I mentioned, in my last post, that I would be attending an antique power show. This week’s post covers that event with a lot of photos and three videos. I hope it is not boring but it is definitely aimed at those who enjoy looking at old machinery.

In addition to old tractors, including some very rare models, there were garden tractors, steam engines, threshing machines, two-man chainsaws, draft horses, hit-and-miss engines, antique waggons and vehicles, miniature railroads, and a flea market. Not all are pictured below but all were interesting to see and visit.

Live demonstrations of threshing and sawmilling were done. Corn shelling and lumber planing were on the show’s schedule. A parade of antique power was part of the show. Let’s move on the the imagery!

The tractor below is a rare unit. Around 150 were ever built and very few remain. Designed to be part car (with a heater installed) and a road gear giving up to about 45 mph speeds, it was thought a farmer could work his fields and go to town with the same unit. The idea did not go over very well.

A number of old waggons and antique trucks were included.

Antique cars were well represented, including this 1913 International Harvester.

There were row upon row of tractors, separated into brands, including these red Farmalls.

Even garden tractors had their own display area. These are getting quite collectible now.

When we think of steam tractors, we normally think of very large machines, but smaller samples were also produced. This show had some of each. Here is a smaller Case model.

Off to one side of the show arena a model railroad, with several miniature engines and cars, offered rides through a forested park.

Several demonstrations were scheduled, including threshing and sawmilling. Here is a photo of the later. It is quite likely that lumber for our 1894 home was produced on mills like this one. (A video is included below.)

I enjoyed the visit and taking in the demonstrations and looking at all the machinery. While I won’t go every year, it had been some time since I last attended a show and not a swap meet.

I put together three videos, one dealing with the parade of old equipment, the sawmill in operation, and threshing. Run times are 2:03 for the parade, 2:50 for the sawmill, and 1:23 for threshing.

I apologize of the jerkiness of the first part of this video. I had tried going back to hand-holding the camera, a mistake. The second half is better quality.

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

Pam’s Penny

Who-da-thunk the guy running the antique power show Himself attended is my brother Craig’s friend Les Radcliffe. That’s the Midwest for you.

Happy Trails.

There are several unrelated topics to cover this time. I attended a family reunion, went antique hunting, and reviewed photos (taken by the painters) of just how bad the tower needs work. More flowers are blooming around the yard and Elma had its annual celebration, Elma Trail Days. Onward!

I will begin with photos of the tower as that is the oldest topic this week. While the painters were here with their bucket trucks we asked them to get close to the tower and take photos so we could see what we were going to have to deal with. The results are not pretty.

It does appear that the “skirt” was built over regular shingles so removing it will not involve disturbing any structural elements. The “cap”, on the other hand, will need extensive rebuilding. However, the top is a piece of metal that was installed sometimes in the ’90s and is not original to the house. It appears to be salvageable, but the decorative elements are in pretty bad shape.

This is worse than we had anticipated but not completely unanticipated. We are currently discussing how to approach the repair work, if we can find someone to do it. Definitely NOT something I care to take on.

Elma celebrated Elma Trail Days with a parade and other events, but I did not take photos of anything. The parade was pretty lame with few decorated floats and no bands. Area service company trucks made up most of the entries, along with fire engines from various nearby communities. Let’s just say that if the parade did not come past our house we would not bother driving anywhere to attend it.

Becky did come up to visit us and watch the parade from our front porch. Here is a photo of Pam and Becky among the festive bunting.

Last Sunday, July 9th, I attended a Rohland family reunion. (My mother was a Rohland.) This gave me the chance to visit quite a few of my many cousins for a few hours and catch up with a bit of family news and lots of “where are they now” stories.

Back in Elma, utility workers have been around to set “pedestals” for the new underground wiring and running cable to them. Not exciting, but here is a pedestal near the west side of our lot.

Friday afternoon I went antique hunting. Pam, Becky, and I had met an antique dealer a few weeks ago during our jaunt to an arts and crafts fair and it made sense to see his “home store.” I was hoping he would have more furniture, but that was not to be. He did have quite a variety of steel wheels and lots of bottles of various vintages and, to be honest, a lot of stuff in his 5,000 square foot shop. Outside he had more ‘mechanical’ items such as old wheels, some antique farm implements, and other odds and ends. I spent a few hours there going through the shop and yard but bought only one small item.

