Now there's a brave girl. Sargie got a sliver and asked me to remove it. Using the combination of my trifocals, heavy magnifiers, and a mounted magnifying glass, I managed to dig and pull the hunk of wood from her finger. I'm tempted to hang out my shingle and make some spare change, maybe do some open heart or brain surgery. Interested?

January 12, 2013 – Saturday

42 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

It’s still very dark, but from what little I can see, it appears the snow has disappeared overnight. It was raining before we went to bed and combined with the very warm temperatures, has caused the ground to become bare. Darn. My biggest fear is that the temperatures will get bitterly cold before we get any cover of snow and the freeze might do harm to many of the trees and plants in the orchard. The forecast low for tonight is 6 degrees. Point made.

Friday was a strange day, but nice. When I warmed up the car for Sargie to take to work and backed it from the garage, I noticed it was very slippery and icy. Still, the road didn’t look too bad.

I decided to ride part way with her and walk back. When she backed onto the road and attempted to drive ahead, the wheels simply spun and we went nowhere. The ice was so clear that the surface looked almost bare.

We fought to get the car back into the drive and on our first attempt, couldn’t pull it into the garage. There’s a slight lip from the gravel drive up onto the cement, about an inch, and the car couldn’t gain enough traction to go over the tiny hump. We finally got it back inside.

It was raining, icy, gray, and damp. Sargie has been working some ungodly long hours and it wasn’t long before she lay down. Several hours later, after sleeping very deeply, nighttime slumber, she awakened saying though it was unplanned, she must have needed the extra sleep as she felt so refreshed. I agreed. Her days are often very long and the nights short. As I told her, God gives us exactly what we need when we need it. My girl needed sleep.

I hiked, or skated, my usual five miles during the morning. It was somewhat challenging, but as the walk unfolded, much of the ice melted making progress a bit easier.

Sargie busied herself around the house yesterday afternoon. It amazes me, the magic of her hand when it comes to decorating; a new runner lay on the table, a vase placed here, a picture hung there.  When I clean, I think it looks pretty good, but it still appears as if a guy lives here. After Sargie works her magic, it looks almost pristine and… well… different. It looks nice. I like it very much.

Yooper Mark and Sheri arrived late in the afternoon. Mark and I immediately fired up the propane burner in the garage where we were soon frying potatoes, fish, and shrimp.

Oh how we ate last night. Sheri brought a dessert that was delicious, a pistachio pudding concoction that we inhaled. A great time was spent with friends whom we dearly love.

Sargie and Sheri talking while Sargie makes up the fish batter

Sargie has to close tonight so it will be a long day of work for her. I think I’ll begin building a gate to go in front of the wood stove. We asked if we might keep Aubrey and Marley for a weekend later this month. Derek and Leah, Sargie’s nephew and wife, agreed to share their precious babies with us. With Aubrey being only one year old, I’m going to construct an Aubrey-proof barrier well away from the stove. She’ll never be in the living room by herself, but this will be a good insurance policy.

Marley is four, old enough to reason with, but young enough to forget. The gate will serve as not only a barrier, but a reminder of the stove, when she’s playing in the living room. We love those babies and can hardly wait to have them. 

I’ve been thinking of various activities we can do. We’ll ride snowmobile around the property, possibly the four-wheeler. If it’s nice outside, we might go ice fishing and of course, no wintertime activity would be complete without a good old-fashioned sled ride. We might even bake a cookie or two and no doubt, there’ll be a visit to McDonalds at some point for a Happy Meal. It’s going to be busy time here on Pentoga Road in another couple of weeks.

Sargie and I dearly love our home on Pentoga Road, but we’re both in agreement when we say all that is missing is youth. We’re looking forward to having the babies for a weekend.

The wind just started to howl. That spells the beginning of the big drop in temperatures. They are to plummet during the day and not stop until the bottom of the thermometer is reached. Is it ever going to be icy.

I just thought. There’s a pair of old hockey skates hanging on the wall in the garage. Hmmm. Hmmm. There’s no snow on the lake so it will be like glass once it refreezes. I used to be a pretty good skater… forty years ago. Somewhere, there’s a picture of me on double-runner skates at the age of two. As Mom said, I skated before I could walk.

I’m feeling the pull of those great hockey players and figure skaters who have gone ahead (not implying that I was either in my past life).

But in the meantime, I have pictures and a blog to upload, another cup of coffee to pour. Life can be stressful, you know. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

All that remains on the lakes are naked fish shacks with a wet and slippery surface on a foot of ice.