August 11, 2015 - Tuesday

56 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

Naturally, I awakened at 3 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. I was thirsty, I had to heed nature's call, my stomach was a bit upset, I was too hot, then too cold, my back hurt, my mind was racing a hundred miles an hour... and the list goes on and on. 

I haven't had one of these mornings in several months. Tired of tossing and turning and afraid I'd keep Sargie awake, I gave up and came downstairs.

So now, it's 5:17 AM, the sky is beginning to get light in the east, and I'm so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open. I have the feeling it's going to be one of those days.

In the news department, it appears the family lineage will be expanding this coming winter. Sargie and I are expecting our long awaited love child.

No we're not. Do you think we're crazy? I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. Now quit daydreaming.

Andy and Jessica are expecting a boy around Christmastime and Matt and Jessica are also expecting a son later this winter. I'm sure glad Sargie's name isn't Jessica. Whew, we dodged a bullet there. It appears there will be little rug rats all over the East Coast. Congratulations to both.

Also, in the family news department, daughter-in-law, Megan, Josh's wife, placed 10th, in the USA National Triathalon this past weekend and will compete on Team USA in Mexico next year. Congratulations to Megan.

Page two:

Monday wasn't much to write home about. I began the day by going to town and buying some sugar and small-mouth jar lids. It will soon be time to make another batch of pickles. The pile of cucumbers is growing in the refrigerator and several in the garden are nearly big enough to pick.

The last stop in town was at Yooper Brother Mark's plant to pick up the trailer filled with wood. We caught up on some of the news of the day before I came on home.

I spent the rest of the morning either talking on the phone to Mississippi Brother Garry about how best to build the shop or in the barn taking measurements. At times, I was talking and taking measurements at the same time. I even took pictures and sent them via email.  

I've picked Garry's brain more than once, quizzed Mark eighty or a hundred times, and I still haven't decided how to build the shop. Right now, it's a matter of how much I really want to spend. Lumber will cost in the $600 range with the insulation about half that. Then there's the electrical, wiring, and all the incidentals. 

I'm trying to keep in mind that it will be just a shop, not an addition onto the house, and as such, as long as I can keep warm while I'm working and it's well lit, it should suffice. 

I don't know. Dad always said life is full of decisions. Why is it, the older I get, the more difficult some are to make? I was so brilliant, borderline genius, when I was eighteen. I knew everything then. All you had to do was ask me.

I spent time Monday in the kitchen blanching and freezing green beans and cauliflower, ensuring we have several more meals with garden vegetables this coming winter.

Other than mess around for a bit in the garden and pick some beets for sister-in-law, Jeanne, that was my day. I walked around the property and quickly discovered that with all the rain that fell on Sunday, the mosquitoes are alive and well. Sargie had a long day yesterday and wasn't home until well into the evening.

Thankfully, she opens today and since the doctor is not in, she should be home fairly early. I'm not certain what's on my agenda. The wood in the trailer is huge and most will require cutting and splitting before it can be stacked. That will be a full day's job. The lawn is looking shabby again and could use mowing. I'm hoping it will continue to dry off enough that I can haul a load of fill to the back yard. So much to do/so little of me.

No wonder it's said that a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Even the cherry tomatoes remain green as gourds