Saturday Stuff...........

The new geraniums are planted in their new larger container.  I am hoping they think that it is spring having a place for the roots to spread and plenty of light.  In the background outside I see I have a few things yet to put away for the winter.  I have been out there painting on the house and things were shifted around to get to the side of the house.  My wooden bird sculptures remind me that somewhere in the world there are waterbirds enjoying their warm climate.

My wife snapped a photo of the female cardinal enjoying some of my sunflower seeds from the seed head that I had grown this summer.
That sunflower seems to have disappeared overnight.  I know we had strong winds but it surly didn't blow away so far that I can't find it in the yard.  The cold air did get blown in late in the night as we woke up a lot colder than in the evening.

 I did a lot of small chores all morning Friday and then painted on the house in the afternoon.  I  did get my zinnia's harvested and put more things away in the shed.  I finished two frame jobs in the morning with the help of my wife.  Her portrait of three children is now ready to be picked up by the lady up the street.  I finished installing the second storm glass on the other kitchen window which already has proven to keep the place warmer.

Working outside was a challenge as we didn't warm up very much.  I don't like painting in a winter coat so I had on three layers of shirts.  It was almost not enough to keep warm but another layer would have been ridiculous.

I had to replace some smaller lengths of siding over the kitchen as the water had rotted out some of them.  It required me taking four of them off and replacing them with some leftover cedar siding from the other end of the house. I couldn't get the angle cut right on any of them so I kept going up the step ladder and down again until I sawed the angle just right.  It should have been a 45 degree angle but the peak must be steeper than than.

 I painted up high on the ladder yesterday and on a good warm day I may extend it to the fullest and finish as much as I can on the peak.  The story and a half house has a tall peak, or gable, and as a  young guy I use to stretch up there to do it.  I also have to solve painting the trim to the old window up there.  I can reach the bottom half or more of it but the top of it I can't reach. I don't dare only paint half of it and leave it looking like that all winter.  I am thinking of taking out the window from the inside and painting it from inside that window.  I think it could work but not in severe cold weather.

 On facebook the people from around Murray, Iowa have started a limited site to talk about the old days of the small town.  It is where I graduated from high school and a lot of relatives lived in and around the area.  The theme they are stuck on right now is the history of the country schools in the area.  Actually they are delving in on just the one township of Doyle in which is where we lived on the farm.

To shorten the story today I will tell you about one school that I have a lot of school books in my possession.  There are a lot to the stories of various schools that were closed by the time I started kindergarten in 1955.  The books I have were bought by my dad at an auction. They were loaded into a large bookshelf and delivered to our bedroom one day.  It was so fun.

The facebook people want to figure out a lot about all 9 of them but this one they know so little as it was closed earlier than others.  The books I have from the school are as old as 1935.   I am posting this page of a math book that has the great illustration and also is teaching math in a plain simple good way.  No core math being used here.

I will finish off today as there are more things to do and places to go.  I wish you all a good day and thanks for stopping by today.