Monday's Moments.......

Looking for clues as to what I have planted so I reposted the photo.  The last one that I planted was pelleted and its color was white pellet.  So know I know the far planting is early girl as it was pelleted and was pink in color. I have to write it down as I have lost the two packets on the right.

I could hear my mourning doves cal lthis morning in the full lighted morning. I don't think we will see sunshine today. They fly in quietly onto the deck and nibble out of the tray that is in front of the living room window.

I have been keeping these guys in the house. I try to eat more of these than the small little candy bars that I have in the cupboard. Hopefully they will last until my next grocery run that might be by Thursday or Friday.

I don't like the way that the feet look  on the piano stool.  The feet are made from cast iron and do have a raised leaf design on them with the glass ball inside of he claw. I did notice that the white paint that accidentally dripped on them was difficult to remove.  So, I may paint them white.

I think it looks like it has rubber boots on their feet. I am thinking that white was a bad choice but I am not going to switch it now. I found the original one that had the original look. It had a great red brown stain on it.  Anyway I am going to paint the feet white. I will still use it as a plant stand in the basement.

We are both in for the long haul. We have a friend that has to get a test done on Friday and we are the ones to get her there. If they don't postpone it, we will be out and about.  My dentist office called and said they were closed until further notice.

I am hoping all of you are well. We seem to be virus free even though our state and our county keeps adding to the numbers of those who are sick. As more people are tested more people are identified.  Everyone stay safe and thanks for stopping by today.

Snow.....

It is late afternoon and we have snow.  It isn't a big deal and we are too warm to accumulate.  I guess it is something to do by watching the weather.

Parts from the project.  It is the backing of the cupboard.  Sadly the thing sat in a barn by an open window. The one piece of the backing got wet an it is warped.  I know how to fix that by cutting it into vertical strips.  I am thinking that it could have a better kind of wood for backing to go with the walnut frame. I work with this and I keep thinking that this was made as a shop project many years ago because of the way things were cut and assembled. Painting the inside of it all white looks like a thing a home builder might do back then.

The use of walnut seems to be an unusual choice of wood for the cabinet makes me think it was a shop project.  I still think the front door of it was originally holding a mirror.

One of the next projects that I could start but it will be awhile.

We recieved on the internet this day a wonderful movie of our grand daughter who is now crawling.  She is moving all over the floor and has a large smile on her face.  It is such a joy for her to be more independent. If she grows up like her next brother up, she will run in circles for hours at a time and just love doing so.

The mayor of Des Moines declared a stricter shutdown for out area.  It is another 14 days added to whatever we were doing before now. As the numbers show we are growing in cases about 25 a day in our state. The largest numbers are around the Iowa City area because they had a tour group come back from Egypt. Fourteen of that group were infected. The second larges area is our county but the numbers are scattered through out the state.  The spring break people who were not living in reality are now all back and I do hope they are at homes locked down.

We are safe.  We haven't done anything to infect us except for my grocery run last week. We will make that batch last for two weeks. I can go early in the morning for more groceries at a special hour for old people.  It means there won't be many people in that very large store.  I am hope all my blogging friends are doing ok. Thanks for checking in today.

Saturday's Stuff.......

Sunburst on a nice day. It was later in the morning and I was glad to see the sun was squeezing through among all those clouds.

Turning the camera more easterly the view is less dramatic.

I was happy to see these rescued iris are comint up for their second year. As things settle down and they have bloomed for their first time I plan on moving them to something more  organized. They were just thrown in there randomly and temporarily just to keep them alive. These plants survived a few workmen who were installing a sun room.

The crocus hand a lot of natural water from an all night rainfall. They look good in the full sunshine. I have taken too many shots of the crocus so I will probably just put some  up each day anyway.

I have taken a lot of shots of these small daffodils all in a cluster. A stray white crocus is in there and seems to be the only one in the garden area.

I just keep hand sanding this piece. It is blind ambition of an old antique person that would stand down there and work non stop.  If it were warmer I would be outside with a power sander.

Everything is made from walnut on one shelf.  One shelf in the piece is probably pine.  The milk paint or whitewash is a big pain. It was all coating the inside of the  cabinet.  As I sand it off or wash it off I have this powder residue that is hard to keep cleaned. When I wipe every thing down with a damp cloth that paint material seems to not go away.

It does now looks better now after this photo was taken. I have most all of the paint sanded away but there are still sections of it that looks like  residue. That one edge has two screws that shows that the hinge of the door was there. I will remove the screws both top and below.  I am thinking it had a mounted mirror on it and am looking for a style like in on the internet. My wife's grandfather could have made it or one of the many uncles or her dad could have made it. I do also think they could of bought it in a Montgomery Ward catalogue.

We added 23 more people to our sick list today.  The tests were not here to show anything but now they have some. We have been on lock down for a week or more and that will continue. The total is 68 identified cases. The group for Egypt started the beginning of our list.  The University of Iowa area seems to have the highest group of infected.  Des Moines area, our area is picking up with the numbers and hopefully we don't win the race in this case.

Our wish for all is to be safe and not sick.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Frills and Thrills......not!!

Previous owner left these for me to enjoy. They seem to like this location in the garden. I am glad things keep coming up.

The small daffodils are all in bloom.  I have larger ones planted somewhere  else on the property.

The project continues. It is a detailed construction that has to be thoroughly cleaned with warm water and rags. It is made from walnut and has white wash paint on the inside surface. To keep from getting discouraged I am just taking it one piece or side at a time. I am not even thinking I will get done for quite a few days.  I would like outside warmer weather so I can used the power sander on it . This is a piece that was thrown into a junk pile with not know history. The barn was my wife's grandfathers so a lot of history in two to three generations of living there.

