Larry's Creative Zone

Picasa 3-bah humbug

2012-02-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

I finally downloaded the Picasa 3 to play with the program. It is not that I can't do a lot with Photoshop or iPhoto, it is that I wanted to play with the collage part of the program. I am extremely frustrated. I finally figured out how to move the finished item to my picasa photo album, but I don't understand it. I don't want to make a new folder ever time I move a picture over to the album.

Why does it have to be so hard?????????

I don't like that it that it won't let me save things to the desktop directly. I don't really want to copy and paste things every single time into another program. I spent the day working on the school website and working with google docs. A lot of that is very complicated and that is what working on a website is all about but this picasa program is just a foreign program. It should be easier that this. I usually try to get an overview of how and why the program works but it just doesn't seem that friendly to me to be able to even understand it.

Maybe a few days down the road and a couple of more tries a light bulb will come on and I will figure it out.

It is Thursday and my last post is the result of clicking the camera pointed to the ground while walking. There was no red around at the time but the blur translated into red and gray.

Thanks for stopping by today.......I am subbing for a sub was subbing for a woman who is out and had her baby. Math is my duty today.

African Violets

2012-02-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

The daylight on the left side of the petals gives one a true purple color of the violet flowers. The red violet is created by the indoor lights in the dining room shinning from the right side of flowers.

I told my wife's cousin that I did not have a red colored violet. I knew that I had bought one once but it never bloomed. I thought it had died as I did throw a violet into the trash from a over watering problem by it's owner.

I guess I was mistaken as you can see in this blurry photo that I have a red violet with ruffled petals.

The red colored violet that was given to me is doing well and as you can see it is not the same variety at all. This variety has the same shape and size as an old fashioned purple violet which is so hardy. This plant has proven itself to be quit a strong plant also. The ruffled variety I have found with my earlier experiences with violets a lot harder to keep alive. They don't like being over watered and react to it right away.

With my regimented watering schedule of once a week and adding low doses of fertilizer each time may make the above ruffle take off and be just as showy as the one on the left.

The humidifier for our house sits about ten feet from these plants and the light from the large window has proven to make my garden to grow well. With the perfect conditions, I still have a couple of them that are giving me trouble. I suppose it is time to replant them to see if they will straighten up and grow right.

Yesterday I had to set up a computer lab that had been moved out of the room temporarily. They put in a new carpet and then the janitors and four boys brought it all back into the room. If you remember how many cords that you have for your one or two computers, the job was almost an all day task. I started at the beginning of the line and did two computers at a time getting the keyboards and mice back in order, then lined up the internet cords. I also had a projection system to get back up and working.

Some people set up labs with computers sitting in front of the marker boards and one of my goals was to solve that problem. I didn't rearrange a lot of tables but I did make an effort to make breaks in them so staff could actually write instructions and such on the marker boards.

Twenty six computers later plus installing the printer and placing other furniture back in place, I got the job done. I threw out very old typing books that taught Clarisworks, an old printer, a computer with a bad switch, and a few internet lines that were messed up by the children.

Today I will be a floater again. Yesterday I actually started my day in the science room for twenty minutes and then finished my day in a health room class for a full period. Today I was to be an art teacher but the secretary overbooked subs for the day so I was bumped, not fired, just bumped.

Thanks for stopping by my post toady.

Still life...........

2012-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

I was setting up a still life for a photo shoot and this is what I came up with for the event. It is a little surreal in appearance but I like it. The figurines add a little mystery to the scene. I was hoping to get a photo for a photo contest that depicted "white."

Another view of the trio. The dogs are antique figurines. They belonged to my Grandmother Burgus. The original set was larger with two larger parent dogs and a couple more puppies than these. Unfortunately the majority are gone and I don't know when they were broken. I do know that there was a larger one that was in existence ten years ago but my brother had an episode that caused the one to be broken.

The oxalis is back into the living room window now enjoying company with the the poinsettia. We are having another warm day today. I am subbing for a period and then will spend the day reconnecting a computer lab to the internet. The lab was taken out table by table to another end of the building so the carpet could be replaced. I will have to test each one and line up all the mice and keyboards to be sure it is ready to go. I think there are at least forty of them in there so I will be bonding with that project for a while.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Birds in a bush....or cage

2012-01-30T07:21:00.000-08:00

My yellow parakeet needs a new friend and I will try to find one in the next few months. He lost his friend over a year ago. He does have other birds in cages to relate to in the room but I just think he would be happier with company. I have put him in with finches but he is a little too aggressive when he tries to groom them.

A genetics class would enjoy plotting the offspring of my cockatiel pair. My male is gray with a yellow head and his main tail feathers are white and yellow. The female is solid gray. Below is a picture of two of their family.

The female gray above and her brother, yellow headed guy, don't look exactly like their parents. They have parts of their coloring. The male has his dad's yellow head and the female has yellow streaks in which her mother did not have.

This male offspring looks exactly like his brother. The three of them hang out together in their cage. They like to squawk at me just for fun when I put seed in their feeders. The do look you in the eye and try to discuss things of importance. Fresh water makes them very happy and they usually tell me so. They like to sound off when they hear the trumpet player playing on the Sunday Morning show on TV.

Old post of 2009 about the birds.

Sunday's searching.......

2012-01-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

I was outside trying to find a view of the perfect photo for a contest. The theme is "white" and we just don't have it. Our white is melting and the brown is coming back.

It just isn't that great looking out there and the snow drift is actually only a few inches in height. The melting footprint is going to be gone today and tomorrow as our weather keeps warming up abnormally.

Inside there is the pleasant surprise of blooms. The Christmas cactus came with blooms on one side of the plant back in December and now the other side is going to follow up with blooms.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Framing..........

2012-01-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

I made headway with the frame job above. It is the second one that I am doing for a lady who collects cowboy, western posters. She and her son go to these cowboy conventions in which she picks up a poster for her western room.

A closer view of the poster,, which is a fine art painting that is reproduced on the poster.

The next poster isn't so flashy as it is a dark poster of older photos. Some have been colorized but it still has an overall dark appearance. It has been hard to find a mat color that enhances it rather than make it more drab looking.

I am late getting my post done today but life gets busy and I didn't have any photos to share.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Unusual finds on Friday........

2012-01-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

Seth Thomas clockworks

As I dig through my archived shots I notice that I do take some different kinds of photos. Still life shots of everyday objects or things that make a design that I like on the screen.

A spring that was not doing it's job

Mower parts to my old mower have an industrial look when you get the macro going. I still have this mower even though I have to beg it to start. Someday I will have a ceremony and drop it off at the landfill recycle center.

Orchids

I bought a couple of orchids and I didn't succeed in keeping them alive. I probably over cared for them as they bit the dust so to speak as the time passed.

Paint mess on a mural job

It has been a year and a half since we painted the mural and one can see the mess that comes with the job. It was one of the largest paintings that my wife and I have ever done together.

The basement of an old school house in Bar Harbor, Maine

While attending a party at the old school house I took a tour of the basement. I could see the variety of eras of brick used that told a history about the basement. The stone foundation was the oldest I believe of the original structure. Originally there looks like there had been a coal burner down there and the room to the left was where the coal was stored. It was made from brick which meant they probably had wood burning stoves at first when it was built.

Thanks for stopping by today. Friday is here and I am ready for a restful weekend. I hope all goes well for you and your weekend is a fun one. Thanks for stopping by my post.

Line design......

2012-01-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

My white lilac is getting to be too large as you can see how large the branches are. I know that it is recommended to take out a few each year at a time and eventually the size of it will become more normal. The neighbor's house and green pine tree make an interesting background for the scene.

We should loose most of our snow today as it will be warming up a lot today. We are having a mild winter as far as snowfall is concerned but the temperatures have been cold.

The mungo pine bows under the ice and snow that we had a few days ago. I planted it between two burning bushes and it seems to be doing fine there. I may have to prune all three back if it gets to be too crowded.

On my photo a day blog I have an arrangement of cockatiel feathers. I just put this one up on this site to show how wonderful the design looks on a female cockatiel tail feather. This is the pattern one uses to know which is the female birds.

I am battling a cold again. I hand around too many sick people at school. I wash my hands continually but I can't filter the air I breathe. I am a techie and music teacher again today. We will be practicing a new song on our tonettes today.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my posting. Everyone out there have a good Thursday and yes, Friday is coming.

Donkey planter is fixed......

2012-01-25T06:51:00.000-08:00

How to fix your donkey planter. I saw it land on the concrete floor in the basement. It was an accident and I was glad I still had all the pieces. I couldn't get the super glue to work on it as the planter is made up of very porous, low fired clay. Wood glue came to the rescue and as you can see the container also helped to hold it's head in place while it dries.

I will treat this thing with a lot of kindness as it will not be a great glue fix. I don't want to loose it as I remember this thing sitting in the middle of our kitchen table back in 1957. It had an ugly black and silver doily under it on our gray formica table.

I found this among the junk in the cupboards in the utility room at my parents. I don't remember ever seeing it again until the past few years when I discovered it. When I was young it had a vine in it but for now it has an oxalis.

I am a techie again today. I do a lot of odd jobs including taking out the trash. It can be just as tiring as a sub teacher but I do have the ability to pace myself more easily as a tech guy.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Snow on the roof........

2012-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

My ceramic houses weather the seasons year round. The shelf actually was a wooden box that I recycled into a shelf. The houses were made by former students of mine who didn't take them home. I have a collection of houses like these that I made, one a year, as example works for students to see. I won't put mine outside but I do have them in storage right now. I may have to photograph them some of these days to share.

Natural patterns are created from the stems of the wild rose while in the background you can see man made pattern. The fence wire keeps Barney and Button inside their backyard area.Barney could jump the kiddie fence but it is his territorial marker. If the gates gets left open by a meter reader he sometimes comes to the house as he is scared he would get into trouble because of it. When he escapes he heads to the side door of the house and waits for us to let him inside. His first 7 months of life were out on the loose in a town in Missouri and I don't think he ever wants to revisit his past.

My spirea bush takes on a different look with snow sticking to it's branches. The red in the back is a bright red birdhouse or something that sits on the neighbor's porch. It really shows up when you enlarge it.

The yew shrub takes on more whiteness and seems a little weighed down from it's ice and snow. This Tuesday we will almost hit above freezing. We may loose a little of it. The refrozen snow that is ice on the ground needs to be gone

I will be a computer tech person today. I have taught continually for quite some time so a tech job will be welcomed. Out of over 200 students to receive there computers last week we still have twenty that haven't picked their Mac up from the office. I will be dealing with those today to see if we can't get them out to the students. Each one needs to be set up and a password installed to personalize the student's computer.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Paracelsus..........

