Month: April 2026

The first of the Heart House spring flowers are blooming and flowering shrubs are starting to show green leaves. I have upgraded my web site somewhat and resurrected an old program and put it to use. Details below!

A few spring bulb flowers are blooming, daffodils and hyacinths. Magnolia trees are blooming on a neighbor’s yard. Tulips are developing their flower buds. It seems spring is definitely trying to arrive!

Spring often brings thunderstorms, and on Tuesday, the 14th, we received some of the largest hail I have ever seen. The sound of the storm was like someone beating on the house with a bat.

The hail damaged some daffodils and left quite a few small limbs and branches on the lawn. Some cleanup will be in order, but thankfully there was no damage to the house.

While we suffered only twigs and small limbs on the yard, others were not so lucky. The city’s solar panel installation was heavily damaged. Speaking to the city clerk, I learned the solar installation is covered by insurance but had to be turned off as a precaution against the system shorting out. Some of our neighbors reported damage to their windows and vinyl siding. A few cars have new dents in their sheet metal. No one I spoke to had ever seen such large hail.

Here is a 35 second video taken near the end of the storm.

Moving on into Tech Talk

I recently made the decision to upgrade my web hosting service from 10gb to 50gb of storage, as I was beginning to bump up to my original limit. This does not result in any visual change, but does open the door for me to do a few more things such as posting the above video.

Another upgrade was in software. Several years ago I had purchased a program called JuiceboxBuilder-Pro and had used it to create photo galleries for this web site. However, eventually it would not run on my old Mac Pro; there was a conflict with the operating system patches I had used to keep the old Mac going.

I tried using JB-Pro on my new Mac Mini and ran into a few problems. The JB-Pro support desk (Mr. Steven Speirs) did a great job of helping me solve my problems and get me back up and running. A salute to him!

My Gallery page looks quite a bit different now than it has over the past few years; many significant features have been added. You can now show or hide the thumbnails at the bottom of the gallery, open an individual photo in a new tab, enlarge or minimize the gallery, and step through photos manually or turn on autoplay. Instructions are at the top of the Gallery page.

The current gallery may be of interest only to Colorado or mining history buffs, but my plan is to publish a new gallery from time to time featuring more general topics. You will see a few past galleries that have been re-worked and expanded. This plan goes hand-in-hand with my project of grouping my old slides by topic instead of by date, making it easier for me to create and update galleries.

In other news, it was a quiet Easter. Becky’s birthday is the same week as Easter this year, so she drove to Elma and we celebrated both with a light lunch (including a desert of brownies and ice cream).

I will be heading to New York State shortly, so my next post will be delayed until I return. I hope to have some travel photos and information about the trip (and projects completed) when I get back. See you then!

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

Pam’s Penny

It will soon be Mennonite greenhouse time. Hopefully after spring finishes with the hailstorms.

Rock on.

Humor Corner:

The time has come to start moving things along. I have listed both my motorcycles and have already sold the tractor. Other items are going “on the block” soon.

We are considering moving out of Iowa due to a few factors: Hog smell when local farmers spread manure, and Iowa’s increasing water quality problems that are leading to higher and higher cancer rates. Nitrates are the biggest factor, found in fertilizers and manure. Iowa’s response: Raise taxes on tobacco.

In anticipation of a future move, it has come time for me to move along projects that I will, realistically, never get to, like restoring my 1948 Ford 8N tractor. The motorcycles also need to be moved along as I will, in all probability, never ride regularly again.

Parting with these items will free up space in the garage and eliminate the need to move them should/when we move. And it simplifies life.

The tractor was first to sell. A local guy picked it up a few days ago. I had spent a lot of seat time on it during my high school years (it was the family tractor) and I had mixed feelings about letting it go, but better to have it repaired and put back to use than sit and deteriorate.

I had hoped to use the 8N at The Lot but that experiment did not work well; the 8N was not nimble enough to use as I had hoped.

A few people have inquired about the motorcycles, my 1982 Yamaha XJ1100 Maxim and the 2006 Kawasaki Concours, but neither has sold yet. Several accessories I had accumulated over the years will be listed next, mostly old windshield and luggage parts.

There are a few other news items. I attended the most recent No Kings Day rally in Decorah. Several hundred people were in attendance, a good number considering the cold conditions. Pam had made me a sign to take along.

A few days have been warm enough to get some lawn cleanup done. We cut back the forsythia bush as it was getting woody in the center. (Pam says it will “probably” regrow from the base. She was getting tired trimming it three times every summer.) I raked much of the yard to get rid of the sticks, twigs, and old acorn husks that had accumulated over the winter and the early lawn looks good.

In my previous post I mentioned I had stopped at the Plant Peddler greenhouse grand opening in Cresco. It turns out I won a door prize (!) consisting of a mixing bowl, pancake mix, a kitchen towel, and a bottle of maple syrup. All items are much appreciated.

My next post may be delayed as plans are progressing for another visit to Felicity and Peter in New York. The new swinging mailbox post and mailbox have arrived and I am starting to get my tools in order. I hope to tackle a variety of additional small tasks including putting a handrail on their basement steps and performing some lot clean-up. The latter will include renting a chipper and chipping brush, as well as felling a couple dead trees that I did not get to on my last trip. Should be a productive outing, providing the weather cooperates!

Finally, I have a new iGallery posted. This one is the first of a few on the topic of old mine sites in Colorado.

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

Pam’s Penny

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

from Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published 1860

When Longfellow composed this “founding origins” poem in 1860, the US was experiencing the internal turmoil that eventually resulted in the Civil War. History records Longfellow wanted to remind American citizens of the events unifying countrymen in 1775, when Paul Revere and a group of patriots engaged history.

Many years ago, I chose “Paul Revere’s Ride” as a poem to be presented to Mrs. Mealy’s 2nd grade class, as part of a Gifted & Talented program. I’d invited the school District Administrator to read the poem and lead a discussion after. Second graders were asked to project their imaginations back into US history, to be a kiddo in one of those houses on Paul Revere’s route. They were asked to describe how “A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door” would make them feel.

The second graders were magnificent; they grasped the concept and ran with it. Comments ranged from “I’d get dressed and go with my Dad” to “I’ll take care of the farm while Dad takes his musket and goes into the dark” to “This is scary, I think I’ll hide in the closet.” It was the glorious, but elusive, “teachable moment.” I felt very privileged that day, listening to children from the twentieth century connect, in an emotional way, with children from 1775. Through poetry.

Those long-ago second graders are now in their mid thirties. They’re workers, and possibly parents, they’re voters. I wonder if any of them remember the message of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” if they participate in their democracy, if they attend No Kings rallies. If they ever recall the warning from that 1860 poem:

Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Rock on, Mrs. Mealy’s second graders. Rock on, America.

Today’s Humor: