Sargie's helping to move more lumber back into the barn Sunday morning

July 1, 2013 – Monday

50 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

I’m watching a deer walk around the perimeter of the garden facing the electric fence just inches from the wire. I’d love to see how a deer and the 9,000 volts making contact with its wet little tongue or nose, would mix. I’m not an animal hater by any sense of the word, but over the years, there has been multiple fruit trees and plants consumed by the wildlife living in the woods surrounding Pentoga Road. I’ve inadvertently touched that fence several times. It’s not a killer, but certainly an attention getter.

What’s this? Tonight’s low is forecast at 37 degrees? That would be an all-time low record for this date. Hopefully it won’t frost. The garden and plants are much too big to cover this late in the game. I remember once, thirty years ago, when we received a killer frost the first week in August. The following weeks saw highs in the 90’s, but it was all to no avail. The garden had been lost for the year.

A recent hatch of butterflies has produced thousands on the ground and in the air

Sunday was a busy one on Pentoga Road. I started the day by working in the garden then changed gears and mowed the lawn. Right now, it looks like a golf course. In another two or three days, it will need mowing again.

Sargie drove the tractor and together we moved a large pile of lumber that had been covered in the yard back into the barn.

Sargie decided it was time to wash the blinds in the living room. She took all eight down and soaked them in the bathtub filled with detergent. Unfortunately, we later found that the sun had discolored several. We’ve talked of replacing the windows, now around twenty years old, and if so, we’ll probably hang drapes that can be easily removed and washed. With the wood stove being used six to eight months a year, blinds are nearly impossible to keep clean.

The window sills and frames are drying out. Sargie’s applying a new coat of polyurethane in an attempt to keep some moisture in the wood. The previous owners didn’t use the living room during the winter months, opting to close the addition off from the rest of the house and utilize what is now the dining room as their central living area. The very cold temperatures in the winter, coupled with those much hotter in the summer, took their toll on the wooden frames.

Yooper Brother Mark and Sarah stopped out during the afternoon. We had a good conversation and later, Mark hung the light in the barn that I’d inadvertently knocked off last week while moving lumber. We never did get it working, but that’ll be a project for a later date. For now, the large globe is hung and out of harm’s way.

With the knee throbbing, I lay down on the bed and was seconds away from a Sunday afternoon Grandpa nap when the phone rang. It was the owner of the internet company saying they’d worked all weekend to reroute, rewire, and reconfigure, the signal from the local tower and asking if I would get on the computer/internet and read some numbers to him. When I went to do so, I found the internet down… again.

There’s some sort of sick satisfaction that after a year of horrible service, I can be on the phone with the owner of the internet company while the signal is out. I guess it’s back to square one. Anyone else, in any other location, would be out of business. Since he’s the only provider in the area, we’re connected at the hip and I can only hope that some year, they’ll figure it all out.

I helped Sargie move the blinds from the bathtub upstairs to the back deck. Each was sprayed and scrubbed and later, hung back in the living room. None are perfect, but at least they are clean.

We wanted to go fishing all weekend and finally, a couple of hours before dark, decided to pull the boat to the lake a mile down the road in search of meat for the table. Pulling into the boat landing, we saw several cars with trailers and people on the dock. Everyone else had the same idea. We turned around and came back home.

I’m not sure either of us was too disappointed. It had been a long day and we were tired.

I had a problem falling asleep last night, something that is quite rare for me. It was past 11 PM before I turned off the light and it was around 1:30 when I awakened. Try as I may, sleep would not return. The knee was throbbing and I simply couldn’t get comfortable. Then the mind kicked in and I lay in bed thinking of everything from why I couldn’t grow decent radishes to the national debt. When I started thinking about all the strawberries that need to be picked, the clock was showing 3 AM. I gave up and came downstairs.

Sargie will be back at the Vision Center today. I’m going to pick strawberries first thing this morning then head to one of the lakes and fish for a few hours. Maybe I’ll tired myself out enough that I can take a nap this afternoon, stay up past 9 tonight, and get my sleep cycle back on schedule.

But first, while waiting for daylight, I’m going to pour another cup of coffee and read the news. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

The setting sun seemed huge Sunday evening