That's my BFF, Rob

June 25, 2021 - Friday morning

61 degrees/hazy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I was cleaning the barn yesterday when a car pulled into the drive. It was a reader from downstate, Rob. We had a wonderful chat catching up on life. Rob said that he reads the blog every morning then visits his 91 year old mother, originally from this area, and tells her what's new on and around Pentoga Road.

Thanks for stopping in Rob. It was good to see you.

Sargie and I came across a loaf of bread while cleaning the freezer the other day. A gift from Jambo's son, Dr. Paul, he'd baked and given it to us several months ago. I remember wrapping and bagging it at the time to save for later.

Later came yesterday at breakfast time. Mmm, sliced and toasted, it is to die for good when slathered with layers of melted stomach-slimming butter. Thanks again, Dr. Paul!

Thursday was all about cleaning the barn. 

A mess? 

You have no idea.

I keep telling Sargie to put things away, hydraulic fluid, power saws, propane tanks, the welding wire, etc., after she uses them, but will the girl listen?

Okay, maybe it's the guy she's married to who makes the mess. At any rate, it took almost all day, but in the end, the barn is once again a candidate to be featured in Better Homes and Gardens.

It will stay this way for at least another day, possibly two, then it'll go back to looking like a barn, guaranteed.

It was later in the afternoon and time to get a shower and head out for Hambone's last soccer game in Niagara, Wisconsin, just across the border from Iron Mountain.

Hambone played the best game of the season, kicking the ball several times and when playing goalie, stopped a drive by the other team.

Hambone's in the middle wearing dark blue

Hambone's team, the Dragonflies, emerged victorious and since it was the last game of the season, the coach treated all hundred (well it seems that way when they are running up and down the field) players to pizza afterwards.

I gained two more BFF's while watching Hambone's game. Three year old Sawyer and her sister, Alice, sat with their mother next to me on the sidelines and kept us entertained. Sawyer even gave me a wild flower she'd plucked from a nearby patch.

They were most interested in playing with Cheeks. When the baby began to cry, Sawyer sang to her, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and sure enough, Cheeks dried up and began to smile.

The skies opened up on our way home and by the time yesterday's rains had passed, another inch and a half of water had found its way into the rain gauge. Add to what fell a couple of days ago and the total rainfall for this past week comes to just shy of four inches. 

Sargie has repeatedly warned me to watch what I hope for, in this case, for the spring/early summer drought to end. Now, looking at the extended forecast, rain is predicted to fall through next Wednesday beginning tomorrow.

Pat and Debbie are coming over later today for a trout bake. I'm putting the large lake trout I caught last fall on the grill and along with other goodies, the four of us will enjoy good conversation along with, what should be, a great meal.

The lake trout thawing in the sink

We'll be attending a presentation with Sheri and Yooper Brother Mark this evening at the Iron County Museum about the mafia's presence in Iron County during the Prohibition days. Iron River was a hub for bootlegging and the Hoffa family still owns a camp not far to the north. 

Time to wrap this up. Yooper Brother Mark will be out in a bit for our usual Friday morning stroll.

On today's agenda: Eat and be merry. We're looking forward to a great visit and feast with Pat and Debbie.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Five year old Ivy is proving her angling skills in the Big Woods of northern Maine

June 24, 2021 - Thursday morning

63 degrees/rain/thunderstorms/calm winds

Pentoga Road

After months of drought, it appears we're beginning to break that cycle and return back to more normal summertime weather. It's been raining for the past two hours and promises to continue throughout the day. Our garden is sure singing its praises.

I'm so proud of my boys, I could bust. Each has shown his skills in fathering that are outstanding, but then, honestly, I'd expect no less from any of them.

Ivy decided to take her daddy, Andy, to the Big Woods of Maine camping for his Father's Day present. It appears she showed him a pretty good time.

A single dad, Andy spends all his time when he's home from working in the oil industry with his daughter and happily takes her everywhere he goes. 