2012-01-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

A mug that I brought home from my parents that is still filled with pennies. I thought this was an unusuall looking guy and when you google him you find out he was one of the first scientist that used chemicals to create medicine. On the other side of the mug it is labeled Zantac. I can't figure out where my parents would get this mug.

One more mouth to feed. Cali now comes for a meal in the morning and in the afternoon. I assume she is staying in a garage or shed somewhere. As I mentioned before, someone else is feeding her. She likes soft cat food and if she isn't hungry she just won't eat the dry stuff. This photo was taken in the summer during her leaner times.

I spent my day being a science teacher and doing two classes of middle school physical education. We had a two hour delay this morning as the roads were covered with a glare of ice. The rural roads were probably dangerous but the buses did all make it to school. Thanks for stopping by my post.

Here's looking at you.......

2012-01-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Taking photos of red pears.

I have an antique mirror leaning against the wall in the dining room corner. Not a great place for storage but it is big, heavy and it is easier leaving it there than making a decision as to where to put it. I had to set up my computer desk against the wall where it hung and we have not other place to put it. I guess now that everyone knows about it I will take it upstairs to the storage room.

Thanks for stopping by............

Bird watching.......

2012-01-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

It is warming up to 17 degrees today and the birds are hungry. They have been feeding all along but the cold seems to really bring them to the feeder. I know most of the birds and yet the junco is a new one for me and their are two kinds of mourning doves out there. I don't have my woodpeckers id's always correct, so it is good to keep the book on the dining room table ready for research.

Starlings or grackles are attacking the feeder close to the window. I was waiting to take a shot of the sparrows at the feeder and things instantly changed. The large birds hit the side and the top of the feeder and it was swinging and spinning in circles. I think they are grackles. Can you see the one in mid air flying in from the right?

The English sparrow is a pretty bird and I really enjoy them at the feeder. They are flying in by the dozens and eating everything they can find.

As you can see we don't have a lot of snow. We missed a storm by about forty miles. North of us they had a lot snow and schools were closed. I bought a suet cake for the feeder today and placed it out there before I took the photos. Hopefully I will have some woodpeckers at the feeder. I do think I should bring the feeder a little closer to the window to help with the taking of the photos.

It would be a good day to stay in today as the wind chill is really fierce today. We will venture out this evening for a short time but we will be in for most of the day today. It is suppose to be above freezing by Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Friday's findings......

2012-01-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hydrangeas take on a skeleton look of beige and brown dead petals.

The yew shrubs always collect the snow in it's branches. We didn't get much snow from the present storm but schools north of us were closed today due to heavy snow.

The coffee bean tree from down on the farm has an interesting color of wood. I bet you can guess which log is from the coffee bean tree. It isn't walnut as that is a lighter color of wood than the coffee bean wood. I may take this to the school shop and see if I can get it turned into boards. Then I could make something from it.

Storms to the north of us about 30 miles or so that closed schools but for us school is in regular session. I am subbing for the substitute for the regular teacher who is out for maternity leave. It gets complicated when your sub is gone and you have to have another sub.

Saturday is only a few hours away. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by my post.

A Truck Full of Fish

2012-01-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

My metal toy truck seems to have an almost full load of fish. I think the toy block was on sale during the fifties and it is a fancy block with it's interlocking grooves. I have about a dozen of these older blocks which are a part of my toy collection.

I took a very cold walk outside to capture snow photos. Our snow is not that great looking but it is great that ther isn't a great amount out there. The afternoon light of a cold day is evident in the sky color.

It is a good time to come inside and have tea and a pear. My kids in Chicago sent us a box of fancy red pears. The arrived a few days ago and they are ripening quickly. We will have to eat fast. We are told to refrigerate them to slow down their ripening.

I am in the special education department again today. I am covering a couple of positions with the most important one being following and attending the classes with a nice young man.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Photo contest revisited......I won!!

2012-01-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

A free photo contest can be found on My Retirement Chronicles in which you may enter a photo. It is a great way to show your work as a photographer and to see others who have taken shots trying to fit a certain theme for the month.

I have entered the contest frequently in spite of my camera's limitations and sometimes my own limitations but each person tries to present their best photo for the contest.

I posted earlier on one of my blogs a variety of photos I was interested in sending and I really did have a difficult time choosing one. Many times photos can be bright and colorful and other times the composition is unique and expressive. I had to choose from a variety of styles of shots and I just happen to pick the right one. I won!!!!!!!

You can view all of the others that entered the contest for December by visiting the following blog.
Click the gray area below here and you can see the words to click for the site.

My Retirement Chronicles

Bookmark that page or follow the site as there are so many wonderful shots of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan posted often. She is a great photographer and has a wonderful place to shoot photos.

The photo I was taking was of my wife's angel tree and it's ornaments. It sits in our art gallery and as I was snapping photos of the ornaments I noticed a figure behind the tree. I thought it would be interesting to see how I could use the figure of Christ, one of my wife's Pastel paintings, as a background for the shot.

I guess I found the message of the painting and the angel tree seemed to have blended and belonged together for the season of Christmas. The lighting on the tree and the lighting in the painting were coming from the same direction. Since Christmas is what my wife and I celebrate at the holiday season I felt it appropriate for my Epitome of the Holidays.

I will never know if the photograph won for it's inventiveness or if my wife is just a great painter.

Maybe it was a little bit of both.

The winning photo for the December contest.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Wednesday...........

2012-01-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yes we do have snow. It comes with a lot of very cold temperatures. We may warm up today, 32 F. but it will get down to 7 degrees F. tonight. That is minus 14 degrees C. to my friends in other parts of the world.

My wife gave this snowman cookie jar a few years back and when you lift this lid off the base it plays a little song. Of course the song is Let It Snow and it tells everyone that I am sneaking a cookie.

Left behind are a few small ornaments that fall off the tree and hid under the furniture. I thought I had picked it up but I must have just thought it and not done it. I will toss it into another box or leave it out on the bookshelf ready to join it's friends next December. My wife still has her teddy bear tree up and that is fine with me. It is easier to take things down into the basement on scattered days and then I can keep the area stacked neatly.

I will finish off the post today with a little flower power. I have become so good at fertilizing the violets on a regular basis that it really shows that I am doing it. It is violet fertilizer so I don't have to figure out which kind to buy and it requires me to put eight drops of it in my watering container each time. If they keep it simple and I can do it each time then the old man can keep on track. The furnace is really keeping them dried out so I do have to watch them to be sure they are not getting to be too dry.

I am a computer troubleshooter today and I am fine with that. It is a lot of busy work and is just as hard as teaching all day, but it is the variety that I like. Besides, computer stuff doesn't always have to have it's behaviors corrected and it doesn't need to be sent to the office.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Remembering when.....people and ships.

2012-01-17T06:34:00.000-08:00

The freighter was moving through the canal at Duluth, Minnesota, heading for a dock in which they would load or unload their cargo. The seeing of the large transports is the thing to see but the people element is there to enjoy.

The big ships travel the entire length of the great lakes to get to Duluth. Many come from across the ocean to pick up cargo. Iron ore, coal and grain are a some of the products being shipped of the port. As they travel into the port they go through a canal that is usually lined by people watching them come into Duluth.

I guess I haven't mentioned that it is Lake Superior that on which they end their journey. I have never seen this lake iced over but in the winter the lake freezes over to stop shipping until spring.

These are photos from our visit to Duluth at least six years ago. It is a special place for us to visit as well as the areas all along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Box in a box.......

2012-01-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

I am assuming the big box belonged to my Grandmother as the maroon one did belong to her.

The circular part of the bracelet is not with it. I assume it must have had a place in which to put a photo or it was some form of locket.

As you can see the woman in the picture is wearing the bracelet. My cousin Bob sent my a copy of this photo which I had never seen until a year ago. I had the oval photo of the close up of this photo but it wasn't as clear as this one showing the bracelet.

My Grandmother Mabel Wheeler married LeRoy Brown in July of 1913 and this is their wedding photo. I have the bow and dress that she is wearing in the photo.

The locket that she is wearing is now owned by my mother's oldest granddaughter, Stacia Shirley. My mom gave it to her a few years ago during her fiftieth wedding anniversary party.

A Sepia Saturday site in which I have blogged about my grandparents.

I am an associate again today with a nice young man. I travel with him to all of his classes except for pe. I could use the exercise but the associate isn't allowed to play games with the students. We warmed up in the middle of the night and now we are to cool down throughout the day. We are at school today because we gave up a day for our students to go to a State Volleyball tournament a few months ago.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Bargain bin building........

2012-01-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

We haven't purchased any new items for my wife's collection for a couple of years. This was sitting on a lonely empty shelf with a very small price on it. It had an eighyt percent mark down from the original price.

As the Christmas decorations are slowly being put away, trains are lined up ready to be put into a box.

My wife has a train set that matches her winter village. She had purchased this a few years before she started collecting the buildings. It is a train with teddy bears everywhere enjoying the ride.

We warmed up today and most of our snow is gone already. We are to be warm and very cold this week. It is hard to keep up with the scheduled temperature changes. I think I will just wear jackets to school that I can take off if I get too warm and leave on if it is chilly. Everyday seems to be different in the building.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Roi-Tan Cigars.......more boxes.

2012-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

I found another brand of cigar boxe today and I am not sure why I have brought this container home for saving. The lid is gone and the items inside seem to be worthless. I see a tie clip laying in there and a piece of costume jewelry, bracelet that has fake pearls and diamonds. The children's book is made of metal pages and I really don't know where that originally was obtained. A couple of good nails and a paperclip are ready for use. My dad must have dumped his pockets out into the box.

Another wooden box, that my dad had applied pictures on for decoration, contains some more useless things. I did find coins in there from foreign countries and a lot of jewelry that was made with stones that my dad had cut and polished.

A coin from France that my dad could have brought home with him in 1945. The Canadian coin is dated 1977. My parents traveled along the Great Lakes that year to scout for agates. The third coin is actually from St. Louis, Missouri. I can't really figure that one out and will do a little computer searching to see when and why it was created.

It has been a busy Saturday and we are glad that it has warmed up a bit. It is just above freezing ant that seems warm for us.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

I've drawn a blank.......

2012-01-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

Nothing creative today from LD. I could tell you about all the aches and pains I am feeling because of the cold. I could tell you that it was so cold that the tires on the car have a flat spot on them and then they make funny sounds while you first drive them on the street in the morning. I could tell you that we are warming up to 21 degrees F. today and that I put antifreeze in my downstairs shower drain so it wouldn't freeze. I could tell you that I am an assistant to a special student all day but that's not new either, I have been privileged to do that before now.

