I really like Sargie's new addition to the front of the house.

April 6, 2021 - Wednesday morning

50 degees/clouds/fog/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I think this is the first morning since last October that I haven't started a fire in the wood stove. With yesterday's high reaching well into the 70's, we slept last night with the bedroom window wide open while the ceiling fan circulated fresh, cool, nighttime air. 

Speaking of nighttime air, sleeping was made even better by the sound of rain hitting the metal roof accompanied by the occasional boom of thunder. 

Perfect, just perfect.

Yesterday was almost as perfect. Arriving home from my early morning walk and having enjoyed breakfast, Sargie and I were soon out the door where she gave me a lesson on how to fold/stuff my new tent so that I only need to grab two places and shake it out before staking the four corners to the ground.

For a girl who doesn't pretend to like camping and/or backpacking, she sure knows the particulars of each. My girl has ordered things online that she thinks I may need on my AT journey including a powdered pain reliever that the UPS man delivered yesterday. 

Though she's reluctant to see me leave next February, no man could ask for more support from his spouse than Sargie's giving me.

I made my way to the garden house and began planting/transplanting this years early garden seeds. 

I'll be continuing to do more over the next couple of weeks, but it felt good to get my hands dirty and to actually play in the dirt, even if it was potting soil.

I was hoping to have the inside walls of the garden house finished before actually using it this spring, but as we all know, the best laid plans often go awry. At least there's electricity.

I'd called Dan at the small engine shop to see if we could bring in Sargie's mower for its annual checkup. He said to bring 'er on in.

We hadn't been home for more than a couple of hours when the phone rang. It was Dan saying the mower was finished. Normally very busy this time of the year, they'd taken our machine right into the shop to get it out of the way. With the oil changed, new blades, greased, new filters and belts, and a brand spankin' new spark plug, we drove back to town and loaded the mower onto the trailer.

Sargie's mean machine is ready for another summer of use.

I was thinking yesterday of how, in years past, I would never have thought of hiring someone else to do basic maintenance on any of my equipment. In fact, I'd have been embarrassed not have done it myself.

Age will do strange things to a man.

There are a few smaller spruce trees in front of the house that have needed cutting down for quite a while. We experienced a particularly hard winter several years ago and since, three of the trees have fought to stay alive and truth be known, have looked mostly dead.

We put them out of their misery Wednesday afternoon.

Sargie and I generally work together like a well oiled machine. She'd trim, I'd cut, and together we hauled spruce boughs into piles to be either carted or pulled to the burn pile.

Seems such a shame to be adding to the burn pile, the one that we torched a month ago when burning was still safe. With the danger of forest fires high, it will be sometime before another match is put to growing pile of trees and limbs.

With the ground too soft to use the tractor, we developed a "pile and pull" method of moving the limbs and trees.

Not perfect, it was better than manually hauling everything away.

We were two tired people last evening. I barely remember going to bed and have no idea when Sargie joined me. 

It's time to head out the door for my walk. With intermittent rain in the forecast, I think today will be a shop day. That's a good thing. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a pleasant afternoon nap in my shop recliner.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...