Friday was spent rebuilding the kayak rack

May 16, 2015 - Saturday morning

52 degrees/partly cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

It appears our run with cooler weather is over for a day or two. The forecast for today... 76 degrees. It's to be warm again on Sunday when we travel to Marquette to celebrate Grady's first birthday then, unfortunately, I see it's to turn cold again. Oh well, the yoyo'ing temperatures assure that we never get bored with the weather.

Friday was kayak day on Pentoga Road. No, not going kayaking, but rather, fixing the kayak racks that I built alongside the brown wood shed several years ago.

At that time, I used whatever was handy. Living in Alaska and only occasionally spending time on Pentoga Road, I'd built the first rack from lumber selected out of a stack of rough cut boards that had been sitting outside for a number of years and half rotten.

Piled high with heavy snow, this past winter had done several of the cross-members in. It was time to do it right.

I really thought it would take just an hour, maybe two to complete the task. I was sadly mistaken. Once again, my old nemesis reared its ugly head... the tape measure. I had checked and double checked the measurement several times, but I cut the first treated board wrong. 68 and 63 look an awful lot alike and naturally, I cut it too short. Thankfully, I had treated lumber in the barn.

As the day wore on, my simple construction project continued to take shape. 

Neighbor Mike visited for an hour in the morning. Lake Neighbor Bob stopped by after and gabbed for another hour, saying he had a truckload of white birch already cut up and mostly split, if I wanted to come and get it. He won't burn birch in his wood stove. Me? I'll burn most anything. I told Bob I'd be along the first of next week.

Yooper Brother Mark stopped out. We talked for quite a while and had a good time catching up on the world in each other's lives. 

In the meantime, I did four loads of laundry, so it was in the house, out of the house, working on the rack, visiting, down the steps to the washer and dryer, up two floors to the bedroom closets. The scenario repeated itself multiple times throughout the day.

It was time to rehang the clothesline. It's an integrate system I have, stretching that skinny piece of rope from one tree to the other, around a post on the kayak rack, back to another tree, and ending on yet another post. I'd divulge my secret to successful clothesline-hanging, but it's a closely-held family treasure, not yet passed down to any family member.

After a stop at the beautician's to become even more beautified than she already is, Sargie arrived home later in the evening. We enjoyed a meal of leftover chicken and pork loins and watched television until bedtime.

Sargie works early today. I'm going to mow grass, not just the yard, but the meadows and main trail as well. The grass is uniformly tall enough that I shouldn't have too difficult of a time seeing where I've already mowed. Now if I can just keep any trees or rocks from jumping out in front of the mower...

I hear the coffee pot making noise which means I'm about to enjoy my first cup of the morning while listening to the news.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

A big ol' ugly trillium