So in honor of our cold weather, which they said it feels like 7 below F. right now even though it it 10 degrees F. , I will share with you pictures of my naked ladies, flowers. They are also called surprise lilies but may be purchased under both names from flower and seed catalogs. They would need to be planted in the fall or very early spring.

I do have a couple of seed catalogs that arrived in my mail box the past few weeks. I don't even feel like dreaming about spring right now.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

I just pulled a converter widget onto my desktop so those in C. world can feel our pain too. !0 degrees F. is equal to minus 12.2222 degrees C.

Thursday's tidbits

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

I bought a Christmas cactus and it was blooming on one side of the plant. It was not being cared for very well at the store. It finished blooming and now it actually is putting out new sprouts. I will work with it through the year and see if I can get it to completely bloom. I will have to see what works best to make it bloom.

I always remember the very first pilot show of "The Waltons" when the mother brought up out of the cave her Christmas cactus in bloom. I am not sure if that was truly a way to get them to bloom but I do know they need to go into dormancy for a while.

Here is a photo of it's blooms when I first brought it home. I had watered it and a few days later the blooms were perked up a bit. I liked the red variety as I only remember them coming in pink.

As a cactus I am wondering if they need any fertilizer. I am going to repot it in garden top soil as it isn't so porous as potting soil. One would think sandy soil would be better but I only have rocks and not any sand.

We listened to the howling 45 mph wind all night last night and they say the wind will quit at exactly 6:00 tonight. Light snow on the ground is an ok thing but the windchill is below freezing by a long ways and the high today was suppose to be 18 degrees F. It has been a season of extremes.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

It is still there.....

2012-01-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

The flower box of clutter still exists. It is exactly what it is, a storage area in my window box of my garden shed because I haven't decided what to do with them. I have removed some of them and cleaned them but I did add new ones over the summer.

Some of the pile has old pop bottles of the flavors of old. The original Mountain Dew bottle was a hoot when they first created it as a Hillbilly drink. It was in the late 60's.

I did find a torpedo canning jar in this pile with a glass lid on it and the wire clamp. I had never noticed that I owned it and it is made by a company that I had never heard of before now. When I get it cleaned up and brought into the house I will share the antique jar with you. Some of those canning jars were ones that were in an old Model T garage that my dad had torn down.

It has been a busy week for a substitute teacher but today I will be doing tech troubleshooting. We are awaiting for the Arctic air to come swinging through sometime today. We will warm up to 40 degrees today and then drop 20 degrees with strong winds. Maybe we will see flurries but it isn't a sure thing.

As an act of accountability to my readers, I did get the two small trees taken down Monday night. I have decided not to press one of the trees back into its box but instead store it with the lights attached and place it in large garbage bags. I have the space in the basement to just sit it up and leave it ready to go for next year.

It is Wednesday and I think I am going to make it through the rest of the week. Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Juniper Berries.......and More.

2012-01-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

This shrub has become too big for the area that it is growing. I have pruned it back so much that if I reduce it's size in half it would look awful.. I don't like loosing the place for the birds to feed in the winter but I do think it will be removed this summer.

The river birch continues to put out great texture and color. It almost looks a little sloppy as it sheds in bark in such a manner.

The sun is shinning here again today. The silver maple reflects the light on it's trunk and branches. I do miss the leaves but they will be back in the spring.

I am in the art room today sharing my past skills with students and trying to keep from getting paint on my clothes. I had a set of clothes that I wore as an art teacher that were always spotted with some paint spots or whatever but I did toss most of them the past few years.

Cooler weather is coming and maybe flurries on Thursday. Thanks for stopping by my post today.

The sun shinning through the window......

2012-01-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

My wife's window decoration does glow as the light shines through it in the kitchen. We won't be extremely warm today but it won't be a normal temp for winter.

Subbing with a different student teacher in the room today. Variety is the spice of life and I seem to be getting to meet new people everyday.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Found some color

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

While I was out taking a few photos of the brown landscape I was able to see the surprising splotches of color on a few man made items. The mold and mildew that grows on the roof of this birdhouse is amazing.

A wooden pump that I created from used barn boards puts out a great spot of color in a very brown landscape.

It is Sunday and we have a few things to do on our agenda. After church we were asked to go to the bookstore and pick up some books our neighbor had ordered. We wouldn't normal stop there but it will be great to stop in for a while before going home. We also need to go to the grocery store and start to rebuild our food supplies in our new Frigidaire. We won't buy all at once but we will get started on some essentials that will allow us to plan meals in the future instead of one day at a time.

I didn't get my Christmas trees down yet so I will start this afternoon taking down the small ones. We tend to dismantle it all a little at a time through the week as it looks very barren once it is all gone. Barney will be glad to have more living room space to run around in without hitting a tree with his tail.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

It is not an easy task........

2012-01-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

I installed a vent for our new clothes dryer on the south side of the house. The house was built in 1904 and the building techniques were different back then. When they placed a 2 by 10 on edge on the sill it was nailed to the outside framing of 2 by 4 vertical boards. The outside wood was nailed on to the 2 by 4's and they would pour plaster down into the open cavity along the base of the house. I actually think it was a fire safety thing to keep any fire at the base to spread up into the wall cavities.

I had to create this hole for my vent by going through an inside vertical board that is a full two inches thick, four inches of hard plaster, another sheeting board of one inch or more thicknes and then the exterior siding. My drill bit was not long enough to go through it all as I had not remembered the old house be that thick. I had to drill from the inside then go outside and try to meet the same hole. First try I missed it by about a half inch. Not bad for an old carpenter.

The task was completed three hours later with the use of a skill saw, reciprocating saw, saber saw, hammer, and a drill with bits that were not long enough to go through from one side to the other. It seemed like a butchered job until I finally got a big enough opening in order to be able to round it out from the outside and then smooth up the inside. It was like shaving material away from the center until I could get the aluminum vent tube completely through from the outside into the basement.

Plaster dust, saw dust and old wood dust was flying continually but I was glad I finished it. I will feel muscles that I didn't know that I had when I awake in the morning.

I promised a brown picture from my outdoor backyard and so here is my first showing. This is my viburnum. It isn't much to look at this time of the year. I pruned it back as it was getting to be to large to walk along side of it. As you can see we are really brown and dormant and very dead looking in our area.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Architecture day.......

2012-01-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

I seem to be too busy to get any photos taken so I will just throw in some archived ones. I really enjoy architectural detail and take a lot of shots of the things that I see while I am out and about.

I added a lot of detail to my front porch. It is a little over the top so to speak when you view the plain farmhouse style of my house. Traditionally that was done to the farmhouses in the past when they added fancy porches with gingerbread brackets or elaborate bay windows with trim and brackets.

Storefronts in Bar Harbor are decorated with bay windows to create a harbor town effect of the days gone by.

Church structures become carbon copies as people have entered these places for years for worship. Some modern churches today will continue to put a fake steeple on the front of a building to help us identify that it is a church.

This is an amazing building that was built in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. It is an insurance building that has a half circle front. I don't have the complete photo of this but it has twin towers of glass on each end then bows perfectly in the middle. It gives you a great looking entrance to the building.

Shape, color, space, value and volume all create visual effects. Tradition influences so much of our structures that we live with in our daily lives. From a log home of the past to the Parthenon in Greece we imitate, enhance, rework and recreate the structures around us to make our lives better.

I am a sub for a teacher with another student teacher today. He gets to teach two of the classes on his own and he is doing well with his first one right now. We will have a good day and he will become a good teacher.

We will be living in the modern age again as our new refrigerator and clothes dryer will be delivered today. It is an exciting day for us as we know that we cold live without but we know that life will be a lot easier. We can buy groceries again and keep them cool.

Thanks for stopping by my post on this Friday.

The view in Maine.....

2012-01-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

My daughter in law Keegan took her husband, my son, and the dogs out to the Atlantic Ocean shore to take a Christmas photo for their holiday card. From reading between the lines on her facebook, she had set up the camera on a rock or a tripod and had it on automatic. She also could have had a remote device to press to snap the picture. I don't think I have the actual holiday photo here as it had both dogs actually looking at the camera.

Keegan really has great ideas and likes to experiment when taking photos. I like the use of the scarves on the dogs, and Aaron too. They live in the woods about a mile from the ocean and work near Bar Harbor at Johnson Laboratories.

This was also posted on facebook and this is the one I really had to laugh at when I saw it. Apparently a seagull or a boat or whatever came by and the boys in front had to take a look. They are sweet dogs and my son carries them around like babies.

As a sub today I am a floater again today. I will do tech work or end up assisting in the special ed room. I even carry out the trash for people on good days. I am glad I can work and do whatever that is needed.

Thanks for stopping by my post today. We will be 60 degrees F. today and we are taking the neighbor friend out for pizza after school, plus to Walmart, her favorite place to shop.

If I had more time.......

2012-01-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

I would sit and read my magazines. The one on top is new and the others were freebies from the library at school.

I can only dream. I don't think that I will ever have a green house. I do have enough old windows saved in the basement that I could create a recycled one. I guess that could happen in my next retirement period of my life.

Garden Design is the magazine that I like to visit to get photography idea. They employ creative photographers who show you the unusual angles to plants and still life objects.

I learned about the Tundra Swan in this magazine as I flipped through it to take these photos. It is called Iowa Outdoors. I didn't realize that they migrated through Iowa along our rivers on our borders.

I am subbing at many different locations today, covering for people who are gone a different times of the day. My last part of the day will be in the Special Education room helping a couple of students with their math assignments.

We are to be up to 60 degrees tomorrow which is unheard of during this time of year in Iowa. I see Florida is getting our cold temperatures right now. I hope they don't get any damage to their tropical plants down there.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Lots of pictures.......

2012-01-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

I have nothing new to share today. Blank, zero, nada, zippo and not a thing.

I am a sub today with a student teacher who is here for the first day. It is in the middle school math room and he is doing well. He has been an aid in that room for a couple of years so he really was ready to just start teaching today. He is a good teacher.

Thanks for stopping by my post of nothing.

Starting over......

2012-01-02T08:10:00.000-08:00

The gift of the red African violet is doing well. It has proven to me that it likes my south window. It's blooms took a hit when I first received it but it is now over the shock of the move. Once I get some new soil I will try to propagate new plans from it's leaves.

I go back to work tomorrow so I am trying to get some loose ends done today. We may go to a bookstore this afternoon to feel the freedom one last time. I will take two of the little trees down today. The one tree blocks the view of the birdfeeder. I want to move the feeder closer to the house but it may not happen today.

