Category: General (Page 1 of 64)

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:

A week ago we were preparing for a record snow storm. Today we may set a record high for the date. Spring in the Midwest!

While Elma did not receive record snows (we were on the outer edge of the heavy snow band) several nearby cities did set records. Rochester, Minnesota received over 15 inches. Rochester is about an hour and a half north of us. Further north, and into central Wisconsin, the total snowfall was even greater, up to 24 inches. We received around 5 inches of the white stuff.

Our biggest problem was the high winds that accompanied the storm. Blowing and drifting snow was a problem, particularly in rural areas. Here in town we had some drifting in the alley and on sidewalks, making clean up a bit of a chore.

The snow was preceded by freezing rain. While this did not last long it did leave a layer of ice on walkways. Snow falling (along with the sleet) froze into a rough surface instead of glaze ice, making it bad but not treacherous.

The storm had been forecast several days in advance. I made a grocery run just to top off our supplies knowing our regular shopping day, generally a Monday or Tuesday, would be delayed. A stop at the gas station left me with enough extra fuel to run the snow blower and lawn tractor. Food and fuel to prepare.

Today the snow is gone except for a very few place where the city had created huge piles. With a forecast high of 78 the remaining snow will not last long. However, a cold front is coming through tonight and the extended forecast has high temperatures in the mid-40s for the next several days, much closer to average for this time of year. We will enjoy the warmth today and look forward to the arrival of true spring.

Speaking of spring, greenhouses are beginning to open. I stopped at a newly-rebuilt shop called the Plant Peddler located in Cresco. While the bulk of the annuals had not yet arrived, it was pleasant to walk through the facility and look at the gifts and plants on display. I took a few photos.

I am getting supplies together in preparation for a trip to New York. Felicity and Peter have a list of projects they would like addressed, including the replacement of their mailbox (destroyed by a snow plow during the winter). My trip will be made during the end of April.

The new box will be mounted on a ‘swinging arm’ post, hopefully preventing a repeat of the destruction. This is part of the advertisement from source Etsy:

Other small tasks have kept us occupied. I have pretty much finished going through my 35mm slides, grouping them by topic. There are a few left to get though, one binder left out of 15, and I hope to complete the project in the next week or so.

I have published a new Gallery, made up of waterfalls and other water features.

Pam had ordered a new sisal pad for the cat scratching post which I installed this morning, as well as reversing an existing pad so the cats could scratch on an unused portion. This approach is far more economical than buying a new cat post every time the scratching surface needs to be renewed. Pads have been replaced a couple times now and are available from Chewy.

A new “No Kings Day” rally is scheduled for March 28th and I plan to attend. While I try to keep politics out of this blog, I am very concerned about recent events (attack on Iran) and the proposed SAVE act. The country is on the wrong track. I need a new sign for next week’s rally, so if anyone has ideas for a good one, let me know.

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

Pam’s Penny

Why am I trapping mice out of the basement stairwell? What happened to that foundation barrier blown on the house only six years ago? This is very irritating.

With the snow-warmth-cold temps-heat cycle comes the mud. Grayce loves the mud. The dog run is churned into a mud pit already. Yuck.

What do I enjoy the most — additional warmth or additional daylight? Luckily I don’t have to choose.

Rock on.

Today’s Humor:

Winter is coming to an end. Warm temperatures and rain have melted all the snow. Is it really spring?

This winter has produced a roller coaster of high and low temperatures. Right now we are well above normal for early March, and rain has melted all but the most stubborn snow drifts.

Pam spied a few bulbs starting to emerge in the east side Mary Lynn flower bed. Daffodils and tulips are among the early blooming plants and it’s always promising to see how many survived the winter. A quick raking of leaves that had collected over the winter gives “the buddings” a chance for sunlight.

Activity at the bird feeder and corn cob station has slowed with the warmer temperatures. However, I’ve seen several cardinals over the course of a few days, indicating they are in the area to a greater extent than I had thought. Cardinals do not migrate, by the way, but stay in our area year-round. They can be seen in concentrations at dusk.

Grayce had her vet checkup and now weighs 30 – 31 pounds. She is one solid beagle!

My cousin, Sue Metzner, was kind enough to send me a family photo from 1997 featuring my parents and my three siblings. I am on the left, my sisters Carol and Mary next, them Mom and Dad, and brother Jon at the right. Thanks, Sue!

Dad is in his Lederhosen, traditional garb for German gentlemen back in the day. Dad wore his on special occasions.

