Boo!
Bennet and Emerson are ready to go trick or treating

October 31, 2017 - Tuesday - Halloween!

28 degrees/cloudy/snow/breezy

Pentoga Road

There are going to be a lot of sugar'd-up munchkins by the time tonight is over. Come to think of it, there'll be a lot of big people in the same shape when they finish raiding their little one's trick or treat booty.

I'll give you one guess who's behind that costume.
Yup, it's Super Hambone!!

Sargie stopped and purchased two bags of our favorite candy bars before coming home Monday evening should we get our first-ever trick or treaters coming to the front door. Assuming we don't, Sargie and I are liable to be super energized by night's end. You don't think we'd let that candy go to waste do you?

Niece, Sasha, our resident, extremely talented, pumpkin artist, sent some pictures of this season's works of art.

One of these years, I'm going to go to their home and watch her perform her Halloween magic. Certainly the pumpkins didn't look this good when they left Pentoga Road!

Monday was cold and windy. I walked my three miles and was happy to arrive back home. It just wasn't a pleasant day for a stroll in the country.

I'm glad I wasn't walking along the shoulder when an area farmer lost this large bale of hay off his wagon. It rolled into the woods just a few hundred yards from the house.

Not to worry, the deer will appreciate it this winter when the snow gets deep and natural forage is difficult to come by.

I was in the shop the entire day either working on a puzzle or sitting in front of the scroll saw sawing some detailed letters.

I'm down to just a few pieces of the puzzle to paint before I can begin to see that project complete.

One piece fit a bit too tight and broke. Not to worry, I applied a few drops of CA glue (wood worker's super glue) and held it until I was reasonably certain the two pieces were bonded.

They did, along with my finger. 

Don't even go there. I'm not in the mood to talk about it.

I'm really happy the way the solar heater is working. It was cloudy all day Monday, yet the ambient sunshine (that we don't see, yet leaks through the clouds) warmed the heater enough that it was blowing 70 degree air into the shop despite the fact that it was only 33 degrees outside.

I see half an inch of snow fell during the night and stuck. Mark just texted me saying that Wakefield, a community to the west of here, received over a foot of snow, most of it lake effect from Lake Superior. In my younger days, I'd have been jealous. Now that I'm older, wiser, and more mature, I'm happy to let them enjoy all the white stuff. So much snow this early makes for a long long winter.

Speaking of Yooper Brother Mark, he and Sheri stopped out last night and brought several soft wood posts with, the kind that I turn pumpkins and snowmen from. In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm going to try turning a pilgrim in the next day or so.

Sargie had to close last night and opens this morning. I'm going for my usual walk then head back to the shop. With snow in the forecast, I doubt I'll be working in the garden too much.

Guess I ought to think about bringing in the goldfish one of these days. The upstairs aquarium also needs to be set up. So much to do, so little of me.

If only you had my life.

Sasha's not the only pumpkin artist.
Mel sent a picture of her creation.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Grady had his pick of any pumpkin in the garden, big, little, long, fat, skinny... or any combination he desired. His pick was one of the smaller ones. Next year, he's going big, real big. He just doesn't know it yet.

Ivy with her pumpkin from Grandpa and Grandma Sargie

October 30, 2017 - Monday

33 degrees/snow flurries/rain/breezy

Pentoga Road

It just occurred to me that I'm developing a strange little early morning habit and I think it's genetic. After my first cup of coffee, on my way back to the living room with a second, I stop by the freezer and grab a cookie to have with my coffee.

I take a few pills in the morning, one for high blood pressure, an aspirin, and a high charged vitamin to slow any progress of the macular degeneration.

An empty stomach, coupled with the acids from a couple of cups of coffee and mixed with a few pills can cause an unhappy tummy. The cookie helps to make the early morning tummy a happy one. One of the raisin/oatmeal variety makes it downright gleeful.

Why is it genetic? 

Grandma and Grandpa Pennington lived along a small, remote, lake, deep in the woods of northern Minnesota during my more impressionable growing up years. It was from the moonshine-making patriarch of Dad's side of the family that I learned how to work up firewood, cuss, spit, whittle, and roll a decent homemade cigarette. 

I remember pulling into Grandma and Grandpa's during the winter months in my early marriage years, stepping out the car, and smelling something that resembled homemade, fresh-baked, bread. Grandpa was making moonshine in the nearby woods.

