100 Year Old Juno Lamp and hanging out with friends for dinner

Steve and I went out for breakfast Saturday morning over to Hilde's Bakery and Deli which is two blocks away.  It was a nice little walk and we enjoyed eggs, ham and cheese on croissants.  Hilde does the best food and baked goods in her little shop on Main Street.... what a Treat!  

Afterwards we stopped at a couple rummage sales.  Last year, I had stopped by this one particular guy and bought three wonderful treasures.... an old crockery bowl, a enameled white coffee pot and a framed print of the collie and little girl on a time out called "A Special Pleader"  that hangs in the grandtots's bedroom. All very reasonable prices.  This guy has some wonderful stuff and he has his rummage sale a number of weekends each year.

While there, I happened to see this lamp...  and looked at it several times.  Steve was ready to leave, but I just couldn't stop thinking about that lamp and how unusual it was.  There were several old oil and kerosene lamps, but this one struck a chord with me.   I knew that if I didn't buy it, I would probably regret it and look to find another somewhere else someday.  Finally I asked the price because the tag that was hanging on it hadn't been written on.  (all of his other things were clearly marked)  I held my breath.... and he said "Oh... Twenty bucks?"    SOLD!  I didn't even dicker on it, I just wanted it!

It's called The Juno Lamp by Edward Miller

It's all nickle plated in pretty nice shape... and still has the wick inside. The center "draught" device was a little stuck, but Steve gently and carefully worked it loose. That is how the air gets into the lamp, through the screen grid around the neck and draws up from the holes around the base of the lamp near the table.  I just had to have it.  It will look SO nice in the diningroom!

I like to think of the first woman, or perhaps a newlywed couple,  who bought this lamp as brand new so long ago.  Was it a prized possession in their home?  Did they have to scrimp to buy the fancier embossed decorative lamp as opposed to the plainer looking average lamps this company also offered? Did they treat it with care and pride?  Or was just another lamp in a house that was full of lamps?   Of course, kerosene oil lamps were common before houses were electrified and you needed lamps in most every room of your house.

We did a little research on it last night... and wrote to an expert collector who happens to live in Australia, to find out more about the lamp.  Some photos show lamps like this with a tall skinny shade like the one on it now.  But some other photos of the Juno Lamp show an extra piece with extending arms and larger dome shade that sets around the tall skinny one. I would like to find out which way it was when originally sold.

It's not even very dirty, although it's over 100 years old.  The instructions on the historic website say to carefully wash the nickle plated lamp in soapy water and dry.  That is all.  No polishes, cleaners or tarnish removers.  It's electroplated nickle over a brass casting.  Amazingly the website said to keep it filled with kerosene or lamp oil to prevent the metal from drying out and cracking.... so I guess we better fill it up!

Here is a bit of the history of the lamp maker.

Edward Miller commenced business in Meriden, Connecticut in the 1840's making and selling camphene and burning fluid burners. By the 1860's, Edward Miller had become an effective manufacturer and marketer in the kerosene lamp business. 

When oil was discovered in 1859, kerosene became a safe and affordable lamp fuel. Miller was quick to seize the initiative seeing the need for burners for the new fuel. In 1866, Miller formed a joint stock company and reorganized under the name of Edward Miller & Co (E M & Co). 

Edward Miller's first lamp was branded 'The Juno Lamp' and has a wick raiser that closely resembles that of the Rochester.  Miller first posted patents for his own wick raising devise in June 1892 which he branded 'The Miller Lamp' and constantly improved on the design of both the wick raising device and burner.  It seems at the same time he modified his earlier Juno lamp, simplifying the raiser and enabling a universal wick carriage.

After we were done with our rummaging... we managed to get a few jobs done around the house.  Imagine that!

I had gotten all 18 of my tomato plants in a row behind the garage...I think I have 14 different varieties to choose from.

Once they were all planted, I robbed some dried grass cuttings from the neighbor's yard to mulch them in.  It will put a lot of rich nitrogen in the soil and keep the weeds from growing around the tomato plants.