Our appliances will not arrive today. One of them had been dented during shipping so we will be having our delivery date moved to Friday. Patience is growing thin but it could be a worse situation so we are grinning and bearing it. We also are headed to the laundry mat to dry two batches of clothes.

It is a slow day for me and I will check in again tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

I wish that you all have a very good day today and a Happy New Year.

Saturday.....

2011-12-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

Strewn on the bookshelf of the storage room are the remains of old dinosaurs. The boys are gone and the toys still remain. I will probably toss them but for now they lay in their own graveyard on display. It was a thirty years ago when Andy received these as a gift from Minnesota friend. The products are still for sale today in different stores so the company has been successful.

One of my oxalis plants is doing well in the dining room window. There are not any blooms but it does have a lot of foliage. I fertilize the plant with the same water as the violets so I am sure it is enjoying the food.

Nothing planned for this day as we are just resting and resting some more. We usually don't do anything special for New Year's Eve. I hope you all are having a great day. We are very warm for winter in Iowa and then a cold front will be coming through this evening.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for stopping by my post.

What is it????

2011-12-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

While strolling through my storage room I found this in a box of school junk. It really brought back the memories when I found this two colored ball. They were crucial parts for the computer world and in a school situation it was a curse. Students loved these super balls.

This shows a better perspective of the size of the sphere. I had forgotten that computer mice had these balls inside of them for the use of moving the cursor around on your screen. We had to buy a box of these to replace the ones that the students would take home with them in their pockets.

When you had only twenty computers and you had twenty students to teach in using the computer it was so disgusting to come into the lab and be short one or two of these mouse balls as two people would not be using the computer that day. I wonder if any of you out there still have a mouse that contains one of these?

With the failure of our ice box, I had many red raspberries that were thawed and ready to be eaten. On Wednesday I ran half of them through an old fashion sieve and made juice for jelly. We successfully made many jars of jelly with some seeds in them. So today, with the help of cheesecloth we made up the last half of the juice without the seeds. One of us doesn't like the seeds but I don't mind them. I have some dramatic pictures of these jars of sugar and juice that I will share on the Photo a Day blog in the future.

Thanks for stopping by my post. We are headed for the bookstore and maybe Menards today. Rainy and cold today but we did see the sun shining once.

A Photo Contest....

2011-12-29T10:09:00.000-08:00

The theme for the contest was the Epitomy of Christmas.

I entered one of these in a photo contest. The competition is really tough but I have fun sending one off anyway once a month. I won't tell you which one I sent. I really had two favorites that I considered but I sent the one. I will connect you to The Retirement Chronicles blog later when all of the contestants have sent in their photos.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Death in the kitchen.......

2011-12-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Our refrigerator/freezer died in the middle of the night. We had warnings as our milk was not keeping well for the many past months. It wasn't working correctly and the defrosting part was really getting too warm during that process. In the middle of the night on Monday I discovered the problem with melted ice cream. I think the thing had been down for four or five hours. We were so cold outside that I could put most of the things that were still worth saving out on our back porch. It was below freezing at two in the morning. The next day my wife baked the frozen pizza and the cookie dough so it wouldn't spoil and we threw away things that seemed too risky to save.

We are living with a college refrigerator right now until the new appliance arrives. I found myself stuck with many containers of red raspberries thawed. We kept them cool in the basement stairway for a day and today I ran them all through a sieve to juice them. We made one batch of raspberry jelly and will make another one tomorrow. Ironically a few days ago I had taken out a batch of them and made a puree out of them for a cheesecake. Little did I know that I would be forced to deal with the rest of them. So I was ready to save this valuable fruit.

We had our car refixed on Monday also as the seal on the gas tank was not put on correctly and it was leaking a lot of fumes. They had removed the gas tank to replace the fuel pump inside it and they had to take it back off again to fix the seal so it was actually tight.

The third thing I am not sharing about right now is the clothes dryer. We will have a new one next Monday.

I am blogging late for the day but will be back tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by my post.

Tuesday's a sluggish day...

2011-12-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

I am reposting an archived photo of my Grandmother Brooks' creations. The reason I am doing that is that I wanted to share on new thing that I found among my mom's things. It is a tightly rolled small bundle of newspaper. It was tied with string. As I took it apart I discovered that it was my grandma's original pattern to her wonderfully stuffed chickens traced out on newspaper. She and a neighbor bought a chicken that was already made and she took it apart to get the pattern.

The chickens were photographed on the walnut table that my grandmother had given to me my senior year in high school. It is a common table and yet is made of solid walnut, and she replaced it with a modern formica table with chrome legs. She received the gray vinyl covered chairs that went with the kitchen table and she was so pleased to own it.

An archived photo of a chicken from the zoo we had visited. She was busy looking for something good to eat among the gravel road.

While watching "This Old House" today, I thought of my own renovation project. They were working on a three hundred year old house and had replaced the windows with restored originals. My old house of one hundred years had two long narrow windows. I could not restore them as they had been taken out and replaced with bad larger window. All I could do is find a paned window that would make the room look better and also blended with the style of the house in it's present form. I have replaced most every window in the house with the same style of window so it is uniform in design. I have two windows yet to replace and that may come this summer.

The new window has been great for keeping the house warmer and we can watch the birds from the dining room table now.

I hope your day was a good one. We had to return our car to be looked at again after the replacement of the fuel pump. It seems that they didn't get the seal tight when they installed it and we had gasoline fumes continually which also set off all the sensors related to the emission system and the gas cap.

We also went in to buy and replace two major appliances today. Buy today, deliver tomorrow they say, but we won't see a delivery until next Monday. Don't believe them when they say they have a great deal as that only happens when they have your products in stock.

Thanks for stopping by my late posting today. I sometimes think that it is the last, I won't continue but no, I keep on posting. I know that I am getting bored with my own stuff so I need to get out and shoot some new and different things. We have no snow so it isn't very pretty out there. I may have to go out and take ugly scenes. Later.........

Away in the Manger......

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

A few snaps that I took in the afternoon on Christmas. We had a quiet day out with Della's brother and wife at a restaurant for early brunch and then an afternoon of rest. Playing with the digital seems to be my indoor recreation but bird watching out the dining room window has become great. Even though we have no snow and the birds could find things to eat out there, they have enjoyed our feeder. We feed them the leftover seed from the trays that the indoor birds don't quite finish. It has bits and pieces of dried fruit, or fake dried fruit bits, that are too big for the indoor birds to eat. The cardinals are really enjoying those as well as the other millet leftovers.

The school has given me a new MacBook laptop to use as I do work for them on there website. They have extras right now and I don't have to check one out at the library each day when I sub. I am back at the dining room table sitting and working. I haven't done that for a while since my laptop lost it's screen and I have to be at a desk with it and a extra large screen in which to work.

We have a day off today and it seems too busy out there in the commercial world to venture out. We would like to hit the bookstore but most people are off work today and that would be very crowded. We finished our belated Christmas cards this morning and will find cheesecake and mincemeat pie to snack on when we feel like we are starving.

I hope all is well with everyone and the day is going well.

Christrmas Day

2011-12-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

It is in the forties today and the sun in shining here in Iowa. The same weatherwise is in Chicago today where our oldest son lives. The youngest son is in Bucksport, Maine today and it is ten degress and snowing there.

I hope you are having a good Christmas day. Thanks for stopping by my post.

The last of the last....

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

These two will be picked up today in the morning. The framing will have been all delivered or picked up and we are done with all the framing. The seed corn sacks were quite a challenge to sew, glue and stick to the black core backing. If we were counting all of our labor the lady would not have afforded this job. It is the reason we want out of the business as people ask for the impossible and think it is all magic when they receive the results. We make it look too simple when it is not.

When I delivered the horse framing yesterday I was able to see a new house full of many old antique furniture. I will share that surprising and great tour that I took later.

It is still in it's box. I will remedy that soon and get it onto the tree. I must have bought it on super sale last year.

It is a busy day today and I hope everyone is getting all their last minute things done. We are done shopping as of yesterday and we have to wrap presents for each other, then we are done. Della is making mince meat pie and I have a couple of things to make and then we head for Christmas Eve services tonight. The boys are with their in laws this Christmas and we will be getting together with my wife's brother and his wife.

I hope everyone's plans are working out and that sometime during it all you can just rest and enjoy tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Well the lady called and said she really didn't need the framed seed sacks until next weekend, so we stopped holding off our plans waiting for her to come.

Friday's Post.....

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

I took a photo of the two trains that surround my one Christmas tree. The foreground ended up being too out of focus to be effective as a good photo. I cropped it then instead and am showing the light shining through the trains' different cars. I really like the colors of yellow, red and orange all in a row.

This would be a train wreck if were on a track but that would mean that both engines would be actually traveling in the same direction, one backing up while the other is moving forward. Maybe not, I am not too smart with the behaviors of electric trains. Maybe some day I will buy one that actually works, larger than this size and I can learn more about the mechanics of them.

Photos on Parade.......

2011-12-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

A repeat sharing of the photo of my Italian snowman. My sister in law Linda gave me this a few years back.

It is a busy time of the year and I have one last day today to be at school. Yesterday I had to pinch hit for a teacher who was vomiting in the bathroom and just had to go home. The semester tests in Math were all laid out for me so I just acted like I knew what I was doing. He was very ill and contagious I am certain but I resolve not to pick it up from him. Today I am giving the rest of the Math finals. We are giving the tests in one and a half hour blocks so the students have ample time to finish their tests.

We worked on our framing of the two burlap seed corn bags last night. I am out of school early today and so will be back at it hoping to have them done before the sun sits tonight.

I am glad you can stop be to visit my post.

Wednesday's Wanderings...........

2011-12-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

I swapped a violet of this one for a multi colored one with my wife's cousin. It is my goal for both of us to get some starts from it. I haven't started to do that but I will do it over Christmas break.

We have only one more box to ship today and it doesn't go very far so we will get it there on time. I think we will hand write our cards this year, no letter, and we will send them when we get them done. The timing is not critical for me with me as being in school everyday time is limited. They will be lucky to hear from us or maybe not so lucky.

We like doing letters but sometimes the year's happenings seem too hard to explain or the events seem not something you want to share. In the old days people just wrote one or two sentences and that will be good for us now. "We are fine, the kids have jobs, we are not dead yet!"

I remember when I was young we were told that we would be the caboose or the last person in line. When I went to the post office on Monday I was the caboose as there were many people in front of me and I was the last in line. Tuesday was the same situation, I arrived and six people in line to ship boxes.

