Author: admin (Page 9 of 62)

With the colder weather and snow heralding winter, the “Big Event” was Elma’s Holiday Lights parade which goes right past our house on Main Street. I have a few photos to share this time around, so take a look.

In preparation for the big parade and holiday season we had put up outside lights, and some in-window lights as well.

You may notice the lack of snow. Although NE Iowa had received some, a day or two of warmer weather melted it.

Here is the parade approaching the house from the west.

The upcoming week promises to be cold with a chance of snow. Regardless, it’s time to cut a live tree at a tree farm we’ve visited the last few years. The tree will go into the Media Room, being one of our last Christmas decorating activities.

Most of our other activities were inside the house. Pam continues to work on the Solstice cards and I “puttered” with my computer. One medical note: I had a routine blood draw and my A1C has fallen from a high of 8.8 to 7.1. The trend is in the right direction and is partly due to the Lupron, from the prostate cancer treatments, working out of my system. I would like to get back to my pre-treatment levels of 6.5 – 6.7. I feel much better with the lower numbers coming in.

We have some sad news, though, as another of our outside cats has walked over the Rainbow Bridge. Ink (one of the outside catio cats) had been failing for some time and we had taken him to the vet a couple weeks ago and scheduled a return visit for this week. The vet concluded Ink had a tumor in his throat. While treatment was possible it would be very invasive and would require frequent visits to the vet. Pam made the difficult decision that Ink’s time was up, not wanting to put him through the pain and trauma of the treatment at his age. Ink was about 12 years old and started as a feral outside cat in DeBeque. Over the years he became more friendly and lived in our DeBeque garage, so we brought him with us when we moved to Iowa. Ink was my favorite outside cat and I will miss him.

I don’t have a really good photo of Ink, but here he is (in center) with a couple of his garage buddies from DeBeque. They are sitting on the warm hood of of our old Honda.

While on the subject of cats, I caught Elmo while he was settling in for a nap.

I don’t have any new news (or photos) re: the kittens, but they are learning new tricks from Elmo, such as opening the drawer under the kitchen prep table. This requires standing on the step stool and pushing the drawer from behind. Pam keeps a few cat toys in this drawer which draws the attention of the cats. While amusing, it’s also slightly irritating as one now has to check the drawer’s position to avoid bumping into it when walking through the kitchen.

Of note, Pam is in the process of changing phones and phone carriers. She will soon have a new number and the old one will be shut down. (I do not want to put the new number in a public post.) Pam will be contacting people with the new information, but for now the best way to contact her is by e-mail.

Her old Android, a Jitterbug 2, mostly died this past week. I was able to remove some files and get the phone partially working, but -in any case – she knew it was time to upgrade to something newer and better. An iPhone 12 will soon be put in service and we hope it takes care of her phone needs for some time to come.

I have a few technical notes to pass on. Those of you who view these posts from a desktop unit will observe two changes. First, the blog title is now in mixed case rather than all uppercase. Second, links from the menu now open in new tabs. The first change was done by changing the page’s underlying code. (I have yet to find the code that controls this in the mobile version, but I am working on it.) The second change was provided by a WordPress guru in response to a question I had posted in a support forum. I am pleased to have these changes in effect.

Another tech note involves our network connection speed. Last November we had received an e-mail indicating our internet speeds would be increasing along with an extra $10.00 per month charge. I ran a speed test on my Mac and found we were not getting the speeds promised and already billed for. In fact, we were getting less than a third (94Mbps vs 300Mbps) of the download speeds promised. (I requested and we were promised a bit of a rebate on the price increase for the past two months due to equipment issues. Let’s see if the carrier delivers.)

I called in a repair order and a few days a later a tech arrived to check our cables and modem. He found the modem was the problem and replaced it with a new one. (We rent the modem.) This cured the download problem, and now web pages and content appear to load much faster. We hope this will eliminate a situation we had been having with our streaming video where the signal would occasionally “lock up” and freeze the TV screen. The work-around was to change channels, usually by hitting the “Back” button, and forcing the streaming box to re-load. So far this has not happened with the new modem installed.

While puttering with my Mac I came across some video clips that had been saved in an unusual place that I had not noticed before. Taken on Grand Mesa, Colorado, this 1:51 clip is titled “A Fall Day Out.”

Except for getting our Christmas tree, the upcoming week promises to be quiet and cold. No visits or visitors are on the agenda. Holiday cards will be completed in the next day or two. I was able to get the snow blower running after replacing a leaking fuel valve, but major snow is not in the 10-day forecast so the blower will sit unused in the garage. I hope.

Photo Archive

This is a mixed bag of photos taken in Colorado after we moved [back] there in 2003.