We are in a kind of between-season “suspended animation” waiting for winter to end and spring activities to begin. There really is not much going on right now. I putter with my computer and out in the garage, and Pam is preparing seed orders and making planting plans for the spring.

I did come across a NOAA chart showing the average yearly temperatures for all 50 states and was surprised to see Hawaii is not #1, it is #4.

In other trivia, here is an example of how the English language has evolved over the last 10 centuries.

Even more trivia: (I have been spending too much time on-line recently.)

That it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny:

Let’s see what happened in March of 1776:

George Washington successfully expelled British troops from Boston. For this action, Washington was given a medal by the Continental Congress.

I suppose if Washington had done the same thing today, he’d be awarded the FIFA Peace Prize…

Rock on.

Topics this time: Winter returned with over 9 inches of snow on the ground. We put two pieces of recycled furniture to good use. Cooking supplies and old cameras were unpacked and arranged. There are several photos to document these activities!

The most recent snowfall took place this last Thursday, February 19th. The forecast was for 2 – 6 inches of snow; we “officially” received 9.1 inches of the white stuff.

I dedicated a great deal of time on Friday to clearing snow from sidewalks, alleyway, and mail boxes. Machines did some of the work but there was plenty of hand shoveling as well. My little 5hp Torro blower and the John Deere LX 176 were pretty much pushed to their limits when going through drifts or berms pushed up by the city snowplows.

These shots, taken this morning, shows portions of the cleared sidewalks and “cat paths” around the yard.

“Cat paths” is the term we use to describe the narrow paths we clear around the yard. These are for the outside cats and for us to use as well. In the photo above, note the corn cob feeder in the right-hand tree. The acorn feeder and heated water dish are in the left-hand tree, although the water dish is out of sight from this angle. All require access. In the background, a path goes around the trailer and out to the alley giving neighborhood cats access to the food and water Pam puts out for them. The food and water dishes are along the garage to the right of this photo.

There are additional cat paths around the western part of the yard. These include one from the front of the catio, around the dead oak, to the cat ramp and then on to the LP tank and a 2nd alley access point. (The ramp lets cats access the inside of the catio.) We certainly wouldn’t want kitties having to struggle through drifts to get to food and water! Many of these paths are hand-dug as they pass over a loose rock base.

The snowstorm is not the only news this time. In the last week or so we completed two long-term projects: additional storage for the kitchen, and a display cabinet for my collection of old cameras.

I have been checking Facebook Marketplace for a kitchen storage unit. Pam wanted to organize her baking supplies in a single spot that was readily accessible. I found an acceptable unit for sale in Waverly, which is about an hour from us.

There was a slight problem with one of the doors, as a locating dowel had broken off. I drilled it out and replaced it with a new one, not a big deal.

Tho organizing required the construction of another full shelf and a couple half-shelves to accommodate the items Pam wanted in this cabinet. I used some material I had left over from another project, my camera display case, which I will discuss shortly.

Pam says she is quite satisfied with this new arrangement; she was able to unpack things that had been stored in Ziplock bags and small boxes, such as cookie cutters. A few items had been removed from the far reaches of upper cabinets, hard for her to access (requiring a step stool to get to them).

A quick thank you to Becky who came to Waverly from Greene to help me pack the display case for transport back to Elma.

The other project had been in the works for a bit longer. I had been looking for a display case to house my collection of old cameras but the unit had to meet very specific size restrictions, as it would be placed in the upstairs bathroom. The reason for having the case in a bathroom location is it provides a ‘pony wall’ to hide the toilet from the hallway when the bathroom door is opened.

I found a used unit but it needed work. There was only one glass shelf and no back. The glass rattled in the doors and only one door had a closing clip. Hardware replacement parts were not hard to find, as these were pretty much stock hardware store items. The problem was obtaining tempered glass shelves.

Eventually, a set of three shelves the right length appeared on Facebook Marketplace. While not quite as wide as the original shelf, they would work OK. I had to drive to Dubuque to get them, a fair way to drive, but the price was right.

I had received quotes for new tempered glass replacements, most coming in at around $60.00 per shelf. The three on Facebook were listed for $10.00 for the set. Add in the cost of driving to get them, the glass shelving ended up costing me about $35.00, a savings of around $150.00.

This is the reconstructed lighted cabinet with my collection in it:

I will reorganize the collection at some point, putting age-appropriate cameras together, but for now it’s good just to have them out of their basement boxes. Eventually I will paint the back panel white and am looking at covering it with mirrored tiles in an attempt to lighten the interior.

