September 26, 2017 - Tuesday
63 degrees/cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

It's warm and muggy this morning. Seems the cold front is stalled just to the west of here and with it, much cooler temperatures accompanied by lower humidity. I know I'm going to regret saying this, but I wish it would hurry up and get here. I'm tired of this sticky weather. If I enjoyed it, we'd move to southern Mississippi and live next door to Mississippi Brother Garry and Miss Jody. 

Talk about hot! Temperatures on Monday reached dog day record summertime highs for the third day in a row. We received an inch and a half of rain last night with more forecast to fall today.



Unlike Sunday, I was smart enough to take my walk before the heat of the day set in.



I hiked just shy of four miles and was back home in time to eat breakfast with Sargie and see her off to work.

I was in the shop by midmorning hoping to make a pumpkin. Problem was, I'd never made one before. I had an idea of what I wanted to turn and how I wanted it to look, but was short on experience.

Hmmm, all I could find in the junk wood box was an old piece of 4x4. 



I cut the length to size, mounted it on the lathe, and began.



Half an hour later, the pumpkin was finished, at least the wood was shaped like a ball. I needed to turn a hat. 



I couldn't find a piece of scrap pine large enough to save my soul. My next choice was a piece of birch salvaged from the floor of the wood shed.

It seemed such a waste to use spalted birch with such a beautiful grain. I didn't mind. The wood was just a piece of limb and too small to turn anything meaningful.



The hat was separated from the stock. It was time to paint.



It took awhile and no small amount of trial and error, but in the end, a happy, one-toothed, pumpkin emerged, all turned from the scrap wood box.



It was getting late in the afternoon, but I was in no hurry to go inside. With Sargie closing, I didn't feel like spending the evening watching television or surfing the net.

Neighbor Mike has a tree by his garden that had some small apples. He told me to go ahead and pick those if I wanted.



Back home, I washed them and made ready to peel and core each.



It didn't seem right to not have my little buddy, Hambone the Apple Piggy, assisting. Still, I managed.



There were enough slices to fill the dehydrator with the rest sitting in a large bowl of lemon water to be dehydrated later today.



Sargie was home late last night and our evening was short. She opens today, but should at least have an evening at home tonight.

I'm going to keep the dehydrator going, alternating my time between the kitchen and the shop. It's to rain, a perfect day to be inside.

Speaking of which, I better get Sargie's lunch packed and breakfast ready.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...