Fan News.....

When my old squirrel cage fan went out on the old furnace I had to replace the fan.  The size is too small but the new one worked good enough.  It was purchased on the internet and came in three days.  I told the guys what when they tear out the old furnace that I wanted that one hundred dollar fan.  I may need it in my garage to vent out heat in the summertime. It is a smooth running machine.

When there was a coal burning era, a furnace was constructed using one of the cast iron doughnuts.  The glowing fire was under the metal doughnut and the air inside of it was heated up.  Hot air rises and cold air comes down.  It was called a gravity feed system and there was not any fan system involved with the furnace.

The 1937 beer cans found inside of the furnace venting system tells me when that all took place. Eventually a fan system was added blowing air over the top the this donut helping to collect the heat and sending it to the rooms.  The furnace company took away all the metal pieces so I didn't have to figure out how to haul it all away. The two of us and Barney are all resting up today from the three days of young men working in the basement and in the house too. It is quiet now except for the hum of the new furnace.

The mind is the first to go.  I really could not figure out when this kettle came into the household.   I finally clicked into some grey cells in the brain and remembered it came from my parents home. I don't remember it but the closing of my parents home did take a long time.

One more view of the dump that was in my yard.  I will take new photos of the new furnace eventually.  The basement is full of all these shiny new pipes sprawling all over in the ceiling.  We are definitely in need of heat today as we started off below freezing this morning and it isn't going to warmup much today.

We ate late last night as the workers left late on their last day.  We went to the cafe that has free pie on Wednesday.  It was sort of our treat to ourselves for the long week.  We were too tired to go out but it was good to do so anyway. We are having a sunshiny kind of day today.   It really does look like spring out there but it just doesn't feel like it.  We are back to painting on the gallery today and are painting trim boards today.  We have two coats on the window trim and we will need to wait to get the final coat painted.  Well, I guess I will just close this down.  I hope all are doing well and the weather is being kinder to you.

Things to Share.....

It isn't an outstanding thing to share but it is old.  The pitcher is made by Homer Laughlin.  It is in pretty bad shape but historically it is a nice milk pitcher.

As I was picking up loose ends of things to pack I found the black glass sugar container.  Inside was the collection of small buildings made by me as a demo for the students to see.   I forgot that I had done them.

My mom had this on display in all of her different places in which she lived. I always thought it fancy with the decal flower designs on it and the raised designs too.  The juicer seemed too nice in comparison to what we lived with when I was a kid.  I have it now and cleaned it up to be packed to go to the new house.  It was made in Czechoslovakia.  

It has been a long three days but our furnace, air-conditioner, and water heater have all been installed.  Maybe our lives can slow down for a while and normal can be something else than it has been.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Recycle.........

The guts of our old furnace strewn outside on top of the flower garden.  They took it all away by the end of the day on Monday.  I will share moe about this as time goes by.  Thanks for checking in on my spot today.

Springing into Action.......

The field lilies are up.  I think everything is sprouted up except for hostas.  Hostas seem to always be later risers.  I didn't have time to go all around the garden but the iris are giving to quite a show too.  I have not looked to see if the peonies are up but they should be in another week.

Another toy that I found in the basement that may be kept for the grandkids. It is going to take some serious cleaning.   If it cleans well, I will save it. The guys went through the transformer era completely. This toy is not a true transformer but it is leaning towards that brand of toy.

We have had a mass invasion of workmen at our house this morning.  I think there were four trucks out there at one time as the different crews joined togather to completely remove our heating system.  It was a very old system and they removed everything.

I have photos for another day to show you the mess that it all created.  I have guys here now installing some of the new furnace and running new air ducts everywhere. The air condition is sitting out on its pad already.  I had an electrician show up to do the wiring for the new air and he also helped with a problem with our plug for the fiber optic connection.  I had a phone man here also as someone had threaded a phone line through a furnace grate.  The grate is going away so the wire had to be removed and reconnected. All that I didn't have is the water guy and the natural gas guy.  We don't have natural gas right now as they are hooking it up to the furnace.  I hope when they drive away from her the first day that they will have that all back on.  I will be discussing it with them soon.

The moving thing is more serious now.  We do have a closing date and we can have access to the house in Ankeny.  It means that we can keep on packing but with a little bit more fervor with a final date deadline.  One wonders if we will every pull this off but we are taking everything in stride.  After the day of having seven men for demolition, an electrician, and the phone guy, all here at the same time, we should be able to handle anything.  On older gentlemen from the furnace company did drop in too in the middle of the morning. He looked more like a bookkeeper or an inspector for the company. I didn't tell you that they don't mind just walking up stairs into the house and ask questions.

