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The main news this week involves painting. Gable painting began on Tuesday and the results are looking terrific! Other activity saw the power company working on the Main Street/north side, burying cables. (This necessitated digging holes in the median.) More flowers are in bloom and I have a short clip of neighborhood cat Autumn Calico rolling around on the sidewalk. A quick medical update will round out the narrative. Onward!

Both Pam and I took a lot of photos of the painting work in progress. Here are a few work-in-progress shots and I will include finished results below.

Last week I had included a photo of the power company putting guards around the power line that leads to the house. This photo below shows why guards were a good idea. The painter is in a bucket between the house and power line.

Above is over the east porch. The west side was somewhat more open.

The north and south sides had trees to contend with but the crew managed to get positioned OK. (Two guys, Will and Troy, each with a boom lift, did the work.)

Here are a few photos of the finished work.

As you can see, the painters were able to fulfill Pam’s request to paint the east gable under the electrical wire. We are very pleased we won’t have to try to negotiate rental bucket lift equipment under that wire. The house is looking better than ever. Now we just need to repair remaining [mint green] broken siding sections, and finish the second floor red painting.

The Tower: One of the painters will do some photography of the tower to establish a scope of work. A wooden decorative “skirt,” about half-way up, could possibly be removed, depending on what is underneath it. Photos may confirm it was built over the cedar shakes which could stay in place while permitting the removal of the “skirt” with no ill effects.

The top “cap” of the tower is problematic. It looks to have quite a bit of rot – can it be painted? Does it need complete replacement? Replacement would be more than I can personally do. Whatever we decide, it may just be “lipstick on a pig.” Our resources are not endless.

Moving onto other topics…

One of the outside cats, mentioned before, is Autumn Calico. Here is a – shaky – 57 second video of her grooming and rolling around on the sidewalk.

As if having two lift trucks in the yard was not enough excitement, the power company, Alliant Energy, dug a couple holes in our Main Street median. Power lines are going underground and junction boxes need to be installed on small pedestals at a few points. The following photos show one hole (of two in our median) and the plastic pipes that will eventually house the power cables.

At least the workers backfilled the holes when they were done and did a good job raking and leveling the area. We will throw some grass seed down and see if we get some green to come back yet this summer.

Around the yard, hostas are beginning to bloom as are daylilies. Regular lilies and hollyhocks are continuing to show their colors so we have a pretty good show going right now.

Finally, a medical note. I went to the dentist for impressions that will result in a casting for my replacement front tooth. The new tooth should be ready for fitting in a couple weeks. I broke it last September and getting the implant has been a long process, now nearing an end.

The Civil War Reenactment we had planned to attend last weekend did get rained out, but we really needed the rain and did not mind staying inside to read and work on quiet projects. Elmo, Bru, and Blondie had a quiet afternoon napping in the laundry room. (JoJo was elsewhere in the house.)

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

Pam’s Penny

Oh, Heart House. Look under the roof overhang below and see wood that hasn’t seen paint in decades (the dirty looking bit at the bottom of the photo). No wonder the house has looked so bedraggled. When I question why we took on this exterior paint “experience” I’ll remember this photo.

The paint crew was very thorough when cleaning the wood trim in the gables prior to painting, wood trim I refer to as the “lace” of the gables. Spindles and decorative circles fell off the lace left and right during paint prep. One wonders how they stayed up under the eaves all these decades? In the end, the lace is still attractive without these”artifacts” but it’s less intricate than it was originally. (The only piece of lace with most of the spindles intact is in the south gable, an area protected by the giant oak trees.)

Happy Trails.

A number of small items and news updates take up the blog post this week. Some involve the house, others the yard, and a few involve pets. A couple medical updates round out the topics. Read on!

The painter, who is to do the gables, is due on Monday. Per our agreement, I fired up the pressure washer and tried to clean the eaves and gables by using our 12-foot ladder. I did notice some dirt coming down and some loose paint was blasted off. I hope it was enough to satisfy the painting crew.

Another pre-painting task was to get the power company to come out and put a few guards over the powerline where it connects to the house. These guards are to prevent damage to both the painters and lines.

Out in the yard, a few new flowers came into bloom. Two of the hollyhocks have opened blossoms. One is a traditional pale yellow, but the other is a crimson with “feathered” edges to the flower. Both are very attractive.

Unfortunately, lack of rain is turning many parts of the lawn brown. According to the local weather channel, we are short almost 3.75 inches of rain for the month and it shows.

