This week’s post is going to cover a potpourri of projects, past and current, that have been happening.

Current projects have two major goals: Electrical upgrades and the installation of central air.

Jake the Electrician was here last week to get started on the wiring clean-up and modernization. Our top priority, as he would be here for one day only this first time, was to get the electrical service required for the central air unit installed. Until this was done we could not get on the AC install schedule. Jake was able to clean up some of the old wiring and install the AC service.

Jake also helped me remove the (large) 240-volt window air unit from it’s place in one of the downstairs windows. (For those who have been here, I’m referencing the room off the living room directly adjacent to the downstairs bathroom.) I did not take pictures of this process but it could not have been done without Jake’s help.

Two of the side benefits of this removal are more light in the room and a great decrease in the cold air that had been seeping in around the unit. Both are appreciated.

The house had been equipped with electric wall-mounted heaters, a very expensive (and dangerous!) heat source and one we had never used. The 240 volt heaters and their wiring back to the circuit breaker panel were removed. The grills are still in place, covering the cavities left behind, until we can patch and repair the walls.

So…two of our major upgrade projects are in process. We don’t have an end date for the electrical but now the second project, installation of central air, is going forward.

The HVAC guys showed up this morning, after calling us yesterday to let us know they had a day open and could be here early. (These days, 8:00 AM is early for us.) We jumped at the chance as the forecast for this weekend shows a heating trend with temps getting into the 80’s and would be a good trial run for the system. Installation should be done by tonight.

We just found out that our furnace heat exchanger is rusted and needs to be replaced. While the exchanger is covered under warranty, the installation of the new unit is not. This will increase our cost by several hundred dollars but, along with the new burners installed last fall, should ensure the furnace is good to go for many years to come as well as increasing its efficiency. The AC install can still go forward but the guys will have to make a return trip to replace the exchanger after it arrives in Elma.

Cold weather this week, with at or below freezing for the past 4 out of 5 nights, put a damper on outside activities so we took it easy and worked on inside projects. I took one day off and just read, a real treat for me. Pam worked on decorating flower pots; some will hang from the porches and some will be partially buried near the house.

Becky had mentioned, in a comment on my last post, that I should show a picture of my garage organization, a project I work on from time to time. Here are a couple current photos:

For once, I have the garage wall fairly well organized with like items together, all nails in one space, bolts, nuts, spray paint, and lubricants all organized. It is nice to be able to find things when I need them. More unpacking to come, though, as there are still boxes of “stuff” in the garage attic that I need to go through.

Becky had also asked about how we dispose of yard waste. Unfortunately, Elma has no compost site or sanitary landfill. Up to this point I have been borrowing the key to the old town dump from the city manager. The dump can be used to dispose of yard clippings, tree branches, and other organic material but is not “open” to the public. Most Elma residents appear to burn wood and leaves in their burning barrels, which is not good for the environment. Below is my trailer, partially loaded for the next trip to the dump:

I have spoken to one of the city council members about having volunteers monitor the old dump for a few hours per week (to check incoming loads to make sure they don’t contain garbage) and thus give city residents a place to take fall leaves and other yard waste. The councilman said he would bring it up at the next town meeting.

On to other things. The plantings we did last week seem to be doing OK. Cooler weather and some rain helped them settle in, I think. Other plants are doing OK; many had to be covered several times last week but survived the near-record low temps. Among the flowers we covered were several Bleeding Hearts.

Bleeding Hearts have intrigued me since I first saw them as a young child at my grandmother’s house. Hers were planted near the edge of her side porch and I always looked for them when we went to visit. These pictured were not planted by us but came up in a couple of the old flower beds scattered around the garage and yard. We may have to relocate some of them to make way for the garage addition when that project kicks off but that should be at the end of their blooming season.

Another project, on hold while waiting for hardware, is the installation of two more doors in the house. These doors will separate the front parlor bedroom from the living room, creating a French doors effect. Ordered through an Elkader shop, these “antique re-creations” mirror the single door we installed last year (the previously-purchased door separates the main entrance hallway from the parlor).

