Month: April 2022

Well, for once we don’t have freezing nights in the forecast. Can spring be here?
We made a trip to a greenhouse, bought some plants, worked on the laundry room decor, and continued converting VHS tapes.

Every year we take a trip or two to a couple greenhouses to pick up annuals and other plantings. This week we stopped at Zimmerman’s Greenhouse located about 10 minutes away from us. We enjoy walking the aisles, viewing the flowers, and enjoying the odor of green, growing things. I thought I would include a few photos of this trip.

We brought home a few plants, just enough to get started. Our selection included a fern, two peonies, a lobelia, and a flat of petunias. Rain is in the air today so they won’t get planted for a few days but are doing OK on the east porch for now.

An inside project was moved along when Pam added more wallpaper and decorative items to a laundry room wall. As a second project, the coat rack was removed, repaired, and relocated. The wall is so uneven that spacers had to be added to each end to make the rack sit flat. I replaced a broken door handle on the south porch and aided Pam by wielding the power screw driver when needed.

The bird feeder came down and a new bird bath put up in its place. I will try to get a photo of it in use for my next post. In the mean time, birds and squirrels continue to frequent the corn cob feeder and the small outside table where we place cracked corn, apple peels, and stale bread.

My VHS conversion projects moved ahead with a few more upgrades to my Macintosh system. I am trying to phase out my old (’90s) external data disks in favor of newer and more reliable units. To this end I have replaced my main data disk and the disk I have been using for the VHS project. Left to swap out is the disk I use for backing up the other two disks.

In addition to being more reliable, the new disks are faster than the old ones which cuts down on the time it takes to complete a VHS tape conversion. I appreciate this! I generally have one tape being digitized while I edit another, resulting in one completed tape a day and another ready for editing the following day.

To showcase the digitized tapes I have created a web-like page that introduces each tape and give a brief description of it, along with the run time. Some tapes feature Felicity, others feature Toby, but most are “family” tapes of events such as Christmases and birthdays. I have footage I had forgotten about and it is fun to re-live some of the footage such as Toby and Felicity learning to ice skate. I am about half-way through with about 24 conversions so far.

I may split some of the files into smaller single events. Christmas tapes, in particular, are more-or-less self-contained events that may merit individual attention rather than being part of a months-long session. I’ll have to see how much energy I want to put into that aspect of this project.

Photo Archive

From the mid-’80s. These are “frame captures” from video tapes so quality is not high.

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

Pam’s Penny

When I walked into the first Mennonite greenhouse yesterday, my breath was almost taken away by the color and vibrancy. In that moment, I almost forgot how dreary and colorless NE Iowa has been for most of the last four months. And then that damp earth smell hit me, like getting off an airplane in a tropical climate. It was awesome.

Let gardening commence.

Happy Trails.

This past week held a few big events. Easter, Becky bought a house, plumbers finished the job sink, and Becky’s daughter, Lilly, had surgery. I added some updates to my computer system and continued my VHS conversion project.

Easter brought activities to the house. Pam set up a holiday centerpiece on the table and colored eggs.

Better weather for the day enabled a photo opportunity on the east porch.

In addition to an excellent meal of ham, potatoes, fresh green beans, and pineapple Pam made an apple pie. Everything went down well!

Spring may finally be arriving even though the weather continues to be cold and wet. I noticed some spring flowers beginning to bloom under one of the oak trees. I don’t know the name of these, but they have lifted our spirits.

I added a few updates to my computer system to handle the VHS to digital files and movies I have been creating. My Mac is old, but at the time it featured a technology Apple called ThunderBolt 2. This interface was designed for faster transfers of data to external devices such as hard drives. Now nearly obsolete, I was able to find the parts and pieces I needed to add a “port replicator” or “Dock” to my system. The dock has USB 3 ports which are faster than the Mac’s built-in USB 2 connections. I attached a new 4 terabyte (4TB) drive to the dock and will use it for file storage. Another port will handle the VHS to digital capture device. Hopefully these upgrades will speed up the process.

