Somewhere in there, tomatoes are actually beginning to ripen.

August 25, 2015 - Tuesday

47 degrees/cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

I know Carl the Weatherman is predicting highs in the 80's for this coming weekend, but the past couple of days have felt more like mid October rather than late August. It was only 53 in the house when I got up earlier this morning and for the first time this year, I turned on the electric fireplace to warm the place up.

Monday saw the last of the flu symptoms completely disappear. I started the day by hoofing two-and-a-half miles and I actually felt better afterwards, getting the blood to pumping. 

I've quit walking this summer; just haven't been motivated. I think it was the combination of warmer and much more humid weather, having other priorities (the garden, side yard, putting up firewood, painting the barn) and getting over the feeling of having been put out to pasture when I found my teaching days were over. So, I felt sorry for myself and made excuses, but that's all water under the bridge and it's time to get the body active again. After all, I still may make that Appalachian Trail attempt one of these years... or a cross country bicycle trek. As they say, half the fun of going is getting there and walking daily puts me a step closer should the opportunity ever arise. 

I worked part of the morning out in the garden and picked a million, billion, gajillion green beans. We'll work those up in the next day or two and then I THINK we'll be finished with green beans. 

I'd like to leave the rest to dry and gather later to use as seed for next year's garden.

The black cherry tomato plants growing in the raised planter needed to be tied to the trellis. With the howling wind of the past several days, several long branches had blown over and were threatening to break off.

Using a conventional piece of lattice for a trellis has worked well. It takes some weekly maintenance to tie the branches and heavy pruning was required during the early part of the summer, but over all, I think I'll do the same next summer. It's functional and makes a good conversation piece. An added plus is that I can pluck a cherry tomato and pop it in my mouth each time I enter or exit the barn.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the shop and thought the rafters overhead were finished until I discovered a four-inch mistake. My far vision directly in front of me is almost nonexistent and I thought everything looked well until I crawled up the ladder and noticed something didn't look right. Out came the tape measure and magnifiers. Grrr. It will take an hour or so to correct my mistake this morning before I can continue on.

We had a quiet evening last night relaxing, chatting, and watching a bit of television. 

Sargie opens today and hopefully, will be home early tonight. I'm going to walk first thing this morning then fix my mistakes on the shop and hopefully, install the window and one door. I hope to put on the exterior siding on the two outer walls this week and run the electricity. After that will come the insulation, ceiling, and inner walls and presto, it should be finished. At the rate I'm going, it could be ten years from tomorrow before it gets finished, but my goal is to be done by Labor Day.

With that being said, it's time to start the day. I've got a walk to take and a shop to build. 

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Brutus went trotting by yesterday and almost knocked my legs out from under me with his stick.