February 25, 2020 - Thursday morning

16 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

For a winter where we had mild temperatures with little precipitation, it's certainly making up for it now. We awakened Wednesday morning to a few new inches of heavy, wet, gloppy, snow.

I really wouldn't have cared all that much except Sargie and I had worked so hard the day before cleaning the drive down to the pavement. There was nothing to do but begin all over again.

I am so grateful we bought the new Ariens snowblower last year. Purchasing the most powerful model in that line, complete with electronic fuel ignition, positraction, automatic this and that, and hot and cold running maids, it throws even wet, heavy, snow forty or more feet into the yard.

Brunch finished and home from our ride, I spent the rest of the day in the shop working on the bluegill, the largest one I've laid my hands on this winter.

Having sawed the individual pieces, most of the time was spent shaping/sanding them, one at a time, so in the end, the fish will look as three dimensional as possible.

When I grew tired of sanding, I used the wood burner to emphasize the individual fin markings.

I'm chuckling to myself. Wood burner? Mine is actually a six dollar Harbor Freight soldering iron. Someday when I grow up, I need to invest in a tool that is actually made for burning wood. 

Still, in the end, some semblance of fins began to emerge. 

I grew tired playing with the fish and went in search of a maple branch from which to practice making a candle stick holder.

One was found in the wood shed, a piece that had been destined for the wood stove.

It's been suggested that I ought to turn candlestick holders, that there's a demand for them. After looking online at what various venues charge, sometimes into the hundreds of dollars for just one, I can see myself making the occasional holder. Turning one is much easier than making a bowl.

My work on Wednesday wasn't destined to hold a candle, but merely allow me to play with various curves and get a "feel" for what I was doing. I'll get serious about making a real one in the near future.

I was happy to learn yesterday that I'll be able to get my monthly eye injection at a clinic in Rhinelander, a bit over an hour away, beginning in April. It will save us money and time by not having to drive over five hours to UW Med in Madison, Wisconsin. My ophthalmologist at the School of Medicine wants to remain as my main physician so we'll still venture that way a couple of times a year. 

Next appointment is March 8th in Madison.

Gulp.

 Sargie and I are getting excited about this coming weekend's "Milligan Sister Gathering" in Green Bay. We'll be departing for Title Town Friday morning.

Ron, Ross, Boyd, and I, will pretend to do a bit of shopping (not really) then sit around the pool at the hotel and catch up on life while the sisters shop and do their thing.

Most of all, we'll all gather to talk, laugh, and eat. Lord, do we ever eat.

Time to get this uploaded and go for my walk. Melinda, Sargie's beautician and friend, will be coming over today to make my Sargie even more beautious. <- A self fashioned word that I cannot take credit for.

Dad used beautious in THE most dramatic fashion when Mom arrived home from the beautician's.

Seeing the love of his life enter the front door, Dad, feigning shortness of breath, would place his hand over his chest and in his most Shakespearian manner, cry out, "Oh! Mine heart! You are so beautious! You have such beautiousness!"

    

Mom would subtly shake her head and giggle a bit before continuing onto the kitchen to prepare supper.

    

Since there'll be no small amount of girl talk going on, I'm planning to hide deep within the recesses of the shop. There's that bluegill to work on and a carved name to be made. If I grow tired of those, I'll comb the woodpile for another piece of maple from which to practice making candlestick holders.

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

The wet snow makes a ribbon as it falls from the metal roof of the barn.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...