Moving to pets, the “Terrible Two” (Stirling and Vienna) continue to claw into things, frustrating Pam in her attempts to keep posters and pictures on the walls as decorative elements. They’ve even been trying to claw on the soft pine of the wood table pedestal in the library.

Oldest dog, Blondie, is sleeping more and more. I’m not sure how long she has left with us, but seems to be eating OK even though she doesn’t move with much fluidity anymore. Blondie will be 15 years old next month.

I mentioned last time that Pam had a biopsy taken of a lesion on her forehead. The results confirmed it is a spot of basal cell carcinoma. Pam is taking the steps to get an appointment to have the lesion removed; the operation will take place later this year, most likely in later summer/fall.

I have a couple weeks of physical therapy left. Both my therapists indicate I have come a long way and am improving steadily. While still under 100%, I am working the shoulder more and can note my range of motion and ability to lift small weights above my head is improving. Full recovery, according to my doctor, will take several more months.

I’ve also been cleared to move ahead with my tooth implant. The oral surgeon that did the work has declared, in an appointment last Thursday, that the implant post is fully healed in and ready for the next step of building a new tooth on it. The focus now shifts back to my local dentist who will do the work. That is good news.

I never thought I would have to worry about air quality in Iowa, but here we are, under advisories and warnings for quite a few days this month. The first were related to smoke coming out of Canada, but the recent ones have been for ozone. Currently we are in “Level 3” which is “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” and only just below just plain “Unhealthy.” Quite a large area of the midwest is affected. Not much can be done except hope for a weather pattern change that will disperse the ozone and get the air back to safer levels.

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

Pam’s Penny

We envisioned our Iowa summer activities as including short trips to numerous local events. Then COVID arrived, and lingered for basically two years. This summer I think we can anticipate more activity. We’ve already been to a craft fair in West Union and the River Days festival in Greene. Plans for this weekend may get rained out; we had planned to attend a Civil War reenactment in Nashua but thunderstorms in the forecast may force a cancellation.

Himself mentioned Blondie above, and her age; the other two dogs are 12 and 13 (not youngsters either). During COVID lockdown, being home [pretty much] all the time meant the dogs became very comfortable with me as on-demand door opener. Now, retraining the dogs to be comfortable secured in the laundry room for up to five hours while we attend local events — that activity is ongoing.

Happy Trails.

Last week saw little in the way of outside project work, due to smoke haze from wildfires in Canada. Air quality warnings were the norm, with some alerts in the “Unhealthy” category and much time at the “Sensitive” level. Pam and I passed the days with routine yard work, getting to know a couple outside cats, and “puttering.” Saturday morning we visited Becky at her home in Greene and watched the local River Days parade.

I am going to start with a photo of the equipment trailer that I was working on in my last post. I did get both sets of wheels done and fenders as well. Pam took this photo of me at work. Note the rusty wheel and taped-up light and license plate, preparations for painting to come.

Wheels received a coat of white paint, hubs received a coat of black, and mounting hardware and fenders were done in red. Main deck is still to be done using a combination of white and red.

One development concerns a couple neighborhood outside cats that have been appearing with more regularity at our house. Autumn Calico and Cheeto are seen more and more frequently, with Autumn using the catio ramp and shelter from time to time.

While Autumn seems to be in good physical health, the same cannot be said for Cheeto. He is a skinny little thing and appears to be having problems with diarrhea. Pam is drawing on her rescue background to feed him probiotics with targeted diarrhea meds in hopes of helping improve Cheeto’s health.

Both animals are friendly and can be petted with no problems; they are obviously used to people. Are they cats let out by neighbors, or were they dumped? We don’t know. If they stay around Heart House they may end up in the catio over the winter. Autumn is already comfortable using the ramp and entering the catio building for periods of time, but Cheeto has not yet been so bold. We have a summer to work out the dynamics.

Staying with a cat theme, here is [indoor cat] Elmo at rest one day. That cat can relax in a number of unconventional poses.

The trip to Greene to visit Becky and take in Green’s local parade went well. The dogs seemed to be OK (sequestered in the laundry room) for the hours we were gone, and we enjoyed the drive through fertile Iowa cornfields. Here’s a photo of Pam and Becky waiting for the parade to begin. Our chairs were in the shade and a light breeze blew. Quite comfortable.