It was a pleasant way to spend a morning.

Around the yard, the phlox are now in full bloom. Along with the hostas, daylilies, and other blooming flowers the yard is quite colorful.

My next event to attend is an antique power show north of Elma, in Spring Valley. I will try not to overload the next post with pictures of old motors…

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

Pam’s Penny

Re: Elma Trail Days, when did hogs in a pen on a flatbed become a float? Or a pickup with a handwritten sign taped on the door an entry? Is the bar that low?

With a hefty budget, I’d alter the entire tower design by cutting it in half and installing a metal-fence widow’s walk around the [new] top. But that is NOT going to happen. So I vote for a basic “tidy up” approach; take off the wood around the middle (mostly rotting/falling off anyway), scrape and paint the decorative top elements and call it good. Even that very basic plan will be hard to implement.

Happy Trails.

There is a lot to cover this week. Pam’s high school classmate, Ed Allen, staged a concert and we attended. Along the way we stopped to visit Pam’s older brother, Larry. Heart House was decorated for the 4th of July. A squirrel was filmed while eating from our corn cob feeder. We had an added bonus when a brother – sister pair stopped by; their grandmother had lived in this house and the pair had set out to find it again. Quite the activity going on!

I will mention, at the outset, that my hands are not as steady as they used to be. The included videos are proof of that. More use of a tripod is in order for future videos.

Last Saturday was the concert day. Onalaska was on the way so we stopped to see Pam’s older brother Larry. A carry-out from Culver’s provided lunch and we had a good chat. (Becky drove up from Greene to watch the dogs for the day. A thank you to her for that.)

From Onalaska we drove a bit north and then west to Trempealeau to attend a two-person concert featuring one of Pam’s high school classmates, Ed Allen, and another artist named Clara Byom. The Allen name may be familiar to regular readers of this blog as we had made a similar trip last year to help celebrate Annie Allen’s birthday.

Below is a 5:58 clip of Eddie and Clara. Ed solos first then is joined by Clara who provided some background music to another number. There is some wind noise, but the breeze was welcomed in the heat.

We enjoyed the 5-hour concert and Pam was able to connect with a few of her classmates.

Since I am including video clips, here is one featuring a squirrel eating from a cob of corn on one of our feeders. Run time is 1:07. Shot through the upstairs bathroom window, the quality is not the best but you will get the idea.

This squirrel lives in one of our trees, we think, as we see it often on the cob feeder and water dish. It is identifiable by a white pattern on its chest.

As has become a custom with us, Heart House is decorated for the 4th of July and this weekend’s Elma Trail Days parade. A few new items are included – a change from last year.

Around the yard, daylilies are really coming into their own.

Even the “board buddies” are looking good near the catio.

We had a pair of unexpected visitors. A brother and sister, David and Sharon Stute, stopped in. Heart House was “home” for their grandmother and great-grandmother from 1903 – 1971; the two siblings embarked on a nostalgic drive from Wisconsin to track down the place as part of ongoing genealogy research. Both David and Sharon related memories of visiting the house that were of interest to us.

A tour of the house was in order, as well as a discussion of their memories and the history of 702 Main, including Elma’s growth in the early 1900s. Sharon had a large binder of family documents drawn from Ancestry.com. These confirmed much of what Pam had learned through independent research about the previous occupants. Addresses and contact info was exchanged between us, and an offer to stop by any time they are in the area was extended. It’s highly possible photographs of the Tierneys and Stute families will be sent via our smartphones. Finally, we may see the faces of the folks who lived in this multi-generational house.

Other projects received attention. The equipment trailer was fitted with four new tires and some additional paint was sprayed on. Pam put up the holiday decorations mentioned earlier and spent time in the quilt room going through boxes. The Quimby Quilt was unpacked and hung on one wall.

The only bummer of the week was on the 4th; we had driven to Charles City for an evening outdoor concert and fireworks, only to find the concert had been moved indoors and the fireworks display canceled due to approaching severe weather. (Which never materialized, by the way.) An outdoor concert would have been appropriate for the 4th, particularly on the banks of the Cedar River.

It was a busy week with some fun ad a few surprises thrown in. The weather cooled down a bit over the last couple days making outside work more bearable. On tap for next week is some lawn repair (where the painter’s lift trucks left some ruts), more paint on the equipment trailer, and my final physical therapy session.