What I'm just as proud of are the manners and work ethics the boys are teaching their children. "Yes pleases," and "no thank you's" are automatic. Offers to help come from the kiddies with but a few reminders. 

I know I'm openly bragging, but I have a right to. I'm their dad. 

How many daddies pack a floating unicorn forty miles into some of the most remote country in the lower 48?

My boys do.

Last year, my sons held their first annual "cousins/brothers" camping trip. It's when my boys gather deep in the woods for a special uncles weekend with their nieces and nephews. Mommies weren't included. It's just a few days with the uncles, nieces, and nephews, a special time for all.

Time to get off my dad/grandpa high and get on with the blog, but even at my age, I swell with pride and gratitude when I see what Josh, Luke, Matt, and Andy are doing.

Each has his priority in the right place. 

It's called family and I love them all the more for it.

Wednesday was a busy one on Pentoga Road. Jambo accompanied me on my early morning walk where we solved all the maladies of the world.

Problem is, I don't think the world heard us.

After a quick breakfast, I began finishing the body work on the Kia. 

A coat of fiberglass/body putty, another coat, more sanding. After an hour, primer was applied to the quarter panel with a matching layer of paint. 

The rest of the day was devoted to loading a year's worth of goodies to either go to the dump or to be recycled. Sargie and I worked side by side and we eventually got everything delivered.

Back home, Sargie tackled cleaning the downstairs windows, inside and out.

We continue to have a love fest with our new windows. All are triple paned, have the highest E rating, and can be cleaned on both sides without leaving the house. 

I mowed the ditch and alongside the road. Our neighbor does the same along his land, so together, Pentoga Road looks pretty spiffy when driving down the big hill.

The day ended by trimming the blueberry bushes. There was a lot of dead branches that stuck above last winter's sparse snow covering and died. We'll have a crop this year, not nearly as big as usual, but better than last year's.

Of course, no trip to the garden would be complete without enjoying a handful of honeyberries. So sweet and juicy, the berries are short lived and are only good for about a week each year. They are soft in nature and don't freeze well, so when they're on, we eat as many as possible fresh from the bush.

On today's agenda is to go for my walk at some point when the rain is finished. I hope to finish cleaning the barn and possibly, PLAY in the shop. I haven't done that in weeks and it's time.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

 

Our friend, Marian, and Sargie on Tuesday afternoon

June 23, 2021 - Wednesday morning

46 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

How fun it was to see Marian and her husband, Butch, yesterday at the mechanic's shop in Iron Mountain while having our vehicles worked on.

Tuesday was a Jack of all trades type of day. I began with my early morning walk where I met Tom and his friend, Mark. 

Mark and Tom

Living in Colorado, Tom owns one of the remaining houses in Pentoga Village and is back for just a short time before he heads west again.

The UPS man stopped by our home Tuesday morning. He's delivered two items in the past two days from unknown sources. 

It seems I have a mystery trail angel. 

The first is a survival bracelet made of paracord that contains a whistle, fire starter, knife, and a compass. It's very light weight and I've already decided it will be strapped to the outside of my pack and accompany me on the AT.

The second package really floored me, a t shirt with the map of the entire Appalachian Trail! I was so proud of my gift that I wore it to town yesterday just to show it off.

I absolutely love both and to whomever is sending these gifts, I thank you. As I told Sargie, these presents really bring my fifty five year dream of hiking the AT closer to home. 

Darn straight, it's gonna happen!

Back from my hike and having enjoyed breakfast with Sargie, I began working on the Kia, grinding rust and applying resin and fiberglass to cover the holes made while removing the brown cancer from the metal.

The fixes, temporary at best, should get us through the next year, possibly two. Eventually, rust will take over the entire back quarter panels. As long as the power train and frame remain good, I'll keep fixing.

Getting between thirty five and forty miles to the gallon, the old Kia is the perfect car to take for our daily drives and saves wear and tear on the Hyundai.

