Train Day.........

We watched the movie created from the book  The  Polar Express. It is an interesting version that we watch once a year.  One line that sticks in my head, which was never in the book but was created for the movie is "The thing about trains is that it doesn't matter where they are going.  What matters is that you get on."

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday.....

He is inside now but his expression and appearance does express the weather right not.  I think he is wondering when the weather will be better.  Everything is dead and it was -1 degree F.  this morning.  It shuts every thing down out there that was ever green a few weeks ago.  The angel actually is in the house with his repaired wing,  enjoying the heat from our furnace.

Barney is busy watching and guarding the house from intruders.  He is at his inside bay window position right now watching the neighbor getting into his car. He doesn't like the cold when the wind blows but with not snow on the ground his feet get colder.  Barney has survived another bad year of summer allergy. He coat looks the best it can be and I have to keep him brushed often.

I am finishing off the week in the middle school English classroom.  I think by Monday the staff person will be back maybe she won't be exactly feeling her best but maybe she will have beat the crud.

I hope all are keeping safe with all the snow that the north and south bloggers are receiving.  We are just too cold. It is so cold that the ice that was on things has frozen and evaporated away. Stay warm and be safe and thanks for stopping by this Friday.

Thursday's Spot............

On the way to Perry last night I saw a picker and truck sitting alone in the field.  It looked like the farmer had two swaths of corn left to do per the entire length of the field.  The weather has turned windy and cold and I am not sure why it was just sitting there. Maybe a part is broken on the picker and maybe something had come up.  It really is the last of the corn that I have seen not picked.  They picked and combined some great fields of corn and beans and they harvested even some of the worse corn and beans that I have ever seen.

We had two days of fog and moisture so everything was wet.  When I got into the car to come home last afternoon the moisture had frozen into a shiny ice coating. We dropped in temps so quickly that it shut me down until the car had been warmed up to allow the ice removal.  It was 8 degrees this morning when it was just 33 degrees the morning before that.  The wind made it unbearable as I walked from the car to school.  I needed to wear a lot of protective gear but had not.

 

Cold nights worry me some but when the wind blows like it did last night I do become more concerned. Our upstairs bedroom is on the north so it is very noisy in a windstorm.  It sounds worse that it looks but cold and wind makes an old house creak. I got up to just check things out and looked over the heat setting to be sure I wasn't going to have the house get too cool for the birds. We turn our heat down at night automatically but it has to be adjusted during extreme weather.  I am glad the winds have now died down this Thursday afternoon.  

I have blogged late today as the English middle school position I was in was such a busy time.  I had to be so organized as the different groups kept filing in and out all day. It is the second day in there.  The last period is study hall and I welcome that for a rest from organized teaching.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope everyone is surviving the cold and or snow that is hitting the United States right now.

Snow? Cold, yes...............

We missed getting any snow, which is good. I am not complaining.  It is just that the weather people wasted their breath saying that we were going to get snow for the past five days. Snow fronts went north and south and the snowman cookie jar is all I have left of snow.  I am going to work at getting someone to make cookies for this guy this winter.

The gazing ball is now safe and warm in the basement.  As I went out to put a step ladder into the basement I noticed that I was done winterizing my outside yard.  I had not pulled the tomato cages or dead tomatoes.  I had small garden figures to bring in and I brought in a plastic storage cupboard that has been outside storing things for a couple of years.  I brought it inside the basement to give me more storage for power tools.  Organization is coming back as one of my goals.

It would be nice to see some snow on this birch tree but I don't want as much as they are getting in Minnesota.  They report that Duluth is getting buried by snow and another foot is on the way.

My welcome dog on the front porch appears to be in good shape here in this picture.  In reality, I need to bring him inside and put a new paint job on him.  The neighbor lady who gave him to us said I should repaint him in the colors of Barney. Barney is not a lab but border collies are part lab in their breeding.   We will see what happens, but that will be an after Christmas job.

I am an English teacher today in the middle school.  The person who is sick has the same thing my wife and I had a couple of weeks ago.  It lasted forever and even though she is young, she is really ill with the sinus infection and cough. I have been in this room off and on throughout the year so I have a good handle on the routine in the room.

I hope all are well out there.  I know some of the bloggers out there are getting hammered with lots of snow.  Others are colder than normal.  They keep promising now that we will be colder than normal as the arctic air starts to blow in to Iowa.  Thanks for checking in today and have a good day.

