I guess that I really jinxed it when I wrote my last blog about how little snow we had. Remember that little last snow bank in our yard?
Oh well...
This is what we are in for....
It's time to pay the piper. We got round one last night. It was only a few inches but a lot of blowing around. Right now we are in the middle of round two and the winds have really kicked up to 40 mph. We are going to expect another 4 to 6 inches today. Then round three is coming in overnight. They said in total we should have 12 to 14 in. I don't mind the snow so much, but it's the blowing that is awful! It blows into huge drifts which can make travel dangerous. It also blows over trees and branches on to the power lines that cause outages. Then the temperature is going to drop to below zero tomorrow night. That's fun. Then everything freezes solid and makes it difficult to snow blow or shovel. Especially the pile that the plow keeps putting at the end of the driveway!
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Yesterday was an adventure. But it was all made better by getting to see this beautiful friendly doggie face at my dentist office! Meet George. He is a 1-year-old Irish wolfhound that is learning to be a good boy. He's behind the desk in the receptionist area. Quite a gentle giant. He is standing on the floor next to that chair with his head leaning up over the counter to get a sniff of my hand. Yes, he's that big already!
The rest of my dentist visit was not as much fun. I know I've been having trouble with some gums located underneath a bridge that I had put in over 10 years ago. They needed some serious attention. Since I was going in for my cleaning I asked if they should get looked at by the dentist. The hygienist rescheduled me for another appointment to come back in the afternoon because other people were all canceling their appointments due to the impending storm. No waiting!
On second thought, waiting would have been nice. Like waiting forever and not having this done? Lol.
But seriously, I suddenly had oral surgery performed on six areas of gums above my teeth that were being affected. I had the bridge work corrected and ground down smoother to stop irritating the area. I also had a piece of cadaver bone mounted in to reinforce another area. Then I had dissolving mesh put in and sutured down to help the gums reattach back to the teeth. Sounds crazy hey? Also expensive.
With no dental insurance, our dentist kindly gives us a cash discount. So once we were done, we trekked on over to the credit union and performed a robbery to bring back a hefty amount of cash. Ugh.
Amazingly, I am not having any pain at all today. There is some swelling to be expected. But not nearly any of the dangerous pains that I was given as precaution and possibility of pain medication needed.
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The other thing we took care of yesterday was voting. We had a state judicial race primary election in Wisconsin that was quite important. We were going to vote absentee if we were gone on our vacation. But since we were in town we were able to just go in person and do it the original way.
Also on Monday we finished up the painting in the kitchen. I got this little section of wall completed with taping off and then two coats of green.
Steve took care of unhooking our modem and router that are usually hidden up on top of the refrigerator. Then we moved that out, so we could get painting done behind there as well.
And here it is now, all done and everything moved back into place.
I'm really glad we went with this soft sage mossy green. It sure looks a lot better than that previous beige/rose/mauve color. I think that color sucked in the light whereas this new one reflects it outwards.
I put everything back in our little kitchen table area, including my hand blown glass paperweights and the cuckoo clock and my little 12-month quilted stitching hanging from my friend Patti.
Steve got the refrigerator back into place and put our modem and router set up behind my big platter from the kids. Everything is now back to normal.
Well, it's Wednesday morning. Since this storm is going to keep us trapped in the house for a couple days, Steve decided that we should start painting over that same beige/rose/mauve color in our bathroom. So we started on the walls and I just rolled half the ceiling before taking a break. We might run out of paint so maybe I can only get one coat done. We will have to wait for the storms to subside for a couple days before we can go back and get some more.
It sure is a good thing that they built a Jo-Ann's Fabric and Craft store right next to the Harbor Freight store in Marinette Wisconsin! While Steve was busy digging around in Harbor Freight for a few special items, I had the opportunity to go next door to Jo-Ann's. I grabbed some extra backing fabric for my quilt and a new spool of the variegated thread that I wanted. I was still waiting in the parking lot while he was shopping, and he had the keys in his pocket. So I had time to snap this pic, Great ideas of the developers to put these stores side by side. On second thought, I should have gone back in JoAnn's.
