Month: October 2020

As anyone in the Midwest can tell you, summer is over. Shoot, fall is over! Snow is falling and temperatures are well below average for this time of year. Normal highs are in the mid-50s but this week some days will struggle to get above freezing.

We are NOT ready for this. The house needs more winterizing, Pam has bulbs to plant, and some painting should be done to cover bare wood on the east and front decks. I still have gutters to install, but these are vinyl and I don’t want to risk cracking them in the cold. We hope to see an “Indian Summer” after this cold spell and have a few days to get some of this work done. Wait and see, I guess.

The big event of the last week was my round trip to Tulsa and back. Pam and I had decided to “sell” Felicity our 2007 Honda Accord as she, and boyfriend Peter, had no vehicle. They’ve been walking and relying on public transportation and services such as Lyft and Uber to get around Tulsa.

Now that we are both retired we no longer need a 3rd vehicle. The F-150 truck and Toyota RAV4 will suffice for our needs. The Honda had seen little use this past summer and would be a good vehicle for Felicity.

I rented a U-Haul auto transport trailer for the trip. Pam went through our second floor storage room and pulled out a number of boxes we’d been keeping for Felicity (the last 19 years and four moves) and loaded them in the car. We also donated an area rug, a small drop-leaf table and a pair of chairs to Felicity and Peter so they would have a place to sit and eat.

Some of the items from storage were photo albums, childhood toys, and mementos from Felicity’s teen years. Pam had kept a selection of items for both kids in case they ever wanted them when they had places of their own. Toby had received some of his stash of items a few years ago; Felicity had a larger number of boxes still remaining. The philosophy was the kids can go through their things and keep what they want – and dispose of the rest. In any case, there was quite a bit of stuff in the car and truck.

The trip was a bit nasty with lots of rain and wind on the way down and wind on the way back. I must say the three day, 1,300 mile round trip went by uneventfully but there is not a lot of great interest to see along the way.

Otherwise the week was uneventful. Early in the week I was able to do another lawn clean up and Pam was able to plant a poppy plant she had received. (More bulbs are still on order.)

Pam did get some inside painting done, as well as a few details painted on the east porch. The floor of the front entry hall (off the wrap around porch) was in pretty rough shape. As she has done in the past, Pam painted a “fringed rug” to cover the floor damage. Here is a photo of her “painted rug” inside the front door:

We are working on the old AC cover that Pam wants converted to a cat shelter to be placed outside the catio. I have to cut an access hatch in the cover so Pam can get food and water into it. That work will be one of my projects for this upcoming week.

There is no doubt the cold weather and my trip to Tulsa cut down on the number of projects we were able to work on. During this cold spell we’ll work on smaller indoor projects. With the Honda gone I will be reorganizing the garage, for example. I stopped in Waterloo on my way back from Tulsa (I had picked up and returned the car transporter in Waterloo) and picked up some insulation and more gutter parts. I will be installing the insulation and putting up gutters this week. The cold weather won’t stop project work but will drive most of the focus to inside jobs.

Changing the topic a bit, here are a few miscellaneous photos from my recent trip to Colorado. The first is a chunk of wood where ants have hollowed out passageways.

The ants had done this to almost 6 feet of the base of a tree trunk. Industrious little critters.

I have made another addition to my “Family” web page; I obtained a copy of my father’s obituary from December of 2010 and added a link to it at the bottom of the page. The page’s address is: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Family/family.html

Or you can go directly to the obituary page: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Dad/Dad.html

Photo Archive

Felicity and Toby, late ’80’s, ready for winter.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Indoor painting with Elmo in residence is always “special.” The older cats pretty much ignore me, but not Elmo. I usually resort to caging him to avoid painted cat footprints all over the place.

Shout out for continued recovery to my brother Larry, who had a surgical procedure done this week. 2020 just keeps on giving, doesn’t it?

Happy Trails.

This past week found me getting into a regular routine after my extended road trip. There were no major house projects undertaken but the week was filled with working on smaller tasks.

Primary task was tackling the falling leaves. While I was gone Pam had done some raking and cutting back dead flowers. This material was placed in the trailer. I continued to mulch leaves and made a total of 3 trips to the dump with the truck and another huge load with the truck and trailer. Although the bulk of the leaves have been disposed of, there are trees that have not dropped any leaves at all so the process will continue until the snow flies.

