Author: admin (Page 14 of 62)

This week was punctuated with a number of small events and work on smaller projects. Most of these fall into the “just living” category, but take up time and energy. One such event was COVID-19 related; we went in for our Moderna booster shots this past Thursday.

A notable event: Our oldest cat, Velvet, became quite ill. She had not been feeling well this last week, so we took her to the vet for a check-up. This revealed kidney failure. After a few days of treatment at the vet with no response, the decision was made for “V” to be euthanized, not an easy thing. We will bury Velvet in the garden when we bring her home tomorrow (Monday.)

Velvet was, as are all of our pets, a rescue animal. She had a genetic problem with her right rear hip, requiring specialized surgery during her kitten period, leaving her with a permanent limp. Vets along the way gave her little in the way of long-term survival chances. V lived to 14, a ripe old age for a cat, and had a good life with us. V never knew she was “handicapped” and required few accommodations. She was a feisty cat (just a few weeks ago giving Elmo a lesson in manners); we’ll miss her rough-and-ready purr and upturned tummy to rub.

One project completed was the laundry room wall. Pam finished putting up the wallpaper and trimmed it with decorative red ribbon. While we are still waiting on the plumbers to return and finish the drain and job sink installation, the wall looks pretty good!

Other routine tasks took up our time. Pam is moving ahead on the holiday cards, but is at a phase that requires hand-coloring of some elements. She works on batches in the evenings. Due to the NE Iowa USPS sorting machine being destroyed in Waterloo last November by the Postmaster General, Pam knows she needs to have solstice cards in the mail around the first week in December if there’s any hope of them being received in December.

The end of leaf season is approaching. I did a couple clean-ups this past week and the volume collected is gradually reducing. Most of what I get now is blowing in from neighbors’ yards. I anticipate a few more sessions will be needed before the snow flies as I like to keep the fence lines around the dog run and garden clean of leaves that blow up against them. These days lawn work is my major outside task, along with filling the bird feeder every other day.

Holiday preparations began this week. A shopping trip procured goodies for our Thanksgiving meal, including a boneless turkey breast that will be the main course. Pam says a pie will be baked for dessert. (Pie is a special treat for me.) The weather promises to be cold, with a high of below freezing, but we will enjoy the day.

One of the reasons this post is being produced on Sunday rather than my usual Saturday is we began putting up Christmas decorations yesterday. Saturday was a nice day — for November — with temps in the upper 40 degree range and very little wind, making it an ideal time to start our preparations. Decorating before Thanksgiving is a break from our tradition of putting up decorations the weekend after the holiday. Here in Elma, there’s a holiday parade down Main Street the last weekend in November. Since Heart House is in a prominent location on Main Street, we make an effort to have our lights and outside decor in place for the parade.

We concentrated on the front porch; the east and south sides will be addressed later this week. Here is a photo of the front porch as a work-in-progress.

I spent some time going through my collection of old negatives and more slides, coming to the conclusion that I am missing a box somewhere. I have a gap in coverage from 2001 to 2003, more or less. This will require me to get up in the attic of the garage and going through some boxes in storage there. I thought I had grouped all my photo stuff in one place, but I must have missed a box somewhere. I hope I can find it.

A memory upgrade for my Mac was ordered and arrived. I had been working on the original factory 16gb and decided to move up to 64gb. This has resulted in a much-appreciated faster processing of photos and video clips. A few winter clothing items will soon be ordered, such as a good pair of boots for me, and a couple of holiday gifts (which we hope will arrive as scheduled). The rear brake pads for the truck finally showed up so I will set aside some time to get those installed.

Pam’s sister Becky has a moving day scheduled for November 29 so she will be joining us by the end of the month. Most of her home goods will be kept in storage except for the items she needs to use on a daily basis. We’re thinking it should be fairly seamless to integrate Becky and her cat, Vanna, into our home. We are looking forward to having both of them here. (Pam has several indoor winter projects and could use another helper!)

The upcoming week will be busy. We’ll be putting up more decorations, preparing for Thanksgiving and hoping the plumber shows up to finish the job sink and washer line drain. I plugged in the heating tapes for the washer; we had hoped to have the move done before cold weather set in — making the heat tapes unnecessary. Always a Plan B…

Photo Archive

From a trip to the Pacific Northwest in 1989.

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

Pam’s Penny

For about the 20th time in the last few decades, this weekend I once again had the euthanization discussion with a vet. V will be the third cat buried in four months here at Heart House. We moved to NE Iowa with 8 indoor cats, and now have 3 indoors. My feline friends are rapidly aging out — of them all, V will be remembered as one of my favorites. Feisty and stoic were good traits for her; she did not let genetics stop her from having a full life with us.

