Month: June 2024

Last week I helped Felicity and Peter move from Tulsa, OK, to upstate New York, to their new rental near Ithaca. This involved 4 airplane flights and driving a U-Haul truck and pulling a car caddy. Here are a few details and photos.

I flew out of Rochester, MN, to O’Hare on my first flight, then a second leg into Tulsa. A mechanical problem had delayed the flight out of Rochester, and for a while it looked like I would miss the flight into Tulsa. However, a weather delay for the Tulsa segment let me make the connection in O’Hare after all. I was about an hour and a half late getting in, but better than rescheduling for the next day.

My tasks in Tulsa were major: Load the truck and drive it to New York. Of course, it was 98 degrees (with a heat index of 110) when loading the truck. Man, it was hot! Felicity and Peter helped, but they were busy packing boxes so the major loading fell to me.

The Honda was put on a car caddy behind the 20-foot U-Haul. Yes, there were a number of boxes in the car as well as a pair of suitcases. Felicity traveled with me int he U-Haul and we planned for two nights on the road.

Peter flew with Mr. Darcy, the cat, into Syracuse where he was picked up by an old friend and taken to the rental home.

The trip itself was just a long time in the saddle, a distance of around 1,300 miles. The truck did very well and averaged about 10 mpg, not bad for a fully loaded van pulling a car. We made many stops at rest areas, now often called “text stops” in some states.

Some of the roads were in very bad shape, with potholes that really shook the truck. One cannot easily avoid such hazards in a rig like this. Generally speaking, the further east we went the better the roads became.

Once we arrived in Ithaca, it was time to unload the van. The storage area selected was a shopping center that was being repurposed. It was air conditioned, a feature that was greatly appreciated!

We unloaded the car and returned the car caddy first, then drove out to the storage site. There we developed a routine to get the boxes and furniture into the building, first unloading onto the curb, then using 4-wheel hand carts to move the gear into the assigned space. This worked well and we unloaded the truck in about 6 1/2 hours.

Among the boxes were a refrigerator, washing machine, and two mattresses. Easy to pack items went in first, followed by all the odd items like those shown above. A few boxes were taken to the rental, which came fully furnished. I am sure Felicity and Peter will be back, going through a few more boxes to locate necessary items.

My trip back to Iowa was pretty routine. Peter drove me up to the Rochester, NY airport and I flew, once again, into O’Hare. From there my last leg took me back to Rochester, MN, where Pam picked me up.

So that was my week from June 20th to June 27th. I will be back to NY this fall, if all goes well, to help Felicity and Peter move from their rental into the house they hope to purchase and rehab over the next few months. I wish them luck!

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

Pam’s Penny

While Himself was gone, I accomplished my semi-annual cleaning of the upper kitchen display shelves, coat trimming on one of the dogs, and application of the second coat of paint in the upstairs bathroom. I also changed-out drapes in the library and washed rugs.

There were no flooding problems in Elma, but the Midwest picked up so.much.moisture this past week. (Hard to remember last year’s early summer drought conditions.)

Happy Trails.

This past weekend we rented a bucket lift with the aim of completing the painting of Heart House. This was done, and more as well. Here are photos taken during the days we had the lift as well as a before-and-after comparison.

I have previously published other bucket lift weekends and do not want to be repetitive, but there are a few shots taken during this episode that can be shared.

First, here is Pam doing some detail work from the bucket.

I scraped and painted the NE corner of the house, the last area still in the mint green that covered the house when we bought it.

Before I put in the next two photos, note the “skirt” on the tower in the first photo. Close inspection will reveal the skirt is not in the second photo.

One of the ‘other’ jobs done was the removal of most of the skirt from the tower. The north and east portions were taken down as well as parts of the west and south sides. The skirt was sagging and very rotten in spots and there was some damage to the underlying shingles. If you look closely, a blue stripe is now where the skirt used to be. We think removing the skirt improves the look of the tower and house in general.

Part of the east wall, 2nd floor, received an additional coat of paint to bring it up to the minimum of two coats we had put on the rest of the house.

A finishing detail was added: A new address number plate was installed on the front entrance.

Finally, here are before and after photos of the house. The first is from the original listing. The second is from this past Monday.

It has taken us 5 summers to get to this point, and there are still maintenance items to complete, such as repainting or replacing some of the porch spindles. An old house is never finished 100 percent. We have taken this old home about as far as we will take it, leaving other work (replacing more windows comes to mind) to future owners.

I am going to close out this post with a few miscellaneous photos taken around the yard recently. The first is our peonies in bloom, quite a show this year.

This shot is somewhat whimsical as it features one of our neighborhood squirrels taking a rest on one of the suet feeder brackets. It stayed on the bracket for several minutes, just enjoying the nice day.

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

Pam’s Penny

The gymnastics required to get in-and-out of the bucket lift basket – truly special. Old bodies in their 70’s are not flexible enough to manage repeated efforts in this regard. The geriatric bucket lift model should include a small elevator to get a person into the basket from the ground. Or a ramp. Or something. Just sayin’.

Happy Trails.

Next week will be a “bucket lift” weekend so I am getting this post out a bit early. I went to a swap meet and multiple flowers are blooming around the yard. We made a trip to a greenhouse to purchase more annual flowers and Pam planted them in a bit unusual fashion. Here are the details!

One of the “old engine” shows on my 2024 list included a swap meet and auction near the town of Dundas, located a bit north and east of Faribault, MN. I decided to drive up and take a look.

While the main attraction was the auction of old and antique farm implements, the swap meet was fairly extensive as well. More family oriented than the Le Sueur meet, this one had quite a range of stuff spread out among the vendors. I purchased a few small tools and a motorcycle jack. I have already used the later to raise the front of the riding lawn mower to access the blades and spindles of the deck. At $20.00 it was a good buy.

Pictures often convey more than words, so here are a few photos taken at this event.

The Dundas group puts on a full antique power show over Labor day every year, and I may attend that show this fall. It was an interesting outing.

Returning to Elma, a few items to note. Main Street on our block was reopened to traffic. The reduction of noise was appreciated while it lasted but it’s just as well the barriers were removed.

Apparently the town is getting ready to remove a number of dead trees, mostly of the ash variety, from around town. As I drive around I do see quite a number that should be removed, including several in the city park. This will be an ongoing project throughout the summer months.

Our yard looks the best it has since we moved to Elma. Early flowers are done but new blooms are appearing. Irises, in particular, are doing great this year and blooming as they never have. A few photos from around the yard are in order.

We made a trip to a pair of local greenhouses to pick up a few more annual flowering plants. Pam planted them in transportable bags, a first for her. Several bags (not all, a few are in other spots) now decorate the east end of the garage, adding a bit of color to this otherwise fairly blank area of the yard.

As I mentioned in the opening, we have a bucket lift reserved for next weekend. Hopefully we can complete the painting and repairs, to the siding and trim we did not get to last fall, and finally complete the house painting project. That would be a relief! My next post, in a couple weeks, will have more details of the weekend’s work.

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

Pam’s Penny

While I do not enjoy being up in a lift, I do look forward to having the exterior paint project completed — after five summers. Hopefully this will be the last “lift experience,” at least in Elma.

I did do a test run on detail paint for the front porch ceiling trim. There has been so much fill-in putty used on that porch, I’m going to have to invent a straight line to paint along. Kinda what I figured.

The portable planting bags were a bust when I tried planting seeds in them. But they do seem to support greenhouse plant starts. Main attraction is being able to move portable bags around the yard, to fill in boring spots.

Happy Trails.