My son, Luke, with a yearling bull moose he took in this year's northern Maine hunt.

October 16, 2019 - Wednesday evening

39 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Luke chose to harvest a smaller moose this year, a mere 450 lbs. One that size will be prime eating, the best.

I've always opted to take younger and if legal, female, animals. The meat is usually far superior to that of their older, male, counterparts.

It still amazes me at the uproar a sighting of a moose causes in the Upper Peninsula. We literally dodged moose while living in northern Maine and I could always see three or four at any given time from the front steps of my cabin over looking the Noatak River in the arctic.

For a while, there was a female I named Mable who hung around the cabin. Mable and I became great friends and I was able to feed her carrots (when I could get them) and snuggle nose to nose with the two to three year old female moose.

I don't know what happened to Mable. After being together for several months, I left on snowmobile for a distant village and she was gone when I arrived home a week later. Mable was never seen again.

Having lived a subsistence lifestyle in arctic Alaska, I've pretty much given up any large game hunting. 

Been there/done that.

Today was a busy one in which I accomplished very little outside due to frequent rain showers. Sargie and I processed another batch of dehydrated apple slices. Those will be finished before this evening is over.

I had an eye doctor appointment in Iron Mountain this afternoon and am happy to say that through the miracle of science, the near infrared therapy I use three times weekly, along with God's gracious mercy, has kept the macular degeneration at bay. After being poked, prodded, dilated, and forced to look into lights bright enough to illuminate the nighttime sky, the doctor said the only sign of my past macular degeneration was a slight scarring in the back of both eyes.

For those who have recently joined us, after being diagnosed with advanced macular degeneration twelve years ago, I eventually became legally blind in 2017 with an eyesight of 20/200. 

Today, I my vision is 20/20. 

The doctor's final words were, "Your eyes are healthy," then after a pause, added, "You're a miracle."

Amen.

The idea of owning a pontoon boat has always appealed to Sargie and me, but we both agree we don't want to bother trailering a large one. We'd like something large enough to use when with family and friends, yet small enough to utilize for comfortable fishing.

We were going to town yesterday when we spotted our dream boat parked at a local motel.

 Able to seat six people (four comfortably) this mini pontoon is powered by a large electric motor and custom battery bank.

Unless we'd happen to find a used mini pontoon in our price range, we'll not be getting one, but hey, two people can dream!!

Sargie worked more of her wonderful kitchen magic this afternoon and made a large pot of her low carbohydrate chili.

I need to lose ten pounds to get to my pre holiday weight. My bride is helping by preparing low carb meals.

Sargie works at the eye clinic tomorrow. I'm going to begin the day by riding partway with her and walking five miles home. After, I hope to cut down and work up an ash tree or two, spend a couple of hours in the shop, and finally, begin to redo the roof of the shed that covers the outdoor wood furnace.

It's time to head upstairs to bed. Tomorrow's a brand new day that will begin long before daylight.

I'm told Luke and Andy had to drag the moose over a hundred yards to be able to load it.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Roar

Jambo's winter wood supply that he worked up by hand. Now that he's finished, he can do mine!