Our first baby Bambi and mama of the new spring

May 27, 2015 - Wednesday evening

68 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

I was delighted this afternoon to have a doe and her new baby cross the trail ahead of us. Actually, Brutus saw them long before I did and let me know something was ahead. I immediately started taking random pictures as I knew both would run into the woods before we got very close.

The rain quit by midmorning after dropping another inch overnight. We've received exactly two-and-half inches over the past three days. Perfect. Rain is mentioned in the forecast into the weekend.

I made a quick trip into town to purchase a loaf of freshly baked homemade bread. In fact, it was still warm when I bought it. Stops were made at Insurance Liquidators and the local hardware store that sells bedding plants. Though I didn't buy any, their greenhouse was filled with thousands of beautiful flowers.

Arriving back home, I immediately started working in the garden planting the rest of the Navy beans, fertilizing the giant pumpkin plant (that has doubled in size in the past two days) and doing a bit of weeding.

The next order of the day was to pack the box on the four-wheeler with tools and head to the backhoe.

Due to a design flaw that allows water to run into the muffler, if the engine isn't covered during a rain storm, water gets into the crankcase and oil. I simply forgot to put the cover on the engine last Saturday before the rains began later that evening.

Over the next three hours, I made eighty or a million trips to the shop, also drained and changed the oil, drained and cleaned the carburetor, and doing more than my share of muttering. 

I'm not that good of a mechanic under ideal conditions. I'm even worse when working in the field. Still, by afternoon's end, the backhoe was back to running smoothly. I bet it will be a long time before I forget to cover the engine again. 

It will be a while before I resume digging fill. The hole where I've been getting the dirt has filled with water.

I'm really amazed how beautiful the catkins are on the sugar maples this year. I'm certain they've been there every year, but this is the first I've noticed that they've been so brilliant red.

I ended the last two hours of the day by working up about a third of the wood in the trailer that I brought home on Tuesday. It was a tired boy who threw in the towel at 5:30 this afternoon and crawled into the shower.

Sargie had to close tonight after a long day in the Vision Center. She works early on Thursday and has Friday off.

Weather permitting, I'll continue to work up the firewood on Thursday. With all the rain, the weeds are beginning to appear in the garden. There's never a lack of things to do.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

The apple trees are out in full blossom