He also taught me how to fish using an old telephone generator, two metal stakes and some wire, and that if a bottle of moonshine was tucked in the basement woodpile, near where one fed the wood stove, it made having the occasional nip more convenient, especially when pretending to hide it from Grandma who was pretty much a tea totaler.

After Grandpa pulled a tug of swill, he'd say, "We don't need to tell Grandma, Tbuster," what Grandpa called me until the day he died. (T Buster Fillius from the Howdy Doody years.)

Anyway, back to genetics:

I used to get up early so I could sit with Grandpa at the dining room table in the early morning hours. The old man relished his time, eating a bowl of instant oatmeal with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Playing on the radio was WCCO AM broadcast out of Minneapolis, several hundred miles away. 

I can see him now like it was yesterday, a spoon in one hand, homemade cigarette in the other. With the news playing softly in the background, I'd sit and watch a man whom I deeply loved, though he wasn't slow to shush me as I attempted to socialize through the morning news. 

Half a century later, Grandpa's long gone. I gave up smoking and drinking long ago and I don't use a generator to catch fish.

Ah, but I relish the early morning, before sunup hours, often while listening to the news and enjoying a fresh cup of coffee and a cookie.

An eighth of me is comprised of pure lineage from the old man and I'm proud of that. 

I sure miss Grandpa. 

Like I said, it's genetic. 

Sunday was another day that saw us working outside in final preparation for winter. I'm not holding my breath, but I think we might be about finished. I still have to mount the plow to the red ATV and after that... well, let 'er snow. Not much we can do about it anyway.

Yesterday began by emptying out the large pots, six of them, of any flowers and plants that we wanted to save for next summer. Mostly they were spikes, vinca vines, geraniums, and a few Dusty Millers. 

In the past, we moved the pots, plants and all,  to the basement to live under grow lights. We found they took up too much room and were much too heavy.

The majority of Sunday was spent separating the plants and shaking dirt from the roots. After, everything was taken downstairs and placed in two totes with damp sand covering the roots.



Five grow lights are hanging overhead. Hopefully, the plants will thrive throughout the coming winter. 



I noticed a small drip running down the block chimney and into the attached garage during the last rainstorm. 

I was lucky. After climbing up onto the roof and sweeping away any debris from the area, I found a place where the old roofing tar had cracked and separated. 



With any luck, the leak is fixed and I won't have to worry about that anymore.

It was well into the afternoon before Sargie and I made our way into town. We stopped at the deli and purchased fried chicken, grabbed a couple of Cokes from McDonalds, and came back home. We were both tired and neither of us felt like taking a drive.

I did a few last minute chores, carried in wood, and of course, we ate fried chicken like the piggies we know how to be.

Sargie opens the Vision Center today. If the rain and snow hold off, I plan to take my usual walk then work on Christmas presents. The forecast for this coming week is filled with the promise of rain and snow so there should be ample opportunity to spend time in the shop.

Meanwhile, it's time to get Sargie up and the day started.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

It's beginning to look a lot like... Halloween, er, Christmas.

October 29, 2017 - Sunday

21 degrees/clear/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It's cold and beautiful outside this morning, but yesterday was a bit different. Sargie and I drove through several heavy snow squalls during our ride Saturday afternoon. 

It would be almost white out conditions for a few minutes, then suddenly the snow would quit and the sun come out. Goofy weather anyway.

The Brule River has been running bank full all summer. After officially receiving one and seven tenths inches of rain, it was moving right along in Pentoga Village.

After sleeping in and getting a late start on Saturday, I made my way outdoors and wrapped the backhoe with tarps.

Initially, I was going to put it in the storage container, but the machine has been no worse the past four winters sitting outside tightly wrapped against snow and other moisture.

Later in the afternoon, Sargie helped me turn the boat over on the trailer. It too is tucked in for the winter.

Had a "come to Jesus" moment yesterday. For the past several years, I've flipped the twelve foot, flat bottom, John boat, by myself. It's made from steel, not aluminum, and is heavier than many boats twice its size.

I couldn't do it yesterday. No matter how much I grunted and groaned, I simply didn't have the strength. 

I know, I know, I'm not as young as I used to be, but I've always done these types of chores singlehandedly... tote that barge and lift that bale. Climb tall mountains. Forge raging rivers. That sort of thing. 