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

Pam’s Penny

Today, let’s consider happiness. I’ve been pondering happiness. Is it possible to achieve a state where happiness can enter, given the level of ongoing stress in daily life? Or does one need to go to a remote location to tune out the negative? I kinda thought retirement would be an entry point to happiness. Not necessarily, as it turns out.

This week’s negatives: cell phone dying (I’m a Luddite, mostly non-tech, I hate dealing with this), heart-wrenching euthanization decision to be made for ailing cat [yet again], the usual [bad] news reports on climate-hate-gun violence, hog manure smell wafting into Heart House carried by 15-20 mph [frigid] wind. Ugh.

A personal oasis in the stress is my current “happy place” – working on the Solstice cards, with my kittens keeping me company. For those of you on the card list, know I intentionally develop a design that utilizes cut-and-paste and hand printing. Sure, I could learn how to set the whole card up on a computer program and print it. Why? I want the card to look – and be – mostly handmade. I think my ideal occupation would be working on miniature dioramas…maybe that’s my long-term happy place.

Happy Trails.

The big event this week was Thanksgiving. Additionally, we began putting up Christmas decorations. There are plenty of family member photos this week so take a look.

I am going to begin with a quick reminder: The “Comments” button, where you can leave or view comments, is just under the blog title, toward the right side. Click on “Comments” to open a comments page where you can add your feedback.

Now that the housekeeping is over, I have a few photos left over from Toby’s visit. He helped me trim the bottom of the downstairs bathroom door, necessary to fit a low-profile threshold plate to cover the transition from the wood floor to the tiles Pam had installed.

Pam’s sister Becky drove to Elma during Toby’s visit, so we took the opportunity for this group photo.

We had accumulating snow the week Toby was here, but recent mild weather has melted it away. (More snow is in the forecast for this week.) Our leaky old windows yield some “frost” photos when the weather gets near zero.

The “big event” was Thanksgiving. Becky invited us to Greene for a meal and to celebrate 6 months in her “new” home. We were more than happy to help celebrate the first major holiday since she moved in.

Becky put together a great meal of chicken, stuffing, cranberry relish, bean salad, rolls, whipped squash, gravy, and mashed potatoes with cream cheese. Yum!! Pam baked pies for dessert – strawberry-rhubarb custard and pumpkin. Becky’s daughter, Lilly, joined us for the meal. Here are a few photos from the day.

Everything tasted great! Conversation flowed around the table, making the day even more enjoyable.

We had taken the dogs along and part of the afternoon found Becky and Lilly giving Jo and Bru some love. Blondie was not as sociable this trip.

We had a very good holiday and thank Becky and Lilly for the food and hospitality.

With the improvement of the weather, we ended the week by putting up the rest of the outside decorations. After more than a decade of use, Pam decided to replace a raggy-looking exterior garland, used along the front porch. (This was a two-day project with disassembly and reassembly needed.) In addition, some non-working, or partially working, lights were finally tossed. Elma’s Holiday Parade is this Sunday night so we try to have exterior lights ready for that; the parade passes directly in front of Heart House. Additional exterior wreaths + inside decorations + a live tree [in the Media Room] will be part of the decor in early December.

I replaced the mower deck and bagger on the John Deere LX 176 and attached the snow blade. I hope I don’t have to use the blade for a few weeks but I want to be ready when the heavier snow arrives. I need to get the snow blower running, a task for the upcoming week.

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and you’re looking forward to Christmas.

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

Pam’s Penny

Every year when the holiday “stuff” is hauled out I think “Wow! How did we accumulate all this?” It’s unusual for us to throw anything out, but I’ve been putting off a re-do of that exterior garland for years — the time had come to strip it down and reassemble with new materials. (If the weather hadn’t cooperated, I wouldn’t have done it this year either.)

Heart House [with its three porches] certainly can handle quite a bit of exterior decoration. I try to make sure the decor is as attractive in the daylight as the lights are at night. This requires extension cords to be as hidden as possible and decorations in various media (lights, cloth, wood/evergreen, metal) to be distributed around the property.

Future indoor decoration will be “edited” with kittens in mind. That process can wait until early December.

Happy Trails.

With the cold weather, snow on the ground, and a halt to most outside activities, the pets become entertainment. This post is mostly about them and includes a new video, so take a look.

Pam happened to catch Blondie napping in the laundry room and thought the lighting was quite unusual. I agree. Here is the resulting photo, taken by Pam, of our 14 year old pack leader.

The kittens, Stirling and Vienna, are now 5 months old and are filling out. It appears both will be long in the body and not prone to getting fat, but it’s early days yet. Their activity levels are quite high!

