Summer!

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.