A friend of Neighbor Mike got his first-ever turkey early Tuesday morning. It's a big Tom.

April 28, 2015 - Tuesday evening

63 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

This has been another action-packed day, but not doing anything of what I'd planned. 

Neighbor Mike called last night saying he and his friend, Mike, were down from Marquette to go turkey hunting. I told him I'd be up today after arriving home from my morning walk. 

Mark sent a text early this morning saying the trailer had been filled with wood. I skipped my walk as I knew I'd more than make up for the lost exercise working up an entire trailer full of firewood.

I took two barrels of left over wood chips from my terrace project to Neighbor Mike's after arriving home. He's going to use them as mulch around some of his small apple trees.

I started working up the firewood at mid morning and didn't quit until late afternoon. Tired? I was exhausted.

In my younger years, I'd have split the wood and put it away without a thought. I guess I should be content that I can still do it all in one day, but it was a tired boy who finished the trailer filled with next winter's fuel. 

I love being retired and honestly, I wouldn't turn back the clock for love nor money. My mind is active and has all kinds of ideas of what I'd like to accomplish, but I'm finding my body has a mind of its own. 

Until ten years ago, I bragged that I could still outwork any eighteen-year-old kid. Five years later, I revised it to any thirty-year-old. After today, I think I'll raise the age to forty and that's okay. I'm still almost twenty-three years ahead of the game. 

I've been waiting for the trailer to be filled with wood before I could use it to take the four-wheelers to town to have the new tires mounted. As soon as the trailer was emptied this afternoon, I loaded both ATVs and tires and took them Larry the Mechanic's. They should be done in the next two or three days.

I'd decided to drive to Iron Mountain this afternoon and ride home with Sargie, but first, I wanted to rest for a while. Brutus had other ideas. He'd been the perfect pup all day, lying near by while I worked up wood. I made the mistake of asking if he wanted to go to the lake. That's all it took. He ran to Blazer and stood, waiting for me to open the door.

So, much of my rest time was spent pitching a tennis ball into the water and playing fetch.

Sargie and I had a good ride home. I grilled bratwursts for supper and we later enjoyed watching Dancing with the Stars. Bedtime, at least for me, will come early tonight.

I'll ride back over to Iron Mountain with Sargie Wednesday morning. After, I hope to spend the day working in the garden and planting more strawberries in the pyramids. 

A few papers will no doubt trickle in. There's a couple of students under whom I've had to light a fire. If they want their Alaska teaching certificate, they'd better get busy. The semester is almost over.

It's time to let the dog out before bedtime, bank the fire, and quit thinking deep thoughts for the day. Okay, I lied. I haven't had one all day. I was too busy working up firewood.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Always the best. The first brats of the summer.