Mollie with the world's best apple pie. It would be a blue ribbon winner at any county fair.

October 1, 2013 – Tuesday

52 degrees/partly cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

It’s going to be a rushed scene around here in another hour when everyone gets out of bed and prepares to vacate the house for a couple of hours. The bug man comes today. Armed with chemicals and things that aren’t good for you… or the bugs… he first sprays the outside then comes in and sprays, then sets off several bug bombs as a parting gesture. I think we may simply leave him to his killing ways and go out for breakfast this morning.

Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox were celebrated to the full extent on Monday. With Mollie acting as our go-fer while driving the small ATV, Andy and I attacked two dead trees, the first, a sugar maple that had fallen during a storm last spring. 

Andy twitching trees from the woods. They'll be brought up to the wood sheds, cut into burnable lengths, and stacked to be used a year from this winter.

The maple was taken care of in short order, but the birch…  once a giant among the trees of the forest, it succumbed to old age and had become a hazard with rotten limbs beginning to fall to the ground during heavy winds and storms. The tree will be used to help keep us warm this winter rather than let it go to waste.

The burn pile, started legally on Sunday afternoon, became something that was illegal as the sun rose on Monday. The DNR publishes fire conditions each day online and open burning was deemed illegal on Monday. The pile had smoldered all night and was reduced down to a few big logs. I hated to pull them apart, but the law is the law and I didn’t need to pay a hefty fine if caught. The logs will be rekindled when it’s safe to burn once again.

Brutus and Andy spent part of the day hunting squirrels. When my eyes worked better than they do now, I kept the pine squirrel population at bay via a pellet gun, but in the past year, the numbers have exploded to epidemic proportions.

It seems Andy and Brutus have developed a partnership. Brutus barks and trees the little critters and Andy plunks them from the branches.

When Mollie wasn’t with us, she was busy indoors making the best apple pie I’ve ever tasted. The girl is a culinary Picasso turning ordinary ingredients into masterpieces with her touch. Enjoying lasagna and Sargie’s garlic bread for supper, we finished the meal with large pieces of Mollie’s apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Needless to say, no one in this house went to bed hungry last night.

Andy pulled an old snowmobile onto the drive late yesterday afternoon and began working. Since they will be returning to celebrate Christmas, we want to be sure that both machines are running.

I chuckled to myself watching the boy work as I mentally turned back the clock. When Andy was in school, our garage and drive was always strewn with motor parts and tools. Some things never change.

Sargie was home early and we spent the evening watching Dancing With the Stars, football, and naturally talking and laughing. Bedtime came early. It had been a busy day.

Sargie works late today. Mollie, Andy, and I, are going to take a four-wheeler ride, hopefully meeting up with Yooper Brother Mark, and heading to the Silver Dollar Pub on the other side of Iron River for lunch. It’s to be a beautiful day and we’re up for enjoying a nice ride.

But first, there are more pesky assignments to grade and a cup of coffee to pour. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…