Category: General (Page 10 of 59)

This week I am writing about ATV rides I recently took during my Colorado visit. In addition, I have a few details of the trip there and back. Rounding out this post will be our recent purchase of three tons of gravel!

I alternated work on The Lot with a few ATV rides on local trails. All of the places I visited were new to me. Helping guide me along was a new app I had downloaded to my iPhone, Avenza Maps. In addition to the app, I had downloaded the South Park Ranger District maps from the Avenza site.

I used the basic, and free, version of Avenza. The pay-for version adds a lot of features, but I was just interested in trying out the basic functions of the program. I must say it worked out very well! In use, a blue dot marks your location using the phone’s built-in GPS information. Since the maps are downloaded to the phone, no internet connection is required. This is a good thing as the areas I was riding had no cell phone coverage. Here is a screen shot of part of the map as it appears on my phone.

The black-and-white lines indicate trails suitable for motorized traffic. The dots represent single-track trails used by horse riders, bicyclists, and dirt bikes. Single-track trails have a “restrictor” at both ends of the trail.

My first few rides were in the Lost Park area, about 15 miles from The Lot. These were pleasant rides but not very scenic. Mostly old logging roads, these trails now serve as fire-fighting routes if needed. I did get a couple interesting photos in this area, though.

The later rides, located in an area west of Fairplay, were more interesting as the area supported a timber industry as well as some mining. Ruins of both activities were found along the area trails. Here is a selection of photos taken during these rides.

There were many, many flowers blooming. Here are a few of them.

As mentioned above, mining and logging were present in this area. I saw several remains of cabins that had been used by loggers and an old mine building.

I enjoyed these outings and the time I spent on the trails. Back at The Lot, I had plenty of time to take a few photos of changing weather conditions and views across South Park.

The trip from Iowa to Colorado and back was uneventful, with little road construction or other stoppages. I did find a wide variation in fuel prices, even given the price drop in the two weeks I was gone. The most expensive fuel was in Fairplay at $4.73 per gallon and the least expensive was on the way back in Ankeny, Iowa, at $3.15 per gallon.

Since our anniversary was on August 10th, I brought Pam back a gift: Henry Weinhart’s Gourmet Root Beer. We used to buy this in Colorado but can’t find it in Iowa. I came home with two 6-packs.

Back home, it was a busy week. We bought an estimated 3 tons of gravel to spread along the west end of the garage and a few other places.

We added gravel into the catio screen porch as well. There is still a pile of gravel left and we will find other uses for it as we go along. The gravel improves the looks of the garage, but mostly improves drainage and keeps mud from splashing up on the walls during rain storms. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Also around the house…

I had a major load of grass clippings mixed with flower bed clean-up debris to take to the compost area this week. Pam has been getting a few blackberries from her bushes. We trimmed back a few oak branches from around the garage and patio.

In short, it was another busy week at Heart House.

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

Pam’s Penny

Heart House has already been visited by a couple of bats – a bit early this year. Bat #1 was stunned and on the floor downstairs during the middle of the night a few weeks ago. Bat #2 was cornered in the kitchen a few days ago. In both instances, Elmo was instrumental in identifying the bat’s presence and jumping at it as it moved. (Little brown bats are a protected species, I get that, but they are ugly little chittering intruders.)

Once a bat has been located, Elmo keeps watch on that spot — even after the offending creature has been relocated outside. Bat patrol is a tiring job, but a cat’s gotta do what a cat’s gotta do. After staying on duty all night, Elmo is pretty much wiped all day. At least Elmo does something to earn his keep.

Happy Trails.

I spent the last two weeks at our lot in central Colorado. During that time I celebrated my 70th birthday, took some ATV rides, and worked to clear brush and dead trees. Many photos were taken and a few obstacles overcome. Due to the events that transpired and number of photos taken I will break the trip into two reports, the first this week and the second next week. I will start with my 70th birthday.

Pam set up a memorable birthday consisting of several moving parts. First she identified people in our contacts and her Facebook pages, encouraging friends and extended family to send me birthday greetings. It worked. I received more text and e-mail greetings than ever before. (Note: Cell phone and internet coverage is very poor at The Lot and text messages work best.) Thank you to all who took the time to send me greetings!