None of the cameras are worth much, but a few, like my old Pentax MX, have some good memories associated with them. Another belonged to my father. There are more cameras to be added to this collection, including a few of Pam’s (one a Brownie box belonging to her mother), plus one using flash cubes (remember those?) with a flash cube extender (deluxe!).

That was our last couple weeks: working on display cabinets and moving snow. I also listed my old Mac Pro on eBay and am waiting to see if it sells.

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

Pam’s Penny

Reorganizing kitchen shelves/pulling baking items together in some logical location has been on my mind since moving here (in 2019). Spacial limitations in the Heart House kitchen ruled out many storage options. It seems every upper kitchen shelf invented is wa-a-ay out of convenient access/reach for us folks in the 5’3″ (and shrinking) height range. Items stored at upper shelf height are best limited to “used-once-a-year” stuff, not monthly baking.

Interesting — I now consider acquisition of additional furniture items in a different way. How heavy are they? How bulky? Can two old people move them easily? Are the items something I want to be looking at until I die? These considerations provide a new overlay to purchases. (Is this morbid? practical? both?)

I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics the past two weeks, also with a new (geriatric) perspective. Some of these “sports” – half pipe snowboarding, bobsleds and luge, ski jumping with (or without) tricks – these are FUN? I can’t help but wonder if the young participants will have lots and lots of physical issues as they age. The Lindsey Vonn example comes to mind. (Morbid? practical? both?)

Rock on.

Don’t get me wrong; it is still winter. However, after a stint of really cold temperatures, the upcoming 10-day forecast has above freezing high temps in it. My computer cables arrived and my upgrade is done. A new Gallery has been completed and is now on the web.

There is better news in the next 10-day forecast: Above freezing temperatures. January was a very cold month, colder than normal, and that accelerated our use of propane for heating. A fill of just over 300 gallons was delivered a few days after my last post. It is comforting to have plenty of fuel back in the tank.

Next week’s forecast is projecting high temperatures in the mid to upper 30s and even into the 40s. While warming will cause issues with mud and melting snow, we are looking forward to the milder conditions.

My new computer cables arrived and I have completed my system upgrade. It is rewarding to have both monitors functioning again, as I had been placing data and folders on one monitor while working on documents on the other. I was missing that 2nd monitor. The new Mac Mini M4 is now working fine for all my needs.

I continue going through my 35mm slides with the goal of grouping them by topic instead of by date. (This is still an ongoing task.) One result: All my “fall color” slides are now together. Other groupings will follow, but one outcome is a new Best of Fall Colors gallery.

Here are a couple photos from that gallery:

Most of the gallery photos are scanned from slides. I am surprised my old Minolta scanner, a Dimage Scan Dual II, works on the newest Mac operating system using a software program called VueScan. The scanner dates from around 2000 and is now almost an antique in computer terms. It is not very fast but gets the job done.

When you click on a photo its name appears at the top of the new tab. If the name begins with “ST” the photo was scanned as “ST” stands for Scanned Transparency.

I also use “SN” for Scanned Negative and “SNB” for Scanned Negative Black for black and white negatives. If the name begins with a number the photo is from a digital camera. Those are my naming conventions. (Some “humor” photos have actually names.)

We saw an unusuall sight the other evening: Four deer were on our lawn. Having seen deer tracks with great frequency, the deer themselves had proved elusive. Apparently they are feeding on seeds that accumulate in the bottom tray of the bird feeder. It was too dark to get a good photo, but now we have seen the critters that have left so many tracks.

There is not much else going on. We have had a few very light snow showers, less than one inch each, just enough to necessitate clearing the sidewalks to avoid tracking snow into the house. My old plastic shovel, the lightest shovel I own, is taking a beating on the leading edge. This may be its last winter.

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

Pam’s Penny

February 1776: The Continental Congress authorized privately owned, armed merchant vessels (via “Letters of Marque”) to attack and seize British merchant and supply ships. Privateers were based in major port cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and New London. Though often described as “legalized piracy,” privateers operated under government commissions and were restricted to attacking enemy, or belligerent, vessels. Privateers played a strong role in strengthening the new nation’s military position.

Rock on through the winter.

Today’s Humor:

Right now NE Iowa is in a very cold spell, this after a short interim of mild weather. I am in the process of replacing my old Mac Pro, nearly done but waiting on a few cables to finish. To save space on my host service I am trying a new photo format. There are a few things to cover!

