Grandbabies, Ivy and Bennet

August 5, 2017 - Saturday

40 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Hey Freddie, I'm back!

Ah, I needed a few days away this past week to call my own, to frolic and play incognito and not be under a self imposed time line to complete the daily blathering of Pentoga Road. 

These past few days have been busy ones. We attended our great niece, Marley's, final soccer game of the regular season in Iron Mountain.

Playing both defense and offense, switching at halftime, Marley was a force to be reckoned with, either helping to clog the middle of the field or assisting in pushing the ball towards her opponent's goal.

The Mighty Milligan Fan Club was in attendance cheering and yelling. 

It seemed that Grandpa "G Pop" Ross could have gotten onto the field at halftime and performed a little dance or backflip, but he opted to remain seated and be the unofficial time keeper.

Not everyone was into the competition. Baby Piper took advantage to use it as a social event.

Marley's team was victorious and after, we migrated to Holly and Ross's for an end of the season gathering complete with cake, ice cream, and balloons.

What else went on this past week? Let me see...

I'm insanely jealous of Holly's ability to grow beautiful sweet peppers. Mine are the size of thimbles. Holly's are big enough to stuff with rice and hamburger and other goodies too numerous to mention. 

Hmm, I wonder if she'd miss a couple... you know, should I make a midnight raid.

The garden on Pentoga Road is producing, mostly green beans, a few beets, new potatoes, and blueberries.

I don't have a lot of any one thing, but there's certainly enough for fresh eating.

We've received an additional two inches of rain over the past four days. Hard to believe it was needed after the flooding earlier this summer, but we welcomed the precipitation. With warmer temperatures, (until yesterday, that is) the rain kicked everything into overdrive.

We were having difficulty with the water splashing out of the pond at the base of the waterfalls. I miscalculated when installing the pond by one inch and it's since caused all kinds of problems.

Seems as though I might have solved the dilemma by making a resin cast.

First came measuring the fiberglass cloth that would hold the resin together.

Then the fiberglass was molded by tin foil.

Mix up some resin and hardener...

Spread the goo evenly so it penetrates the fiberglass, then wait an hour or two.

Finally you pray that everything set up properly and gently peel the tin foil away. 

The new trough needs to be trimmed, possibly painted, and definitely hidden, but after a test run, it appears that it will extend the falls far enough to eliminate the water splashing out of the pond.

 When we acquired Mom's car earlier this summer, we ran into a storage problem. I was removing over a hundred square feet of space from the barn by building onto the shop, let alone making space for Mom's car. Simply put, we've outgrown our digs.

I've considered adding a lean to onto the north side of the barn, purchasing a car port, even building another enclosed storage unit big enough to house the mowers, back hoe, Ford tractor, and all the other equipment I've accumulated over the past several years. For whatever reason, no one thing seemed to solve my storage problem.

I keep thinking, wait a minute, we're getting into our senior years. Aren't we supposed to be DOWN sizing, not accumulating more equipment and buildings? 

Well, it is what it is and we need more storage.

After hours of research and thought, I've arranged to buy a 40x8 ft shipping container to set along the north side of the barn.

My bank is once again offering an interest-free loan package for fifteen months. Each time the offer is made, I've managed to purchase something I'd normally do without: the wood chipper, backhoe, trailer, high pressure washer, snowmobile, and now, a shipping container, probably one that was once filled with goodies and loaded onto a large ship from China or some other far off land.

Yeah, I know, I've got a screw loose, but I've always thought outside the box. Remember, I'm the guy who trekked off to arctic Alaska in the name of teacher education.

Since making the decision, no small amount of time has been spent cleaning alongside the barn, the part that faces the woods, the area that no one sees unless they walk back there. It's where the creepy/crawly things live that come out in the dark of night. It's also where the storage container will be placed. Out of sight/out of mind.

It's been slow in the shop this week, but I might have come up with a method to quickly sharpen my lathe chisels. I've been using a wheel, a paint stripper, fastened in an old drill. I found that a quick swipe takes the burrs off the ends of the chisels and allows me to quickly resume work.

The drill is mounted alongside the lathe and not only saves time, it's saving my chisels while keeping the edges fairly sharp. Boom.

Sargie walked in the door Friday night with ol' Hambone in tow. He's come to spend the day with Pawpaw while Mommy and Daddy do their thing and Grandma Sargie works at the Vision Center.

We've got things planned for today, moving some fire wood, picking blueberries, riding bike, hopping on a four wheeler, and who knows what else. That's okay, it's all good.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Hambone LOVES getting mail. Any that is deemed as less than important is saved so he has something to open when he visits.