New daddy, Macrea and Baby Grady

May 17, 2014 - Saturday morning

33 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

It's been a busy week, unbelievably busy. Grady Craig was born late on Wednesday evening. Mel had been having some pain and the kids went to the hospital. Because Mel is Type I diabetic, there are problems incurred in a pregnancy that normally don't happen, so Grady was brought into this world six weeks early via C section.

He's a whopper, that boy. I guess that is normal for babies born to diabetic mothers. Weighing over 8 lbs, his lungs are not yet fully developed and he'll be in the preemie unit for several weeks receiving help until he's ready to meet the outside world on his own.

Grandma Sargie is all smiles

I've been busy during the days. One of my chores was to assemble the basketball goal. The instructions were very poor and in extremely small print. Could you hear my muttering and see the blue smoke rising from the north?

I sprayed herbicide on the roof of the storage building. It was dead within twenty four hours.

And of course, there are always the garden chores. I found a rock while digging a new bed.

The backhoe arrived on the same day as Grady. Since we have load limits in place, it was delivered to Mark's plant. I hate to admit it, but Yooper Brother Mark and Mike did 99% of the assembly. I played gofer boy and wasn't even very good at that. I would have never been able assemble the machine by myself. Too many small nuts and bolts/too small of print in the instructions. Thanks, guys.

Working in the machine shop at the plant, Mike seemed to instinctively know where everything went. I wish I had his talents.

Eenie, meenie, miney, mo....

Ready to tow it home

Operation is fairly intuitive. Here, I destroyed a large dirt pile in the back yard that I've mowed around for years. It took about half an hour.

Sargie surprised me on Thursday night by bringing home fresh, live, crab and lobster, purchased from a family friend who had driven 21 hours straight to get the seafood back to the UP. An unexpected treat!

We returned back to Marquette on Friday evening to see Grady. Grandma Sargie FINALLY got to see and touch him. She spent well over twenty minutes telling the little guy that Grandma was here, that she loved him, and everything would be just fine. 

We're driving to Foster City this morning for the internment of Mr. Milligan. After, the family is meeting at Jeanne and Boyd's camp for lunch. Hopefully, we'll be home early this afternoon. Grandma Sargie and I are about all done in. Too many trips to Marquette this week and not enough sleep.

It's not surprising. After all, a man's work (or woman's) is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road....