Holiday preparations: I have learned to secure the outside holiday decorations at 2-3 points right from the start, so as not to be standing on a porch in a December wind chill trying to tie down flapping decor. The wind, it does blow in NE Iowa. Similarly, cards need to go out sooner rather than later under the current USPS regime. This year I have designed quite an intricate card, requiring many hours of cut-and-paste.

Happy Trails.

With cold weather ending outside activities, our focus moves to a couple of major indoor projects. Work progressed on the laundry room wall and the upstairs guest bedroom. A few other tasks occupied some time as well.

I had completed the patching of the laundry room wall and Pam decided to move ahead with installing wallpaper on it. (Wallpaper is easier to apply before the installation of the job sink and relocation of the washing machine.) This is work still in progress; here is a photo of the wallpaper taped in place to check alignment and cut openings for the outlet and plumbing features.

Pam plans to complete the initial fitting and then install the paper permanently in a few days.

The papering job, while large, was not the only indoor project we took on. The wire shelving Pam had ordered for the guest bedroom arrived so we moved ahead on that project. The shelving (2 sections) was assembled and items arranged on them. That really opened up the room by getting boxes and other items off the floor.

The timing was good as we received word Pam’s sister Becky has accepted an offer on her current place and may be joining us later this month. We are looking forward to her stay. However, clearing up this room revealed another renovation project we had hoped to avoid: window replacement for that room is now on the “To Do” list. As we found in the snug on the first floor, when the previous owner installed a large window air conditioner in the second floor window, it really messed up the window framing and trim. Nothing is salvageable. We’d hoped to simply remove the old A/C unit but now it’s time to talk to Bob the Builder about replacing the entire window. It’s the route we took in the snug and it turned out very well.

On a more mundane level, I put new front brake pads in the F-150 truck. During this job I discovered the insides of the front tires were wearing faster than the rest of the tires, indicating an alignment was in order. An appointment was made with the alignment shop and the truck is now correctly aligned. A new pair of tires is scheduled to be installed this coming Tuesday. The current front tires were put on 6 years ago, well before we began moving, and were due for replacement even before I found the alignment problem.

Along with doing another leaf pickup, outside activities included putting up our winter bird feeder. An amazing number of birds have shown up to take advantage of the free food. As many as three blue jays have been on or around the feeder at the same time, a red-headed woodpecker is a frequent visitor, and literally dozens of smaller birds are at the feeder at any given time. I was not expecting this quantity of birds so early in the season.

A recent trip to the local farm supply store secured more black oil sunflower seeds and a bag of seed mix so I can keep the feeder stocked. At this point I am refilling the feeder every other day.

Moving back inside, I finished re-wicking and cleaning a couple of my old kerosene lamps. My lamp fuel arrived and soon I will fill one of the lamps and light it up to see how it works. I don’t want to have fuel in more than one lamp as the wicks can get crusty from the evaporation of the fuel. One lamp for occasional or emergency use will be fine.

I took the following photo of our three dogs, along with Velvet, one of our cats, sleeping in the corner of the library. Velvet took over one of the beds so JoJo had to sleep on a blanket on the floor. Such ignominy.

Photo Archive

I have a few family photos to post this week along with a photo of Thor, our first dog.

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

Pam’s Penny

Cold winds blow across NE Iowa. I’m slowly making the transitions — keeping drinking water unfrozen + monitoring heat in the catio for the feral cats. It’s a bummer putting a coat on Blondie when she goes outside. Ugh.

Happy Trails.

With the advent of colder weather we’ve moved to working on inside projects. These are not as broad in scope as our summer activities but are things requiring attention.

One of these projects is the repair of the laundry room wall where the new washer and job sink lines were run. (These are not yet functional, we are still waiting for the plumber to return with the correct drain connections.) The job is a bit frustrating as I am trying to fit a sheetrock panel into a lathe-and-plaster wall that was not straight to begin with. Once I am done Pam plans to install wallpaper on that wall to cover the patch and other imperfections.

I have found I can put on only one layer of “mud” each day as each layer takes a full 24 hours to dry. Another layer or two, followed by a final sanding, and Pam will be ready to wallpaper.

Pam’s sister Becky may be staying with us into the winter months, as she is selling her place and looking for an apartment. We have offered our place as an interim place to stay while all this comes to pass. Preparations include going through the storage room closet with the aim of relocating “stuff” to make that room a functional bedroom. A few items were tossed (“why did we move that”) and other things (cat and dog supplies) were moved to the basement. Pam has ordered several wire rack shelving units, on wheels, to get other boxes off the floor and make room for small pieces of furniture such as a floor lamp, small desk, and twin bed. That work will continue for a few days yet.