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

Pam’s Penny

Here I am at the afore-mentioned concert in Trempealeau, with my high school classmate Diane [Stuhr] Wittenberg, and going through our senior yearbook. We’re attempting to determine who’s alive, who’s dead, and how many of these folks we still have any contact with.

Why? Since our 50th high school reunion fell during the COVID-19 lockdown period, there’s been a conversation re: if the class of ’71 will ever meet again en masse. A gathering next year has been proposed, loosely called “Class of ’71 turns ’71.” It may all come down to the numbers — out of a class of 92, 16 are already deceased. Of the remaining classmates, if one third are willing to attend a gathering, it may make sense to purdue the possibilities. Currently, Diane and I were able to identify only one quarter who could be contacted by verified phone, postal, or social media addresses. Will be interesting if the one third number can be reached.

Re: the visit by the Stute siblings, I remember thinking on Memorial Day (when we put flowers from our yard on the gravestones of the Tierney and Stute family members at the Catholic cemetery) how nice it would be if someone from that family visited Heart House during our residency. The Universe delivered.

Happy Trails!

The main news this week involves painting. Gable painting began on Tuesday and the results are looking terrific! Other activity saw the power company working on the Main Street/north side, burying cables. (This necessitated digging holes in the median.) More flowers are in bloom and I have a short clip of neighborhood cat Autumn Calico rolling around on the sidewalk. A quick medical update will round out the narrative. Onward!

Both Pam and I took a lot of photos of the painting work in progress. Here are a few work-in-progress shots and I will include finished results below.

Last week I had included a photo of the power company putting guards around the power line that leads to the house. This photo below shows why guards were a good idea. The painter is in a bucket between the house and power line.

Above is over the east porch. The west side was somewhat more open.

The north and south sides had trees to contend with but the crew managed to get positioned OK. (Two guys, Will and Troy, each with a boom lift, did the work.)

Here are a few photos of the finished work.

As you can see, the painters were able to fulfill Pam’s request to paint the east gable under the electrical wire. We are very pleased we won’t have to try to negotiate rental bucket lift equipment under that wire. The house is looking better than ever. Now we just need to repair remaining [mint green] broken siding sections, and finish the second floor red painting.

The Tower: One of the painters will do some photography of the tower to establish a scope of work. A wooden decorative “skirt,” about half-way up, could possibly be removed, depending on what is underneath it. Photos may confirm it was built over the cedar shakes which could stay in place while permitting the removal of the “skirt” with no ill effects.

The top “cap” of the tower is problematic. It looks to have quite a bit of rot – can it be painted? Does it need complete replacement? Replacement would be more than I can personally do. Whatever we decide, it may just be “lipstick on a pig.” Our resources are not endless.

Moving onto other topics…

One of the outside cats, mentioned before, is Autumn Calico. Here is a – shaky – 57 second video of her grooming and rolling around on the sidewalk.

As if having two lift trucks in the yard was not enough excitement, the power company, Alliant Energy, dug a couple holes in our Main Street median. Power lines are going underground and junction boxes need to be installed on small pedestals at a few points. The following photos show one hole (of two in our median) and the plastic pipes that will eventually house the power cables.

At least the workers backfilled the holes when they were done and did a good job raking and leveling the area. We will throw some grass seed down and see if we get some green to come back yet this summer.

Around the yard, hostas are beginning to bloom as are daylilies. Regular lilies and hollyhocks are continuing to show their colors so we have a pretty good show going right now.

Finally, a medical note. I went to the dentist for impressions that will result in a casting for my replacement front tooth. The new tooth should be ready for fitting in a couple weeks. I broke it last September and getting the implant has been a long process, now nearing an end.

The Civil War Reenactment we had planned to attend last weekend did get rained out, but we really needed the rain and did not mind staying inside to read and work on quiet projects. Elmo, Bru, and Blondie had a quiet afternoon napping in the laundry room. (JoJo was elsewhere in the house.)

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

Pam’s Penny

Oh, Heart House. Look under the roof overhang below and see wood that hasn’t seen paint in decades (the dirty looking bit at the bottom of the photo). No wonder the house has looked so bedraggled. When I question why we took on this exterior paint “experience” I’ll remember this photo.