Yeah, well... yesterday, after several attempts, I realized I couldn't do it alone and needed Sargie's help. With her on the other end, it took less than a minute to turn the thing over and set it back on the trailer upside down.

Another senior life lesson learned.

I checked the garden pond to see if any ice had formed. So far so good.

I'm going to hold off until the last minute to bring the fish indoors. At last count, there are twenty goldfish and two bottom feeding suckers.

The blueberry bushes are turning a beautiful crimson and are some of the last to lose their leaves in the fall. I fertilized them a month ago along with an application of aluminum sulfate to lower the PH of the soil. 

It's recommended that fertilizing shouldn't occur until the spring, but I seem to have the best success in fall. We're already prepared for next year's bumper crop!

Sargie and I took our usual drive, grabbing burgers along the way. We drove through snow squalls, sunshine, heavy winds, calm breezes, and rain, all in an hour-and-a-half.

The rest of the day was spent just fiddling around the yard and house. Sargie's still coughing quite a bit and I've encouraged her to get all the rest she can. She has a long work week ahead.

I imagine today will be a lot like yesterday. We have to bring the plants down the basement, but I'll leave anything else up to Sargie. I do need to crawl up on the garage roof and seal a small place by the chimney that is allowing an occasional drip of water to come into the garage. I see the previous owner had applied sealer there at one point in time.

I purchased a small can of Flex Seal, the gooey stuff advertised on television that is supposed to seal anything in one, easy, application. If it works, it'll be worth the money. If not, well, there's a sucker born every minute and it might be my turn.

With the sun finally rising, I see the frost and ice is melting. Time to turn on the solar heater in the shop and get this day started.

Hardcore walleye fishermen coming into shore

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Sargie turned into Barbi Blaze, her super hero persona on Saturday, to help turn the boat upside down.

"These are the times that try men's souls...."
Thomas Paine

October 28, 2017 - Saturday

33 degrees/intermittent snow/rain/windy

Pentoga Road

I just received an email from my Pennsylvania  friends, Norriene and Jim. She sent a hastily written note from the Washington DC airport saying they are on their way to Cancun for a couple of weeks then will fly further south to experience even more fun in the sun. Geesh, that girl sure knows how to rub it in, especially when I'm sitting here by the wood stove, looking out the window, watching the rain and snow blow sideways.

I don't mind rain and really, snow doesn't bother me. It's the rain and mist accompanied by temperatures barely above freezing that can be irksome. The current conditions are much like Sitka's rainy, wintry, weather. At this stage of the season, I'm grateful it's in the liquid form, but what we've been experiencing the past few days  can only be described as miserable. 

In my younger days, I lived and traveled on snowmobile above the arctic circle and endured months of frigid temperatures, often caught out for days on end when the thermometer registered forty below zero or lower. I remember being cold, to the point of having to be treated several times for frostbite, but I can't recall being chilled to the bone.

There's a difference between being cold or chilled. I prefer the cold, preferrably stirred, not shaken. It's not nearly as miserable.

Hey, we're luckier than many. If Sargie or I feel either, we only have to throw another log on the fire. It ain't all bad!

Friday was, indeed, a cold and rainy day. The last I checked, 1.6 inches of liquid precipitation had fallen over the past thirty six hours.

I spent the majority of Friday in the shop. The first item on the agenda was to finish the cover for the air conditioning unit. 

Assembling the top and painting it wasn't overly difficult, just time consuming. I'll take it to Holly and Ross's the next time I go to Iron Mountain.

The rest of the day was spent simply piddling around. I painted pieces of a puzzle meant for one of the grandbabies.

Painting is my least favorite part of making puzzles. Seems no matter how careful I am, paint ends up going everywhere, mostly on me. Another fifteen pieces or so and this puzzle will be finished and ready to ship out.

The late afternoon was spent surfing the internet, looking for patterns to use in the shop, coming up with ideas for Christmas presents, and once, maybe twice, I might have closed my eyes for a few minutes. Sitting next to the warm stove with the wind howling and the rain beating down on the metal roof overhead, it was easy to occasionally doze off.

That's what grandpa's are supposed to do, you know, on cold, wet, miserable days. It's written somewhere in the Grandpa Handbook.

