Author: admin (Page 11 of 62)

The past week was a mixed bag of weather events, visits, a dental issue, and project work. Not as much painting was accomplished as we had hoped.

Sunday saw us visiting Becky in her home in Greene, Iowa. Becky has done a lot of work since moving in, with a continuing list of projects yet to accomplish. Her new washer and dryer were delivered and installed but the dryer door swung right instead of left. This made it awkward to transfer wet clothes into the dryer. Becky was not aware the dryer door could be configured to open left or right, so I re-configured the door to swing left, much more convenient for her.

Pam did some outside work on Becky’s heritage yellow rose bush, trying an idea she had seen online. This involved tying a few of the rose branches together to form an arch. In time the branches will intertwine forming a good-looking flowering arch that doubles as a way to control the branches.

We had taken the dogs along with us and they enjoyed the ride, seeing Becky again, and lounging around the deck. It was a pleasant way to spend a chunk of the afternoon.

Monday was very hot, which limited our outside activities. Tuesday was lawn maintenance day. Wednesday it rained, cancelling any outdoor work. Thursday I did some painting. Friday I had a dental appointment to have a tooth extracted and we began our visit with good Colorado friend Kathy Powers. Saturday was spent in recovering from the tooth extraction and doing more lawn work.

I managed to get another section of the garage wall painted, working from our 6-foot aluminum ladder. Next time I will get out the extension ladder and try to finish the peak.

I had been having a few issues with one of my wisdom teeth and it started to bother me again. An appointment with the dentist on Wednesday confirmed the tooth could not be saved and needed to be extracted. It was either extract the tooth this Friday or wait until July 5th, so I oped to get it done even though we were expecting a guest that day. The extraction went OK but my jaw is sore and will be for several days.

Our good friend Kathy Powers from Rifle, Colorado, joined us on Friday. Kathy was born in Iowa, lived here until the age of 10, and has relatives in the area that she was visiting. We really enjoyed her time with us, even though it was only an overnight stop.

One bright spot is the changing of the flowering plants as the peonies and lilies are starting to come into their own, replacing the honeysuckle and lilacs.

I thought I would include this photo of Pam and myself taken last week, location is our east porch.

Pam worked on creating skirting for the laundry room table and job sink (in progress) and I scanned more negatives, so our “inside” time during the hot and rainy days was put to good use. We also received a ray of hope when a painter (the one with the outrageous quote previously) indicated his company might be able to do just the gables of the house and leave the red sections of the second floor exterior to us. Obviously this would be a $$$ savings, but mostly the company would be doing the work we most dread–painting the highest portions of the house reachable by a bucket lift. Sure hope this offer comes through, details are not yet settled.

The week was really a mixed bag of weather and socializing. We enjoyed visiting Becky and with Kathy, but we’re not moving ahead significantly with the house painting. Next weekend we will try to paint from a bucket lift for the first time, working on the north side of the house. That should be an experience!

Photo Archive

I took black & white photos of many subjects including family, old equipment, animals, and landscapes. Typically I had one camera loaded with slide film, one with black and white film, and Pam had her camera loaded with print film so some subjects were covered in multiple formats. Here is a sampling of my black and white shots.

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

Pam’s Penny

Hard to believe the Summer Solstice is next week already. Bittersweet. I am totally enjoying twilight until 9:00 p.m. and will monitor increasingly-earlier darkness with great sadness.

Happy Trails.

The big event of the week was finishing Becky’s move. We also had visitors. Not much was done on the house or painting but it was a busy week none the less.

After a rainy weekend, we took a second load of stuff over to Becky’s new home on Monday. This load included larger and awkward items such as the mattresses. Plants and much of Becky’s in-house furniture went in this load as well. The move went OK. Becky bought pizzas from the local Casey’s convenience store, along with a variety of soft drinks, for lunch. (I will have to say it was good pizza.)

Becky recruited a pair of Mennonite helpers, Steve and his son Austin, to help with with the Monday move. Steve is a dairy farmer who earns extra income by running a bicycle repair shop. Becky met Steve when she visited his shop to have her bicycle maintained. She asked Steve if there was anyone he knew who would like to earn a few dollars by helping her move. He replied that he and his son would be glad to help.

The extra hands were welcome in not only handling the larger items but also going up and down the Victorian steps in Heart House, to move Becky’s plants and “upstairs” furniture. On the other end of the move, Steve and Austin were able to assemble a new bed frame and remove some old carpet at Becky’s request. She appreciated the help.

Tuesday involved moving [yet another] load in the back of the truck – no trailer this time – which took care of the last of Becky’s items that had been stored in the garage. This included her rocking chair and a few small tables. While in Greene I assembled Becky’s new two-wheel garden cart. She plans to use the cart for moving boxes around inside the house, hauling in groceries, and doing yard work.

Tuesday evening we had a small celebration featuring a cake. It would be Becky’s last full night with us.

Wednesday saw Becky packing the last of her items, including Vanna the cat, in her car and heading out to her new home. She has big plans and was eager to get started on the many projects it will take before she is settled in. A washer and dryer are scheduled to be delivered this weekend and Becky wanted to wallpaper the wall behind these appliances before they arrived, along with many other cleaning and unpacking tasks. She will be one busy girl in the next few weeks!