The hinges and latches were ordered on-line and delivery has been pushed back a couple of times. The hardware will look “period” to the house (brass plated) and are not items carried by your local Ace or Tru-Value stores.

With two major projects now moving forward, we have turned our attention to another major project, fencing.

Two types of white vinyl fencing will be involved. A solid privacy fence is envisioned for the west side of the lot, acting as a windbreak plus creating the west boundary of the dog enclosure. The remainder will be a picket fence on the east side of the yard, ending at the (future) garage extension. When fencing is finished, the dogs will have quite a large space to exercise and spend time outside. Another advantage: Exiting from the back door will put the dogs immediately in the fenced yard. Currently they need to be “escorted” from the door to the dog run.

We have pretty much completed our materials list for both types of fencing preliminary to online ordering. Big Box store pickup locations appear to be in Rochester, MN. I will now be asking around to see if there is anyone locally who might handle the fence install. I could do it myself, but I’m looking at around 190 linear feet of fencing, nearly 30 posts, and four gates in total. I would rather not take this on if we can pay someone to do it. We shall have to see what work crew(s) are available during planting season.

Photo Archive

This week’s photo archive features Pam when she was working in the Whitewater School District in the late 90’s. The event was Civil War Day, and Pam is wearing a hoop skirt and posing with a pair of “soldiers”:

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

Pam’s Penny:

Busy! Preparing to visit local greenhouse(s) to fill painted pots with annuals. About a dozen pots to start with, going around and hanging from the front porch.

Happy Trails.

There is more than normal to report on this week. The warmer weather has allowed us to get quite a lot done on both inside and outside projects.

The first topic concerns furniture. Several months back we had taken three items to a local Mennonite woodworking shop for repair: Pam’s fretwork, a table, and a plant stand.

The table, a gift from my Aunt Gina several decades ago, was a bit wobbly. The shop rebuilt the corners where the legs attach to the top and converted the mounting from a singe bolt in each leg to a pair of bolts in each leg. The table is now quite steady and is serving as our main dining room table.

The plant stand was originally purchased in Leadville, Colorado, in the 1970’s. Supposedly it had come out of an old church. The top was in bad shape so the local shop replaced the old wood with a new platform and covered it with a dark formica. It now looks quite good and is in our living room.

The prize item, Pam’s fretwork, was purchased last Fall and had two problems: one end had been cut narrower than the other, plus there was a split in one of the curved elements. The shop replaced both ends so they match and even added a decorative cut at the bottom of each end, a nice touch. The split was repaired and you would never know it had been there.

Pam was delighted with the quality of the repairs on all three items, and the cost was only $70.00 total.

Here is Pam staining the fretwork in preparation for hanging it in the parlor bedroom:

After the stain dried we hung the piece in the bedroom:

Here is a wider “room view” of the finished wall. (Note that the right side was the corner Pam was painting in my last post.)

A few stuffed animals have been added to the shelving:

The bedroom remodel is nearly complete. Pam wants to add a mural and more photos to the west wall (which is the right-hand wall in the room view photo above). This work be covered in a future post, when backordered items arrive and further craft projects are completed.

Warm weather allowed us to kick off a number of outside projects. Last Thursday we headed out to a couple of greenhouses to pick out plantings for the yard. We came home with:

1. A Honeylocust tree,
2. Three Lilacs – one each white, dark purple, and medium lavender;
3. Ten Arborvitae starts (these will eventually serve as a windbreak),
4. A Spirea shrub,
5. Two raised planting bed frames.

Which meant that Friday was a “digging” day as we set out the materials where Pam wanted them planted, then it was up to me to dig the holes and get planting.

Here are a few of the results:

The raised bed frames will eventually hold two types of plants, pumpkins in one frame and watermelon in the other.

One of the gift stores had this appropriate (for us) sign:

I have been digging dandelions out of the lawn but the sheer numbers forced me to buy some Scotts Weed and Feed that should kill the yellow buggers. I’ve been waiting for a rainy day, as the directions indicate application should be when the lawn is wet. Today it’s raining!