Of course I had two "assistants" to help me with this task.  Oooooh I can almost taste the harvest now! Come on, fresh garden 'maters!

I also finished up the second coat of the dark green on the blocks across the front of the house.  I think they look kinda cute!  Steve said it reminds him of the green and white striped window awnings on old house.  Ya... kinda sorta!  

Up in the front yard, I planted my flowers in the two concrete pots for the stoop on the front porch (some pretty pink and white variegated geraniums, clumps of dusty miller, spikes and some vinca vines)   My hostas in the front bed are coming up too.

 I planted 2 dozen little pink impatiens

 in a round circle under the weeping cherry tree.   

Steve was busy with washing the rubber roof that is over the bow window of the dining room.  A bit of the seal has let loose at one corner so he wanted it good and clean before he reseals it.  He was up there in the afternoon with the pressure washer hose snaked up the ladder.  He scrubbed good and got all years of built up gunk and mold off the black rubber roof.  It looks pretty good and he will take care of sealing the seams again when it's fully dried.

Steve also fired up our motorhome engine for a while to run and also started the generator up.  It's good to "exercise" the generator monthly and run it under a load.  He cranked up both rooftop air conditioners to create an electrical draw and gave it a good workout.  During the first few years that we owned our rig, we learned a valuable and costly lesson.  Because we have so much solar power and battery reserve on our rig, we weren't using our generator often enough.  The center rotor windings went bad from non-use as well as some other parts like the regulator and control board.  They need to be worked and used to prevent corrosion and lubrication problems. We had to undergo the costly repair of removing the generator out of the bottom of the motorhome, tearing it apart, shipping the rotor out to get rebuilt and then putting it all back together again.  Not cheap, Not Fun.... but we did most of the work ourselves to save money.  We make sure now to use it at least once a month.   Here is the blog post from that project:

Three R’s - Removing, Rebuilding and Replacing our Onan 6.3KW LP Generator

Once we got our "chores" done, we tossed the doggers in our car and headed up to our friends Sharon and Fred's house for a cookout.  They live about an hour away, so it was a nice jaunt on a sunny day.

Steve worked with Sharon and Fred for years at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, but also we are RVing buddies and have camped together over the years.  We took a long trip with them out west to the Badlands, Custer Park and Mount Rushmore in 2006.

Brandy is their beloved pet, a yellow lab.  Duke has known Brandy for years and was happy to see her.  Finney had to meet her for the first time, and he didn't know what to think of her!  She had to wear the "cone of shame" because of an injury and surgery on her back leg that she keeps chewing on.  

Finney sure didn't know why there was  a silly black cone around a dog's head....  he kept his distance and made sure that strange thing didn't get too close to him!

Fred grilled out pork tenderloins and we had a nice feast.  I brought stuff to make salads and some wine.  We were all set to eat our meal, with Brandy looking longingly from her cone!

Sharon followed up with homemade strawberry shortcake!  It was a lovely day to stay outside on the patio with the dogs... we talked till well after dark and headed on home and to bed.

Sunday now has dawned with more sunshine and holds great promise to be a wonderful day in the mid to high 70's.  We are just having coffee and Steve has started to add things on my "Honey-do" list.  He is going to work on the bow window roof in a bit, uh oh...  he is up on the ladder now as I type this!  I better take a break and go help, or at least hand him things through the window and take pictures!

There... all done!  

He used some of our good Dicor caulk from the motorhome roof.  It's pliable and UV resistant and is just about the best stuff on the market.  Although it's white, nobody can see if from the ground.  

I think I am going to post this, and then go back outside to plant my coleus flowers around the yard.  After that, who knows what is next around Our Old House!

Dinner Party

On Saturday, we were lucky to have our friends, Sharon and Fred come to dinner!   And of course, they brought Brandie, their very well behaved yellow lab.  We have traveled in our RV's with Brandie and she has been pals with our two doggies for years now, and she is a very welcome guest in our new home.

