A real life composite of summer and fall. Looking at the forecast, it appears fall is going to prevail in the very near future.

October 7, 2016 - Friday

60 degrees/cloudy/very windy

Pentoga Road

It appears a cold front is just off to our west and will be marching through at any time. Certainly our weather during the night indicated such. Heavy thunderstorms and rain pounded our area with another 1.3 inches sitting in the rain gauge that wasn't there when we went to bed. That makes almost two inches, total, that has fallen over the past thirty-six hours. 

I see on radar that there are snow showers in northern Minnesota. I hope they stay there, but with the weatherman saying our high for today is to be in the mid forties, I'm not overly optimistic. Oh well, we live in the Upper Peninsula where men are men and so are the boys... well, they are supposed to be, but with this new gender-bending stuff, who knows?

Friday was a good one on Pentoga Road. I returned home from Iron Mountain after stopping at the freight depot to get the new log splitter.

I felt quite manly pulling into a bay where several trailers were being loaded. When the man driving the fork lift came with my log splitter on a pallet, he said it wouldn't fit inside the Blazer. I told him it would. I was right.

Hey, I'm the guy who hauled an entire 10x28 ft storage building inside that Blazer, one board at a time. I know the dimensions well.

It didn't take long to unpack the splitter and I had it running within minutes.

I put hardwood, maple and birch, through the thing, along with softwoods like spruce and popple. It split everything effortlessly and so far, I'm well pleased.

Yooper Brother Mark accused me of buying a toy, but then he's the kind of guy who associates size with performance. We'll see who gets the last laugh on this one.

Thursday wasn't about splitting wood, however. The goal for the day was to bring Sargie's delicate annuals in for the winter so they might live to see another growing season.

I began by pulling the geraniums and pruning each.

When I was finished with each plant, all that was left was a bit of new growth from this past summer. 

All the plants were placed in a tote and their roots barely covered with damp sand. They'll be placed under a grow light in the basement for the winter months.

I kept beets all last winter by storing them down the basement in sand. Last spring, I dumped the sand out into a pile and when I went to get some yesterday, I found that several of last year's beets had sprouted and were growing.

The ride back to the sand pile is beautiful this time of the year. The back trail is filled with yellows, oranges, and gold colors.

There are several trees that are absolutely brilliant.

Sargie's spikes, those yucca-looking plants, presented the biggest challenge. 

They had roots growing clear to China and partway back. Eventually, all were pried from the flower boxes and placed into wet sand.

So the day went, one flower at a time. I took a break and drove to town to drop off a couple of sorry-looking cabbages and potatoes at Yooper Mark and Sheri's, then stopped at the plant for a quick visit. The four of us are heading out for a Friday night fish fry tonight.

Sargie wasn't home until late as she had to close the Vision Center. Thankfully, she has today off.

With this weather the way it is, I'm not sure much of anything will be accomplished. I had hopes of moving both giant pumpkins out of the garden, but unless the wind calms down a bit and the rain ceases, none of that will happen. I have to take the fence down to get the tractor to the pumpkins and am not keen on doing that in the rain and wind. 

No doubt, at some point, we'll go for our ride and who knows, maybe we'll end up celebrating winning the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. As Sargie is quick to point out, someone has to win, it might as well be us.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...