The paint crew was very thorough when cleaning the wood trim in the gables prior to painting, wood trim I refer to as the “lace” of the gables. Spindles and decorative circles fell off the lace left and right during paint prep. One wonders how they stayed up under the eaves all these decades? In the end, the lace is still attractive without these”artifacts” but it’s less intricate than it was originally. (The only piece of lace with most of the spindles intact is in the south gable, an area protected by the giant oak trees.)

Happy Trails.

A number of small items and news updates take up the blog post this week. Some involve the house, others the yard, and a few involve pets. A couple medical updates round out the topics. Read on!

The painter, who is to do the gables, is due on Monday. Per our agreement, I fired up the pressure washer and tried to clean the eaves and gables by using our 12-foot ladder. I did notice some dirt coming down and some loose paint was blasted off. I hope it was enough to satisfy the painting crew.

Another pre-painting task was to get the power company to come out and put a few guards over the powerline where it connects to the house. These guards are to prevent damage to both the painters and lines.

Out in the yard, a few new flowers came into bloom. Two of the hollyhocks have opened blossoms. One is a traditional pale yellow, but the other is a crimson with “feathered” edges to the flower. Both are very attractive.

Unfortunately, lack of rain is turning many parts of the lawn brown. According to the local weather channel, we are short almost 3.75 inches of rain for the month and it shows.

Moving to pets, the “Terrible Two” (Stirling and Vienna) continue to claw into things, frustrating Pam in her attempts to keep posters and pictures on the walls as decorative elements. They’ve even been trying to claw on the soft pine of the wood table pedestal in the library.

Oldest dog, Blondie, is sleeping more and more. I’m not sure how long she has left with us, but seems to be eating OK even though she doesn’t move with much fluidity anymore. Blondie will be 15 years old next month.

I mentioned last time that Pam had a biopsy taken of a lesion on her forehead. The results confirmed it is a spot of basal cell carcinoma. Pam is taking the steps to get an appointment to have the lesion removed; the operation will take place later this year, most likely in later summer/fall.

I have a couple weeks of physical therapy left. Both my therapists indicate I have come a long way and am improving steadily. While still under 100%, I am working the shoulder more and can note my range of motion and ability to lift small weights above my head is improving. Full recovery, according to my doctor, will take several more months.

I’ve also been cleared to move ahead with my tooth implant. The oral surgeon that did the work has declared, in an appointment last Thursday, that the implant post is fully healed in and ready for the next step of building a new tooth on it. The focus now shifts back to my local dentist who will do the work. That is good news.

I never thought I would have to worry about air quality in Iowa, but here we are, under advisories and warnings for quite a few days this month. The first were related to smoke coming out of Canada, but the recent ones have been for ozone. Currently we are in “Level 3” which is “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” and only just below just plain “Unhealthy.” Quite a large area of the midwest is affected. Not much can be done except hope for a weather pattern change that will disperse the ozone and get the air back to safer levels.

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

Pam’s Penny

We envisioned our Iowa summer activities as including short trips to numerous local events. Then COVID arrived, and lingered for basically two years. This summer I think we can anticipate more activity. We’ve already been to a craft fair in West Union and the River Days festival in Greene. Plans for this weekend may get rained out; we had planned to attend a Civil War reenactment in Nashua but thunderstorms in the forecast may force a cancellation.

Himself mentioned Blondie above, and her age; the other two dogs are 12 and 13 (not youngsters either). During COVID lockdown, being home [pretty much] all the time meant the dogs became very comfortable with me as on-demand door opener. Now, retraining the dogs to be comfortable secured in the laundry room for up to five hours while we attend local events — that activity is ongoing.

Happy Trails.

Last week saw little in the way of outside project work, due to smoke haze from wildfires in Canada. Air quality warnings were the norm, with some alerts in the “Unhealthy” category and much time at the “Sensitive” level. Pam and I passed the days with routine yard work, getting to know a couple outside cats, and “puttering.” Saturday morning we visited Becky at her home in Greene and watched the local River Days parade.

I am going to start with a photo of the equipment trailer that I was working on in my last post. I did get both sets of wheels done and fenders as well. Pam took this photo of me at work. Note the rusty wheel and taped-up light and license plate, preparations for painting to come.

Wheels received a coat of white paint, hubs received a coat of black, and mounting hardware and fenders were done in red. Main deck is still to be done using a combination of white and red.

One development concerns a couple neighborhood outside cats that have been appearing with more regularity at our house. Autumn Calico and Cheeto are seen more and more frequently, with Autumn using the catio ramp and shelter from time to time.

