May 20, 2014 - Tuesday

65 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

Niece Brielle last Saturday at Jeanne and Boyd's camp

Seems as though now the weather has warmed, the days are flying by entirely too fast. Though we received over an inch of rain during the early morning hours of Tuesday, the sun was out shortly after noon and the temperature warmed into the 70's.

We laid Mr. Milligan to rest in Foster City Saturday morning with full military honors. It was sad, it was beautiful, it was inspirational, but most of all, it was fitting of a true American hero. 

After, the family went to Jeanne and Boyd's camp for lunch. It was good to catch up on the news with everyone. We headed home during the early afternoon.

Jordy Nelson (the dog), Auntie Ashley, and "Auwbie Ann," as she calls herself.

Sargie managed to clean my clock playing HORSE and is currently the reigning International Pentoga Road champion.

After some initial carburetor problems, the backhoe is now working well. I took this picture, brought it inside to look at what I was working on, then proceeded to fix the problem and re-install the carburetor. It started the first pull and has worked flawlessly since. 

I need dirt to fill in the low spots so I dig a large hole, bury the boulders and rocks, and use the leftover dirt elsewhere.

I'm taking all the boulders from the yard that I've been forced to mow around (or often hit) and landscaping so that I can mow without hitting a stump or rock. 

Over half a day was spent trimming the dead limbs from the large spruce trees in the front yard. I cleaned the cobwebs from the chipper/shredder and made a pile of mulch to be used later this summer in the garden paths. 

I am still welding tomato cages. It takes forever, but I'm persistent if nothing else. Four down/eight to go.

Baby Grady appears to be adjusting to the outside world and is making steady progress on a daily basis. Macrea is good about calling two or three times a day to give us progress reports. We'll be going to Marquette on Thursday morning, Sargie's day off, to see the newest grandbaby and take lots of pictures.

I cut seed potatoes today (Tuesday) and will plant those Wednesday morning. It's also time to begin planting the rest of the garden vegetables and hopefully I'll get the majority in the ground over the next week to ten days. Naturally, we'll have several more nights of freezing weather, but I have enough frost blankets that I'm comfortable in going ahead and planting.

So it's a busy time here on Pentoga Road. Between Grady, gardening, yard work, playing with the backhoe, and teaching the summer session (papers are already coming in), there's simply not enough hours in the day.

But then, I'm not surprised. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

I use the front end loader on the old Ford to transport the really big boulders out of the way.