Tuesday's Things......

My wife is  talking the talk of getting the trees up and decorated.  I am not sure which one we will start with but I hope it is a smaller simple one that we do first.  We enjoy our trees and usually leave them up way long into the new year.

We have not done any shopping but we will be thinking about it.  We have a December 10th birthday of our oldest son to deal with and his wife's birthday is the first week of January.  We will need to mail presents to Maine and also to Winterset, Iowa. We will take the presents to Chicago this year.

The summer went by too quickly as it was just last spring that the birch tree was putting out the seed like formations.  You can see the spring sky up there which today we had fog with warmer like weather.  It was just above freezing.  That will be changed soon and I will be giving you white fluffy snow on the branches to see.

I will be subbing in 8 different rooms today.  While the teachers are out observing other teachers and students I will be floating from different rooms throughout the two wings of the building.  I am a little curious if I get lunch today as I find when I go from high school to middle school the lunch schedule is out of sequence.  Young kids eat very early and high school kids eat late.

I hope everyone has a good day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Repaired and Glued.......

The bird feeder didn't wear very well in the outside weather.  The bottom piece that held the seed as it fell out from above really didn't last a couple of years.  I didn't use it once it had broken and it was down in the basement waiting for repair.  While I was down there sanding on the walnut wood frame, I saw it laying there in a heap.  When I had finished sanding I looked it over to see what needed to be done.  I ended up making a brand new base out of scrap wood and sprayed black enamel on it to shed the water from snow and ice.

The frame as you can see is now glued together.  I ended up putting it into the stretcher straps that hold it together while the ends dry but this time I glued one corner at a time.  I would squeeze the whole frame together and allow the one corner to dry and then when dry released it and did the next corner.  The boards are a little twisted from warping so I could manipulate it one at a time to get all the corners to be glue straight.  I was a lot concerned as I got to the last mitered corner as I was afraid it wouldn't line up, but it did line up with a modest uneven area that I can sand away. I will have to sand all of the corners to make it blend well as a straight well mitered frame.

This frame is going to be created as one as a simple frame with the burl markings on the wood being the natural decoration.  It won't be like an modern one as they would give you a finish that somewhat covers up the grain or hide the uneven color. The burl markings are on most of the frame pieces and I tried to cut them that way.

I have an old walnut table from my grandmother which has one drop leaf that is completely covered with the burl pattern.  I got the idea as I worked with the frame that all burl would make it a special frame.

I may have told the story before but the older gentleman that gave me the peaches is the one who was wanting to get a frame together for his grandson's three different graduation awards.  We have been talking about the project going on over two years.  He is a wonderful woodworker but his age and condition has shut that ability down.  I have had the certificates for a long time and he kept calling me to know the size of the mat that I had made.

While getting the peaches this fall I asked him if he would like me to make the frame for him too.  He beamed and said that would be perfect.  He said I have the wood and that would make me happy if you used my wood.  I have been slow on the project but I wanted to make it be a specially designed frame so he could remember his grandpa was involved with the project.  I will be glad to finally get that job done for him.



I am helping in the special education room today.  I have been off 9 days including weekends so it was a little tough to get going and being back at school.  I am health wise in good shape.  I still feeling a little stamina problems from just being sick for so long but it should be a good day.

The cold weather is coming and we will feel it by Tuesday. The low temperatures at night will be single digits.  Thanks for stopping in today. 

Sunday's Here........

I did get some replanting done a few weeks back.  I don't exactly remember when but it was on one of my days off of work.  I had bought the schefflera for a couple of bucks a few years ago and I just now have repotted it so it can spread out. It was a small thing and it was needing to be put into a larger pot. I had an older schefflera plant for years.  It was a major plant that I had to cut back many times.  One summer I did something wrong with too much water or more likely not enough water for a long period of time.  It is nice to get this one going and having one again.

The other plant that is in the brown pot was another one of my one dollar buys.  It was planted in a larger pot and it kept putting out new plants. I have shared parts of it with a friend and I now split off a section of it and put it in this brown pottery.  Sansevieria is the family name of the plant and it is a cousin of the mother in law's tongue. I like the plant as it can give you good green foliage and if I don't water it enough it just keeps thriving. Sometimes I call it a succulent and I did see on the net it is in that family.

Another shot for the day of the red bird.  I need to go out today and give the birds some fresh seed.  It is warmer today and we will see big drops in temperature by the middle of next week. Thanks for stopping in today.