Second, Pam had contacted a friend at my old workplace, Jim Brassfield. Jim spread the word around the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office and a card was circulated for people to sign. A few people sent me text messages as well. Jim went above and beyond when he and Tim Rhodes, who had been my first assistant, took time off from work and drove up to The Lot, bringing a birthday cake and cards with them. This was a substantial commitment of time for my past coworkers, as it is a three hour trip [each way] from their Glenwood Springs base to the Park County property and back

I was flabbergasted when Jim and Tim arrived. Pam had told me to expect a “delivery” but I assumed she had arranged for flowers or a cake to be delivered. I had no idea Jim and Tim were on their way.

It was really good to see the guys again. We spent about 3 hours talking non-stop, catching up with personal and professional news. There have been many changes at my old place of work with some retirements, promotions, and even a couple weddings. Many of the people I worked with are still there and my birthday card was signed with familiar names.

Here is how Jim described the event to Pam:

From: “James Brassfield”
To: “Pamela”
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2022 7:43:10 PM
Subject: Re: 70th Birthday – Jerry Fields

Jerry was very surprised!!! We enjoyed the visit!  Tim and I were busy talking all the way and forgot to take a video of his expression……which was too bad because it was priceless!!  Thank you for letting us know about this special day and hope Jerry enjoyed it as much as we did! 

I did indeed enjoy the day. The visit and Pam’s efforts made this a birthday I will always remember. Thank you to all involved, and particularly to Pam.

I had some worries before I arrived at The Lot as to how much work I could really get done given the medical treatments I am on and the fact that any high-altitude acclimatization I once had has long since disappeared. I found that I could indeed get some work done, with with plenty of breaks and rests thrown in. The weather helped in this regard as it rained several days, mostly in late afternoons and evenings, thus putting a halt on that day’s activities.

Most of what I did was a ‘summer cleanup’ of trees that had reached the end of their life cycle over the last few years. Aspen are not long-lived trees and some die off every year. Most are brush-sized but a few are large enough to be salvaged for firewood. In the photo above I am picking up salvageable trunks (cut with the chain saw) and hauling them to my firewood pile.

That pile was reduced noticeable this year. Pam suggested I stop at the local fire department station and offer the logs as firewood to any members of the fire crew who might be interested. This I did, and one of the firefighters came by with his truck and 14 foot trailer and hauled off about 3/4 of the pile. I will let him know when I will be back at The Lot this fall to winterize the trailer, and he will pick up the rest.

Other brush was consolidated into larger piles and was chipped.

I spread the chips up along Birdhouse Ridge. The south facing slope struggles to support much growth, although there is some. I am hoping the addition of more organic material might encourage more growth.

I usually move the chipper around to a limited number of places with the Ford 8N tractor. This year I ran into a few problems. First, one tractor tire had gone flat and the others were low. While I had brought along my little 12-volt air compressor, it was not up to the task. Luckily my neighbor was in residence for the weekend and I was able to borrow a small compressor that worked to inflate the tires.

Then the fun really began. I pulled back the tarps that cover the tractor when not in use, then opened the battery compartment door. I had to jump back in a hurry as wasps had built a nest in the battery compartment and they were NOT happy to be disturbed.

Using a long stick I was able to dislodge the nest, but I had to wait until going to town the next day to get some wasp spray and finally clear the wasps from around the tractor. Eventually I was able to install the battery and get the tractor started.

Then the chipper would not start. I tracked the problem down to a split in the fuel line where it connected to the fuel tank. The fix was simple, cut off the split end and reinstall the line. Once that was done the chipper started right up. Over the course of a few days I was able to chip several piles of brush. Most were situated where I could get close to them with the tractor and chipper, but one larger pile had to be dragged to the chipper. I used the ATV as the puller for this job by wrapping a chain around the brush and hooking the other end to the ATV. This particular pile took 3 drags and one trip with the 2-wheel cart to move everything to the chipper.

Keep in mind that all this work was accompanied with FREQUENT rest breaks. While I did not get any “new” ground cleared I was able to go through areas we had worked in the past and remove the dead trees and brush from them. I did get 4 piles (a couple consolidated from smaller piles) chipped which was my goal for this trip. I was quite satisfied with the work I was able to accomplish.

