That's my buddy, Cody Brown, Dr. Katie's son, offering to help fly the jet to Florida. 

March 14, 2019 - Thursday evening

41 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Whew, there are a couple of tired kids on Pentoga Road this evening. For a day that was supposed to be relaxing, Sargie and I were on the move for most of it.

I never did get out the shop. I'm not sure how many emails or calls I received today from those who are saying to JUST BUY A BIGGER LATHE. Aunt Joanne was rather adamant about it and brother-in-law, Ross, thought it was hilarious that I'd been tempted to throw my small lathe into the lake. Even Sargie has been after me to get one, so maybe it's time. Even if it's not the dream machine I still hope to purchase in the future, the one I have in mind should be better than what I'm using now.

Sargie and I decided to drive to Rhinelander late this morning. We were hesitant as it was so foggy, but after checking on the conditions to the south, decided to forge ahead. 

I'm glad we did. It was clear and occasionally sunny in northern Wisconsin, a far cry from the weather at home.

Other than four Adirondack chairs that were on sale, we hadn't planned on purchasing too much. 

Sargie and I split up. She wanted to look at things that interested her, mostly patio furniture, and I headed the opposite direction to price a liner for the future garden pond.

When I returned, I found my bride trying on a new double reclining love seat.  

I didn't purchase a liner, but stumbled across a large pallet of near perfect one by lumber, most of it four feet long for $50. There's not a lot of demand for boards four feet in length, but when one does crafts and other oddities, four foot boards are perfect. I bought the entire pallet full.

Some of the lumber will be used in building the new garden house, the rest in the shop for one project or the other.

I worried all the way to the back of the lumber yard, wondering if the boards would fit in the back of the Equinox. 

My worry was for naught. The two boys that helped to load the wood broke the packaged pallet apart and stacked it all inside, ensuring the lumber would make it home to Pentoga Road.

There are four chairs and several bags of goodies besides the lumber in the back of the Equinox. It all fit!

Back home, I began bringing in tonight and tomorrow's firewood, but couldn't resist making a long canal down the middle of the drive to direct the melt water.

I come from long line of driveway engineers. Dad was the best at channeling water in the spring. He could construct a series of driveway locks and dams that would make the Corps of Engineers envious.

Learning from the best, I passed along the skills to my sons and I know they are doing the same with their young ones. It's a family skill that has been passed from generation to generation.

With last night's heavy rain, coupled with the melting snow, the basement began seeping water during the night. Sargie and I, both, used the wet dry vac to suck up gallons of water this morning then repeated the same this afternoon after arriving home.

The basement seeps only in one area and is caused by water melting from the snow that fell from the roof of the house onto the back deck.

During the spring melt, or a very heavy rain of several inches, water runs down alongside the foundation. There was only one thing to do, remove the snow which had turned mostly to ice.

I used a chisel to loosen it while Sargie manned a shovel. 

The job took over an hour and half, but in the end, the deck alongside the house was made bare. Our basement water seepage should cease.

I'm back to subbing Friday at the high school,  filling in for the tech ed teacher in the computer lab. Sargie opens the Vision Center and with any luck at all, we'll meet once again tomorrow night when we both arrive home.

It's time to get the lunches packed and begin to think about bed. I can't speak for Sargie, but this guy is about too pooped to pop.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...