Pam took on another outdoor project, defining the flower bed around a pair of our oak trees.

There are a lot of plantings coming up around the house and in the yard. We will have to wait to see what these turn out to be; many look like Hostas but some are not familiar to us. We did identify these Grape Hyacinths that I discovered in the middle of what used to be a garden patch:

These have been marked with small flags for eventual relocation to a more appropriate spot. The same will have to be done with other plants as they can be identified. For instance, bleeding hearts have started to bloom in a flowerbed of weeds and dandelions next to the garage!

Pam had transplanted the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden tulips last fall and they have begun to bloom.

We were pleased these survived the foundation sealing project and hope they look better next year!

The dogs have been spending more time outside, and Blondie took advantage of the recent warm temps to catch some z-z-z-z’s:

I was able to clean out a corner of the garage and get one of my workbenches out of storage. The extra drawer space provided by the workbench is welcome and I can unpack more of my tools and accessories.

All told it was a busy week with work done on both inside and outside projects.

Photo archive

This week’s archive photo is from a past December and features our children Felicity and Toby visiting with their grandfather, George.

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

Pam’s Penny:

Our latest pest invasion in the house is bumblebees. Add that to the wasps occasionally coming up through the floor vents. (How many pests overwintered in the basement anyway?) No sign of mice at present, and always on the lookout for bats, of course.

Happy Trails.

Having lived in a small town (Greenwood, population 1,100) I grew up experiencing small town living. My mother was a school teacher school and my father delivered mail; both my parents were well known in the community.

We received a dose of having friendly neighbors this past week. While we were outside trimming trees and bushes, two of our new neighbors, Jan and Lorraine, walked past and struck up a conversation with Pam. During the conversation Pam mentioned she wished to get some rhubarb starts so we could eventually have rhubarb pie.

The next morning we found a pot of rhubarb on our east porch! Brand new and obviously from a greenhouse, we really appreciate the gesture. (Pam now thinks of the two neighbors as the Rhubarb Sisters.)

Along the same small town theme, a couple deer came running down Main Street the other day and cut in behind a house located just west of us. And a strange sight; two people dressed as dinosaurs came walking down the same street one day. Turns out they were dressed for a photo shoot at the local bank located a few blocks to the east of us. And, of course, the Mennonite carriages roll past every now and then. The clip-clopping of the horse hooves is quite a relaxing sound (except for the dogs…).

I have previously mentioned the number and variety of birds in the area but we also have rabbits and both grey and black squirrels in residence.

Still another example of small-town life came from the City. Officials secured a small bulk tank of hand sanitizer; bring your own container (spray bottle recommended) and fill it up for free. This information was provided to us by another neighbor who was driving by, saw us in the yard, and stopped to pass along the details.

As you may have gathered, we have been spending time outside as the weather improves. In addition to trimming trees and shrubs, I put down some grass seed and started filling in some low spots in the lawn.

After the foundation seal had cured I had to reattach the gutter downspouts I had removed from the house. Most had to be reworked as the foundation is now about 2 inches thicker than before. This meant the downspouts had to be rebuilt to clear the new insulation. The job took several hours and I was able to use parts and pieces of gutter that were on hand and left by the previous owner(s).

In addition to reworking the downspouts, I had to reinstall the porch boards I had removed to gain access to the main foundation. This photo shows the front porch (and I had to do the east/side porch as well).

Inside the house, Pam continues the parlor bedroom painting and upgrading. Here she is working on the west wall of the room at about ten foot height:

Note the previous “mustard” color that the new paint is covering. The new two-tone paint job, combined with a ribbon border and fabric header, looks terrific on the completed sections of the room.

Pam’s attention to detail extends to the strip of ribbon, seen in the lower right corner of the above photo, which features fabric moths cut from the header fabric. Pam glued the figures to tagboard to give them some depth, then mounted them where the ribbon pieces meet or end.