No other work has been done on the plumbing project, and it may be delayed even further in light of some bad news we received a few days ago. Scott O’Brien is the owner of O’Brien Plumbing and Heating, the local company who has done much work for us. They installed our central air, new water heater, garbage disposal, repaired some other water lines, and are scheduled to install the shower in the upstairs bath. Scott’s wife was killed in an auto accident this past week, leaving him alone to raise his 3 children. The news is a blow to the community as both Scott and his family are well known and respected. Scott is active in the local fire department and did snow plowing in the winter months when other plumbing projects slowed down. While we don’t have all the details, we know Mrs. O’Brien was killed in a head-on accident that occurred on a gravel road near Elma. Our hearts go out to the entire family.

Other activities during the week were low key. Another lawn clean up, maintenance on the truck, cutting back the remaining flower beds, putting temporary patches in the upstairs bathroom floor, Installing window inserts in our smaller windows, and a general catching of our breaths were all on the agenda. It is good to have a patch of down time.

Pam continues to work on our holiday cards. Given the slowness of the mail these days she will need to get them mailed in early December — a bit earlier-than-normal deadline.

One point of interest: We have been receiving many positive comments on the progress of our house painting. From the teller at the bank, people at the lumber yard, and a couple of our neighbors, many people who came into town for Trick-or-Treating saw our house and made positive comments about the updated look. Good to know and helps renew our resolve to continue on.

I have a couple old kerosene lamps that I have decided to re-wick and get into working condition. I decided to go with a lamp oil for fuel (to reduce or eliminate the oder normally associated with kerosene). Shopping on-line, I was taken aback with the shipping charges. Fuel cannot be shipped by air so ground shipping is the only option. Charges for the same 64 oz Aladdin Lamp Oil range from almost $10.00 (the fuel itself is about $15.00) to $21.00. Adding a second container added only a couple dollars to shipping so I ended up ordering two containers from the company with the lowest shipping. That should take care of my “fuel needs” for a long time.

We are in the process of setting up a streaming TV service. The cable Pam subscribed to when we first moved to Iowa has gone up in price and down in channel offerings so we are looking at alternatives. I am experimenting with Fubo TV running on a Roku Ultra device. It takes some getting used to. The biggest drawback is no “Back” or “Previous” button on the remote. Both Pam and I use this feature frequently. You can go back, but it takes several clicks on the remote to do so. Still, for half the cost of regular cable, (now up to almost $120.00 per month) we may learn to live with this inconvenience. I have been learning on my TV and will set up Pam’s TV a bit later. We are currently in the free trial period and will have to make a decision shortly.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have scanned many of my 35mm slides and posted the photos here. This week I decided to expand my scanning to cover 35mm color negatives. (A few are included below.) As my collection of negatives is quite a bit larger than slides, I will need to develop the skill to “read” a negative and scan the most interesting ones. That may take some time but I plan to make the effort as winter weather arrives.

Projects for the upcoming week include putting new brake pads in the truck, getting the snow blower up and running after summer storage, finishing the laundry room wall patch, and numerous smaller tasks. While the scope of projects has narrowed there are still plenty of projects to keep us busy.

Photo Archive

The first two photos are from 1991 and are of upgrades we were making to our home in Daleyville, Wisconsin. These are the first scans from color negatives that I have made.

These next two photos were scanned from 35mm transparencies (slides)

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

Pam’s Penny

For about a day or so this week, I actually felt as if I was retired. Didn’t do much, slept late, fooled around on the computer. So that’s what retirement could be like!

By all indications, it will be a full house for the holiday period here at Heart House. We’ll see what this old house can accommodate.

Happy Trails.

It was an eventful week. In addition to finishing a bit of painting and doing yard work, our contractors started our bathroom and laundry room remodel. Problems were encountered (surprise! – not) and the job isn’t yet completed.

Our remodel plan had four goals: 1) install a job sink in the laundry room, 2) relocate the washer’s water and drain lines, 3) install a garbage disposal under the kitchen sink, and 4) relocate the upstairs bathroom toilet and water supply lines.

This project was mainly undertaken as the washer and bathroom water lines (run along exterior walls – stupid) tend to freeze in winter (duh). The washer lines had heat tapes on them which kept water running, but the upstairs lines did not.

Beginning in the kitchen, the garbage disposal install required a complete rebuild of the sink’s drain system, but was accomplished without much fuss.

In the laundry room, moving the washer lines and drain, plus adding lines and a drain for the new job sink, was a bit more of a problem. The plumbers were able to complete most of the work but didn’t have the correct fitting to add the new drain lines to the existing drain pipe. A return visit will take care of that, but it may take a couple days/weeks? to get back on the [very busy] plumbing schedule. Until then the washer is still functioning on the original lines.

One of my “indoor” projects will be to repair the sheet rock around the install. I plan to make a cardboard template so I can accurately make the needed cutouts. Pam already has plans to put wallpaper over the entire wall (which will help cover any mistakes I might make). The plumbers found a stash of acorns and vintage linoleum in the wall as they worked. The acorns were maybe a rodent stash, but linoleum in the wall? A mystery.

