August 14, 2017 - Monday

50 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It's said the older one gets, the faster time travels. 

Ain't that the truth? 

I was just typing the date above and it dawned on me that it's almost the middle of August. September is right around the corner and after that comes the holidays. 

Unreal.

Darn these blankety-blank glasses of mine. I have the strongest prescription available for reading in these lenses. Problem is, they are so strong for close work that they mostly negate any middle and far vision. The print has to be stuck to the end of my nose to see it anyway. That works well if the letters are large enough, but for the computer, even with everything magnified, it's not worth a poop.

Sargie, as well as the doctor she works for, has tried to explain the lens and prescription several times. I guess the long and short of it is, I want perfect vision, near, middle, and far.

So... my old trifocals are always at hand so I can use the middle lens of those to read the computer. I have little distance vision, so I don't have to worry about that and I notice the middle is slowly fading away. 

This macular degeneration is for the birds. I wish someone would hurry and come up with a cure. I'm not getting any younger, you know.

Sunday morning was spent in the garden. With the recent rains, the green beans set on a whole other crop.

In the end, I picked three ice cream pails full plus another of broccoli pieces.

The cabbage are beginning to mature. Rather than attempting to grow the larger types this year, I opted for the more practical Golden Acre variety.

We're especially excited that the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. 

The first BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwiches will be enjoyed this week.

An interesting hybrid tomato, an accident, is the cross between a cherry chocolate tomato and one of the other varieties that was growing nearby last year. 

Several came up as volunteer plants early this spring, so I transplanted three, more as a curiosity than anything. They are larger than the original chocolate cherry type and slightly pear shaped. Interesting.

We ate our first two Sunday afternoon and both were pronounced as delicious.

Sargie and I took our usual Sunday afternoon drive while eating chicken fingers, ham, and sipping Cokes.

One of the many local swimming beaches

We weren't the only ones enjoying the near-perfect weather. 

Back home, Sargie started working in the downstairs bathroom, stripping the walls, doing some drywall and caulking, and preparing the room for painting. 

She also accompanied me to the garden when I fed the goldfish except she made a bee line to pick one of her favorite food groups, the snap peas.

I resumed spreading the large pile of sand and gravel on the north side of the barn.

Much of the pile was whittled down with the backhoe until I was able to squeeze the old Ford tractor through and begin using the bucket.

Though the bucket was made to move manure and hay, it worked good enough with the sand and gravel. Put it this way, it sure beats shoveling by hand!

The pile is about three-fourths gone and if the weather cooperates, it should be finished later today.

It's times like these I wonder where Mississippi Brother Garry is with his fancy Kabota tractor? I've told him previously that it wouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, maybe three, for him to drive his tractor from southern Mississippi to the UP. 

Heck, I'd even loan him a tent and sleeping bag so he could camp out along the interstate and save time and money by not getting a hotel room.

I just had a thought. Miss Jody could even ride on the fender or sit facing backwards in the bucket and keep him company. Why, they could sing duets in two part harmony! Dang, no wonder I was a professor and paid to think deep thoughts.

Assuming my brother won't be pulling in the drive with his big orange tractor, the next step will be to level the entire area using my little bitty Ford 8N before the forty foot storage container arrives.

Sargie works early this morning. I'll take my usual three mile hike then resume the landscaping and leveling on the north side of the barn.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...