October 9, 2012 – Tuesday

43 degrees

Pentoga Road

Anyone else notice recently how late the sun is coming up? I’ve always been fascinated by the seasonal rotation of the earth around the sun, especially after living in Alaska. We don’t have nearly the wild swings of daylight and dark as way up north, but even in the UP, it seems as though one day, the sun is shining early and the next, it’s simply decided to stay in bed for an extra hour or two. It’s still pitch black this morning.

There’s not a lot to write about and I guess that’s a good thing. For the most part, my life is without too many big ups and downs, but rather, it seems to finally be flowing somewhat vertically with small hills and valleys. I like it this way.

The White Mountains in New Hampshire. Sent to me by my oldest son, Josh, after a hike last weekend.

I took my five-mile walk first thing on Monday. I prefer morning strolls, probably because I’m full of energy and actually have some to spare.

Speaking of hikes, my oldest son, Josh, sent pictures of his two oldest munchkins and himself on the kids’ first overnight backpacking/camping adventure up Mt. Madison in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I talked with them yesterday via video conference and both were full of animated stories of their successful adventure.

I also talked with Luke and his two babies. Since it was Columbus Day, the kiddies were off from school and busy zipping here and there. They love to hike, but also are very active with their daddy as he hunts, fishes, and traps.

There’re no video games and little television for the Pennington grandbabies. Life's too precious to waste it sitting inside.

Josh - The picture was taken by my granddaughter, Ellie. Good job sweetheart!

I worked on the traps for most the day on Monday. In the end, I boiled the footholds and many of the body grippers in water and dish soap to remove any grease and machine oil from the new ones. Once they are used, grease is no longer a problem. I hope to begin dying the traps today and tomorrow I’ll wax them.

One of my older traps; an Oneida double long spring. This one was manufactured in the 1930's. I have two or three that are of the Civil War era.

Attaching a swivel onto the cable of a new 1.5 coil spring foothold

Dog proof raccoon traps

A new Conibear 155 body trap on a stabilizer

Sargie was home fairly early last night. After supper, we watched a bit of television, but were soon in bed. She was tired after a busy day at work and coming in from being out in the cold barn most the day, I was pleasantly sleepy.

Other than traps, I hope to do some laundry today and would also like to chip some brush and saplings I’ve cut. It’s Tuesday, which means I need to begin to read this week’s assignments for my university class I’m teaching. But first will come the five mile walk.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…