This photo shows off the ribbon strip and fabric figures a bit better:

In addition to working on the bedroom, Pam and I took a few minutes to mount a floating shelf under the upper stairwell angle. (This shelf would be visible upon entering the door from the front porch into the house.) The shelf displays two of Pam’s cameras and her mother’s Brownie box. Notice the 110 complete with original case, flash cube and flash cube extender. Can anyone say Antiques Roadshow?

As I write this it is raining so there will be little outside activity today. The rain will be beneficial for the grass seed I just sprinkled here and there on the lawn, as well as Pam’s new rhubarb plant. It will be a good time to catch up on other “inside” projects. There is always something to do!

From the Photo Archive

This week’s photo is from 2000 and shows the Fields Family at the Grand Canyon.

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

Pam’s Two Cents:

No, the parlor bedroom is not PINK. It is “rose” (bottom color) and “blush” (top color). I had to do a bit of paint mixing myself to get the “blush” just the right shade. The accent ribbon is “deep mauve.” There will be plenty of cream and mauve + cranberry accents in the room — eventually.

One of my overall decorating goals here at 702 Main is to get things out of boxes and on display or in use, hopefully in artsy and interesting places. Hence the cameras on the shelf.

Happy Trails.

This week we saw one of our high-priority projects get completed: The foundation was sealed.

A few weeks ago we had contacted a company, Weber Insulation, to come out and seal the house foundation @ 702. Our hope is this will reduce the level of cold air (and warm, humid air) infiltrating into the house, making it more energy efficient.

Weber Insulation arrived yesterday, April 21st, to do the work. (Early morning, 7:00 a.m. That hour is a bit early for us these days.)

There are several steps in the sealing process:

Dig a trench around the foundation, making the trench about 4 inches below ground level.

Spray the existing stone rubble foundation with polyurethane.

I removed some boards so even the house foundation located under porches could be coated. One of the young [and thin] workers got the task of going under the porch opening,

Grind down the high spots.

Fill in low spots and do final sanding.

Last step involves spraying on a layer of glue and adding the topcoat finish.

Finished foundation looks good!

The crew started shortly after 7:00 AM and was finished by 2:00 PM. Now I have to put back the rain gutters, hose holders, and east porch railing, all items I had removed in preparation for this work.

I’m very pleased with the way the foundation work looks and how quickly it went. Now to see if it helps make the home more energy efficient.

For your edification and enjoyment, I am working on a video of the project and will be posting it shortly on my Videos page.

The foundation was not the only bit of news from the last week, although it was the major story. We had our first spring flower bloom. I am not sure what these are called but pleasant to see it happen.

For the first time this year, the next week’s forecast has no below freezing temperatures. Let us hope that continues to be the case!

Elma seems to be home to a large variety of birds. We have numerous robins, finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, and sparrows. The other day this bird was feeding under one of the bushes in the yard. (Photo was taken through our front window which is early glass and added some distortion.)

We will have to get a bird identification book so we can give these birds their proper names.

On other fronts, Bob the Builder came by and will be giving us a quote re: adding a bay onto the existing two-car garage. I expect the addition, 16 feet by 30 feet, will be in the 15K – 18K range, not counting the cost of cement work.

We should be hearing from the electrician we spoke to earlier in the year. At that time “Jake” indicated he was scheduled about 3 weeks out, so we should be getting closer to the top of his work schedule.

All in all, the improving weather means more projects can get underway. It will be a busy spring.

Photo Archive

This week’s photo was taken at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2002.

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

Pam’s Penny:

The foundation guys (three in all) kept their “social” distances pretty much, except for Fields standing too close to them and insisting on shaking hands. The dogs had their potty breaks on leash the day of the foundation spray – woo-hoo, that was exciting.

Happy (socially distanced) Trails.

This past week, including Easter Sunday, was a study in spring weather. One day it was warm, up in the 70 degree range, then snow came in.

While the accumulation was not great here in Elma, less than one inch, Rochester (about 70 miles north) received nine inches of snow. We were on the fringe of the heavy snow band.