Related to the washer relocation is the install of our new job sink in the laundry room. This is also on “hold” pending the drain connection, but I did get the faucet mounting and backsplash finished. Pam painted some hearts on the wood and I followed up with 3 coats of spar-quality polyurethane.

Where we really ran into PROBLEMS was in the upstairs bathroom. The original plan was to simply relocate/replace the outside wall water lines (the ones prone to freezing) to an inside wall and replace the old stool with a new one. That plan did not survive long!

When some floorboards were pulled up a real mess of lines and drain piping was found. Obviously, someone who was trying to do work on the cheap used whatever was at hand, not bothering to get the correct parts to do the job correctly. Lines were a combination of cast iron, galvanized pipe, and copper pipe. There were no clean-out ports and the traps were not accessible should they need to be cleaned or replaced.

However, the worst problem was structural. The floor had sagged over the years, dropping as much as 1 1/2 inches from level in the middle of the room. This meant that the new stool would not sit level.

Now we needed to make a decision: Fix the floor correctly, or just patch the floor and leave everything ‘as is.’ We called in Bob the Builder who gave us a plan to level the floor. He will cut “tapers” to lay on top of the existing floor and install a new floor over the top of the old one. Material will not be that expensive (cost of wood is coming down after the pandemic high), but the labor to do the job will be substantial, requiring at least a couple days work by two carpenters.

So there we were: Bob the Builder, the master plumber Zach, Pam and I, standing in the upstairs bath debating the future of that room. Given that the floor was already open (in several places) and required reworking of the existing water and drain lines, we decided to go ahead with the floor fix and add a shower install (an upstairs shower is an item I have been lobbying Pam for). Bob will get us on his schedule and the shower stall has been ordered through the plumbing company. Short term, the new stool was installed on a level patch installed in the existing floor. The sink was not disconnected so is still functional. (The new plan calls for it to be relocated to an inside wall near the stool.)

We have watched enough “old home renovation” shows to know problems such as this are not uncommon. Old homes have settled and there are no level surfaces or straight lines. What we hoped not to find was “kludge jobs” done by previous owners. Silly us.

Zach the Plumber was able to do a substantial amount of work in the bathroom, relocating the water lines as we had originally planned, and replacing much of the existing drain system with PVC piping. Here are a couple photos of this work in progress:

Current project status: We are waiting on correct fittings for laundry room and job sink drains, waiting for Bob the Builder to get the new floor installed, the shower stall is on order, and sheet rock work needs to be done. A return by Zach the Plumber to install the shower on the new bathroom floor and complete the plumbing will be required. After that Pam and I will need to put some type of floor covering down to complete the bathroom. There is a long way to go, but at least we no longer have to worry about water lines freezing!

Not all activity this past week was indoors. Pam finished some small paint jobs early in the week, including the ginger bread over the front porch steps. She really wanted to get this section done as it adds character to the front porch entrance and shows passers-by what the rest of the ginger bread (high in the eaves) will look like once painted in shades of blue. Additionally, I painted the white trim on one of the second floor bedroom windows, which required a trip out on the front porch roof. Both projects are visible in the photo below.

Other chores including getting a 4-wheel alignment done on the RAV4, lawn clean-up, the dogs were taken to a new vet for a quick appointment. The colder weather has not slowed our schedule by much. More projects will be of the indoor variety as colder-than-average weather sets in for the next week.

I include this photo of Felicity and Peter; they are dressed in their Halloween costumes to volunteer at the Tulsa Botanic Gardens. Felicity is in her Jane Austen dress and Peter is a western gambler.

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

Pam’s Penny

This week seemed about ten days long; by Wednesday I felt it was already Saturday. We moved a quantity of boxes out of storage areas where the plumbers would be routing lines — boxes of “stuff” therefore being stacked around the house. (Reminded me of the move-in two years ago, and not in a good way.) Drilling noise, keeping track of animals while workmen were moving through the house, making sure Elmo didn’t escape into an open hole in the floor. Exhausting.

And that second floor bathroom, what a mess under the floor boards. Why has virtually every repair in/on this house been done cheap-cheap-cheap and poorly? It grows tedious. I mean, what sane person would put a 2 x 2 for support under a 700+ pound clawfoot bathtub? I guess we’re lucky the tub didn’t drop through the kitchen ceiling below. (Maybe it would have if one of us had actually taken a bath in the thing. Weight of tub + weight of water + human weight = wild ride to the first floor.) I’m currently quite angry with previous owners.

Oh well, time to plant spring-blooming bulbs and finish cleaning dead hostas from the flowerbeds. I’m planning to live dangerously and overwinter a Boston Fern indoors, within Elmo reach. The internet tells me the plant will not be lethal to the cat, but the cat may be lethal to the plant. (Trying to factor how many cat pukes I’ll be cleaning vs. if the fern will survive…)

Happy Trails.

