November 3, 2019 - Sunday morning

30 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It won't be long and the open water in the above picture will be one of ice and snow. This was taken on the Fortune Lake Chain during Saturday's drive.

As mentioned yesterday, the last of the migratory birds are winging their way through. It's as though they know their time is limited and are in a hurry to get to warmer climes.

Yooper Brother Mark sent a couple of photos taken on his trail cam. 

I'm surprised the bear hasn't crawled into his den to hibernate, but this one is still foraging for food.

The most exciting picture is of this billion point buck.

 

 A solid eight pointer, we'll hope he's still coming to Mark's bait in a couple of weeks when the season opens.

Back on Pentoga Road, I spent most of Saturday morning in the shop preparing and sawing Christmas gifts. The first step was to find the right wood, then cover it with painter's tape, and finally, use spray adhesive to attach the pattern.

These are on the rack letting the spray adhesive dry.

The children's puzzles were cut from plywood. Seems the little ones get so excited that they force the pieces together which can result in the tabs breaking. I'm hoping the much stronger plywood will be a fix to that problem.

I'm making murals and hanging pieces for the older granddaughters. This is something new for me and I found it takes more finesse than simply cutting.

A backing will be added along with a clear finish.

The puzzles will be sanded and painted before they are ready to put in a box and wrapped for Christmas.

Sargie worked her kitchen magic yesterday and made ravioli, complete with ground Parmesan cheese. 

Naturally, being the pig I am, I wasn't satisfied with one helping. I had to go back for seconds.

Like it or not, due to Sargie's great cooking, my belly is leading me everywhere I go. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then I'm the most in-love person you know! 

We both spent the afternoon outside and I THINK we have the place buttoned up for the upcoming winter. Sargie finished raking alongside the barn and has the area around the outside wood furnace looking the best it's ever been.

I started the backhoe and after digging a hole halfway to China, buried the ashes that were in the burning barrel.

After, I added Stabil fuel additive and wrapped the backhoe for the winter. It certainly deserves a good rest after digging the 18,000 gallon pond this past summer.

 Sargie and I ended the day by making another batch of dehydrated apples. I think one of my investments in the coming year will be to purchase a larger dehydrator. We've been drying for the past three weeks and still aren't halfway through the apples.

I'm going to get this uploaded, then head out to the shop and work for a couple of hours. On today's agenda is to bring in the totes containing my winter clothing and exchange what's hanging in my closet. No doubt we'll go for our usual drive and be home in time to coach the Packers as they play Oakland.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Ah, the family portrait.
Check out ol' Bennet and his tongue.
It's payback time, Matt!