Tales from Pentoga

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.