Sharon and Fred wanted to come and check out our new digs, and brought us a bottle of wine for a housewarming present!   How nice was that?    We gave them the Grand Tour throughout the house, shared fun and stories and also angst on aging parents and care and concerns about them.

I popped a beef stew in the crockpot earlier in the day, so when it was time for dinner, we had it all done ahead of time.  Sharon brought a salad dish and a lovely red velvet cake for dessert!

I have added something to our kitchen accessories to make entertaining easier.  In going from the kitchen to the formal dining room, I am making multiple trips with dishes, food and clearing away.  So I was using a smaller tray from our motorhome, but it was not even big enough to set 2 plates on it, side by side.  That meant dishes were stacked on top of each other and gunky stuff from one plate was landing on the back of the other.  Plus carrying in the serving dishes, silverware, condiments, etc. was taking too many trips.  Ahhhh I would just buy a larger tray, right?

No go.  I looked around in Appleton at the stores, checked Goodwill and St. Vinnies, then even online for a larger serving tray.   I had hoped for a wooden one, and even moreso an unfinished one that I could stain to match my woodwork.  Then a thought came to mind.

Our fellow RVing buddies, Roger and Lila, had spent time with us out in the desert on our last vacation out west.  At that time, I had seen that Roger had made some lovely trays for Lila to sell at her beading workshops.  They were well-crafted and a great style.  I wrote to Roger to ask him to make one for me, only larger.  He is a fine woodworker and has done some amazing things with wood in their converted MCI bus.  He agreed to make me a tray!  

And here it is, finished by the woodworking artist himself, pictured in his woodshop out in Washington.  It is a very generous 16x24 size.

It arrived here last week, safe and sound---- all ready to be stained.  I carefully rubbed in the stain, and then coated with 2 coats of polyurethane.   Oh my it came out perfect!  Just gleaming and glorious, showing the wood grains to their utmost.

Because I consider this piece a work of art, I requested that Roger please sign and date the tray for me.  It can become a family heirloom in years to come, and the signature will provide provenance.  I covered it with clear tape while staining to preserve the signature.  

As for other projects, I had someone ask me to do a close up photo of how I made the wrought iron brackets into a paper towel holder on the bottom of my coffee station shelf.   Here is a photo showing a stained wooden dowel, some "candle cups" wooden ends that I glued on, and they set right into the openings on the wrought iron brackets.   The brackets were only a couple bucks at Menards (midwest chain home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowes) .  The rod just slips into a paper towel roll, and sets into place on each of the openings.  The ends keep it from falling off and allows the rod and towel roll to rotate.  Easy peasy! 

Besides all of our house work, I am keeping up on my production of my recorded instructional DVD's for weaving and sockmachine knitting.  Also creating my sockknitting machine weights.  These are used in the circular sockknitting machines when attached to bent-over silver forks.  I buy one pound deep sea fishing weights, add a keychain ring, and dip them in rubber coating Tool Dip.  Down in the basement I have a little workarea all of my own.  It has an old bench and a vise and a cabinet for tools.  I drilled a piece of wood along the edge of the bench lined with screw heads to hang my weights as they dry after dipping.

My little work area is kinda cute, and has a large window facing south for daylight.  I have some old sawhorses set up for staining trim in the basement instead of out in the cold garage.  Here in the photo are some mop boards we hauled out of the garage attic to put in the kitchen.  Steve cut them all to size, and today I have to go give them one more coat of poly so he can nail them into place.

I know many of you are wondering when we will do some CAMPING!   Well, this poor little motorhome is wondering the same thing.   Don't it look cold and shivering in the Wisconsin Winter Weather? 

Don't worry.... we are planning to head out soon. 

 Just a few more details to finish up and we will get in some vacation time into the south.. 

somewhere warm! 

Wonderful Weekend

As we are settling into this full time living thing in the RV, we are making a few changes as we still unpack and sort and arrange things.

One thing we noticed is that the recliners we bought last year are not very practical.  They need to be pulled out sooo far into the room if you want to recline on them.  They waste about 12-14 inches behind each chair.  And if you don't pull them out far enough, they catch on the edge of the window frame when putting them back upright.   Time to make a change....