Because I spent quite a bit of my time sitting in my chair, with my feet up on the footrest and looking out the 5-foot door, I observed more critters than normal. Here are a couple of them.

I had two deer come by the trailer but did not have my camera at hand to photograph them. And, as our acreage is part of open range, I did get visits from local high range cattle.

That will about cover the first part of my trip report. Next time I will cover my ATV rides, some weather-related topics, and a few details of being on the road.

While I was gone Pam accomplished several tasks, including repainting porch floor and risers, the installation of a new bathroom floor and adding more hearts to the end of the LP tank.

These activities took much work to get done. The floor, in particular, was a challenge as there are no truly square corners anywhere in the room. Many tiles had to be custom cut and fitted to the others and/or the irregular floor moldings. The end result is a much brighter room; the flooring compliments the art deco designs Pam had previously painted on the walls.

Around the yard, the morning glories and hydrangea are in bloom.

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

Pam’s Penny

That bathroom floor was a real bear. Limited space to move, limited ability to move in the limited space, uneven floor and uneven walls. It took me three days to put down 28 peel-and-stick tiles to my satisfaction. It all sounds so easy on the installation instructions, but I’d “installed” one of these types of floors before and I knew what I was getting into. This type of tile is not meant to last years and years; it’s a “quickie” lightener and brightener for a dark little dated bathroom. D-O-N-E.

High humidity was definitely a factor in my inability to work on outdoor paint projects the past two weeks. Which is why various indoor tasks received attention. There were a few storms; one night at 2:30 a.m. the dogs woke me during a mighty thunder and lightning event. I learned a few days later lighting had struck the ground one house west of Heart House and the impact popped internet connections to two residences. The noise of that strike was apparently what had agitated the dogs to the point of waking me.

The Grandpa Ott morning-glories climbing the trellis on the south porch feature a new pink variant in the mix this year. I’ve been picking blackberries (a few, but more each year) from the vines, and gathering tender rhubarb stalks. The white phlox finally bloomed. Except for the Indian corn (just now tasseling), seed plants are doing well; moisture has been frequent and humidity has been greenhouse-level (humidity you can cut, cube, and stack). High summer in NE Iowa.

Happy Trails.

The week went past and many small projects received attention. “Just living” duties took up much of our time. Here is a recap of the not-so-outstanding week we had.

Auburn Jo had a grooming appointment this week. As the groomer is in New Hampton, about 25 miles from us, grooming takes two round trips – one to drop her off and another to pick her up. I did the first/drop off trip and doubled it up with grocery shopping and a trip to Theisen’s hardware store. Purchases included more cobs of corn for the squirrel feeder and three gallons of paint for the ginger breading of the house. The paint we have been using for trim, Valspar brand, has been hard to find (supply chain issues) so when I discovered Theisen’s had recently received the tint bases required we decided to stock up. We should now have enough to do all the ginger breading (three shades of blue) on the house, regardless of when we get to painting that high up. A large cache of paint is now sitting in the laundry room.

Wednesday I had my annual Type-2 diabetes checkup. As expected, I am a mess. My A1C is elevated and my triglycerides are high. So is my bad cholesterol, a state that has existed since my 40s. The doctor added Glypizide to my Synjardy prescription to see if that would help lower my blood sugar level. That prescription, of course, led to a trip to the Decorah Walmart to pick up my medications. While in Decorah I stopped at the local HyVee grocery store to purchase bottled water and a few more groceries. Since this is about a 100 mile round trip it took most of the afternoon.

Other chores done during the week included lawn maintenance and a trip to the town’s compost site.

Pam had ordered a “work desk” to be used for sewing and craft projects. (She mentioned this in a previous post.) The desk had to be assembled, which was not difficult as the only real job was to attach the four legs and install the drawer.

Pam has already used her new work area and thinks it will be the project work space she’s been needing.

One of my projects was decidedly invisible. One of the web page commands I had used in the past was the “Align” command. This has been dropped from the current specification of HTML, the language used to construct web pages. While replacement code has been published, it was not applicable to the way I had used “Align.” While my pages still worked, future support would vanish and I wanted to update my pages to make sure they would display properly going forward.

