No one went hungry at Friday night's dinner celebrating Sargie's retirement
l to r - Grady, Sargie, me, Mel, Macrea

February 1, 2020 - Saturday morning

30 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

If past records are any indication, we've survived the coldest month of the year and are ready to look towards spring. After a very cold start to the winter in November and December, despite heavy snow, January was a breeze when it came to temperatures.

Hang on, February and March are still ahead.

Friday was a lazy one. I enjoyed my seven mile hike first thing. It went by fast since Luke and I chatted on the phone for almost half the distance. He was excited that they were buying a new car. Luke and Melinda subscribe to the same theory as Sargie and I... drive a vehicle until it drops, give it CPR, drive it some more, then when it quits, kick it a few times just to be sure it's dead. 

Sargie and I had a nice afternoon drive. Today's winner of the icicle challenge is a house in Iron River.

Personally, all that weight on my house would worry me, but these folks don't seem to be too concerned. 

Snow and ice damage continues to be a problem in the area. This large birch tree took a real hit.

Back home, it took some time to disassemble the flue from the wood furnace. Normally an easy job, the sliding snow had almost sheared the pipe in two making the removal a bit of a challenge.

Everything would have been reassembled, but I found I needed another elbow, one that was purchased last night on the way to Sargie's retirement dinner.

Speaking of dinner, we had an excellent one Friday evening. 



Mel and Macrea treated us to a wonderful meal and Grady kept us entertained. 

Sargie ordered baby clam linguini and later discovered the baby clams came in the shell. Macrea and Sargie convinced Grady that if he listened hard, he could hear the ocean in the clam shells.



Hambone was so proud of Grandma Sargie that he wore his... and I quote, "Fancy shirt and fancy vest." The boy looked like a million bucks all fancied up.



Meanwhile, I sat back and devoured an 18 oz, medium rare, ribeye steak and all that came with it.

Why quit there? As long as I was being a pig, nothing but a big piece of maple/walnut bread pudding topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream would do for dessert.

You know you're eating in a fancy place when the food is dribbled upon for "presentation." Personally, I'm more concerned with how it tastes. This was delicious.

We finally pried ourselves away from the dinner table and parting with hugs and kisses, told the kids we'd see them next weekend when Sargie's boys and families will be coming to Pentoga Road for a couple of days of fun, laughter, and of course, eating.

Sargie enjoyed chocolate turtle cheesecake for dessert.
(Check out that dribbling presentation!)

I'm on my way to town pretty soon to give Yooper Brother Mark a hand cleaning the snow from his shed. As fellow conservatives sitting somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun, no doubt, we'll cuss and discuss the fate of the world while we toil away, but then no one cares or listens to us anyway.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...