One of the things that Steve added to his shopping cart at Harbor Freight were four heavy duty locking casters. I have been kind of prodding him to think about getting them for quite a while. He has this really wonderful HEAVY workbench island situation in the garage. But every time he wants to move it, he has to drag this very heavy island across the cement floor. The screeching and scraping sound is AWFUL! Not only that, I can't drag it myself if I want to move it! So I had suggested a set of good heavy duty casters on the bottom, ones that could be locked into place.
Now it can be moved around with ease or rolled out of the way if we're working on something on the floor. I like having this open workbench island space in the middle of the room to work on projects. The heavy metal top was originally a steel door that was used during a construction phase on his brother's home. It makes an excellent worktop for his workbench island. The sturdy steel legs came out of a bulk item trash day rescue. So all together, it didn't cost much for the island itself, so the investment of 4 casters seemed to make sense.
Plus I got to shop and oogle fabrics.
In my last blog I was showing how we added beadboard to the rest of the walls in the bathroom. Now it's finally complete. It looks so much better. Covering up those portions of the walls kind of makes the room feel bigger. This is a wide angle shot with the cell phone to get it all in.
It lightened and brightened it up as well. I really like the look of the beadboard slats and it seems to fit with The Farmhouse motif. I am so pleased with how it turned out. I have a few little spots here and there to dab paint on. Spots that we filled in the holes from the finishing nail gun on the quarter round trim around the baseboard.
Just one more of our projects finished that we can tick off the list.
Wednesday morning we woke up to absolutely beautiful white snow covering on the ground. Our first snowfall of the season. The temperatures have dropped now and the ground has stayed cold enough that the snow is hanging around.
We let little Binney out into her potty yard and she had to dash around and bark and snuffle around in the snow a little bit. I think from year to year dogs forget what snow was like. So the first time out again in the snowfall is exciting. Just like kids. She is so funny. She had to wait and see if the neighbor dogs were coming out. Then she barks at them to tell them off, and prances back into the house.
After my painting was done, I spent Wednesday morning sitting back with my feet up in front of the fireplace. The sun was shining outside but a few flakes every now and then came glistening down as they twirled to the ground. Steve went into town for a haircut and I had a peaceful relaxing morning to myself with a cup of coffee, some soft music, a good book from my sister, and the company of Binney.
When Steve got back from his haircut, he insisted that we had to hop into the Saturn and go check out something that he had located on Facebook Marketplace.
Here we go again!
It's another "A-door-able Door"!
If you look a few blogs back, I had mentioned about an antique door that Steve had located. He worked really hard to clean it all up, strip it all off and get it in place for our master bedroom. When our house was remodeled back about 6 years ago, some of the doors were changed to modern hollow core ones. Others were left as original with the five horizontal panels. So we have been trying to locate old wooden doors to replace the newer modern ones. Steve found another!
Soooooo for another $20 (same price as the last one) we drove down to Green Bay to pick up the door. It was exactly what he was looking for and it came home in the same manner the last one did. Wedged between us in the Saturn. Much better than hauling it laying flat on the trailer, driving through the slush and the snow. He looks so determined to get this door home, doesn't he?
I am just along for the ride, laughing at him and his eagerness to restore these doors and get rid of the modern ones. He doesn't like them at all and he said that they bug him. They are kind of MDF white plastic fake chipboard whatever stuff. Nothing can beat a good solid wooden door, in his mind.
I did get him to swing by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Green Bay. I think he was hoping to find another door! We walked around and I managed to spy an additional light fixture with my same stained glass lights that I have in the home. This one is a pendant. I got the whole thing for $6. I don't even have a spot for it. But it was worth it to pick it up in case I ever need the shade, or if one of our others breaks. Who knows, maybe I will find a spot for it. But in the meantime, it's good to have an extra on hand. At that price, it was a bargain. It retails for $39.99 new.
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So that was about it for yesterday. Today is starting out slow and easy and relaxed. We did bring the grand puppies over to the groomers so it was one less thing for the kids to do. We picked them up a few minutes ago. They are now minus a bunch of big bushy coats, and have their nails trimmed and we can see their eyes again. This is Biscuit and Ewok.
