It must be a banner gardening year as the spaghetti squash are the largest and most plentiful I've ever grown.

August 19, 2019 - Monday morning

49 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I wouldn't know if it's been a banner growing year or not as I've spent very little, if any, time in the garden. 

I feel like the young parents who, after leaving their only infant with a babysitter for the first time, anxiously arrive back home to find the baby not only survived, but laughed and giggled the entire time they were away and is now sound asleep.

This is ONE zucchini plant. Grady dropped the seed in the rocky soil where it forgotten. 

The garden, my happy place where I crawl up and down the aisles on my hands and knees all summer long in search of weeds, bugs, and the flora boogie man, has prospered better than ever during my absence.

Hambone and I, literally, threw the seeds in the ground last spring and walked away. We experienced a dry first two-thirds of the summer and it's a wonder anything sprouted. Having little time and certain the plants wouldn't survive without my daily care, I continued work on the pond and figured I'd make up for it next year. 

I added no fertilizer and watered and weeded it twice.

That's it. 

I've even forgotten to turn on the electric fence several times this summer and the deer have left the garden alone, something that's unheard of. 

So what is it? Possibly the tons of shredded, rotten, leaves that were tilled into the soil last fall helped. Maybe the dirt has been so enriched by years of adding organic matter that there was enough to carry it over on its own for a season.

The weather certainly wasn't favorable for the most part.

Or, maybe, the garden is telling me that it's okay to occasionally ignore it and do something else. In a gardening kind of way, the plants will laugh and giggle and no doubt, be just fine when I, once again, return to crawl up and down the aisles in search of a weed, a bad bug, or the flora boogie man.

I just received an email from one of my former students, Amy Peeke, who I found received the Excellence in Education Award for teaching this past year.

I supervised Amy's year-long internship while she was earning her masters degree and we spent a lot of time together. I was privileged to know Amy during my teaching tenure at Sheldon Jackson College before moving on to University of Alaska Southeast. She graduated from SJC and went on to attend UAS as a graduate student and fell under my direct care and supervision.

I was especially proud of Amy for spending her first two years of teaching in Gambell, Alaska, a VERY remote village on St. Lawrence Island, halfway to Russia. The girl earned her teaching wings at the College of Hard Knocks and she not only survived, she thrived as a young, single, female, in a very difficult, male-dominated third-world village.

Amy's now living in Massachusetts with her husband, Jeremy, where she enjoys hiking and gardening. Hmm, a chip off the old block.

I'm not surprised Amy earned the Excellence in Teaching Award. Down deep, she remains an Alaska girl and is made of the right stuff.

Sunday was a lazy one on Pentoga Road. I did all my writing and correspondence then went back to bed. With rain pounding down on the roof and lightening dancing all around, it seemed the right thing to do. 

Fall asleep? I slumbered until almost noon.

I think my body may have needed a down day after going nonstop for the past several weeks.

We had purchased some boneless/skinless chicken breasts earlier so I made chicken strips dipped in batter. While I fried those, Sargie made a great cole slaw. 



Hey, as long as we were being lazy, we figured we might as well be fat.

Sargie decided to clean the refrigerator, wash the shelves, and do all those things she does when she cleans. I headed to the blueberry patch.



Over a gallon and a half were plucked during the next hour and a half. 



Some we'll eat fresh, others are given away, and most will be put in freezer bags, sugared, and frozen to be eaten next winter.

Today:

Sargie says the lawn needs mowing, so no doubt, she'll spend the day on the rider making the place look pretty. She's good at that. 

I'm heading up to Jambo's to borrow his scaffolding. With the heavy sheets of plywood and steel roofing to go on the garden house, it will make the job easier and less dangerous. Most the day will be spent moving the scaffolding, making the area around the garden house level, and finally, putting it together. I'll leave the scaffolding up until the garden house is finished. It will come in handy while working on both peaks, the cupola, and installing the weather vane. 

So with all that being said, it's time to get this day started. 

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

While much of the rest of the country swelters in summertime heat, the Upper Peninsula is seasonably cool and even the maples are beginning to turn colors.