It breathes, it eats, and it's still growing.
Pumpkin weight? Hundreds of pounds.

August 26, 2015 - Wednesday
53 degrees/cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

It seems strangely silent this morning; the wind's not blowing. Carl the Weatherman said last night that the low that's been parked overhead is finally moving east and we'll begin to experience a return back to summer, what little is left of it. 

There were no difficulties in walking two-and-a-half miles first thing yesterday morning and I enjoy the shorter distance. I'm home sooner and am not as tired as when I hoof the full five mile route. My feet don't ache nearly as much either. I may continue this shorter regimen for the foreseeable future. It's easier on the body.

I headed to the garden upon arrival home and was pleasantly surprised to see the giant pumpkin has continued to add some girth and put on weight despite the torn stem and cold temperatures. 

I tried to measure the thing, but bent over while holding both sides of the tape measure, I couldn't begin to read the small markings. As stated above, it's several hundred pounds, of that there's no doubt. Temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-eighties next week. I'm going to make one last push to get the pumpkin to five-hundred pounds. Why? Because I can.



I was wading through the vines yesterday, doing a check on the "regular" pumpkins when I spotted something red hiding in the jungle of leaves. The color was coming from two tomato plants, those that had come up volunteer elsewhere in the garden. I was going to throw them away and Sargie pleaded for me to simply plant them somewhere. After all, she said, there was no sense wasting two perfectly good tomato plants.



And so I did... right in the middle of the winter squash area where they were quickly forgotten. I have no idea of the variety, but they are the earliest producers in the garden. I picked several and brought them up to the house.



One thing is certain. I'll be saving a few seeds from this mystery tomato to plant for next year's early crop!

The dahlias are beautiful, those that are from the bulbs Neighbor Mike gave me last spring... the bulbs that I really didn't want to plant as there was no room. I'll be digging and storing them this coming fall and they'll certainly be planted in a more prominent place next spring, someplace more attractive than under the cucumber trellis.



While I'm on the subject of cucumbers, I picked enough yesterday to make another (and hopefully last!) batch of pickles. I hope to turn my attentions to canning salsa in the closing weeks of gardening season.

A quick trip was made into town for a few groceries and to leave some tomatoes with Yooper Brother Mark. The folks enjoy fresh garden goodies as much as we do.

I spent the rest of the day and most of the afternoon fixing the mistakes previously made while building the shop. With those out of the way and feeling much better about the structure being square, I installed the window and door.

Both were purchased last week at the Habitat for Humanity store in town. They'll work just fine in the shop.

Sargie was home early last night and it didn't take either of us long to make one of our most favorite summertime meals, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches, BLT's! I'm not certain that even the finest steak could have held a candle to the flavor of those sandwiches. Eaten on homemade toasted bread, they were the best.

There's so much that needs to be done in the next couple of days that I'm not sure where to begin. Sargie closes tonight, so I'll have the entire day and afternoon to myself.

I'll walk first thing. There are cucumbers on the counter that should be made into pickles and there's a huge bag of green beans that need to be snapped, blanched, and frozen.

I want to move some electricity around in the barn, reroute a circuit or two, enough that I can temporarily hook up one of the new large LED lights that will become a permanent fixture in the shop once the ceiling is installed. I began putting up a 4x8 sheet of OSB on the wall late yesterday afternoon and quickly discovered that it was blocking a great deal of outside light. Time to put some inside.

The lawn needs to be mowed, I want to get an old skidder tire from Yooper Mark's plant to make a sandbox for Grady, and of course, I'll have to go somewhere to get the sand.

Obviously, all the above won't be accomplished today, but one thing is obvious...

A man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

The cosmos flowers that were spur of the moment additions have added much-needed color to the growing beds; enough so that they'll become a mainstay to the garden in the future.