Holiday Preparations Begin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

From a trip to the Pacific Northwest in 1989.

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

Pam’s Penny

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

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

Happy Trails.