Category: General (Page 14 of 64)

It has been a couple weeks since my last post, a couple of busy weeks. I drove to Colorado to winterize the RV trailer and bring home two new cats for Pam. We have had visitors and fall colors are everywhere. Here are events of the last couple weeks.

Fall colors are present everywhere this time of year. While I was taking a package to a UPS drop-off in nearby Riceville I passed a greenhouse featuring mums of all colors. I enjoyed the riot of color.

I have been working on my “new” trailer, wiring in replacement side marker lights. During this work I discovered the trailer did have ramps stored under the deck. I was able to pull them out, grease the slides, and put them back under the trailer. While I feel like an idiot for missing these on my first inspection, having the ramps will save me a couple hundred dollars, plus time trying to find a set. The ramps are heavy duty and will certainly take the weight of the 8N tractor when I get ready to bring it home. A local shop welded on “D-ring” tie downs while I was in Colorado, giving me places to secure chains and straps for transporting large items.

My trip to Colorado was a success in that I took a few ATV rides and winterized The Box. Additionally, I brought home our portable generator and fire pit. Not only can we use these items here, particularly if we have a power failure, but this begins the process of bringing home items we would not sell with The Lot should we choose to go down that path.

Here are a few fall color photos from this Colorado trip.

The return trip from Colorado found me with two passengers, kittens Stirling and Vienna. Pam had adopted this pair from the Rifle Animal Shelter and good friend (+rescue kitten foster) Kathy Powers brought them to Fairplay. Kathy and I rendezvoused in Fairplay, where we made the transfer. Stirling is a male Siamese mix and Vienna is a female black shorthair. The two enjoyed an “adventure” drive across the Great Plains to NE Iowa. They behaved well while penned.

I put together a short (1:36) video of Stirling and Vienna beginning to play in their new home. So far they have settled in nicely, but still have to come to some accommodations with the dogs and senior cats KitKat and Elmo. I suspect Elmo will accept them sooner than KitKat, but we’ll have to wait and see how those interactions work out.

We had visitors this past week. Zach Hayes and his wife Sakura were married in Seattle earlier this year but due to a number of factors we couldn’t make the wedding. Zach and Sakura are making a “meet the family and friends” tour of the Midwest for those unable to be in the Pacific NW for the wedding. Heart House made the list for the Midwest tour, and they were able to stop in and visit us for a couple of hours.

As background – Zach is the son of Mary and Jeff Hayes. Mary was Pam’s best friend until Mary’s untimely death five years ago due to pancreatic cancer (the Mary Lynn of the annual memorial garden on this blog). Zach is Pam’s godchild. Over the years Pam and Zach have kept in touch by phone. (Jeff also visited us last year, representing the Hayes family.) We were looking forward to seeing Zach and meeting his new wife, and the afternoon did not disappoint. Young people have such busy and interesting lives.

With colder weather settling in summer tasks are drawing to a close. We don’t know if we will get any more painting done, for example. Fall tasks, including cleaning out the garden of vines and corn stalks, are next up on the to-do list. I will be mulching leaves and raking the lawn. Some tasks that need to be done yet include reglazing a couple windows in the house to seal gaps that are passing cold air into rooms. There are always many projects to keep us busy!

Photo Archive

From ’74 or ’75.

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

Pam’s Penny

How lovely to have plenty of time to play and interact with the newly-arrived kittens! I fostered over 30 litters of kittens in my days working with rescue in Colorado. But, what with being employed and the intrusions of daily life, I never had the gift of time then to socialize babies I was planning to keep. Stirling (‘Ling) and Vienna (“V”) bring some much-needed youth into the household. And retirement makes it possible for me to enjoy their integration process. Nice.

Happy Trails.

You may be tired of seeing more “painting” details, as much as we are of painting, but the work continues. Here are a few photos from our weekend work on the west side of the house.

We rented a bucket lift for the weekend to get the lower “weekend rate” from the rental shop. The lift was in use both Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday not quite as intense as Saturday. Both of us were pretty well tired out from the hours spent scraping, detailing, and painting but we did get the wall done in red, some white trim painted, and a couple minor repairs on the east side of the house as the ending tasks for the two day effort.

We begin with this “Before” shot of the west wall as it looked before we removed the A/C unit from the upper floor and had the new windows installed.

Pam on the lift this past weekend.

The first task is always scraping and wire brushing the old paint off the siding. In the above photo you can see where this has been accomplished on Pam’s left side. I generally do this work then take a break while Pam does the detail painting around the trim. Also note the yellowed vertical trim on the corner of the walls. (This area will be shown again in the next photo, for reference.)

At this point the trim painting is pretty far along. I am painting the white trim and will shortly move to my left to paint the under-eave areas. Some wood, behind the gutters, had not seen paint since the house was new.

This is a shot of the completed red and white painting on Sunday evening. While the “gingerbread” trim in the peaks still needs to be painted, we are quite pleased with the looks of this west wall after about 12 hours of hard work. (I still need to put the dog run fence back in place.) Getting this work done was a main goal for 2022 and the house is starting to look pretty good. What a feeling to have finished this particular wall!

Next we will move to the east side and deal with all the windows and trim, more detail work than on the west wall so progress will be slower. A few repairs will be needed on some of the siding boards; the east elevation is where many telephone and internet cables were drilled into the second floor, resulting in broken and damaged hundred-year-old siding. The siding will be replaced with Hardie Board because (as I recently found out) original redwood siding is no longer available. Hardie Board is the siding used on the garage and on the south wall of the house and comes pretty close to matching the original stuff.

Also this week…

I had my first appointment with the oral surgery place in Mason City. The work to replace a broken front tooth will commence after I return from my upcoming trip to Colorado. It is hoped that the extraction and placement of the implant will be done in a single session, but it turns out my diabetes may be a limiting factor. I have scheduled a blood draw for later this week to verify my current A1C levels. The cost for both orthodontist and dentist to replace ONE tooth is in the “crazy thousands of dollars” range. Unreal.

