Tuesday's Trivia.......

It is beginning to look like a prison around here. I walked my back yard yesterday picking up all the loose newspapers that have blown in from up the hill. Things are looking better and more plants are shooting up out of the ground.

Everything is so green.  I have a peony pushing up back by the fence and the fernleaf peony is shooting up lots of stems. That will be the first of my peonies to bloom. These trees are so full of birds right now as they are deciding where to go to nest.

I always wonder if it is going to bloom. I doubt it but I can wish for it. A successful transplant that will look good there for years to come.

A lot of my tulips are up everywhere and I have globe alinum popping up too. My daffodils have buds on them in some locations. I did see a bud or two on the new red bud tree. I am awaiting to see if the voles killed out some of my spike flowers or even all of them. They sure made a mess in the plant area and then all over the yard.  I filled their tunnels under the snow with some  top soil a few days back.

The bottom section of my cabinet. It has the varnish drying enough that I could use steel wood and paste wax to finish it off.  An older lady way back when felt the surface of on of my tables and said you must now steel wool this surface with wood paste wax, and then polish. I did and have done so for the past 30 years on all my projects.

I removed the old wood of the backing and replaced it with wainscoting. It had to be glued together a couple of times before it works.  Varnish with walnut stain turned it into a good color.

I had planned this design for the wood pieces that I was using for the shelves.  All was going good until I cut one of the boards to short by a hair of an inch.  So I tried not to get too angry and designed one without any pencil and paper.  I had limited amount of wood strips that were recycled from the original backing.

My new design actually ended up lookingm ore like an arts and crafts sesing than the more modern one that was on paper. I had another disgusting experience trying to get them glued and stable. After they fell apart about two times, I finally figured it out and did it.

I like it just as much as the paper plan and I did get to use more of the recycle pile. I had to do some subtle engineering parts to get it to all stay togetther as one shelf piece. I should nail in small nails from behind into the boards to make it really secure.  I am not sure that I want to take the chance.  I will live with it for a while.

I was messing with it and prim and proper working on it and then told myself., it is suppose to look rustic.

It has come a long way.  I didn't even know that it would be made of walnut until I got some of the junk and dirt off of the surface. I made the decision to make this the top part even though I am betting that this was originally the bottom. The angles suggest that it would look more like support bracketing if the had angled it.  While gluing and assembling the shelf parts I just made a decision as to which end that I wanted up.

 A little more spot waxing over touch up areas and this will be done.  I don't know which floor of the house it will be displayed or if I will hang it on the wall or put it on a table. I know now that I won't show this again until I have select pieces of art, pottery and antiques to go into the little cubbies. No glass door is going to be installed as it is not a square piece, having lain out in a barn near cow stanchions on a very dirty floor.

I am going a little stir crazy now but I can look forward to supper.  I am getting irritated at new people and all the dumb things they say.  We keep adding more people to our sick list.  We have a nursing home that was just tested for the virus and 26 or more now are carriers. I haven't seen a new count today but it will keep enlarging.  I am glad that a test is out there now where it takes less the 14 minutes to know the results. We seem to be germ free at this time.  I hope everyone else is being careful out there.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Starting a New Week.....

Our oldest grandson, AJ,  turned seven in February. He is growing up so fast. Here he is bowling with his party friends at a  Pac Man party place. He looks like he is really having a good time. Do your remember me posting his photo as a baby? He being the first grand chid we were so excited.

I found the grape hyacinths blooming while I was out this morning.  I had forgotten that there was some out there. I did not plant it but it is spreading in that front garden area.

The third planting of tomato seed has sprouted. It seems fragile but it will do ok. The plants travel inside each night to stay warm and then they get carried out to the sun room each morning. They are getting a lot of mileage on them. My bonsai is a special shrub that too gets to travel in and out daily.

I a jumping around here but this is the front garden area. The former owner built this.  The neighbor to the south made fun of Arlen's work but I think he waIs just jealous. It looks better though now that I removed some of his plants and put in all shorter ones.

The doves are only one now.  I suspect the other is in the nest.  I suppose they might take turns sitting on the nest but I don't know that for sure.

I didn't know how the cards would fare this year with everything in a mess. I got a beautiful one from Minnesota. It is special because of the two loons on the front. I miss seeing and hearing them call.  The grandson wanted to send one all by himself. My sister-in-law sent me one this year to try to get into my good graces again.  I have already forgiven her but haven't said anything. Edward Jones of course sends me one to thank me for giving me all my money. They seem to be gaining some of it  back from the huge loss that happen a week ago. It was the quietest birthday that I have ever had but it still was a good, fun one.

