The yacht was brought out from its winter storage place and will readied for another summer of fishing this coming week.

April 16, 2015 - Thursday evening
62 degrees/clear/calm
Pentoga Road

Since I'll be riding early with Sargie in the morning, I thought I'd write tonight. It's been a good, but typically busy, day.

I started this morning with my usual five-mile walk. For the first time this year, I donned shorts, running shoes, and a long sleeved t-shirt. It was less than three weeks ago when I regularly wore snow boots, gloves, a winter coat, etc. What a difference a few weeks make.

A young deer walked out, unconcerned, in front of me this morning

After grading a few papers, I began digging year old strawberry plants from the patch in the orchard to plant in the pyramids over the next couple of weeks. I wanted to dig them before they came completely out of dormancy so they might keep better. 

Digging plants in the orchard strawberry bed

I pulled 250 plants, bound them with rubber bands in bunches of twenty-five, put those in plastic ice cream pails, filled in with dirt around the sides, added a bit of water, and placed them in the refrigerator in the garage. They should remain in dormancy until I can get them planted.



I hope to pull another one-hundred, ten plants and that will be all I'll need for the pyramids. That's on tomorrow's agenda.



It was after lunchtime before I quit. I came inside for a bite to eat and fell into a deep sleep immediately after, slumbering for over an hour. I haven't felt bad today, but haven't felt quite right. I've also been a frequent visitor to the reading room. I know there's some sort of bug going around; perhaps I caught a bit of that. After the nap, I felt fine and have since.

Most of the afternoon was spent working on the backhoe, changing the oil, the filters, greasing, tightening, fixing, and readying the machine for another season of digging and landscaping.



I was impressed. The engine last ran in October. It started today on the first pull. I'm back in business. 



It was almost 4 before I came inside, took a shower, and headed over to Iron Mountain to meet Sargie. I left the Blazer in the parking lot and will ride back over with Sargie in the morning and go on to Home Depot. I want to purchase some landscape timbers, treated 1x8's for the raised beds, dog ear fencing for more raised portable garden beds, and several bags of Quickrete. It'll be a full load.

After Sargie was finished with work tonight, she treated me to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. As always, I ate way too much, going back to the buffet time after time after time after time. 

This was my first plate. Several more followed.
Pork, sweet and sour chicken, seafood, rice, and my favorite, mussels on the half shell.

Sargie works early in the morning. As I said, I'll be going over with, doing my shopping, and hopefully will be back home fairly early. I have the rest of the strawberries to dig and store, then I hope to get started on ripping out the old timbers and strawberries in the bed alongside the barn. I'll use the backhoe and should be able to make short work of it. After, I'll take the backhoe to the back of the property and begin digging dirt to fill a new terrace by the barn, cover that with black cloth mulch, then cover it with either wood chips or gravel. The strawberry pyramids will sit on top of that.

Water being released from a hydro electric dam on the outskirts of Iron Mountain

It's our bedtime and I need to upload today's pictures. Brutus still needs to go outside for his nightly piddle. I have to go with him as he's afraid of the dark, especially after his run-in with the skunk a few weeks ago. If I don't accompany the pup, he'll simply sit on the deck, ready to bolt back inside should an imagined fire-breathing nocturnal squirrel or boogie man (skunk?) happen to enter his line of sight. He's such a brave companion.

But first, I have to wake the little guy and drag him outside. 

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

The ice on Stager Lake, about ten miles from our home, is still hanging on. It should disappear tomorrow.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Sundown on Pentoga Road