Author: admin (Page 5 of 63)

As I type this, snowflakes are falling. We are expecting some accumulation on the grass but not on the streets. I am not ready for winter!

There is not much going on right now. It is the height of “leaf season” and I am cleaning parts of the lawn almost every day. Pam continues to cut back hostas and other plants as they reach the end of their life cycle.

The forecast has several below-freezing nights ahead which will kill off the remaining geraniums and still-green flower plants. I had hoped the fall would be mild and extended, but those hopes are now dashed.

Cold weather preparations are moving ahead. Pam put out a pair of heated water dishes and we set up the outside cat feeding station for the winter. I had been putting out cobs of corn for the last couple weeks and it may be time to set up the suet feeder as well. The large bird feeder is still in storage, however. I won’t be putting it up for a couple weeks yet.

Locally, most of the crops have been harvested. The crops are mostly corn and soybeans, with an oat field here and there. While a few fields remain unpicked, they are getting fewer and fewer. It is kind of sad to see them go as they replace once green vistas with dull brown acres.

The biggest excitement has been the decision to upgrade from the 2004 RAV-4 to something newer. A Kia Soul (used) may be in our future. Re-designed in 2020, we are looking for a 2020 or 2021 with a higher-level trim package that adds heated seats, remote entry, and some other comfort options. Our local used car dealer is checking the auction lots for something suitable and when the right unit comes along we will purchase it.

I had not considered this car before, but Pam was doing some research and found the reviews to be quite positive. Definitely not a luxury car, but much nicer than our RAV-4 and still utilitarian enough to haul groceries, cats, and dogs as the need arises. This is a “developing story” and I will provide updates as a purchase moves forward.

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

Pam’s Penny

Pam does not have a comment this week, other than it is depressing to look out at the falling snow.

Happy trails.

Our oak and maple trees are turning color and the long-range forecast indicates NE Iowa will have below freezing temps about 10 days from now. Fall weather is definitely approaching! Heart House greets the change of seasons with numerous pumpkins from Becky’s garden.

This week’s projects consisted mostly of maintenance tasks. Screen inserts were removed from the doors and the glass inserts were installed. The furnace filter was replaced. An oil and filter change, plus thorough inside cleaning, was the order of the day for the F-150 after my Colorado trip. Pam cut back many of the hostas and other flower bed plants, with more to do. The lawn was mowed, picking up quite a few fallen leaves. A trip to the compost dump was in order to dispose of the grass clippings, leaves, and other yard debris. I made a trip to the Walmart in Decorah to pick up prescription refills and do some miscellaneous shopping. Pam visited the life insurance agent in Cresco to update her policy. I had a health check-up, with a blood draw, here in Elma and met my new primary physician. (My first primary had left the practice.) The week was full of small tasks with both inside and outside work, but nothing particularly newsworthy.

We had an episode where our LG washer would not turn on. Thanks to the internet, I was able to do some basic troubleshooting of the electrical system. After removing the “noise filter” and cleaning the contacts the washer came back to life. (Good thing as I was running low on socks.)

If you wander through my web site you may notice I have begun to remove various Galleries and Videos, a project I had mentioned in an earlier post. Updating the remaining collections will continue as a fall / winter task. The Cats videos page remained unchanged, however.

Speaking of cats, here are a few photos taken this week.

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

Pam’s Penny

Item One — If we’re going to survive the winter with any furniture remaining, it appears I must break down and order one of those monolithic cat entertainment centers. Maybe my brother Craigie would like to build one; he’s said [more than once] if he housed cats he’d build them a climbing structure that would take up an entire wall. An entire wall is a bit much, but five young cats would certainly benefit from a “substantial interactive diversion.”

Item Two — It’s become clear to me that looking for this proposed replacement transport vehicle requires exposure to both an auto repair shop and used car sales facility. That combination is my idea of hell on earth.

Happy Trails.

Did you miss me? I recently returned from my fall trip to The Lot in Colorado. I have some video and several “fall color” photos to share this time around, plus a few “incident tales” to relate. Let’s get started!

