Lawn Enforcement Officer Sargie Ready for Duty!

August 16, 2021 - Monday morning
56 degrees/clear skies/calm winds
Pentoga Road

There, I'm back. I had to pause long enough from my writing to mix a batch of sugar water and fill the hummingbird feeder. It's not even daylight and the little piggies were actually pecking at the living room window, telling me the feeder was empty. 

I'm looking forward to Miss Jody and Mississippi Brother Garry's visit next month when we can pack and send all these hummingbirds south with them.

Hambone has several butterfly nets that he's given permission for Grandma Sargie and Miss Jody to use. Their job will be to catch the mini birds and put them in cages while Garry and I are busy elsewhere doing man stuff.  

In all seriousness, we've discovered over the years that once the hummers leave Pentoga Road in the fall, thousands arrive in southern Mississippi two to three weeks later. It'll be Garry and Jody's turn to feed the wandering herd.

I also fed the giant pumpkin a bit ago while I was wandering around in the predawn hours. It's as hungry as the hummingbirds and growing pounds per day.

Five gallons of Miracle Grow twice a day along with the occasional twenty pound bag of dehydrated cow manure on the side?

I feel almost as guilty force feeding the pumpkin as bicyclist Lance Armstrong should have during his seven year doping run of the Tour de France. 

We kept busy on Sunday. The day ended up being much warmer than we've experienced this past week, but the humidity remained low which made the 84 degree temperature seem almost pleasant.

I moved the wood splitter outside by the east wood shed and began pecking away at the large pieces of ash that have been under cover for the past month.

Stringy and heavy are the best ways to describe the wood. I was originally going to rent a large hydraulic splitter, but decided to try my smaller electric one. It worked quite well and between that and using a 12 pound splitting mall along with the occasional wedge, the processed pile gradually grew larger.

It was well into the afternoon before the job was finished. That pile alone should supply us with three to four weeks of warm, comfortable, heat this coming winter.

Sargie wasn't idle by any definition of the word. The Queen of the Lawn and Everything Beautiful hopped on the mower and spent a goodly part of the day manicuring the grass, leaving no blade out of place.

Mowing by the storage container, Sargie asked if the snowmobile that's been under a tarp this summer might be moved. 

What? To start the mighty Tundra in August, to disturb its well-earned rest from a winter of toil and spring of hauling maple sap? Why, that's like waking a mama bear from winter hibernation in early March.

Still, sometime's a guy has to take one for the team.

The snowmobile was a bit drowsy, but started on the third pull. Turning it towards the front meadow, I zoomed away in a cloud of two-stroke oil, made a large circle in the grass, and eventually returned the beast to a new resting place in the woods where it will, no doubt, anxiously be waiting for next winter's first snowfall.

I mowed the front ditch last night before pulling the lawn sweeper around the yard. Job done for another week or two.

I need to go to town early this morning to take my large chain saw to the repair shop. I was pulling the rope starter yesterday afternoon when the recoil forgot to coil. I'll have Dan fix that plus give it a good going over. Twelve years old, it's never had a tune up other than my yearly maintenance and shade tree mechanics. 

I'll use the smaller Stihl power saw today as I move my fire wood operations over to the south woods. With just four or five hard maples left to saw into chunks and haul in, I hope to have this year's firewood processed and stacked by week's end.

At least that's the plan for now.

Hey, it's almost daylight. Time to get a move on.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

A wandering clowder of wild turkeys crossing the side yard

Clowder? As Mom used to say, "Look it up."