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| The folks at our local hardware store seem to think maple season is right around the corner. Let's hope Mother Nature reads the sign. |
25 degrees/cloudy/breezy
Pentoga Road
Hmm, for whatever reason, it appears our internet is out this morning. I guess I shouldn't complain. It's been what, three weeks since the last outage?
I laugh when I hear people who live in more urban areas complain that their 100 kps internet reception is down to half that. On Pentoga Road, we do well if ours chugs along at 1.5 and occasionally, on a good day, we'll reach 3 kps. Frustrating? By all means, but our provider is the only game in our neck of the woods.
Even in the modern 21st Century, there are still remote areas in the lower 48 that are relatively untouched by the internet. Ours is only possible because of an antenna perched forty feet up in the top of a large spruce tree.
I skipped walking Saturday morning to go grocery shopping. One of our supermarkets was having their once-a-month, one-day, sale. After purchasing the needed goodies, I stopped by the hardware store to buy a new battery for my ice fishing sonar, then drove by Yooper Brother Mark's house for a visit. It was good to get caught up and enjoy some guy-time.
I made a stop at the old mining pit across the road from Mark and Sheri's.
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| Mining towers like the one on the left are a common sight in the area. The church steeple at the far right is the old Gaastra Catholic Church that was moved several miles to be a part of the Iron County Museum complex. It features, in part, old equipment of the mining days gone by. |
The pit formed when the old mine shaft caved in long ago creating a seemingly bottomless lake. This area is dotted with hundreds of them, all reminders of the miles and miles of tunnels left by the iron mining industry. It's not unusual to be strolling though the woods and stumble upon a fenced off area where the ground is deemed too dangerous on which to walk.
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| Even in the middle of town, the beavers have been busy as evidenced by this downed popple tree. |
I also completed the bowl I'd been working on the day before.
It turned out to be one of my favorites so far. It's a bit larger in size and I'm learning to make thinner, curved walls to more closely match the shape of the exterior.
I've been saving a piece of spalted birch out of which to make something special. Spalted is a term that actually defines the process of a fungus entering a tree, dead or alive, that in the end, accentuates the grain of the wood.
A Sudoku and puzzle aficionado, Mom's been wanting a pencil holder. I immediately thought of the spalted wood.
Unfortunately, I discovered the wood was not only spalted, it was half rotten, but how beautiful would it be if I could turn Mom's holder from it.
I had just finished turning the shape and hollowing out the inside when the entire top half exploded into a gajillion pieces of saw dust.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Sargie was home late last night, her second in a row. My girl is off today and is a bit under the weather. I hope she gets some real, honest-to-goodness rest today.
I'm heading out to the shop in a few minutes to enjoy the peace and quiet of the early morning hours. We're supposed to be in for a warming trend with rain forecast for tomorrow. Originally, this week was predicted to be warm during the days, cooler at night. That's all changed and it appears conditions will not be all that good for harvesting sap and making maple syrup. Seems it could be another week or two.. or three... or four.
With that being said, it's time to take a break from writing for a while. We're in the late winter doldrums where daily life simply recycles itself day in and day out making writing difficult.
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| Caught 'cha |
Meanwhile, know that I'll be taking my daily walks then returning home to make new bowls, block names, or puzzles, while waiting for spring to arrive.
After all, a man's work is never done.
So are the tales from Pentoga Road...
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