Finally, after 5 1/2 months, the laundry room plumbing was completed. Yes! The job sink is finally functional and we moved the washer to it’s new location. This means we have eliminated the need for heating tapes on lines running to the old location. Plumbing in the basement was cleaned up and simplified. Another house project completed!

Much news revolved around Becky. After months of looking and a few trips to view properties, Becky found “The One” in Greene, Iowa. The Shell Rock River flows through town. We had visited the town last spring to take in a plant show and had a favorable impression of the area. The house is not on the river, but has a view of it from the deck and kitchen window. One end of the garage has windows that have the best river view and Becky is already considering turning that space into living area to take advantage.

Here is the listing for the house. Closing is set for late May. Now Becky is working on all the details that go with a home purchase, including getting insurance, scheduling a home inspection, arranging the financing (she had been pre-approved) and forming plans for moving and decorating. It is an exciting time.

Becky’s youngest daughter. Lilly, had surgery this past week and is currently hospitalized. Becky plans to go to Minneapolis to help Lilly for a few days after Lilly is released from the hospital. Vanna, Becky’s cat, is now comfortable coming down stairs and mingling with the other cats and dogs (to some extent) and will stay with us while Becky is gone.

Both Pam and Becky have been working on sewing projects. Pam sent me this photo of Becky working at the library table and working on a banner.

I continue with my VHS conversion project, but did manage to get some yard work done on one of the better days last week. Leaves were raked from around the garden fence and mulched. I made the first trip of 2022 to the compost area and unloaded a trailer of mulched leaves and branches we had picked up from the yard.

The bird feeder received its last fill of the winter. Bird Flu is making the rounds in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa and organizations have asked that bird feeders be taken down for the summer. As soon as ours is empty it will come down. That is a shame as we enjoy watching the birds come and go. Recently I spied a Yellow Finch for the first time, bright yellow with black trim, another sign spring is on the doorstep.

Photo Archive

Flowers, critters, and landscapes from 2016.

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

Pam’s Penny

Just like local farmers, we watch the weather to determine when to plant our (garden) seeds. Could be tricky this year.

Houses are a big topic in my family at the moment. One brother is building a new house, sister is buying a house, another brother is considering housing options, and we are – of course – renovating a house. Who knew retirement would be so house-oriented?

Happy Trails.

We had a couple of events that were out of the ordinary this past week. Becky celebrated a birthday, outdoor cat Zip reached the Rainbow Bridge, and the F-150 received a new windshield.

Becky had made a trip to Rice Lake to retrieve a few more items from her home and meet with the buyer, John, on her birthday so we celebrated shortly after her return. The chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was a big hit!

One of the outside cats, brought with us from DeBeque, was euthanized. Zip had been in poor condition for several months but we had hoped he would pull through with the advent of warmer weather. Alas, he took a turn for the worse and Pam decided it was time. We don’t like to see any animal suffer when there is no hope for a return to a good life. Zip was buried in the garden near the graves of some of our other cats. RIP.

The F-150 developed a major windshield crack stemming from a rock chip. The split ran from the driver’s side all the way over to the passenger side. A call to the insurance company set up an appointment with Safelite Mobile Glass Service to replace the glass.

The process took a couple of hours and it is nice to have brand-new glass in the truck. Below are a few photos taken during the replacement.

Weather again made news this week. A series of severe thunderstorms passed over Elma. Our lights flickered but did not go out. Surrounding regions suffered wind damage and tornadoes caused major damage in a few communities. Thankfully we were spared, but the storms created quite a lightning and thunder show that kept us awake into the early hours of the morning.

Temperatures remain well below seasonal averages causing us to use more propane than anticipated. (Forecasts for the upcoming week show a return to more normal temperatures.) We had purchased all the propane we had contracted for; if we need to get more the costs will be higher. Warmer weather would be welcome!

I did get my generator, mentioned in my last post, running again. A good cleaning of the carburetor, fresh fuel in a cleaned tank, and the engine fired with just a few pulls of the starter rope. I was pleased to hear it running again.

