The Teddy Bear sunflowers are beginning to bloom. This particular one is in the front planter, but they are scattered all around the beds in the yard and garden.

August 13, 2016 - Saturday

62 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Friday was a yawner on Pentoga Road. After receiving more than three inches of rain the day before, it was too wet to dig in the dirt or do much outside.

So what does a fellow do when he completes his walk and finds it's still too wet to play outside? Why, he makes pickles!

Like most everything else in the garden this year, my cucumber count is down significantly. Thankfully, I grow way too many which means even with a lower number, there are still plenty of cucumbers with which to make pickles.

I'm warming up the jars with the raw cucumbers inside (furthest pan) so when I pour in the boiling brine (middle) and attach the lids and rings, it will create a vacuum making a tight seal.

In all, ten and a half quarts were processed. It's always a trick to make the jars, cucumbers, and brine, come out even. Yesterday, I had brine left over, so I rushed out to the garden, plucked a small zucchini, cut it up, and made pickles from that. After a month or two, it's difficult to tell the zucchini pickles from those made using cucumbers.

The last two hours of the day were spent on the lake, just trolling along in search of a few nice bluegills. I caught one jumbo, but the rest were undersized and all were turned back in the end.

Sargie arrived home late after closing the Vision Center. I celebrated the beginning of Packers football by watching the first preseason game of the year. The Packers looked good and as usual, we're hoping this will be the year.

Sargie's off this weekend and I'll leave the agenda in her hands. She picked up a gallon of paint I'd ordered yesterday in Iron Mountain so I think I'll begin slathering it onto the back of the storage shed first thing this morning. 

We've begun the countdown to the annual Mighty Milligan Labor Day weekend. As with last year, it will be held here on Pentoga Road where we're planning on having smoked pork loin sandwiches, brats and burgers, along with enough other goodies to feed the starving third world countries. 

Sargie tells me there's a lot to do between now and then. Really? I think the place looks pretty good, but she has a tendency to see things I don't. I'm a "good 'nuff" kind of guy. She's a girl. As my son, Luke, tells me, "It's science."

If only you had my life.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Getting ready to go fishing late Friday afternoon