While the resin/fiberglass was curing, I worked in the shop cleaning and putting tools away.

My shop is a busy place, the hub of much of Maple Valley's activity. Everything has a place and there's a place for everything as long as I don't leave tools and half finished projects lying around. 

I even found a place to hang the poster of one of my heroes, Brett Favre. Both of us, graduates of Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Brett seems to navigate much as I do, in what I call the pseudo redneck lane of life. 

Only one small, teeny, tiny, difference. Brett is a multi millionaire several times over while we're not quite so wealthy.

Sargie and I made our way to Iron Mountain early Tuesday afternoon for a brake job on the Hyundai. We'll have the tires replaced this fall before snow flies.

We enjoyed a quick visit with Marian and Butch while sitting in the waiting room and are hoping both will join us for the Mighty Milligan Labor Day Celebration on Pentoga Road at summer's end.

Sargie and I made a quick stop while in town to shop for more flowers to fill some of the emptier places in the planters. I also found a light for the garden house.

The timing was perfect for us to stop in Florence on our way home to watch Hambone's soccer game. 

Last evening was spent watching two episodes of American's Got Talent before turning in for the day. Since my doctor's visit on Monday, I've had a difficult time shifting this body into overdrive. It's time.

Okay, speaking of time, I need to strap on my hikers and get some miles put under these feet of mine. On today's agenda is to finish cleaning the shop, continue work on the Kia, clean the barn, and make our semi annual sojourn to the dump.

I wonder what the poor people will be doing?

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Grandma Sargie's getting in a little Cheek's time while watching Hambone's soccer game.

After last week's water deprived hike, no truer words have ever been spoken. Thanks Norriene.

June 22, 2021 - Tuesday morning

45 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I'm sure having a hard time kicking it into gear this morning. I spilled coffee first thing, the computer crashed, I about knocked over a glass of water on the end table, and it seems my fingers don't want to move. 

Maybe I ought to go back to bed and start over. Naw, that's not my style.

Let's see, results from the trail cam placed in the garden to see what was pooping on the rocks alongside the pond produced the following. Appears Sargie and I have been caught.

We've since moved the camera back to the woods to capture whatever critters happen to be tra la la'ing up and down the main trail.

Monday's doctor's visit went okay. Medicare and the insurance company agreed to cover a new, stronger, medication, so I was injected with something that felt to be a combination of jet fuel and Dawn Dish Detergent. Man oh man that hurt. Add insult to injury, the doctor, whom I like very much, nicked a blood vessel resulting in a case of Zombie Eye. 

At any rate, I don't have to return for another injection until the beginning of August.

I guess I should be grateful that both insurances gave the doctor permission (for coverage) to use the new medication. Doesn't that make me feel good, to know that the future of my vision rests in the hands of some underwriter from Medicare and an insurance company? 

.... and they laughed when my acquaintance and fellow Alaskan, Sarah Palen, said the government was creating death panels.

Sargie drove us home from Rhinelander. I didn't know my eye was connected to my belly but evidently it is. My stomach became upset so, reclining my seat, I closed my eyes and fell fast asleep. 

I felt much better after a quick stop for lunch and by the time we arrived home, my belly was back to it's old fighting form. Believe me, there's plenty of it to fight.

Time to do something.

The upright freezer in the garage has needed defrosting for sometime. 

The temperatures were cool, Sargie and I were young (at heart) and carefree. Why not celebrate life and defrost the freezer? 

The rest of the afternoon was spent emptying, sorting, pitching, using a heat gun, carrying pans of boiling water, and blowing on our fingers in an attempt to keep them from freezing.

Eventually, the last of the ice and frost disappeared. We discovered pounds and pounds of carefully wrapped hamburger, a mastodon tusk, butter, an entire pork loin, a spiral ham, an entire pumpkin pie (no kidding), vegetables from decades past, and the remnants of a Neanderthal family who evidently became trapped while raiding the freezer.