One lady in line was in such a hurry she had thrown things into a cardboard box and was writing the address on the outside among all the large printing. She also didn't have the top flaps sealed. The post office person circled the address and put arrows around it and then offered to tape the lid shut for her.

Thanks for stopping by my post. I know everyone is very busy so please be careful out there and take time to rest between the rushing moments. I am a techie today installing computers and trouble shooting for those who are having computer skills problems.

Frame jobs.........

2011-12-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of these seed bags to frame in shadow box frames. The woman's mother was a descendant of the Bergstrom's who owned the company.

Two crochet pieces that are completed except for the hangers on the back. Christmas presents for a woman's kids who live out of state.

A framed print that was done by my wife. We sold the print at the art show and the woman wanted us to frame it for her daughter's Christmas present. It reminded her of a horse that they lost a few years ago.

As we get closer to Christmas we find ourselves busy with all the last dealings with the charity frame jobs that I completed. Della had some commissions that need to be picked up. We have to pick up supplies for our last frame jobs, the seed corn sacks, and then we will be close to the end. I am mailing two boxes today and we have one more to ship tomorrow. They should all get there by Christmas. Well the Maine box is debatable about it's arrival on time but when it hits the state the sled dogs have to finish the journey. I am just kidding about that, but the one year when we used LL Bean, a company in it's own state, the packages were late.

I am subbing as a shop teacher today as well as a tech person. It is best to go with the flow and not to expect anything but a day of variety. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Christmas Ornaments........

2011-12-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

My first fascination with ornaments on a tree was with our own tree as a child. It was always on a cedar tree that was badly shaped and most years it was brown. Cedar trees grew wild and we would spot them years in advance and watch for them in our timber. If they grew big enough that would be our chosen tree.

My dads first cousin Galen and his wife June were antique buffs who had most everything in there house old. I learned to like antiques and the history of furniture from visits to their house. I also discovered antique ornaments that June had on her tree. She had the glass shaped ornaments in shapes of fish or candy canes that slipped over the electric bulbs. Her tree was always an old fashion one but she did have a purchased real evergreen tree.

I want to share a bargain book that I purchase a few years ago. It is a small book about six or seven inches square. It is a fun one and it covers some of the history of the sale commercially of Christmas ornaments.

This is one of my favorites in the whole book. It is on the cover but also is described in the book. It is called "Northern Flight" and was made by Waterford. I don't imagine that I will ever see it for sale anywhere as it was their specialty item many years back.

Decorations evolved from glass blown or paper to plastic. I remember having one of these in our house as a kid with a reindeer hanging in it. I found pieces of one down on the farm after the house was torn down. I have a glass blown Santa that looks very similar to this on on my tree right now.

The book covers a lot of different products that were made by different companies. I find it interesting to see how the present day companies are busy trying to copy the old antique ornaments that I found in this book.

The ornaments that June had on her tree were similar to this but they didn't have a hanger on them. They were like this fish design but they slipped over the bulb.

I would like to share every page with you but that isn't going to happen. I found the book a few years back and I really have enjoyed looking at other books that are for sale at Barnes and Noble. The big time collectors have so many things that were made throughout history. I won't collect just for the sake of collecting, but I do like to get ideas of what is out there and what oldies look like so if I do see one that I like, that I can buy it.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my post. Snow in Kansas and we will see what direction it will travel. Snowstorms do have minds of their own.

Sunday's Snow White Doves.........

2011-12-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Saturday's Token Posting........

2011-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy day and I am just checking in with the photo above. I think that Sunday will be a good day for us to get some rest.

The plastic ornament was one of my wife's that she had in her family. One major ornament company that made glass blown ornaments actually shut down that production and started making plastic one's like this in the 1960's.

Thanks for stopping by...........

Finally it's Friday.......

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

This poster went out last night to a happy customer. The actual poster is great but they printed it with nothing square with the world. I am not sure why the top is narrower than the bottom. I think it is suppose to be a reproduction of something old and it's original was not copied straight. The bottom of it is not straight across but meanders wider between the lettering and the edging on the right side.

I think it is suppose to look like a piece of cloth with Indian beading around the edges of it. The cloth isn't perfect but just laid out informally with the top being narrower than the bottom just like a blanket would be unless one stretched it out and pinned it perfectly.

It caused me great grief because I was thinking my mat cutting was wrong when in reality it was the poster. I finally asked the owner for permission to just mat it with a straight mat that is even all the way around with the frame and have the picture be just a floating object inside it's box.

I worked late last night cutting frames and am on a schedule to get more glass and frame all day Saturday. Maybe by Tuesday I will be free from all of it.

I am a techie today. Thanks for stopping by my post.

Train Wreck......

2011-12-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

At Christmas time life always seems to be like a train wreck ready to happen. If things went the way we wished them to go we would be done with a lot of the projects that needed to be done. Car break downs tend to throw up a roadblock and materials don't get purchased and presents don't get purchased. Viruses that I bring home from school tend to delay the efficiency one needs to have at this time of the year. People, who want things at the last minute are driving me crazy as I don't do the emergency last minute framing anymore. People who want to make plans for me outside of the family thinking that I have all the time in the world to give up really don't realize that I don't.

I guess going into retirement so that I could rescue some of the important things in my life made me realize that others really like to take valuable time away from me. I have my radar up now that lets me see the trains heading my way and I know to get off the tracks. I really am not retired any more so I find us facing Christmas with that same panic again as we use to have.

I have two styles of trains that were my Dad's, a gift from my brother, many years ago. I set up the track last year and this size of train really doesn't work very well as a toy. I remember my boys being frustrated with it when they were young and Grandpa had received the gift. I put the older fashioned train away in a box and I can't locate it now. This is the newer train of the two sets.

If I ever find the box with the other style of train in it, I will try to put it out too. I think that last years train that I displayed went into my very full storeroom. It is a nice decoration at Christmas time.

We are down into the colder temperatures today with strong winds. If you live north of us or east of us you will be feeling it soon. It is winter and I am glad the mud we have had the past two days is frozen up again. Maybe that will help to dry it out so Barney doesn't get so messed up with mud in his paws.

Thanks for stopping by today. I am now in the Spanish room as a clerical error left them without a sub for the day. I had originally been assigned a Special Education staff person to float in and out when they needed me. I never really know who I am on a daily bases but I do feel like a good taco to eat would be good right now.

Oh yes, I didn't remember to mention until now that this is my 1000th post of Creative Zone. It has been a fun ride and I will hang in there for a while longer. Thanks for sticking by my site.

Wednesday's wandering........

2011-12-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

Again I am stuck on the Christmas ornament theme. So wandering I really am not doing, except that I am traveling up and down the tree for shots.

Plastic angles are easy to find but this one had a great finish on it. This is the back view of it as all the other shots of it were too blurry for viewing.

The Christmas sleigh is one of my small ones that I put on my small ornament tree.

We are in a drizzle mode for a few days. I think it will actually freeze tonight for a short period but the mud is out there for our Barnie dog to get into and bring in onto the kitchen floor.

We are in the Christmas crunch time now as we have to send presents in the mail. I know the one set will get there gifts in plenty of time but the ones to Maine take a while. It is the same with them sending things to us as it seems to be slow from out east coming to the center of the United States. Our last minute fame jobs, peer pressure jobs, are getting closer to being done. I have all day Saturday to complete those.

I have a very large poster to assemble this afternoon that has a older Native American rug as the background design in it's illustration. The problem with it is the rug is deformed and as you put a perfect mat on it the result appears that the framer made a mistake. The mistake actually is the person who bought the poster with crooked misshaped items on it. When measure in from the side the rug is wider at the bottom and narrow at the top. I may show you the solution when it's done and then again I may not.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my post for today.

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Thanks for stopping by my post.

Two for Tuesday...........

2011-12-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

I haphazardly strung 100 more lights onto my blacked out deer ornament last night. It could have used another 100 but it will do for this year. If I find a cheap set after Christmas I would like to buy enough to give it a huge amount of light strung all over it. A glowing buck that is over electrified would be neat.

A rescued rose with a story that can go on and on, but I will spare you some of the details. Down on the farm was a rose bush that my wife's mother had planted. It was slowly being overtaken by brush and young trees. I spent a couple of years trying to figure out how to get it dug. I finally dug a small section of it that had come up from a root sprout early spring.

When the house came down there was an area of growth still there and a pile of tree branches and rocks. As my brother in law used a machine with a blade on it to remove the debris I was surprised to find this chunk of a rose bush spread out on the ground with other sections. It is an old fashioned rose as it had a large base on it and it would have been hard to dig with a spade.

I grabbed up all of the pieces and brought them home. I put them in dirt in a plastic bucket and watered it well. The same day I saw a television program where Jerry was saying roses do need to go dormant. So I took it to my cold dark basement and left it. Two months later you can see the three sprouts that are coming up from the roots.

I was really surprised as the root had been dried out and it looked pretty chopped up. I just planted it just it case that it would grow. I don't think I will add any more moisture for a couple of months unless it gets really dry. I will have to find a good place for it outside in the spring. I don't know what color it is but I will be glad to see how it does in it's new home.

I paid large bucks to replace my fuel pump, which is installed in the gas tank. I have the car back now as I had to have it towed Sunday morning and they repaired it on Monday. The dealership was pretending that it was busy but with this economy I knew that they weren't too busy. They had it done by Monday evening and we picked it up this morning at 7:30 before work. Cars are so dependable until you least expect it, then you are stranded and helpless.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good Tuesday.

Monday morning blue........

2011-12-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

Have a good day. Monday is what it is, as start of the week from a hectic weekend. I am glad the cold is not so cold as when 35 degrees is warm, you know you have adjusted to winter.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all are doing ok out there.

Sunday Shots......

2011-12-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite ornaments is this goose in a wagon. I like the old fashioned wheels on the wagon.

The bear that is made from Aunt Hulda's coat is so black that I can't get a good picture of it, but the tag sure takes a great shot. A distant cousin Marlys made the bear. A cousin Jeanene gave the bear to my wife for her bear tree.

How creative it is to give a penguin Christmas ornament eyelashes and lipstick. She even has rouge on her cheeks. This was gift from my sister in law, Linda. I may have posted the photo a year ago but this is the first year that I noticed the heavy makeup on the eyelashes..

My car started after sitting with some Heat, anti-frost gas line additive, in it's gas tank for a couple of hours. I also added some fresh gas from my lawnmower gas can when I added the Heat. It started right off first try at ten o'clock last night before I went to bed. I could sleep then knowing that our only vehicle was going to start in the morning.

Have a good Sunday and thanks for stopping by my post.

