Good morning to all from granddaughter, Ivy

August 11, 2016 - Thursday

69 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

The rain has been sitting just to our north and west for the past twenty-four hours. In fact, there were flash flood warnings last night for the Keweenaw Peninsula, to the north of here, after they received two-and-a-half inches of rain. Almost an inch is forecast to fall this morning. Will it? Stay tuned. So far, we've received a big, fat, goose egg.

It's interesting what subject will spark interest, comments, and conversation. The mere mention of salvaging nuts and bolts yesterday seemed to have stirred a lot of memories. I heard from several about how their fathers or grandfathers saved various hardware, straightened nails, and of course, nuts and bolts. Coffee cans seemed to be the containers of choice with old glass canning jars a distant second, followed by baby food jars. It sounds as though many of those old coffee cans and jars still sit somewhere on a dusty shelf in a garage, on a work bench, or forgotten deep inside a drawer or cabinet. 

I wondered yesterday what might eventually happen to my collection of leftover nuts and bolts? Will they end up inside a two-dollar box at an estate auction? Maybe one of the sons will swoop in and gather them up so they can sit on their dusty shelves. Of course a few might actually be used to repair a broken push mower handle, fix a child's bicycle, or replace a lost bolt in a ceiling fan. 

I don't know that many of the younger generation know how to fix much of anything anymore... or care to learn for that matter. Seems they'd rather replace any broken item with one that is brand new. I fear with today's mindset, the lowly used nut and bolt are probably destined to become extinct.

Speaking of fixing, Wednesday was spent on the roof of the storage shed remaking and repairing the drip edge. In talking with Mississippi Brother Garry, we both came to the conclusion that the roof doesn't have enough pitch to cause all the runoff to immediately fall to the ground. Instead, some dribbled down the previous drip edge and back onto the raw wood under the shingles. 

It won't any more. I purchased a much larger drip edge yesterday with a fatter lip that will cause the water to run further away and onto the ground.

That, coupled with caulk and roofing tar, will ensure the underlying wood remains dry.

Once finished, I was all done in by the heat and humidity and hibernated the afternoon away by sitting in the air conditioned house.

Last night was spent watering. Everything looks okay, but not great. 

We should be enjoying Macintosh apples in the next couple of weeks. One of this winter's projects is to make an apple press.

Sargie was home fairly early and we enjoyed a wonderful summertime meal of stuffed zucchini, cottage cheese, and a sample of the bread and butter pickles I packed last week.

Last night was the first that we observed the newest addition to Sargie's angel collection. She's solar powered and sits in one of our flower boxes to light up the night.



Sargie's off today. Depending on the weather, I'm not at all certain what's on the agenda. Maybe I'll spend the time in my shop sorting the hardware on my shelves, you know, hardware like nuts and bolts. They won't be going extinct in my shop, at least not today.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Grady called last night shouting, "USA! USA! USA!"
He and Daddy were watching the Olympics.