We are very impressed with the work Becky has put into her place her first year in residence. Becky’s small garden is doing well, growing a wide variety of plants, and the yard looks great. The work of planting, putting up arbors, and purchasing hanging plants has resulted in a good-looking place. (The photo does not include parts of the front walk and area at the end of the garage which have received attention and resources as well.)

There is (always) some medical news to relate. Pam has had a lesion on her forehead since just before our move to Iowa, and [finally] she was able to schedule a dermatologist appointment. During the consult, a biopsy was taken. The official results are not yet in, but basal cell carcinoma is strongly suspected. (This is the most common form of skin cancer in the U.S.) More on this as the story line develops.

So that was our week, routine tasks mixed in with a few trips and projects. Summer heat is building. Summer Solstice is this coming week.

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

Pam’s Penny

My sister is in the process of creating a charming “grandma house” in Greene. Inside, the decor is as interesting and detailed as the exterior landscaping. She has worked s-o-o hard, solo, to achieve results. Very impressive. And more to come!

Silly me. I though, with Cloudy Day’s exit to the Rainbow Bridge in April, the catio would be essentially closed down going forward. As soon as Cloudy’s presence was no longer an obstacle, the neighborhood cats moved in. First Autumn Calico, then Cheeto – next, maybe Frito and Spook and Muffin Head…don’tcha just love neighborhoods?

Happy Trails.

A routine week here at Heart House, folks. Some new flowers bloomed, Mom Rabbit appeared with her bunnies, and a few projects received attention. A few items to discuss this week.

The baby rabbits have left their nest and we have seen them with their mother, running around the north lawn. We accounted for three of the 4 (?) newborns Pam had originally seen under the ferns. Hopefully the young will survive the neighborhood cats and traffic on the roads. Below is a photo of the mom rabbit lounging beneath one of our lilac bushes.

A few new blossoms appeared this last week, including the bridal wreath, lily, and a gorgeous dark-red peony.

The standard peony plants also bloomed, adding color to the front yard.

Good to see the various colors as they appear around the house. Day lilies and hollyhocks will open in a few weeks and they look to have a lot of flower buds this year. Looking forward to that.

A couple projects moved ahead this week. Pam continues to work in the guest bedroom, sorting and arranging the stuff we have stored on the wire racks. She has consolidated and emptied quite a few boxes and put like or related items in some new decorative boxes she bought online. The room is finally clearing out.

I began working on cleaning up the equipment trailer I bought last fall. New paint is on the agenda, but the process is time consuming. Below are the before and after photos of the work started on the fenders and wheels. (The “after” photo is as far as I got before quitting for the day on Friday.)

I finished my twice-a-week physical therapy and will now be on a once-a-week schedule. The shoulder is improving but has a way to go, not unexpected, but still a limiting factor in what I tasks I can take on.

The cats provided some comic relief this week as cardboard boxes provided some entertainment. Here are Elmo and Stirling examining the latest delivery.

Hooray! We heard from the painter – he is scheduled to be here on June 26 to begin painting the gables. We are really looking forward to having that work done. But I never heard back from the roofer about a revised quote to do the tower, so I’m betting that won’t happen this year. A “Plan B” may be needed. We may personally need to do some repair on the tower’s trim from the bucket lift. There are no leaks or other problems – the work is cosmetic in nature – it would be the final element to address on the exterior project.

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

Pam’s Penny

What’s behind the curtain?

Some of you (Becky, Craig, Carol) may remember when the storage room had three five-foot-high piles of boxes w/ walkways. That second floor room was where most everything was stored immediately after the relocation from Colorado. Over the last 3+ years, items from that room have been distributed throughout the house as decor, but also some to under-eave storage (holiday), basement, and above garage storage. When I look at those two rolling storage units of consolidated storage, plus the “tower of totes,” I finally see an end to that initial distribution.

I probably should have purged way more than I did, but I did meet my decorating goal of “everything out of boxes that can be accommodated.” How many of you could find space for 1930’s era hockey skates or a 1950’s bowling ball with bag?

Happy Trails.

It was a mostly quiet week. On Friday we did make an outing to an arts and crafts show. Pam discovered baby rabbits under some fern plants. A columbine plant put forth a show of color. These topics and photos are below.

Pam, her sister Becky, and I attended an arts and crafts show in West Union, Iowa, on Friday. This was our first visit to this show and we didn’t quite know what to expect. We found displays in [fairground] buildings as well as outside displays, and live music was playing through the event. The venue was quite well organized.