In the end, everything was sorted, dated to be rotated, and placed in boxes so we can call that job done for another twenty years.

Okay, it's time to wrap this baby up and get on with the day. First comes my walk, then I'll work for a bit on fiberglassing and sanding the very rusty Kia. We have an appointment later to have the Hyundai looked at in Iron Mountain. It sounds as though one of the rear tires may be slipping a belt. 

I'm giving my bush hog (rotary mower) to my brother-in-law, Ron, and need to bring that in from the woods and readied to be transported to Milligan Mountain at some point in the future.

The last of the hiking videos from last week is below. Thanks for your positive comments/emails. No doubt, I'll be practicing and making more between now and next February when I begin the AT.

Can't keep a good Milligan girl down. Before I could take it from her, Sargie grabbed a large box containing the patio umbrella and base to bring to the garden.

Sounds like a good day ahead.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

June 20, 2021 - Sunday evening

60 degrees/RAIN/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Finally, we're having, what Dad used to call, a million dollar rain. While our friends to the south have been inundated with inches of tropical moisture, any and all rain has eluded Pentoga Road, but not tonight. It began falling around three hours ago and is still coming down. Hopefully, it will continue into tomorrow.

I'm writing tonight as we'll be leaving before 7 Monday morning for Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It's time for my monthly eye shot. I guess that signals the end to my magical weekend of our anniversary, my birthday, and Father's Day. All good things come to an end sooner or later.

Father's Day was a good one. I went for my usual morning walk and noticed there are several new varieties of wild flowers beginning to bloom.

Back home, I was greeted by Sargie carrying a gift bag of Father's Day presents. Not expecting any,  I was completely surprised.

My girl took care of several of my hiking needs yesterday for my birthday. For Father's Day, she did the same with several Dewalt hand tools. Sargie continues to upgrade my rather lowly, but functional, Harbor Freight implements. 

In line later in the day at McDonalds for Sargie's Coke, we noticed two pups giving each other the eye with a car between them.

It was fun to watch their visual exchange, especially while the person in the middle car was trying to order.

Sargie and I assembled a rocking garden bench we'd purchased early last winter and kept in the garage. It's presently sitting alongside the pond and garden house.

The rest of the day was spent working in the garage. While Sargie was cleaning, I redid a shelf to accommodate the new refrigerator which now sits beneath it.

Our internet has been agonizingly slow today and it appears Day Four, the last of the hiking videos from last week, probably won't get uploaded tonight. I'll try to include it with the next entry.

That being said, it's time to get this uploaded and head upstairs to bed. Tomorrow promises to be one of those days.

I just checked the rain gauge. There's over an inch and a half of new water sitting in the bottom, the most (and first to speak of) we've had in months. Like Dad said, it's a million dollar rain.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

As a former tuba player, (I majored in tuba in undergrad school) one can see the obvious grace, poise, and beauty, I employed while blowing out my birthday candles on Saturday.

June 20, 2021 - Sunday morning

45 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Happy Fathers Day to dads everywhere, especially to mine. Though he's been gone for well over twenty years, there's rarely a day go by that I don't think of Dad. I'm looking forward to the day when we meet again and can resume where we left off so many years ago.

Yesterday was a good one. I headed to the garden after arriving home from my walk. As of now, all the beds, save one, are weeded.

Sounding like a broken record, we need rain. Some of the seeds that have been planted for two weeks or more are just now germinating due to lack of moisture. It seems to make little difference that I'm watering every other night. They need real, good, old fashioned, rain. 

The plants are just "okay." We'll have a crop of everything, but unless the weather changes rapidly, it won't be a Better Homes and Gardens year.

Next chance of rain is late this afternoon and overnight. Yeah, I've heard that story before.

I came inside to find a big box sitting on the couch. Inside were several smaller wrapped presents.

Sargie has to be the best gift giver/finder in the whole world. I received all kinds of needed hiking goodies from a titanium (VERY lightweight) spork, fork on one end, spoon on the other, to a lightweight hiking umbrella and a few other goodies.