My VHS digitizing project continues. A few of the tapes run close to two hours to digitize, than take time to edit, then more time to save the files in a PC-friendly format. I have been trying to add subtitles which identify people in the videos as the kids won’t remember who these people are. It can take me a good part of a day to do a single long tape! A couple had very bad audio tracks and I have over-dubbed a sound track explaining what the video is showing. It is good thing I had purchased a good microphone before I left Colorado as it has come in handy. Over-dubbing is somewhat new for me so it is stretching my skills a bit. That is not a bad thing!

Photo Archive

Only one photo this time. Taken in 2016 by daughter Felicity, we were visiting a gift shop.

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

Pam’s Penny

Waiting for Spring is becoming somewhat boring. Enough already.

Re: Zip and cat population — with seven cats buried since we moved to NE Iowa, I am technically no longer the Crazy Cat Lady. I wish I had learned in the past two decades how to give up on lost feline causes, but alas, I have not. Until the necessity for a trip to the Rainbow Bridge is totally and irrevocably evident, I keep trying.

Happy Trails.

We received a quote from the painter. Boy, was that an eye-opener!

The quote came in at $14,371.00 including tax. (Tax was $940.00) And that was not for the entire house; we exempted some parts of the east side that need repairs to the siding.

Paint was quoted at $50.00 per gallon. ($40.00 per gallon for 5 gallons of primer.) Our regular paint costs about $20.00 per gallon. (Behr #25 Barn Red.) The painter had assured us he could come close to our per-gallon price but he didn’t. He would not use Behr; all painters seem to have a particular brand they prefer and try to “color match” to other brands. Total material came in at $2,800.00.

200 hours of labor, at $35.00 per hour, added $7,000.00. Other charges included the use of a boom truck at $2,400.00. Miscellaneous items such as tape, masking paper, sanding supplies, airless paint sprayer, and pressure washing added another $1,230.00 to the total.

Pressure washing came in at more than the price of a new home-owner type washer, $480.00. (New washers start at around $300.00.) The painter’s outfit is a trailer-mounted rig capable of cleaning all types of surfaces at very high pressures. We were concerned his rig would damage the somewhat fragile old siding on the house.

We can’t afford to go with his quote. On to Plan-B, which is doing more work ourselves. Plan-B will include renting a boom lift for weekend use, purchasing a used pressure washer, and continuing to paint by hand. A summer of hard work looms along with a late summer completion date but that is the way it will have to be.

Another house project took a step forward as we took delivery of two new windows to be installed in the upstairs guest bedroom. Replacement is a warm weather task but we had ordered the windows early as delivery times were very long and prices were going up. As it is, this pair cost us almost $300.00 more than the same pair we had installed in The Snug in 2020. We had determined the guest room windows are the worst in the house and replacement is required for comfort and energy efficientcy.

The owners of Busti Lumber, here in Elma, sold the company and retired as of April 1st. Busti (pronounced boost-e) is where we ordered windows, purchased siding and paint, and picked up incidental lumber and hardware over the last couple years. Dale and Tina were of great help to us and we will miss interacting with them. I have not yet met the new owner(s) but probably will over the summer.

In-house projects moved ahead. Pam has started a new sewing project. Becky finished an embroidery panel she was creating for her daughter, Caitlin, as a birthday gift. I digitized several more VHS tapes and it was fun to revisit events such as Felicity learning to walk back in 1984. I just wish conversion did not take so long!

The weather was dismal for most of the week. We had snow flakes in the air on Thursday and a thin layer of new snow on the ground by Friday morning. The snow did not stay long, but it was the third week in a row where we had more of the white stuff. The next few days look better but the 10-day forecast has more below-freezing nights and daytime high temperatures in the low-to-mid 40s. Normal highs are in the low 50s and above freezing at night.

We had planned to phase out the bird feeder and suet feeders by mid-April, but colder conditions have kept birds at the feeders in large numbers. I bought another bag of bird seed for the main feeder and refilled the suet feeder. We are still enjoying watching the action and have spotted a few new birds in the mix.

