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| Cabbage anyone? |
60 degrees/sunny/calm winds
Pentoga Road
The following picture was sent to me from my good friend, Eileen Cyr, who had seen it published elsewhere.
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| On the left is my home town of many years, Madawaska, Maine, population 4,000. Edmundston, New Brunswick, lies on the other side of the river. Both are quite remote. |
I wanted to start out this morning with an aerial shot of Madawaska, Maine, the most northern community east of the Mississippi River. Madawaska, a French Acadian Community, is located on the St. John River which borders the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It is two-hundred miles north of Bangor, Maine, and until the advent of the internet, was considered quiet remote. When I taught there, 80% of the students still spoke French in the home. I taught in Madawaska before leaving for Alaska and all four sons went through school and graduated from there. We lived ten miles east of town in the consessions'. (cun sess' eee ownz. French Acadian for boondocks.)
Page two
Friday was a busy one on Pentoga Road. Arriving home from my usual three-mile stroll, I threw a load of laundry in the washer, then headed to the garden to pull enough carrots to fill the dehydrator.
The next hour was spent washing, slicing, and filling the drying trays.
About half of this year's crop will be dried to add to soups and stews. The rest will be put in a box of sand in the basement to eat raw or add to roasts or for cooking during the winter months.
The rest of the morning and most the afternoon was spent working on the shop. The first priority was to move the music system and mount the speakers. Naturally, I assumed it would take twenty minutes to hook up the system. In reality, it was early afternoon before I finished.
I'm an eclectic listener. During the day, I danced and hootchie coo'd to everything from AD/DC to the Carpenters and even spent half an hour air conducting Dvorak's New World Symphony.
And so the process began of putting up peg board, carrying in tools, hanging a sign here and there. I did it with such care that I half expected HGTV to show up with their cameras to record my interior decor prowesses.
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| It's beyond me why Sargie didn't want the turkey tail fan, a gift from Neighbor Mike, with the dangling beard hanging in our living room. Hmm, now that I see it in the picture, it looks as though it's hung a little high. |
Originally, I thought I might be done by the end of the day. In reality, it might be closer to this coming Tuesday or Wednesday. I look at decorating and moving into my shop as an art form and as we all know, such creativity can't be rushed.
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| When Sargie and I first got together, this was hanging in my living room. Somehow, it found it's way to the barn soon after, but now has a permanent place to hang. |
Yooper Brother Mark stopped by to visit for a while. I sent the cabbages home that I'd been growing for him and Sheri to make sauerkraut from. Mark sent these pictures last night. They were canning a previous batch that had been processed and aging.
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| Mmm, can't beat the smell of aging cabbage; that that has been sitting around, bubbling, for a couple of weeks. |
Sargie had to close last night, but walked in the door carrying a huge, family-sized pizza. We had a fun evening of pigging out, talking, and watching television.
Today's Sargie's first day off in the past six, so we'll do whatever she wants. I imagine we'll head to town later for a bit of shopping and no doubt, chug around the countryside enjoying our weekly drive. Maybe we'll go fishing towards evening.
Me? I'm going to pour another cup of coffee before heading out to the shop and working until Sargie is up and around. But then, there are carrots to finish drying and other's to pull and slice. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll simply sit here a while and think deep thoughts until I make up my mind.
After all, a man's work is never done.
So are the tales from Pentoga Road...
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