Painting continued with work begun on the east porch. There was a lot of detail work to do which Pam undertook. The south end porch gable had some of the worst white paint on the house – old, cracked, and peeling off so I scraped it and gave it a new coat of white paint. We think the paint job turned out well, but we still need to paint the decking. Arrival of cold weather has put a damper on completion of this project but we hope to get a couple warmer days yet this fall and be able to take care of this final task.

Another task was getting the fencing done for Pam’s garden area. I added 8 “T” posts and strung up the fencing we had saved for this project. A few weeks ago I had put in the gate so now this area is good to go when Pam begins planting next spring.

To follow up on a project mentioned in a previous post, the area where I had leveled a large pile of dirt, then seeded it with grass, has greened up nicely.

Many smaller projects took up time this week. We ran an extension cord to the catio and Pam set up the heated cat beds and water dish. Jake the Electrician will be here (soon, hopefully) to permanently wire the catio, but for this cold spell we set up temporary power.

The catio also received gutters for the first time in its life. This was my “first attempt” at putting up gutters here in Elma and I found I need a couple pieces to finish the job correctly. It will be back to Home Depot to get the parts, but that means a trip to Waterloo (70 mile round trip) so it may be a while before I get them.

Pam completed what catio painting is going to be done this year. Additionally, she is converting the old window AC cover into a sleeping spot for Melly (the feral inside cat who escaped outside but does not want to share the catio with the other outside cats).

Pam hopes to have this project done in a day or two. Some parts of the cover need a second coat of paint before it goes outside for use. Painting had to be moved indoors to the new garage due to cold temps and wind chill.

In the category of “just living,” small jobs included:

1. Putting new wiper blades on the truck (an oil and filter change is on the agenda for later today).
2. Pam baked a delicious apple-cranberry pie with fresh fall apples.
3. The lawn was mowed for the first time in three weeks.
4. New registration decals were put on the RAV4’s rear license plate. (Due to the plate surround the plate has to be removed for this task.)
5. One of my two computer monitors died and needs to be replaced.
6. The window AC unit in my bedroom was removed and the storm window put back in place (required getting out on the roof, not a popular move with me).
7. The Grandpa Ott morning glory vines suffered in the overnight cold and the vines were removed.

With the cold weather arriving our emphasis will necessarily shift more toward indoor projects, such as building inside storm windows out of wood and plastic. This winter there will be time to remove the carpet in two downstairs rooms and see what lies beneath, then cover or refinish – whichever course of action seems more appropriate. I hope to scan many more slides and turn them into digital photos. Pam is planning to paint more rooms on the first floor before Spring.

If we’re lucky there will be some “warmer weather” (say, high fifty degree range?) before winter really sets in. This would allow us to paint the east and front porch decks and get a final leaf clean-up underway. Since Elma has already experienced falling snow pellets, the odds may not be in our favor.

Photo Archive

Featured this week are photos of Pam and myself.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

It was with sadness I bid adieu to the Grandpa Ott morning glories by the back porch. I think their beautiful purple/dark blue color is my new favorite in the morning glory line. Soon the colorful petunias in the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden will be frozen; that splash of color will be missed. I pulled the pots containing geraniums out of the ground (those pots by the wrap-around porch), and proceeded with a plan to overwinter geraniums in the basement – we’ll see how that goes.

One Fall bulb shipment I ordered six weeks ago has not yet shipped. Another bulb shipment from a different supplier contained a partial order; with COVID, not everything will be available this Fall planting season.

I think the mole must have found a place to hibernate somewhere in the north flower bed or under the house. We could easily trace the mole’s entry into the yard and around the garden beds, but not away from the property.

The house looks so much better each time we take on an exterior painting project. I just wish there had been more comfortably cool and non-windy weather this Fall to work on exterior painting tasks. Maybe an Indian Summer is just around the corner…

Happy Trails.

I have been on the road for nearly three weeks so have a lot of ground to cover, including house painting updates and a trip to Colorado and Oregon. There will be quite a few photos this time!