Thursday we entertained guests John and Margaret Flesner. Pam had worked with Margaret at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. Margaret owns her family home in Winona, MN and makes trips back to visit the house (rented out most of the time) and plan maintenance and updates. We had visited them at this home last year, and they visited us in 2020 during construction of the garage addition. They were able to appreciate the progress we’ve made since their last visit. Great to see them again — actually, great to be able to receive visitors again post-pandemic.

As a result of these activities, and some rainy weather, we did not get any painting done this past week. Pam turned the guest bedroom back into our storage room and I accomplished yard work. The sunflowers, ornamental corn, gourds, and pumpkins have all sprouted and are growing nicely. Young squirrels frequent the corn cob feeder and we enjoy watching them. Various plants, including the wisteria, blackberries, and morning glories have begun twining their tendrils up their respective supporting structures. Life goes on.

I have a couple technical notes to pass along. The first concerns the Photo Archive section I usually include in these posts. Started as a winter project, during the summer months I don’t have as much time to work on scanning old slides and negatives so a Photo Archive may not be included in every post.

The second note concerns some of the photos I have on various web pages. As some of you know, clicking on these photos often opens a larger version or related image in a new tab. I have begun converting these to “popups” where a new or larger image opens as a separate smaller window on top of the original window. So far I have done the Cats and Dogs pages and plan to do others. If you try this feature please let you know what you think of it.

As it has seemed lately, it was another busy week. Becky has moved, we have the storage bedroom converted, and I can park the truck in the garage again. We had a pleasant visit from friends and did routine maintenance on the yard. (Two mowings and a trip to the compost area to unload the trailer.) Depending on the weather, we can get back to painting this upcoming week.

Photo Archive

I have started going though my black-and-white negatives and scanning a few of them. Here are some shots from 1990 and 1991.

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

Pam’s Penny

It felt a bit like pushing sister Becky “out of the nest” and into the world this week. After approximately six months with us, Becky is ready to “spread her wings” and “fly into her future.” So to speak.

Happy Trails.

It was a very busy week. Painting was begun, we began to move Becky to her new house, a new piece of furniture was assembled, and the catio received a major reduction. Here are the details.

As mentioned in my last post, the painting season began this past week. First up — painting the west end of the garage.

We painted as far up as could be comfortably reached from the ground. Pam did the detail painting around the edges and windows and I filled in the large areas. The next step will involve ladders and won’t go as quickly. This side of the garage is mainly only visible from the alley approach.

Another painting project belonged to Pam, as she spray-painted the top cover of the propane tank. This is a trial run, to determine what challenges painting the entire LP tank will present. Coverage isn’t perfect, but certainly improves the overall appearance.

The next few days are supposed to be rainy and cool so it will be a bit before we resume painting. There is a lot to do yet.

Pam had ordered a small piece of furniture, a rolling cart. Intended to fit under one of the library windows and provide a platform for Pam’s large birdhouse, it was one of those “some assembly required” units.

Unfortunately, we discovered the cart had been damaged. It appears the cart had been returned prior to shipment, as the exterior of the box showed no shipping damage. At any rate, a repair was attempted instead of returning the mostly-assembled unit.

The damage was with the inserts that hold the casters. Both of the struts that hold the casters had broken off the side boards. With some Gorilla wood glue, some clamps, and wood screws I repaired the struts.

The cart is now performing its intended duties in the library.

Another project was the disassembly of the catio tree surround. When we first moved to Elma with 5 outside cats, the catio was a worth-while addition for containing the relocated animals. Now that there are 2 regular cats, Ink and Cloudy Day, the surround itself is less utilitarian. After one of the young squirrels ventured into the surround (and had to be freed by removing part of the screening), Pam decided it was time to reduce the surround to a small entry / exit ramp.

Here are a few photos of this portion of the catio being taken down.

The removal will make it easier to mow the lawn in that area and is a noticeable visual change from the yard and street. The two remaining cats are already using the ramp and don’t seem to be upset by the catio exit relocation. Hopefully tree bark cuts and disruption caused by the construction haven’t impacted the growth of the tree long-term. (This particular oak was probably on-site when the house was built in the late 1800’s.)

The last big task of the week was to get started on Becky’s move to her new home in Greene. Becky closed on her home Thursday morning. The first trailer load of home goods was loaded and moved into the new house on Friday.

We moved about a third of Becky’s gear by volume, and have (mostly) her larger pieces of furniture to transport. Becky has arranged for some local help for moving these larger and more awkward pieces. We hope to complete the entire move by the end of next week.

Last week Pam mentioned the young squirrels in one of our oak trees. One evening I went out and took some video footage of them running around the tree near their nest. The clip is 4:41 and you can see it here. Note there is little audio; I did an intro at about 43 seconds but it is mostly just watching the young ones play. A couple of squirrels have discovered the corn cob feeder; they are quite entertaining to watch through the kitchen window.

Along the week we did routine work — normal lawn and flower bed maintenance. I used the new pressure washer to clean the trailer and truck bed prior to loading. Several web pages were made more mobile-device friendly and formatting was standardized across the pages. Outside and indoor tasks were many!

The next few days are projected to be wet and cooler so outside projects may be curtailed a bit. That is OK as we need to recharge after the past week’s activities. There is always another project to occupy time and energy at Heart House.

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

(Due to the large number of photos in this post there will be no Photo Archive this week.)

Pam’s Penny

Yupp-er, we broke out the buckets of red paint for the season.

Happy Trails.

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.

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.