Our neighbor cat keeps coming over for a visit.  He spent Sunday afternoon with me in the basement as I carried out some last minute things. He took a bath on top of the clothes dryer.  He came back today and he joined all those workmen.  One guy came upstairs concerned about him and his being in the road.  I told him he was the neighbor's cat and it was good that you carried him out and put him over to the outside fence in the yard. Eventually the cat ended up on my side porch sleeping on a rocking chair on the porch.  I had put an extension cord on top of the seat of the chair and Jose was sleeping away on top of it all.

Well, I will close this down for the day.  I am sitting with Barney right now so he can feel secure with all the noise coming from the basement. I do think they all will go home by 4:00.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday.....Late.

"Tonka tough" is the ladder firetruck toy.  It is metal and has held up well in storage in the basement.  I know one or both the grandsons will love to mess with it for a little while. The ladder really does extend out of the top of the toy. It took a while to clean off all the dirt but it does look good now.

Little things get lost in the boxes of toys.  I had three large plastic bins of toys and I was able to reduce it down to one very full bin of toys for taking with us to the newer home.

They all bring back memories but the oldest toy here is the plastic horse.  It was one of my animals that went with my barn set.  I must have received it as a Santa gift back in the late 1950s.  I don't have the barn anymore but there are a few of the animals floating around in the different boxes of toys. Most of them that I have found are in my antique toy cupboard.  Can you identify Bert in the photo along with R2 D2?

I was concerned about losing this lamp but I did not.  I began early in life collecting antiques.  The base of this lantern lay in the dirt in the back of one of our machine sheds.  It had come from my Dad's mother place when they closed down her home.  It was just brought home but not treated as having value.  I picked it up and cleaned it.  It was in my room as a kid after that until I moved out to go to college.  I don't know how I got it back but I must have taken it when I graduated from college. My parents moved away from their farm a year after I graduated.

I have our basement all ready for a furnace crew to come in tomorrow.  I had to clean out and move things so they can get to all of the areas needed to install new pipe and the furnace. It has been a busy time the last six days as i use them to throw away lots of things and move things. It was good that I was forced to do this as I need to empty the basement anyway.  My dumpster is almost full.

I hope all have had a good weekend and is ready for Monday.  We will be warm on Monday and things just keep sprouting and budding.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday......

Looking out my window to the birch tree, I can see the day looks promising.  We are having another warm up and gradually we will be 70 degrees F.  by Monday.  We spent yesterday with two different people who sold us a replacement furnace for this house.  It makes for a long day when they come in and sell you a furnace and then another guy returns to map out the replacement on the same day.  I did have my basement cleaned out enough to give two different people tours of it but now I have a couple of areas that I need to clear before Monday.  Dan suggested that the two racks of toys should be moved away from an area to help them easier access for installing new pipe. I told him that the area was the next on my list but three days notice for them to come didn't allow me enough time to finish the job.  I have finished that area now today but still have three storage bins of toys that I want to high grade into just one toy box to take to the new home for the grandsons.

I am shipping these mugs of my mom's to a first cousin that lives in New Mexico.  She is also getting some afghans that my mom made and other knick knacks.  The top thing that I am sending, is my grandmother's wedding dress.  I doubt the next generation will be appreciative of it but this cousin is the youngest one.  I didn't want to move it and she was so glad to be gifted of it.  I need to print out a photo for her showing her standing with full view of the dress. Being that the cousin lives in the south I am going to send some of the western salt and pepper shakers.  She will get a good laugh from them  as they were bought in the 60's by my mom when we traveled west in the summer.

The painting of the walls is done.  The trim and doorways need their color painted on but it is nice to get it looking closer to completion.  We have a ways to go and I am still working on the basement.  Yesterday though I snuck in an hour and a half to get the last coat finished in the room.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Have a good day.

A Children's Book.......Busy Day.

I found a child's book that I remember reading to the sons.  I think the older son enjoyed being read to more but it is one of my favorite books. The woman has this neat Asian name and the book's illustrations are so great.

As I flipped through it I could remember the great scenes created by the artist. I like details that are included all over the scene.

There are sections in the book that follow a theme.  The theme for this illustration is "I am sad when....".


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All you kitty lovers will like this one as you see the little kitty looking around the tree wondering why she is sad.

I appreciate your stopping by today.  I am wishing for a summer vacation  but that will be a while for me.  I hope everyone has a great day.  Thanks for stopping by today.