Lake Superior at Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan

May 6, 2013 – Monday

29 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

We arrived home last night and found it was colder in the house than outside. With a temperature in the mid-70’s on Sunday, the house actually kept the cooler air inside. All windows will all be open today. It’s that time of year.

It's a Yooper thing. I thought how funny it would have been if the rest of that deer's body would have been inside the Coke machine.

We enjoyed a great breakfast Sunday morning with Macrea and Mel in Marquette. One can’t beat a huge omelet covered with mushrooms and brown gravy. I’m not sure what it was called, but I’m certain there were no calories, right?

A couple of hours were spent driving around Marquette looking at various homes and enjoying the shores of Lake Superior. The UP’s largest community of just over 21,000 people is so clean and neat. There’s just enough commerce to make it convenient, but the city planners have mapped out the city so it definitely has a rural, built-around-Lake Superior feel. The sands of the largest Great Lake are only yards from downtown and with a paved running/bicycle path along the entire shoreline, enjoying the waterfront is a natural thing to do.

Looking across the bay at the dome where graduation was held on Saturday

The Wells Fargo branch where Macrea is the manager

We bade the kids goodbye in the early afternoon and headed south to Iron Mountain to bail Brutus out of the kennels then have dinner with Sargie’s dad. Our pup was certainly happy to see us and after receiving a good report about his behavior and learning he’d made a friend who was boarded next door to him, we drove to a small park and dam so he could run off a weekend’s worth of energy before going on to the VA Hospital.

We found Mr. Milligan snoozing when we arrived at the VA. I felt bad having to wake him, but he seemed to enjoy the forty-five minute walk we took outside around the complex. It was sunny, calm, and the weather perfect.

Brutus kept the residents entertained and I was proud of him. He allowed any and everyone to scratch his head, pet him, and was especially gentle with one or two of his more frail admirers. The nurses also love the pooch and I was surprised when all stopped to not only talk to the pup, but also pet him. Brutus is definitely a gentle giant.

Sargie always takes the time to talk with the residents. She's well known and well loved. Brutus had already made friends and was ready to move on.

All of the bulldog's pent up energy was released when we arrived home. He spent no small amount of time splashing through the large puddle in back of our home chasing ducks and carrying large sticks around in his mouth. I’m glad he waited. Chasing residents at the VA rather than ducks at home wouldn’t have been a good thing.

Sargie and I walked around outside enjoying the evening air. All the tomatoes I planted in the Walls of Water seem no worse for the wear from last week’s snow, sleet, ice, and freezing temperatures. I noticed the strawberries I planted on Friday are showing leaves, the rhubarb is continuing to grow and more asparagus spears are popping their heads above ground. It’s springtime in the North Country.

Sargie is back to work today. I think I’ll labor over last minute assignments (grades are due tomorrow afternoon) and continue to spread mulch and chips in the garden and orchard area. I need to spend a day working on the Cub Cadet as there’s little doubt the lawn will need mowing in the next week. There are potatoes to cut up and get ready to plant and the garden is being enlarged within the fenced-in area.

I need to order more topsoil for raised beds and contact the bulldozer operator. I’m thinking it could be dry enough by week’s end for him to work in the popple woods, the new garden area, and to make some trails through the maple woods. Just reading the above, I’m already tired, but then I’m not surprised. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…