Sunday, April 17, 2016


The landscape work on the north side of the drive was completed Saturday.
April 17, 2016 - Sunday
43 degrees/clear/calm winds
Pentoga Road

Fair warning! For all who may happen by today, I'm wearing shorts. One may wish to don a pair of sunglasses before looking at these very white, very shiny, extremely skinny, Big Bird legs of mine. 

I used to laugh at old guys who wore shorts, especially those who wore colored socks pulled up to their knees and dress shoes. I find as I get older and assuming I don't leave the place, I don't care what I wear to compliment my shorts, but you can rest assured, it won't be colored socks and dress shoes. 

Page Two:

I worked hard and long on Saturday, starting with raking, tilling, and landscaping the north side of the drive. 

 I ran into a few boulders along the way.
After I was relatively certain there were no rocks bigger than a Volkswagen remaining, I used the small tiller.

The big stuff may have been removed, but I obviously missed an old piece of wood.

It took almost twenty minutes to remove the stick.
The last chore was to trim a spruce tree, one whose boughs were long enough to touch the ground.

It's off to the burn pile
Page Three:

Pat and Debbie, Sargie's brother and sister-in-law, stopped by for a visit on Saturday afternoon. They have a beautiful log home and acreage at the base of Milligan Mountain just outside of Foster City.


Pat and Debbie are heading to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. Pat is retired, Debbie works at a local credit union in Iron Mountain. 

Page Four:

The backhoe was moved to the rear of the yard in the early afternoon and I began digging around the first of three tree stumps that needed to be removed. Taking only an hour, the first came out quite easily. 


I hate to tear up the back yard, but I dislike having to look at and mow around tree stumps even more. 

I moved onto the second stump. I dug, I pulled, I moved the machine from one position to another. Nothing would budge that stump.


I kept digging and moving and finally discovered that the two trees' roots were firmly grown together. 


The hole kept getting bigger and deeper. In the end, it looked as though I was digging a basement rather than removing a tree stump.


I'm not sure how to proceed with the last stump. It's growing by the one spruce tree that we want to save. I'm fearful that if I dig too deeply, I'll also rip too many roots of the good tree. I may end up digging down a bit and cutting, sawing, and chopping what will safely come out, then leave the rest to rot. Stay tuned on that one.


After closing the Vision Center last night, Sargie's off today. I want to finish with the last stump, but otherwise, we'll be taking our usual day-off drive to town and around the countryside. 

It's to cool down tomorrow, but overall, the long term forecast is for seasonally warm temperatures. With the gardening season right around the corner, there's so much to do, so little of me.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

I wasn't the only one playing in the dirt 

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