Sargie was home early Friday evening. We had leftover stew for supper and caught up on some of this past week's recordings on DVR. 

Sargie's off for the next two days. Other than wrestling the spikes and other plants down the basement steps, I'm not sure what, if anything, is on the agenda. The backhoe needs to be wrapped and the fishing boat turned over. Maybe I'll do those tomorrow. Today's weather is to be windy, rainy, and cold... again.

I just heard the coffee pot beep which means it's time to pour that all important first cup of the morning. It's one of life's many small pleasures that I've come to appreciate... well, that and taking the mandatory, rainy-day, grandpa nap.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Who is that old man with a frown on his face?
Why, it's Mississippi Brother Garry on the Appalachian Trail!

October 27, 2017 - Friday

41 degrees/rain/breezy

Pentoga Road

I received the above picture last night with the caption, "Eat your heart out." I don't know, doesn't appear Garry's enjoying it too much.

I've got to tease the boy simply because if I don't, he'll wonder if I'm mad at him. Garry and Miss Jody are on a bit of a vacation this week enjoying the fall colors in the Smoky Mountains. 

And yes, I'm jealous. I'd love to hike a few hundred miles on the Appalachian Trail. Actually, it's still my dream to attempt a through hike of the entire thing, all 2,180 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Baxter State Park in Maine. Maybe, someday when I grow up, I'll get to try. If not, I'll wait until one of my sons retire so he can hike with me.

Thursday was a busy day. I was out of the house fairly early on my way to Iron Mountain.

It must be closer to Christmas than I thought. The business that makes and sells wreaths in Florence, Wisconsin, is already purchasing boughs from area landowners.

I had a good meeting with my financial advisor and it appears that Sargie and I won't have to live over a steam grate in a cardboard box for the foreseeable future. That's a good thing since steam grates have yet to be invented in the UP.

I made several stops while in town. Lumber was purchased to finish the air conditioner cover, but my biggest find of the day was a fifty gallon tote that will serve as the new home to the pond goldfish down the basement this winter.

They're not going to have a lot of room, but at least the tote is bigger than a goldfish bowl. We also will have a ten gallon aquarium set up in the dining room where we'll keep a few fish.

I'm not too worried about this winter. If they're too crowded, I'll get another tote. On the other hand, assuming the fish live through this winter and continue to double in size next summer, I'm not sure what we'll do with them a year from now. 

Hmm, maybe have a fish fry?

I purchased a couple of pigtail light receptacles with which to fix the LED grow lights that came Wednesday.

 

Emitting both red and blue, they are supposed to be the newest thing in artificial plant lighting. Time will tell.

My biggest feat of the day was making homemade chicken stew from scratch. I started with two large containers of unsalted chicken broth to use as stock and went from there.

You might remember that I'd over salted a platter full of chicken strips a couple of days ago rendering them unfit to eat.

Adding small potatoes from the garden, carrots, onions, and other goodies too numerous to mention (the kitchen sink?) I let the entire mixture simmer right up until Sargie walked in the door last night at 9:30.

Wanting to draw the salt from the chicken, potatoes became an important ingredient.

I hate to brag, but the chicken stew was one of my best cullinary concoctions yet.

It was pure luck, but oh, how tasty it was. The stew put comfort squarely in the term comfort food.

The only problem; to use a spoon or fork? In the end, I used both.

I also made a few biscuits. 

Mmm, warm biscuits with gobs of melted butter, smothered in homemade honeyberry jam, hot stew, a cold, windy, rainy night, a crackling fire in the stove, and good conversation with a beautiful woman I call my wife.

Sounds like the makings of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

How does life get any better?

Sargie coughed much less last night than she has in the past week. I'm going to venture that possibly she's turned the corner with this bug and we're keeping our fingers crossed. I'm pretty certain the cure was in last night's stew.

Sargie opens this morning, but has the weekend off, hoping to get some real rest that should aid in her recovery.

I'm going to finish the air conditioner cover today and apply a final coat of paint. After, I want to make a base for the grow lights, and finally, I need, no I have to get busy on birthday and Christmas presents for the grandbabies. It seems as though there was all the time in the world last June. Now, it appears Christmas is right around the corner.

