Month: November 2025

We had quite the Thanksgiving week this year. Toby visited us from Las Vegas, Becky came over, and one of the heavier snowstorms of the last few years dropped several inches of snow. Here are the details!

Our son, Toby, lived for several years in South Bend, Indiana. This year he wanted to spend Thanksgiving with a few of his Indiana friends, one of whom recently had her father pass away. Toby had spent several Thanksgivings with this family and wanted to do so again.

His travel plans included an overnight stop with us on the Tuesday before Turkey Day and another night the day after. He spent the rest of his time in South Bend or on the road (due to the situation with air travel these days, he had driven from Las Vegas).

We had a good Thanksgiving meal on Friday with Pam’s sister Becky also in attendance. Along with the traditional holiday foods Pam baked a pumpkin and an apple pie. We enjoyed all the company, good food, and deserts.

Toby stayed with us until Saturday morning. Alas, it snowed overnight and more was on the way. This made Toby’s departure a bit of a driving mess. The National Weather Service had issued a winter storm warning for those of us here in Howard County as well as much of Iowa.

I had converted the John Deere LX176 into winter trim by removing the mowing deck and bagging system and mounting the snow blade, suitcase weights, and cable-style tire chains. The rig had a workout Saturday and more work on Sunday.

For the first time in a couple years I started the snow blower. Last year I did not use it at all, but with several inches of snow already on the ground and more coming, the blower was the best tool for part of the snow removal job. I use the John Deere to clear our alley access and approaches to our set of mailboxes, and the blower on the sidewalks. (Hand shoveling is also needed to complete the job. Not everything can be done with a machine.)

The weekend before Thanksgiving was quite mild so we hung our outside Christmas lights. Normally we do this after Thanksgiving, but with a storm in the forecast and cold weather following behind it, we decided to get the work done early. Inside decorations will follow in the next week or two.

Pam continues to work on the holiday cards while I spent time in the garage changing out the starter on my ATV; the original had failed. Some time in the past I had broken the tail light so replacing that assembly is another task accomplished.

The Mr. Heater and propane tank I documented in an earlier post worked well during the ATV repair sessions, providing enough heat to warm up the garage to the point where I could work with my jacket off.

In my last post I mentioned I had installed a solar-powered motion sensing light in the dog run (so Pam can see the dogs when they are at the north end gate). That experiment did not go as planned; there was not enough sunlight to charge the battery in that spot with the first purchase. That model solar light was switched out for a plug-in style, and Pam now has the light she wanted.

That about covers it for our last couple weeks. The next few will be taken up with decorating for the holidays.

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

Pam’s Penny

As of this writing, Toby has crossed the Rockies and is driving across the high desert toward home in Vegas. Not without a few stoppages along the way, due to ice on the road and a car computer malfunction, in addition to the very snowy conditions in Iowa. Murphy’s Law re: winter driving in the Midwest should always be taken into consideration.

Rock on.

Today’s Humor:

November is Pam’s birth month. A few days of good weather, after single digit temps, allowed us to complete a few more outside tasks. Take a look!

Pam observed a birthday this month. Her sister, Becky, came over with a cake and gifts. Pam opened the presents, and all enjoyed the cake and ice cream.

Thanks to Becky for the gifts, cake, and ice cream.

A spell of good weather (one day in the 60s!) allowed us to complete a few more outside tasks. Wind breaker tarps were put up, more flowers were cut back, another leaf pickup was done, and some painting was accomplished.

Day lillies and hostas were removed from under the oaks. Heated water dish was set up for the winter and is already being used by several birds. Lawn was swept for leaves. We both spent a bit of time outside this week.

An annual task is putting up windbreak tarps along the dog run and on the south porch’s west side. These help break the winter winds that hit Heart House from the north and west.

An additional item this year was added to the dog run: a solar-powered motion-activated light. Pam had requested this so she can see the dogs when they are at the north end of the dog run in the dark. The light is mounted to the north gate. Question: Will it get enough light to recharge as needed? Time will tell.

Finally, here is a photo of outside cat Frito, mother of our three inside cats (Reese, A.J., and Snickers). Frito is an outside cat, has been spayed, and enjoys the morning sun on the east porch on these chilly mornings. Here she is living her best life.

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

Pam’s Penny

Grayce’s first birthday was this week. What a year for her, what a ten months for me. Puppies and old people = a very challenging combination.

Today’s Humor:

We finished a few fall projects in the last couple weeks. Depending on weather, these may be the final jobs of the year except for on-going leaf pick-up. I don’t have a lot of photos this time, but continue on to see what I have!

One project was to repaint the east porch steps. Not as easy as it sounds, as the last paint was oil-based and the steps had to be sanded to give the new latex-based paint something to adhere to. Still, the results were worth it as the new paint (and treads) look good.

Pam painted the steps above and painted the railings on the south porch and touched up a lot of white on various window sills and hand rails. Much scraping of old paint was involved…

We checked with the tree removal company and confirmed we are still on the list to get our old oak tree removed. To make room for the trucks and equipment we needed to reconfigure the dog run. This project took place over a couple of days, as I had to pull up old posts and wire, then put the posts in their new locations and re-stretch the wire. New arrangement has posts at a 6-feet spacing where the old spacing was 8-foot, so a couple extra posts were installed.

The ramp had to be modified to point to the North-west instead of west to gain the needed room. The dogs picked up on the change fairly quickly so using it is proving to be OK.

We are not sure this will be enough to allow all the access the tree company needs; we may have to remove the closest corner post and make that corner more rounded. After the tree is gone I will put in a wood corner post, in cement, as a final step.

Other yard work continues with cutting back more hostas; east and north flower beds were cleared. More leaves were mulched and raked then taken to the town’s compost site. There are day lilies and a couple hostas to remove from under the oak trees so there is more to do in the yard before the snow really flies.

In past years I have used a kerosene heater to warm up the garage when I needed to do winter work. This year I am trying a different approach, using a propane heater. I found a Mr. Heater unit on Facebook Marketplace for sale not far from us, in Stewartville, and bought it. While I have a spare 20-pound propane tank (from an old grill) I have moved a 100-pound tank a couple of times now. I dug it out of the corner of the garage and had it purged, re-certified, and filled. Tanks like this have to be transported standing up and getting the tank into and out of the truck was a chore in itself. Nearest place to get the tank certified was in Protovin, about 18 miles away, and they (Fencl LP) also did the re-cert, purge, and fill.

I tried out this combination and the heater did a good job of warming up the space. Since the garage is not insulated I will use the heater as-needed, which I hope will not be often as I don’t know how much propane the heater will use in any one session. Price to fill the tank plus purge and re-certify was $94.00. Heater was $50.00. Certification is good for 5 years.

Fall continues. Snow flurries are expected later today and high tomorrow (Sunday) is expected to be below freezing, well below average for this time of year. However, a return to more seasonal averages is in the forecast for late next week so we are hoping to get a few more days of good weather.

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

Pam’s Penny

The dog run is smaller in size, but there are still plenty of locations for Grayce to dig. <sigh>

Rock on.

Today’s Humor