On a non-health related topic, I’ve mentioned in past posts that the Elma area is home to many Mennonite families. One of their prohibitions is they can’t use tractors with rubber tires. A steel-wheeled tractor was parked on Main Street so I took a photo of it which represents a very common conversion to steel wheels. This is the type of thing one can see on Main Street in NE Iowa.

I have ordered some bits and pieces for the new trailer, mostly replacement marker lights and “D-ring” tie downs. The later will be welded in place by a local shop. I would like to locate a set of ramps but may end up getting a set made. New ramps are quite expensive and I would rarely be using them but they sure would make life easier for loading and unloading the Ford 8N tractor and other heavy equipment. If anyone reading this has a set they would part with, please let me know!

Otherwise, life goes on as usual. Pam has been working in the garden and I am getting ready for my Colorado trip. (The next post will be delayed until after I return.) Leaf season has begun and I am moving ahead on building a hose attachment for my lawn chipper/vac. New hose kits are around $380.00 but I hope to have mine completed for around $100.00. The hose should aid in cleaning up around fence lines, flower beds, the LP tank, and other places difficult to rake.

Photo Archive

I have a few miscellaneous Black-and-White scans to show this time. The first photo is from the early ’60s and is my family with my Grandpa Joe at the far right. Back left is my mother, Emily, and in front of her is my Dad, George, and in front of him is my brother Jon. Next to Jon in the front row is me. Behind me is my sister Mary and to her left is my other sister, Carol. Photo was taken at Grandpa Joe’s home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This next photo is of our home in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado and taken in the early ’80’s. It shows some firewood cut and stacked up. We did a lot of heating in our fireplace with this wood.

Finally, an “artsy” shot of an old wagon. It may have been a manure spreader judging by the large gear on the back wheel.

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

Pam’s Penny

The pageantry surrounding the funeral activities of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain held my interest this past week. Many of the coffin viewing locations (both in Scotland and in England) are places I have visited in my travels to the UK over the years. The Brits can always be counted on for an over-the-top display of colorful uniforms, banners and ornamental braiding. (I would observe bagpipes should only be wailing while disappearing into the distance – up close is TOO MUCH. Kilts however, well, who can ever have too many kilts?) And, of course, including her Majesty’s horse and dogs in the Windsor portion of the proceedings was the most touching part of all to me.

Daughter Felicity and I both watched BBC coverage of the funeral from our respective locations; both of us were struck by how their commentators knew when to stop talking and just listen — listen to the marching feet, the jangling of harness and swords, the murmur of the crowds– to the sounds that conveyed the import and solemnity of the event. In contrast, American commentators seemed to talk nonstop, cancelling out important audio information that set the mood. Those BBC folks really know what they are doing – a class act.

Happy Trails.

It has been a bit since my last post — I’ve been busy! I’ve spent a lot of time on the road and will be doing more of the same in the next few days. Here is an account of recent events.

Last week was not a good week. I went to the dentist on Monday and she confirmed the front tooth I had broken could not be saved. An implant is in the works. Tuesday I was back at the dentist office getting fitted for a retainer. This device carries a false tooth that will fill the gap after the broken tooth is removed.

Wednesday was a particularly sad day as Cirrus, our oldest cat, was taken to the vet to see if anything could be done for his labored breathing. The vet got back to us after reviewing X-rays and indicated Cirrus was having fluid build up around his heart and the fluid was making its way into his lungs. He was literally suffocating. Because Cirrus was in great distress, Pam made the difficult decision to have Cirrus euthanized. Which meant I made the second trip of the day back to the vet’s office to pick him up. Pam buried Cirrus in the garden, next to the eight other cats who have died in the last three years.

Believe it or not, we actually did some painting on Thursday! Working from the wooden ladder, we tried a new technique Pam devised. This involved using a 4-inch roller on an extension handle. I was on the tall ladder and Pam was on the ground with the paint tray. I would hand the roller’s extension handle down to her, Pam coated the roller with paint from the tray, and handed the extension handle back up to me. This worked out quite well and we were able to get more of the west wall painted.

I reserved a bucket lift for this weekend and hope to get the rest of the west side painting completed. There is a chance of scattered showers so work may be intermittent.

Friday was an odds and ends day. I prepared the utility trailer for a trip north to help my brother Jon move. I hit the road early Saturday morning on my way to northern MN, where I helped Jon unload my trailer and the U-Haul truck and trailer he drove up, then returned on Sunday. This was about 800 miles round trip, as Jon’s new place is near the town of Black Duck, Minnesota. Jon had to return the U-Haul gear by 5:00 PM on Sunday so we unloaded into the wee hours of Saturday night, finishing at about 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning.

Back at Heart House, Monday was a lawn and garden day. More than a week had gone by since attending to the lawn, as with Jon’s stuff in my trailer I had no place to put grass clippings and other yard debris. Monday’s load was quite large and included clippings from the garden as Pam removed many of our sunflower plants. These had started to break off and generally were looking bedraggled.

Somewhat out of sequence, Pam had worked on another project in our “courtyard” area we refer to as the “quad” (four doors open into the space from the house, catio, and garage). Eventually we will fill the depression around these pavers with black dirt and level out the area. Plans are to put a fire pit in the middle where Pam spread some of the gravel left over from the gravel project.

Tuesday I drove to Canby, Minnesota, to pick up a 16 foot trailer I had purchased through an online auction. I will use this to bring my Dad’s old Ford 8N tractor to Iowa from Colorado and for any other heavy hauling we might need in the future. This purchase was spurred by the outlandish price U-Haul charges for renting a trailer 1-way so I could bring the 8N home: $544.00. I thought for a couple hundred more I could have a trailer for occasional use; if I sold it after getting the tractor home I would still come out better than renting through U-Haul.