A store bought bunch was added to an older bouquet.  We need things to cheer us up while we are locked in location.  I have done a lot of work on my present project, the cabinet.  I may share photos tomorrow if all the finish is dry.  I did steel wool some of it and I am still in a designin g mode of making a good design with the shelves. T took some more of the old backing of the cupboard and cut it up into strips to make more shelves. You can be sure that there will be more photos.

Thanks for stopping by today.

We just added 88 more people to our numbers of the state's sick. That is the largest number added in one day so far.  We will just stay home and stay away from everyone.

Not Edited....Look for Mistakes.

This guy loves to sing.  He sang happy birthday to me again last night.  He is so good natured and always smiling. Teddy has grown up these past months.  Being a middle child is not so much of a problem for him now.

The spring flowers are in their prime.  I should go out twice a day to take shots before they all just fade away. The white ones are unknown for me.  I didn't plant them.

The hyacinths are going to look great for a few more days. I like the colors of these with the purple changing to light blue.

Yesterday's cloud were great for us to see but those who had to watch for tornado warnings were not so happy with them.

It was warm and windy and the clouds were moving quickly to the north. I worked out in the yard for a while without a coat but I could have used a stocking cap.

A contrast to the soft clouds was this sunset that same day.

It is a quiet day today.  The neighbors behind us have their two kids riding bikes and scooters up and down there street. They were out all morning and are out again this afternoon. The girl is probably five and the boy is probably four years old. They are getting rid of a lot o energy. We watched church on tv and ate a late lunch. I put out new seed this afternoon and the birds have just now discovered. I had a cardinal at the window for a short five seconds and then he was gone.

Everyone stay safe out there. The weather is getting to be better to help make the stay a little more tolerable. Thanks for stopping by today.

A Shut In Satruday......

Our son sent us the newest shot of our grand daughter.  She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on everything. She has those two brothers running around all over and I think she will soon be following them. The kids are enjoying the family of five being locked in but I bet they adults take turns on the caring of them.  Andy and Patricia are both working at home weekdays. I am sure there is some interruption. I have a cute photo of the second grandson singing to us but I have yet to find it and move it through the network.

More rhubarb for cobbler. The tulips are now coming up in this same area of the garden. I should be seeing asparagus coming up soon.

The daffodils oar coming up and will be blooming soon. I others planted elsewhere but I seem to keep forgetting as to where the bulbs are planted.

My red knock out rose survived.  I planted it late in the fall and buried it with lots of purchased black soil.  I am betting that the black is actually a dye as true Iowa black top soil has a richer, black, different color than this.

I still need to put a varnish sealer on the stairs and deck. I do need some warm days. The grass is actually that green. My trugreen really do help me out.  I am wondering if I will have to hire it to be mowed.  We will see.

It is still in progress.  I had some problems with the finish but I think I will pull it off.  I had an older can of clear varnish that had dried out on top. I found that the crust much have been the ingredient that caused the finish to dry and harden.  It did not dry well.  So I put a walnut stain sealer on it and it is drying.  It ended up darker than I wanted but I do think it will work. I have gotten into messes before where I had to strip off the finish and start again. I think I will be good with this. I flipped it this morning and put a coat on the two shelves I couldn't get to because everything was wet.  The next time I show this, it will be all assembled. I don't have a clue as to where I will hang it. I will display special antique things in it.

Our numbers of virus people increased by 64 just in one day. The test is more available and those with symptoms hopefully can get tested. There was one person who was refused to be tested and waited a few days until someone finally listened to her. She had it. As those numbers increase each day I know we won't be getting out anytime soon.

Thanks for stopping by today. Stay safe.

Day 1, After the Birthday......

The Thursday evening sky was wonderful.  I looked out from behind the house and thought I could see a special light was showing at the front of the house.  Our morning was a sunny one with medium temperatures. Then it started to rain for the rest of the day.

I put out my finch feeder yesterday as I did see a flash of yellow go by in the back yard.  I haven't seen any goldfinches yet but I am hoping the new sock feeder will bring them in. I have not seen any female cardinals lately. I see by my archive that I had seen a female at the first week of the month. The house finches are really singing out there at this time. I don't know if they have to find new and different mates each year or not.

I was out to do a couple of errands today.  The drive up bank thing works ok but I would rather walk inside.  The post office is a strange experience.  The counters are set up with vertical plastic panels to keep the customers from breathing onto the post office worker. You hand your items around the shield and the worker has gloves and mask on to protect them.  It really is vacant there with two customers.  What I was sending was important and it needed to have exact postage or more so it won't return to me.

