November 20, 2018 - Tuesday morning

0 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It's another chilly one on the other side of the windows this morning. The fire is blazing in the stove, there's a cup of hot, steaming, coffee sitting within arm's reach, and I'm enjoying a cookie (or "tookie" as Hambone used to say.) 

I'm in high cotton.

Monday was equally as good. I spent some time early in the morning clearing the drive and deck of the three to four inches of snow that had fallen the night before.

I have to say, the old Toro snowblower still does the job. That model is somewhere between twenty and thirty years old, has taken a few lickings, but keeps on ticking, and no, it doesn't tell the time.

With the drive cleaned, I lit a fire in the wood furnace then rode with Sargie a few miles on her way to work before turning around and walking back home.

The morning was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature was in the single numbers and there wasn't a hint of a breeze.

The snow plow came rumbling behind me, plowing and throwing sand every which way so traction was no problem.

The driver stopped and we talked for awhile. He was excited that he'd seen a huge buck earlier in the morning. 

I saw several on my stroll. As much as I walk this area, I can almost tell you the first and last names of each and every four legged critter that inhabits these woods.

The shop was warm when I returned home. It was time to get to work.

The letters were finally sawed in the Thanksgiving piece before the repair work began. When cutting letters and small pieces, especially in soft wood, it's not unusual to have a piece break away caused by the friction of the blade. Repair can be tedious and means there'll be more sanding. I have one more piece to fix in the turkey's tail before applying the finishing touches and finally, mounting the entire work on a backboard.

 To celebrate the end of the sawing, I grabbed a piece of junk pine fence post and mounted it on the lathe.

Hmm, what to turn. I decided to celebrate the 
season a bit early by fashioning a snowman. I'll paint a face and clothes later before giving him away.

I came in the house later in the afternoon and made a big ol' pot of vegetable beef stew. If it was grown in the garden this past summer, it was included, along with a couple of pounds of browned hamburger. Cold temperatures demand comfort food and darn it, my belly needed comforting!

Sargie was home late last evening after closing the Vision Center and it was well after midnight before we had eaten our stew and climbed the steps to bed.

It's time to get this uploaded then light a fire in the wood furnace. While the shop warms, I'm going to trek down to Pentoga Village and back, see if I can get the heart rate going.

Sargie's off today. We're planning to drive over to Iron Mountain later to have the oil changed in the Kia. We have to be in Milwaukee for a couple of days early next week and have decided to drive the Kia as it gets such good gas mileage.

Well, the coffee cup is empty, the cookie's eaten, and today's writing is finished. I better get this old body in gear. That fire's not going to light itself in the wood furnace.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...