Sooooo we went shopping for the "wall hugger" style recliners.  We looked at all the big stores in the city.  Ewwww pretty high prices on the La Z Boy brand, but they seemed to have the nicest "wall hugger" design.  We discovered that we liked the loveseat idea instead of 2 separate chairs (like our blogger friends Janna and Mike had in their motorhome)  There is a small mom and pop style furniture store not too far from where we are parked, so we headed over there.  Not only did they have what we wanted, in a nice color, in stock...but on SALE!   For a LOT cheaper than what the big stores in Green Bay had!   They will deliver it for FREE on Tuesday right into the motorhome!   Plus, I feel better supporting a small town store (McMahons of Luxemburg)  and Steve also knew one of the salesmen who had kids the ages of our sons and played ball together.

Our son Dan and Heather will come and take these recliners off our hands, and they match their couch already in their house.  Although they were good recliners for the year we had them in our motorhome, and we bought them at a good price, but we would like the extra space in front of the chairs instead.


Another little helpful thing I learned this week ---  I had seen another RVer with these thin velour hangers at the laundry area in Holtwood campground last weekend.  They are thinner in profile than regular plastic hangers.

 BEFORE                                      HANGERS                                           AFTER            

one white plastic hanger on the right

is as thick as 2 or 3 of the black velour ones

You can get a lot more thin type clothing compacted better in lesser space in the closet.   She said the ones at Walgreens are better and stronger than the ones at Walmart, and they were on sale right now!  Sure nuff---   2 packs for $10 of ten packs of hangers.   I snatched up 40 of them to try them out.   I think I will still keep some plastic hangers for heavier things and hanging jeans on.  What is also an added benefit is they are velour covered, so your things do not slip off.  In a moving motorhome, that is a real plus!

Big storms blew through on Saturday afternoon and evening.  We mostly stayed inside and hunkered down.

Sunday morning, we slept in a bit --- trying out this full timing retirement attitude.  LOL  Then Steveio got up on the roof and removed the shrouds on our AC units to clean the inside coils.  He did a good job on the cleaning by blowing out with his compressed air tool.   He has his big tank air compressor on board to run all of his air tools.  A happy man has his happy tools along.

In the afternoon, our friends Sharon and Fred came for a visit.  They brought along their yellow lab, Brandie, who HAD to hop in the water right away.  Of course.  Would you expect less of a lab?  

Steve tossed some steaks on the grill, and Sharon brought plenty of treats to go with the meal.  We sat and gabbed and marveled at the great day.  Temps in the 70's, low humidity, nice breeze off the bay.  Wow... what a choice for a picnic with good friends. 

 Sharon made a very good dessert with strawberries, kiwi, angelfood pieces and a whipped base of sugarfree vanilla pudding mix and whipped cream.  Yummmmm

The guys wandered on down by the water, and checked out the lift device for the pontoon boat. Steve is going to help Ernie (the cottage owner) to add a different unit to lower and raise the boat easier.  The lowering water levels of Green Bay and Lake Michigan are causing a lot of problems with the owners of docks and boat lifts I guess. 

We gabbed till the sun went down... and wow.. what a great sunset it was!  

 Good friends, good food and good weather.  

What a Wonderful Weekend! 

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CAMPING- At our friends' cottage in the Nicolet National Forest

Our friends, Sharon and Fred, invited us to spend a weekend up at their family cottage.  We park our motorhome on their land which is located by the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.

Hey---- free camping!

Spring has finally come to the northwoods... our leaves are finally out, and fresh greens of newly opened leaves with a variety of colors of the deep pines, the white birches and the light greens of the shrubs and ground covers.   It's a palette of forest colors of Wisconsin Springtime!

We loaded up the rig and headed up Friday as soon as Steve was done with work.  Sharon and Fred have a dog named Brandie, so our two doggers were happy to have a friend to visit as well.

