Month: May 2022

The upcoming weekend includes Memorial Day, and the house is decorated for the event. Pam created several new decorations for the summer holidays, and she put them, plus the bunting, up for this weekend.

Here are views of the front and east porches. The “circular heart” wreaths on the east side are new this year, as are the vertical banners on the east porch.

With the flowers blooming and the bunting in place the house looks quite festive.

I have mentioned the flowers and lilacs before, but there is one additional tree that bears mentioning. One of the trees we planted in 2020 was a honey locust, so named because its spring leaves come out a honey-gold color instead of green. This year the tree seems to have “settled in” to its spot and is putting out healthy – and attractive – growth.

With lilacs on either side, the tree adds a spot of gold to the visual line.

After a rain-filled week, we were able to open up the house and get fresh air inside. The cats appreciated this and spend quite a bit of time looking at the outside world.

Outside time was busy with putting up decorations, lawn maintenance, and planting ornamental corn and pumpkin seeds. However, inside projects had many hours dedicated to them. Some of the results can be seen in the porch pictures as Pam’s sewing projects. Mine were not so visible; I finished converting our Super 8 movie films and finished editing of the VHS tape pages. I ended up with several sections, including General Family, Felicity and Toby specific pages, Relatives pages, and Miscellaneous pages which include a couple of my 4×4 trips and our 40th anniversary trip to New Orleans and Florida. The Super 8 films have their own section as well. Next up is to get a couple external hard drives and send a copy of this project to both kids.

After finding several “lost” clips of building the garage addition and getting the new cement work done as I was going through my data drive, I revised the two “Heart House” videos that deal with those topics. I also launched a new project, scanning of old color negative 35mm film, and the photos in the Photo Archive are some of the first negatives to be scanned.

On Tuesday I drove the 75 minutes to Austin to meet my old college roommate and friend, Jon Bjornson, and his wife Joan. They were back in the Midwest for family functions and we had arranged to meet at a Perkin’s for dinner. It was good seeing the two of them again and I enjoyed the company.

We have reserved a man lift for the weekend of June 24th in hopes of getting the north side of the house painted. Neither of us have ever used a man lift so it remains to be seen how much we can get done. (These things likely take some getting used to!) In the mean time we hope to get more painting done from the ground, including the west end of the garage, which still displays the mint-green paint that mirrors the house. That is next week’s project.

Becky kinked her back, causing her to be very limited in movement this week. However, she had already completed her inventory / preparing her stuff stored in our garage and filling her car with the first load to be taken to her new home. Closing is now set for this upcoming Thursday, June 2nd. Then the activity will really kick in!

Photo Archive

These are scans of 35mm film dating from 1991.

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

Pam’s Penny

At some point in Heart House’s history, the giant oaks on the south side of the house must have been professionally chainsawed/cut back. There are several large stumps way up there, which, judging by the number of woodpeckers at our winter bird feeders, must be rotting into hollows. In one of those hollowed-out tree trunk ends, we now see a frisky family of 4-5 baby squirrels [plus mom]. Rather enterprising of mom to build her nest in a hollow tree – but – the location is the very tree that supports the catio surround. One baby squirrel – I call him Elmo Jr. – has already made his way down the tree and become trapped for a bit in the mesh enclosure around the tree. It is always something. I suppose, since this is the first year Jer has been putting out cobbed corn during winter, the squirrels consider our yard a convenient place to nest. I hope Elmo Jr. doesn’t find his way INTO the catio itself next time…

The lilacs + honey locust on the north side of the house are sporting their best spring look since we moved here. Beautiful.

Happy Trails.

This past week saw yard (and area) flowers really taking off. Many species are in bloom, including lilacs, and others (allium) are getting ready to flower. It’s a satisfying time of the year.

Pam added [the annual] geraniums to the east front porch bed and [new addition] pansies to the north bay window bed. The hope is these plants will prosper and spread out, keeping the beds full of flowers over the summer.

I mentioned the bleeding hearts were blooming in my last post; here is a shot of just one of many around the yard.

While Pam was planting, I took on another task: cleaning up the LP tank. I had assembled the new pressure washer and, in the first use, started the “tank project.” A few photos are worth many words.

The plan going forward is to paint the lower portion of the tank blue, repaint the upper portion with a new coat of white. Until that happens, the tank looks much better. It will look even better by the end of the year!

Not all the days were suitable for outdoor work, so I started on another ‘indoor’ project, converting my Super 8 movie films. The used Wolverine MovieMaker Pro I found on eBay arrived and proved to be fairly easy to use. The process is a bit fussy, but once loaded the machine runs without much attention.