Still, the wind blew and the snow had a decided horizontal element to it, making it a good day to stay inside and enjoy a hot cup of cocoa.

During the week we had colored Easter eggs, an exercise I hadn’t taken part in for some time. Brought back some memories of days when our kids were younger, and back when I was a kid.

Activities for the rest of the week were somewhat limited; the remaining boxes were removed from the storage area and put in the garage, Pam’s painting continued, and I did [still more] lawn clean up after winds had blown quite a few leaves onto our lawn.

For any who might view my Galleries, a few technical changes have been made. Most photos now have rounded corners and video clips are labeled as to their run times. Galleries that have one or more video clips associated with them have an * in the title. Layout of the galleries has been standardized with captions below the thumbnails and centered on the page.

I know these changes mean more to me than to others but I enjoy tinkering with the underlying code and I think the changes present the photos and video clips in a more attractive way. The hard part was editing all the galleries and video pages; a very time consuming and (at times) tedious task. Glad to have it done.

Pam is trying to trim up the dogs Bru and JoJo as they are well past their normal grooming appointments. Both were getting quite shaggy. (Blondie is a short hair so grooming is not a high priority with her.) Although not perfect, the dogs do look much better after their trim. JoJo is still a work in progress as she will sit still only so long while Pam works on her section by section. I think dogs and humans will both be happy when pet groomers reopen for business!

From The Photo Archive

Back to when it all started: August 10th, 1974.

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

Pam’s Two Cents:

I was thinkin’ I might eventually invest in some equipment and try doing the dog grooming myself, now that I’m retired. Using a scissors and comb this time, I proceeded to give it a try. Bru ended up with one errant snip on her belly and I cut myself in the hand working on Jo. Both wounds were bleeders. I knew there was a reason I paid people to do this.

Home grooming might work with Bru, who is a smaller dog, so the overall volume of hair (and thus time devoted to the task) is less. With JoJo, however, who is basically a Springer Spaniel mix, too much dog and too much hair.

And too little patience all around.

Happy (future) Trails.

Mondays are grocery shopping days for us. I headed out to a local store, Fareway, located in Cresco. Cresco is about 25 miles from Elma.

The store is not large but carries most of the basics we need. However, “exotic” items, such as agave liquid sweetener and witch hazel, are not part of the product mix. We alternate between this store and the HyVee store in Charles City, which carries a wider range of products. Next Monday will be a HyVee trip.

Given the COVID-19 situation, I can take advantage of “Senior Shopping Hours” that run from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM every morning. Best part for me is no kids running up and down the aisles!

Quite a few of the shoppers were wearing face coverings so I may need to find one or dig out my ATV dust mask for future use. Masks are not mandated but are picking up in popularity.

Paper towels are still a scarce item, but I did find some hand sanitizer. (Last week HyVee had TP so we are OK there.) Other items are still rationed; a limit of 4 “water items” was posted, along with limits on some paper products.

All told it was a mostly successful shopping trip. What I did not get this time will go on the list for next week’s trip to Charles City.

Around the house, work continues on a couple different fronts. Pam continues to paint and I work on projects mentioned in previous posts such as lawn clean-up and moving boxes out of our storage unit into the garage.

I did take the snow blade off the John Deere tractor and put on the mowing deck and grass bagger. I ran the mower over the yard to even out the grass and pick up leaves that had blown in from surrounding yards. I raked out several corners around the house, dog run, and along the garage and finished mulching the “heavy” winter accumulation of leaves. The lawn mowing, combined with sidewalk edging and leaf mulching, has the yard looking pretty good.

Given the number of trees in the yard it is no surprise that there are a lot of small branches and twigs on the lawn. These will have to be raked up as they are too heavy for the mower deck or lawn vac to handle.

I continue to work on my web pages; my galleries now have an “Auto Play” button on them which will start the chosen gallery to run as a slide show. I find this more convenient than clicking on each photo to go through an entire gallery but that option is still there for those who want it. Combining the Auto Play with the Full Screen mode makes for a nice way to view these collections.

