Making memories

July 10, 2021 - Saturday morning

46 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Funny how little things remain in your memory from childhood days long ago. I remember being allowed to stick my hand into the large cookie jar at Grandma Pennington's and grabbing a soft, homemade, sugar cookie during my summertime visits. 

Every kid (and grandparent) knows that two cookies always stick together. It was no different back then so I was forced to eat them both. Grandma always smiled and acted as if she didn't notice.

We let Hambone dip ice cream for our evening dessert and it appears the boy subscribes to the same theory as countless children have done for years.

With me, it was cookies. For Hambone, it's ice cream.

One scoop for you, two scoops for me. One for you, two for me.

It's called making memories at Grandma and Pawpaw's.

Friday morning produced near perfect weather and the miles seemed to fly by as I went for my morning walk. The wild geraniums are beginning to bloom, adding a new pallet of pastel colors along the way.

The others were still sleeping when I arrived back home, so I got busy splitting the chunks of ash that filled the trailer. It took a while, but in the end, the trailer was emptied as the rows of firewood grew larger.

Hambone said he'd like to go kayaking. Grandma Sargie and I loaded three boats into the Blazer.

It was one of the nicest days of the summer and we had the lake completely to ourselves. 

Well, I lied about being alone on the water. At one point, we were met by a mama goose and her babies that are nearly grown.

A dragonfly kept me company for a goodly part of our journey. 

Of course, any good paddle wouldn't be complete without dunking in the water after.

We eventually traded one body of water for another. Back home, Hambone and I dove in the pond to do a bit of work.

I used the underwater vacuum to clean the sides and worked on the pump and filter system a bit. Of course, no pond time would be complete without a good, old fashioned, squirt gun fight.

We were excited to see thousands of tiny goldfish that were hiding in the moss and muck away from where we swim. 

Over the past two and a half years, I've found that it's difficult to establish an artificial pond. Having a heavy rubber liner holding 18,000 gallons of water, the goldfish have presented a challenge and despite losing some earlier this spring, really didn't do well until we established a decent plant base. It appears that now, everything is beginning to come together and a natural life cycle, including the regeneration of fish, is happening. 

I worked a bit in the garden. It continues to do well and if the size of pumpkin leaves are any indication of how large a giant pumpkin may grow, we could have a winner. On second thought, I guess it would help if a pumpkin would actually form, but it hasn't even blossomed yet. Maybe next week.

The onions are in full bloom. Most people grow them to eat and we do use an occasional bulb in cooking, but mostly, we raise onions for their beautiful flowers.

It appears that today will be much like yesterday. I'm going to head out for my walk in a bit then come home and continue to work up firewood. There are still fifteen or twenty large, back breaking, pieces to split. After that, the world's the limit. We may kill a can or two with the pellet gun and of course, there's always the lake that seems to attract a young boy and his grandparents.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...