Both Pam and Becky found and purchased a few small items. Pam found a couple of small metal hearts on rods which can be pushed into the ground (destined for the garden). Becky found at least one basket from a vendor and a couple cat-themed markers at the same metal crafts shop where Pam purchased the heart markers.

There was not much in the way of antiques, but we did find a vendor who does architectural salvage, along with dealing in antiques, and picked up his card. He has baseboards and corbels in his warehouse, which is located west of Waterloo. As these items may be of interest in our renovation activities, his shop sounds like it would make an interesting day trip destination in the near future.

Here are a few photos I took during the outing.

Overcast skies kept the humid temperatures to a bearable limit and we managed to walk through the event. It was good to connect with Becky again as well. The show was definitely geared more to arts and crafts but there were a few antique dealers mixed in — something for everyone.

There are a few items of note from around the house. Pam was startled to discover four baby rabbits under one of the fern plants. She was trying to determine why the ferns were not flourishing and found this nest:

Since all of our outside cats have passed on, this means there’s no feline patrolling the premises. It appears the rabbits feel safe and under cover in the fern bed now. It will be interesting if these babies survive into adolescence.

The bridal wreath is beginning to flower; photo will be in the next post. It turns out this species has male and female plants and only the female plants bloom. We have three plants and two of them are male. The female is located between the two males and the three form a nice symmetrical arrangement.

The Grandpa Ott morning glories are beginning to twine up around their metal grid support structure and are looking very healthy. Same with the wisteria plant; it’s beginning to twist around the support frame. Two of the hollyhock plants, one existing and one new this year, are forming flower buds. The goal is to have something flowering most of the season and yard plantings are getting closer to that goal.

The pink columbine burst out into a bouquet of color this week. (The blue variety did not make it this winter.)

The upstairs bath received a few minor tweaks with the addition of towel racks and re-installation of a couple shelves. Another towel rack, to be mounted where a person can reach it from the shower, is on order, as is a new small flip-top garbage can (cat proof!) to be placed near the sink. Gradually the room is becoming more and more convenient and finished.

The warmer weather kind of limits our outside activities. Warm inside temps created another side issue: our internet router, at least the wireless service of it, appeared to be overheating. Located in the upstairs Media Room, the router receives very little cool air from the A/C system. We stream our TVs over the wireless network and were getting long “buffering” pauses and long delays in switching channels. I zip-tied a small computer cooling fan to the side of the router and have not had problems since, even though it’s been even warmer the last few days. (The unit does have ventilation holes in the sides and top but has no internal fan.) Seems like there is always something technological to cause additional aggravation.

This time of year is slow for us, given my still-recuperating shoulder and the increase in heat and humidity. It may be time to rent a lift and get some more painting done, but I’ll have to see how much actual repair of broken siding and trim I can manage. These tasks may have to wait until cooler weather in the fall, but I would like to see some progress being made on getting the remaining side of the house painted.

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

Pam’s Penny

The tulip and daffodil bed is now the hosta bed, and have these plants ever “exploded” this spring. Almost every one of them was subdivided last year to provide plant material for Sister Becky’s yard. Most of these hostas will probably need to be subdivided again this year. I chuckle when I remember how I tried and tried to get hostas established when we lived in Colorado, without a single success. In NE Iowa, they multiply like dandelions.

Discovering baby rabbits in a ground burrow is a new experience for me. (I can only say thank goodness the startling movement at ground level was not reptilian.)

Happy Trails.

This week includes a potpourri of news. Major progress was made in the upstairs bath, the yard is looking good, and a few miscellaneous projects received attention. Photos of all are in the narrative below.

The upstairs bath is the major source of news this week. A bit more painting was done, but the big news was the finishing of the electrical circuits. The bath now has a functioning vent fan, light above the sink, and working outlets. While finishing touches are still needed, the bath is now fully functional.

I am VERY pleased to have the bath working. I really appreciate the convenience of a shower on the upper floor. The bath was one of the projects we had discussed [almost four] years ago when we first looked at the place, and is the last of the major improvements we plan for the interior of Heart House.

Moving outside, the yard is looking good. Pam put a flat of pansies in the front flower bed. Our butterfly bush is in full bloom. The south side yard, between the house and garage, is at full spring green.

Staying with the ‘yard’ theme, here are a couple photos of the house decked out in Memorial Day bunting.