Time to get the day started.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

It's that time of the year again:
Bra's for a Cause

October 25, 2017 - Thursday

30 degrees/cloudy skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Sargie was busy Wednesday evening decorating her entry for this year's cancer research fund raiser, Iron Mountain's, Bras for a Cause. Chaired by sister-in-law, Debbie, the event is one of the area's largest charitable money makers bringing in tens of thousands of dollars. 

Sargie's entry last year earned the highest bid of the event, five hundred dollars. I've told her repeatedly that she should leave her job at the Vision Center to become a decorative bra designer. I'm sure demand would be high in the north woods of the Upper Peninsula.

Wednesday dawned sunny and cold. I spent most the day in the yard and garden preparing for the upcoming winter months.

The first thing on the agenda was to try to move the two giant spikes growing by the garden pond.

Growing tired of being poked in the eye every time I bent over by one of the leaves, it didn't take too long to figure out that binding the plants might be the best way to go. Mama didn't have no complete dummy.

I dug, I pulled, I swore, I muttered, I jumped up and down on the blade of the shovel, I yanked, and in the end, I probably danced the Hootchie Coo. Each plant finally surrendered, ensuring that they will spend the winter in the basement with the possibility of living to see another summer.

The spikes are usually put in totes with just enough sand covering the roots to keep them alive. I'm wondering if they would survive if I kept them bound? It would save a tremendous amount of room.

The next item on the agenda was to disassemble the waterfalls system. 

The pump wasn't stored away yet as it will be used to drain the pond immediately after bringing the goldfish in for the winter. 

I hope those orange and white beauties of dime store quality can stay outside for another week or two, but I see the nighttime lows are forecast to dip down into the lower 20's. There's little doubt I'll be dipping and netting sooner rather than later.

I walked around to the south side of the greenhouse and noticed one window on the top had been blown out during Monday's storm.

After several years of use, the polycarbonate panels are becoming discolored, weak and flimsy, and are quickly deteriorating. I can see there's a greenhouse project of some manner on next summer's horizon.

It took a while, but the panel was fixed and fastened back into place. Hopefully, it will stay where it belongs for the winter months.

So the day went. Flower pots and fountains were emptied and put away, lawn ornaments gathered. 

We enjoyed our usual ride Wednesday afternoon, but kept our wanderings brief and were back home after a short while.

Sargie headed inside to work on the bra for the upcoming benefit. I resumed my work outside.

It made me sad to add a glug or two of fuel stabilizer and put the little blue ATV away for the winter. I spent a lot of hours on that mini workhorse this past summer. 

The next items to come out of the storage container will be the Tundra snowmobile and snow blower. With several inches of snow forecast to fall just to the west of here, that could happen sooner rather than later.

Hopefully, it will stay far to the west.

It was time to empty the burning barrel of this past summer's ashes. 

Emptying the barrel is usually the last thing done in the fall or the first the following spring once the frost has left the ground. 

We're careful to ensure that only burnables go into the barrel and by season's end, it's usually full.

The last activity of the day was to bring in wood. It's that time of year when the wheel barrow sees the most action. Once really cold weather sets in, I'll haul a load a day to burn in the stove.

We were eating popcorn last night when I felt one of my top molars break in two. Though it doesn't hurt, I'll call my buddy, Eric the Dentist, today and schedule an appointment. It doesn't take a psychic to see that there's a very expensive crown in my future. 

The podiatrist I visited last week prescribed a non opioid pain medication during my visit. Between the orthotics and meds, the pain in my feet disappeared, but I noticed that in just a few days, I'd gained almost five pounds. Doing a bit of research, I learned that one of the side effects of the medication was weight gain.

I quit taking the pills the day before yesterday and have since deflated back to my usual weight. 

Sargie closes the Vision Center tonight, works Friday, but thankfully, has this weekend off. She's still coughing and continues to feel lousy. 

I have a meeting in Iron Mountain this morning. While in town, I'll stop by the credit union to drop off Sargie's bra... boy, that sounds strange, then head to Home Depot to get what lumber is needed to finish the air conditioner cover. I hope to complete that this afternoon.

It's time to pour another cup of coffee and eat one of Hambone's tookies... I mean cookies. Yeah, don't worry, I know, Mom. I'll eat a proper breakfast later once Sargie's up. 

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

We saw this Halloween decoration during our drive in Caspian yesterday. I especially like the headphones on the skeleton.