Hambone at the UP State Fair last Saturday

August 21, 2019 – Wednesday morning

57 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Hmm, the internet is out again this morning. Wonder what’s happening up in the heavens? Satellite reception, at least with Huges Net, has been getting increasingly spotty the past several days, something we’ve not experienced this past year. In fact, we’ve been quite happy.

Usually it comes on within a few minutes.

Sargie survived her first day on the new job at the main clinic in Norway. She said the computer program, software, and procedures are much different than those she’s used to and spent the day mostly observing. Thursday will see her at the Crystal Falls clinic where she’ll normally work.  Like most of us, Sargie’s a hands on learner and is eager to do just that. In a much smaller setting, there’s little doubt she’ll get her opportunity.

Andy called yesterday and said he's flying to Equitorial Guinea, Africa, later this morning. He'll be the official "advisor" on a large boat to an all native, all Spanish speaking, crew for an oil rig move.

My youngest son will be flying by way of Frankfurt, Germany, then onto another place in Africa, before finally landing in and working off the coast of Malabo.

 I'll admit, I'm wildly jealous. Though this body doesn't move nearly as well as it used to, I still have an adventuresome streak and would love to join Andy.

I'm not sure Sargie would approve though.

Back to Pentoga Road and reality: 

Tuesday was spent in the normal garden house/pond fashion. The last end rafter and bracing was finished. After, the rest of the fascia was installed. The garden house is officially ready for a roof.

Installing a window in the rear wall was next on the agenda. It wasn’t difficult, just time consuming.

I think I’ll add an old living room window on each side and make the back wall mostly glass. Though it’s a pain to shore up the wall now with so many windows, I’ll be glad I did next spring when I’m starting and raising bedding plants.

I began landscaping a bit around this end of the pond. 

Hambone will be with us for the next two or three days and he can help make the swimming beach. Using the electric tiller really helped to loosen up the clay, but it didn’t do much for the rocks. More time was spent with a rake than anything else.

Grady and I will be going to the “sand store”, the local concrete plant, for a load of sand tomorrow and together, we’ll make “Sonova Beach”. I can already see myself tripping over Tonka trucks and other beach goodies in the days to come.

Though it looks ugly now, the rest of the shoreline will eventually have rocks, sand, gravel, pots, and plants, to make much of it look as natural as possible.  It’s going to be a process. Right now, it looks like a rubber liner lined with rocks.

Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I dove into the pond at the end of the day and enjoyed a half hour swim. I absolutely love having it right here in our side yard. After a day of sweat and toil, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Sargie arrived home from work with a pizza in hand. We enjoyed last night as she told me about her day then caught up on our recorded television shows.

We’ll be heading to Iron Mountain later today to pick up Hambone from kindergarten orientation. Yep, starting in another week or two, our little guy will be a bonafide student. Before we know it, I’ll be writing about attending Grady’s high school graduation and hugging him as he leaves for college.

Time waits for no one.

With that being said, it’s light enough that I can head outside and begin installing the rest of the windows in the rear wall of the garden house. Failing that, I may just pour myself another cup of coffee and read the news.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

Level ground is impossible to find around the garden house. Sometimes it takes a bit of innovative thinking and scrap pieces of lumber to use the ladders.