It took me several tries and lots of dead ends before I figured out how to make the replacement code work for me. The first page to be updated is the “Cats” page. It looks the same as before as all the changes are “under the hood” and one would have to compare the code behind the page to notice the differences. For anyone who might be interested, here is the original code and the replacement code.

align="left" style="margin: 5px 5px 5px 40px;" border="2"

/* Centers photos to left on non-gallery pages. Replaces "Align=" deprecated in HTML4 and HTML5 */
.center1{
display:block;
margin-left:40px;
width:210px;
float:left;
}

Knowing readers will observe that the replacement code is a “class” named center1 in a CSS style sheet. The top line, which starts with /*, is a comment to myself indicating why this code was created. Now I need to apply the new code to other pages to update them.

It always is a surprise to me how much time routine tasks take. Coupled with high humidity, warm temperatures, and some rain showers, nothing was done on painting projects this week. Next week I plan to take a trip to our lot in Colorado; it will be a couple weeks before major paint projects resume.

I do have several “around the yard” photo to share this time. While the day lilies are about done, the phlox and other flowers are doing well. Pam spent some time trimming the forsythia bush and cleaning out some of the past-prime day lilies under one of the oaks. The yard is looking good!

Photo Archive

Some “Artsy” Black and White shots.

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

Pam’s Penny

Didn’t I say [last week] it would be too hot to paint outside this week?

I picked up JoJo at the dog groomers (after Himself completed the a.m. drop off noted above). I was disheartened to learn the groomer was quitting; at this time it’s unclear who the vet’s office will find as a replacement. (The vet sponsors the grooming parlor, attached to the vet’s office.) Nuts. It took this groomer three visits to finally clip JoJo as closely as requested -and- this is my second groomer since moving to NE Iowa. I may have to bite the bullet and buy my own grooming supplies for the next grooming period this fall. This does not excite me.

Happy Trails.

Thanks to better weather – lower temps and humidity – this past week was filled with work on major projects. Painting continued and we accomplished a milestone by removing the guest bedroom window AC and old windows in preparation for installation of new windows. Follow us!

Beginning on Monday we began painting more portions of the west wall. The pressure washer was called in to remove the worst of the old paint. In the photo below, take note of the AC cover on the upper left-hand window.

Working from the 10-foot ladder, I cleaned, scraped, and painted large portions of the wall as far up as could be reached.

Note the AC cover is now on the ground. There is a story behind that. A neighbor had rented a bucket lift to do some work on his chimney. He had the lift for a day (Thursday) and his work would only take a few hours. He offered to let us use the lift if I would return it to the rental yard on Friday before its due time. We appreciated this offer and quickly accepted it. Our thanks to Calvin and Sherri!

Rain was forecast for Friday morning so we had to get our work done by Thursday night. We knew removal would be a big job as it included removing the old windows so new windows, which we were storing in the upstairs bathroom, could be installed. (The install fell though so we are still waiting on that.)

I began by removing the old windows, a difficult and time-consuming job. I had to make a lot of use of my carpet knife, putty knife, and a screwdriver to cut though and remove old paint and calk. Trim around the inside of the windows had to be removed – carefully – so as to not damage them. Here are a couple photos of the windows removed:

We left the storm windows in place to help keep “stuff” from entering the room. One had been in place and Pam reminded me we had the one from an upstairs bedroom in storage. I retrieved it and, thankfully, it fit the other window opening. At least we have both second floor window openings protected from the elements until such time as the new windows can be installed. All progress is incremental!

The photos above were taken after the AC unit was removed, a job that took about 2 1/2 hours and could not have been done without the lift. To get started I had to remove part of the dog run fencing and fence posts so I could back the lift up to the wall. The AC cover had to be unbolted from the wall and lowered to the ground. We had to wrap a rope around the “ears” of the cover to safely perform this task. Then the big job – removing the AC unit.

The AC is not your typical item. A commercial 240-volt unit, the window sill had been cut for a custom fit. The insides could be removed from inside the house – after removing 4 screws – but the outer shell, shown above, had to be removed from the outside. The unit itself is very heavy. We managed to get it on an old rug and Pam dragged it down the hallway. I was able to drag it over the sill plate and into the bathroom where it now sits until we get the energy to move it down the steps.