Life goes on despite the COVID-19 restrictions. We are keeping busy with outside projects on nicer days and inside projects on the (many) dreary days. There is still paperwork coming through regarding my retirement; Medicare just sent us a multi-month billing and I had to call them to remove my former private insurance coverage as primary. (Former coverage ended at the end of February this year.) Pretty soon, though, I will have to find an open barbershop and we both should set up dentist appointments for routine cleaning (when dentists are operational again). Nothing critical, though I do miss open library hours. Overall we are doing OK.

Archive

Here is photo of me from 2007. We had visited a museum in Reno, Nevada as part of a longer trip.

The sign below was made for us by our good friend Hank when we lived in Colorado in the late 1970s.

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

Pam’s Two Cents:

It’s been a month since the unexpected gall bladder removal surgery. Supposedly I can now start to lift items weighing more than ten pounds, although my torso incisions frequently object to heavier weights.

Our sheltering in place continues. Although Iowa’s governor has not issued a formal “stay safe at home” order, we’re finding local businesses are on reduced hours and/or reduced public interaction, if not downright closed period. Neighbors are maintaining a social distance when speaking to us, as are potential service providers who arrive for quotes (electrician, foundation spray company owner, handyman).

I’ve been surprised by the catio cat population. I assumed that, once given the freedom to come-and-go at will, there would be considerably more wandering about than is presently occurring. I guess they are “sheltering in place” where the food, water, and heated beds are. No dummies.

Happy (future) Trails.

I am going to start this post with a few follow-up comments about our current activities and projects

Medical: Pam is doing very well. She has now finished with three of the four weeks restriction on lifting ten pounds or less and is looking forward to finishing the final week.

Her “painted-on” incision bandages have fallen off, just as the doctors said they would after a few weeks. Pam is glad to be rid of them for psychological reasons as well as physical ones. The healing process is moving along just as it should.

Pam continues the bedroom painting project:

She works on this project every few days and allows her shoulder to recover in the off-time.

Yard work: I have finished edging the Main Street sidewalk, the last bit to do in that project. Very few people in Elma maintain their sidewalks so the neighbors probably think I am a bit crazy, but I do think having neatly trimmed and edged walks show that someone cares about their property and neat walks add to the curbside appeal.

I was able to get some more lawn raking done and move forward with the lawn clean-up. While below-freezing temperatures are still in the forecast, the daytime temps are gradually warming up. I hope to have the initial lawn work finished in a couple of weeks, depending on weather conditions.

Home repairs: New this week is a quote for getting the foundation sealed. A local company does this work, and the owner stopped by to examine the job site and give us an estimate of $3,300.00. We told him to put us on his work schedule. We are hoping for completion by early summer.

Project begun: Moving boxes from our rented storage unit to put in the attic of the garage. I have been frustrated in my quest to find tools and odd items such as screws, nails, and shelf brackets so I decided to bring most boxes out of the storage unit. I will have better access that way and can go through boxes at my leisure when I need to find something.

This will be a multi-week task in parallel with lawn work when the weather justifies the outside activity. (Today we have a mix of rain and snow in the air so neither project gets any attention.) There is another side benefit; the “big boy” toys fit much better in the storage unit and allows easier access to the remaining boxes.

Social: While still not fully “mid-westernized” we are getting there. One local shopper runs this weekly ad:

We have not tuned in yet. 🙂

Pet update: The cats and dogs have adopted the house and appear to be quite comfortable. Here are 4 of the cats and JoJo sleeping around one of the main floor heating vents.

Pam has opened the catio so the ferrel cats can start getting some outside time. We had half-expected them to run off but they seem to be fine coming back to the cat shed for food, water, and heated sleeping beds.

Finally, a new feature for my posts: Jerry’s Archive. I will, from time to time, include a photo or two dating back in time. I have started to go through older photos taken over the years and will put a few in these posts as a reminder of past places, people, and things we have known or experienced. I hope you enjoy them.

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

Pam’s Penny:

Nothing new to report. Sheltering in place seems a lot like surviving winter in Iowa.

