June 29, 2020 - Saturday morning

60 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It's so nice to have my old camera back and working. The Fuji XP arrived just in time to take a few snapshots of this year's bloom of wild flowers around Pentoga Road.

It was enjoyable getting reacquainted with it on yesterday's walk. A yearling doe popped out from the woods and posed long enough to have her picture taken.

Back home, I pulled a few weeds in the orchard until it was time to leave for Tim and Rose's to help install a kitchen cabinet. 

We currently have the most beautiful ruffled peonies in the garden. Sadly, it won't be long before they are finished and another year will have to pass before we once again see the huge red blooms.

Since Sargie and Hambone would be following later in the morning, I opted to ride the red four wheeler to Tim's. Sargie gave me a new helmet for Christmas and it was the first opportunity I'd had to wear it this year. 

I especially like the retractable sun visor. Makes me feel like I'm a bad a**.

Easy Rider - Part Deux
Born to be Wild... or how about, Rebel WITH a Cause

I learned a lot yesterday assisting Tim with their new cabinet. We measured, leveled, assembled, and installed.

The job began with level floors. Living in a hundred year old house, that's something that I'm unaccustomed to and it took me a while to wrap my mind around a bubble that refused to budge from the middle of the level.

Tim's an excellent teacher and led me through the step by step process of assembly. The cabinets, purchased from Ikea, are beautiful and significantly less expensive than those that are custom made.

Sargie and Hambone arrived shortly after noon. Grady and Greta the pup were quickly reacquainted and spent no small amount of time playing together outside.



With the cabinet installation finished for the day, Tim put chicken on the grill while Rose fixed a feast meant for royalty.



The girl made a dessert that ranks right up there with Miss Jody's sweet tater pie. Concocted from baked egg whites with homemade whipped cream on top, it was all covered with a fresh honeyberry syrup made from those that Rose had picked in the orchard earlier in the day. 



The folks have a large spotting scope that immediately captured Hambone's attention. Mr. Tim took the time to teach Grady how to use it.



Hambone spotted flying feathered action around a bird house.

What kind were they?

Miss Rose had an identification guide and gave her six year old friend a lesson on how to match a picture with the name of the bird.



We were sitting around the table talking when very dark clouds began to appear on the horizon.



Running outside, Rose spotted one with a slow circular pattern. With windows open in our house, it was time to head for home and fast! 



As it turned out, the clouds produced quite the show with very little rain, thunder, or lightening. 



The Hambone exchange was made last evening while enjoying cones at the ice cream stand in Florence. Sargie and I returned home to a very quiet house and neither of us had any trouble sleeping last night.

Our friends, Cosmos and Mike, sent recent pictures of their pond. Now in its fourth year (I believe) the pond is beautiful and well established.



You may remember that Mike and Cosmos helped design our pond and served as mentors for the entire process.



Theirs serves as a model for what I want our pond to look like. It just takes time and patience. 

Time I have. It's patience that I seem to be in short supply of. 



I'm going for my walk this morning then will begin painting the area around the deck. If the wind remains still, I hope to use the sprayer Mississippi Brother Garry gave me. There are few windows with plenty of room for mistakes. 

I'm hoping to get serious about installing the trim on the garden house this afternoon. My goal was to finish both the garden house and our home by the Fourth. 

Yeah, well, it was a rather lofty goal, but I can see right now that ain't gonna happen. We're supposed to be retired. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that.

It's that patience thing I was talking about earlier.

At any rate, talking's not going to accomplish anything, so I guess I'd better get this show on the road.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...