Grandson, Coleman, with his first porcupine. I'm tempted to send him a plane ticket so he can shoot a few out of our trees. We have way too many, just ask Brutus.

August 30, 2016 - Tuesday

67 degrees/partly cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

Whew, look who blew in here last night! Ol' Hambone Anderson, future linebacker of the Green Bay Packers, decided to come over and spend a couple of nights with Grandma Sargie and PawPaw.

I guess someone threw a wrench in Grady's babysitting situation so Grandma Sargie brought a surprise home with her yesterday evening. 

Brother-in-law, Ross, sent a picture of Sargie's son, Cale, with our great niece, Piper. We'll see both this coming Sunday at the annual Labor Day Mighty Milligan Family Gathering.

The past two days have been spent cleaning. I'm not talking about rearranging or merely shuffling stuff around, I'm talking about cleaning from the ceiling, shelves included, right down to the floor.

The hose to the shop vac was stretched into the barn so all the nooks and crannies along the wall could be cleaned.

I took a break and decided to do something cooler like clean out the small chest freezer in the garage. What a chore.

It was back to the barn. There are so many pieces and parts of stuff that I really didn't want to throw away, but the area was beginning to look like a remake of Sanford and Son.

With temperatures in the low 80's and the humidity approaching 100%, I finally took a break to walk out to the road and get the mail. I caught Mama deer and her two twins trotting up to the driveway.

 

It didn't take long for all three to turn tail and run in the opposite direction. I'm not sure who was more surprised, the deer or me.

Neighbor Mike's daughter, Amelia, stopped by for a visit. Amelia's a nutritionist at the hospital in Houghton, two hours north of here. She's been on loan to our local hospital and staying at her parent's camp across the road. 

Amelia Bedelia (as everyone calls her) loves to garden and we often spend time wandering through mine. She also plays an old banjo that I lent her. 

Amelia's so good about stopping to visit her Auntie Sargie and Uncle Tom when she's in the neighborhood. We love her dearly.

One side of the barn was finally finished around five last night. 

I don't mind telling you, Tommy P was about too pooped to pop. I was hot, sweaty, and tired. All I really wanted was a cool shower and something to drink.

We got a shower all right. A huge storm blew in and dropped .6 of an inch of rain in about ten minutes.

What we didn't need was the hail and strong winds that accompanied the downpour. 

Thankfully, damage from the hail was minimal and it appears the garden and flowers will live to see another day.

I fed the pumpkins and made a walk through the garden last night while waiting for Sargie to arrive home. One of my biggest summer pleasures is to pluck a ripe tomato from the vine and eat it like one would an apple.

Only one problem; after eating so many, I get canker sores from ingesting all the acid. I've cut my daily consumption down from half a dozen tomatoes to two or three.

Grady, Sargie, and I, enjoyed pizza last night, played, and later, Grady and his grandma sat together while watching television. 

I'm not sure, but I think there was some tickling going on across the room.

Sargie's off today, her last before this weekend's gathering. We have a jillion things to do and hope to get them all them done... or not. It all depends on a two year old named Grady. Hmm, I wonder what he thinks about helping his old Pawpaw clean the other side of the barn?

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Today's worthless FYI (For Your Information)
If a loaf of homemade bread is too frozen to slice, simply take it out to the shop and cut off what is needed on the bandsaw, something Sargie has yet to appreciate. Remember, you heard it here first.