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...