Checking in late today........

2011-12-10T15:38:00.001-08:00

The last tree is up and I had to improvise. I don't have a star or topper for this one as I used the star on the other extra tree. Della's Irish doll works well as a semi angel doll. I still have to get outside to do the lights but that just didn't happen today.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything you start as a project seems to take too long or it just doesn't work out to a finish. I had too many mistakes and barriers that just kept the day being an unsuccessful one that I don't want to repeat. The harder I pushed the more things just kept not working. I just finished walking a few blocks to buy some heat to put into my car gas tank. Hopefully the car will start by tomorrow morning.

We were at 7 degrees this morning as the temps dropped all night. Then we had a southern wind and it is warming up again. It was melting snow this afternoon. We are back down to 32 degrees F. now at 6 in the evening.

Ah yes, there is another new day and I will be glad in it.

Thanks!

Friday's Posting

2011-12-09T06:46:00.001-08:00

The other box is now hung except for four or five stragglers. I don't have hangers in which to hang them but that will be remedied this evening. I have been putting these up a few at a time through the last two days. I was glad I separated out the smaller ones to put on another tree.

I have an outside tree that I intend to place lights and beside that my two lighted reindeer. My buck has burned out lights on it and I am going to just string an new set onto it to brighten him up again.

My wife and I use to go to Kansas City every summer and check out their year round Christmas store at the Crown Center mall. We would buy just one special ornament each summer. This little girl was one of them that we have on the big tree. It is ceramic with a flat mat glaze on it.

This is an older ornament that I bought in a set. They are glass blown and are trying to replicate an antique glass blown ornament. I have broken a section out of one of them as the glass is extremely thin and it easy to break when dropped on the table.

I am a part time art teacher today. There is a study hall and a word processing class that I will be working with in the computer lab. We had a light one inch snow last night and it got very cold again. Saturday or Sunday looks like we have a little bit of a warm up with the melting of this white stuff. The final weeks of December seem to get very busy and scheduled with tasks to do. I have less things on the list this year than most years but the traditional stress sits in for me anyway. I hope it quiet downs at least a few days before Christmas. I am out of school at the end of the day on the 22nd.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Thursday's Tidbits........

2011-12-08T06:22:00.001-08:00

I put a dozen or so ornaments on this tree but didn't begin to get really close to being done. I did sort out my large glass blown ornaments from the smaller ones. I placed the small ones on a shorter tree as seen below.

The smaller ornaments are not all glass blown but are good replicas. I though that this small tree just as well be put to use as it has been in storage for a couple of years. It is about two and half feet tall and works great for sitting on an end table in the living room. Two trees in the living room and there are no adults around to tell me it is against the rules.

A little hen sits on the branches as the lights reflect from it's shiny glass surface. This is one of my ornaments from the Ten Days of Christmas set.

We survived a cold grave side service yesterday in Grimes, Iowa and afterward spent a good time with a few first cousins of my wife talking and remembering the past. Great coffee and cake served in an older Gothic Lutheran Church that has been converted into a Bistro and art gallery. It actually was the church that my wife's grandfather's generation help build and pay for during the depression years. We were married in the church and it was nice to see they really haven't changed the building so much. All of are saying that it could really be turned back into a church someday.

I am an English teacher again today. Drama, Brit. Lit. American Lit. Novels and speech are going to be my subjects of instruction.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Teddy Bear Tree

2011-12-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

My wife's teddy bear tree has been assembled for display. It is a collection of bears and other stuffed animals. Some are items of historic importance, others are just for fun collections from different years of gifts. The boys left some of their soft furries when they grew up and left the house.

Good buddies hanging out on the tree.

I have two trees set up but the ornaments have not been hung on them. It will happen but life does get in the way a lot of the times when you have think you know what you want to do.

It will be cold today at the graveside services for my wife's Aunt Mildred. It is warming up now and by then it will be just below freezing when the service starts. I am doing mundane, boring tech work today that involves placing carrying straps on computer bags. I have only 115 to go so it will be done by noon. Jobs like that are great to get done and you never have to return to do it again.

Thanks for stopping by. I only work a half day today so I will have a different kind of day today. Take care out there and stay warm where ever you are.

Memory Lane........

2011-12-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

While looking around in the old attic of the house on the farm I discovered an old toy barn that was just like mine. I had a barn as a kid that was made of metal and the outside of it had painting of the scenes of barn boards and window details. My brother in law who is teight years older than me must have had the same barn. I found the sections of the sides of it in the attic with no base and no roof.

This barn that I found had no redeemable value other than I could see what some of it looked like. I asked the owner about it and he didn't seem to want to talk about it. I don't know how it got to be in such a bad condition unless he had played war with it and it got torn up.

My barn went to the dump even tough it was in great condition. My parents made two moves after leaving the farm so decided to ditch it during one of those moves. These animals are about all I have left in which to remember the farm set.

Do you remember when I had so much trouble with finding this spring for my mower? I finally found it and now the mower a year later is about ready to be thrown away. I wore it out from mowing two yards for three and a half years. I put it in my trunk and removed it from my trunk so many times that I have no fond memories of any of that situation.

Remembering the balloon festival two years ago. I still enjoy seeing the photos from that event. We just didn't get to go this summer but maybe next year. I have a greater appreciation for the way they are inflated and on how they have so little control of where they are going with them.

We received word last week that my wife's aunt passed away. She was the last surviving sister to my wife's dad. We will be attending a graveside service on Wednesday.

I also received word yesterday that a distant cousin of mine had lost his wife to cancer. She was ill last Christmas with the cancer which was far more serious that they originally believed. We only communicate at Christmas so he shared about his lost in his newsletter. They were cousin's through my John and Iva connection for those who have followed me for a while. Carol was a profession singer and sang for church's and in various choirs in the Iowa City area.

My wife and I commented as we were putting up another Christmas tree as to how life can be so sad and happy at the same time. We both have memories of so many lost this past ten years and losing another just reminds us of all of the other losses.

It is Tuesday already and I hope your day is a good one. Thanks for stopping by to visit my memory lane blog. I am a techie guy today and am having a break from the classroom. I think I am more of a janitor that a techie this morning but the exercise is good for me.

Just another old chair.......

2011-12-04T14:54:00.001-08:00

I was watching an old PBS special about the Civil War in the United States. They covered the shooting of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at the theater, showing old photos and the present day historic site. Also they described what happened after the President was shot, saying that they took him across the street from the theater and placed him in a randomly chosen boarding house room on the first floor. They laid him out on the bed diagonally because he was too tall for the small bed. There he lay being attended to by doctors who had none of today's technology to really give him any hope of survival.

They didn't ask permission of the man who had rented the room and since he was gone at the time, I am sure he was surprised to find the government officials had taken over his room when he returned to the room. From my memory of things Abraham Lincoln didn't die from his wounds until a day later.

The thing that jumped out at me was the chair that was sitting in the boarding house on the right side of the bed. It had a caned seat. I own a chair like that one in the photo, at least I thought so.

It is the same style of chair in shape. This chair did have a cane seat in it originally and it is the same shape. I looked at other views of the chair in other pictures and it is from the same family of chairs but it is not the exact same kind of chair.

This chair has been stained mahogany and I am sure it was originally a light or medium brown wood. From other views of the chair the side supports and bracing are all the exact same. The three spindles are the same and the arches are the same.

Here is the major difference, the only difference to the chair. The back of the boarding house chair was not as fancy as this. It had a plan top, rectangular and straight across the top. The carving was too fancy probably for a boarding house. I have seen chairs like that at antique stores. They were used as everyday dining or kitchen chairs. The wood isn't a really fancy hardwood but it is a sturdy everyday chair.

I bought my chair at an auction in Sidney, Iowa. The woman who had passed away had an antique business in Omaha and a lot of things she kept at her house were antique. I doubt this was a family piece but I suppose it could have been. The cross stitch piece really does look great on this chair even though it is covering up the cane seat opening.

I paid six dollars for it which was a high price for my teacher salary at the time in 1974. I also bought some Wedgewood pieces at that sale for three or four dollars a piece. The auctioneer was not much with selling all the small items so he let me bid the per item bid and then said I could take as many as I wanted. There was an ashtray that I didn't take at the time but someone else certain grabbed it.

Just for fun I am showing you an artist rendition of what he thought it might have looked like while Mr. Lincoln lay dying. The artist has taken artistic license on the looks of the chair in the illustration. I assume the artist would not think that people could someday get on the internet and view that actual chair.

I did a double use for this blog this day as I needed one for my Sepia Saturday site so I used this on there also. I am a social studies teacher today with high school and one middle school class.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Swan Sighting.........

2011-12-04T06:16:00.001-08:00

As people in the north share their sightings of swans I am limited in finding any to see. I guess I could go to the pond at ISU and see their floating pair. I could also go to the zoo in Des Moines to see the many that they have on their koi pond.

At any rate I do have a guaranteed chance of seeing these swans at Christmas. My wife made these as Christmas gifts many seasons back. She had quite a few of them in the house until they were given out to friends and family members. They really were special gifts. The front swan who seems to be sniffing his decoration has an injury, probably because of my mom's cat. We couldn't figure out why it was crooked and then realized that the material at the neck has been shredded by maybe a cat's claws. Tiger was a neat cat and I hope he is doing well with his new owner's. He was playful but not really destructive. Well maybe the lazy boy lounger did have a few shredded areas on it when we gave it away.

So it was a busy day yesterday and I didn't accomplish as much as planned. I did get a frame job done that had been looming over my head for a while.

I am sure the grandma that hired me to do this will really enjoy remembering the wedding of her granddaughter. I will remember how difficult that it was to pull it off.

The background is shadow boxed behind that front mat so the booklet could have enough space to fit in there. I have met those kinds of challenges of putting things in frames and I really am tired of problem solving them to get it to work.

I had a limited amount of the green mat board also and I was not allowed to make a mistake as there was never going to be any more of it to be purchased. I can not buy that color locally and I would be required to buy 10 sheets of mat board to receive any in a catalog.

I have three cowboy posters yet to frame and a horse painting of my wife's for a purchase. I also have a lady waiting to bring in two crochet doilies to be done for Christmas. It will be done by the dead line but I must not be sleeping on the job on getting them done.

A light snow today, as we missed them most of the white stuff. We did receive a lot of rain the last two days so our moisture in the ground is better now.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a good Sunday.

Sparkle Plenty......

2011-12-03T06:54:00.001-08:00

I was reading in a magazine an article from the editor of Midwest Living. He was sharing how they buy very sturdy real evergreen trees so that it can withstand the weight of all that they hang on their Christmas tree. In a way we have that same thing going on each year. I load on far more lights that I need then we place three boxes of ornaments on it, sometimes blocking the lights with the ornaments.

