Our bedroom is festooned with Christmas regalia, including "Holly Bear" who sports angel wings.

December 4, 2012 – Tuesday

35 degrees

Pentoga Road

Finally, it appears as though the fog and soup we’ve been calling weather have gone away. I see stars in the sky this morning and the temperature is slowly falling to a predicted high of 28 today. If it means the sun is going to shine and the glop and gloom of the past two days will dissipate, I’m all for it.

Monday was mostly spent in the shop making two ermine boxes. I thought I could make three out of the two pieces of dog-eared fence, but it wasn’t to be. I called Sargie over her noon hour and she stopped by Home Depot and picked up more. I should be able to build four more boxes today.

I started the morning by hiking five miles. It was so foggy that I had to remain vigilant to any oncoming traffic and assumed they couldn’t see me strolling towards them. I guess one might call it defensive walking. There were times, especially around the lakes, that I could barely see the water.

Though it was warm, I was chilled when I got back home. The humidity, combined with temperatures in the 30’s, made walking somewhat uncomfortable. It was too easy to sweat, too easy to chill.

Some say, "Why?"
I say, "Why not?"
Lacking livestock for a conventional means of garden fertilizer, I take advantage of the piles of deer poo in our back yard. It's not cheap feeding them corn. This is one way I can recoup some of our money.

The rest of the day was spent in the barn. The first two hours were utilized by cleaning the work/tool area. Between the popple project, trapping, and hunting, tools were left lying in the wrong places and appeared as if a late fall hurricane blew through.

The ermine is forced to jump up into the 2 inch hole in the front of the box

I enjoyed constructing the boxes. Using a Sharpie to make all the marks certainly helps to know where to cut, even if it’s not exact. After all, I’m not making kitchen cabinets!

The hole in back, covered by hardware cloth, allows the smell of the bait and lure out of the box to attract the animal.

Finished, I set both boxes out in the woods along with a couple of raccoon traps. I’ll add more as the days go along.

A look inside. The ermine jumps through the hole and lands on the rat trap. The meat is aged raccoon and venison, saved especially for this project.

I talked for some time with Markus, Lynette, and Bree last night via Skype. My little sweetie had a cold and was feeling under the weather. Still, she smiled and waved to her Uncle Tom. 

I visited with Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry at their home in West Virginia. Things seem to be going well out east and we had a pleasant conversation filled with lots of gabbing and laughter. 

Sargie didn’t get home until well after 8 last night. There were a lot of appointments at the Vision Center and the office is running short-handed this week. She has to close tonight which means it will be 8:30 or later before she arrives home.

We played a game of Rummy before bed. Sargie’s once again the Pentoga Road champion. The girl was ruthless last night.

Whoops, it’s time to rouse her for the day so she can help cure the eyeball ills of America. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

Even the seldom-used second floor bathtub is filled with poinsettias and bears