May 14, 2018 - Monday evening
65 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

This morning began with my usual stroll. It's been a couple of weeks since I last walked any distance, so I started by doing an easy three miles.

After hearing from Mississippi Brother Garry who thought I'd probably kill myself by using an indoor wall switch on the tiller, at his suggestion, I mounted an extension cord with a built in switch and taped it to the handle. 

It worked great until the the tiller quit again. I knew it wasn't the switch. How about the brushes?



It took longer to disassemble the machine and remove the motor than to change the brushes. An hour passed before everything was back together. 



The tiller ran like a top for about three minutes then quit again. The motor was overheating. I'd spent several hours trying to fix the machine, all for naught. Time to find a new tiller.

Thankfully, electric tillers are relatively inexpensive. I ordered one via the internet that is guaranteed to arrive by Thursday. I hope so. The garden is only half planted.

Some errands were run in town. I took the opportunity to pick up a few flowers, some broccoli plants, and different kinds of peppers.



Though we grow most of our plants from seed, I always enjoy picking up a few odds and ends to fill in the garden beds and flower boxes.

Today's planting included: mammoth sunflowers, gigantic sunflowers, tomato plants, carrots, spaghetti squash, warted squash, and table top pumpkins.

The sunflowers have no real name. All are from seed saved year after year with select breeding to produce taller plants and larger flowers. Over the years, I've developed two varieties; big and bigger.

There was still time left before Sargie arrived home. The burn barrel has needed to be emptied for some time. I took the opportunity to move the backhoe towards the back of the property from the side yard, dig a big hole, and bury the ashes.




Sargie's made mention more than once that it would be nice if I would remove the blocks that made up the maple sap boiler. She keeps saying something about it looking like hillbillies live here. I don't get it.



Due to the very high heat of boiling sap over long periods of time, the cement blocks tend to crack which makes them worthless. The good were separated from the bad and those deemed unusable were carted off to a rock pile far into the woods.



The good ones were carefully stacked to be used again.

Once the snowblower is put away for the summer, the shed will be ready for next year's firewood.

There was still time before Sargie arrived home, so I hooked the trailer onto the Blazer and left it at Yooper Mark's plant to be filled with firewood. We're not even into summer and already, I'm preparing for next winter.

Back home, I hooked onto the boat trailer and brought it up to the barn. With warm weather in the forecast, I'm hoping Sargie and I will be able to go fishing in the next few days.



Sargie opens Tuesday morning. I'll go for my walk then I hope to work on the west side of the wood shed. The back tore away last fall after it was full, so there's some repair that needs my attention. Sargie's also made mention that a privacy fence would be nice to hide the trash cans that sit in back of the shed. Again, it's that hillbilly thing. 

I suppose she has a point.

It looks like I won't have any trouble keeping busy while waiting for the new tiller to arrive.

The honey berries in full blossom

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...