Saturday's Vistior.....

The downy showed up at the seed feeder this morning and didn't find any suet. I quit putting it out as there were no takers all winter. There is a stray suet feeder down below in a tree and I will look today to see if they are feeding on it. I was surprised to see it out there and was lucky to get a couple of shots of the woodpecker.

A project report includes the view of these two pieces. They will be touched up one more time but that is just looking it over for any thin paints spots.  I am really happy with the look and the job the paint is now doing.

I am going to paint the railings that holds the bed together so everything will be all cleaned for use.

I worked on one of the large headboards this morning.  I need to flip this now and give it a second coat.  It does get to be overwhelming painting all the rungs and flat pieces but I can now see the end coming for this project. One more big headboard to paint.

We both are still under the weather with this coughing flu cold thing. My wife is on har third week and I am finishing my second week. It is more like flu as the muscles are affected and the strength is bothered. I can do things now but then I have to go sit down and rest. We both are so much better but stuff still keeps hanging on to our bodies. Waiting for paint to dry is a perfect solution for the situation.

This guy is still putting out color but it is getting pretty weary looking too. I still have a snow drift outside the sliding glass door so it is seasonal contrast with this growing just inside from it.

We will go to the bookstore on another day. We are suppose to warm up to 51 degrees today. That will be good for more snow melting.  It does look a lot like spring outside.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday.....

It is a gray cold day with not sunshine predicted for today. The sun is up there under that cloud cover but a lot of good that does for us.

With a story that I don't want to share, my wife ended up watching Dumbo the Elephant.  It has been recolorized but is just the same movie.  I The one scene in the movie has Dumbo up in a burning building and the clowns bring in their firetruck to put out the fire. This metal firetruck was close to the very same shape as the one in the movie. The watertank on the back was the exact same shape. The old toy came from the farm in southern Iowa, taken from the John and Iva toy bucket 40 years ago or more.

This truck and trailer is from a younger era but it still is old. The rubber wheels indicate probably before the second world war. I don't have a clue of what might be carried on the truck bed.

I am having a very bad day with the work on this project.  As I was thinking  I was getting along ok,  I realized that the paint was not sticking even when it felt dry.  I was the kind of paint that was just rewetting the undercoat. It wasn't soaking into the grain of wood.

I did get the problem fixed as I had another white paint that was one with a sating finish.  The chemical that caused it to be semi shiny actually sealed it. I will use the satin paint now and see if I can get back onto it.

I haven't walked out to see all the damage from the meadow voles yet. I can see from the photos that the did tear up a lot of the yard. I can't see where the originated but I think they started over along the neighbor's fence and came my way.When all the snow is melted I can track their journey into the yard.

It is a slow day for me and I need to take more pictures.  I hope all is well with you all.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Time Goes By.....Good Days and Bad.

As the snow remains at the bottom of the stairs, I do know that there will be a time when it will be too hot to stand outside to look down those stairs.

I know the tree ornaments and the geese are stored away for another Christmas, but I did have to throw away this Charlie Brown mug. The handle broke off and the mug was tossed. Charlie was reminding me to unravel and unwind my kite string as I drank my coffee.

I haven't lost any marbles but some days I do wonder why my mind isn't so sharp anymore.  The glass dish and lid are old pieces and the marbles each only know their own histories.

As time has passed by I am still in marvel of life and its happenings. We spent a lot of time this morninging helping  my wife's friend through her doctor's appointments.  She is having a lot of physical problems and we are younger enough to be able to help her. A doctor's office is not a good place to visit these days and some workers are wearing their masks. They do ask if you have been traveling the past few months.  They did not ask her friends if they had been traveling.

We lost our long time neighbor this morning as cancer took her life. I was a teacher of all of her kids in school and her now grown families are in mourning. I knew of her late husband and late son as we lived around each other for over 35 years. Judy had been sick for her last years so it was not a surprise to hear of her passing. She visited us at our new home about a year ago and sat aen petted Barney with great love. Both of them are now just good memories.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Dragging Through......

We had a bright day this morning with visible clouds that I could photograph. It was cold out on the deck but the deck was dry.

It really didn't warm up very much today.  We were out in it anyway and we need to do a couple of errands. A winter coat was still needed but it did look more like spring.

With both of us being sick and coughng we ventured to the grocery store to get essentials yesterday. We were out of oranges for sure but went to the grocery store mid morning when it was not busy.

I brought one piece of my project out into the main room.  I used my Grandma's table to work on and placed it in front of the sliding glass door. It is warmer out here than in the workshop area. White paint is always a tricky business It looks horrible with the first coat.  The second coat makes it look better.  I have one more coat to put on this with a satin paint to finish it off.

 My energy level allows me to do one of these a day and it will probably be two days for each one as one does have to wait for paint to dry.When I was young I would do it all in one day but now reality means patiently doing one piece at a time dragging it out for for a week or more. I ma glad I can get it done that way.

Our necessary trip to the bank means we can make an unnecessary trip to Krispy Kreme store. The sit right beside each other perfectly. I will freeze six of these and dole them out one day at a time.  Some are going to my wife's friend when we take her to the doctor tomorrow.  Well, I must close this down.  No new voles showed up in the yard today.  I am sure my neighbor is watching closely.  He is a great hunter and trapper too I guess.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday.......