I have a new video of the kittens playing with a favorite toy, Mr. Spring. You can watch the video without leaving this post by viewing it below. (Click the red “Play” button.) This is a feature I am experimenting with, embedding my YouTube videos, so let me know if you like or dislike it.

Outside, we have snow on the ground, the first accumulating snow of the season. We have been watching the birds at the feeder, the squirrels using the water bowl, and nuthatches and woodpeckers at the suet feeder. (Sparrows have also been using the water bowl.) I shot some video of birds at the feeder. This was taken through the library window while it was snowing and is not as sharp as I would like, but the birds fly away whenever I open the door to go outside.

On the medical front, I received word from the Mayo Clinic that my right shoulder could benefit from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. This diagnosis is based on the MRI taken a week or so ago. I am just trying to decide when to have the procedure done as it means little use of my right arm for quite some time.

Pam made a trip to the dentist to have a filling examined. A piece of tooth had chipped off, leaving a rough edge. The dentist polished the edges for the time being; Pam will visit dental world in December to re-do the tooth with a more permanent fix.

Toby arrived Thursday night and will be with us until Sunday morning. There is a lot going on in his life as he has a new girlfriend and is planning to move from South Bend to Las Vegas. (More on that in later posts.) It was good to see him and have long conversations about where he is, what his hopes and dreams are, and what he sees for his future over the next few years.

Otherwise it has been quiet. I have been shoveling snow as well as working on short videos. I had upgraded to a new web browser, Vivaldi, and mostly retired the Safari browser supplied by Apple on my Mac. Upgrading the Mac’s operating system would require purchasing new versions of the software I use most, a very expensive proposition, but the new browser is working fine where Safari was having problems. (With WordPress 6.1 and my blog software, for example.) The Vivaldi upgrade seems to be an interim solution so I won’t have to upgrade right now.

Pam came across this ad in the local paper. We are in the Bible Belt for sure.

Photo Archive

Just a couple shots taken on motorcycle trips in Colorado

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

Pam’s Penny

The year seems to be moving swiftly toward closure. Company is in-house, medical and dental issues continue, Solstice cards are moving along well — but –January-type weather is visiting NE Iowa.

Exterior holiday lights installation is on our calendar for the weekend after Thanksgiving; the Elma holiday parade passes by Heart House that Sunday night. If the weather doesn’t improve to above freezing during the day before then, the main portion of our light display this year may be installed after the parade passes by…

Happy Trails.

During the week I had technical issues with the Blog software and decided, after 11+ years, to change the “Theme” of the blog page. (Themes control the look and formatting of the blog pages.) The current theme is Hemingway from WordPress.

One change is the location of the “Comments” tab; it is now under the blog post title instead of at the bottom of the post. Please click on this link to leave or read comments.

Another difference is the Main Menu which has links that will take you to other parts of the web site. So far I have not found out how to make the links open in new tabs so clicking a link will take you away from the blog page. To return to the blog you would have to click on your “Back” button in your browser. I am working on this.

I hope you like the new look!

In other news, I had an MRI taken of my right shoulder at the Mayo Clinic on Monday. Nothing remarkable about this but it took longer than other MRIs I have had in the past. I coupled the trip with stops for shopping at a couple big box stores, so the event took pretty much all day.

We celebrated Pam’s birthday on Wednesday. Birthdays are now low-key events for us, but Pam did receive a few gifts from myself and friends, and both kids called and spoke to her at some length. It was a good day.

Trees in the area are now pretty much bare and neighbors’ leaves are blowing into our yard. We did a couple clean-ups; a couple more before the snow hits are probably going to happen but they should be much lighter (fewer leaves) than to this point.

I have a couple “yard” photos this time. The first is funny; Pam noticed a squirrel in one of the lilac bushes, “burying” a nut in the branch.

And, in spite of the below-freezing temperatures we have had, a pansy was still blooming until mid-week in the front flower bed.

Now the cold weather has settled in. The 10-day forecast has us at or below freezing for daytime highs the entire time. We have plugged in the outside cats’ water bowls and added an extension cord to operate the squirrel water bowl. (The cats have two bowls, one in the catio and another outside by the garage for the roaming cats.)

Windbreak tarps have been put up. These give some protection from the wind to the south (back) door and the NW corner of the dog run. Pam wrapped the maple tree in the east yard as protection from deer, who nibbled at the young tree last winter. (We thought it would not come back but it thrived this summer.) Screen door inserts have been swapped out for storm door inserts. None of these are big tasks but they did take some time.

Our youngest dog, Bru, went to the vet to have some skin growths removed. A few were beginning to bother her and it was time for them go. She has some stitches that will need to be removed but seems to be recovering OK.