This afternoon we have an appointment with our local Health Insurance specialists to talk to Steve about his Medicare Part B Supplement stuff. He's only a couple months away from that. So it's good to get the paperwork in order and figure out what he's doing.
It looks like the Midwest and the Great Lakes are due for some very cold windy weather with wind chills down below zero in the next few days. Brrrrrrrrr
There's a Packer game tonight at Lambeau in Green Bay, and the wind chills might get down in the low numbers too. We hope they play as well as they did last Sunday!
What do these three things have to do with each other? Nothing really.
They are just the three different topics I'm going to talk about in today's blog. LOL
I belong to a Facebook group of treadle sewing machine owners. We all share ideas and thoughts and hints and projects and repairs and supplies. I made a friend on there named Robin. She happens to have the same Franklin treadle sewing machine as me, but she also has the same unusual and rare beautiful parlor cabinet. This is a special wooden cabinet that the machine rises up out of the bottom using a chain and gears.... and the treadle for the feet is enclosed within the base of the cabinet. It is a lot different than the standard iron framework Singer treadle machines that you usually see.
The only problem is that she is missing a section of the applied wooden scroll work on the left hand curved door of her beautiful cabinet. She was at a loss of what to do and how to replace it, because this is something that is 100 years old.
her cabinet
When she found out that I have the same cabinet, she asked a huge favor of me. Is there intact scroll work on the left hand door of my cabinet? Yes there is!
my cabinet
She sent me a box in the mail. This is where the "mold" part of my title comes in. Not icky mold growing bacteria infested gunk! Instead, it is a molding kit that you can use to create a flexible rubbery type mold material. I was worried about it perhaps ruining or blemishing the varnish of the hundred plus year old cabinet. So I did a little test sample in an inconspicuous area on the inside of one of the doors.
After 20 minutes, I peeled it away and it came out perfect! Even right down to the tiny lines of wood grain. That is exactly what Robin had hoped for. This is gonna work.
So I proceeded to mix up the two compounds in the remaining material of the kit. Mix mix mix thoroughly, wearing rubber gloves so I don't get my oils from my hands into the material. You mix the white and the yellow compounds together like molding clay making, sure that they are thoroughly mixed.
I cleaned the surface of the scroll work and brushed it free and clear of any excess lint or debris that might be hiding in the cracks. Then I pressed the mold material into place starting at the top and working my way down. Making sure to press it firmly in every little nook and cranny.
She also wanted the mold to go as far as the lip edge of the door so she could be sure of the exact placement of the scroll work. The faces of these doors are somewhat curved a little bit and she wanted to be sure it would be formed exactly when she used the mold.
I set the timer to wait 20 minutes. Actually, I waited closer to 25 just in case the thicker parts of the mold material needed longer to cure??
I started at the top and peeled it away carefully
Oh my! Look at that! It was a perfect exact copy replica of the scroll work on the door. And thankfully it did not harm the finish whatsoever. Our joint project was a success on this end so far.
I packaged it up to send it back to her. She is going to fill it with a flexible wood putty product that is stained the color of the woodwork. She was hoping to get all the details like the wood grain lines and even the little aged cracks that are in mine. That will make it look more realistic than ever.
I was so glad to be able to help her. What are the chances of her finding somebody on a little Facebook group of a couple hundred people that happened to have the same machine and cabinet as she did?
She was so thankful, that in the box for extra padding she included these two beautiful skeins of wool sock yarn! She said the colors were perfect for somebody known as "Karen In The Woods".
Yesterday I hauled out my handy dandy cranky sock knitting machine. If you followed my blog for quite some time, you will know that I am an officiado and collector of these very interesting antique contraptions. They are known as CSM's, Circular Sockknitting Machines. I had to work on an order for another friend, Patti, who wanted me to make her a couple sets of leg warmers for just her ankles. She said she has a pair of fuzzy boots that she likes to go barefoot in, but she wanted something to keep her ankles warm between the boots and her pants legs. So I custom made her four different pairs in assorted colors on my sock knitting machine.
Once I got her order finished, I started with my new yarn from Robin. It was so pretty as I cranked it up last night while we were watching tv. These sock machines are finicky and cranky and sometimes they work great and sometimes they just don't want to. I have been cranking on sock machines since 1998 and they are a lot of fun. But other times they are a source of frustration and you want to throw it out the window!
This newest machine I have is from 1925. It works better than the ones I had from 1904 and 1908 and 1914. I guess they kept getting better and better?
Here is a YouTube link on how I operate the machine:
The machines have been recently put back into production and can be purchased at the Erlbacher Knitting machine company in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
They are rather expensive, but they are made from the same patents and diagrams that this one is made with a few more improvements. If you're looking for some cranky fun and can't find an antique one to restore, at least there are new ones are available.
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While I am working on my fun stuff in my she shed, I am looking out my window from time to time. Sometimes I get lost in day dreams looking out over the backyard. Fall has really come to the area and the colors are beyond peak now. A lot of leaves have fallen and more come down every day. Our backyard has a carpet of golden leaves spread across wherever the trees are standing.
In the middle of my daydreaming I suddenly hear an engine start up and the whirring noise of a leaf blower. What do I see out by windows? That super industrious Steveio is out there trying to blow away all of these leaves from two and a half acres! He would blow them up into great big piles and then transfer them onto tarps. From there he would drag the tarps up to the front of the house and dump them along the curb.
Our city comes by with a big vacuum cleaner sucker machine that sucks them all up for us. Bye bye leaves!
And then it will get windy tonight, and a lot more leaves will go right back where he just cleaned them up. Such is the routine of fall. But it's good to get them up before the snow flies.
Speaking of preparations before the snow flies, Steve and his brother Pete went up by their father last week to Door County. They helped him get all of his little tasks he needed done that he needed before winter. While they spent the day up there, I took care of painting the "A-Door-Able Door".
If you look back a couple blog posts you will read about the beautiful antique door that Steve found on marketplace. Once he stripped it all down and sanded it off, then he filled all the gouges and holes and scratches with putty. Now it was my turn to put on some primer and paint. After a couple coats, the door was all done! It is so nice to have a vintage looking door that matches the rest of the doors in our 100 plus year old home. Much better than the modern cheap hollow core door that was there before.
This is a new doorway that was created between the living room and the master bedroom by the previous owners. There had never been a door there before. The only way to get into the bedroom was to walk through from another bedroom. I really like that the doorway configuration had been changed. But Steve couldn't stand looking at that hollow core door. Now that it's been taken care of, I think it's nice to restore the house with items from the same era.
We have another project in the works. I was in the kitchen and I heard a little noise outside. I looked out the window and what did I see? Steve's knees!
Now what on earth was he doing? I went outside to see. He was perched up on his ladder with his tools. He was going to take care of a problem that we noticed this summer...
And this is about the third word in our title. Bats!
We went through quite a process the year before to remove the bats from the attic of our home. We had hired a "Batman" exterminator from Green Bay to eradicate the little stinkers. He used humane methods by installing one way trap doors to let them out, but not back in. All of the bats are alive and well, but OUT of our attic! Everything was sealed up and cleaned after we got them out. Then we had to spread a special paint with a big rented sprayer to kill the odor and smell from those buggers. Finally the last step is we had all new insulation blown in. It was quite an expensive process. We are now free of the bat excrement called "guano".
But there was one little section where the one part of the roof meets up to the other part of the roof where the two houses were joined together years ago. This section of attic is not open to the rest of the attic--- it's merely a long enclosed triangular tube between them. This past summer, we had noticed that there was a bat flying out of a little edge opening along the soffit and fascia! Steve had gone up there to examine it and sure enough, those little buggers found a way in to that little triangular space. He caulked it up firmly at night to make sure they couldn't get back in there again. It was done while they were out for the evening searching for mosquitoes. But he really wanted to seal that space up, and he also realized it had never gotten filled with insulation. So it was a wide open triangular shaped space about 12 ft deep by a couple feet wide and high where the two roofs came together.
He decided the best way to fill it with insulation is to cut a new opening and then place a firmly sealed vent over the opening after he has the opportunity to blow in some insulation. So he decided to get the first part done by at least cutting the opening and fitting the vent into place.
