These are busy days in the garden on Pentoga Road
Better get in line.
I'd been using the blue ATV to ferry tools back and forth to the barn while Sargie pulled the trailer, filled with top soil, into place to be unloaded.

May 20, 2020 - Wednesday morning

46 degrees/clear/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Carl the Weatherman seems to be hitting on all cylinders these days. Yesterday's high temperature reached somewhere around 70 degrees and the same is forecast for the foreseeable future. 

After a very long and snowy winter, Sargie and I were like elementary children who had been turned loose at recess after a long morning spent inside a stuffy classroom.

Returning home from my early morning walk, I mixed a batch of herbicide to spray around the asparagus patch.

A yearly ritual, I treat the weeds before any young asparagus shoots appear out of the ground. A few beat me to the punch this year, so I crawled around on my hands and knees, careful to find and harvest any before spraying.

They don't last long in our home. Sargie enjoys eating fresh asparagus tips raw, straight from the garden.

Jambo came down on his four wheeler to borrow a few empty trash cans. He was on his way to Yooper Brother Mark's plant for a load of wood chips.



As always, it was good to catch up on the news in Jambo's world. We both agreed that it will soon be time to go fishing.

I'm afraid he may have to get in line.

Sargie and I bought our licenses yesterday while in town. Excited at the thought of beginning another season of angling for crappies and large bluegills, I brought the battery that powers our electric motor out of the basement and put it on the charger.



The rest of the day was spent in the garden, mostly working on the raised beds.

 So many had been destroyed last summer while digging the garden pond. Some frames were demolished or rotten while while other beds either had too much soil or not enough.

By day's end, all were repaired and after tilling, will be ready for another season of growing. 

 I was walking around the pond when I spotted something that looked remarkably like an egg. I always say that if it looks like an egg, feels like an egg, and smells like an egg, it's probably an egg.

 Since making a concerted effort to rid the garden and pond of wild ducks, I haven't seen any. I think they finally took the hint and left for one of the area lakes. 

I made multiple applications of food safe finish to the bowl while running in and out of shop yesterday. As soon as one coat dried, I'd apply another.

I'll go over the bowl today with steel wood and apply however many more coats are needed to achieve a shiny, smooth, finish. I'm not far from calling this bowl "good 'nuff."

Sargie brought out a new set of wind chimes that we purchased last winter and decided they'll permanently hang from the corner of the garden house.

Speaking of garden house, we plan to purchase the siding in the next week or two. Jambo's working on the door. After the siding and the door comes the trim, shutters, window boxes, cupola, and on top of that, a weather vane.

With such nice weather forecast, I called my friend, Becky, at the Ready Mix plant in town and found they had screened top soil. Finally, we could begin filling the four new raised beds in the garden.

Sargie and I hopped in the Blazer and with trailer in tow, drove to Crystal Falls for the first load.

 We'll be going back today for one, possibly two more. There are four raised beds to fill plus the flower planters, including the large one by the road.

Sargie helped me lay out the new beds last evening. We also placed landscape cloth under each to prevent weeds from growing through.

It's a mess now, but give me a week.

 Sargie pulled the trailer to the garden and we began shoveling and hauling enough soil to keep the landscape cloth in place. 

The garden/dump wagon works fine, but for large loads, I prefer the dual tire wheel barrow. The bed on our's was cracked, ripped, and sawed through after a year of hauling wood and being used as a saw horse last summer while building the garden house. We'd purchased a replacement earlier, but had yet to install it.

With all the dirt we'll be hauling, it was time.

I don't know what I'd do without Sargie's help. With one of us holding a wrench on one side and the other a ratchet, we made short work of readying the wheel barrow for another summer's worth of use.

The sun was getting low in the sky when we finally called it a day. After a quick shower and a bowl of Sargie's cheesy potato soup, I was happy to settle in my recliner and pretend to watch tv with my eyes closed.

Sargie says she's going to mow the yard today, the first time this year. My goal is to fill the new garden beds and maybe, even the planters, but first, comes my early morning walk. 

It's getting daylight. It's time.



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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Today's random Alaska picture:
Edna Bay,  SE Alaska
I'd hooked a ride with the mail plane to a small island off the coast of Prince of Wales Island. The understanding was I'd help unload the mail at various island villages along the way in exchange for a lift to the local one room school.