The kittens are getting bigger and enjoying the run of the house. I can hear them in the upstairs hallway running and chasing each other. Elmo sometimes joins the fun.

I have a somewhat poor quality video of a black squirrel drinking out of the new water dish. (In my defense, my hands are not as steady as they used to be and it was windy and cold.) Click on this squirrel video to view the 51-second clip.

The upcoming week promises to be fairly uneventful. Little will be done outside due to the cold temperatures and chance of snow, but inside projects will continue. Pam is working on holiday cards and has a dental appointment to repair a chipped tooth. I am will work on the blog look-and-feel as well as starting to scan more of my negatives and slides. I will begin installing the inside window inserts in the smaller windows; the bay windows will wait until after we put up/then remove Christmas decorations.

Our son Toby plans to visit us before Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to his visit. (So nice to have a guest bedroom available for visitors, a room with a decent window and a modicum of heat.)

Neither of us likes this time of year. It gets dark so-o-o-o early, it is windy and cold, and the NE Iowa countryside is somewhat dreary after all the crops have been harvested. In some ways a blanket of snow is preferable as it covers some of the bareness of the fields and gardens.

Photo Archive

The first photo is of Pam’s mother, Lorraine, with two of her granddaughters. Felicity is on the left and cousin Caitlin is on the right. 1990 or thereabouts.

Next is an artsy collection of cameras at a camera shop in Boulder, Colorado, also dating from around 1990.

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

Pam’s Penny

Poor little Bru dog had 18 lumps + cysts + skin tags removed; she looks like a dot-to-dot. I will need to pull out a load of stitches in the next weeks.

One of my birthday gifts was a dog grooming razor (battery operated, from Jer.) When I use it on Bru later in the winter, hopefully I [now] won’t have to avoid 18 lumps/cysts/skin tags.

Sorry, no cute kitten photos this week. Elmo is busy teaching both Stirling and Vienna bad habits – like sitting on the dining table, opening drawers, climbing the wood slats on the rustic pantry cabinet…

Happy Trails.

It was a quiet week when it comes to post-worthy news. I did additional leaf clean-up, we took the dogs for a drive to visit Becky in Greene, and did odd jobs around the place.

One nice discovery this week. The city opened a compost site about 4 blocks from our house. This makes disposing of leaves and yard debris much easier and more convenient. I’ve taken a couple trailer loads to the site already, using the ATV to pull the trailer.

Parts arrived for the lawn vac / chipper and were installed. The unit no longer leaks fuel when it is running which resulted a savings in gas and making the rig much nicer to use.

The big trailer received final touches including the addition of a license plate bracket and illumination lights for the plate. The later is an Iowa requirement: “Either the rear lamp or a separate lamp shall be so constructed and placed as to illuminate with a white light the rear registration plate and render it clearly legible from a distance of fifty feet to the rear.” I plugged the trailer lights into the truck and checked to make sure all lights, including the new license plate lights, were working OK. All is well.

Thursday we took a short trip to Greene to visit Becky. I had not been there for a few months and was surprised to see how much she has accomplished since my last visit. The laundry room, kitchen, and living room have all received much attention and updating; the place is looking real good.

The upcoming week promises to be busier. I have a Mayo Clinic appointment on Monday to get an MRI on my right shoulder. Tuesday is Election Day and we will vote. Wednesday is Pam’s birthday. (We don’t make a big deal of birthdays anymore.) Bru goes in for vet surgery to remove growths and lumps on Thursday.

The kittens are doing well and continue playing with Elmo and getting used to the dogs. A couple photos, taken by Pam, are below.

Elmo, of course, is quite used to the dogs. Here he is sleeping with Blondie.

Photo Archive

Cars and steam engines are featured this week.

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

Pam’s Penny

Holiday card production is in full swing. I’m in my happy place while working on these.

Be sure to VOTE.

Happy Trails.

This week was a pretty typical autumn week, with no major stories or events. In fact, most of the week was routine — projects included lawn and flower bed cleanup, grooming JoJo, and scanning a few more black-and-white negatives.

The biggest job of the week was a major lawn cleanup. Pam cut back the rest of the hostas and geranium plants in the flower beds and cut back the blackberry bushes in the garden. I used the lawn vac to clean up leaves around the garage, along fence lines, and under shrubs. Several runs with the John Deere LX 176 lawn mower and bagger system cleaned up the large areas of the lawn.

It is sad to see the empty flower beds. We enjoy the flowering plants all spring and summer and it’s always a big change to see them go in the fall.

Below is a photo of the south and east sides of the house as of October 29th.