I had not found my little Panasonic camera so did not take photos of the work in progress. I wish I had. Here are a couple photos of the lift in place.

Bob the Builder had originally indicated he could be out Friday morning to install the new windows, but later indicated Friday was out. He thought he could get here Thursday night but never arrived. We are hoping he gets us on his schedule soon as we would like to complete this particular job with the installation of the new windows.

I will need to take some time off after the Monday – Thursday action. Additionally, I drove the lift back to Decorah on Friday, did some shopping at the Decorah Walmart, stopped for a few groceries, and made it home by around 4:30 PM. Today I need to restore the dog run by putting the fence post/wire fencing back in place. I think tomorrow will be that rest day!

Around the yard I am enjoying some hostas starting to bloom.

It was a very busy week with a lot of ladder work for both of us. We can feel the strain in our legs from stepping up and down the rungs, and in our shoulders from scraping and painting. The upcoming week is supposed to be quite warm and humid so we may not get a lot more painting done, but we shall see. I am hoping to get out to Colorado later this month and maybe celebrate my #70 birthday with a Colorado ATV ride.

Photo Archive

Family and Fun. Fireworks in black and white, Pam and the kids from the late ’80s.

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

Pam’s Penny

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER WALL. Now we know how huge that lift is, and the side-to-side space the outrigger stabilizers need, so we can open sufficient pathways for “the monster” to enter the yard and park near the house. I personally was not desirous of seeing that machine again so soon, but one does not pass up a “lift gift” such as the one the neighbors offered. Plus I have been on something of a campaign to get that set of windows installed on the second floor. We’re halfway there with the removal of that freaking awful AC unit and cover. (There must have been over 1,000 lady beetle carcasses in that thing. Ugh.)

Himself is hell-bent on painting the west side of Heart House ASAP. People – the coming week is statistically the hottest and most humid of the year in NE Iowa. Why exactly should retired elders be hanging off the side of a building under those conditions??? I ask you.

A portent of winter to come arrived in the mail, in the form off our contract with the local ag services co-op for propane purchases into 2023. The price per gallon for LP increased another 40 cents since last contract period — it is now almost twice as expensive per gallon as when we first ordered LP locally in 2019. Jer’s chat with a neighbor, who uses another LP supplier, confirmed all companies in the area are in the same ballpark on price point. Our inclination is to think the LP price is not being manipulated by supply, but rather by demand (and stockholder dividends). Don’t think we will “blame the President” on this energy source, as seems to be the popular pastime. If we use the summer fill service before August 31, we can save a few cents to tide us over until [maybe] December.

There you have it – in the hottest week of the year, we contemplate winter heating bills. Crazy place, The Universe.

Happy Trails.

With high temps and high humidity, coupled with rain showers, we did not get much accomplished on painting projects this week. However, we did move ahead on smaller tasks, including decorating the house for the 4th of July. The yard benefitted from the moisture and sunlight so I have included some “yard” photos as well.

Pam completed one of her sewing projects, making skirts for the job sink and laundry room table. The finished project looks pretty good!

Pam finished her ‘summer holiday’ wreaths and hung them on the gates around the dog run. Here is one of them.

The house looks fine in its 4th of July garb.

Even Gromit got into the act.

I kept busy as well. One task that should have been done last fall, but didn’t, was addressed this week. I put new brake pads in the rear of the truck. I had done the front pads last November but the advent of cold weather and Becky’s arrival made me put off doing the rear brakes. The job went OK and the brakes are now nice and quiet; they had been ‘squeaking’ which is an indication of worn pads. I’m glad to have completed that particular job.

Other indoor projects included scanning more negatives and creating another “travel” video. The latter was part of a longer SW Colorado vacation from 1989, before we moved back to Wisconsin. (We were living in Oregon at the time.) The movie’s main topic is the area around Marble, Colorado, including McClure Pass, the marble quarry, the Crystal Mill, and the Town of Crystal. Run time is 12:46 and you can view the clip, if interested, from this page.

Next up for me is the replacement of the John Deere’s electronic clutch that operates the lawn mower deck. The old clutch has been acting up for some time, not wanting to engage after it has been running for a while and getting warm. The John Deere is around 30 years old, dating from the early ’90s, and needs some maintenance to keep it in operation. A clutch replacement is a fairly common problem for older riding lawn mowers. Here is a photo of the new clutch.