I started a “garage” project; resurrecting my 1987 portable generator. Built by Kawasaki, I used it on camping trips during the late 80’s and 90’s, and we used at The Lot for a few years. The engine was not running well when I retired it. I am going to have to clean / rebuild the carburetor and get all the old gas and varnish out of the fuel tank. The generator is not large (900 watts continuous, 1,100 watts surge) but would power the refrigerator in an extend power outage.

Outside work was limited due to the variable weather, but we did get a climbing frame for the wisteria plant. Runners should be able to wind around the frame for the next few years and display flowers as they bloom. Wisteria is an old-fashioned plant and Pam though it appropriate to have some around our Victorian homestead.

The week was not one of our best but we tried to move forward with projects. There are always things to do. I’ve sold a couple items on eBay and keep a few listings active, for example. Still, the painting quote set us a-back; we now have a new path forward. Such is life!

Photo Archive

North Rim of the Grand Canyon motorcycle camping trip from 2002

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

Pam’s Penny

Still waiting for spring…

Happy Trails.

The past week was interesting from both an activity and weather perspective. We had snow, a visit from a painter, and a set-back on the VHS project. All the details are below!

Thursday morning we were greeted with a layer of fresh new snow. More arrived Saturday morning, heavy, wet, and soon to melt (I hope.)

The snow brought birds back to the feeder. During the warmer days they had been somewhat absent.

Hopefully the snow will melt over the next couple days as high temperatures are expected to be in the mid to upper 40s.

Thursday was also a good day as we had a visit from a painter we had contacted. A young man, named Dalton, had responded to Pam’s request for a quote to finish painting the house, or at least the portions that don’t need additional repairs. The prime goal is to get the areas under the peaks (the ginger breading) painted along with the north and west walls. (Areas above the east porch and near the tower need repair work and would not be included.) Part of the east wall, above the bay window, would be painted as well. Here is photo of the west wall as it now stands.

Note the ginger breading Pam had painted last fall above the laundry room window at right.

Dalton arrived and took a guided tour around the outside of the house and viewed the work to be done. He was aided by photos of the house to which Pam had added circles, arrows, and text explaining what work was to be done. We asked Dalton to replicate the laundry room peak’s pattern in the other peaks. This involves hand painting which will add to the cost of the job. Dalton made notes as he went along. He indicated he would get us a quote sometime next week, and if accepted, work would commence this August. Yes, he is already booked out that far but that is still better than the 2023 date given to us by the first painter we had contacted. Now we are waiting for the quote and will decide if we can afford it.

On Tuesday Becky and I took a road trip to view some properties Becky had seen on-line. We visited several towns along the Mississippi River, including Gutenberg, MacGregor, and Elkader. Becky and her brother Larry are looking for a home with a minimum of two bedrooms and two bathrooms so each can have some space of their own. A river or water view is highly desired. One place of interest, in Elkader, had a view of the Turkey River but one wonders if there would be a view in summer when the trees are in full foliage. It was an interesting trip and I enjoyed getting out and about a bit.

Pam has completed the painting in the downstairs bathroom and I re-mounted the towel racks. The walls look quite good now; Pam plans to replace the flooring as the next phase of this project.

One of my projects took a major hit; the hard drive where I had stored all my digitized VHS tapes and related files malfunctioned and erased everything. I was bummed out, but luckily the original edited files were still on my iMovie program. I was able to re-save them in PC-friendly .MP4 formats, but the related files (HTML pages and poster photos) had to be recreated. I lost hours of work due to this hardware failure, but am now caught up to where I was about a week ago. It may be time for a new external hard drive as mine are several years old at this point and are of limited capacity. (Video files are quite large.)

It was quite a week. A road trip, two snowfalls, painter visit, and VHS re-work were all on the docket in addition to normal activities. As a comedian recently said “I don’t want to brag about expensive trips, but I just returned from the grocery store and gas station.” Life goes on as we hope for better weather to arrive.

Photo Archive

Kind of a mix this time.

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

Pam’s Penny

Spring, where are you?

Happy Trails.