Other “outside” chores included putting up the bird feeder, hanging the suet feeder, and putting a heated water dish in service for the squirrels. On the last, it took the squirrels a few days to figure out the new water arrangement but they soon adapted. (In the photo above you can just see the stand and water bowl at the base of the right-hand tree. The weather has not been cold enough to plug in the dish yet.)

It did not take the birds long to discover the feeder was back up and stocked. No cardinals yet, but we have seen junkos, sparrows, and a red-headed woodpecker at the feeder at various times. Along the same lines we hung the suet feeder and have seen nuthatches and a downy woodpecker use it in the last couple days.

I moved the big trailer into a winter storage position closer to the east end of the garage. While doing this I took a good look at the tires and calculated the trailer can handle up to 12,000 pounds. (Each tire is rated at 3,100 pounds and there are 4 of them.) Below are a couple photos of the tires, D-rings, and side marker lights. I would never use all of this capacity as the F-150 could not handle it, but the truck can handle the Ford 8N which weighs in at around 4,000 pounds.

On to inside projects. Pam now has to trim JoJo, as the groomer we had been using quit the business.

I scanned a few more black-and-white negatives; some of these are in this post’s Photo Gallery section. Other tasks completed included an oil and filter change for the RAV-4 and maintenance on power equipment. Inside the house I boxed in the vent pipe in the corner of the upstairs bathroom and added a patch to the floor in the same room, bringing that set up to the same level as the floor. (The patch was a result of the work we had done last year, moving the toilet away from the outside wall and re-plumbing the sink.)

It was a low-key week filled with routine and mundane tasks, but there was one other development that applied to me. I had previously reported that my broken front tooth had been extracted. This week my “social tooth” with its retainer was fitted by the dentist. Now when I go out in public I don’t display the gap of the missing tooth. Around the house I don’t wear it, hoping to speed the healing of the gum.

So much for medical news. Now on to the scanned images.

Photo Gallery

These photos were taken when we attended a military re-enactment in 1990 and features a squad of US army soldiers. I believe the time period depicted was the early 1800s. We were in Prairie du Chien at the Fur Trappers Rendezvous.

Normally I would leave it at that, but with Halloween coming up I decided to include a couple of “artsy” pumpkin photos.

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

Pam’s Penny

Dog grooming – ugh. I suspect JoJo will need to be “surface groomed” at least three times this winter to keep the Springer Spaniel coat under control. You can see I scissor-cut the dogs at present; I will likely buy a grooming razor next year to shave dogs for the summer. (Because, of course, Bru needs to be trimmed frequently as well as Jo.) I really miss our dog groomer from Colorado, Aunt Nan. She was excellent with the dogs and reasonably priced. Interestingly enough, Nan/Nancy sold her business and got out of dog grooming (similar to the local groomer). Too much work and not enough profit in dog grooming, I guess.

The yard at Heart House looks empty and sad. Or maybe I’m sad looking at the yard. Or maybe both. Once the holiday decorations are up next month, the porches at least will look colorful.

Oh well, the kittens keep me entertained. Hard to be gloomy when those little charmers are so active.

Happy Trails.

We had another busy week. Daughter Felicity and her companion Peter visited us for a few days. The new kittens continue settling in and began to play with Elmo. Squirrels have been drinking out of our birdbath. We took in an arts and craft show. Details of all are below.

Felicity and Peter were with us for a few days. Visiting from Tulsa, Oklahoma, this was their first trip to Heart House and we were glad see them. Much talking and eating ensued during the time they were here. It was good to catch up personally with happenings in their life and show them the house. Sister Becky joined us at Heart House on Thursday, to visit with her niece and enjoy the hospitality of the visit.

Pam and I had begun the week with a trip to an arts and antique fair. The event was smaller than in previous years and we didn’t buy much, although Pam came home with a tin sign to place in the kitchen. I was on the look out for kerosene lamps but did not find any this trip.

The new kittens, Stirling and Vienna, continue to get comfortable in their new digs. Elmo has begun playing with them and the kittens are getting used to the dogs (and dogs to kittens). A kitten priority is finding comfortable places to sleep; both are getting that down pat.

I am including a 1:56 video of the kittens and Elmo playing around the house. This footage is fairly typical of the activity (or sometimes lack of it) of the young and old cats. Not exciting, but typical.

The dogs have sleeping down to a science. Here are Blondie and Bru settled in for an afternoon nap.

I have a 36 second video of a black squirrel drinking our of our bird bath. This happens on a fairly regular basis, causing us to wonder where the squirrels were getting their water before we put up the birdbath last spring. We are considering putting up a heated dish for the squirrels to use during the winter and seeing if it gets any use.