Hopefully the job to replace the old unit will not be difficult or take a lot of time.

The yard plantings are doing very well this year. One example is a maple in the east yard. Chewed off by deer last winter, we were uncertain it would survive. The tree has instead exhibited phenomenal growth, putting on more that 2 feet of new shoots this year.

Other flowers are doing equally well.

The outside cats like to get under the hostas and day lilies, under the oak trees, to stay cool. Here is Dusty taking advantage of the shade.

A couple of events to note. Last week, the 4th of July weekend, Elma hosted a tractor pull. I attended this event (drove the several blocks on my ATV) and watched a couple of classes and enjoyed the short outing. This weekend it’s Elma Trail Days, the first “full” celebration since the pandemic began. There will be street vendors, a concert, and fireworks were shot off last night. We will have to see how successful the event will be. (Last year most events were canceled, although there was a parade.) Here are a couple shots from this year’s parade, which we can enjoy from our front porch.

Photo Archive

Family photos from the late’80s

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

Pam’s Penny

Small sewing projects, large and small painting projects, subtle reorganizations of space in rooms for more efficient usage – these occupy my summer retirement days. With Becky’s departure, the storage/guest bedroom once again houses the rolling storage shelves; now, misc. art work stashed under a bed upstairs has been moved/is being sorted on the guest bed. The storage/guest bedroom is scheduled for major painting and decor this coming winter. In the meantime, I execute incremental changes and ponder possibilities.

I’m investigating purchase of a desk-sized work table for the parlor bedroom. I have quite a bit of project work during the year that needs to be spread out and (if Elmo leaves it alone) left out until completed. Initially I’d thought projects could be done on the laundry room table, but in reality this hasn’t happened. The laundry room table is good for trimming Bru’s coat, for staging laundry, and for Elmo to sleep on. Likewise, if I work on the library/dining table, project items are in the way and have to be moved/put away for meals. Subtle reorganizations for more efficient usage – my goal.

Happy Trails.

This week saw us working on a variety of projects – none as major as renting a bucket lift – but all checking off our list of update and maintenance tasks. Here are the details.

Monday was a “driving day” as I returned the bucket lift to the rental yard in Decorah, Iowa, followed by a shopping stop at the Decorah Walmart. Later that evening I drove a couple hours to a town named Houston, Minnesota, to rendezvous for dinner with my brother Jon, his wife Dianne, plus their oldest boy Garrett and his wife Cassie and their two children Heidi (7) and Colin (4).

We had a pleasant dinner and caught up on a number of topics. Garrett and Cassie, who live on the eastern coast, had traveled to visit family and friends. I had not seen them for many years but had kept up with them a bit through our holiday cards. All the family members seem to be doing OK. (A side note: Houston, MN is noted for its annual International Owl Days.)

Pam continued working on her holiday wreath project. This involves adding patriotic-themed ribbons and bows to wire frames. She will finish and hang these outside, adding more color around the house just in time for the 4th of July.

Pam took advantage of a calm day to move along on the LP tank painting project. Done with four spray cans of Rustoleum, a calm day was essential to this task; there have been few calm days lately. Here are photos of the tank and west end of the garage from the time we moved in until yesterday.

I continued painting the house in (for us) a novel way. Since we had run out of time to do the white trim using the bucket lift, I decided it was time to try painting from my 10-foot wooden ladder. This gets me part-way up the trim but my reach fell short of the upper parts of the trim. Going through a bin of painting supplies that had been stored in the garage attic, Pam and I came across a 4-inch roller. Coupled with two extension handles, taped together, my reach was extended to within an inch or two of the top of the trim boards.

After many repositions of the ladder, Pam stayed on the ground to dip the roller into a paint tray, handed the extended roller to me on the ladder, and in this way we painted the trim boards around the front of the house and a few other places I could reach. The bare wood that had been exposed during the pressure washing now has the first coat of paint on it, making everything look better and adding some protection from the showers that are in the forecast.

