September 18, 2020 - Friday morning

24 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Brrrr. I think summer's over. With that said, the most beautiful time of the year is upon us. Seems there are red, yellow, and orange colors no matter where you look. 

I began Thursday morning at first light with my usual walk. Once again, due to chilly nighttime temperatures, fog was heavy in the valleys.

Back home, I made my way to the shop and spent a couple of hours working on one piece or the other.

The Lord's Prayer seems to be occupying most of my play time. I think it's because Christmas is around the corner and I have a million and one grandbaby presents to make between now and then. 

Mississippi Brother Garry and I were talking about scroll saw blades yesterday. He's also sawing the Lord's Prayer and we enjoy comparing notes.

I order my blades by the gross and keep them in a simple beaker.

The ones Garry and I use are quite small, allowing for intricate work, but sometimes difficult to manage. In fact, the entire gross, all 144 blades, easily fit into that beaker above.

I'm a slow sawer, but by the time I turned the lights out in the shop, one more line of the prayer was finished.

I'm also working on the segmented Halloween pumpkin, shaping and sanding each piece as I go.

An oscillating sander is used to round the pieces, saving me from having to sand quite so much by hand.

Sargie and I had a great ride Thursday afternoon, stopping often to take quick snapshots of the countryside. 

Back home, with a heavy freeze warning in effect, we busied ourselves harvesting anything from the garden or orchard that might be damaged.

I picked the Macintosh apple tree bare. Frosts don't hurt the apples, but a hard freeze, if low enough, can break down the apples and cause them to rot.

Most will be dehydrated and stored for use this coming year.

I also harvested the Honey Crisp apples from the dwarf tree in the back yard. All are blemish free and after sampling one, Sargie and I pronounced them absolutely delicious.

We'll be munching on the Honey Crisps and a few of the other varieties well into the fall and early winter. 

Native to northern Wisconsin, the Wolf River apples seem to withstand freezing better than the other varieties. I'll harvest those in the next week or two, depending on the weather.

Meanwhile, Sargie was busy picking the tomato patch clean.

And finally, the pumpkins were harvested and brought into the barn under cover.

We have just a few orange ones this year due to the late planting. There are many green pumpkins, none of which will turn orange now. Such a waste, but forced to replant due to the very cold and wet spring, there just weren't enough growing days this summer.

Sargie and I turned our attentions to sorting/washing/storing/freezing the tomatoes.

Those that are fully ripe were placed into large freezer bags and labeled for use this coming year.

Those with a blush were set aside to fully ripen before freezing, while the green tomatoes will be made into green tomato preserves. 

Needless to say, Sargie nor I had any difficulty sleeping last night. 

We're on our way this morning to Iron Mountain for Sargie's annual physical. I'm well into a good book and will be very content to sit outside in the car and read while Sargie's in the doctor's office. I plan to begin dehydrating the apples once we're back home, and then, there's the ongoing work in the shop. 

Other than that, the world's the limit. As Brother Elmer would say, "Only fear is holding me back!"

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...