy. Low of 14F. Winds from the WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
	Sunday Partly cloudy. High of 41F. Winds from the WSW at 5 to 15 mph.
	Sunday Night Mostly cloudy. Low of 19F. Winds from the SW at 5 to 10 mph.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…