I arrived at The Lot in the very late hours of a Tuesday. Wednesday was set-up day as I went to get water from the local hand pump (40 gallons) and drove to Fairplay to get groceries. The weather was sunny and mild.

Thursday and Friday were ATV days. Thursday saw me riding some new trails near Lake George. Part of this area is along the South Platte River.

Unfortunately, this trip was cut a bit short as I picked up a screw in one tire and had to find a repair shop before heading home.

Friday found me near Buena Vista, west of Fairplay, riding a number of trails. Some of these are width-restricted, with fenced openings which do not allow larger vehicles such as Jeeps and other 4×4 vehicles onto the trail.

Very colorful ground cover and some still-blooming flowers highlighted this area.

It was during this trip that I saw my first big animals, a group of juvenile mountain sheep. With their horns just beginning to grow, this group was taking it easy along a trail.

The video below is very shaky as I did not have time to set up the tripod and was shooting at almost full zoom. I hope you can still enjoy the images. Run time is 1:21.

Saturday and Sunday were work days at The Lot. (I really did not want to be on the roads and trails contending with weekend “leaf-peepers.”) I cut a few dead trees and started a new brush pile.

I had run into another problem in that my [recently-purchased used] portable generator turned out to be not powerful enough to run the pump I use to empty The Box’s holding tanks. Luckily, I was able to place the waste water tank lower on the driveway and let gravity empty the holding tanks through an extension of the drain hose. However, that left the problem of loading the waste water tank into the back of the truck. I was able to load the tank using my ATV ramps and the winch on the ATV.

The Elkhorn Ranches Owners Association maintains a waste water dump station a few miles from The Lot, and I have used it many times over the years to dispose of waste water.

The weather began to turn colder and some rain moved in, so for a few days I stayed pretty close to The Box. A few mornings saw frost on the truck and ATV, and one morning I had a few flakes of snow in the air. Surrounding mountain tops displayed a new coat of fresh white snow. The furnace ran frequently enough this trip to alert me to the need to replace the batteries for The Box’s heating system. That will be in the plans for next year.

One of my last ATV rides was near Black Mountain, west and a bit north of Fairplay. I had ridden this trail before and knew it would have some gorgeous fall color views and scenery. The trail did not disappoint!

While heading back to the truck I saw a bull moose. He was some distance away and I was not able to get videos of him, but did get a couple still (not sharp) shots.

On my final Saturday I closed down The Box and drove over the Divide to my old stomping grounds of Rifle, to attend an appreciation dinner (as a retired employee, I had been invited). Put on by the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office (my previous employer), this is an annual event. I enjoyed the evening, and the rib-eye steak, then stayed with a friend in Rifle that night. Sunday I headed back to NE Iowa, a trip of 1,015 miles which took 16.5 hours of drive time.

I am going to close with a few random fall color photos from around The Lot and along trails I rode.

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

Pam’s Penny

Since Himself was away (and out of the way), I had set myself painting tasks during his absence, like touching up the exterior steps. G-a-a-h-h! The Universe had other ideas. First the temps were close to 90 degrees, then the wind blew oak leaves into/onto freshly-painted areas, then it rained, and finally there was a gnat re-hatch (making painting miserable). Finally, just before Himself arrived back in NE Iowa, I was able to accomplish some of the painting I’d planned.

Mostly, my “vacation” was care of kittens, cats, and dogs. Heart House currently resembles a combination of animal nursery and doggie old age home. All the animals establish their own routines and I, as “concierge,” adapt to them.

The RAV also started leaking fluid while I was here solo. Anyone who knows me knows car maintenance/repair is NOT in my wheelhouse. I basically just stopped driving, relying on the local “Elma Locker” store for grocery items as needed. Turns out the thermostat gasket needed replacement. We will begin looking for a different used car shortly – it’s time.

Happy Trails.

We had a couple of notable events this week, but our activity level is declining. Because of that, I will have an announcement later in the post.

