July 4, 2020 - Saturday morning

56 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

God Bless America!

It's a short one today. I was up early with my mind sharp and fingers itching to scratch the computer keyboard when I discovered we had no internet. 

It returned a few minutes ago and with well under half an hour until I leave for my morning walk, time is short. 

Friday was another hot one. I returned home from my walk to finish the bowl I've been working on.

I was separating it from the tenon when I had a near catastrophe. There was a rotten place deep on the inside. Thankfully, a bit of epoxy, coupled with some sanding and no small amount of good luck, saw the latest project finished.

I'm practicing turning deep containers as I've promised one to my buddy, Norriene. Once the end of a chisel gets too far into the bowl, away from the rest, turning becomes dicey. I'm unsure whether to make the next deep container in two spliced pieces or attempt one deep turning.

This will call for a serious consultation with my turning guru, Mississippi Brother Garry. When it comes to turning, if he doesn't know the answer, it hasn't been invented yet.

I worked for a bit on the trim of the garden house, but it was simply too hot. Every time I'd begin to work overhead, a torrent of sweat would pour into my eyes. 

Now that's no fun, so I quit.

Sargie and I took a nice, long, ride to a couple of area lakes. Enjoying the comfort of air conditioning in the car, something we don't have in the house, neither of us was in any hurry to return home.

Since Sargie and I are the Chicken Committee for today's Mighty Milligan Fourth of July Celebration, I began cutting up ten pounds of quarters in preparation of parboiling the pieces. Having them partially cooked saves a lot of time later when grilling.

As much as I love Dad, the boy couldn't boil water. If Mom was gone for any length of time, Dad was very happy chowing down on a dry, cold, bologna sandwich and a glass of milk. Knowing that, Mom was determined her little boy was going to not only learn to cook, but he would also become an experienced chicken cutter upper. <- now you know why I went to school and got teached. Just think, I teached some of ur kids and learnt them up good.

*Cutter Upper* = deep thought = official new phrase. Enough said. It's science.

I'm bragging here, but I'll bet I can cut up a whole fryer faster than anyone you know. Yesterday's separation of quarters was a walk in the park that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

You think I'm good with a chicken, you ought to see me dismember a caribou in -40 temperatures.

Mmm, how about a couple of fresh green onions from the garden to give the chicken quarters a bit of added flavor?

Sargie and I threw in stems and all before adding water and setting the ten pounds of chicken out on the propane burner to boil.

The chicken is currently packed into several large plastic gallon ice cream containers and ready for the grill.

The rest of the day was spent laying low. Sargie and I alternated playing Hose Boy and Hose Girl last evening as we irrigated all the flowers and the entire garden.

We should be enjoying snap peas this next week

Last night was a lazy one spent in front of the fans.

Miss Jody and I texted back and forth yesterday for a while. As the official Editor in Chief of my upcoming book and the person who is still attempting to teach me the right and wrong places of where to place an apostrophe for plural possessive pronouns, we had a good and often humorous dialogue. 

I can well understand why Mississippi Brother Garry walks around with a big smile on his face. Miss Jody's not only a true southern belle, she's (as we say in the north) a sweetheart.

It's time for my morning stroll. We'll be leaving Pentoga Road for the Mighty Milligan Fourth of July Celebration later this morning. It's one of my favorite family gatherings that will, no doubt, be filled with food, laughter, swimming, and of course, the most important commodity, love.

Time to get this special day started.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Nope, Hambone's goldfish aren't quite big enough to eat... yet.
Only kidding, they are.