Sargie's completing her Sunday afternoon project, constructing the new garden windmill.

May 24, 2021 - Monday morning

50 degrees/cloudy skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

After a high in the low 50's on Sunday, today's forecast calls for temperatures to reach near 80. We had the same conditions last spring that made gardening a real challenge. This year appears no different.

Sunday was a mixed bag. I skipped my morning walk in favor of being lazy. With breezy, cold, misty, conditions outside, it seemed the thing to do.

Sargie and I eventually went for our ride, but not before stopping at the deli to pick up a box of sizzling hot chicken tenders, fresh from the deep fryer, and a couple of pounds of sliced Sunday ham.

We started the Sunday tradition of munching on chicken and ham while chugging around the rural roads of the UP years ago and had gotten out of the habit. Much like a traveling picnic, we enjoyed yesterday's culinary foray into the national forest a great deal.

Back home, I was out the door and pulling the lawn sweeper over the yard. There were piles of heavy clippings everywhere from mowing the day before.

I noticed Sargie had been gathering some tools and when I came inside to take a break, she had nearly completed the garden windmill. Assembling it in the living room, I helped her thread it out back door to its final place near the pond.

I was initially hesitant to leave her next year while hiking the AT. Learning and taking on more and more responsibility, my Sargie has shown that she can do almost anything I'm capable of and in some cases, even better. 

I'm sure proud of her.

Speaking of the Appalachian Trail, I was looking at the extended three month forecast (February, March, and April, 2022) for next February's departure from northern Georgia and initially, it appears the weather will be working in my favor. 

As everyone knows, the weatherman is never wrong, especially eight months in advance.

My AT hiking partner, seventy-three year old Pokealong, is leaving today for the mountains of West Virginia, near his home, to undergo a weeklong series of day hikes and equipment shakedowns. 

Neither of us may be spring chickens, but we're tough old birds.

Macrea and I are doing the same in June, either on the Superior Trail in Minnesota or the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin.

On today's agenda: I'll be towing the backhoe to the shop as soon as I arrive home from my walk. While there, I think I'll get more wood shavings for the garden. There's a leak somewhere in the roof of the storage shed that needs attending and an 8 foot piece of gutter to install. Looks to be a busy day ahead so I'd better get started.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...