I have a couple miscellaneous photos. First, while the electricians were here Pam had them put a decorative disc under the kitchen light fixture. It was originally a pie crust cutter. As you can see, it features a heart motif, just what Heart House needs!

Second, here is a photo Pam took of me while I was using my “flame thrower,” a weed and grass torch I use to kill weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk.

Pam can now continue putting the upstairs guest bedroom back in order. That room served as a storage and staging area during the bathroom work; it became dirty and disorganized. Pam assembled dowels and curtains to serve as coverings for the steel storage racks in the room and moved them to the back wall. This room needs a lot of cleaning and organizing yet. Pam has plans to go through existing containers on the storage racks and “edit” what’s being kept.

And finally, our daughter Felicity sings with a Sweet Adeline group called Northwest Harmony, and they recently had a competition in the state of Washington. Below is a photo of Felicity in stage makeup, plus another photo of her choir on stage at the competition. (Felicity is in the back row, 3rd from left, in the group photo.) Photographer(s) are unknown. The chorus placed 6th in a field of 19 during the first regional competition since COVID.

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

Pam’s Penny

I’m busy trying to teach old dogs – and young cats – new tricks.

Happy Trails.

As spring progresses, the lilacs and lily of the valley are popping open. The carpenter finished his sheetrock work in the bathroom and the plumbers piped in the clawfoot tub and sink. I have a lot of photos for this post, so let’s get started.

I’m going to begin with the yard updates mentioned above. As I look out the Media Room’s north bay window, this is what I see below me.

Centered is the honey locust tree with its gold spring foliage. It is flanked on both sides by different colors of lilacs. The effect is both visual and sensory and I enjoy both aspects.

Recently opened, lily of the valley bloom for a short time every spring. (These were on the property when we bought it.) Pam tells me they have a light fragrance, but I have not bent low enough to check.

Last year we planted an oak tree that was sprouting from an acorn. It didn’t do very well, but this year it seems to have found its footing. (Maybe because the baby oak was covered for the winter and deer didn’t chew it to the ground.)

One more trip to the greenhouse resulted in a couple more hollyhock plants and a flat of pansies. That should about do it for this season. The hollyhocks may not flower this year, but I hope they settle in and bloom next year.

The main news of the week revolved around the continuing upstairs bathroom work. Most of the finish work was done by service people, but I did some too, such as sanding the last drywall joints, and painting. Pam found a pair of short drapes to temporarily hang over the main window, and I began moving in some fittings. The bathroom is starting to be functional again.

Below are several photos relating to the plumber’s effort to complete the drains and water supply lines. Be sure to read the captions. Working in an 1894 home has it challenges!

Here are a few photos of the bath as of May 20th.

I hope the electrician shows up this week! There are details I can do, including putting on another coat of paint and installing baseboards and trim, but with the vent fan working I could begin using the shower. I’m looking forward to that.

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

Pam’s Penny

I refer to the crawl space above the kitchen ceiling as “Mouseville.”

Hey, let’s not only hear from: 1) the electrician. What about 2) the gable painter? Or maybe, did 3) the roofer review our counter proposal? Trades people. Ugh.

Happy Trails.

Spring means flowers. The Mary Lynn bed tulips and daffodils are nearing the end of their blooming cycles, but other flowers are beginning to open. A trip to a greenhouse yielded some perennial and annual flowers which were planted over a few days this past week. Some work was done in the upstairs bath. Screen inserts replaced the winter inserts in three doors. Outdoor work took up much of our energy this past week.

I get a kick out of the smaller flowers that made appearances this week. Bleeding hearts, grape hyacinths, and white lilacs all popped open. Here are photos of plants newly blooming around the yard.

Only a few inside-the-house projects received attention this week. Screen inserts replaced the winter storm inserts in three doors leading to porches. The front screen insert needed new mesh before it was installed. Luckily our local lumber yard had a piece of the metal mesh left; most places now stock only the black fabric screening material which the cats would claw through in short order. Allowing the doors to be open allowed much-appreciated fresh air into the house.

Progress is VERY slow in the upstairs bath. The guy doing the sheetrock work, taping the joints and “mudding” them, showed up for just a few hours during the entire [past] week and is not done yet. This work needs to be completed before I can move on with painting, trim work, finishing the electrical, and getting the plumbers back to finish their job. This is getting a little frustrating and I will be doing some work to advance this project this weekend. I was able to cut and install a few tiles at the front of the shower, getting that bit of work completed. Project is taking much longer than I anticipated.

