Tuesday's a white day.

They keep hanging in there.  It is warmer close to the house so I have these petunias that just can't quit.

Another milk glass find from the burn pile.  It is actually a caster plate to put underneath a roller on a bed.  I have only one and it is just another of my collectible valuables.

My last piece is one that I call stoneware, even though it is described as being made by a china company.  I guess china is just a higher fired piece compared to a lower fired clay everyday bowl.  I assume this is from an old cafe.  I use to eat oatmeal from a bowl like this every morning. I found this in the back of a cupboard in the old farm house and I really don't think the history of it is know.

Thanks for stopping by....I am an middle school english teacher today, again!

The last thing that I grabbed.......

I was feeling badly that we had finally finished the cleaning out of the house.  I am very glad to have sold it.  I went into the garage one last time and picked up some padded moving blankets that my brother had in there for some reason. I looked around in the garage and opened cupboard doors just to see if there was anything left that I had missed.

On the wall was this beat-up hammer and nailed to the wall above the counter was this thermometer.  I don't know where my dad found this as he was not in the farm business by the time he built this garage.  I know he had not done business with them but I just decided it needed to come home with me.

Lorimor, Iowa is a very small town, west and near the Murray, Iowa area.  My mom was born in a farmhouse in 1919,  north of there between Lorimor and Winterset, Iowa, the covered bridge town.  The house that my grandfather built north of Murray in the country was moved into Lorimor.  So the connection to this metal thermometer is greater just because of the stories I can tell about it.

I really will have to see if the business still exists today in the town.  I doubt they are on the internet so it will have to be a phone book search.

I did an internet search and found some items on sale as collectibles for the Roseman Feed and Milling.  I also was reminded that the covered bridge that was used for the movie, "Bridges of Madison County",  was named the Roseman bridge.

It is a busy week for us and Monday kicks off with me being at school.  School is cancelled on Thursday as our volleyball girls are playing at state on that day at noon.  The day off will help me to get things done for the art show that we are participating in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We will be weary after it is over but I am hoping that it will be a fun experience for us both.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog.  Rain is coming tonight and we do need it.

Saturday's late posting

My wife and I had a very busy day.  One of the things we accomplished was to go to the house in Osceola and mow, mulch the leaves for the last time ever in my lifetime.  The closing is going to be happening in the next ten days.

The amazing thing that I saw in my parents yard was the blanket of red leaves on the ground around their burning bush.  It was quite a sight and I refused to mow them.  I think they just can be enjoyed by everyone instead.

I have mixed emotions about being done with the home.  It has been an eight year journey of first losing my Dad in 2000 and then in 2008 losing my Mom and then my brother within a three month period.  Having the house now sell and the place being readied for the new buyer is a good feeling.  The taking of the last of the items from the house that remind me of my parents was tough.

It is all done now and we can now move on with our lives.  As my wife said, she and I have really fond memories of the times we worked down there together as the house started taking shape and reaching it's completion.  We would snack on Subway's in the living room on boxes and rest between all that we had to do.

We would laugh at me making inquires to two different electricians about a ceiling light problem.  Finally I discovered that my mom was putting burned out light bulbs back into the sleeves and I just needed to buy new bulbs.  I am glad I never had an electrician come to the house.

Time flies and we move on now.  We are tired from the day and yet have accomplished a lot finishing up things for our art show and getting down to finish up the yard work.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog.

For those who are confused about the farm situation, my wife's dad had a farm and we are still in the working stages of getting that cleaned up for an eventual sale.  I don't know how long that will take as it has already been a long hard process this past few months.  I have mentioned it off and on but it is all too confusing to explain the complications of that situation. I have cut a lot of trees down and we have just begun.

Friday for sure........

An old coal burning furnace.  It looks like it has been beat up a little but it was actually hauled out of the basement by a machined and dropped to the ground.  I lays on it's side ready to be picked up the the salvagers.

I don't know if the furnace was actually forged in Des Moines, Iowa, or if the company that made the furnace made a special door for the Des Moines' company to put on their products that they sold.

 

We had a sunny, cold day today.  I didn't have to work at school today so I help out at the farm, taking a load to the landfill and picking up trash.  My wife and I are also getting ready for a major art show that takes place next week.

We are proud that they asked us to participate in it as it is an exclusive show. We will be setting up for it on a Thursday evening as to be ready for the Friday evening start.  Then Saturday and Sunday hours will keep us busy.  Once it gets set up, we enjoy doing the event.   I will report more on that as the event gets closer and also will give you a rundown of all that takes place for the three days.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Thursday's post.........

The catalpa is still clinging to it's leaves.  The cold rain and light snow maybe told it to give them up and let them fall.

This is a front of a drawer from an old treadle sewing machine. It was laying amongst lots of rubble and dirt and broken glass.  My plan is to just clean the metal brass pull and leave the wood in it's natural state. If it doesn't appear to look that good after the clean up, I will ditch the wood.  The machine came from a pole barn in which a variety of people stored things.  I don't think it is a family item but an in-law's family item through a brother-in-law. 

No school tomorrow so today is my Friday.  My wife and I have to be ready for a two day art show next week so it will be nice to have the day off.  I still need to go to the dump with one last load of refuse from the farm.  I hope we get it there to day and off my list of things to do.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Our Sons.......

While going through the farm house of my father in laws for the last time I found these laying on a shelf.  The house has been without an occupant since my father in law came to live with us nine years or more.  Sadly the people who like to take things for free had entered the house so many times They had removed items from it and ransacked the rest. Windows had been broken for easy exit's so the interior was really in bad shape.

I was surprised to find these two guys laying on the shelf.  I was surprised that they hadn't stolen the shelf.  Andy's picture on the left needed a lot of cleaning as it was laying out in the elements.  Aaron's picture was still in the folder and his photo is in perfect condition.  The boys are actually three years different in ages but as a graduation photo they are the same age of 18 when they were taken.

Andy works in Chicago and takes a train to work each morning to the downtown area.  Aaron who is in a different time zone by two hours goes to work at Johnson's Labratories near Bar Harbor in Maine.

The baby butternut squash did mature enough that I think I can cook it.  The problem I encountered was that it had a hard freeze and the surface has cracks in it.  I don't think it will hurt it but I need to get it popped into the oven or micorwave soon.

My silver maple has lost most of it's leaves now and I did get to burn up some of my wood debris last night.  We are to turn very cold today and it will be wet for a short  while.  It is the driest October ever recorded in history.  We are very dry like our neighboring states.

I am in the storage room again today, not subbing.  There are a half million dollars worth of laptop computers that I am getting ready for distribution to the students in January.  It is a task of unpacking and repacking computers into computer cases and  the two different cords with them.  I am just trudging through the work as it gets to be way too boring.

Thanks for stopping by my biog today.

Old and older.......

Two grain bins sit together aging in the elements.  The little one is very old compared to the other which is probably forty years old or more. 

A great splash of color as the maples turn to a great yellow.  The sunshine makes them glow.

Glass or plastic?  You can see the collected group of things thrown together are headed for the dump.  The green canning jar and the green wine bottle are both in the trunk of my car.  I broke the other canning jar on the trip to the car so it is history and archived in existence only in this photo.

I am a floater today and will be picking up odd tasks to do office wise and teaching wise as the day goes by.  They can find things for me to do when I am not assigned specifics.

Thanks for stopping by my post.