The new hearth in the living room

August 31, 2013 – Saturday

60 degrees/fog/calm

Pentoga Road

I have about half a headache this morning… the kind one gets when he sleeps too long and too hard. Sargie didn’t get home until late Friday evening as she had to close the Vision Center and knowing she was off today, I took a couple of melatonin pills to ensure I’d sleep the night through and hopefully, sleep in a bit this morning. They worked.

The headache is nothing that a cup of coffee won’t cure.

I rode back to Iron Mountain with Sargie on Friday and purchased everything but the metal roofing to complete Brutus’s doghouse. I’d just covered the roof with particle board when Neighbor Mike stopped by. We’ve been making plans to haul some old barn posts to the back of his eighty acres to make a deer blind and I figured that’s what he had in mind. I was mentally welcoming the break from my heavy doghouse-building construction project.

We talked for a bit and out of nowhere, he said, “Let’s build your hearth.”

So, during the next hour, we constructed the hearth.

With the wood stove carried outside, Mike showed me how to cut bricks using a power grinder, a special blade, and a large chisel. He set me to work on that as he started laying out the bricks in a herringbone pattern. There is no mortar, cement, or sand; simply bricks laid closely and held together by the trim. Literally, within minutes, the project was completed.

Carrying a bucket of tomatoes and hinting that his last jar of bread and butter pickles I gave him two weeks ago was nearing empty, Mike bid me farewell and headed to his camp. I told him I’d be up to help move the posts today, my kind of project that requires few brains, some muscles, and lots of bull work. That I can handle.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting and beveling the trim to go around the hearth. I wish I would have had a decent geometry teacher in high school. After drawing a zillion diagrams, I set the table saw for the correct angles and made the trim from scrap 2x4’s. Each piece is beveled and hand sanded and later today, a forester bit will be used to recess the screws, plug, and sand the holes. Sargie is going to stain and varnish each piece and we’ll be able to call that project complete.

Beveling the trim

While the wood stove and flue are disconnected, I’m going to clean the insides of both. I’m not looking forward to that job, but it needs to be done before heating season arrives. I also should check the firebrick and may need to replace those as well.

Sargie’s off today and will no doubt work around the house before we do our usual shopping and errands. The girl hinted last night that my new metal detector should probably find a permanent home that doesn’t include the dining room table. It’s all about priorities and hers doesn’t include a prominently displayed, camouflaged, TC1 detector laying in plain sight for anyone to see who walks through the front door.

Wait a doggoned minute... if it's really camouflaged, it should be invisible. Maybe the dining room table's not such a bad place after all. Never mind, if I don't shut my mouth, I'll be the one sleeping in the new doghouse.

With that being said, it’s time to slop the giant pumpkins and think about picking tomatoes. Yooper Brother Mark and Sheri are to be home today following a short two-day get-away and I know she’ll take a sack of tomatoes as will the widow lady up the road and one of Sargie’s co-workers.

And then there’s Brutus’s doghouse. Will I ever find the time to get it finished? Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry are coming later next week, the grass needs mowing, the garden huckleberries are ripening, and I see there are more eggplant ready to pluck.

If only you had my life, but then, I’m not surprised. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

The stress of yesterday's activities finally caught up with Brutus last night as he lay down at my feet, rolled over, and fell sound asleep.