The trailer is pretty basic. It does need minor repairs as all 4 side marker lights are broken or missing. (The tail lights do work.) I plan to paint it at some point. With a price of $645.75 it is on the low end of the scale for this type of trailer but I think it will serve my rather minimal needs OK. Lights will run $40.00 – $50.00 and registration, with getting an Iowa title, should be in the $50.00 range. I would like to get some “D rings” welded on to provide tie down points but don’t have any idea how much this will cost, or who does this type of welding locally.

With all the trips over the last several days you would think I would be done driving. Not so. In the next few days I will driver to Decorah to pick up the bucket lift, another trip to return it, with each trip being close to 100 miles. Then on Monday the 19th I drive to Mason City for my implant consultation, another 90 miles or so. Our gasoline bill is going to be quite high when the charge statement arrives.

More so than normal, the last couple of weeks have seen a lot of road travel. This trend will not end soon as I head for Colorado the last week of the month to enjoy the fall colors, shut down and winterize The Box, and bring home a few items such as the generator and fire pit. Another 2,000 miles on the horizon…

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

Pam’s Penny

With the sad and sudden death of Cirrus, two cats remain in the house. (There are an additional two aging cats who stay in the catio, and one free-roaming cat, all fed outside.) This feels too quiet to me. I am in the process of adopting two kittens from my rescue friend and foster mentor in Colorado, Kathy Powers. Kathy visited us in June; upon her return to Colorado, she fostered a rescue litter from the Rifle Shelter containing a male Siamese mix and a black female. Long story short, Himself will be rendezvousing with Kathy on this Colorado trip and bringing Stirling and Vienna to their new home on his return trip. Elmo, I think, will benefit as well as myself — Elmo cries occasionally in a way that suggests he misses his buddy Cirrus.

Happy Trails.

We had planned to resume painting this week but life got in the way. It seems every day had something else that took priority. Here is how the week went down.

Monday was another humid “lawn and garden day” as Pam maintained the garden area and I did lawn work. The acorns continue to fall and raking them takes a lot of time and effort. We now confine acorn pickup activity to places we walk often, such as the dog run and near the garage. I scoop up acorns by the snow shovel full.

Tuesday’s tasks included a trip to the town’s compost site to unload the trailer of its grass and garden clippings plus the acorns. Later that day I helped Becky move a hutch she had purchased in Charles City, bringing the purchase to her home in Greene.

Wednesday was “vet day” as all three dogs, plus Cirrus the cat, took a trip to New Hampton. Most of the work was routine, but Cirrus is suffering from labored breathing and the vet said he may have asthma. Cirrus received a steroid shot and is on antibiotics but so far these have made no noticeable difference and we are concerned about his health. We continue to monitor him.

I thought we might resume painting on Thursday, but late Wednesday night I received a message from Bob the Builder indicating he could install our second floor window set Thursday if we were agreeable. I immediately responded in the affirmative! We had ordered the windows in March, before Bob fell ill, and were beginning to wonder if we could arrange an install before winter. Bob indicated he had run into a delay on his current project and could fit in our windows as a “filler” job. We were delighted he could work us in, and that became the main event of the week.

I was somewhat nervous as I had personally measured and ordered the windows, something I’d never done before. Would they fit? It turns out I was within about 1/8th of an inch and the windows fit without shimming or other modifications. Boy, was I relieved. Here is how the work progressed.

You may recall we removed the AC unit and inside windows some weeks ago. Bob and his assistant Bill put up scaffolding and removed the storm windows and outside trim.

A surprise…there was a w-i-d-e cavity between the window frames and the wood siding of the house. Apparently, unlike the windows in the snug (replaced last year), the wood siding had not been built all the way to the window frame (possibly as far back as 1894). Is it any wonder drafts were streaming in around that window all winter?

Bob filled the gaps with a combination of expanding foam and caulk. Below you can see the white foam around the window and the sill “boxed” as Bob and Bill begin installing the new window frames.

The second to last task was to install new trim. We had decided to go with a “plastic wood” replacement instead of conventional lumber. (Bob had done the lower windows the same way last year.) Pam is of the opinion plastic wood should be used as much as is practical at Heart House. Particularly at the second floor level, since nobody wants to maintain wood at that height (now or into the future).

We were able to re-use the original blue trim piece located at the top of the window. After it was removed Pam did a quick paint job and Bob was able to reinstall it. The finished install looks good, the insulation will help keep the house warmer in winter, the windows can be opened to allow fresh air to circulate, and the outside west wall looks so-o-o much better than it did with the old A/C cover and destroyed sill plate.

Friday was an off day as the combination of temperatures and humidity resulted in a “feels like” temperature in the low 90 degree range. No need for us to paint in those conditions. I did some work on the trailer, replacing a couple dead side marker lights and installing a new trailer-side plug for the lights. The old connector was developing an intermittent problem which made the turn lights a hit or miss operation.

My brother Jon and his wife have purchased a home on a lake in northern Minnesota. I had offered my services, along with the truck and trailer, to help with the move. Saturday I drove to their current home in Stoddard, Wisconsin (south of LaCrosse) and we loaded up the truck and trailer. The load will not head north until next Saturday, but Jon wanted to clear some space in his garage for staging totes and boxes for the move. (He has reserved a 24-foot truck and 12 foot trailer for the next trip.)

That means next week’s blog post may be delayed for a few days as I will drive my load up on Saturday, help Jon unload, stay over that night and return on Sunday. It’s about a 400 mile trip each way and I anticipate 8 – 10 hours of on the road time – figure a lot of 2-lane roads with a 55 mph speed limit plus stops for food and gas. Here are a couple photos of my loaded truck and trailer.

