We were introducing the mini girl cousins to each other, but seems  Elizabeth, far right, was having none of it.

L to R - Cheeks, Squirt, Elizabeth

July 5, 2021 - Monday morning

70 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

A nice surprise just blew through in the form of a thunderstorm that dropped .3 of an inch of rain. After last week's four inches of precipitation, it was beginning to get dry again so this latest rainfall was a pleasant surprise. At least we won't have to water the flowers and garden for a day or two.

Home from Sunday morning's early walk and knowing that Sargie and Cale were still sleeping, I worked up the rest of the wood from the first ash tree that was in the trailer. 

Having finished that load, I pulled the trailer back to where I'd cut up the second tree, loaded those pieces, and brought them up to the barn. 

I've calculated that each hardwood tree will heat our home for two to three weeks. Two down, eight to go.

Life was stirring in the house. I asked Cale, a licensed personal trainer, how to eliminate a problem with a sciatic nerve that dwells in my right backside and causes no small amount of pain as it travels down my leg and into my right foot. He spent time showing me several exercises and ways to eliminate that nasty pain.

Cale also made several suggestions about how to strengthen my quads, the front of my legs, for hiking down steep inclines.

I took some table scraps back to the "bear pile" and retrieved the flash card from the trail cam. Seems we've got a new visitor on Pentoga Road, a juvenile male black bear. He was sure curious as the camera caught him standing up, looking at the tree next to the camera. Thankfully, he didn't see what was taking his partial picture.

Showers taken and food packed, it was time to head to Derek and Leah's in Iron Mountain for the annual Mighty Milligan Fourth of July Celebration.

As always, I'll let the pictures tell the story and there are many of them.

Grandma Sargie and Cheeks

Great niece, Brielle, is flying through the air.

It's obvious that she's adopted and her real parents are the Flying Wallendas

Indiana "Ross" Jones

Hambone's chillin' out in the sun

Squirt entertained us throughout the afternoon

No, we're not in trouble.

Nephew, Garth, was on duty, but stopped in long enough for to wish his father, Teddy, a happy birthday and grab a burger. 

Food? There was enough food to feed the starving third world countries with some left over. There were burgers, brats, chicken, salads, and desserts. 

My favorite was the cowboy burger that consisted of a large cheeseburger piled high with pulled pork and topped off with cole slaw. Add to that all the toppings and it was a real Dagwood sandwich.

It was well into the evening before this year's Mighty Milligan Fourth of July Celebration came to a close. With crying, tired, munchkins in tow, the adults, all, who had eaten too much, gave out hugs as an echo of I love you's was heard over and over.

It had been a perfect day.

My friend, Hannah, will be along shortly. Hannah's a long distance hiker and up from Appleton, Wisconsin, at their camp on the Brule River, she will accompany me on my morning walk. No doubt we'll talk hiking as she prepares to do a solo trek through the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana in the next few weeks. 

My plans for today include working up the wood from the second ash tree that's in the trailer along with cutting down and bucking up a third ash tree. The rest are all maples.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Keeping with tradition, Niece, Sasha, and I always take a picture together at family gatherings, usually a selfie. This year, we were joined by Aria.

What a cutie pie, eh?