Happy (future) Trails.

Well, as normal as we get. 🙂

In truth, not much went on this last week. The weather was cold and had a mix of snow and rain which curbed our outside activities. To make up for this, Pam began to paint a bedroom and update the bedroom furniture.

Up to this point Pam has been sleeping on our roll-away bed during the transition; available beds is one more thing to update. A new day bed and mattress arrived and found their home in the soon-to-be-updated bedroom.

The pink cover is to keep the cats off the pillows. The old mattress is under the bed until we can find a place to store it. The new bed is “comfy” to sleep on, as the cats will attest.

I spent a few hours applying some updates to my Galleries pages. A sharp eye will note that there is no longer E-Card, OC-3, or Scout II galleries. The OC-3 and Scout II were sold before we left Colorado and the E-Card gallery requires Adobe Flash to work. Flash is no longer supported by the major web browsers so I decided to remove that gallery.

On the other hand, one might notice two new galleries: the “Heart House” gallery has a few photos taken in and around 702 Main here in Elma and will get more photos in the future. The second link is to a couple of motorcycle-related videos and is titled “Bike Videos” which may be of interest to my biker friends.

I made some changes to the underlying structure of the pages, adding code that would allow me to add or remove navigation buttons and footer information from two files, one for the nav buttons and the other for the footer information. This eliminates the need for me to go in and modify every page individually, a great savings of time and effort.

As I continue to unpack the Media Room, I am getting more and more of our old LP records back on their shelves. It is good to see these (and dozens more) “old friends” again, and I try to make sure I listen to some music every day. I’ve also been going through my old cassette tapes as well.

We have begun to contact various service providers; the local electrician stopped by a couple days ago and gave us a quote on bringing the house wiring up to standard. His schedule is about three weeks out and so it will be mid-April before that work can start (depending on COVID-19 infiltration in this area).

We have also spoken to the air conditioning folks about getting a current quote and getting on their work schedule, but the install can’t begin until after the electrical service is installed. Hopefully the work will be completed before the hot weather season begins – there is a waiting list. And again, the HVAC company (based in Elma) is putting together its own COVID-19 plan.

Next up will be to contact the company that seals foundations with a spray-on material. Our foundation is of mixed stone and allows a lot of cold air to enter. The sealant should make the place much easier to heat and cool and is a high priority for us to get done.

I would like to get started on a garage addition that would be able to handle some of my big boy toys and the Ford F-150 truck. I have not sought a quote yet for that project, which may have to be done in stages starting with cement work.

Pam is planning a fencing project to replace the temporary dog run I put up last fall. Poor JoJo has not had a proper place to stretch her legs since last fall, and she does love to run!

Hanging over all of these plans, as noted, is the COVID-19 issue; we don’t know if the businesses we need to do the work will be able to take on new jobs. We hope for the best but the situation is “fluid” to say the least.

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

Pam’s Penny:

Sometimes I lose track of Fields. He’s generally up in the Media Room, listening to music. There are worse ways to start a retirement than “sheltering in place” with music.

Happy (Future) Trails.

It has been a week since Pam returned home from her gallbladder surgery. Here is the latest update.

Pam is recovering nicely. Finding comfortable sleeping positions was a challenge but she is now getting the rest she needs. The incisions are healing and starting to pull a bit depending on how Pam moves her torso, but the incisions are clean with no indication of infection or other trouble.

Pam’s sister, Becky, headed back to her home in Wisconsin last Thursday after determining Pam could handle the pet care and other routine tasks with no problems.

A shout out to my niece Jenn and her family who sent Pam a lovely bouquet of “Get Well” flowers.

I would also like to say Thank You to everyone else who checked in to see how Pam was doing: Craig, Carol, Julie, and Hank among them.

While Pam was recovering last week I started doing some lawn chores. Last fall I was not here to clean up the lawn and rake leaves so the lawn, which had been neglected for some time, now needs attention. I fired up my lawn vac/chipper and started to mulch leaves. Right now I have the truck bed full of mulched leaves and twigs and hope to get them to the town compost area tomorrow. When the weather improves again (light snow this morning) I will finish the lawn clean up.