We pulled in and got set up in no time flat....  of course we have been here before and know just where to park and we are at home.  The nice thing about a motorhome is that we can pull in, turn it off, and we are basically done setitng up.  We later put down the hydraulic jacks and took out the awning but that is an *after* thing.

First we hopped in Sharon and Fred's truck and headed out for fish fry....  the old Waubee Lodge burned down and it's been rebuilt now in a much nicer log building.  It has a great location in Lakewood on Waubee Lake.

http://www.waubeelodge.com/

We had our cocktails and dinner out on the deck overlooking the lake... and decided on the seafood buffet which was very filling!  haha   I mostly enjoyed the clam strips, shrimp and german potatoe salad.  After dinner, we walked along the shoreline of the lake.  What a pleasant evening with very few bugs--- the lake was smooth as glass, and not yet filled with tourists on jet skis, racing boats or noisy water toys.  Afterall, the ice just went off these lakes a few weeks ago and that water is still very very cold! 

The decor of Waubee Lodge is very rustic, and we loved the honey warm gold of the logs.  We felt right at home!  I loved these two little coons on a wall hanging.  The inside diners were surrounding the big aquarium or next to the huge fireplace. 

It was a very pleasant evening, and we went to bed with open windows (screens on of course for the skeeters which are as big as hummingbirds right now)   and we slept to the soft tunes of the crickets in the woods.  Ahhhhhhh   This is the first really warm enough weekend to sleep with open windows this spring.

In the morning, the sun was shining and the weatherman said it was going to be a very warm day in Northern Wisconsin... up to 90 and pretty humid too.   So out came the lawn chairs and not much more of any type of activity took place!   ......   the dogs lapped at the water bowl and laid in the shade too.

As we sat around, I was working on some new projects.... knit hats.  Using four different sized rings called Knifty Knitters, I was making some hats from various scrap yarns I had on hand.  What fun!   You don't need to know how to knit, you just wrap the yarns around the pegs two rounds, and then lift one loop up and over the other loop and off the peg.  There ya go, it just knit a stitch for you!~    I got five hats done over the course of the weekend.  What a lazy way to relax in a chaise lounge and keep the fingers busy too.

Saturday evening we put the guys in charge of the grill for supper.  They had to imbibe on a few cocktails first, and then they were ready to cook!   LOL  The menu was marinated veggies, sliced potato packets and some grilled chicken breasts.  Yummmmm Everything tastes better when cooked outside.

We sat up gabbing till our eyes would not stay open, and again went to sleep to the sounds of crickets out the open windows.   Nearby at the horse riding stables, there were some youngsters making some noise, we but we were so tired, it didnt' last long and we were fast asleep too.  

The morning shone through the trees and dappled sunshine spread across the road... it was less humid on Sunday morning and very pleasant.   I whipped up some of Steveio's Cinnamon Sticks ----

(his invention of unrolling the pre-made refrigerator cinnamon rolls 

and twisting them into sticks before baking-- 

no gooey middles and they bake faster too) 

It was just the kind of morning that you dream of when freezing in the middle of winter.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was a lazy Sunday morning.  Sharon took me for a little ride in their big ATV called a side by side.  Duchess went along for the ride, and Duke stayed back with Brandie and the guys.

The guys fiddled with a few big boy toys and things, and Fred got the tractor going and loaded on their trailer to bring back home with them.  We decided to toss a few brats on the grill for lunch, and Sharon manned the kitchen in the cottage and whipped up some delicious chicken salad from our leftovers from the night before.

Fred, the Grill-Meister was tending the bratwurst 

(purchased from our local meat market, Melotte's Meats in Brookside, 

as we no longer buy Johnsonville brats... we boycott them---

who were a major contributor to Gubber Walker in Wisconsin) 

Long before we wanted to, it was time to start loading up and heading out again.  Towards home.  The weekend is over and it's time get back to the work-a-day world. 

We noticed on the ride that our front shocks (replaced only 12 months ago) are not operating properly.  We are going to have to take out the Bilstein shocks and check out which one is bad and have it replaced (they are under warrenty) before we take it out again on the road we think.  Sigh. 

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