A second set of lumber shelves (on right) were hung on Monday. The new window will be installed in the outer wall of the shop later this summer.

July 26, 2016 - Tuesday

61 degrees/clear/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I'm sitting here wondering how to make cleaning a large section of the barn, then hanging shelves, sound exciting. That's what happened yesterday on Pentoga Road. 

I was reading some old blogs from arcticprofessor.us (no longer available on the internet) several days ago. Those were times of long snowmobile journeys across the North Slope, being stranded in the Brooks Range, helping to search for a downed plane, finding a path across a glacier, and once, of taking a break and sipping hot tea while sitting on my snowmobile, watching two polar bear cubs wrestle on the sea ice and not realizing I was being stalked from behind by their mother. 

Now I write about hanging shelves in the barn or watering giant pumpkins. Oh well, I'm not as young as I once was and life's a journey. I'm simply treading a slower path. When the feet get itchy and the urge to go out and conquer some new horizon becomes almost unbearable, I need to remember that.

Yesterday's big activity was to hang the second set of lumber shelves. Actually installing them wasn't too bad, but cleaning and putting everything away first so I could get to the wall was a chore.

The new talking tape measure is a godsend. I simply stretch it out to the desired length and pause for a second or two. It then announces the measurement down to the sixteenth of an inch. It made installing yesterday's shelves much easier.

After my usual walk, it took until well past noon to actually begin.

I took a break later in the afternoon to drive to Yooper Brother Mark's plant for two pallets. Mark's a happy grandpa. Sarah and Isabella found themselves with a bit of time before Sarah begins her new teaching job in Wyoming, so they flew back to Michigan for a few days and surprised Mark and Sheri.

The shelves were finished by late afternoon and are already full. 

Sargie was home early last night and helped me move a pallet under one of the pumpkins. We were gentle with the vines, but try as we may, I couldn't get the pumpkin centered on the pallet. We decided to try only one elevated pumpkin this year and leave the other sitting on a board. As I told someone earlier, it's the scientific method, I made a hypothesis, that the pallet will provide better growing conditions, have a control group, the other pumpkin, and now we'll see what happens.

If all goes right, the pumpkin should cover most of the pallet in the next six weeks. A solid sheet of plywood will be placed between the pallet and the pumpkin later today.

Sargie closes tonight making it a long day. I'm going to continue working in the barn. There are lights to hang in the shop, new bearings to install in the mower deck, barges to tote and bales to lift. It's also time to begin picking blueberries. There are quite few dark blue, dime-sized, fruits about ready to fall from the bush. They are huge this year.

After reading all the above, today's blog is just pretty ho hum, but try as I may, I can't find even one polar bear or downed plane in the neighborhood to write about.

Oh well, trust me. A man's work is never done, even if we do occasionally tread a slower path.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...