It's off for the first day of school for my oldest, beautiful, granddaughter, Abigail.

September 6, 2017 - Wednesday

40 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

And before I forget it, Tuesday was also the first day of school for my oldest grandson, Coleman. Thanks for the pictures, Luke.

Speaking of firsts, Tuesday was Hambone's first trip to the dentist. 

I'm told Grady's wearing sunglasses because he thought the light was too bright. The best news of the day? He had no cavities!

It was a busy day on Pentoga Road on Tuesday. After Sargie left for work, I called the furnace repairman and he said he'd try to make it in the afternoon. I told him there was no hurry, but none-the-less, he made it. The problem was a bad igniter and was quickly fixed.

The fuel oil man arrived late in the morning and filled the tank. The furnace has been made ready for the season and we've got two-hundred and fifty gallons of fuel oil. Let 'er snow and blow.

As long as I was in the heating mood, I decided to climb onto the roof and clean the flue, one of my least favorite jobs in the world.

First came disconnecting the pipe from the wood stove then taping a plastic sack onto the end to catch the suet scrubbed free of the sides.

Once on the roof, the cover was pried off the flue. Whew, it badly needed cleaning.

It took some effort to push and pull the round brush up and down the length of the six-inch pipe.

In the end, the pipe, flue, and stove were suet free and made ready for another year of burning wood.

I heard a mower running across the road. Neighbor Mike must be at his camp. I finished the stove, washed my hands, then hopped on the four-wheeler to go see my good friend.

The best surprise of the day was finding that Mike and Germaine's daughter, Amelia, was visiting. 

Mike also gave me a surprise, a pale of freshly picked blackberries!

We'll eat some fresh and freeze the rest to enjoy during the cold and dark days of the coming winter.

Since I'll be carrying in wood in the near future, I decided to put away most of the patio furniture. The cushions were packed and sealed in garbage bags, the chairs wiped clean.

All were stored in the shipping container.

Sargie was home fairly early and we enjoyed multiple leftovers from Sunday's celebration. The rest of the evening was spent watching American Ninja Warrior on DVR and later, America's Got Talent.

Sargie closes tonight. I'm going for my walk this morning then plan on spending the day in the shop. I've got a vision of a bowl that I'm anxious to try turning. It's been so long that I hope I remember how.

First, it's time to pour another cup of coffee and think a deep thought. This morning's deals with goldfish.

Now that it's getting cold, we're going to have to get serious about how to best keep the goldfish over the winter months. The current thought is that they'll go into a large tub in the basement. Most have quadrupled in size over the past four months.

On the other hand, I guess we could host a Friday night fish fry.

Whoops, might have crossed the line there. 

Never mind.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Neighbor Mike will see this picture of this young buck and want to set up his blind in the backyard.