I will begin with house painting update. The back porch steps have been cleaned up and repainted.

We think the porch looks quite good. If you look at the right side of the photo you will notice the blue trim board just above the first red board. This trim will be repeated around the house. The porch serves as an inspiration as to how the entire house will look when we finish painting it.

Also around the house, the hydrangea flowers have now turned a dark red from their initial white showing.

Due to a freeze, many other flowers have died and been cut back. However, the mums seems to have survived OK and add a touch of color around the house.

The “big event” of the last couple weeks was my trip to our Colorado lot and, from there, moving on to the Pacific NW.

In Colorado, I winterized The Box by draining all the holding tanks, packing items that would be damaged by freezing, and getting RV antifreeze in all the water lines. Before doing all that I was able to do some work on The Lot, cutting some wood, stacking some brush, riding my ATV, and getting some paint on the storage shed.

It was “color season” in Colorado and the aspen and other trees were turning colors. Here are a few photos of that portion of my trip.

By the time I arrived in Colorado, the last week in September, the peak of the color season had passed at The Lot. Many trees had already dropped their leaves, although some trees were still green. The weather was gorgeous my entire stay. It was cool some mornings, with one freeze, but mostly clear and bright.

I did get some paint on the storage shed. With not quite enough paint to do the entire building I did the two long sides and used the last of the paint on the front trim.

Other work done at the lot included cutting some wood and stacking some brush.

All was not work, however. I did get in some ATV rides during my visit.

On the way back I took a side trip to Hall Valley.

All too soon it was time to shut down The Box and head out for the next part of my trip, a visit to the Pacific NW.

Daughter Felicity recently moved from the Portland, Oregon area to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but had left behind a number of items in a storage facility in Vancouver, WA. My job was to pick up a U-Haul trailer, empty the storage unit, and transport the goods to Tulsa.

I stayed with my niece Stefanie and her husband Eric who live in Scappoose, Oregon, about 30 minutes away from Felicity’s storage unit. Coming through the Columbia Gorge brought back a lot of memories from the time we lived in Oregon.

This part of the journey was uneventful, just a lot of miles. I had the ATV in the back of the truck and the U-Haul on behind; people must have assumed I was moving!

Traveling to Tulsa was not difficult, although I encountered a lot of road construction along the way. I found Felicity’s (and boyfriend Peter’s) new place in Tulsa without incident. (Tulsa is greener than I expected.) With three of us the unloading the trailer took very little time and we had a long chat before I headed out for NE Iowa.

I departed NE Iowa September 22nd and arrived home on October 9th. Total miles came in at just under 5,600. I was able to be in Colorado for the fall color, visited my niece Stefanie in her new home, met Felicity’s boyfriend Peter for the first time and caught up with Felicity and her life. The shed painting project resulted in the shed being mostly painted (after being in primer since it was built several years ago), and some work was done on The Lot clean up. I worked in a few ATV rides. The truck gave me no problems. Although I arrived home somewhat road-weary, I would have to say it was a successful trip!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

While Himself vacationed and traveled, the home front was a mixed bag.

Two pets needed emergency runs to the vet – one resulted in a semi-feral cat (Sunny Sunset) being euthanized due to a cancerous growth, the other was a dog paw sting/allergic reaction issue (Auburn Jo). A cold spell knocked out a bunch of plants, they needed to be cut back as a result. Leaves needed to be raked off the lawn (how else to find the dog poop?) and piled into the trailer. Iris plants were transplanted from the property, as well as newly-purchased iris bulbs to join them in their new location. So, yard work.

The catio painting project took more time and required more detail painting than I had originally thought. The cold weather reduced the amount of time I could paint outside; several days were in the high 40-degree range and windy, not ideal for paint to stick.

Elmo (the Elma stray cat) is now about 6-7 months old, a holy terror in the house. He climbs, he destroys, he jumps the dogs. He broke the curtain rod over the bay window in the parlor bedroom (Tarzan time). He is driving me nuts. At this rate, I’m not sure holiday decorations make any sense at all on the main level.

And now, we have an industrious mole tunneling it’s merry way from west to east, around the house foundation and through my flower beds.

Who needs a vacation?

Happy Trails.