I am writing this on January 24th. Wind chills this morning were -35° with an actually temp of -20°. Yesterday, the 23rd, the morning wind chill was -45°. It is frigid, and will continue that way for most of the upcoming week.

Thursday morning I was outside clearing a few inches of snow that had fallen Wednesday night. The snow was light and like powder, making shoveling a bit easier than normal. After a short problem with the John Deere LX 176 was solved (it required a new spark plug), it was put into service clearing sidewalks, our alley garage access, and around the mailboxes. Cat paths were cleared by hand, including those around the bird and squirrel feeders. All in all, the work took about 3 hours. Needless to say, I did not stay outside continuously during those hours.

I purchased a new Mac to upgrade my computer system. The new unit is a base Mac Mini M4, and along with it I purchased a Minisopuru brand expansion dock. The dock gives me a few extra ports where I can plug in external devices such as my scanner and external drives and allows me to use my existing mouse and keyboard.

Apple includes a utility program called Migration Assistant that is used to transfer programs and settings from one Mac to another. This worked quite well, taking some time and a few tweaks, but the majority of my programs and all my settings (passwords, links, bookmarks) transferred just fine. A couple utility programs had to be reinstalled or upgraded to take advantage of the new operating system, but these tasks also went well.

The biggest problem is the change in cable styles. My old Mac Pro used the common USB-A connections while the new Mini M4 uses USB-C. While I am making do with the old cables, running through an external hub for now, I am waiting on cables that can connect my external devices to the newer USB-C ports without using the external hub. The new cables will enable me to remove some cords, power supplies, and clutter from my work area.

I will use this new setup for a couple weeks then wipe the old Mac Pro and list it on eBay. This will help recover some of the upgrade cost and allow me to buy a few more upgrades, including a wireless keyboard and mouse.

As you can tell, tech work took up much of my time lately. Here is another tech upgrade I have been working on: photo formats.

For a long time, most photos I use, including those in various galleries, have been in the .jpg format. This is almost universal in web pages, not just mine. Technology changes, however, and a few years back Google introduced the .webp format. This technology yields high quality images at lower file sizes and is supported by web browsers since about 2020.

My web hosting service cost is based on capacity; currently I am on a 10gb plan and have used about 8.8gb. Saving space by going to lower file sizes is attractive, and I have begun converting iGallery images to the .webp format. The space savings averages about 40% per image. As an example, my “Yule” gallery images, in .jpg format, ran about 104.5mb. This was reduced to 62.3mb when converted to the .webp format.

Web pages using the .webp images load faster as a result of the smaller file sizes. It takes me less time to upload the images as well. Please let me know if you have any problems viewing these images!

We have settled into a winter routine. Pam maintains a food/water station for the outside cats and monitors heaters in the catio, as well as regularly letting the dogs outside and limiting their exposure times. (Plus cleaning indoor cat boxes and refilling their feeding station, of course.) I attend to the various outside feeders. Recently I finished distributing our fall-gathered supply of acorns and switched to putting out peanuts for the squirrels. This has not worked out as planned; Blue Jays take most of the nuts and fly off with them, leaving few for the squirrels! I may not be putting out more if this keeps up. The squirrels will have to make do with their cobs of corn for the rest of the winter.

One medical note: I had a 6-month diabetes check up and my A1C has fallen to the lowest level since I was diagnosed many years ago. The lab came back with an A1C of 6.0. I am quite pleased with this reduction and hope to go even lower in the future.

So, that has been it for the last couple weeks; tech upgrades, house cleaning, caring for pets and critters, and keeping warm. Hopefully this will be the worst of the cold for the season! Frigid weather “bursts” started around Thanksgiving, meaning we’re getting pretty worn down by the cold as it extends through January.

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

Pam’s Penny

Only strictly controlled strength of will motivates me to go outside during subzero weather. If the catio and outside cat feeding stations were not operational, I would just monitor the dogs’ outside exposure. Period.

However, January is reliably an ugly weather month in NE Iowa. Mentally, I try to project forward through the month, appreciating how the daylight finally starts to last longer into the evenings. Looking forward to Winter Olympics coverage in early February.

Rock on, Minnesota. Stay strong in the frigid temps. Remember, in 1776, the Continental Congress was grappling with escalating violence as well.