 The grocery store was busy but not too busy.  It did take a while though as I was following a list and had to keep returning to the opposite side of the store.  No toilet paper and six or seven square boxes of kleenex. After paying for my cart full I decided to go to the other grocery store.  They were selling a smooth paper towel in their toilet paper area.  I always keep that item in stock with extra numbers all of the time so we are not out of the product. In another week we will have to drive around to other stores, I didn't try Wally World as it would be full of germs.

We ordered out Italian food for my birthday and we will be eating the rest of that for supper tonight. I bought each of us a piece of fried chicken to go with that.  I have red velvet cake for dessert again tonight.  It is a strange time we are living in and its hard to know when all will be over. We add 20 people or more every day to our counts. It would be nice to have that to start reducing but I bet a lot of people have been carriers for a longer time and just haven't been tested. I hope all of you are staying safe out there.  Thanks for checking in......

Birthday's Here Again.....

A snow storm for my birthday in southern Iowa. I was seven and the drifts among the buildings were grand. We made caves in it and it was so exciting back then.

The youngest photo of me was taken at a family get together.  I am being held by my great uncle Elva. When he got older he lost all of the hair and became rotund.  Great uncles Lee, Weaver, and Elga are seen witht heir backs to the camera. I was born on March 26 and I am imagining this is the summer of 1950. I can not identify the woman.  This was taken with my mom's box camera.

Out in the front yard with juice running down my front life seemed simple back then. It was at a rental farm near Hopeville, Iowa.  It is late to be blogging but I forgot. I have a darn good memory for 70 years old but it really is getting pretty cluttered in there. Thanks for stopping by, whenever.

Project Obsession.....

Waiting for tulips. Not buds are showing at this time but they do like to come up with a bang. I don't have any new varieties to watch for this year as I didn't plant any last fall.

 I do need to dig out my weed killer. It seems to be pretty healthy growing there is the rock bed. My lawn has had its first treatment already but I don't think there was any weed killer in it.

I had a lot of loose sand on the tiles hoping the rain and snow would help setting it into the cracks.  I swept it yesterday afternoon and most all of the extra sand did end up in the cracks.  The area isn't quite done but I time this summer to work on it. I just noticed that the photo was taken a few days earlier and the sweeping had not been done.

I did finally find an antique mediine chest just like this on the etsy sight.  It too was made of walnut and had the same rough wood backing on it. It had a door on the front of it with a glass in it.

The backing wood was in bad shape and looks like this.  It has split and warped. I have decided to not be the true antique guy and will just throw this away. It does look just like the one on then net that I found. The wood is clunky and they too did paint the entire inside of the cabinet with a powder white paint.

I had wainscotting boards leftover from the old place. I actually moved them to the new place and I am so glad that I did. It only took one of the boards to make a new and better backing for the piece.

Here is a  t rial fitting of the strips of wood.  I did glue them at its connections once I knew I had a good fit. While looking through the net I did find some cupboards made with this kind of wood.

It goes well with the walnut wood. That center shelf I will take the power sander and work it over with a lot of sanding.

I am going to wait one more day before I start putting finishes on it. I am going to do that before I decide what kind of door that would look nice on it.

Another day of clouds of us and it is just a tad warmer.  I worked out on the patio with the miter saw with out a coat.  I should have had one more shirt on top of the one shirt but I didn't stay out there too long.

I am sneaking in another birthday tomorrow.  I am not top anxious to hit a major number but I have found I can't stop any of it. I do feel my age which bothers me because I just don't have the strength that I use to have.  I am an old farm boy who hasn't made hay for a long time. I will not whine too much but will glad to be alive.  Thanks for stopping by today. Be safe for sure. 

Tuesday's Twitter Bird......

It was a surprise to see him out there but I did get some shots of him. He doesn't seem interested in my sunflower seeds that I put our for him. You can see that the tree is budding.

The neighbor's day lilies are coming up neatly among the rocks. My flower beds aren't that cleared so I will see mine up later as they get to be taller.

The chives are up and I will be cutting some for baked potatoes tonight. It is fun to see this is up and winter really is gone.

This whole area is pretty much asleep.  I suspect that the holly hocks will be showing up soon and the iris will be shooting up too.

What can I say about this.  It seem futile at first an then things start to turn around seeing them stronger and ready to be moved into bigger pots.

You know it is truly spring when your neighbor dog returs home from wintering in Arizona.  She is a blurry shot but she really wanted to see me.  The guy on the leash was trying to stay away from me. We are really cold today and I wonder why they came back to Iowa weather.

We have a few runners in our neighborhood. I almost missed the shot as he was running fast.
More people are out walking their dogs now, lots of joggers, and kids with skooers are all out there this week

We are fine.  The numbers of people with the virus increased again today by over twenty. Our home bound lifestyle is getting to be fine but we still would like to get out.  Thanks for stopping by today.