Finally, a photo of the house as it looks today. The Labor Day bunting went up on Friday. Sure wish the second floor was totally painted, the tower repaired and re-shingled, etc. but what has been done looks sharp for the holiday.

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

Pam’s Penny

While Himself was putzing around with this-and-that this week, I finished the second coat on the LP tank hearts. I shoveled rock into the quad paver project, and moved the last of the dumped rock (piled by the garage) in front of the three garage entries on the alley side. So, LP tank painting DONE, rock pile totally moved/DONE, quad pavers in place + that rock DONE.

On to the dogs. Bru needed grooming and bathing before the vet appointment. Bru grooming is a three day project (Day 1 butt and back end, Day 2 head and front legs, Day 3 everything else). At least Bru bathing is much easier these days, since she fits in the job sink. JoJo needed trimming on her legs and feet, a task I completed after the vet appointment. I also applied the monthly flea and tick meds and dogs had their monthly doses of heart worm meds.

Looks like Bru will have to have a bunch of skin tags and fatty growths removed from her coat sometime this month. Several are on her face, and they have been bothering her. This will require sedation and a vet procedure. Always something for the animal concierge to keep track of…

What about that second floor window done – whoot whoot!!!

Happy Trails.

Last week was very busy. We had a social engagement, a trip to the Mayo Clinic, pressure-washing Becky’s deck, splitting hostas, and more. Details are below.

Our oak trees are dropping mature acorns and the “caps” or “crowns” that hold the acorns in the trees. The “caps” are abnormally abundant this year. Pam and I have been raking, trying to clean up the areas of lawn where we normally walk. The acorns and caps make walking around the yard something of a trial, as they tend to roll underfoot. Pam saved a large bag of the acorns and will try to use them as squirrel food next winter.

The first photo is a section of lawn showing the acorns and their caps. This photo is not doctored and the area had already been raked a few days prior to the photo being taken.

While on the topic of the yard, here is a shot of the sunflowers in bloom.

The week included quite a few trips away from Elma. The first was a social engagement; we journeyed to Trempealeau, Wisconsin, to attend a birthday celebration. Pam and friend Ed Allen were high school classmates and have kept in contact over the years. Ed’s wife, Annie, was celebrating a birthday and we were invited to join the party. (Trempealeau is about a 2 1/2 hour drive for us each way, so Becky came up from Greene to watch the dogs while we were gone.) Pam was familiar with the area from her high school days, but there’s been quite a bit of development/road changes since that time. Located right on the banks of the Mississippi, Trempealeau is a quiet river town with great views of the river and the bluffs on the Minnesota side.

Music was provided by the Piper Road Spring Band, many of whom are friends of Ed. I created a short (1:36) clip of the event that features the band playing one of their songs.

Another attendee was Pam’s long time friend, and former classmate, Diane Wittenberg, and her husband Jim. Pam and Diane had a lively conversation and Pam discovered Diane had accepted the invite partly to visit with Pam in person. I had the chance to meet Ed and Annie and Diane and Jim, people Pam has mentioned often over the years. We enjoyed the outing and social connections were refreshed and renewed.

The trip to Trempealeau was the first of three trips taken on three consecutive days. The second was to the Mayo Clinic for my latest 6-month check-up. The news from this visit was that my blood work looks good and I am done with getting infusions of Eligard, AKA Lupron. I will have another check in 6 months, then another 12 months later. This means I will gradually recover my energy and stamina levels as the Eligard works out of my system over the next couple months. My hot flashes, a side effect of the treatment, should also decrease as well. Good news all around.

During the Mayo Clinic trip I stopped at a Goodwill store (unusual for me). I was eating a burger and saw the store across the parking lot and decided to stop and look around before I headed home. I found the store had received a couple metal-wire rolling racks similar to the ones we’d purchased for the storage room. The Goodwill racks were heavier-duty as they had been in retail use before arriving at Goodwill. I bought one of the three racks; it’s now in the Media Room. This allowed the unpacking of family photo albums that had been in storage in a closet – albums are now out where we can access them.

The third trip was to the Regional Medical Center in Cresco. I finally scheduled the MRI on my right shoulder. Results indicate some muscle damage and a tear in the rotator cuff. The center referred me to a Mayo Clinic specialist. Turns out in addition to the MRI Mayo wants an X-ray of the shoulder for review. Once I finished at the Medical Center, and since I was then halfway to Decorah, I rolled a shopping trip into that outing.

To thank Becky for her dog-sitting Pam split several of our hosta plants to give to Becky for her “new” river cottage. I took them down to Greene yesterday (Saturday) along with my pressure washer. While Becky replanted the hostas I pressure-washed Becky’s deck and cement pad leading into the garage. Both areas cleaned up pretty well, with the deck almost a different color after the removal of accumulated tree sap, dirt, and some lichen. I did not take photos of the Greene outing, but here is a shot of the hostas Pam had bagged for Becky.

I took advantage of a rainy Wednesday to put new belts and “tire” in my cassette deck. (The “tire” controls fast-forward and rewind functions.) My deck, a Nakamichi BX-100, was produced from ’84 through ’87 and still gets excellent reviews. I had decided to update it instead of taking a chance on another used deck, and the results are good. The deck now plays, fast-forwards, and rewinds like new.

The extended weather forecast for the upcoming week is a good one to get back to painting. We will be hauling out the ladders, paint, and brushes and have at the red exterior painting again. All work at this point is from ladders so will be slower than painting from the ground. Neither of us is looking forward to this as we always feel the stress in our legs and backs from going up and down the ladder. At some point we’ll have to rent a lift again, but first the ladder work has to be done.

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

Pam’s Penny

The “little” project – AKA painting hearts on the LP tank – stretches into another week, with second coats going on the existing hearts. Himself suggested red hearts should be added to the blue heart mix – but – definitely not this year.