Today’s Humor:

This will be a fairly short post as not much worth reporting on happened over the last couple weeks. We did have a spell of warmer weather which enabled us to take down holiday decorations and I began a new photo project.

With a few days getting warm, into the upper 30s, it was time to take down decorations. Outside lights, tree, and inside decorations were taken down, repacked, and stored for another year. There is always some sadness associated with this as I enjoy having the lights on in the evenings.

Snow receded from the edges of the sidewalks but the “cat paths” we use to fill the bird feeder, acorn tub, corn cob feeder, and the path to the LP tank became very soggy and muddy. One unexpected result from us reconfiguring the dog run last fall is that it is getting wet and muddy from moisture coming off the house. Next spring we will have to re-think where the dog run should be placed.

I began a new project concerning my old 35mm slides. Originally these had been filed chronologically, which works for some topics but not others. Family photos and events work OK, but generic topics, such as sunsets, fall colors, and national parks should be grouped by topic and not by date. I have begun to go through my collection with the goal of combining like subjects together.

Given I have about 15 each 3-ring binders, some of them of the 4-inch type, this is an ongoing project for the winter months. At the same time, I am throwing away many slides knowing I will never use them for anything and decreasing the work anyone may have going through them once I am gone.

The first result of this activity is a new Gallery of sunset photos. I like sunsets and, it turns out, have nearly 60 slides and many digital images of them. Here are a couple used in the gallery:

Eventually I will go through my negative files as well. Those are mostly of family so less grouping will be needed. Just like the slides, though, it is highly unlikely the kids will ever do anything with these as they already have scrapbooks with relevant photos in them. We also have a collection of family scrapbooks containing dozens of photos so the original negatives are now more of a burden than a resource.

Pam has kept busy with cleaning and re-arranging projects. We are now looking for a new storage cabinet for the kitchen, having moved a small corner unit up to my bedroom. A new small shelf was installed in the kitchen. Cat posts recently received new sisal scratching pads. The address book has been updated after reviewing holiday cards received. There always seem to be many small projects to keep busy, nothing major, all necessary.

Other upcoming projects include getting a newer Macintosh computer to replace my aging 2013 Mac Pro. It will not run the latest version of Apple’s operating system, 26.x.x. I have been using a software patch called Open Core Legacy Patcher to extended the Mac’s useable life but that appears to be at an end. I am looking for a good price on a used Mac Mini equipped with Apple’s M4 processing chip, introduced in 2024. Not looking forward to having to transfer and reinstall all my programs and files, but something that needs to be done. (Another winter project.)

We keep busy. We keep looking forward. The arrival of seed catalogs is something of a treat with the bright and hopeful displays they contain. Now, to get through February and March!

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

Pam’s Penny

USA 250th commemoration trivia: January 1776 was a pivotal month in the forming of the American democratic republic. On January 10, 1776 Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” was published. It made a compelling case for breaking from Britain, convincing many colonists independence was necessary.

In this current troubled time, it helps me somewhat to remain calm as I review lessons of political turmoil in our country 250 years ago.

Rock on.

Today’s Humor:

Christmas was a couple days ago as I write this. Becky came over on the 26th and we opened many gifts, had pumpkin pie and ice cream, and enjoyed the visit.

In addition, I worked over many of my old galleries and made a new one featuring old slides and negatives from visits to the Colorado – Yule Marble quarry near Marble, Colorado. This quarry provided marble for many projects across the US, and is most famous for being the source for the marble block used in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C.

I’ll begin with several photos of our Christmas, beginning with a few indoor decorations.

Becky brought over numerous presents, to add to the ones wrapped for her. So gift opening was quite the event.

We all received much-appreciated items — most practical, a few humorous. I have several new short-sleeved shirts (to replace my aging and worn collection of Sheriff’s Office gear). Much appreciated for next spring! Other items of apparel, gift certificates, a “reacher-grabber’, and a Big Ass Bar of Soap were exchanged. It was a good and fun time.

During the lead-up to Christmas I continued to work on updating my old galleries. This took longer than expected and led me to creating a new gallery. I dug out my Minolta Dual II scanner which can handle 35mm slide and negative film. Going through my slide collection I came across a batch dating from the late ’70s and early ’80s featuring one of my favorite Colorado places, the Crystal River Valley and the town of Marble. (The Lead King Basin, a delightful ATV destination, is accessed from Marble as well.)

Marble has quite a history, much of it tied up with the high-quality marble found in the area. At one time Marble exported thousands of tons of material annually, making Colorado the second-largest source of marble in the world.