I can transfer the converted files to my Mac using the included USB cable, then edit the files using iMovie, the same program I used to edit the converted VHS tapes. While a small (3 inch)) spool is shown, I also have several larger (5-inch) spools to convert. The small spools take about half an hour to convert and the larger ones take about 2 hours. This averages out to about 10 minutes of conversion time for every 1 minute of running time, plus rewind time. Editing and saving take additional effort, of course, so this is not a quick project but will be satisfying in the end. Note: These are “silent” films with no audio track, but I may add some audio commentary during the editing process.

The only drawback to the week concerned Becky and her closing; it has been pushed back a few days. A new closing date is not yet set. There are time lags between the seller (an estate) and the bank in processing the necessary documents. On the other hand, Becky received her copy of the home inspection report and it was generally quite positive. A few small items need attention, but nothing that was not apparent when we visited the property.

Life continues and projects keep getting done. This upcoming week we’re “scheduled” to get started on the summer’s painting projects. I hope to get the west end of the garage painted — the last side of the garage that needs to be converted — from the previous mint green to the current barn red. In June, the plan is to start painting the north (Main Street) side of the house in hopes of having it done by the 4th of July parade down Main Street. As this would require hiring a lift for the second floor sections, we’ll see how that plan progresses.

The week was a mixed bag of weather, projects, planting, and planning. In other words, a typical retirement week for us!

Photo Archive

From past motorcycle trips.

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

Pam’s Penny

Wouldn’t it be lovely if freshly weeded and edged planting beds would stay neat and tidy? I pretty much have to plan spring work sessions to weed/edge every other year, on rotating flower beds. I stay on top of weeding most of the growing season, but grass incursions not so much.

Our mornings are a cacophony of bird song. Seedlings visibly add growth daily. I enjoyed another visit to the Mennonite greenhouse. A vibrant season.

Happy Trails.

We went from a cold and wet spring right into summer. Two weeks ago we had high temperatures in the 40s, this past Wednesday we set a new record for the date at 91, beating the old record of 89 set beck in 1911. The furnace was used at the start of the week, central air at end of the week. Crazy.

We scrambled to get the place ‘Summer-Ready’ by doing several tasks. These included swapping the storm door inserts for screen inserts, pulling out the last of the winter window inserts, finding and deploying window screens, and installing the bedroom window AC unit. (The upstairs gets very little cool air from the central AC.) We add several old-fashioned expandable screen inserts on windows with built-in [light mesh] screens. The wire mesh inserts keep the cats from clawing at the light mesh screens, saving repairs.

On the other hand, the lawn and flowers have flourished. The new grass seed that I put out is sprouting. Many flowers are now in bloom, including bleeding hearts, pansies, one peony, daffodils, and tulips. The Mary Lynn Memorial Bed is looking great.

Much routine work took up outdoor time. Pam planted Grandpa Ott morning glory seeds and began cleaning the north and northwest flower beds. She prepared a spot for this year’s sunflower seeds. I found a couple packets of ornamental corn and these will be planted shortly. Gourds will be added to the garden, a first for us. One day I used the string trimmer, push mower, and riding mower to get the yard in shape. A new power washer was put together in preparation for cleaning walls for painting. We spent quite a bit of time outside this past week!

However, outdoor activities were not the only activities on the list. Becky is going through her stuff in the garage and consolidating and marking totes and boxes. Her “new” house closing is tentatively set for May 27th and we would begin moving her stuff shortly after. Her mobile home in Rice Lake has been sold and the transaction closed, a great relief for Becky.

I finished my VHS conversion project. Including the splitting of some tapes into individual segments I ended up with 48 finished video files. Presentation has been split into several categories, including child-specific videos, family videos, my 4-wheel excursions, and “other family” such as relatives. Here is a screen shot of my “Family” video page.

During the process I used a couple of external hard drives. One contains all the original video files; these are “as captured” from the original tapes. A second hard drive holds the edited and converted files as well as the related still photos and HTML pages such as shown above. The entire project takes up about 300gb of “finished” files and another 524gb of “raw” files. I am currently bidding on a Super 8 film converter. If I win that bid, conversion of my movie files will be my next big (winter?) project.

Pam has been her usual busy self, starting on a list of projects as dictated by the weather change. Here she is giving dog Bru a clip before a bath. Then, the bath in the new job sink!

I purchased a new pressure washer from Northern Tool. The idea is to use it to clean the upper portions of the house walls, those areas we can’t really get to with paint scrapers. I hope this works out as it would save a lot of time and elbow grease. The washer is rated at 3,200 PSI which is what we were told was needed for a job of this type. Less expensive washers put out lower pressures so I had to get a mid-range model. Photos will follow when I am set up to start using it.

All told it was a busy week, much of the work routine. The Weed-&-Feed I had spread earlier this month appears to have helped cut down dandelions in the east lawn. I may try using more on the east and north “medians,” the green space between the sidewalks and the roads. I had not treated these areas and they have lots of yellow showing in them.

Projecting forward, we have visitors coming, flower bed maintenance and a few nice seeds to plant, Becky’s move, and getting started on our summer painting and repairs (after power washing). The job sink has already proved to be quite handy (Bru’s bath, but also dirty hands washing and paint brush cleaning). It’s very satisfying to finally have the job sink functional.

Photo Archive

Photos from all over.

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

Pam’s Penny

I vaguely recall the time when I could tackle flowerbeds — stretching across one side of a house — in one day. I now break flowerbed cleanup and planting into three days for the same space. Humbling.

The Mary Lynn bed is truly spectacular this year. First the hyacinths, then the daffodils, have been stars. The tulip bulbs are on their third spring, and are a well-established background. The flower colors “pop” against the foundation spray coat + red siding. Satisfying.

Happy Trails.

Spring has arrived. We are working outside and totally enjoying the better weather. While there were no major projects this week, many smaller tasks occupied us.

Our “fairies” arrived at their home at the base of one of our oak trees.

These are Pam’s addition to the oak tree flower bed. Fairies were waiting for comfortable weather before their arrival. They tend to stay all summer but retreat to warmer locations in winter. (Pam is hoping to tempt them into Heart House’s snug when summer ends this year.)

Bulb flowers, planted last fall, are beginning to bloom. Hyacinths are being looked over by Gretel the lamb and they put out a pleasant scent. Tulip heads have formed, but wisely the tulips held off on blooming until weather supports the flowers.

Daffodils are beginning to hit their stride. The ones shown below join plants from previous years.

Outdoor projects: The lawn was mowed and Weed & Seed was spread in an effort to help control dandelions. A couple of bare areas were frisked up and grass seed applied. Tarps used outdoors through the winter for wind protection – on the back porch and NW corner of the dog run – were taken down and stored. A metal grid, intended for Grandpa Ott morning glories, was installed on the west wall of the south porch. Becky detailed the inside of my truck, and it looks better than when purchased.

All of us have appreciated the improved weather and the ability to get outside and work on tasks and projects. Sunshine boosts spirits, particularly after the 4th wettest April on record. Our energy bill indicates the past month, on average, was 9 degrees colder than last year and “energy days” (requiring either heat or air conditioning) were up by almost 100 for the year already. We hope May is more “average” than April.

Becky continues to monitor daughter Lilly’s condition, which appears to be good after her surgery. Becky is also busy arranging the closing details on her new home; it appears moving day will be in the first week of June. The sale of her Rice Lake place will be finalized the 2nd week of May. It’s a busy time for Becky!

Pam has added a few more decor items to the laundry room, and is additionally working on “Heart House” wreaths.

There are always projects underway in this house!

I have begun to edit my VHS tapes to create individual events instead of leaving just one long file with multiple sections. This adds extra time to the conversion process, but I think the effort is worth it. For example, I just finished a 1984 tape that had a reunion, footage from around the house, Easter, a visit to my brother’s place, a visit from the Paroubek grandparents, and a visit from my sister Carol and her kids Stefanie and Jennifer. (We celebrated Jen’s birthday.) This 2+ hour tape yielded no fewer than 6 events. The conversion project continues.

Warmer weather means house painting will soon commence. We will begin by doing what we can from ladders, although not much is unpainted at that height. Portions of the west wall can still be done that way, but soon we will have to rent a man lift to reach the higher levels. Our goal is to get the west wall done this year at a minimum; ideally we should finish the entire house but that may be a reach. Time will tell.

Photo Archive

The year was 2000 and we took a family trip to Arizona.

I should mention that Felicity’s and Toby’s middle names are Elinore and Henry, respectively, named after this couple.

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

Pam’s Penny

OK, sunny weather is finally here. One thing I do miss about living in Colorado is the many days of sunshine that state enjoys annually. Days and days and days of dreary NE Iowa spring cloudiness has certainly been a drag.

Work projects start to shift from interior to exterior as temperatures permit; I’m thinking about breaking out a bucket of red house paint. Which means I may not complete all the wreaths [I have in mind for the porches] by the patriotic holidays, however, I’ll display wreaths as they are ready. Fabric for this particular wreath project was purchased last year – so, what’s the rush? Don’tcha love retirement…

Happy Trails.