March 15, 2013 – Friday morning

28 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

Thursday was a good one on Pentoga Road. With the sun shining and the winds calm, though it was still below zero, I strapped on my hiking boots and enjoyed the usual five-mile stroll. It was beautiful.

I was surprised to see that someone had driven out onto the ice on one of our larger local lakes; not the that thickness won’t support a truck, but rather because of the several feet of slush and water that lies just beneath the snow. The ruts going out were deep and ugly. I’m glad it was him that had to get that truck back to shore.

The ice shacks have been brought in and several were lining the parking lot. It amazes me how big many are and how fancy the interiors.

Several of these are components that fasten together to make one large ice fishing house. Check out the wainscot interior. 

There was one gentleman, Dave, who was fishing alone on the little lake where I spent so much time this past winter. He hadn’t caught anything, but was enjoying the bright sunshine and rapidly rising temperatures. We’d met last year when I was home for spring break and spent a few minutes catching up on the news in both our worlds.

Sargie and I had a fun afternoon of driving around some of our back-country roads, sight seeing, and enjoying the beautiful day. We detoured to one of our local groceries that was having a one-day sale on meat and milk. We also made a quick stop at the Insurance Liquidators where Sargie found a really nice top for $5.00. Can’t beat the price.

Thumper the rabbit about has all the bark peeled off this limb that is sticking out of the snow. Thankfully it's not one of my fruit trees or Thumper would be in the frying pan for Sunday's dinner.

I cooked pork chops out on the grill last night while Sargie made a big salad. 

The rest of the evening was spent watching television and talking. I also took the opportunity to begin reading the instructions for assembling the greenhouse. It’s going to be a process, that’s for sure. There must be a hundred-million aluminum pieces, nuts, bolts, and clips, that go into the structure. Oh well, I’ve always enjoyed a challenge. This one is going to be huge and take several days.

Remaking the wood shed into a sugar shack has halted until spring decides to arrive and stick around for more than a day or two.

Sargie’s back to work today. I’ll ride over with her part way and hike back. With daylight lingering an hour longer now, I may drive to Iron Mountain this afternoon, leave the car in the parking lot then visit Mr. Milligan with Sargie, come home with her tonight, and ride back over early in the morning to keep her company, then drive back to Pentoga Road. But in the more immediate future, there are assignments to grade, greenhouse assembly plans to memorize, and geraniums to watch grow. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…