I’m a big fan of hostas as a landscape plant (not a flowering plant); hostas need to be divided frequently, however. Their root systems are akin to cement blocks when one cuts into them. Hardy little buggers, right up there with dandelions and day lilly plants.

Speaking of hardy little buggers, another bat showed up in the stairwell. Himself speculates the bats may be using the unfinished plumbing in the second floor bathroom as a conduit into the house. Great. Just great.

Happy Trails.

This week I am writing about ATV rides I recently took during my Colorado visit. In addition, I have a few details of the trip there and back. Rounding out this post will be our recent purchase of three tons of gravel!

I alternated work on The Lot with a few ATV rides on local trails. All of the places I visited were new to me. Helping guide me along was a new app I had downloaded to my iPhone, Avenza Maps. In addition to the app, I had downloaded the South Park Ranger District maps from the Avenza site.

I used the basic, and free, version of Avenza. The pay-for version adds a lot of features, but I was just interested in trying out the basic functions of the program. I must say it worked out very well! In use, a blue dot marks your location using the phone’s built-in GPS information. Since the maps are downloaded to the phone, no internet connection is required. This is a good thing as the areas I was riding had no cell phone coverage. Here is a screen shot of part of the map as it appears on my phone.

The black-and-white lines indicate trails suitable for motorized traffic. The dots represent single-track trails used by horse riders, bicyclists, and dirt bikes. Single-track trails have a “restrictor” at both ends of the trail.

My first few rides were in the Lost Park area, about 15 miles from The Lot. These were pleasant rides but not very scenic. Mostly old logging roads, these trails now serve as fire-fighting routes if needed. I did get a couple interesting photos in this area, though.

The later rides, located in an area west of Fairplay, were more interesting as the area supported a timber industry as well as some mining. Ruins of both activities were found along the area trails. Here is a selection of photos taken during these rides.

There were many, many flowers blooming. Here are a few of them.

As mentioned above, mining and logging were present in this area. I saw several remains of cabins that had been used by loggers and an old mine building.

I enjoyed these outings and the time I spent on the trails. Back at The Lot, I had plenty of time to take a few photos of changing weather conditions and views across South Park.

The trip from Iowa to Colorado and back was uneventful, with little road construction or other stoppages. I did find a wide variation in fuel prices, even given the price drop in the two weeks I was gone. The most expensive fuel was in Fairplay at $4.73 per gallon and the least expensive was on the way back in Ankeny, Iowa, at $3.15 per gallon.

Since our anniversary was on August 10th, I brought Pam back a gift: Henry Weinhart’s Gourmet Root Beer. We used to buy this in Colorado but can’t find it in Iowa. I came home with two 6-packs.

Back home, it was a busy week. We bought an estimated 3 tons of gravel to spread along the west end of the garage and a few other places.

We added gravel into the catio screen porch as well. There is still a pile of gravel left and we will find other uses for it as we go along. The gravel improves the looks of the garage, but mostly improves drainage and keeps mud from splashing up on the walls during rain storms. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Also around the house…

I had a major load of grass clippings mixed with flower bed clean-up debris to take to the compost area this week. Pam has been getting a few blackberries from her bushes. We trimmed back a few oak branches from around the garage and patio.

In short, it was another busy week at Heart House.

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

Pam’s Penny

Heart House has already been visited by a couple of bats – a bit early this year. Bat #1 was stunned and on the floor downstairs during the middle of the night a few weeks ago. Bat #2 was cornered in the kitchen a few days ago. In both instances, Elmo was instrumental in identifying the bat’s presence and jumping at it as it moved. (Little brown bats are a protected species, I get that, but they are ugly little chittering intruders.)

Once a bat has been located, Elmo keeps watch on that spot — even after the offending creature has been relocated outside. Bat patrol is a tiring job, but a cat’s gotta do what a cat’s gotta do. After staying on duty all night, Elmo is pretty much wiped all day. At least Elmo does something to earn his keep.

Happy Trails.

I spent the last two weeks at our lot in central Colorado. During that time I celebrated my 70th birthday, took some ATV rides, and worked to clear brush and dead trees. Many photos were taken and a few obstacles overcome. Due to the events that transpired and number of photos taken I will break the trip into two reports, the first this week and the second next week. I will start with my 70th birthday.

Pam set up a memorable birthday consisting of several moving parts. First she identified people in our contacts and her Facebook pages, encouraging friends and extended family to send me birthday greetings. It worked. I received more text and e-mail greetings than ever before. (Note: Cell phone and internet coverage is very poor at The Lot and text messages work best.) Thank you to all who took the time to send me greetings!

Second, Pam had contacted a friend at my old workplace, Jim Brassfield. Jim spread the word around the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office and a card was circulated for people to sign. A few people sent me text messages as well. Jim went above and beyond when he and Tim Rhodes, who had been my first assistant, took time off from work and drove up to The Lot, bringing a birthday cake and cards with them. This was a substantial commitment of time for my past coworkers, as it is a three hour trip [each way] from their Glenwood Springs base to the Park County property and back

I was flabbergasted when Jim and Tim arrived. Pam had told me to expect a “delivery” but I assumed she had arranged for flowers or a cake to be delivered. I had no idea Jim and Tim were on their way.

It was really good to see the guys again. We spent about 3 hours talking non-stop, catching up with personal and professional news. There have been many changes at my old place of work with some retirements, promotions, and even a couple weddings. Many of the people I worked with are still there and my birthday card was signed with familiar names.

Here is how Jim described the event to Pam:

From: “James Brassfield”
To: “Pamela”
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2022 7:43:10 PM
Subject: Re: 70th Birthday – Jerry Fields

Jerry was very surprised!!! We enjoyed the visit!  Tim and I were busy talking all the way and forgot to take a video of his expression……which was too bad because it was priceless!!  Thank you for letting us know about this special day and hope Jerry enjoyed it as much as we did! 