The vent is just screwed into place right now. Perhaps this weekend we will rent the insulation blower unit from Menards and get a couple bags to fill the void. Then when he puts this vent on permanently he will seal around all of the edges with caulking. He will also repair the soffit and fascia boards. Got to keep the bats out!
When we hired the "Batman" from Green Bay to come in eradicate them the year before, he told us a couple interesting facts.
1. The bats that seem to congregate all up and down the West Shore of the Green Bay are all from the same species and family. They gather along the shoreline in all of the homes throughout Menominee Marinette Peshtigo Oconto Pensaukee all the way down to Green Bay.
2. The reason why they congregate here is because they have a vast amount of food available from the swamplands all along the water's edge. We are right next to the great big marsh and the mosquitoes are overly abundant. He said he has quite a list of customers from all of these towns along the bay, especially in the older homes and their attics.
3. Where they congregate over the winter is a mineshaft in Iron Mountain, Michigan. They have a bat viewing area to view them as they emerge in April and early May. The bats start leaving the cave and start looking around for food. That's when they migrate south all along the Lakeshore and Green Bay.
4. That's when they come to our house! Then again in September and into October the bats return to the mine up north. There is a large bat viewing area that you can see these millions and millions and millions of bats return to their winter haven.
Here is a link about the bat viewing area if you are interested in such things. I'm not!
I just want them out of my attic! There are plenty of bat houses nearby in our neighbor's yards for them to hide out in, as well as all the trees in the swamp behind our house. Just stay out of my attic please?
Well, that is enough for today. Tomorrow I will write about a thrifty day with my friend Vicky!
I guess it was a good idea to come home from camping. Both mornings have been at 32 degrees with frost on the ground. It hasn't even gotten above 50 degrees during the day. I think we would rather be at home and work on projects and be comfy than trying to enjoy time in the woods when it's this cold. It has been raining almost constantly since we got home. With these kind of temps, it could easily turn into snow.
The other added plus for being home, our son-in-law Jesse asked if I could watch Whitney for Wednesday evening. We invited over her little cousin Claire as well. These two girls sure kept us busy!
Here they are pointing out their names on the "Grandchildren Sign" made by our daughter Erin and son-in-law Waylen.
We decided to bake some brownies. Whitney has a special way for breaking the eggs. Here is her first video she made with her mom, telling us how.
(It was on Facebook and I didn't know how to transfer it into the Blogger format. So I videoed it playing on Steve's phone so I could insert it here)
Here is the video that we made of our attempts on Wednesday. It works out pretty good and you don't get any little pieces of shells.
They helped follow the recipe and took turns adding each of the ingredients. They very carefully measured and poured everything into the bowl. Baking is wonderful when they can learn about things like math and also learning that things don't just come from a store. You can create them at home just as well.
Often homemade things taste better than store-bought. Plus, there are usually leftovers. We always leave more than enough batter in the bowl so they can enjoy the extra with the spatulas.
Isn't this the best part, being able to eat the leftover batter? I have fond memories doing it when we were kids, but we had to make a bowl stretch out among six kids!
While the brownies were in the oven baking, these two decided that they needed to be veterinarians and take care of all of the stuffed animals. They spread out all of their patients in the guest room and took out all of their doctoring tools. They were very concerned over each patient that came into their veterinarian office. Elaborate stories were made up about each case. But the brave veterinarians saved each and every one!
Next activity on their idea list was that they were going to write letters. We dug up a stack of odd-sized little envelope that I wasn't using for anything else. They took out the crayons and the colored pencils and started writing cards and letters for people that they know.
Whitney was delivering letters to Grandpa down in the she shed. He got a whole stack of wonderful envelopes and notes. He had to read each one, and then they took the notes back to re-deliver them all over again.
Claire was busy bringing all of the little cards and letters to each room of the house. Every place had a new address and she was being the mail lady. I am sure that I will find more letters throughout the week as I clean house from room to room.
Speaking of rooms, both girls love to play in this cute little Hideout. It is actually a built in cabinet for storing wood next to the fireplace. Because we no longer burn any wood in the fireplace, it's a great little hidey-hole room. They go in there with little blankets and pillows and flashlights. It's a wonderful little hiding spot and they also wrote their names and messages on the walls inside with magic markers. Kind of like a time capsule for kids to find in the future.