The sidewalks needed work to remove the grass that had encroached on them over the years — or maybe decades. Several hours were spent with the edger and shovel cleaning the pavement and edging. I am about 3/4 done, having the Main Street side to do after finishing the 7th street side, front walk, and walk around the house and between the house and garage. Makes me realize just how long the sidewalks really are!

The transplanted Mary Lynn Memorial tulips are starting to green out. Pam was worried about the bulbs’ ability to make the trip from Colorado to Iowa and grow in the new (and very different) soil. While still too early to see the totality of the bulbs sprouting, the fact that quite a few can already be seen is encouraging.

And so we continue to unpack a few boxes, re-arrange stuff to make a better fit, and wait for warmer weather when we can get major projects underway.

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

Pam’s Penny:

We are on the alert for COVID-19, as is the rest of the country (and the world). Very relieved Jerry is not still driving back and forth between IA and CO.

Happy Trails (stay home and explore local trails)

This past week has been marked by one important event: Pam was in the hospital.

The episode started with a rash that was causing severe itching, so we went to the nearest clinic to have it looked at. After the source of the rash was diagnosed, Pam mentioned she had been having some abdominal discomfort as well. A blood test revealed pancreatitis was present and the clinic doctor insisted, in no uncertain terms, that immediate surgery was required.

To make a long story short, Pam entered the Gundersen Hospital in La Crosse, WI on Friday night. (Hospital choices were either Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN or Gundersen in LaCrosse, a hospital from Pam’s old stomping grounds which was familiar to her). Saturday was spent running more tests and prepping Pam for gallbladder removal surgery, which occurred early Sunday morning.

The surgery was successful but long due to two complications: the gallbladder was deteriorating and sticking to the liver, so extra care had to be taken in removal so as not to damage the liver. After the gallbladder was removed laproscopically, another procedure called an ERCP, had to be performed to clear the duct between the pancreas and small intestine. It had been blocked with small gallstones.

The result was a much longer time under anesthesia than expected, in this case about 5 hours. Coming out was disorienting and scary for Pam and had the unwanted side effect of nausea. Not good times.

However, a day later on Monday afternoon, I was able to bring Pam home to Elma. She had been able to walk around and eat the light food provided by the hospital. Her recovery has few a limitations, the major one being restricted to not lifting more than 10 pounds at a time for the next 4 weeks. The largest source of discomfort is the larger incision made on Pam’s right side under the ribcage where the medical instruments had been inserted. All incisions are healing well, and her “internal processes” returned to normal post surgery.

The hospital is about a 270 mile round trip from Elma so I was on the road a great deal plus time at the hospital. We put in an emergency call to Pam’s sister Becky to see if she could come down and help out with pet care (6 cats, 3 dogs.) Becky was able to come to Elma, which was a tremendous load off our minds and allowed me to travel and spend time with Pam. We can’t thank Becky enough for her help!

While I did not take any photos of Pam in her hospital room, I did get a couple shots of her status board:

Pam is recovering and spending time talking to Becky and doing light household tasks. I am getting back to other projects such as putting up some garage shelves and replacing the hood on my John Deer lawn tractor. Life goes on.

We did have another issue this past week. Mr. Bibbs, one of our cats for the last 15 plus years, walked over the Rainbow Bridge on Tuesday. We buried him next to one of our other cats in the Elma back yard. Mr. Bibbs had not been well for some time so the end was not unexpected but I miss him.

I hope that is the end of traumatic events for a time. The weather is getting better, snow is mostly gone, grass is beginning to green up and it will soon be “major project time” as spring arrives. Who knows, maybe I can begin to enjoy my retirement!

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

Pam’s Penny:

Now I have an old age surgery story to tell. But I hate hospitals. They are so invasive – always needles, always vitals, always measuring every drop of fluid going in and out.

I’m going to be a terrible old person. Especially in the hospital.

Happy Trails.