I did indeed enjoy the day. The visit and Pam’s efforts made this a birthday I will always remember. Thank you to all involved, and particularly to Pam.

I had some worries before I arrived at The Lot as to how much work I could really get done given the medical treatments I am on and the fact that any high-altitude acclimatization I once had has long since disappeared. I found that I could indeed get some work done, with with plenty of breaks and rests thrown in. The weather helped in this regard as it rained several days, mostly in late afternoons and evenings, thus putting a halt on that day’s activities.

Most of what I did was a ‘summer cleanup’ of trees that had reached the end of their life cycle over the last few years. Aspen are not long-lived trees and some die off every year. Most are brush-sized but a few are large enough to be salvaged for firewood. In the photo above I am picking up salvageable trunks (cut with the chain saw) and hauling them to my firewood pile.

That pile was reduced noticeable this year. Pam suggested I stop at the local fire department station and offer the logs as firewood to any members of the fire crew who might be interested. This I did, and one of the firefighters came by with his truck and 14 foot trailer and hauled off about 3/4 of the pile. I will let him know when I will be back at The Lot this fall to winterize the trailer, and he will pick up the rest.

Other brush was consolidated into larger piles and was chipped.

I spread the chips up along Birdhouse Ridge. The south facing slope struggles to support much growth, although there is some. I am hoping the addition of more organic material might encourage more growth.

I usually move the chipper around to a limited number of places with the Ford 8N tractor. This year I ran into a few problems. First, one tractor tire had gone flat and the others were low. While I had brought along my little 12-volt air compressor, it was not up to the task. Luckily my neighbor was in residence for the weekend and I was able to borrow a small compressor that worked to inflate the tires.

Then the fun really began. I pulled back the tarps that cover the tractor when not in use, then opened the battery compartment door. I had to jump back in a hurry as wasps had built a nest in the battery compartment and they were NOT happy to be disturbed.

Using a long stick I was able to dislodge the nest, but I had to wait until going to town the next day to get some wasp spray and finally clear the wasps from around the tractor. Eventually I was able to install the battery and get the tractor started.

Then the chipper would not start. I tracked the problem down to a split in the fuel line where it connected to the fuel tank. The fix was simple, cut off the split end and reinstall the line. Once that was done the chipper started right up. Over the course of a few days I was able to chip several piles of brush. Most were situated where I could get close to them with the tractor and chipper, but one larger pile had to be dragged to the chipper. I used the ATV as the puller for this job by wrapping a chain around the brush and hooking the other end to the ATV. This particular pile took 3 drags and one trip with the 2-wheel cart to move everything to the chipper.

Keep in mind that all this work was accompanied with FREQUENT rest breaks. While I did not get any “new” ground cleared I was able to go through areas we had worked in the past and remove the dead trees and brush from them. I did get 4 piles (a couple consolidated from smaller piles) chipped which was my goal for this trip. I was quite satisfied with the work I was able to accomplish.

Because I spent quite a bit of my time sitting in my chair, with my feet up on the footrest and looking out the 5-foot door, I observed more critters than normal. Here are a couple of them.

I had two deer come by the trailer but did not have my camera at hand to photograph them. And, as our acreage is part of open range, I did get visits from local high range cattle.

That will about cover the first part of my trip report. Next time I will cover my ATV rides, some weather-related topics, and a few details of being on the road.

While I was gone Pam accomplished several tasks, including repainting porch floor and risers, the installation of a new bathroom floor and adding more hearts to the end of the LP tank.

These activities took much work to get done. The floor, in particular, was a challenge as there are no truly square corners anywhere in the room. Many tiles had to be custom cut and fitted to the others and/or the irregular floor moldings. The end result is a much brighter room; the flooring compliments the art deco designs Pam had previously painted on the walls.

Around the yard, the morning glories and hydrangea are in bloom.

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

Pam’s Penny

That bathroom floor was a real bear. Limited space to move, limited ability to move in the limited space, uneven floor and uneven walls. It took me three days to put down 28 peel-and-stick tiles to my satisfaction. It all sounds so easy on the installation instructions, but I’d “installed” one of these types of floors before and I knew what I was getting into. This type of tile is not meant to last years and years; it’s a “quickie” lightener and brightener for a dark little dated bathroom. D-O-N-E.

High humidity was definitely a factor in my inability to work on outdoor paint projects the past two weeks. Which is why various indoor tasks received attention. There were a few storms; one night at 2:30 a.m. the dogs woke me during a mighty thunder and lightning event. I learned a few days later lighting had struck the ground one house west of Heart House and the impact popped internet connections to two residences. The noise of that strike was apparently what had agitated the dogs to the point of waking me.

The Grandpa Ott morning-glories climbing the trellis on the south porch feature a new pink variant in the mix this year. I’ve been picking blackberries (a few, but more each year) from the vines, and gathering tender rhubarb stalks. The white phlox finally bloomed. Except for the Indian corn (just now tasseling), seed plants are doing well; moisture has been frequent and humidity has been greenhouse-level (humidity you can cut, cube, and stack). High summer in NE Iowa.

Happy Trails.

The week went past and many small projects received attention. “Just living” duties took up much of our time. Here is a recap of the not-so-outstanding week we had.

Auburn Jo had a grooming appointment this week. As the groomer is in New Hampton, about 25 miles from us, grooming takes two round trips – one to drop her off and another to pick her up. I did the first/drop off trip and doubled it up with grocery shopping and a trip to Theisen’s hardware store. Purchases included more cobs of corn for the squirrel feeder and three gallons of paint for the ginger breading of the house. The paint we have been using for trim, Valspar brand, has been hard to find (supply chain issues) so when I discovered Theisen’s had recently received the tint bases required we decided to stock up. We should now have enough to do all the ginger breading (three shades of blue) on the house, regardless of when we get to painting that high up. A large cache of paint is now sitting in the laundry room.