It is raining and cool today but we won't have snow. I plan to frame pictures all day for people's Christmas presents and also to bring up the last two trees to be decorated. Bringing the items up from the basement is most of the battle but once we have the materials around we will get them decorated. I really would like to get out and decorate one of my small balsam pine trees with lights this year but I don't know if it will happen today. It is on my to do list or even wish I had more time list.

This is one of my late night blurry photos. It is the color and light that is my dominate thieme I guess as you can see having the photo in focus was not accomplished.

I will finish with a photo that is in great focus to reprieve myself from a bad photo. We are rainy and cool today but no snow. It is a good day to get work done inside and also take lots of coffee breaks and watch the birds feeding at the feeders.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Friday's Findings.....

2011-12-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yellow Kitty is old, but she has a fat belly and she is doing well. She spends her days in our upstairs bathroom. She sits in the window and watches the world go by or she curls up in a ball on her towel and just sleeps. It is a good life and she is ready to return to her basement territory in the evening finding a good place to sleep through the night.

The above picture was taken in spring and she is inspecting the soil and the bulbs that are starting to sprout. I think all cats have this indifference look or attitude most of the time but she can get real interested when it comes to food being put into a bowl for her.

It will be time to be bringing out the old train to place around the tree. I have a choice of two different trains and will decide once the tree is in place. The photo was a reference photo to help me draw and paint the wheels on our trolley mural.

It is December and I am wondering what happened to the year. I did mark it off one month at a time but it seemed to go very fast. Now that I am back in school working it seems to go faster, some weeks faster and slower other weeks. Christmas break starts on the 22nd with an early out day. I am going to enjoy and savor every free day of the break and rest.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and enjoy the weekend that is about to be upon us.

Thursday's Things........

2011-11-30T11:24:00.001-08:00

This is a real bale of hay. I took a double take the other day while in the school's woodworking shop. The kids were creating for someone, two of them, fake bales of hay. They were to be used as deer hunting blinds, that were as large or larger than this real bale of hay. The were constructed with curved joists and then covered with a cloth mesh like material. The color match was perfect for humans but I bet the deer could smell a person inside of them.

They are now positioned out in the field to allow hunters to fool the deer. I don't know if they place them in a field with real bales but the fake ones were really good except for the little flap doors that were installed on the ends of them.

A gift from a blogger friend that I received last year. I don't know if it is actually glass blown but it sure seems to be the real thing. I really like it. We hung this on our tree on Sunday along with our many other decorations. The antique fish ones don't begin to look as great as this one. We put our largest tree up first this year and the small ones are soon to follow. We have a goal to get my wife's angel tree up tonight, or at least get started on it. The weekend is coming and we think we may be snow stormed in for the two days. We will wait and see. If we are stuck in we will bring out the rest of the trees.

I swapped a violets with my wife's cousin giving her a multi-colored flowered one. She gave me a deep red blooming one. I am going to get back into the business of starting new ones from that violet and I have a couple of others that I want to duplicate.

I have too many dark blue violets but they are the old fashion ones that just start the easiest for the leaf propagation. I won't try to create anymore of those plants. I may have to find some new homes for some as I am up to a dozen plants and a third of them are all the old fashion dark blue, or some call it purple.

Today I am speaking Espanol in the classroom. They are doing worksheets so I am not in trouble. First hour class is a very mellow bunch but I don't think that the Spanish speakers are all like that. Hopefully the rest of the classes will be this great.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.

Look at my discovery!

2011-11-29T09:37:00.001-08:00

This is a photo of one of the four kittens that were raised out at my garden shed two summers ago. The mother cat, a feral cat, belonged to the neighbors. They were made aware of them and the little twin girls came over and snatched them back to take them home to raise them. They came different days and captured one kitten at a time. I hated to loose them even though they were not mine and Barney wouldn't allow them to be near the home. They supposedly raised them in a crate in their living room and they were declared tame.

This is a photo I posted recently showing a cat huddled against the garden shed. I took it's photo and didn't make any connection until I was going through my picasa photo files. It is the same cat! It hangs around in the back yard and Button the mean poodle likes to gently chase it out of the back yard. I have not been able to get close to this one even though they said it was tame. Maybe I should take some food out with me once in a while. They do get fed off of the front porch next door.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Gracie Jane........

2011-11-28T16:35:00.001-08:00

This cute little girl came to visit us and our dogs on Saturday. She belongs to my wife's first cousin. Her name is Gracie Jane and she is a Fox Terrier. She seems small compared to our neighbors Jack Russell dog.

She was very well mannered and thought our dogs were a little loud. She was not so shy as she was not use to so much noise. Some of the things that she experienced in her past made her bashful or left her a lot of room to learn new things. She is out there learning new things everyday having been freed from a restricted life. Her new owners are really nice to her as she is such a sweet little dog.

I keep posting things from the art show that we participated in a few weeks ago. The ISU students help to design these drafting tables. They were wired for a large drafting lamp and I bet it was designed to raise and lower for drafting work.

Our dog is doing well. I told you earlier that he had started a hot spot on his inner leg. His nervous condition that he created because he pulled out fur to get to a thorn or bur made him turn into a self destructing dog. He ended up taking most all of his fur off of the inside of one of his legs and also a part of the other. He would lick and pull hair night and day. We had to sit with him continually to stop the behavior and to calm him down. We found a spray that really did help it to stop the soreness and infection.

Two days ago it was complete calm. He had finally healed up enough to not be bothered by it anymore. His skin has all started new healing and he has just a little itching which he licks calmly and then he just goes to sleep. We keep spraying the disinfecting medicine on it because it has soothing ingredients in it. He is back to acting like his normal poodle self.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Bricks and Quilts

2011-11-27T16:38:00.001-08:00

While tearing out an old foundation of the small house that was built on the farm, I found some unusual bricks. They are clay bricks but the structures are different that what I am use to seeing.

The small single story farm house was built for my wife's parents to live in while her dad worked the farm for his dad.. It was like a hired hand house. The family lived there until my wife's dad bought the family farm. They then moved into the big four by four house.

I have brick that look like ceramic tile in my basement that was put in during the 1940's. This brick reminded me of that from the farm house, but I have never seen the internal structure configured like this. It actually is a double thick brick compared to mine and would have made the making of the foundation go faster. It doesn't have a glaze on it like mine does.

The house itself that sat on this foundation was accidentally burned down by my father in law during one of his burning sessions that he liked to do in the fall. The foundation had to be ripped out and buried into the basement area and then fill dirt was put on top of it.

This brick came from southern Iowa and it was a paving brick for a street. It has the grooves in it to help the bonding material to hold on to it. The material probably was cement or an asphalt like material.

While shooting photos of this quilt I could see squares of different projects that my mom and grandmother had going on in their lives. My grandmother made stuffed chicken figures from cloth. There were two sizes but the material is scattered throughout this quilt. My mom made photo albums that were covered with padded material and the leftovers from that project are also in there. One of the pieces is actually a scrap from which my mom made for me many years ago.

Just another shot of the quilt. I gave it to my son and his wife when they were back from Thanksgiving. They were very glad to receive it.

I am an office worker today but will probably teach tomorrow. The staff came back with bad colds or with flu in their families so I am sure I will be subbing a lot more than in the past.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Outdoor views.........

2011-11-26T16:51:00.001-08:00

Yucca plant

Raspberry plant leaves

The little guy just keeps guard of the corner intersection all through the seasons. I bet he has seen people not stop at the corner before proceeding into the intersection. If I get my act together I will try to bring him inside this year before he gets frozen down into the ground.

Have a good Sunday and thanks for stopping by my post.

Creative ventures..........

2011-11-26T10:16:00.001-08:00

I spent Friday afternoon trying to get these all hung on the wall. Every year as things are sold out, I have to rearrange the entire display. The wall is full of small nail holes which I will eventually fill with filler and then repaint the wall.

I finished this Saturday morning getting the rest of them on the wall. We didn't actually sell so many with the economy in the ditch but we did remove a lot of them to take to the art show and I needed to rearrange them. We did sell a few of them out of the bunch.

While I was out planting tulip bulbs I noticed I could find a few thinks to shoot. After planting I brought out the camera and took a few pictures. The last two leaves left on the red maple tree. The look like young late sprouts from the branch,

We ate out breakfast on Friday morning with our oldest son and daughter in law. I chose the time to send off another quilt. This one went to Chicago and Andy and Patricia were pleased to receive their now second one.

While I was out taking photos, I turned and saw one of the neighbors many cats sleeping next to to the garden shed. It wasn't scared of me but the cat did really wish that I would go away so it could go back to sleep.

Thanks for stopping be to visit my blog. I have been busy enough that I didn't realize that I had missed a day. I see the earth didn't stand still so it must be ok for me to miss once in a while. Enjoy your Saturday.

Chicken Waterers.....

2011-11-24T17:12:00.001-08:00

I picked this up from a pile of rubble and dirt out on the farm. It was so coated with soil that I didn't know at first what it was. When I was on my family's farm my parents used these to water our baby chick. Sometimes they would put a medicine in the water before they would give it to them.

The jar was filled with water and the glass tray was set over of the jar opening. The whole thing was then flipped over so the water could drain into the glass tray. Today they sell plastic devices that screw onto the jar and they work the same way.

While on the farm as a youngster my parents would buy baby chicks from the local farm and home store. In the utility room in our house we put down many layers of newspaper and then took some old table boards and placed them on edge into a square to create a contained area for the chicks. The weather was too cold usually at the time to put them in the chicken house so they were raised in the house for seven to ten days until they started to gain a few white pin feathers. It was always a fun time for me to watch them as they would eat and drink freely and grow right before your eyes. They were taken out to the chicken house once they reached maturity to handle the cool air.

They worked well until the chicks grew up to be so large that they could knock them over with their bodies accidentally. I hope to use this in the summer. It will be a special thing in which to water the wild birds outside on the patio.

We are having breakfast out today with our son Andy and his wife. They will return to Chicago today. They braved the Christmas shopping in Des Moines yesterday and were hoping to get some of that shopping done early.

I have to plant my tulip bulbs today even though the air is cold out there. It was so nice yesterday that I foolishly didn't do it then. Christmas decorations seem to be dancing in my head but I don't know if it will develop into any actually work. I may just spend the day resting again today.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and your families. May the day be one that gives us a chance to really appreciate that in which we have been truly blessed.

Wednesday's Wanderings........