Other mundane items accomplished include a major yard clean up. Pam has cut back many of the hostas and geraniums in various flower beds but has more to do. I have been using the lawn vac, with the new hose adapter, but have run into mechanical problems with the machine which has limited its run time. I need to have everything rectified this week as we are at the height of leaf season and really need to have the equipment in top operating condition. More lawn work is on tap for the upcoming week.

Photo Archive

Photos from 1975 showing our first home, a single-wide in a Menomonie, Wisconsin, mobile home park.

A fall shot from ’75

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

Pam’s Penny

It’s pretty clear, when young folks visit, that our retired lifestyle has become fairly uninteresting. Felicity and Peter have jobs to discuss, they have hobbies to discuss, they have future plans to discuss. Himself and I talk about house renovations and various body ailments. (I remember wondering in my past years why oldsters talk about medical stuff so much. Now I know.)

Heart House stretches and flexes to accommodate company pretty well. It will certainly be more hospitable in this regard when the upstairs bathroom is fully renovated.

Happy Trails.

We had snow flakes in the air this week so I guess summer is over and we are well into fall. The week was a mixed bag of traveling, medical issues, and lawn clean up. There is also a new kitten video, so let’s get to it.

We’ll begin with the kittens. Tuesday they traveled to the vet and received their next set of shots. Both Stirling and Vienna traveled OK and were not traumatized by the visit. (The vet tech commented they were two of the best behaved kittens she had handled in quite some time.) Within minutes of returning home they were running and playing as if nothing had happened.

I tried to get more exciting “kitten video” but ended up with shots of the pair just exploring around the house. (Nothing very exciting in this video, but I include it due to popular demand for kitten videos.)

In medical news, Pam and I received the latest COVID-19 booster shots this week. Both of us had mild reactions, which we were expecting based on reactions to past shots. Sore arms primarily, but Pam had a few other side effects as well for a few days including tiredness and slight nausea. We are both OK now.

In dental news, I had my broken front tooth removed through oral surgery. Due to my high A1C levels, brought on by my treatment for prostate cancer, I could not get the implant post installed at the same time. I have a retainer that holds a fake tooth to fill the gap for now and will complete the implant process next spring. Getting old is not fun; everything breaks down.

I mentioned in my last post that I had brought our generator and fire pit home from Colorado. I did not say how. These items were trailered in the utility trailer I built 7 or 8 years ago. (Long-time readers of this blog may remember it.) The trailer is currently filled with leaves that I removed from the lawn this past week. To use the trailer in its new role I did some modifications, including removing the top level of the side boards and lining the bottom portions with a wire mesh material to keep leaves and other debris inside the trailer.

Speaking of trailers, I took the “big” trailer paperwork to the county seat and traded the South Dakota title for an Iowa title and plate. Cost of this included Iowa sales tax, $30.00, a title application fee of $25.00, and actual license plate and registration for another $30.00 bringing the total to $85.00. I also applied for and received a plate for the utility trailer, the first it has ever had. (In the past I used an Arizona “permanent” plate I had found in a ditch.) The cost of getting the D-rings ($50.00) welded to the big trailer, done when I was in Colorado, came to $100.00, about what I was expecting. I finished bolting on and wiring in the side marker lights ($25.00) so the big trailer is now street-legal and ready to be put to work. Investment to get to this point is about $820.00, a reasonable price for a tandem axle equipment trailer.

Pam continues to clean flower beds and cut back plants as they die, due to the below-freezing nights NE Iowa is experiencing. Both of us had been hoping for a mild autumn but it appears that is not to be. (Maybe we can hope for an Indian Summer?) We hate saying goodby to the plants and flowers that have been such a treat all summer.

The upcoming week promises to be active. Daughter Felicity and her companion Peter will be visiting us for a few days. Pam is preparing for their visit by locating and laundering additional bedding; she plans a thorough house cleaning before they arrive. (I help where I can but I don’t clean to Pam’s higher standards.) My contribution will be the grocery run early next week for additional supplies. Look for photos of this visit in the next post.

I have a few maintenance items to do, such as changing oil in the RAV-4 and working on my lawn chipper / vac which needs a new fuel pump. Winterizing the house will be an ongoing project which involves installing the window inserts and putting up windbreak tarps around the back door and dog run. The back door protection helps keep the cold west and north-west winds from hitting the door directly and we found it helped a great deal last year, the first year we had tried adding this wind screen protection.

I will note the passing of my cousin, Dennis Rohland, who passed away this past Wednesday. Dennis (one of two cousins by that name) was in his mid-’80s and had been ill for some time. I did not have a close relationship with him due to differences in age and distance, but he was a good guy.

Photo Archive

A couple more photos from the mid-’70s starts us off.