I worked at an “indoor” project involving photography. My brother Jon had given me a carton of Mom’s old cameras and photography gear. I went through these items, removing old batteries (most corroded) and sorting through accessories and manuals. I found film in many of the camera bodies.

I do not plan to get these developed as the films themselves are very old and have deteriorated over time, but will keep them as examples of film types used over the years. (A note, though, to readers of this blog: If you are going to store cameras for a long time, please remove the batteries.) Eventually I hope to display my growing collection of old cameras somewhere in the house. I have several old Argus 35mm cameras, a couple of Brownies, and even a couple of “bellows” units. None are very valuable but they are of interest to me. More on this hobby in future posts.

A few things are happening around the yard. Various lilies are beginning to bloom.

The east wall of the front porch is looking quite colorful; the geraniums are doing well. Hostas in the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden are getting huge this year.

Out in the garden we set up some retaining walls. Pam hopes to train the various vining plants – pumpkins and gourds – to stay (mostly) within these bounds.

It was another typical week: painting, project work, yard maintenance. Sometimes it seems we are not moving ahead as fast as we wanted to, but every project improves the appearance or livability of the house. We are reinvigorated to see paint on the 2nd story; that’s a big step forward for Heart House.

Photo Archive

A few family photos this time. These are scans from color negative film.

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

Pam’s Penny

Pondering how to move forward on the second floor paint project. (I’m not in a hurry to rent the lift again soon.)

Happy Trails.

The main event of the last week was our rental of a bucket lift for the weekend. We had planned to do this to see how much painting we could get done, or if we could do any at all from a bucket. Busy as we were, this blog post is a couple days off my regular schedule.

Diving right in, I will first mention that I misplaced my camera and switched to my backup old Canon. Between Pam and myself we took a number of photos and I have a new video / photo compilation I will link to later on.

Our first attempt to set up the lift and use it (a trial run, if you will) occurred at the west wall of the garage. I had a small area right at the top of the peak that I could not get to from my tallest ladder. A few photos will help understand my story.

From there we moved to the north side of the house. There were repairs needed to the siding under the media room window, and Pam pre-painted a few boards for me to use for the repairs. With the repairs completed we began painting, although it was late in the day and shadows stopped our progress.

Sunday morning I pressure washed the walls to remove the old and loose paint. Then the fun really began as we opened our paint buckets and had at it. Pam and I took turns painting (the bucket holds only one person at a time) and we managed to get the red on and dark blue around the media room and bay window trim. Although some white trim was painted, particularly behind the gutter downspout, we just plain ran out of time to do all the white we had hoped to get done. It will have to wait.

I have created a 4:24 video / photo of the painting process. You can find it on my Heart House video page or go directly to it from this link.

There were a few other events last week. I misplaced my camera and am using my backup Canon. This is irritating, to say the least, as I know I had the camera Saturday morning when I picked up the lift and brought it home. I hope the camera turns up at some point.

Pam ordered and received a small garden bridge for the flower bed under the oak trees. Some assembly required. It turned out well, and looks very good after Becky, who visited us, put another coat of stain on it.

Now it is time to recover from the long days we put in over the weekend. Working from the bucket is not easy as it moves and sways with the wind, which was quite gusty at times. A rain shower halted work for a while on Saturday and we had to wait for the walls to dry before we could resume painting. (That delay cost us time that we would have used to finish the white trim.) It was “an experience” as neither of us had worked from a lift before, and we are not sure we would want to do so again, but is is far less expensive that hiring a painter to do it so a repeat may be in the future.

Photo Archive

More black – and – white photos from my files.

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

Pam’s Penny

Positives about the bucket lift experience — very few wasps (or any bugs, really) up there, bucket was actually a small-ish platform with numerous handholds and waist-high containment for safety. Negatives — I don’t like heights, the bucket itself didn’t swivel to place a person straight-on to the job at hand. Late in the day yesterday a brisk breeze gusted, whereby being extended in the bucket felt like being trapped on a bad carnival ride. We are both still getting our equilibrium back today.

There is a very good reason I did not choose any occupation that required me to dangle in the air. About halfway through the afternoon yesterday, I was trying to figure out how I could put together the $$$ to have the painting company finish the job. But we persevered.

Happy Trails.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

Happy Trails.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

Happy Trails.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

Happy Trails.