While Autumn seems to be in good physical health, the same cannot be said for Cheeto. He is a skinny little thing and appears to be having problems with diarrhea. Pam is drawing on her rescue background to feed him probiotics with targeted diarrhea meds in hopes of helping improve Cheeto’s health.

Both animals are friendly and can be petted with no problems; they are obviously used to people. Are they cats let out by neighbors, or were they dumped? We don’t know. If they stay around Heart House they may end up in the catio over the winter. Autumn is already comfortable using the ramp and entering the catio building for periods of time, but Cheeto has not yet been so bold. We have a summer to work out the dynamics.

Staying with a cat theme, here is [indoor cat] Elmo at rest one day. That cat can relax in a number of unconventional poses.

The trip to Greene to visit Becky and take in Green’s local parade went well. The dogs seemed to be OK (sequestered in the laundry room) for the hours we were gone, and we enjoyed the drive through fertile Iowa cornfields. Here’s a photo of Pam and Becky waiting for the parade to begin. Our chairs were in the shade and a light breeze blew. Quite comfortable.

We are very impressed with the work Becky has put into her place her first year in residence. Becky’s small garden is doing well, growing a wide variety of plants, and the yard looks great. The work of planting, putting up arbors, and purchasing hanging plants has resulted in a good-looking place. (The photo does not include parts of the front walk and area at the end of the garage which have received attention and resources as well.)

There is (always) some medical news to relate. Pam has had a lesion on her forehead since just before our move to Iowa, and [finally] she was able to schedule a dermatologist appointment. During the consult, a biopsy was taken. The official results are not yet in, but basal cell carcinoma is strongly suspected. (This is the most common form of skin cancer in the U.S.) More on this as the story line develops.

So that was our week, routine tasks mixed in with a few trips and projects. Summer heat is building. Summer Solstice is this coming week.

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

Pam’s Penny

My sister is in the process of creating a charming “grandma house” in Greene. Inside, the decor is as interesting and detailed as the exterior landscaping. She has worked s-o-o hard, solo, to achieve results. Very impressive. And more to come!

Silly me. I though, with Cloudy Day’s exit to the Rainbow Bridge in April, the catio would be essentially closed down going forward. As soon as Cloudy’s presence was no longer an obstacle, the neighborhood cats moved in. First Autumn Calico, then Cheeto – next, maybe Frito and Spook and Muffin Head…don’tcha just love neighborhoods?

Happy Trails.

A routine week here at Heart House, folks. Some new flowers bloomed, Mom Rabbit appeared with her bunnies, and a few projects received attention. A few items to discuss this week.

The baby rabbits have left their nest and we have seen them with their mother, running around the north lawn. We accounted for three of the 4 (?) newborns Pam had originally seen under the ferns. Hopefully the young will survive the neighborhood cats and traffic on the roads. Below is a photo of the mom rabbit lounging beneath one of our lilac bushes.

A few new blossoms appeared this last week, including the bridal wreath, lily, and a gorgeous dark-red peony.

The standard peony plants also bloomed, adding color to the front yard.

Good to see the various colors as they appear around the house. Day lilies and hollyhocks will open in a few weeks and they look to have a lot of flower buds this year. Looking forward to that.

A couple projects moved ahead this week. Pam continues to work in the guest bedroom, sorting and arranging the stuff we have stored on the wire racks. She has consolidated and emptied quite a few boxes and put like or related items in some new decorative boxes she bought online. The room is finally clearing out.

I began working on cleaning up the equipment trailer I bought last fall. New paint is on the agenda, but the process is time consuming. Below are the before and after photos of the work started on the fenders and wheels. (The “after” photo is as far as I got before quitting for the day on Friday.)

I finished my twice-a-week physical therapy and will now be on a once-a-week schedule. The shoulder is improving but has a way to go, not unexpected, but still a limiting factor in what I tasks I can take on.

The cats provided some comic relief this week as cardboard boxes provided some entertainment. Here are Elmo and Stirling examining the latest delivery.

Hooray! We heard from the painter – he is scheduled to be here on June 26 to begin painting the gables. We are really looking forward to having that work done. But I never heard back from the roofer about a revised quote to do the tower, so I’m betting that won’t happen this year. A “Plan B” may be needed. We may personally need to do some repair on the tower’s trim from the bucket lift. There are no leaks or other problems – the work is cosmetic in nature – it would be the final element to address on the exterior project.