You would think that with the weather getting colder, our lives would slow down. Not so. With more painting, a visit from a long-time friend, leaf clean up, and various other projects we are as busy as ever.

Last Monday we entertained one of Pam’s long-time friends, Sally Eglinton. Sally was a brand-new librarian when Pam was in high school. (Sally’s husband Ken [now deceased] was a shop teacher at the same time.) Pam struck up a friendship with Sally that still endures. I first met Sally when she attended our wedding in 1974.

Since 2020’s face-to-face visit opportunities were COVID-limited, we had not had a chance to see Sally, who lives in Minnesota, and she had not had the opportunity to visit us. This year we set a date and Sally drove to NE Iowa on a beautiful fall day to get a tour of Heart House.

Here is a photo of us on our front porch.

The “Welcome Fall” plaque, seen between Sally and Pam, is a much-appreciated housewarming gift from Sally and will be on display until the snow falls. We really enjoyed having Sally here — catching up with the news/events in our lives since the last time we saw each other.

A limited amount of work did continue on the house. I replaced two rotten pieces of trim with newly painted wood. I put a second coat of red paint on the west wall and scraped and painted some of the vertical white trim, which improved the appearance of the corners and really makes the red walls ‘pop’ with the contrast. With below freezing temperatures arriving late in the week, I drained and removed the hoses, pulled the last of the vines out of the garden, and made a couple passes over the yard with my leaf muncher and riding lawn mower to remove fallen leaves. Pam put away yard art for the season, then cut back a number of plants, including a few hostas and morning glories (saving quite a few seeds from the Grandpa Ott morning glories).

We are preparing for the plumber’s visit, scheduled to start next Tuesday. This project will relocate the laundry room water and drain lines away from an outside wall, where they are prone to freezing unless we plug in their heating tapes.

The upstairs bathroom will also get similar attention, moving water lines away from the south outside wall. We’ve had to aim a milk house heater at these lines where they made the curve from horizontal (in the basement) to the vertical where they ran up the wall to keep them from freezing. Finally, new water supply and drain lines need to be run for the job sink we plan to add to the laundry room. The plumbers have let us know that they will not do any repair on the walls and bathroom floor so after they leave we will have new projects to repair those areas. Photos will be forthcoming in my next post!

So ends another busy week. Items still on the list: detail painting we would like to get done, but that is weather dependent. Looking forward, the big event will be the plumbing project of course, which necessitates relocation of stored boxes out of two different areas. Other projects on the horizon include changing oil and filter in the truck and installing a new drive belt on the John Deere riding mower. I need to check the snow blower and make sure it is in running condition after not using it since last spring.

Pam has begun working on our 2021 holiday/Winter Solstice cards. These hand-made cards will take quite a bit of work to complete. I help where I can, primarily on the computer-printed art work, but Pam handles the hand work required to design and assemble the cards. It is a time-intensive project.

Finally, I have a short clip of Elmo the cat playing around the legs of the kitchen table. The clip is 46 seconds long and has no sound. You can find it on my Cats Videos page or go directly to Elmo at play.

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

Pam’s Penny

I have it in my mind I want to paint the portico over the front porch before all is said and done re: outside painting this year. It is not an easy reach for me on the ten foot ladder, and all of the component parts of the (small) project involve detail painting. Standing by for 50 degree temps.

In many ways it will be a relief to wrap up exterior painting; both Himself and I are very, very tired of exterior painting. There will be interior painting for me over the winter, but my “break” between paint jobs is the cut-and-paste holiday cards.

Happy Trails.

The past week was a mixed bag of painting, yard work, bad weather, cold weather, and a visit to friends in Winona, Minnesota. Here are the specifics.

Starting with the weather — the last week featured some very cold rain, forcing us inside where we worked on smaller projects. We received word that our plumbing remodel is on schedule for the week of the 25th, so we began moving some boxes around and other prep work in anticipation.

Pam continued to sort through the linens and other items I brought home from The Lot. Several loads of laundry were involved, but everything is now worked through. Items that will be going back to The Lot next spring are packed in plastic bins and labeled. That will make the first trip packing much easier and quicker.

Fall temperatures have led to overnight lows in the upper 30 degree range, causing us to fire up the furnace for the first time this fall. Cooler temps have affected our painting and scraping routine. I did manage to get a large chunk of the west and north-west walls scraped and painted red, a big improvement. The blue trim board and white vertical trim still need to be painted, but we are waiting for slightly warmer weather early next week, probably Tuesday. That will (probably) end our painting for this year.

I did not get red paint over the west window as had been done with the other first floor windows; I did get up as far as possible while working from the ground. (Going up and down the ladder just did not appeal to me.) It was unfortunate that our scraping on the west wall revealed quite a bit of wood repair needed, which slowed the process considerably. As mentioned, given the weather and other work to be done, we may not get any more red paint up this year. It’s satisfying, though, that almost all the first floor painting is completed.

In an odd twist, one of our lilacs has been blooming for the past couple weeks.

We can’t figure out why this would be happening but we can enjoy the the fragrance the flowers are putting forth.

I have a photo left over from last week’s art and craft fair excursion to New Hampton. It seems “spinners” are all the rage. Quite a few vendors had numerous variations for sale; here its a photo of a few of them.

On Friday we drove to Winona, Minnesota, to visit John and Margaret Flesner. Pam and Margaret had both been co-workers in Glenwood Springs. Margaret, who still owns the family home in Winona, recently retired in Colorado. She and John extended their fall MN visit while awaiting a painter, who is due to show up next week. This timing worked out perfectly for us to arrange a visit. The family home dates from the 1880s and features an amazing amount of original woodwork inside. The stairwell and double door entry is a feature of real beauty. We had a lively (if short) visit — a couple hours of chatting after a tour of the historic home.

I had met both John and Margaret in Colorado as they both rode motorcycles. (Margaret had a trike.) A “Campus to Campus” ride was organized by a mutual friend, where all of us rode from Glenwood Springs to Steamboat Springs, visiting the local community college campuses in those towns. That “ride” was a good many years ago; John and Margaret have traded in their motorcycles for 3-wheel “tadpole” style recumbent bicycles. Many trails in the Winona area give them ample opportunity to ride. Here is a photo of Margaret on her recumbent trike:

Generally speaking it was a good week over-all, though the rain and cold weather did put a damper on the paint schedule for a few days. The upcoming week promises to be a bit warmer, and we are expecting a Heart House visit from one of Pam’s childhood/Midwest friends. That event will be covered in my next post.

Photo Archive

These photos are from September of 2009 during a trip to Estes Park, Colorado

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

Pam’s Penny

It didn’t make the photo cut last week, but — for those of you following along out there — I did manage to paint the floor of the east/side porch while Himself was in Colorado. Not an insignificant task, since one must keep the outside cats from utilizing that porch while the paint is drying (two coats). This time of year, leaves from the oak trees also have the discouraging tendency to blow down into the wet paint. All in all, something of an exercise in frustration, but done for this year.

All three porches + steps will likely need “paint refreshed” every couple of years (due to shoveling snow off the surfaces, sweeping, floor traffic, deliveries). Yippee. Himself and I are pretty burned out on painting at the moment; it’s excellent to cross paint jobs off the list, for this season anyway.

With the arrival of colder air, it was obviously imperative I tackle winterizing the catio. Time to clean cat boxes, vac, pull out winter bedding and bed heaters, stage a space heater for those evenings below 20 degrees. Cleaning indoor cat boxes will be next, to be done outside before the hoses are pulled for the season.

My bulb order arrived, on time this year (not stuck in pandemic Holland, like last time). I doubled up on daffodils, since the daffy display was so successful in the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden this past spring. After the first freeze, bulb planting will join the yard cleanup tasks.

It’s that time of year. Happy Trails.

It has been an interesting time since my last post. I took a driving trip to Colorado to shut down The Box for the winter and made a [long] side trip to Arizona to visit our good friend Hank Tourtillott. It was a long and tiring journey but satisfying on many levels.

Every fall, in late September or early October, the RV trailer we call The Box has to be shut down for the winter. This year, in addition to draining the fresh water and emptying the holding tanks, Pam suggested I bring home all food items, including all dry foods that would normally not be harmed by cold weather. In addition, I brought home all fabric items including bedding, pillows, and all other linens. The truck was stuffed on the way home!

Until the last day, I was finishing some cutting and chipping that I had set as objectives. The work was cut a bit short by rain and cold weather, as morning temperatures were often in the mid-30 degree range. Still, with the fall colors just past prime, it felt good health-wise for me to be able to get out and enjoy the weather; I completed as much as I had the energy to do.

Here are a couple of fall color photos from this trip:

I did not take many “work” photos but did get a before and after of some of the work I accomplished. In this case, I was cutting dead branches off the bottoms of pine trees on The Lot.

I do this kind of work so it is easier to walk around The Lot, it reduces fire load, and it just makes the place look better. The dead branches will be chipped. I was able to work on several trees in the upper part of The Lot, opening a potential path for the tractor and trailer to use to further clean up the area. I was also able to chip a couple of small piles of brush I had assembled on the lower part of The Lot, giving me the chance to operate all my “Big Boy” toys.

Part of the travel plan was to take 3 days out of the trip and drive to Arizona to visit Hank. It is hard to believe we met him more than 40 years ago when we moved near Nederland, Colorado. Hank (and Ellie, since deceased) were our good neighbors during that time and we have kept in touch ever since.

I did not take photos of my time in Lakeside, Arizona, but did record some strange “on the road” photos during the trip down and back. Here they are with captions.

The trip, in total, was around 3,200 miles. I was tired when I arrived home and the truck needs an oil change. Still, it was a satisfying journey.

I arrived home around dusk last Friday. Pam had a nice meal of roast beef and a fresh apple pie waiting for me. On Saturday I unloaded the truck and we took off to visit a craft and antique fair, as Pam was hoping to find some larger Christmas-themed decorations (none we liked were present). Pam did score an old heart-shaped rug beater – which will become a decoration in the house – and I bought an oil lamp (sans chimney) that caught my eye. It was a good outing.

Sunday was a day of yard work. In my absence the grass had grown and a lot of oak leaves had fallen. The work to mow and clean up the yard yielded two trailers-full of grass, leaves, and cut-back flower plants which I took to the town organic dump area and unloaded. Those loads will be the first of many for the fall leaf season; hopefully I will be able to keep up with yard work a little better with no long trips scheduled in the near future.

Finally, I have a new short video clip on my Video page. The latest covers a cannon shoot at the Ft. Atkinson Rendezvous we recently attended. The end of the clip features Greg and Annie, a duet that performs old fashioned music at events like this. The direct link is Rendezvous 2021.

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

Pam’s Penny

Himself is back in the house. Time to prepare bloody meats for mealtimes once again. The dogs love it when bloody meats are cooking. Me – not so much.

Happy Trails.

This week I concentrated on more scraping and painting. The process has evolved into a routine that I’ll describe below. We also took in a car show and craft fair, mentioned in my last post. Today we attended a Rendezvous. It was another busy week!

The north and north-west corner of the house was the focus for scraping and painting this week. Generally I start working from the ground and reach up to about eye level. After that it is all ladder work. The routine: Scrape and sand an area, followed by a first coat of paint. Scrape and sand another area, then put a second coat on the first area and a first coat on the second. Repeat for all sections. Here are the results for the north wall:

After painting the red I painted the blue trim above the windows and touched up the white trim. Re-doing the trim is going to be a project in itself, probably sometime next spring. With the current first floor painted to this point, the view from Main Street is much more cohesive.

Last Saturday we attended a craft fair and car show in Osage. (Mostly car show.) We examined all the vendor tables and many antiques, then walked through the car show. Here are a few photos of that event.

The outing was a good break for us. So much so that today (Saturday) we drove to another outing, this time to the Ft. Atkinson, Iowa, Rendezvous. Ft. Atkinson is just under an hour’s drive from us. We had seen ads for the event and decided to attend. Here are some photos, with video to follow in a few weeks.

We enjoyed the outing and visit to Ft. Atkinson, new territory for us. I don’t know if we will attend this event every year, but it’s an option. I have video of the cannons firing and of Gary and Annie playing, but those will have to wait for a future post. As I will be on the road again shortly, my next installment may be a few weeks from now.

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

Pam’s Penny

Fall weather is just about perfect for attendance at outdoor events. Today was no exception, although it wasn’t sunny; partly cloudy and a slight breeze was very comfortable. We stood in line for school bus transport from the Ft. Atkinson Community Center to the historic fort. How many years has it been since either of us rode in a school bus? Did those school bus seats get smaller or something in the intervening years?

Today is Dog #2’s birthday — “Sassy Brunette” turned 12. Bruie was actually born in Iowa a dozen years ago. I’m remembering the crazy December car ride from Colorado to Iowa to pick her up from her foster family. Ice covered the interstate after a major storm, and dozens of vehicles were off the road along the route. An adventure.

Happy Trails.

This week saw us completing the painting of the peak on the west wall of the laundry room, a milestone for us. A few other events of note passed as well.

In my last post I included a few photos of Pam on the scaffolding and painting the ginger breading on the west wall of the laundry room. I am pleased to say that painting is now complete. Below are before and after photos of that wall.

We think this project turned out very well and will serve as a model for doing the other ginger breading on the house. Bob the Builder picked up his scaffolding a couple days ago and charged us only $75.00 for the use of it, a very reasonable price.

I am going to include a photo of Heart House taken from its Southeast corner as I think it shows off more of the house painting and siding replacement accomplished this year.

The scraping and painting has taken a toll, however. I am still fighting a very tender back and had to take a day off to recover. Hopefully this is a passing ache and I will be able to get back at it tomorrow. I had started scraping the north side of the house, working from the ground. I was able to prep the wall part-way up around the bay window and got the first coat of paint on that area, but there is much to do yet. I want to get the north side done up to about two boards above the bay window, the same as we did on the east side of the house, before winter sets in.

A major irritant, over the last few days, has been an outbreak of mosquitos. Pam and I have had to use a fogger and Deep Woods Off mosquito repellent in order to do any work outside. The mosquitos are very aggressive and, no matter how much we prepare, they always seem to find an unprotected body part to attack. We suspect the swarms are the result of the massive rains we had a couple weeks ago, as up to now, the mosquitos had not been much of a problem although a few were always present.

Another phenomenon involves our oak trees. This year we had a bumper crop of acorns, not seen in either 2019 or 2020. I was raking up – literally – snow shovels of acorns and putting them in the trailer for disposal at the dump. It was hard to walk in parts of the dog pen and yard because of the loose footing below our feet. And we are not alone; it seems our neighbor’s trees are producing as much as ours. It may be a good year to be a squirrel!

Fall projects have begun. Pam removed several of our sunflower plants as the heads were maturing and dragging the plants down. A few plants remain to provide some color to the garden.

Leaves are beginning to fall at an increasing pace, a portent of a leaf-covered lawn to come. I’ve ordered a new battery for the leaf muncher and performed some maintenance on it as I know I will need its services before long. Just for the record, the old battery was the original in the unit, purchased in 1999 or 2000.

We are heading out to an antique and craft fair this Saturday. (I am writing this on Thursday night.) The show is in Osage, 25 miles or so away from Elma, at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds. My next post should have a few photos of this outing. We are not looking for anything in particular but it will be good to get out and look over the tables and vendor offerings.

Photo Archive

Since fall is in the offing, I decided to include a few “fall” photos. As a reminder, we lived in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, before we moved west. All these photos are “Wisconsin” fall colors.

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

Pam’s Penny

I’m trying to get motivated for another round of exterior painting, all the while battling swarms of mosquitoes. (The temps are cooler, that’s something.) For some reason, after four days of scaffold climbing, my joints are reluctant to engage in continuous trips up-and-down ladders. Go figure.

A second wind would be welcome right about now.

Happy Trails.

I have three topics for today’s post. They are: Painting the east wall of Heart House, working from scaffolding to paint the gingerbread on the west wall of the laundry room, and a summary of my ATV trip over LaSalle Pass during my last Colorado visit. Plenty of phots are included.

We were able to finish quite a bit of the first floor painting on the east side of the house. This required a lot of scraping and wire brushing, much of it from ladders. Pam’s sister, Becky, had done some of the prep work when she was here visiting. Pam and I much appreciate her contribution!

In the same vein, Bob the Builder was able to deliver some scaffolding for our use this past Thursday. Pam wanted some repair work done on the trim of the west wall of the laundry room and follow that up with painting the gingerbread in the wall’s peak. The trim repair was completed and Pam has begun painting her 3-color combo in the peak. As of this writing, the work is still in progress.

Below are three photos of the west wall work-in-progress.

I should have photos of the completed work in my next post. One side note: Pam and I are pretty stiff from climbing, scraping, and painting from ladders and scaffolding. We may need a couple days to recover from our exertions. However, the results are looking pretty good! (Also: Pam is wearing her bug repellent head net while painting. The mosquito population is ginormous after the heavy rains, and swatting at bugs while on scaffolding is not an option.)

My last “big news” item concerns the ATV trip I took over LaSalle Pass the last time I was in Colorado. This route was a pleasant ride with a couple surprises. Let’s take a look.

Along the way I came across an old farmstead, complete with an old barn and a “soddie,” a sod home built into a hillside.

I did not try to enter the home as the roof had already collapsed in the rear and the rest of the place won’t last much longer. Nearby was the barn featured above.

The trip was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Located north of Wilkerson Pass on Highway 285, the trailhead is about 20 miles from The Lot. There are several more trails in the same area that I hope to explore on future trips.

Finally, a personal note. I had my latest check-up at the Mayo Clinic this past week. My blood draw indicated the Eligard treatments are doing their job of reducing my PSA levels, just what the doctor wanted to see. As a result, the doc changed my injection schedule from every 3-months to every 6-months. I will get my next injection in February, 2022, then my last injection in August of that year.

The week was busy and we feel we accomplished a great deal of work. With the days getting cooler and shorter we want to get as much work done as physically possible while the weather is optimal. I need to take one more trip to The Lot to winterize the RV trailer, bring home food that might get damaged by freezing, and just close things down in Colorado for the winter. While I enjoy the fall colors and weather, I am not looking forward to winter.

Photo Archive

Here is an assortment of family photos.

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

Pam’s Penny

OK, folks, I am not a fan of painting 18′ up on scaffolding. Nope. Not a fan.

However, I’m intent on painting one gable with what [I think] will be the final shades of blue ginger breading. I can observe the colors over the winter — in many lighting conditions — and also have an actual example to point to when we [hopefully] find someone to paint the second story exterior next year. This is not a color choice in a location that can easily be changed in the future.

But doesn’t the first floor on the east side of 702 Main look vibrant?

Happy Trails.