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

Pam’s Penny

I’ve been asked how I integrate new cats into the household so they all get along. Mainly I don’t stress about it, just give incoming cats their safe space(s) and correct confrontive behavior when it occurs. Cats can’t be trained in the way dogs can be trained, best not to even try. Having said that, I sure am enjoying the luxury of time to interact with these two kittens. (I love retirement in that regard.)

All the paint cans headed down to the basement this week. No reason to keep them in the laundry room or on the basement landing. Exterior painting is OVER for the year, and interior paint projects will not be attempted until 2023.

Happy trails.

It has been a couple weeks since my last post, a couple of busy weeks. I drove to Colorado to winterize the RV trailer and bring home two new cats for Pam. We have had visitors and fall colors are everywhere. Here are events of the last couple weeks.

Fall colors are present everywhere this time of year. While I was taking a package to a UPS drop-off in nearby Riceville I passed a greenhouse featuring mums of all colors. I enjoyed the riot of color.

I have been working on my “new” trailer, wiring in replacement side marker lights. During this work I discovered the trailer did have ramps stored under the deck. I was able to pull them out, grease the slides, and put them back under the trailer. While I feel like an idiot for missing these on my first inspection, having the ramps will save me a couple hundred dollars, plus time trying to find a set. The ramps are heavy duty and will certainly take the weight of the 8N tractor when I get ready to bring it home. A local shop welded on “D-ring” tie downs while I was in Colorado, giving me places to secure chains and straps for transporting large items.

My trip to Colorado was a success in that I took a few ATV rides and winterized The Box. Additionally, I brought home our portable generator and fire pit. Not only can we use these items here, particularly if we have a power failure, but this begins the process of bringing home items we would not sell with The Lot should we choose to go down that path.

Here are a few fall color photos from this Colorado trip.

The return trip from Colorado found me with two passengers, kittens Stirling and Vienna. Pam had adopted this pair from the Rifle Animal Shelter and good friend (+rescue kitten foster) Kathy Powers brought them to Fairplay. Kathy and I rendezvoused in Fairplay, where we made the transfer. Stirling is a male Siamese mix and Vienna is a female black shorthair. The two enjoyed an “adventure” drive across the Great Plains to NE Iowa. They behaved well while penned.

I put together a short (1:36) video of Stirling and Vienna beginning to play in their new home. So far they have settled in nicely, but still have to come to some accommodations with the dogs and senior cats KitKat and Elmo. I suspect Elmo will accept them sooner than KitKat, but we’ll have to wait and see how those interactions work out.

We had visitors this past week. Zach Hayes and his wife Sakura were married in Seattle earlier this year but due to a number of factors we couldn’t make the wedding. Zach and Sakura are making a “meet the family and friends” tour of the Midwest for those unable to be in the Pacific NW for the wedding. Heart House made the list for the Midwest tour, and they were able to stop in and visit us for a couple of hours.

As background – Zach is the son of Mary and Jeff Hayes. Mary was Pam’s best friend until Mary’s untimely death five years ago due to pancreatic cancer (the Mary Lynn of the annual memorial garden on this blog). Zach is Pam’s godchild. Over the years Pam and Zach have kept in touch by phone. (Jeff also visited us last year, representing the Hayes family.) We were looking forward to seeing Zach and meeting his new wife, and the afternoon did not disappoint. Young people have such busy and interesting lives.

With colder weather settling in summer tasks are drawing to a close. We don’t know if we will get any more painting done, for example. Fall tasks, including cleaning out the garden of vines and corn stalks, are next up on the to-do list. I will be mulching leaves and raking the lawn. Some tasks that need to be done yet include reglazing a couple windows in the house to seal gaps that are passing cold air into rooms. There are always many projects to keep us busy!

Photo Archive

From ’74 or ’75.

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

Pam’s Penny

How lovely to have plenty of time to play and interact with the newly-arrived kittens! I fostered over 30 litters of kittens in my days working with rescue in Colorado. But, what with being employed and the intrusions of daily life, I never had the gift of time then to socialize babies I was planning to keep. Stirling (‘Ling) and Vienna (“V”) bring some much-needed youth into the household. And retirement makes it possible for me to enjoy their integration process. Nice.

Happy Trails.

You may be tired of seeing more “painting” details, as much as we are of painting, but the work continues. Here are a few photos from our weekend work on the west side of the house.

We rented a bucket lift for the weekend to get the lower “weekend rate” from the rental shop. The lift was in use both Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday not quite as intense as Saturday. Both of us were pretty well tired out from the hours spent scraping, detailing, and painting but we did get the wall done in red, some white trim painted, and a couple minor repairs on the east side of the house as the ending tasks for the two day effort.

