We found this heavy glass globe at the Habitat for Humanity Restore this past weekend. It's going to take a bit of imagination, but I hope it will become a yard light in the front this summer. There'll be a bit of imagination required, plus redoing some metal pieces, coupled with electrical work, but I think it's definitely doable. For the $5 asking price, it's worth a try.

February 18, 2015 - Wednesday
-16 degrees/clear/breezy
Pentoga Road

So I've been thinking about this wooden pyramid design I found on the internet in which to grow strawberries and have decided I'm going to try it. I'm attempting to gradually grow the garden at more eye-level so I don't have to crawl on my hands and knees to see what's growing. The strawberry bed alongside the barn needs to be replaced this year; it's been four years. I'll try the pyramid as a replacement.

I've been doing a lot of "idea shopping" on Pinterest, (where these pictures were found) a website where people share their photos and ideas for about any project one can think of. I enjoy looking at the various gardening pictures and with some, attempt to calculate how one or the other might fit into my future garden plans. 

If nothing else, it's a wonderful way to spend the wintry days inside... planning for the time when warmer weather arrives.

I've also been looking at pictures of raised beds and garden ponds. Now that I have a backhoe, digging a pond shouldn't be a problem. Affording the heavy liner might be more of a challenge. 

Remodeling the garden this summer means that much of it will have to be removed so that I might start again. I'll still have several beds, but no doubt, the growing area will be greatly reduced while the new is being constructed. We'll see what happens. Hey, there's no rule saying a guy can't dream, especially when it's sixteen below zero, windy, and snow covers the ground.

So I've got projects coming out my ears, if only I had a place to work on them. Top priority for this summer is to build an insulated shop in the barn. Yooper Brother Mark suggested I purchase an inexpensive, large, camping trailer, pull it alongside the barn, connect the two, then strip the trailer and make a workshop out of that leaving the furnace and whatever all I need intact. After, I would need to build a roof coming out from the barn to protect it from snow. I don't know, but whatever I do, it'll happen this summer. 

School openings were delayed by two hours this morning due to the low temperatures. Sargie and I were talking... neither of us remember school ever being cancelled or delayed due to a cold morning. I do remember Mom telling my sister and me to " bundle up" and making sure we did so on especially cold mornings. But of course, back then, common sense was still in vogue, when parents, not the schools, were largely responsible for their children's dress and behavior.

I got the Blazer out of hock from the mechanic's yesterday morning. Though it cost an arm and a leg, our old SUV was pronounced in good shape and should continue to serve us for many years to come.

The rest of the day was spent on the inside looking out. I did a bit of sketching, something I enjoyed doing as a youngster. In fact, one Christmas, one of my bigger gifts was a Jon Gnagy "Learn to Draw" set. Though Mom assured me I had the talent to become a junior Norman Rockwell, I really didn't. I think she was simply happy to see me sit for more than two minutes doing something constructive. 

And as with my Jon Gnagy drawings of fifty-five years ago, yesterday's sketches found themselves in the wood stove. 

I was much more talented with the Etch a Sketch. I got my first when I was around ten years of age and owned several throughout the years, including one kept at the cabin and on the boat in Alaska.

In fact, as recently as six years ago, I was still etch-a-sketching. There was seldom a landscape, room, or structure I couldn't draw. Why it could be done with buttons and not by hand is beyond me. I guess it was for the same reason that I could never sing worth a darn, but was able to master most musical instruments, playing both by note and ear.

Well, anyway, yesterday's sketching went into the wood stove and I turned my attentions back to this summer's garden design. Right now, I've included everything but the kitchen sink. Common sense dictates that I need to be a bit more realistic. There's even a screened elevated gazebo alongside the garden pond (that also includes a fountain in the middle with a water falls at one end) and a decorative fire pit close by. Yeah... like I said earlier, a guy can dream.

Meanwhile...

I spent most of the afternoon either carrying in wood, playing with Brutus, or sketching while listening to the music station, Pandora. I enjoy a big band mix from the 30's and 40's, and find I know most the tunes and words from the days when I played in such an ensemble beginning in high school and lasting through college. I played bass, the big bass fiddle, with six other musicians, the youngest being fifteen or twenty years my senior.

Last night was a quiet one. Sargie and I spent time looking at a few of my older Alaska pictures online. She hadn't seen many, especially of my arctic and Southeast days.  

Who is that young guy sitting on the steps of his cabin during the arctic summer months?

Sargie opens today and it appears she may close tonight. With only two opticians working and the doctor's schedule booked solid with patients, she'll be like Little Black Sambo and lucky not to turn into butter by day's end. 

I have already begun working on the drywall project. Next comes a bit of mud, some sanding, and hopefully, a coat or two of paint. If only it matches. 

It's time to get back to work. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Cooling off in the current of the Mighty Brule River several summers ago.