Tales from Pentoga

The Mansfield Church

May 1, 2017 - Monday

37 degrees/rain/windy

Pentoga Road

It was hard getting out of bed this morning. The rain hitting the roof, the heavy breeze causing the wind chimes to make their tinkling sounds, water dripping... all good reasons to stay in bed. Too bad Sargie has to open the Vision Center. Seems like a waste of a good excuse to stay in bed and snuggle.

Sunday morning saw me in the shop not accomplishing anything. I found a piece of spalted maple, soft and fairly rotten, but the grain was so nice. I thought I'd try to turn a bowl, but it ripped apart before I really had the chance.

I shrugged my shoulders, cleaned up my mess, turned off the lights, and walked out the door.

Nothing ventured/nothing gained.

Sargie and I took off for our usual Sunday drive with stops made for Cokes and chicken fingers... food for the road.

My dream pickup truck

We made our way to the east, out by the old Mansfield Mine where a mine disaster that resulted in flooding and drownings occurred in the late 1800's.

Other than the church and a memorial, there isn't much left of the old mining community.

We explored the up river side of the hydroelectric dam where there's a boat launch and talked about fishing that area, new to us, later this summer.

It's an exit to portage around the dam for those who are canoeing or kayaking the Menomonee River.

The walk around the dam is about half a mile, a pretty good hike if one is carrying a canoe and any amount of equipment.

We slowly made our way back to Pentoga Road, poking our noses in here and there.

With all the rain and melting snow, the water is high as witnessed by this fire ring several feet under water.

Once home, Sargie headed to the basement. She's been on a quest to clean the shelves and sort out what's what.

I headed outside to begin work on the front stoop.

The areas with the white gravel will be leveled and replaced with red pavers. New landscape timbers will be used for framing.

I think I have the new design fairly well figured out. It involves moving some of the decorative gravel, topping what's there with sand, replacing all the landscape timbers, and using pavers for a surface.

Yep, that's Grady's wading pool. I'm sure he doesn't mind sharing. It's too cold to go swimming anyway.

A neighbor stopped by in his side-by-side to talk for a while. He's a really nice guy, but I was more impressed with his heated Can Am UTV.

I'm becoming convinced that Sargie and I are the only two people in the world who don't have a brand spankin' new side by side. My refusal to make payments on a toy that costs tens of thousands of dollars means we'll spend another summer riding our very used four wheeler and that's okay.

It's all about priorities. Until the new bedroom and bath are added on downstairs, our's lie elsewhere.

One of the pavers I'll be using for the front stoop

I'm not certain what today will bring. I'm very sure I won't be working or playing outside. Rain, mixed with snow, is forecast for today and tomorrow.

Can't beat it with a stick.