The largest of the quarries was the Colorado-Yule quarry located along Yule Creek. (The name changed with different owners over the years.) I first visited in the late ’70s and went back several times. At that time the quarry was abandoned and one could walk up to the site, look into the vaults, and wander around. The gallery’s photos reflect this freedom which, sadly, is no more as the quarry was re-opened sometime in the 2000s and public access is denied.

Clicking on Colorado-Yule will take you to the gallery page. It may be of more interest to Colorado viewers and those with an appetite for history, but it brought back many good memories for me while I was putting it together, which was the point of doing it.

These are two of the photos used in the gallery, taken in 1978.

Here in NE Iowa, we’re looking at a quiet spell as we move into the new year. Hopefully there will be mild conditions when it comes time to take down our outside lights. The weather has been unpredictable so far with spells of frigid, well below average temps followed by mild and above average conditions. Weather in the Midwest!

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

Pam’s Penny

Scanning weather reports for a break in conditions, then planning for temps suitable to retrieve outside holiday decor, seems to be an annual tradition prior to New Year’s Day.

I personally will be pleased with lengthening daylight as it presents in late January and into February. At the moment, I do my “farm chores” (refilling outside cat feeders/water dish) before dawn in the a.m. — then again in the p.m. twilight. (Grayce gets me up before dawn, or I wouldn’t be awake then. I’m sure the roving neighborhood cats would thank her, if they could.)

Upcoming: 2026 – 250th anniversary of the American experiment. “A Republic, if we can keep it.” [Ben Franklin]

Today’s humor:

We are in that space between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are few active projects so this post will cover some random topics. It has been cold, more snow arrived, and I updated some of the underpinnings of my web and blog pages.

First, a comment on the cold: This morning’s low temperature was -4. Currently it is +1. Tomorrow (Sunday) is forecast to be the coldest morning so far, with a projected temp of -10. It is c-o-l-d! In comparison, temperatures at our Colorado lot (elevation 9,300 feet) are projected to be in the low-to-mid 20s at night and daytime temps in the low-to-mid 40s. Current temperature in Como is above freezing at 33.

Because of the colder temps, the cats have re-discovered that heating vents are the place to park when the furnace is running.

In addition to the cold, we received another 5 inches of snow last week. This is the second storm in about 8 days; I mentioned the first in my last post. While this follow-up storm did not deliver as much snow as the first, 5 inches vs 9 inches, it was still a pain to deal with. The cumulative totals make this one of, if not the snowiest, Decembers we have had here in Iowa.

This time of year brings out some Norwegian treats such as Lefse. An ad for this delicacy appeared in our local shopper.

Our local bank sponsored a Kolachi Day; kolachis are a pastry of Central European origin, primarily Czech / Slavic, and are a sweet pastry filled with (in this case) fruit jams. Other fillings can include cream cheese and walnuts. We tried cherry and blackberry versions; they were quite good.

Warning: Tech Talk Ahead

Web pages are built on a programming language known as HTML, and there have been different versions over the years. I recently began using a programming tool known as BBedit, a Macintosh-specific program. I had been using Adobe Dreamweaver on a monthly subscription but Adobe increased the price, more than doubling the monthly cost. (Old cost = $29.98, new cost = $69.99.) BBedit has both a free version and a licensed version with more features. The licensed version has a one-time price of $59.99.

Using BBedit, I went through my current web pages (Kids, Dogs, Cats, Gallery, and Blog) and brought the code up to the current HTML5 standard. I had to create new entries in my CSS stylesheet and change some code on several pages, a task that took a few hours to complete. To expand my skills I decided to go through my older Galleries, retired some time ago when I scaled back my web site.

These older galleries required more work as many had been created under the older HTML4 standard. Several commands have been “retired” (deprecated) or changed in HTML5, including “align”, “clear”, and changes to the way video formats are coded. While the older code still works, I felt it best to update and stay current and widen my (very basic) coding skills.

Here is a sample of the “head” section used in almost all of my pages:

I change the contents of the <title> tag to reflect what the rest of the page is about. Below the <body> tag comes the code that makes the page unique and determines what you see on your computer. Some pages, particular those with many photos and links, are more complex than others.

Anyway, that is how I spent some of my time these last few days when the cold and snow limited outside time and tasks.

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

Pam’s Penny

This winter so far =

⊝ RECOMMEND

✅ DO NOT RECOMMEND

Rock on.

Today’s Humor: