September 24, 2020 - Thursday morning

55 degrees/rain/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Normally, I would have started with the picture below in celebration of Sargie's fishing prowess, but she headlined Wednesday's writing. 

I'll keep this simple. From now on, The Crappie Queen will be referred to as the Master Angler Crappie Queen.

Michigan's Master Angler award for a crappie requires a minimum length of fourteen inches. Sargie's measured 14.5 inches. 

Jambo and I checked some time ago what was required, paperwork, registration, at least two witnesses, and all, to officially recognize a fish for the master angler award and it's quite daunting. None-the-less, Sargie's our Pentoga Road Master Angler Crappie Queen.

To compare size, those are really nice bluegills lying above the crappie.

Wednesday was filled with fishing and installing a television antenna.

While Sargie was still slumbering away, I was on the lake at sunrise.

The leaves are at their peak and the reflection off the smooth surface was gorgeous.

Fishing was good. I caught all I wanted within the first hour and was back home before 8 AM. As follows all successful fishing trips, the next hour or more was spent cleaning my catch.

I took a quick jaunt to Pentoga Village and back, more to enjoy the colors than for the exercise.

A few geese lifted off the Brule River and immediately turned to the south as they gained altitude.

A salvage person is to come and get the old Man Truck in the next day or two. It served me well for many years, but with only rust holding it together, its days of hauling wood and dirt ended two years ago.

Just because the truck ceased to run doesn't mean it wasn't somewhat functional. I put what was left over from the pond liner in the bed last year. Weighing several hundred pounds, the tractor was used to move it elsewhere.

The next order of business was to install a television antenna over the shop to replace the one that was destroyed by snow and wind last winter. 

How something so seemingly simple could be so difficult to assemble is beyond me. It came in a hundred million pieces, or at least ten or twelve.

It took several trips up and down the ladder to install the thing and still, it doesn't work very well. Next will come a new cable to replace the old. The current one is a series of spliced wires connecting the tv to the antenna. 

Though it was hot and the middle of the afternoon, we decided to go fishing. Sargie was ready to ply her skills against whatever might be swimming under the surface.

She warmed up by catching a couple of nice bluegills, certainly big enough to keep.

In the end, we had a great time, catching a combination of fish and Sargie gained her "street cred" by catching the giant crappie.

Master Angler Sargie even let me catch a fish every now and then... when I wasn't taking one off of her lure.

Back home and with our catch cleaned, I planted a Japanese Iris in the pond. Not wanting to actually swim in the increasingly cold water, I practiced my nonexistent yoga skills and stretched far to anchor the plant's roots in the gravel.

Pentoga Road's version of yoga's "dirty dog"

The newest additions to our goldfish family seem to be adapting very well. Sargie and I fed them last night and watched as they roiled the water competing for the floating food.

Mississippi Brother Garry finished the Lord's Prayer he's been sawing. Simply put, I wish I had his talent. His work, as always, is beautiful.

 Keeping track of time, Garry said it took sixteen hours over several days to complete the entire prayer from start to finish. 

I have less than half of mine sawed and if I'm lucky, I might finish before Christmas. 

In family photos, Josh sent this one of Wyatt and Cody at the beach off Connecticut's Atlantic coast.

Typical Pennington boys, when it comes to swimming, they seem impervious to cold water.

It's time to wrap this up and think about taking a quick walk. Last night's rainfall added up to 1.8 inches with more still falling. There are several ongoing projects in the shop (the Lord's Prayer being one of them) so this looks like the perfect opportunity to stay high and dry and who knows, maybe even sneak a nap into the mix of things.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...