I keep a close eye on this plant making sure that it never dries out. I am really hovering over it to keep it going for as long as I can. It has been an amazing set of blooms.

The leftover bulb that I found in the basement is not going to bloom.  It is going to put out leaves only. I will share it. I am hoping all those leaves will nourish the bulb as they say that it will.

An unknown kind of creature has dug tunnels under the snow and chewed away at the grass.  It is almost creepy and something I have never seen before now.While looking down I can see more tunneling that was done and the snow is still on top of the runs. I am hoping someone out there in blog land know what it is.

If you haven't seen them you need to put your nose closer to the screen.  I know that the neighbor to the north east will be out trying to destroy whatever it is. There is a lot of channeling and I really am not happy about it.

I did get the flag out this morning and it is not going to get wet or snowed on either.

Down yhe street you can see the snow is still there. Those houses shade the front of their houses all day so it doesn't melt. It is still February and more snow will be back soon.

I am so ready to start painting on my project pieces but I am still coughing a little and the cold basement is not where I should be today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Moments......

An oil pastel painting by me created a long time ago. I guess I did see 1993.  It looks like a Hamm's Beer commercial. I am under the weather today with the coughing cold that my wife has had for a long time.  She is a lot better and I am hoping that I won't get any worse.

I have been working on this project all the past week. I have had to glue the veneering back onto the piece as the damp basement of the old basement house the waterbase glue that they used on the pieces originally.

The veneer warped away and I could load up new wood glue into the cracks. The clamping process has worked well to get it all back together.  All four pieces required some work.

You can see the gap on this one headboard.  I was at first going to take it all off but the gluing it back on was a better solution.  The wood that the veneer was glue to was not a good wood.  It seemed to be a soft wood rather than a hardwood.

I like havyng a workshop and I didn't bother to clear anything just for your viewing. I decided the junky look is good when you are working hard. I am not down there today with this cough.  I can be glad though that all the pieces are now glued together again.

We are looking at having rain and snow in our future. It is has been great to have a break from winter.  I saw water running down our gutters yesterday.  It was just a stream but that was great to see.

I will start sanding and painting on these bed parts in the future.  I dreaded the job and now I see that it is all going to work out. The will be put together as a cushioned couch like piece of furning and I want to put a mattress under it to roll our to make two places for kids to sleep.  Settle is the word that should work for this descripton.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Afternoon Report.....

Two disinterested birds that really don't know that I am taking their photo. The house finch has a red top that sort of stands out but the rest is just blah.

I still have this one knick knack box that we bought for the boys in which to  display their matchbox cars.  It didn't work for the toy cars as most of them were too big plus the boys didn't really want to take any time to put them in there. I don't know if I have the other one or if it go tossed. Anyway, you get to see my small junk that I still have not thrown away. The brown and white cow was one that I played with as a kid 65 years ago. The orange quail is one that was gifted to me by a shy guy in Sidney, Iowa. He gave it to me because he liked me. He is probably now a grandpa with lots of nice grand children. He made it by pouring resin into a mold. The shell casings are from my dad's funeral.

I continue to move our paintings around in the house. Sometimes they do get their own nail and hang on the wall but we hang them slowly as we decide exactly where we want them to be. I keep thinking I should put up more shelves in which I could display and rearrange them willy nillie.

On the far wall of the downstairs is a gallery of paintings. They get moved around once in a while or they get moved upstairs.

It has been a warm day and I took a nap before I blogged today. That is the reason I am late posting today.  It is warm outside and will be warm again tomorrow.  Everyone but me is out walking their dogs, running, riding bikes and some are just plain walking.  I hope everyone is well out there.  Thanks for stopping.

Stuff for Saturday....

The crazy dude is hungry by mid morning.  It has been filled since yesterday but he must have been at someone else's feeder.

He has not been scaring away birds as there doesn't seem to b any. A couple of sparrows were in for a short time.  Our weather is too good for them to be solely eating from my feeder.

While working in the workshop today I noticed these two characters are waiting for me to bag them and put them away on the shelf. They look like a couple of cartoon characters as the sit there.

I stepped out my patio door in my stocking feet this morning. I caught a view of the ever changing landscape. It is warmer but stuff is not melting away too fast.

The angel has a winter job which is holding up the bag of sand.  I keep adding sand to the cracks between the tiles that I put down for the patio floor. The weather is helping to work it into the cracks. I need to get out a broom and work it in a little, but I can do that in spring.

I have taken a lot of photos today but will hold back on sharing them all at once. You can see this flower is not in full bloom. I hope to hold in good shape now for  awhile longer. I like how you can see the snow in the background outside.

I wish you to have a good weekend.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Transforming......

It was not so much planned but I was able to post the sequence of the blooming of the amaryllis. I will take more photos before it starts to decline. The fourth bud is not completely opened yet.

Our little grand daughter is growing up quickly. It is so neat to see how happy she is that she can get up on her knees and sit. She will be crawling around more soon,  It is a happy girl that has found mobility to be fun.  When we were at our last visit we could see she want off people's laps and loved being on the floor.  She was sitting with a little bit of a wobble but n ow she is really holding her own. It helps that she has two older brothers to imitate and get into their stuff.

It is Friday and we are being forewarned of two days of warm temps. It will be a welcomed shock to o ur systems.

Thanks for stopping by today.