The Pennington Girls

October 14, 2013 – Monday

30 degrees/calm/partly cloudy

North Waterboro, Maine

It’s chilly in the northern climes of our continent this morning. I see where it was 25 degrees at home, 30 here. And for the long term forecast? There are snow showers predicted for a week from today in the Upper Peninsula. I guess this means Sargie and I won’t be lying out on the back deck working on our tightly ripped bodies and tan lines much longer.

Sunday was a fun family day in the younger Pennington household. I was awake before the others, but was soon joined by Abigail and Coleman. Abigail took charge of the early morning situation and made her grandpa waffles, which were absolutely delicious. Like her daddy, that girl can cook. Coleman and I hung out for a while on the couch and soon, we all were enjoying breakfast and talking.

I spent a couple of hours grading papers and have about half finished. Since this week’s assignments are due today, there should be twenty more sitting in the inbox of my email account waiting to be read. Those should be completed by day’s end.

Knowing that the Packers game was scheduled for 1 PM, we hopped in the car and made our way to a local orchard. 

Abigail and Coleman introduced me to the art of running through a hay maze. It was quite the introduction. I mean, here’s a sixty-some year old half blind grandpa being led through a darkened barn of rows of hay bales by two very enthusiastic grandbabies. It was the most fun I’ve had in years and we even managed to exit the other side with all our limbs intact.

After, we grabbed apple pickers and bags and made our way to the rows of trees. There were so many varieties I can’t begin to name them all. We sampled many of the wares and I had difficulty deciding which I liked the best.

And HUGE apples?! Some were the size of softballs. We loved them all.

The next activity was taking a ride on a hay wagon. It took us all around the orchard and we could see not only apple trees, but fields of strawberries, raspberries, and various fruit trees.

The afternoon found us cheering the Green Bay Packers to victory. It was an ugly one, but hey, a win is a win. We’ll take it.

Luke had put a large ham in the oven earlier in the day. It’s been years since I’ve eaten a good, old-fashioned ham. Accompanied by mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, and broccoli, we enjoyed a fun family supper. Thankfully, there was a lot of ham left over. I’m anticipating some great sandwiches in the week to come.

The day concluded by watching a movie and munching popcorn. Perfect!

Luke was up early this morning. He had to check some beaver traps for his animal damage control business before beginning his shift at the fire station. Melinda and the grandbabies are home today and I’m looking forward to hanging out with all. Luke is off the rest of the week and he says we’ll be doing “guy stuff.” I know the week will be over before I know it.

Abigail has been helping me write this and Coleman just came down the stairs and streaked across to the donut box in the kitchen. I believe he thought the donut monster might have come during the night and eaten what was in there. Not to fear! Coleman found the one he was looking for.

So, with all that said and done, it’s time to move on. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…