Little Binney got a lot of attention too. She came out to hang with the girls on the couch and to see if they had anything good to eat. The brownies were almost done baking, but dogs can't have chocolate. Both girls each have 2 dogs at home, and Whitney also has a kitty cat. Binney was checking that out, I am sure.
The brownies were done but we had to cool the pan quickly so we could get them frosted before the girls had to go home. I was able to stuff the whole pan into the freezer to cool it off. When it was sufficiently cold enough, we spread the frosting on top. We cheated and used a store bought can of frosting instead of mixing our own this time. I didn't have any chocolate powder to make it from scratch. The girls both took care of adding an abundance of sprinkles to the top of the brownies. What fun is it to bake at Grandma's, unless you can put sprinkles on top of it!
Soon it was almost bedtime, and both girls had to go home. There was school the next day. We cut up the pan of brownies and sent a container home with each girl to bring to their families. And there were a few left for Grandma and Grandpa as well. We will have to arrange a sleepover sometime on a Friday or Saturday where they can spend the night together. Their parents came and picked them up. It was quiet again in the house. Too quiet.
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Thursday morning, Steve was anxious to get started on the interior trim for the new window that we put in last week. It was raining and miserable outside. Perfect for working indoors!
Last week, he had already cut the wood to length out in the garage for all of the window trim. I gave it a coat of primer and a couple coats of paint out there while laying flat on the sawhorses. It's much easier to work with pre-finished wood inside. I don't have to paint primer and two coats of paint all while positioned vertical on the wall. No runs or drips either. Then all he has to do later is fill in the nail holes with little dabs of caulk or spackling. I can give it a final touch-up once it's all done.
Using tiny finishing nails in the air powered nailing gun works really well to put up the trim. He has a portable air tank so he doesn't even have to haul in the big air compressor to do this type of trim work. I will have to paint the inside edge of the spacers he needed for around the window. Old houses are never perfect, so he needed spacers to get everything to meet up perfectly with the level of the plaster wall.
By afternoon, the sun started peeking out and we had some blue sky!!! The new window sure brings a lot of light into the bedroom. I still have to trim off the excess strings on the venetian blind where we removed the unneeded slats.
By trimming out the window all the way around it makes it appear even bigger than before. I really like the view into the backyard.
Now Steve will figure out the complex cuts to do the top crown moldings and the sections of egg and dart trim. Here are some of the vintage pieces throughout the house that we are going to match.
We are going to try to recreate the same thing for over the top of the big window as well as the top of the new double closet trim in the master bedroom. That was never done when the room was reconfigured by the previous owners. It will be nice to make it all match. But not doing anymore on Thursday, that was enough work for the day.
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Friday morning, Steve decided to do one more little project in the master bedroom. We have this little section of short wall between the new window in the closet. It's just perfect for this narrow tall oak cabinet. But I needed an electrical outlet behind it instead of running an extension cord. Steve took care of measuring and figuring and started cutting the hole out with his plunge blade on his oscillating tool.
When he started fishing the wires up through the wall, little Binney got very concerned. She was pacing back and forth and sticking her nose by the vent trying to figure out what was in the basement coming up through the wall! She was absolutely sure it was burglars!
She fretted and fussed and whined and barked. Good dog Binney! You protected us from the burglars....
Soon he had the outlet all wired in and hooked up correctly. Now I could just run both cords directly to the outlet without using an extension cord. One is for our alarm clock in the other is for this pretty little stained glass lamp. I have it on a timer so it comes on in the early evening and shuts off at 11 p.m. after we go to sleep. It is just enough light in the room as we come and go, in and out, or get ready for bed without turning on the overhead light.
And there it is, set in place. The cabinet can't exactly be centered on the wall because we need clearance for the bi-fold closet door. But I think that it works well in that spot. Better than just leaving it blank. Once we finish the trim and I put up some lace valances on the window, it will kind of fill things in.
Now that project is done,
and this blog is complete,
it's time to make some late breakfast / early lunch.
I wonder what kind of trouble we can get into this afternoon?
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