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

Pam’s Penny

What’s behind the curtain?

Some of you (Becky, Craig, Carol) may remember when the storage room had three five-foot-high piles of boxes w/ walkways. That second floor room was where most everything was stored immediately after the relocation from Colorado. Over the last 3+ years, items from that room have been distributed throughout the house as decor, but also some to under-eave storage (holiday), basement, and above garage storage. When I look at those two rolling storage units of consolidated storage, plus the “tower of totes,” I finally see an end to that initial distribution.

I probably should have purged way more than I did, but I did meet my decorating goal of “everything out of boxes that can be accommodated.” How many of you could find space for 1930’s era hockey skates or a 1950’s bowling ball with bag?

Happy Trails.

It was a mostly quiet week. On Friday we did make an outing to an arts and crafts show. Pam discovered baby rabbits under some fern plants. A columbine plant put forth a show of color. These topics and photos are below.

Pam, her sister Becky, and I attended an arts and crafts show in West Union, Iowa, on Friday. This was our first visit to this show and we didn’t quite know what to expect. We found displays in [fairground] buildings as well as outside displays, and live music was playing through the event. The venue was quite well organized.

Both Pam and Becky found and purchased a few small items. Pam found a couple of small metal hearts on rods which can be pushed into the ground (destined for the garden). Becky found at least one basket from a vendor and a couple cat-themed markers at the same metal crafts shop where Pam purchased the heart markers.

There was not much in the way of antiques, but we did find a vendor who does architectural salvage, along with dealing in antiques, and picked up his card. He has baseboards and corbels in his warehouse, which is located west of Waterloo. As these items may be of interest in our renovation activities, his shop sounds like it would make an interesting day trip destination in the near future.

Here are a few photos I took during the outing.

Overcast skies kept the humid temperatures to a bearable limit and we managed to walk through the event. It was good to connect with Becky again as well. The show was definitely geared more to arts and crafts but there were a few antique dealers mixed in — something for everyone.

There are a few items of note from around the house. Pam was startled to discover four baby rabbits under one of the fern plants. She was trying to determine why the ferns were not flourishing and found this nest:

Since all of our outside cats have passed on, this means there’s no feline patrolling the premises. It appears the rabbits feel safe and under cover in the fern bed now. It will be interesting if these babies survive into adolescence.

The bridal wreath is beginning to flower; photo will be in the next post. It turns out this species has male and female plants and only the female plants bloom. We have three plants and two of them are male. The female is located between the two males and the three form a nice symmetrical arrangement.

The Grandpa Ott morning glories are beginning to twine up around their metal grid support structure and are looking very healthy. Same with the wisteria plant; it’s beginning to twist around the support frame. Two of the hollyhock plants, one existing and one new this year, are forming flower buds. The goal is to have something flowering most of the season and yard plantings are getting closer to that goal.

The pink columbine burst out into a bouquet of color this week. (The blue variety did not make it this winter.)

The upstairs bath received a few minor tweaks with the addition of towel racks and re-installation of a couple shelves. Another towel rack, to be mounted where a person can reach it from the shower, is on order, as is a new small flip-top garbage can (cat proof!) to be placed near the sink. Gradually the room is becoming more and more convenient and finished.

The warmer weather kind of limits our outside activities. Warm inside temps created another side issue: our internet router, at least the wireless service of it, appeared to be overheating. Located in the upstairs Media Room, the router receives very little cool air from the A/C system. We stream our TVs over the wireless network and were getting long “buffering” pauses and long delays in switching channels. I zip-tied a small computer cooling fan to the side of the router and have not had problems since, even though it’s been even warmer the last few days. (The unit does have ventilation holes in the sides and top but has no internal fan.) Seems like there is always something technological to cause additional aggravation.

This time of year is slow for us, given my still-recuperating shoulder and the increase in heat and humidity. It may be time to rent a lift and get some more painting done, but I’ll have to see how much actual repair of broken siding and trim I can manage. These tasks may have to wait until cooler weather in the fall, but I would like to see some progress being made on getting the remaining side of the house painted.

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

Pam’s Penny

The tulip and daffodil bed is now the hosta bed, and have these plants ever “exploded” this spring. Almost every one of them was subdivided last year to provide plant material for Sister Becky’s yard. Most of these hostas will probably need to be subdivided again this year. I chuckle when I remember how I tried and tried to get hostas established when we lived in Colorado, without a single success. In NE Iowa, they multiply like dandelions.

