It has been a bit since my last post — I’ve been busy! I’ve spent a lot of time on the road and will be doing more of the same in the next few days. Here is an account of recent events.
Last week was not a good week. I went to the dentist on Monday and she confirmed the front tooth I had broken could not be saved. An implant is in the works. Tuesday I was back at the dentist office getting fitted for a retainer. This device carries a false tooth that will fill the gap after the broken tooth is removed.
Wednesday was a particularly sad day as Cirrus, our oldest cat, was taken to the vet to see if anything could be done for his labored breathing. The vet got back to us after reviewing X-rays and indicated Cirrus was having fluid build up around his heart and the fluid was making its way into his lungs. He was literally suffocating. Because Cirrus was in great distress, Pam made the difficult decision to have Cirrus euthanized. Which meant I made the second trip of the day back to the vet’s office to pick him up. Pam buried Cirrus in the garden, next to the eight other cats who have died in the last three years.
Believe it or not, we actually did some painting on Thursday! Working from the wooden ladder, we tried a new technique Pam devised. This involved using a 4-inch roller on an extension handle. I was on the tall ladder and Pam was on the ground with the paint tray. I would hand the roller’s extension handle down to her, Pam coated the roller with paint from the tray, and handed the extension handle back up to me. This worked out quite well and we were able to get more of the west wall painted.
I reserved a bucket lift for this weekend and hope to get the rest of the west side painting completed. There is a chance of scattered showers so work may be intermittent.
Friday was an odds and ends day. I prepared the utility trailer for a trip north to help my brother Jon move. I hit the road early Saturday morning on my way to northern MN, where I helped Jon unload my trailer and the U-Haul truck and trailer he drove up, then returned on Sunday. This was about 800 miles round trip, as Jon’s new place is near the town of Black Duck, Minnesota. Jon had to return the U-Haul gear by 5:00 PM on Sunday so we unloaded into the wee hours of Saturday night, finishing at about 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning.
Back at Heart House, Monday was a lawn and garden day. More than a week had gone by since attending to the lawn, as with Jon’s stuff in my trailer I had no place to put grass clippings and other yard debris. Monday’s load was quite large and included clippings from the garden as Pam removed many of our sunflower plants. These had started to break off and generally were looking bedraggled.
Somewhat out of sequence, Pam had worked on another project in our “courtyard” area we refer to as the “quad” (four doors open into the space from the house, catio, and garage). Eventually we will fill the depression around these pavers with black dirt and level out the area. Plans are to put a fire pit in the middle where Pam spread some of the gravel left over from the gravel project.
Tuesday I drove to Canby, Minnesota, to pick up a 16 foot trailer I had purchased through an online auction. I will use this to bring my Dad’s old Ford 8N tractor to Iowa from Colorado and for any other heavy hauling we might need in the future. This purchase was spurred by the outlandish price U-Haul charges for renting a trailer 1-way so I could bring the 8N home: $544.00. I thought for a couple hundred more I could have a trailer for occasional use; if I sold it after getting the tractor home I would still come out better than renting through U-Haul.
The trailer is pretty basic. It does need minor repairs as all 4 side marker lights are broken or missing. (The tail lights do work.) I plan to paint it at some point. With a price of $645.75 it is on the low end of the scale for this type of trailer but I think it will serve my rather minimal needs OK. Lights will run $40.00 – $50.00 and registration, with getting an Iowa title, should be in the $50.00 range. I would like to get some “D rings” welded on to provide tie down points but don’t have any idea how much this will cost, or who does this type of welding locally.
With all the trips over the last several days you would think I would be done driving. Not so. In the next few days I will driver to Decorah to pick up the bucket lift, another trip to return it, with each trip being close to 100 miles. Then on Monday the 19th I drive to Mason City for my implant consultation, another 90 miles or so. Our gasoline bill is going to be quite high when the charge statement arrives.
More so than normal, the last couple of weeks have seen a lot of road travel. This trend will not end soon as I head for Colorado the last week of the month to enjoy the fall colors, shut down and winterize The Box, and bring home a few items such as the generator and fire pit. Another 2,000 miles on the horizon…
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
With the sad and sudden death of Cirrus, two cats remain in the house. (There are an additional two aging cats who stay in the catio, and one free-roaming cat, all fed outside.) This feels too quiet to me. I am in the process of adopting two kittens from my rescue friend and foster mentor in Colorado, Kathy Powers. Kathy visited us in June; upon her return to Colorado, she fostered a rescue litter from the Rifle Shelter containing a male Siamese mix and a black female. Long story short, Himself will be rendezvousing with Kathy on this Colorado trip and bringing Stirling and Vienna to their new home on his return trip. Elmo, I think, will benefit as well as myself — Elmo cries occasionally in a way that suggests he misses his buddy Cirrus.
Happy Trails.
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