We are still well and are behaving ourselves.  We had rain all night last night but the sun is shining today. Stay safe everyone.

Thursday I Guess..

It is a start.  Tomato seed is growing.  I did find that third package today that I could find when I first planted.  I will get more dirt in those little holes and plant a few more of a  different variety.

I haven't been able to work on my new project today as I had to go to the grocery store. This cupboard item has some really good hardwood in it. Maybe oak is of the main item.  I discovered that a white wash paint was used on the inside as I can wash it off of the inside of the compartments  It does have evidence that it had two hinges on it to hold a door, maybe a mirror. It also has a brass latch on the opposite side.

Shopping at the grocery store was a weird happening.  It was not crowded in the morning with a lot of gray haired people like me doing their shopping. I stayed my distance from everyone.  The check out had a plexiglass shield to protect the cashier from us.  The person checking out groceries was washing the moving counter each time between shoppers.  No tp in the building. soup was bought out and mac and cheese was gone.  A lot of the shelves were thinly stocked but I did get most everything that I needed. It was strange to be there as everyone stared in front of themselves and now one talked to each other.  We have had two cases of the virus in the city next door.  We have 38 cases reported as of yesterday in the whole state.  So I didn't feel to threatened and yet I was not going to be the one to bring anything home to  my wife. They had disinfect lotion to use after my purchases were done.

I don't know that people understand that this is an upper respiratory flu and not a stomach flu. I guess I have six or seven places to drive just in our city to fine tp when we are out. Living in a city of over 80 thousand means we do have a lot of store choices.  All kids in the city will be home for two weeks for sure and up to four weeks. I can see parents now having to feed their kids a noon meal so more food is needed.

I haven't made it outside to take newer/better photos but I will do that soon.  We are having a rainy day again today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Wed.nes.day.....

The one rhubarb leaf promises me many more leaves to come. It is planted in three different locations so we always have plenty.

I am thinking that this section of the pussy willow tree is dead as these hard, crusty fungus things are readily growing. I am not happy with that as I will have to hire someone to come in and remove it. It is next to a fence and a grumpy neighbor so I will have to be careful in that area.

I did bring in some of the branches yesterday while I was out in the back yard. Not a lot of things are up yet but some things are starting to green up.

We had rain coming down this morning when we got up. You can see that we did get plenty to fill this bowl. I don't have to fill the birdbath either.

I am already stir crazy and this has just begun. I will be going for groceries tomorrow morning taking the list of necessities. I will buy a whole gallon of milk this time and hope that it stays fresh.  We are just running out of things and I will go when there are not to many there.  I also will check my own out at the self check out.  Our main food pantry really is getting low as we are using what ever we find in there.  Potatoes are gone, soups are almost gone, and cereal is getting low.  It will be good to restock it all.

I have another project started.  It will take a few days as I keep removing dirt from it.  It looks like it was originally a medicine cabinet from an old house, my wife's grandparents' house. I found it tossed in a the barn, missing its front door, dirty from being in the cow milking area for a very long time.

As I remove the layers of dirt, I am finding a good hardwood under it all. The insides were painted with a whitewash as a wet rag is taking it off. I see a good thing here even though it looks like junk. When wood is involved I can bring it back. Take care everyone.  This is a once in a life time situation for our nation and we need to defeat this crap Chinese virus. Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy report is the tomato seed is up. 

St, Patrick's Day.....

I am told that this is St. Patrick's Day. I will share my own shamrocks today.  They were a little dry so I put some water on them after I took the shot. Scanning through my family tree on my maternal grandmother's side there was an Irish man that married into the family along the way. My wife's Grandpa Cone has a direct link through the New York City cones back to Ireland.

I wandered around the lot today to see what was up.  The old cemetery iris is up and doing well. There were not a lot of them up but I am sure they will soon follow. Some water grass was up too reminding me of the need to clean out the iris bed of grass and weeds.  I looked at the vole damage on the yard.  I will be out there soon filling in some dirt into those burrows. It looks really bad and I don't think that I can not fill it with some dirt.

I have seen robins for a couple of weeks but they didn't seem to be around when I had my camera. The males are here and I am sure the females will arrive in another week. While I was out shooting I could hear the song of the house finch. I don't hear that very often but I am sure they are mating and getting ready to make nest.

This was my pleasant surprise yesterday as I put up the flag at the front door. It funny how I had forgotten that I was the one who planted them a couple of years ago.

These were planted by a previous owner. It is a good planting throughout the area. They can be a nice flower to have, crocus, unless we get an ice storm and the ground is covered with snow.  We are to get snow in a few days.

When I first started teaching in Sidney, Iowa back in 1972,  I made friends with a woman named Cleva Williams. A couple of years while teaching there, Cleva's mother passed away leaving her a huge, three story house full of old furniture. She gave me some of the things as it helped her clear the house. I was given the piano stool.  Then life happens and I now, just now, am getting it ready to use. I guess the calculator says its been 43 years or more.  I do feel good about working on it.  Cleva did pass away about 15 years ago and she is buried in a cemetery in Coin, Iowa.

I don't like to paint on old wooden pieces but this one was not made with a very good wood.  I assume that a good hardwood wasn't used as they had so much carving to do with the wood. I will share more about it as I still don't have the claw feet and glass ball cleaned up.

My oldest son also is contributing to the cause with his work.  He shared last night that his business that he works for, had him working with a crew develop a new web site program.  The web site is created for any and all doctors at hospitals in the country. They can get on to it to share what they are doing. They can talk to each other and also ask questions of each hospitals successes.  It is like a giant blog or facebook type site to give all medical staffs to work together and share any discoveries.

We are home and will stay there for two to three days when the milk runs out.  I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for stopping by today.