We begin with this “Before” shot of the west wall as it looked before we removed the A/C unit from the upper floor and had the new windows installed.

Pam on the lift this past weekend.

The first task is always scraping and wire brushing the old paint off the siding. In the above photo you can see where this has been accomplished on Pam’s left side. I generally do this work then take a break while Pam does the detail painting around the trim. Also note the yellowed vertical trim on the corner of the walls. (This area will be shown again in the next photo, for reference.)

At this point the trim painting is pretty far along. I am painting the white trim and will shortly move to my left to paint the under-eave areas. Some wood, behind the gutters, had not seen paint since the house was new.

This is a shot of the completed red and white painting on Sunday evening. While the “gingerbread” trim in the peaks still needs to be painted, we are quite pleased with the looks of this west wall after about 12 hours of hard work. (I still need to put the dog run fence back in place.) Getting this work done was a main goal for 2022 and the house is starting to look pretty good. What a feeling to have finished this particular wall!

Next we will move to the east side and deal with all the windows and trim, more detail work than on the west wall so progress will be slower. A few repairs will be needed on some of the siding boards; the east elevation is where many telephone and internet cables were drilled into the second floor, resulting in broken and damaged hundred-year-old siding. The siding will be replaced with Hardie Board because (as I recently found out) original redwood siding is no longer available. Hardie Board is the siding used on the garage and on the south wall of the house and comes pretty close to matching the original stuff.

Also this week…

I had my first appointment with the oral surgery place in Mason City. The work to replace a broken front tooth will commence after I return from my upcoming trip to Colorado. It is hoped that the extraction and placement of the implant will be done in a single session, but it turns out my diabetes may be a limiting factor. I have scheduled a blood draw for later this week to verify my current A1C levels. The cost for both orthodontist and dentist to replace ONE tooth is in the “crazy thousands of dollars” range. Unreal.

On a non-health related topic, I’ve mentioned in past posts that the Elma area is home to many Mennonite families. One of their prohibitions is they can’t use tractors with rubber tires. A steel-wheeled tractor was parked on Main Street so I took a photo of it which represents a very common conversion to steel wheels. This is the type of thing one can see on Main Street in NE Iowa.

I have ordered some bits and pieces for the new trailer, mostly replacement marker lights and “D-ring” tie downs. The later will be welded in place by a local shop. I would like to locate a set of ramps but may end up getting a set made. New ramps are quite expensive and I would rarely be using them but they sure would make life easier for loading and unloading the Ford 8N tractor and other heavy equipment. If anyone reading this has a set they would part with, please let me know!

Otherwise, life goes on as usual. Pam has been working in the garden and I am getting ready for my Colorado trip. (The next post will be delayed until after I return.) Leaf season has begun and I am moving ahead on building a hose attachment for my lawn chipper/vac. New hose kits are around $380.00 but I hope to have mine completed for around $100.00. The hose should aid in cleaning up around fence lines, flower beds, the LP tank, and other places difficult to rake.

Photo Archive

I have a few miscellaneous Black-and-White scans to show this time. The first photo is from the early ’60s and is my family with my Grandpa Joe at the far right. Back left is my mother, Emily, and in front of her is my Dad, George, and in front of him is my brother Jon. Next to Jon in the front row is me. Behind me is my sister Mary and to her left is my other sister, Carol. Photo was taken at Grandpa Joe’s home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This next photo is of our home in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado and taken in the early ’80’s. It shows some firewood cut and stacked up. We did a lot of heating in our fireplace with this wood.

Finally, an “artsy” shot of an old wagon. It may have been a manure spreader judging by the large gear on the back wheel.

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

Pam’s Penny

The pageantry surrounding the funeral activities of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain held my interest this past week. Many of the coffin viewing locations (both in Scotland and in England) are places I have visited in my travels to the UK over the years. The Brits can always be counted on for an over-the-top display of colorful uniforms, banners and ornamental braiding. (I would observe bagpipes should only be wailing while disappearing into the distance – up close is TOO MUCH. Kilts however, well, who can ever have too many kilts?) And, of course, including her Majesty’s horse and dogs in the Windsor portion of the proceedings was the most touching part of all to me.

Daughter Felicity and I both watched BBC coverage of the funeral from our respective locations; both of us were struck by how their commentators knew when to stop talking and just listen — listen to the marching feet, the jangling of harness and swords, the murmur of the crowds– to the sounds that conveyed the import and solemnity of the event. In contrast, American commentators seemed to talk nonstop, cancelling out important audio information that set the mood. Those BBC folks really know what they are doing – a class act.

Happy Trails.