Attempting to see through the jungle of garden debris while hauling it to Neighbor Mike's

October 6, 2015 - Tuesday

51 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I was awake early this morning, lying in bed, excited that Mississippi Brother Garry and Jody will be arriving either later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. There's going to be a lot of gabbing and laughing on Pentoga Road during these next few days.

I received an email from Garry last night saying they were spending the night in central Illinois, about eight hours to the south. Depending on how much sight seeing they do today, I expect them in late this afternoon.

Monday morning was spent doing domestic honey-do chores around the house. With Sargie having been a bit under the weather, coupled with working long hours, I told her I'd take care of spiffing the place up a bit. I think it looks pretty good, but then it looks good to me even when it is a bit less than perfect. She gave it her seal of approval when she arrived home last night.

After spending all morning and part of the afternoon in the house, I needed to get outside and get dirty. The garden was calling my name. It's time to remove the dead vines, plants, and any vegetables that were left and might have gotten frozen. 

It's too bad. I must have thrown away ten bushels of green and/or rotten tomatoes. It happens every year.

There were some green Italian tomatoes that were as large as a grapefruit. Unfortunately, our season isn't long enough for them to ripen, but I think they would be great in a warmer climate.

The cantaloupes weren't worth a darn this year. This is the second year I've grown that particular variety and they simply don't have the sweet flavor we like in our melons. Again, our temperatures don't get hot enough to turn the starch to sugar. I'll try something different next year. 

Removing the dead sunflowers was like twitching logs out of the forest. The stalks were huge and it was all I could do to carry them, one at a time, to lay across the front end loader to be hauled away.

Four trips were made to Neighbor Mike's field. He likes me to dump the garden refuse in back of his house to attract the deer. Last year, there was quite a large herd that fed nightly.

Though she was to be finished at 5 last night, Sargie didn't walk through the door until 8 PM. She started work at 9 AM, so it was a long day for her. It'll be the same today as she closes tonight. 

I'm going to do some barn chores this morning and possibly run into town to leave off a couple of cards for Isabella with Yooper Brother Mark. He and Sheri are leaving early Thursday morning for Wyoming to see Sarah, Curtis, and Isabella. The baby is celebrating her first birthday and will be baptized this Sunday. 

So things are fixin' to get lively around here with the arrival of Garry and Jody. The leaves are one or two days away from being "peak" and other than rain forecast for Thursday, it appears the weather is going to cooperate. 

Time to wake up Sargie so she can greet the day. Afterwards, I think I'll dump some pictures from this computer onto an external hard drive. There are a few thousand that are taking up quite a bit of room.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Piles of garden goodies for the deer at Neighbor Mike's