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| My friend, Eileen, occasionally sends pictures from the area where we lived and I taught for many years in northern Maine. These two bull moose were sparing less than a mile from our old family home. |
36 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road
I'm sitting here looking at the picture of the two moose. They were taken by the daughter of a former teacher and friend, Jenny. Jenny's daughter, Nicole and her husband live in her parent's old home outside of St. David, Maine, where she snapped the photo.
Nicole was the cutest little girl. After school, when the halls were empty and the teachers were finishing their workday, I'd grab a rolling secretary's chair from the front office and bring it out into the hallway. Nicole loved to sit on my lap and I'd push the chair around in circles with my feet. Just three or four years old, she'd laugh and giggle and beg for more.
Nicole's all grown up now and married. I haven't seen her in many years, but those memories of that little girl laughing and giggling are some of my favorites. I've known some really good people during my lifetime. Nicole, her brother Matt, and her mom, Jenny, were some of the best.
Oh, I also have several moose stories, but my favorite is of being chased onto the roof of the old chicken coop in our yard and throwing rotten zucchini squash at the one-antlered, crazed, bull. He eventually gave up and trotted away.
I'm sitting here looking at the picture of the two moose. They were taken by the daughter of a former teacher and friend, Jenny. Jenny's daughter, Nicole and her husband live in her parent's old home outside of St. David, Maine, where she snapped the photo.
Nicole was the cutest little girl. After school, when the halls were empty and the teachers were finishing their workday, I'd grab a rolling secretary's chair from the front office and bring it out into the hallway. Nicole loved to sit on my lap and I'd push the chair around in circles with my feet. Just three or four years old, she'd laugh and giggle and beg for more.
Nicole's all grown up now and married. I haven't seen her in many years, but those memories of that little girl laughing and giggling are some of my favorites. I've known some really good people during my lifetime. Nicole, her brother Matt, and her mom, Jenny, were some of the best.
Oh, I also have several moose stories, but my favorite is of being chased onto the roof of the old chicken coop in our yard and throwing rotten zucchini squash at the one-antlered, crazed, bull. He eventually gave up and trotted away.
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| Mt. Katahdin in Maine |
Mt. Katahdin marks the end of the Appalachian Trail that begins in Georgia and finishes in Maine. Along with my sons, I've climbed it and a neighboring mountain, Double Top. It's my dream, probably nothing more than a fantasy, to climb Katahdin one more time when I too complete hiking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail.
Meanwhile, back to reality in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan...
I rode to Iron Mountain late Saturday morning with Sargie and drove her car to the Jiffy Lube place to have the oil changed. With almost 170,000 miles on the little Kia, it still runs like new, due in part to the fact that Sargie is diligent about having the synthetic oil changed frequently.
It was past noon before I arrived back home. I played with Brutus a bit then hooked the trailer onto the Blazer and drove to town for a load of wood.
Yooper Brother Mark has mentioned several times that there is quite a pile of wood laying on the ground outside the plant and has arranged to have it hauled away and dumped. Usually, one has to wait in line to get a load of burnable wood, but this year, due to the low cost of energy, it appears many are choosing propane as their main heating source.
A trailer load of the soft wood, mostly popple and butt ends, equals a full month of heat for Sargie and me. Our house is small and though it burns faster than maple, oak, or other hardwoods, I don't mind putting a piece or two into the wood stove more often. I'm retired and for the most part, have plenty of time to do so. We've only burned a quarter of a tank of heating oil in the past four years, so I guess the wood heat does the job.
After an hour of throwing wood into the trailer, I stopped by Mark and Sheri's for a quick visit before returning home.
The afternoon was spent doing small things around the yard and house. I eventually returned to the trailer and began unloading wood, splitting the larger pieces as I went.
It was well after dark before I quit. There's still half a trailer full sitting out there, but that will be emptied after the sun rises this morning.
Sargie had to close and wasn't home until 9:30 last night. Poor thing, I was all done in from a day of loading and working up wood and couldn't keep my eyes open. She was wide awake and wound up after just finishing her work day. I'm afraid I wasn't much company for her last night. In fact, I don't even remember when she came to bed.
Sargie's sleeping in this morning. I'm going to finish unloading the trailer and might sneak back into town this morning and get another load. I'll put it on the ground and keep it covered with a tarp. It'll burn just fine over the next winter or two.
Meanwhile, there are yesterday's pictures to download and another cup of coffee to pour.
After all, a man's work is never done.
So are the tales from Pentoga Road...
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| If you look closely in the middle of the picture, there are several ducks swimming around in our meadow. After receiving seven inches of rain two weeks ago, the water is finally beginning to recede. |
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