Discovering baby rabbits in a ground burrow is a new experience for me. (I can only say thank goodness the startling movement at ground level was not reptilian.)

Happy Trails.

This week includes a potpourri of news. Major progress was made in the upstairs bath, the yard is looking good, and a few miscellaneous projects received attention. Photos of all are in the narrative below.

The upstairs bath is the major source of news this week. A bit more painting was done, but the big news was the finishing of the electrical circuits. The bath now has a functioning vent fan, light above the sink, and working outlets. While finishing touches are still needed, the bath is now fully functional.

I am VERY pleased to have the bath working. I really appreciate the convenience of a shower on the upper floor. The bath was one of the projects we had discussed [almost four] years ago when we first looked at the place, and is the last of the major improvements we plan for the interior of Heart House.

Moving outside, the yard is looking good. Pam put a flat of pansies in the front flower bed. Our butterfly bush is in full bloom. The south side yard, between the house and garage, is at full spring green.

Staying with the ‘yard’ theme, here are a couple photos of the house decked out in Memorial Day bunting.

I have a couple miscellaneous photos. First, while the electricians were here Pam had them put a decorative disc under the kitchen light fixture. It was originally a pie crust cutter. As you can see, it features a heart motif, just what Heart House needs!

Second, here is a photo Pam took of me while I was using my “flame thrower,” a weed and grass torch I use to kill weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk.

Pam can now continue putting the upstairs guest bedroom back in order. That room served as a storage and staging area during the bathroom work; it became dirty and disorganized. Pam assembled dowels and curtains to serve as coverings for the steel storage racks in the room and moved them to the back wall. This room needs a lot of cleaning and organizing yet. Pam has plans to go through existing containers on the storage racks and “edit” what’s being kept.

And finally, our daughter Felicity sings with a Sweet Adeline group called Northwest Harmony, and they recently had a competition in the state of Washington. Below is a photo of Felicity in stage makeup, plus another photo of her choir on stage at the competition. (Felicity is in the back row, 3rd from left, in the group photo.) Photographer(s) are unknown. The chorus placed 6th in a field of 19 during the first regional competition since COVID.

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

Pam’s Penny

I’m busy trying to teach old dogs – and young cats – new tricks.

Happy Trails.

As spring progresses, the lilacs and lily of the valley are popping open. The carpenter finished his sheetrock work in the bathroom and the plumbers piped in the clawfoot tub and sink. I have a lot of photos for this post, so let’s get started.

I’m going to begin with the yard updates mentioned above. As I look out the Media Room’s north bay window, this is what I see below me.

Centered is the honey locust tree with its gold spring foliage. It is flanked on both sides by different colors of lilacs. The effect is both visual and sensory and I enjoy both aspects.

Recently opened, lily of the valley bloom for a short time every spring. (These were on the property when we bought it.) Pam tells me they have a light fragrance, but I have not bent low enough to check.

Last year we planted an oak tree that was sprouting from an acorn. It didn’t do very well, but this year it seems to have found its footing. (Maybe because the baby oak was covered for the winter and deer didn’t chew it to the ground.)

One more trip to the greenhouse resulted in a couple more hollyhock plants and a flat of pansies. That should about do it for this season. The hollyhocks may not flower this year, but I hope they settle in and bloom next year.

The main news of the week revolved around the continuing upstairs bathroom work. Most of the finish work was done by service people, but I did some too, such as sanding the last drywall joints, and painting. Pam found a pair of short drapes to temporarily hang over the main window, and I began moving in some fittings. The bathroom is starting to be functional again.

Below are several photos relating to the plumber’s effort to complete the drains and water supply lines. Be sure to read the captions. Working in an 1894 home has it challenges!

Here are a few photos of the bath as of May 20th.

I hope the electrician shows up this week! There are details I can do, including putting on another coat of paint and installing baseboards and trim, but with the vent fan working I could begin using the shower. I’m looking forward to that.

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

Pam’s Penny

I refer to the crawl space above the kitchen ceiling as “Mouseville.”

Hey, let’s not only hear from: 1) the electrician. What about 2) the gable painter? Or maybe, did 3) the roofer review our counter proposal? Trades people. Ugh.

Happy Trails.