Other activities were part of the summer routine. Lawn mowing a couple times led to a trip to the city’s organic dump. Elma has no street sweeper so I took it on myself to clean our curb and gutter, the first time since we moved in. There was much sand and gravel removed and hauled to the dump along with grass clippings. (The result improved the curb appeal of the house and was worth the effort, but I bet the neighbors thought I was crazy.)

I spread some dandelion killer on parts of the lawn where the dandelions are most profuse and am waiting to see if the stuff has any effect. Other parts of the yard get the ‘manual’ treatment where I dig out the dandelions with a small digger tool. The yard looks good at the moment but keeping up is always a chore this time of year. The neighbors are not as diligent; I’m digging up most of their seeded dandelions, I think.

I enjoy spring; it’s interesting to watch annual and perennial flowers and plants appear. Opening the house to get in fresh air and planning summer activities are enjoyable pursuits. The smell of fresh-cut grass hangs in the air in the evenings. Until bugs arrive, I can sit out on a porch chair and relax after the day’s activities.

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

Pam’s Penny

The Mennonite greenhouse was a pleasure, as always. The first spring visit, the bright plants neatly aligned over aisles and aisles, that earthy humidity – ah. (I keep the greenhouse image in my personal memory bank, to retrieve mid-winter as needed.) Digging annuals into the beds surrounding Heart House, seeing how they augment the perennials breaking through — always a pleasure to see the result.

I am totally OVER that second floor bathroom project, however. It drags on and on and on and on. Speaking of dragging, the cats enjoy dragging garbage, plaster dust etc. downstairs from the mess upstairs. The door is off the bathroom and there is no way to keep construction debris in that room. (The workmen in the trades are not the most tidy people to begin with.) Additionally, “parts” from the bathroom are being stored in the quilt room/guest room; work I was planning to do in there has been disrupted. Pretty much a pain in the ass all ’round.

Mainly I am so OVER painting. And there is still so much painting to do…

Happy Trails.

Spring has arrived and flowers are coming into their own. Work progressed on the upstairs bathroom. Seeds were planted. This week, days went by quickly.

Topping the list of activities was the continuing work on the upstairs bathroom. The plumbers arrived and installed the shower, complete with drain and water lines. Plumbing was begun for the sink. Best of all, the toilet was re-installed and is functioning again. (I was getting tired of all those trips up and down the stairs to get to the bathroom at night.)

Still to be done – in one trip, I hope – is to plumb in the bathtub and finish the sink plumbing and install it. Here is a photo of the work in progress as of Friday, May 5th. Sheetrock is being installed around the shower stall.

The bathroom needs: sheetrock finishing, painting, putting in the remaining floor tiles, and getting the base trim cut/stained/installed. After that, I call the electricians back to finish the wiring and then the plumbers to finish the tub and sink installation. Keeping three trades working in rotation is interesting. There’s still a lot to get through before the job is complete!

Outside, spring is finally here, with the last of the below-freezing temperatures behind us. Our tulips and daffodils are adding color to the Mary Lynn memorial flower bed.

Grass seeds were spread in a few bare spots of the lawn, using a “shade” seed that hopefully will grow in these locations. Pam planted hollyhock seeds, gourd seeds, and Indian corn in and around the garden. It would be great if all seeds do well this year.

The cats offered a few amusing poses this week. For anyone who thinks cats sleep only curled up I offer this photo of a stretched-out Elmo. He measures a full 36″ when extended!

Here is a photo of the other three house cats, KitKat, Stirling, and Vienna, enjoying some morning sun that comes through the east bay window.

Nothing of real note is planned for the upcoming week other than my twice-weekly physical therapy. Hopefully we will have “visits” from the various trades people working on the bathroom; someone needs to stay close to home for those. It should be a quiet(er) week but who knows?

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

Pam’s Penny

When they aren’t napping, the Terrible Two have become interior decor critics. This week Stirling and Vienna stripped wallpaper in the library. Because — it was there? they were bored? everyone needs a challenge? they don’t like old timey cars? I will be painting these blocks under the windows a dark brown to give the windows more “weight” in the room. However, this was not a project I intended to work on now. Thanks so much, kitten kiddos.