Wednesday I had my annual Type-2 diabetes checkup. As expected, I am a mess. My A1C is elevated and my triglycerides are high. So is my bad cholesterol, a state that has existed since my 40s. The doctor added Glypizide to my Synjardy prescription to see if that would help lower my blood sugar level. That prescription, of course, led to a trip to the Decorah Walmart to pick up my medications. While in Decorah I stopped at the local HyVee grocery store to purchase bottled water and a few more groceries. Since this is about a 100 mile round trip it took most of the afternoon.

Other chores done during the week included lawn maintenance and a trip to the town’s compost site.

Pam had ordered a “work desk” to be used for sewing and craft projects. (She mentioned this in a previous post.) The desk had to be assembled, which was not difficult as the only real job was to attach the four legs and install the drawer.

Pam has already used her new work area and thinks it will be the project work space she’s been needing.

One of my projects was decidedly invisible. One of the web page commands I had used in the past was the “Align” command. This has been dropped from the current specification of HTML, the language used to construct web pages. While replacement code has been published, it was not applicable to the way I had used “Align.” While my pages still worked, future support would vanish and I wanted to update my pages to make sure they would display properly going forward.

It took me several tries and lots of dead ends before I figured out how to make the replacement code work for me. The first page to be updated is the “Cats” page. It looks the same as before as all the changes are “under the hood” and one would have to compare the code behind the page to notice the differences. For anyone who might be interested, here is the original code and the replacement code.

align="left" style="margin: 5px 5px 5px 40px;" border="2"

/* Centers photos to left on non-gallery pages. Replaces "Align=" deprecated in HTML4 and HTML5 */
.center1{
display:block;
margin-left:40px;
width:210px;
float:left;
}

Knowing readers will observe that the replacement code is a “class” named center1 in a CSS style sheet. The top line, which starts with /*, is a comment to myself indicating why this code was created. Now I need to apply the new code to other pages to update them.

It always is a surprise to me how much time routine tasks take. Coupled with high humidity, warm temperatures, and some rain showers, nothing was done on painting projects this week. Next week I plan to take a trip to our lot in Colorado; it will be a couple weeks before major paint projects resume.

I do have several “around the yard” photo to share this time. While the day lilies are about done, the phlox and other flowers are doing well. Pam spent some time trimming the forsythia bush and cleaning out some of the past-prime day lilies under one of the oaks. The yard is looking good!

Photo Archive

Some “Artsy” Black and White shots.

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

Pam’s Penny

Didn’t I say [last week] it would be too hot to paint outside this week?

I picked up JoJo at the dog groomers (after Himself completed the a.m. drop off noted above). I was disheartened to learn the groomer was quitting; at this time it’s unclear who the vet’s office will find as a replacement. (The vet sponsors the grooming parlor, attached to the vet’s office.) Nuts. It took this groomer three visits to finally clip JoJo as closely as requested -and- this is my second groomer since moving to NE Iowa. I may have to bite the bullet and buy my own grooming supplies for the next grooming period this fall. This does not excite me.

Happy Trails.

Thanks to better weather – lower temps and humidity – this past week was filled with work on major projects. Painting continued and we accomplished a milestone by removing the guest bedroom window AC and old windows in preparation for installation of new windows. Follow us!

Beginning on Monday we began painting more portions of the west wall. The pressure washer was called in to remove the worst of the old paint. In the photo below, take note of the AC cover on the upper left-hand window.

Working from the 10-foot ladder, I cleaned, scraped, and painted large portions of the wall as far up as could be reached.

Note the AC cover is now on the ground. There is a story behind that. A neighbor had rented a bucket lift to do some work on his chimney. He had the lift for a day (Thursday) and his work would only take a few hours. He offered to let us use the lift if I would return it to the rental yard on Friday before its due time. We appreciated this offer and quickly accepted it. Our thanks to Calvin and Sherri!

Rain was forecast for Friday morning so we had to get our work done by Thursday night. We knew removal would be a big job as it included removing the old windows so new windows, which we were storing in the upstairs bathroom, could be installed. (The install fell though so we are still waiting on that.)

I began by removing the old windows, a difficult and time-consuming job. I had to make a lot of use of my carpet knife, putty knife, and a screwdriver to cut though and remove old paint and calk. Trim around the inside of the windows had to be removed – carefully – so as to not damage them. Here are a couple photos of the windows removed:

We left the storm windows in place to help keep “stuff” from entering the room. One had been in place and Pam reminded me we had the one from an upstairs bedroom in storage. I retrieved it and, thankfully, it fit the other window opening. At least we have both second floor window openings protected from the elements until such time as the new windows can be installed. All progress is incremental!

The photos above were taken after the AC unit was removed, a job that took about 2 1/2 hours and could not have been done without the lift. To get started I had to remove part of the dog run fencing and fence posts so I could back the lift up to the wall. The AC cover had to be unbolted from the wall and lowered to the ground. We had to wrap a rope around the “ears” of the cover to safely perform this task. Then the big job – removing the AC unit.

The AC is not your typical item. A commercial 240-volt unit, the window sill had been cut for a custom fit. The insides could be removed from inside the house – after removing 4 screws – but the outer shell, shown above, had to be removed from the outside. The unit itself is very heavy. We managed to get it on an old rug and Pam dragged it down the hallway. I was able to drag it over the sill plate and into the bathroom where it now sits until we get the energy to move it down the steps.

I had not found my little Panasonic camera so did not take photos of the work in progress. I wish I had. Here are a couple photos of the lift in place.

Bob the Builder had originally indicated he could be out Friday morning to install the new windows, but later indicated Friday was out. He thought he could get here Thursday night but never arrived. We are hoping he gets us on his schedule soon as we would like to complete this particular job with the installation of the new windows.