The highlight of the week was a visit from our friend Kathy Powers. Visiting Iowa relatives, Kathy made the drive from western Colorado to spend some time in the Midwest. She visited us with an overnight stay, the second time she’s slept at Heart House. This time, the Quilt Room features new windows that actually open and allow fresh air to circulate while guests sleep. A HUGE improvement.

We enjoyed the visit and having company. It was interesting to catch up with Kathy and exchange stories and tales since our last visit in 2021. Much has happened at Heart House and in Colorado since then.

Several posts back I’d mentioned a visit from Sharon and David Stute, grandchildren of Frederick and Gertrude Stute who once live in Heart House. Sharon had asked us to do some follow-up on the cemetery where her grandfather and grandmother were buried, with an eye to doing some maintenance around the head stone. Sharon received permission for us to fill in the settling area around Grandpa Fred’s stone, and we did that work this week.

The cemetery had a few small piles of dirt at one end of the field that could be used for fill. Once I had the new dirt in place, Pam applied the grass seed and watered the area with two containers of water she had brought along. Watering the area for the next couple weeks will be necessary, until the new grass is well established. (Unfortunately, there is no water tap at the cemetery.)

Last night NE Iowa received some very welcome rain which should help the new grass seed and – perhaps – revive some of the extremely dry lawn around the house. More rain is in the forecast for tonight and continuing into tomorrow morning.

And now on to news about the blog and website. I’ve been blogging for almost 15 years, and have tried to do a weekly post during that time. However, I’m no longer as active as I once was, and the number of projects taken on is declining. I’ve decided to cut back on the frequency of blog posts, putting up new content only when something newsworthy happens.

Serving as newsletter, photo gallery, and diary, the blog has been a good way to let friends and family keep up with us over the years. That will continue. For example, I am heading to Colorado in a few days and will have something to say about the trip when I return. There will be one more “bucket lift” weekend to finish the house painting. After that, though, life will be mostly routine — lawn clean-up and snow removal, not exactly scintillating topics.

I will also be removing many of the Galleries that I have created over the years. Many are getting stale with no or few updates since they were created. A few will remain, including the Videos pages and possibly the Heart House gallery (which needs to be updated), but others will be removed from the web site. I will be able to view them from my Mac if and when I want to revisit them.

I will be leaving the Videos pages up for now as they get some hits and I occasionally add new material. Over time, though, I will be removing a few older and less-interesting clips as well.

I’ll post again after my return from my upcoming Colorado trip. I am looking forward to viewing the fall colors and, new this year, attending the annual Appreciation Dinner the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office puts on. This year the dinner coincides with my visit, and I am looking forward to attending the event.

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

Pam’s Penny

Mostly I seem to be entertaining kittens these days; the “Three Amigos” are very time consuming at three months of age. And, sadly, Heart House is not really set up for kitten fostering. <sigh>

Happy Trails.

The past week was rather uneventful for us. Routine jobs were the order of the day after last weekend’s bucket lift work, including some yard maintenance and a few other projects. A few photos are included to show activities around the yard.

Pam transplanted some ferns and began to cut back garden and flower plants. The phlox were cut back, as were the sunflowers and blackberry bushes. All were at the end of their summer cycle of life, made a bit shorter by the lack of rain this year.

The hydrangea bush is in full bloom. The flowers emerge white then turn pink.

I finished work on the porch decks, including replacement of 5 spindles in the end railing. The new wood needs to be painted yet, a task Pam says she will take on while I am gone to Colorado in a few weeks.

The power company guys arrived and removed the orange guards from the power line near the house. We are pleased to see the guards gone.

The grass seed I had spread on some fresh soil has just begun to germinate. Hopefully the new grass will fill in over the next few weeks, eliminating potential muddy spots that the dogs would walk through, bringing mud into the house.

Other chores were mundane. I cleaned up my work bench, went to Mason City for a haircut, did grocery shopping, and stopped by the Elma library to get copies of a couple pages from a book on Elma’s history.