The quote from the roofers arrived for the tower re-do. Sticker shock! Considering the house itself was purchased in the low $60,000 range, no way I can justify paying a little under $14,000 to re-do a decorative tower that basically needs incidental repair and updating. I have visions of 70-year-old people once again hanging from the side of the second story in a bucket lift, this time attempting to roof and repair. (More like a nightmare than a vision.)

I do believe I deserve a plant run to the Mennonite greenhouse this coming week…

Happy Trails.

It seemed like a busy week. There were some up events and a few downs as well. The bathroom floor went in (mostly), one of our outside cats crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and I attended a major swap meet. Photos and dialog are below.

Our last outside cat, Cloudy Day, was not doing well so Pam took her to the vet on Friday. After tests indicated Cloudy’s heart was strong and there were no kidney problems, Pam decided to go ahead with surgery to remove a growth on Cloudy’s mammary gland. We brought Cloudy home and thought she was doing OK post operatively. However, the morning after surgery, Pam went to the catio to check on Cloudy, and she had passed. Cloudy was not one of Pam’s favorite cats, growing progressively grumpier as she aged. She was one of the garage cats transported from Colorado when we moved.

There now remain two “Colorado” cats, KitKat and Melody (Melly.) KitKat is part of the current indoor cat group. Melly was intended to be a house cat, but escaped into the neighborhood soon after we moved to Iowa. Melly comes daily to eat at the outside feeding station, but otherwise does not hang around.

It is a sad occasion to lose an animal; this is cat #11 buried since our arrival in Iowa. Cloudy has been ‘planted’ in the garden next to her buddy, Ink, who passed last fall. We suspect the loss of Ink’s companionship may have been a contributing factor in Cloudy’s general decline.

Moving indoors, not as much work has been done in the upstairs bathroom as I had hoped. I’m still waiting on a return visit from the plumbers to install water and drain lines. While waiting, floor tiles were installed. A small gap exists around the shower frame as I don’t know how much room the plumbers will need to do their work, but the major floor is in. Wall painting is also underway; it’s easier to tile and paint while the tub/sink/stool are not in the room.

The flooring took some time and effort, as the tiles around the edges of the floor needed to be individually cut to fit as — surprise — the room is not square. This meant a lot of trips up and down the stairs, as I was using the table saw in the garage to cut the tiles.

The next step will be repainting the baseboards and installing them around the perimeter of the room and finishing the wall painting. It would be really nice if this project would wrap up in the next week or two! All three contactors still have to make appearances for plumbing, electrical, and sheetrock work, but at this point I would be happy just to have a working sink and toilet before all the finish work is done.

The highlight of the week, for me, was a trip to a large swap meet in Le Sueur, Minnesota. I had heard of this event before as it has been going on for decades but I had never attended. This year that changed. Le Sueur is about a 3 hour drive from Elma. The weather was a little iffy and it was not very warm, but I did not get rained on, plus the cooler temps made walking throughout the venue more comfortable.

I will mention, at the outset, that this meet is mostly mechanical. There are not a lot of home goods on the vendor’s tables and trailers but there are some. Among the farm equipment offerings you can find a smattering of power tools, chain saws, hit-and-miss engines (A lot!) old snowmobile parts, old outboard motors, and other collectibles.

I walked for nearly 3 hours up and down the rows of vendors and did not get to them all. I did not take a lot of photos, but here are a few that I found most interesting.

I must say the event was really well organized. Porta-potties were numerous, food vendors served the crowds, and equipment was available to move large items from vendor stalls to your truck or trailer. People who attend this regularly have it down pat; they bring their golf carts to the grounds to get around or, as I found out later, you can rent one in advance. Hundreds of people were in attendance with cars filling the parking lots and lining up on the roads around the venue.

I enjoyed the visit and looking over the vendor trailers and tables. The range of stuff for sale was amazing. Some of it was, in my opinion, junk, but maybe to someone else it was a treasure. I took only pictures and did not bring anything else home.

That was the week: Some ups, some downs. At least (it appears) the Elma area is done with below-freezing nights and spring will finally make an appearance. (For those watching the news, there is no spring flooding in NE Iowa near Elma this year.)

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

Pam’s Penny

No good [rescue] deed goes unpunished. I tried to give Cloudy Day more months/years by going forward with an operation rather than euthanizing her; I only succeeded in putting that poor cat through pain/discomfort and ultimate death anyway. Years of rescue experience does not, unfortunately, improve my odds of success in making these life-or-death decisions. Depressing, that.

Happy Trails.