Summer must really be coming. Several flocks of geese flew overhead on Saturday heading north.

June 9, 2013 – Sunday morning

39 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

It appears as though we dodged a bullet, or at least a coating of frost, here in the valley overnight. It was warm and mild when the sun set, but somewhere along the way, the temperature plummeted dangerously close to that frost line. Thankfully, it stayed on the warm side.

Sargie and I worked our backsides off yesterday. I began the work day by moving anything that belonged in the garage back, then we began loading boxes of tools and other items in the barn onto the four-wheeler so Sargie could transport them to the garage for temporary storage. I bet she made over twenty trips. We’d fill several boxes working side by side, then I’d load them onto the four-wheeler and meet her in the garage where I would unload them.

Anything pertaining to gardening went to the greenhouse. Thankfully, there are no plants in it at this time. We took down a set of shelves and filled those so there would be room for everything. I’ll deal with where to store the contents on a permanent basis after the barn floor is paved.

Sargie helped me lay out the soaker hoses for irrigating the garden this summer. We commented several times last year, after the garden was too far along, that we should have done that early in the season. This year, it’s a done deal.

I burned several years’ of flattened boxes that had been placed on the floor of the barn. They served their purpose as a surface other than dirt on which to sit or lay when I was working on a piece of machinery. It felt good to finally get rid of those layers of old cardboard.

Poor Sargie also did multiple loads of laundry and hung them out during the day. She was a girl on a mission and between helping me and doing household chores, she didn’t let any grass grow under her feet.

Sargie watering the potted blueberries in the orchard

I finally ran out of steam around 5 o’clock Saturday afternoon. With a gimpy knee that was sending messages of discomfort to my brain, both mind and body were screaming that it was time to quit. Sargie finished what she was doing and after showers we enjoyed a meal of canned pike on crackers while watching television.

Sargie has meetings today in the Vision Center. Opticians from the entire Upper Peninsula are gathering in the name of eye care. There’s one last corner to complete in the barn and I hope to have that finished before noon. There are flowers to plant after and a few weeds to be plucked. The strawberries are in full bloom and need to be fertilized and there’s hummingbird nectar to make and the feeder to fill.

I think I’ll meet Sargie in Iron Mountain later this afternoon so we can have supper with Mr. Milligan at the VA Hospital. I’ve not visited with him for several weeks and I always walk away from our times together feeling better than before. He gives off more positive energy than anyone I’ve ever met.

It’s almost time to wake Sargie for the day, see what the pictures look like I took yesterday, and get this uploaded. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…