The umbrella, weighing only 12 ounces, fixes onto the front straps of a pack and is used hands free.

Sargie gave me my favorite electronic piece to take on the AT, a Garmin Mini In Reach. The tiny device not only acts as a normal GPS, but also a communications means that will allow Sargie and whoever's interested to follow me on my hike. It will also send and receive text messages via satellite, regardless of cell coverage. There's an emergency SOS button that can be employed should I find myself in a less than desirable situation.

The Garmin also straps onto my pack and  transmits, unencumbered.

In Iron Mountain Saturday afternoon for errands, Sargie found a refrigerator to replace the defunct dorm size unit that's been sitting in the garage the past nine years. This one, a 7.5 cubic foot apartment sized model, seemed to be the right price and size for what we needed. 

Too bad we drove the car and not the Blazer.

Hmm. I had an idea. 

After borrowing a tape measure from a less than pleasant appliance lady, I ventured to the parking lot. Yup, the appliance could lay down on the back seat with little room to spare. Time to buy a refrigerator.

Well, darn it, the refrigerator should fit and it would have except I failed to take the back seat arm rests into account. We tugged, we pulled, and we danced the hootchie coo, to the delight of passing onlookers.

It was about that time that Home Depot employee of the century, Bob Butterfield, came along and offered assistance.

Laughing, I not sure Bob Butterfield could believe what he was seeing. 

What? A refrigerator in the back seat of a four door sedan?

Bob, Sargie, and I, pulled and tugged, moved seats, but most of all, we laughed. A guy sitting across the parking aisle in his car really got his money's worth of entertainment.

Bob even got out his box cutter and trimmed off the ends of the cardboard shipping box. It was still three inches too long to close the back doors.

Only one thing to do. I used the strapping that held the shipping container intact and tied the two back doors together. People tie their trunk lids down, why not back doors?

With a hearty thanks and handshake to Bob Butterfield and praying we'd not meet any law enforcement officers along the way, we successfully zoomed back to Pentoga Road. 

He who laughs last laughs best. 

Darn straight.

I heard from all our sons yesterday, Josh, Matt, Luke, Andy, Cale, Shea, and Macrea, also from friends and relatives. I'm finding as I get older that the best birthday gifts come in the form of simple "I love you's," regardless of the media.

Perhaps Wes, Em, and Ben sum it up the best.

We carried the patio table and chairs out to the garden late in the afternoon and began to assemble the large overhead umbrella until we found a part missing. Sargie will be giving the company a call tomorrow to have a replacement sent.

We enjoyed the best birthday supper last night, that of grilled ribeye pork steaks, fresh sweet corn, a baked tater with all the fixings, and a delicious fruit salad.

My bride had stayed up past midnight the night before making my favorite dessert, apple cake, and sang to me as I blew out the candles.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Thanks, honey, I love you too.

In other news, I learned that my new BFF, Alaska Megan, Alaska Curt's daughter, recently won the Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage. You may recall that Megan trained in our area, more specifically, on Pentoga Road.

That, alone, doesn't surprise me in the least, but the circumstances in which she was victorious can only be described as uniquely Alaskan.

Click here for Megan's story

After reading of Meg's success and her bear(s) encounter, I'm seriously considering opening a marathon Olympic training facility here on Pentoga Road. We have plenty of bears that we deal with and our roads are usually lightly traveled.

I'm just throwing it out there. Hey, it worked for Megan.

By the way, congratulations, Megan. I'm proud of you and your accomplishments. You go girl!

Okay, it's time to head out the door for my morning walk. On today's agenda... well, who knows? It's Father's Day and my last chance to be lazy for another year. 

Why do all the special days in my life come together?

Our anniversary, June 17th.

My birthday, June 19th.

Father's Day, this year June 20th. 

I'd prefer to have one every four months or so, but then, no one asked me.

Meanwhile, here's day number three, a short video.

Just remember:

A man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...