August 12, 2020 - Wednesday morning

54 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

The stars are shining brightly in these pre dawn hours which means the humidity is low and the warm day ahead should remain comfortable. 

Tuesday was a near perfect day in the weather department. The wind blew at a fairly good clip, enough to keep a person comfortable and the bugs at bay. I enjoyed my early morning walk at a time when the dew was heavy and the woods smelled fresh and clean.

I'm amazed at how fast the newly seeded front yard has sprouted. It's come alive almost overnight and as I told Sargie, we could be mowing it in the next week or two.

The garden has taken on a life of its own. The huge blossoms on the vining plants, melons, squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins, look as though they should be in a vase rather than on the ground.

I spent most of Tuesday morning cleaning the propane gas grill. 

Rather than just wiping the grates, I took everything out of the grill, even the gas piping. 

Using oven cleaner followed by hot, soapy, water, the grill is once again grease free and ready for brats, burgers, steaks, and chops. 

After a late breakfast, Hambone and I removed the old fencing from around the dwarf apple tree in the back yard.  Our intention was to build one that was stronger and better looking and included treated corner posts.

He handles that wheel barrow like an old pro

When I work, I work hard. When I play, I play hard. I was raised that way and it's how I brought up my four sons. Good, bad, or ugly, I continue that philosophy with Grady.

During the summer months, the four young Pennington boys were roused fairly early in the mornings. At the time, we had an acre of strawberries that the sons called their own. I'd hate to guess how many hundred pounds of berries were sold from their commercial operation. Each boy picked, weighed, and delivered, and kept all the hard earned money. 

Then there was a huge lawn to be mowed, a garden to tend, and other household chores they were expected to help with.

As they grew older, all worked summer jobs in addition to the above. Luke and Matt even dug a basement by hand one summer under an existing house, carrying tons and tons of dirt out from underneath in five gallon buckets. 

I'm sure many of today's youth and their parents would be horrified that their mother and I had such expectations and demands of our sons. Worse yet, the boys weren't paid an allowance... and to pile insult onto injury, all were expected to have manners, to say "yes please," and "no thank you," and they even had curfews.

I'm sure in today's society, it would be considered abuse. Poor little guys.

But Josh went on to graduate from the US Coast Guard Academy and retired as a Commander. Luke is a captain in command of his station house and a career fire fighter. Matt is a partner in a material brokerage firm, traveling the world on a regular basis, and Andy's a two-fisted working advisor aboard a large ship that moves and services ocean drilling oil rigs around the world.

All are great fathers and husbands and though they may go about raising them in a different manner, have the same expectations of their children as we did of them.

Words can't describe how proud I am of all four.

But as hard as we worked, we also played. It was common for all of us to jump in the truck on a warm summer day and head to the river for a refreshing swim. Late afternoons and evenings saw us fishing or playing basketball in the drive. As they grew older, each was known to occasionally stop at the local gas station and charge gas to be paid by his parents or occasionally be slipped a bit of cash for a date. Allowance comes in different forms. 

Those who went onto school paid for it themselves with little help from their mother or me and owed little or no money when they graduated.

Hambone's getting the same life skills lessons. He found that using a posthole digger is a very cool thing until it hits a rock.

He also learned how to pry rocks that prevent digging deeper.

One thing is certain, the boy can read a bubble and ensure a post is set straight in the ground.

Note the life jacket. It wasn't ALL work. An occasional visit to the pond helped to renew his post setting energy.

The new word for the day was "tamp," as in adding a bit of dirt at a time around the base of the post and tamping it solid before adding more.

The old steel posts needed to be stored in back of the red shed, a load that would be easier to transport on a four wheeler. I told Grady he was driving.

Driving? Really?

With hard work comes rewards. I told him if a boy was old enough to dig holes, pry rocks, tamp and set fence posts correctly, he was old enough to drive a four wheeler.

I sat on the back and prayed. Hambone manned the throttle and steered us where we needed to go.

The hard work for the day ended early in the afternoon. Grandma Sargie, Hambone, and I, hopped in the car and made our way to town where Grandma got her Coke and Grady enjoyed an ice cream cone washed down with chocolate milk.

Back home, refreshed, the three of us put up the chicken wire around the four newly installed posts. We can now pronounce the dwarf apple tree safe from any marauding deer.



Oh, did I mention we also like to play?

The rest of the day was spent in and around the pond. 

If we weren't chasing frogs, we were splashing and chasing each other. 

Well over an hour was spent in the pond. It was two waterlogged boys who entered the house to the delicious smell of supper. Grandma Sargie made stuffed salads filled with all kinds of fresh garden vegetables and topped with strips of hot, sizzling, pork. 

The three of us ate like royalty.

Tuesday evening was spent either playing Uno or watching television. As usual, Grandma Sargie was victorious playing cards. Grady won a game or two and Pawpaw... well, it's a good thing I set posts better than I play cards.

We're going to head to Yooper Brother Mark's plant today for a load of wood chips. There are a couple of small maintenance chores, fix-it things, to be done, and with a forecast high in the mid 80's, you know there'll be plenty of splashing and frog chasing going on this afternoon. Heck, there'll probably be a four wheeler ride with a six year old boy at the helm and a prayerful pawpaw riding behind.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...