I will need to take some time off after the Monday – Thursday action. Additionally, I drove the lift back to Decorah on Friday, did some shopping at the Decorah Walmart, stopped for a few groceries, and made it home by around 4:30 PM. Today I need to restore the dog run by putting the fence post/wire fencing back in place. I think tomorrow will be that rest day!

Around the yard I am enjoying some hostas starting to bloom.

It was a very busy week with a lot of ladder work for both of us. We can feel the strain in our legs from stepping up and down the rungs, and in our shoulders from scraping and painting. The upcoming week is supposed to be quite warm and humid so we may not get a lot more painting done, but we shall see. I am hoping to get out to Colorado later this month and maybe celebrate my #70 birthday with a Colorado ATV ride.

Photo Archive

Family and Fun. Fireworks in black and white, Pam and the kids from the late ’80s.

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

Pam’s Penny

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER WALL. Now we know how huge that lift is, and the side-to-side space the outrigger stabilizers need, so we can open sufficient pathways for “the monster” to enter the yard and park near the house. I personally was not desirous of seeing that machine again so soon, but one does not pass up a “lift gift” such as the one the neighbors offered. Plus I have been on something of a campaign to get that set of windows installed on the second floor. We’re halfway there with the removal of that freaking awful AC unit and cover. (There must have been over 1,000 lady beetle carcasses in that thing. Ugh.)

Himself is hell-bent on painting the west side of Heart House ASAP. People – the coming week is statistically the hottest and most humid of the year in NE Iowa. Why exactly should retired elders be hanging off the side of a building under those conditions??? I ask you.

A portent of winter to come arrived in the mail, in the form off our contract with the local ag services co-op for propane purchases into 2023. The price per gallon for LP increased another 40 cents since last contract period — it is now almost twice as expensive per gallon as when we first ordered LP locally in 2019. Jer’s chat with a neighbor, who uses another LP supplier, confirmed all companies in the area are in the same ballpark on price point. Our inclination is to think the LP price is not being manipulated by supply, but rather by demand (and stockholder dividends). Don’t think we will “blame the President” on this energy source, as seems to be the popular pastime. If we use the summer fill service before August 31, we can save a few cents to tide us over until [maybe] December.

There you have it – in the hottest week of the year, we contemplate winter heating bills. Crazy place, The Universe.

Happy Trails.

With high temps and high humidity, coupled with rain showers, we did not get much accomplished on painting projects this week. However, we did move ahead on smaller tasks, including decorating the house for the 4th of July. The yard benefitted from the moisture and sunlight so I have included some “yard” photos as well.

Pam completed one of her sewing projects, making skirts for the job sink and laundry room table. The finished project looks pretty good!

Pam finished her ‘summer holiday’ wreaths and hung them on the gates around the dog run. Here is one of them.

The house looks fine in its 4th of July garb.

Even Gromit got into the act.

I kept busy as well. One task that should have been done last fall, but didn’t, was addressed this week. I put new brake pads in the rear of the truck. I had done the front pads last November but the advent of cold weather and Becky’s arrival made me put off doing the rear brakes. The job went OK and the brakes are now nice and quiet; they had been ‘squeaking’ which is an indication of worn pads. I’m glad to have completed that particular job.

Other indoor projects included scanning more negatives and creating another “travel” video. The latter was part of a longer SW Colorado vacation from 1989, before we moved back to Wisconsin. (We were living in Oregon at the time.) The movie’s main topic is the area around Marble, Colorado, including McClure Pass, the marble quarry, the Crystal Mill, and the Town of Crystal. Run time is 12:46 and you can view the clip, if interested, from this page.

Next up for me is the replacement of the John Deere’s electronic clutch that operates the lawn mower deck. The old clutch has been acting up for some time, not wanting to engage after it has been running for a while and getting warm. The John Deere is around 30 years old, dating from the early ’90s, and needs some maintenance to keep it in operation. A clutch replacement is a fairly common problem for older riding lawn mowers. Here is a photo of the new clutch.

Hopefully the job to replace the old unit will not be difficult or take a lot of time.

The yard plantings are doing very well this year. One example is a maple in the east yard. Chewed off by deer last winter, we were uncertain it would survive. The tree has instead exhibited phenomenal growth, putting on more that 2 feet of new shoots this year.

Other flowers are doing equally well.

The outside cats like to get under the hostas and day lilies, under the oak trees, to stay cool. Here is Dusty taking advantage of the shade.

A couple of events to note. Last week, the 4th of July weekend, Elma hosted a tractor pull. I attended this event (drove the several blocks on my ATV) and watched a couple of classes and enjoyed the short outing. This weekend it’s Elma Trail Days, the first “full” celebration since the pandemic began. There will be street vendors, a concert, and fireworks were shot off last night. We will have to see how successful the event will be. (Last year most events were canceled, although there was a parade.) Here are a couple shots from this year’s parade, which we can enjoy from our front porch.

Photo Archive

Family photos from the late’80s

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

Pam’s Penny

Small sewing projects, large and small painting projects, subtle reorganizations of space in rooms for more efficient usage – these occupy my summer retirement days. With Becky’s departure, the storage/guest bedroom once again houses the rolling storage shelves; now, misc. art work stashed under a bed upstairs has been moved/is being sorted on the guest bed. The storage/guest bedroom is scheduled for major painting and decor this coming winter. In the meantime, I execute incremental changes and ponder possibilities.

I’m investigating purchase of a desk-sized work table for the parlor bedroom. I have quite a bit of project work during the year that needs to be spread out and (if Elmo leaves it alone) left out until completed. Initially I’d thought projects could be done on the laundry room table, but in reality this hasn’t happened. The laundry room table is good for trimming Bru’s coat, for staging laundry, and for Elmo to sleep on. Likewise, if I work on the library/dining table, project items are in the way and have to be moved/put away for meals. Subtle reorganizations for more efficient usage – my goal.

Happy Trails.