One afternoon I took out the pressure washer and cleaned the truck then turned my attention to blasting a few places on the garage where birds had managed to land some droppings. One thing about the red paint: It shows off bird poop rather well. A cleaning of the doors and walls, particularly on the alley side, was in order.

Mostly we did routine tasks and recovered from the long work days of last weekend. Going forward, the next couple weeks will be similar, nothing exciting on the agenda. Lawn maintenance will pick up as more leaves begin to fall and other plants will be cut back in preparation for winter. We will have one more bucket lift weekend but that is not on the schedule yet.

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

Pam’s Penny

At least the temps are cooler. Kittens are growing fast, and have tons of energy at three months of age.

Happy trails.

This past weekend was busy; we rented a bucket lift. Painting was on the agenda, and we worked on the east side of the house. Photos below will show our activity.

We began with the area over the east porch. Pam and I both worked on this section; I did the broad areas and Pam did the detail work below the power line on the south ends of the boards.

Most of my work was done outside the lift and standing on the porch roof. This proved to be hard on the backs of the legs due to the angle of the roof.

In the next photo I have completed scraping the surfaces and am beginning to paint under the lips of the siding boards. The bottom painted board and a short section to the right of the photo show the new boards that replaced broken siding.

Pam took her turn by doing the detail painting required to finish the wall.

The lift we rented this time (a NiftyLift TM34T) was a bit smaller than the one used previously. This worked to our advantage as I could move it with the ATV instead of having to use the truck. This made positioning the lift much easier.

The area over the east porch went pretty well but took more time than we had expected. The same could be said about the area over the front porch, particularly the NE corner window of the bedroom and under the gutters.

The areas we worked were over porch roofs, and I decided to use the shop vac to pick up loose paint chips on both porches. Here I am with the shop vac in the bucket lift, cleaning the NE porch roof.

After two long days of scraping, vacuuming, and painting, the house looks like this:

We ran out of time to make it to the north side of the second floor – so – another bucket lift weekend may take place later this fall. One reason the project took longer than anticipated was the inclusion of doing white paint around the windows over the front porch. The additional scraping and painting of this trim, which was really needed, made for a long day of east side work.

I’m very pleased with the progress made, particularly over the east porch. The siding repairs, coupled with the new paint job, really improves the overall appearance of the house. Pam will get a work order started with the power company to come and remove the orange guards that were placed over the power line (installed in June).

Another project was undertaken as well. A couple years back I had replaced porch decking on the front (north) and side (east) porches, but I had not gone far enough and both decks still needed work. Now a work-in-progress, new tongue-and-groove wood was added to both decks. This photo shows the front porch with the spindle sections, which need repair as well, removed to fit the replacement boards.

Now that cooler weather has arrived we can begin a few more outside projects. Undertaken, but not shown, is a project to fill in areas where truck tires from the painters and such made depressions in the lawn. Several bags of dirt were spread in these areas and grass seed put down. I will have to see if we can get the grass to grow with the drought conditions NE Iowa is experiencing. Frequent watering will be required.

And a short note about my blog. A problem with posting videos in the blog is they can be difficult to find if one wishes to view them again. I’ve added several Antique Power and Frito’s Kittens videos to their respective Videos pages, as much for my own organization as well as providing a spot for anyone to view them again. (Frito’s kittens are part of the Cats page.)

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

Pam’s Penny

I was so hoping the house painting would be DONE this weekend, four l-o-n-g painting summers into renovation. I guess it wasn’t a realistic expectation. Suffice to say both Himself and Myself are somewhat comfortable being in (and, in his case, also out) of the bucket lift on roof areas. (Comfortable once a person contorts body parts to both enter and leave the bucket itself, which is a gymnastic-quality endeavor.)

Frito, the mom cat in the catio, was successfully spayed and now has her freedom. She chooses to stay in our yard and make the catio her home base. Frito will be a fierce mouser around the house foundation, but also will be more aggressive stalking squirrels and birds over the winter than I will like.

How can it almost be time to start cutting back dead plants? The Grandpa Ott morning glory seed “harvest” is going well [prior to stripping those vines from the climbing structure]. Sunflowers appear ready to deadhead. My Indian corn is pathetic, not sure there are useable cobs of any size after this dry summer.

Happy Trails.

This post contains another “kitten” video, as Pam let Frito’s kittens out of the condo for the first time. Yard work included raking up more acorns. We took a couple of road trips to check out areas in south-east Minnesota. The Ford 8N tractor is running and moving under its own power. New temperature records were set, and more heat is on the way. A few medical updates will round out this week’s news.

Frito’s kittens are growing rapidly and needed more space to run. Pam decided to let them roam in the parlour where she can keep an eye on them. Run time is 2:55.

The kittens had a vet appointment this week for a wellness check and received their first round of shots. They are all healthy and very active! If anyone is looking for a house cat, these three are cuties.

Some yard work was done. Pam cut down spent hollyhock stems and weeded north flower beds. I raked more acorns and mowed the lawn, picking up some of the oak leaves that are beginning to fall. Projections for fall color were published, and due to lack of moisture this year, the fall colors may be pretty drab. Leaves are tending to just turn brown and drop. We are already seeing this happen. Below is a shot of the dump trailer with the latest batch of acorns mixed in with other yard debris.

Ford 8N update– In my last post I mentioned I wanted to get the tractor running and off the trailer. I was able to do this and the 8N is now parked behind the catio and covered with a tarp. It is not running well, mostly due to old and crappy gas, and I will occasionally work to get it running better.

Medical updates. Pam had a follow-up appointment to check the healing process of her forehead incision. The healing is doing very well and any scarring will be virtually unnoticeable when healing is completed. The discoloration around her eye is slowly subsiding, so recovery is well advanced.

The results of my last blood work at the Mayo Clinic were posted to my account and look good. PSA level remains very low and my testosterone levels are beginning to recover. As long as this trend continues I will be in good shape.

We took a couple road trips to check out areas in Minnesota; Pam is investigating a potential future home on water or with a water view. At the moment we’re just checking on a few properties that sound interesting. The results so far have been a mixed bag.

For example, the first place we looked at (with no water views) was an old commercial building. Not for us, and we cannot believe some of the prices people are asking for properties in remote locations. At $80k, this place was listed for quite a bit more than we paid for Heart House and really is a dump.

Our second trip was more enjoyable, as we found the small town of Lanesboro. Located in the Root River Valley, this artsy town is quite attractive and featured this view of a falls on the river.

Unfortunately, we won’t be taking any drives the next few days. Weather over the Labor Day Weekend is projected to be among the hottest of the summer, with new records expected to be set in the four major cities around us: Rochester, Mason City, Albert Lea, and Austin. Temps are projected to be near or at 100 degrees F. We will be working on inside projects, for sure. Our lawn is burning out and is very brown and dry, particularly in places that get little or no shade.

I am going to close with a couple random photos of Stirling and Reese. Their antics, and those of the other cats and dogs, keep us “entertained.”

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

Pam’s Penny

My sister asked me would I be sad to see summer leave and the flowers die. Well, the flowers are already dying, due to the heat. The watering schedule I have adopted concentrates on still-blooming flowers, as well as deep moisture for trees and shrubs we’ve spent good money on these last four years. The poor hollyhocks and Grandpa Ott morning glories are already in the seed production stage, with the random flower blooming now and again. Local weather reports NE Iowa is experiencing the driest summer in 50 years. We sure are.

Kittens are a LOT of work. Yes cute, but full of energy and curiosity. I think these three, in cahoots with Elmo and the Terrible Two, could deconstruct Heart House in a matter of days.

Happy Trails.

Last week Heart House was visited by Pam’s younger brother Craig, and his wife Dianne. Heat indexes set new records, limiting our outdoor activities. Frito’s kittens are growing more active in their “cat condo.” Details below!

The highlight of the week was a visit from Pam’s brother Craig and his wife Dianne. Craig had helped us with the move from Colorado back in 2020 but had not been here since. Much has changed since then. Dianne hadn’t been here before so she received a lengthy tour of the house and grounds before we all sat down at the table and caught up with news and family activities. It was a good few hour visit.

From here, Craig and Dianne headed down to Greene to visit Becky and see her house for the first time. Becky reported that visit also went well and much talking and visiting was the order of the day.

Two photos to share. The first is Pam and Craig, brother and sister. The second is the four of us standing near the couple’s Mini Winnie camper.

The other news of the week was the heat. Several all-time records were set and it was the hottest week of the year. Activities were limited to inside tasks and projects. I learned how to add “chapters” to my YouTube videos and experimented with the code that plays videos in my posts. It turns out the same code can be put in my “regular” pages, such as the cat video page, and the videos will play in my Videos that way. This saves me from having to upload a copy of the video to my web server and makes creating “video play” pages much easier and faster. This is under-the-hood stuff but expanded my job skills when it comes to adding video to web pages. There is always something new to learn.

Frito’s kittens, AJ, Snickers, and Reese, are growing and playing more inside their cat condo. I made the 4:25 video showing them climbing, wrestling, and moving around to show their status as of this August.

In other news, Pam had her stitches removed at the Elma Clinic. That process seemed to go well; Pam still has a “shiner” around her eye and a droopy eyelid as a result of the surgery. Hopefully both will clear up in the next few weeks.

I picked up a small used generator (1,600 watt) to take to The Lot, hoping it will power the Honey Wagon kit I use to empty the trailer’s holding tanks. Last fall I brought the big (5,500 watt) generator home as a backup in case of a storm knocking out our power. Photo is from front page of the Owner’s Manual.

Acorns continue to fall from our trees, and I am in the process – once again – of raking the lawn to pick them up and get them to the dump trailer. There appears to be more acorns still in their “caps” and smaller in size this time around. Walking the yard can give one an uncomfortable feeling of not having sure footing until the acorns are removed.

A bit of work was done on the Ford 8N tractor, replacing the broken ballast resistor in the ignition circuit and installing a new carburetor. I hope to get the tractor running later today.

The F-150 and the RAV-4 both received oil and filter changes. Given the relatively few miles we put on them – about 5K last year on the F-150, for example – the next required change should be several months away.

That about wraps it up for this post. The upcoming week has a few things scheduled, including taking the kittens to the vet for their first wellness checks and shots, and Pam’s follow-up appointment at the clinic to make sure the facial incision is healing correctly. I will report on those activities in my next post.

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

Pam’s Penny

1948 was a freakin’ hot summer, setting all kinds of local record high temps. This past week towns and cities in NE Iowa and SE Minnesota broke most of the records set in 1948. Yippee. Temps near 100 and humidity in the 80% range felt like the tropics. (I am not a fan of the tropics.) For the first time I can remember, a ticker ran during the news on the TV screen identifying school hours shortened due to intense heat. Hopefully our “climate change moment” for the month has passed.

Happy Trails.

Some weeks are routine, even mundane. This past week was mostly one of those weeks. I have a few photos taken around the yard and of the equipment trailer. Nothing exciting there.

But for medical drama, I’ll begin with Pam’s surgery to remove a spot of skin cancer from her forehead. Done at the Gunderson Clinic in Onalaska (north of La Crosse) the 4 hour procedure went according to plan. Pam reports the pain can be handled with Tylenol and is not bad. However, the area above and below the left eye has turned purple. Pam won’t be making public appearances for a while.

Her 24 +/- stitches, mostly hidden in this photo under the Band-Aids, will be removed by the clinic in town next Wednesday. It’s anticipated it will take a couple weeks for the bruising to subside.

Other events were not nearly as interesting. For example, I had the fender brace on the equipment trailer welded and installed a new tail light. (This was the brace that broke on the return trip from Colorado earlier in the month.) The other light was replaced at the same time so both sides match.

I did some work on the Ford 8N tractor, but need parts to go any further. A ballast resistor, part of the ignition circuit, had died and needs to be replaced. After jumping around the broken part the tractor started but ran for only a minute or so.

Further investigation revealed carburetor problems. The needle and seat that allows fuel to enter the carb was continually stuck shut. A disassembly and cleaning did not help, so a repair kit will be in order. At least I know the tractor will start and run.

In anticipation of boiling hot temps predicted for the coming week, Pam decided to move Frito’s kittens into the house from the catio. Below, the brown kitten is Reese, and the other is Snickers. The single kitten is AJ, short for Almond Joy.

Acorn season has begun in the 100 year old oaks growing between the house and garage. It seems as if thousands of nuts, and their caps, are falling from our oak trees. Last year we saved one small bag of acorns as squirrel food, and it was well received by our local crew. This year we decided to expand the amount we harvested to extend the winter squirrel feeding season.

Acorns are still falling; we can hear them “pinging” off the house and garage as we do outside tasks, but the bulk seem to have hit the ground. The nuts and caps make walking around the lawn something of a challenge as they roll underneath our feet. Luckily, the riding lawn mower, with bagger, picks up most of the caps and some of the nuts, but it does leave a lot of nuts behind that need to be raked up and loaded into the dump trailer. This will be an ongoing task for the next several weeks.

Around the yard, sunflowers are beginning to bloom. The indian corn is tasseling out, the hollyhocks are generating seeds, and geraniums on the east side of the front porch are adding color to the yard. It’s high summer.

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

Pam’s Penny

It was a long drive (through parts of three states) to have my Mohs surgery on the facial lesion. What a lot of drama for a procedure that should be in the routine category. I asked my dermatology surgeon what is the deal with Mohs surgery; he said it’s an add-on specialty to the standard physician learning package. It’s been difficult for both local clinics (NE Iowa) and larger clinics (Gundersen Clinic) to hire personnel trained in the Mohs procedure. Fewer doctors trained, fewer clinics providing surgical appointment times.

My black eye is truly the biggest issue of the entire surgical event. Ugh. At least I enjoyed a large blackberry shake from Culver’s before the long drive home.

Happy Trails.

Here is a short post that contains two more videos and additional miscellaneous photos from my recent trip to our lot in Colorado.

One evening bad weather rolled in and delivered a hail storm. Here is what it sounded like and the aftermath as seen the following morning. Run time: 1:58.

The ground was white with hail, but all melted off during the day adding moisture to the grass and trees. The date was August 6th, 2023.

Pam had asked me to do a “lot walk-around” video as she has not been to the lot in the last few years, and I had been clearing dead trees and brush in this interval. The video is fairly long at 18:58 but does cover quite a bit of ground. Shot over two days, there is some overlap and different lighting – some evening, some daylight. The clip is as much for historical purposes as anything so we can remember all the effort and time we have put into this parcel since we bought The Lot in September of 2012.

The following photos all fall into the “miscellaneous” category.

This first photo shows some damage to my equipment trailer due to a very rough road leading from The Lot. I strapped the fender to the tractor and continued home to Iowa. The local repair shop will re-weld the broken fender bracket and replacement tail lights are on order.

This photo shows the location of buildings at the top of Boreas Pass in its heyday. Find the Log Section House near the top of the map and note a small building just to the right. Around this cabin is were Mountain Lorrie (Pam’s mother, Lorraine) requested her ashes to be dispersed after a trip to the pass with us in the late ’70s.

One can sometimes see strange things along a trail, including this bus that was partially buried and converted into a hunting (?) camp.

Eastern Colorado appears to be expanding the variety of crops being grown. These sunflowers along I-76 added a golden cast to the landscape.

I am including a photo for Craig who asked about the ATV fitting in the truck.

And, to round out this post, a couple photos of me along the trails. All were on National Forest lands and were pretty well marked. I used my Avenza map application, on my phone, to track my location along the way.

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