What creatures inhabit Pentoga Road when the sun sets? The answer is further down the page.

August 12, 2013 – Monday

52 degrees/sunny/calm

Pentoga Road

This past weekend has been the nicest we’ve experienced all summer. Clear and sunny days with cool temperatures and little breeze have been few and far between. As I told someone earlier, Sunday was one of those types of days where I wanted to do everything and nothing. It was a good day to be alive.

I started the day by making more blueberry jam. It came out well and other than make chokecherry jelly in a few days and then blackberry jam later, that’ll be it for the summer. Sargie takes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in her lunch every day and we go through quite a bit.

It's getting to the time of year when we begin enjoying our omletes from the garden. Yesterday's featured zucchini squash, cucumber, tomato, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, cheese, and bacon. Perfect!

I trimmed, then mowed the yard, trails, and meadows, on Sunday. That took several hours, but it’s back to looking like a golf course again. 

Thankfully, the growth has slowed down considerably and the belt remained on the pulleys the entire time. Maybe I’ll make it through the season without having to purchase a new one.

No glowing eyes here

Sunday was my granddaughter, Ellie’s, birthday. We spent almost an hour on Skype talking. She had to show me her newly cut hair, shoulder length now, and her pierced ears. Ellie will be in first grade this coming year.

I enjoyed talking with Josh, Megan, Wyatt, and Cody. It appears all is going well for my oldest son and his family. Hopefully I’ll get out there this late fall, but not sure how I’ll make the loop. Josh is in Connecticut, Matt’s in New Hampshire, and Luke is in Maine. Taking the bus might be the easiest way to go and simply meander from one to the other.

Other than bringing in some laundry and running the vacuum over the floors in the house, I didn’t do much else on Sunday. I’m feeding my giant pumpkins twice a day now and the five I’ve targeted are growing appreciably. It’s a matter of how many frost-free days remain in this growing season. The largest is the size of a huge, normal, pumpkin. I hope it will double before the growing season is over. If nothing else, I want to gather seeds for next year. I’m already planning my assault on a blue ribbon pumpkin at next summer’s Iron County Fair.

Pee Wee Soccer was in full swing in Caspian on Sunday evening

I took the time to make a cherry angel food cake. It seemed to come out okay and we enjoyed cake, ice cream, whipped cream, and blueberries for dessert last night.

Sargie was home early Sunday evening and we left the Man Truck at Yooper Brother Mark's plant to be filled with wood. The rest of the evening was spent talking, wandering around the yard, watching television… things that everyone else does in the summer months after a day of work.

Sargie’s back at the Vision Center today. I’m not sure what I’ll do. Brutus and I are going to ride several miles down the road and walk back. I think the knee is good enough we can increase our mileage.

Doing my nightly chores; feeding the livestock

What possessed all those glowing eyes in the dark? A mama raccoon and her four babies.

I need to clean out the freezer in the garage. When I went to close the door a week ago, a broom handle fell over and wedged the door open… it never closed tight. Consequently, some things thawed… the frozen fish fillets mostly. It appears we’ve lost most . There’ll be some happy bears tonight. I think the meat and venison made it okay. The strawberries and other fruits are fine.

So, it appears I’m going to have to start fishing again on a regular basis to put meat on the table. I’m not surprised. It's a burden we food gatherers must bear because after all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

No one seems to bother our home while we're away