2011-11-23T10:23:00.001-08:00

I looked at the African violets today at Lowe's and I resisted the temptation. I have a lot of them even though most of them are all the same color.

What I did buy was a bag of tulip bulbs. Our ground is not frozen so I can still get them into the soil. I bought them for under two dollars. I have not planted new ones in a few years so it will happen the next few days.

I looked at the Christmas cactus and found this one to be the right size and price. I don't like how they put their starts in the soil in such a random way. It looks like they did it while they were moving down a conveyor belt. They need to root in more and maybe they would stand up a little more. I am not so sure that the potting soil is the right thing for them as it looks like starter soil and not real soil. It is light and fluffy and the pieces act like they could fall out of the container.

I haven't had one of these for a long time and I actually had more colors than pink to choose from. The white ones are nice but the red one really caught my eye. I really don't need more plants to care of but these plants take a lot less care and watering.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope everyone will have safe travels for tomorrow and that it will be a good Thanksgiving Day for you.

The dogs in our lives.......

2011-11-22T08:35:00.001-08:00

Barney was a rescue dog who ran in circles and under tables banging into everything on the way. He has mellowed out a lot and as you can see he has the luxury life of napping on the love seat. He loves the cold weather and really does like sleeping in the old bay window as it is cooler there than in other parts of the living room. Yes, I know the dog shouldn't be on the furniture but the dogs seem to be the boss of me.

Button Dog walked into the light for his photo shoot. He doesn't seem to mind if I take his picture. We have had a bad week with him but all is better now. When he gets something in his fur and we are not around to notice it, he takes it out of his fur. The problem is that he takes it out of his pulling the fur and all.

We have had him do this before and we never know what is going on until he has taken major areas of fur off of his body. It was a mess. We were gone for the art show and when we came back he had cleaned off the fur of an entire inside of his back leg. He had hit other areas also and then he would stop. Once he gets the fur out, he has pain and then thinks he still needs to remove the stinging areas. He becomes this nervous mess and me and my wife become a nervous mess.

We have had to sit with him night and day to keep him from continuing to hurt himself. He would sleep with us wrapped in a towel and we still would have to waken and stop him from bothering it. We found a disinfectant spray with aloe in it that actually seems to numb the area. His turn around time started about two days ago and he slept through the night completely last night for the first time in seven days. He doesn't know that he is making it worse and his licking it really does help it but he also disturbs the healing time by licking it too much. With the spray, it seems to settle him and he just falls down on a very soft towel and then sleeps. He is out of the woods but we still sit with him if possible just to keep the healing going.

One time he had a cockle burr stuck under his chin and he then removed all of the fur from his chest before we knew what had happened.

I am going to finish today's blog with a remember when photo. Our spring was so green and sunny. I thought it was a nice memory to share.

I am a physical education teacher part of the day and a techie man the rest of the day. No school tomorrow so I will sleep in to 7:00 then. Thanks for stopping by my posting for the day.

Ready for winter....

2011-11-21T06:45:00.001-08:00

Woodward, Iowa

The grain in the field I believe has all been harvested. They were still at it a couple of weeks ago but our dry weather has allowed all of it to be harvested. I did see a field in southern Iowa last Friday that hasn't been worked on but sometimes they don't pick it. I don't know the circumstances of it but a field can be left for no reason through spring not being harvested.

Just to let you know I did finally get my patio furniture put away for storage. It wasn't snowing and blowing wildly this year so it was a rare sight to see me doing it on a good day.

I did get my gazing ball carried over towards the basement stair door and it will go downstairs before it gets frozen into the ground. Most years I think of it too late and it has to winter outside. I even took in most of my little statues for the winter.

I mowed over some of my flower beds this year and yet I like to leave some of the dried stems for the beauty of them in the snow. Button and Barney were wearing the dead leaves into the house and it was getting to be difficult to have to sweep them up two or three times a day. I pulverized them with the mulching mower and that has stopped some of the leafy transporting.

Here is another one of my leaves that I brought in from the side yard. The subtle colors and textures are so nice. This is actually a shiny leaf and it weathers better than the silver maple leaves. I will never have my leaves all picked up and I don't really care. The first mowing of the spring grass will take care of any leftovers.

I am in the high school math room today. The teacher is so sick that he wasn't able to make out lesson plans. I hope I don't catch that particular form of viral infection. It is a quiet day so far and I can just hear my keyboard making sounds as the students are all using their free time to catch up on homework.

I talked to my oldest son last night and he and his wife are coming to Iowa for Thanksgiving. His wife is allergic to cats and dogs so we will be going to the Machine Shed for our meal. We will find a place afterwards that is open to hang out for a while and then they will go back to Chicago in the afternoon, I am going to use their visit to be an opportunity to give out some family things from Andy's grandmother. I have another quilt for them to take home with them now that they have a home in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The above quilt is actually my youngest son's quilt that I gave them but the one I want to give to the old son is a similar quilt as above only it is done in tan's and browns. I thought I had a photo of it but guess that I don't. My mom had so many quits and I will give more of them out as time allows. Photographing all of the quilts should be a good job for this winter before I send them out to new homes.

Have a good Monday and take care. Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog.

Look what I found......among the brown and gray.

2011-11-19T16:44:00.001-08:00

I have a ornamental pear tree and a chokecherry tree that keep putting out these stunning leaves. As I worked in the yard I really couldn't help myself and had to pick them up for a later photo shoot.

The zinnia patch is finally gone, with the stems pulled from the ground. The neighbor's leaves are chopped up that were collecting among the dead stems. I burned the stems and other stray branches from my yard along with a few leaves as tender to get it started.

I tell everyone to water there violets only once a week and in most cases that does seem a successful regime to keep them healthy. But as you view these violets the furnace is on and they became dried out enough to start to wilt. I think that it had been a week and a half since I watered as we were too busy last week for me to get the job done. They will look better tomorrow.

Another old thing that will need some restoration. I found it in the old farmhouse and it looks like an old medicine cabinet. It looked like there had been a door hinged on the front and it could have been a mirror. Perhaps the mirror broke or the mirror was removed and hung on the wall when a new cabinet was purchase. Whatever it was I do know that the outside wood is a hardwood and maybe a little paint remover will show how nice all the wood might be. I can see my antique collections of things fitting into this shelving unit of old.

It is Sunday and it is cold in Iowa today. We dropped twenty five degrees from morning yesterday and it was 30 degrees by Saturday evening. Have a restful day and thanks for checking in on my post.

A Preview of a Future Blog.......

2011-11-19T07:22:00.001-08:00

This will be a short blog today as I need to get outside and work. I am giving you a blog tease by showing you this chair. I will need to take better photos of it and then will proceed with the story on a later posting.

The tease for the future story is the relevance of Abraham Lincoln and this chair. No this chair was not Mr. Lincoln's but I will share more on another day.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy you weekend.

Warmer weather predicted for Saturday.....

2011-11-18T20:18:00.001-08:00

I should be able to get out Saturday and finish up on my outdoor work with warmer weather predicted. I won't rake up the leaves in the orchard area as they just become a part of the soil.

Life is so busy but I will be back soon with many more words for you to read. Thanks for stopping by...........

Thursday's Things......

2011-11-17T06:35:00.001-08:00

This is another work by Carolyn Guay an artist who was showing at our event last weekend. I really liked the things she created and the colors in this one are so rich. Look closely at it and see how many different kinds of things that are in her tessellation design.

This is an archived photo of two bottles and a cuckoo clock planter. The blue of this glass is so remarkable to see and the clock doesn't ever change it's time. I haven't planted anything in it but maybe I will pick up a cactus or small vine for it.

I mulched-mowed my leaves yesterday and I am almost done. I really don't have the need to have my grass looking like a freshly vacuumed living room carpet so you know I have left a few leaves out there.

My mower is in such bad shape as the oil needs to be changed again and the air cleaner gets filled up with the powder of the mulched leaves. Because the oil is old it cloggs up the spark plug so all in all the owner needs to maintain his machinery. I have mowed two yard with it for three summers and it is worn out because it was not made with great quality. I call the mower a disposable as the country that makes them figures we will just throw them into the landfill and buy another one every couple of years.

Because of the problems it was having it quit working late in the afternoon. I had all but one peony bush left to pulverize and I had not made it to the dead zinnia patch. So one more day and I will have that completed. I will pull the zinnia stems and then mow off the debris under that.

In spite of our hard freezes that we have been having I noticed my mums were still hanging in for the last of the season. I am assuming that they are sort of freeze dried and will turn brown eventually.

I miss all the color of the last three seasons and I am just gearing up to find appreciation for the white stuff. Snow can be beautiful but I have to work myself into recognizing that at this time of the year.

Thanks for stopping by today.

A future project......

2011-11-16T07:08:00.001-08:00

I found this in the attic of the farmhouse of two generations of family. The house is now gone but we save a little of it for memories. The Grandmother of the family moved out of the house and I really don't know how much she took with her. My wife's family had moved into the house and a lot of furniture came into the house from friends and distant family members. A lot of things are of unknown origin. My wife had a small vanity that a great Aunt has specifically given her when she was young and we now have that in the basement.

This piece really does look like doll furniture as it is small. It could have been like a jewelry chest and could have sit on a table against the wall. The work I do with it will be creative charity as there just isn't much here to work with but I can do it. It originally had a mirror on the left side and one drawer had been left in it's original finish. As you can see there is one original drawer pull. The rest is really a finish of dirt and grim and is very aged. It sat near an open attic window for a few years.

I saw at the art show where a man made chest of drawers with wood different than it base frame and I could do that. I also could just make the two horizontal spaces into shelving spaces. Right now it is just in storage awaiting my time and inspiration to set in. Right now I will be going home and finally get to the raking of my leaves. It will be a cold 43 degrees out there but I will warm up as I work.

I am a tech guy again today and my boss is keeping me quite busy. Thanks for stopping by to see my post today.

Tuesday's Things.....

2011-11-15T06:48:00.001-08:00

Our neighbor's booth was occupied by two different artists. One was a retired art teacher who sold tessellation designs and the other was a stained glass artist who owns a business there in the town. There are very few glass items as this was taken on preview showing night and she had not really brought much up for her table. She brought a lot of other things up the next day.

The Christmas tree is neat as it was made out of many pieces of twigs. It was a display piece in which to hang free gingerbread cookies for visitors to the booth. She had purchased it and I don't know if it was a commercial piece or a craftsperson made it.

This is a piece that Carolyn Guay created using a mathematical style of design to repeat shapes. Tessellation design was first found in a Dutch artist's work, Escher. You can see there are different creatures among the repeating designs.

Another booth on our floor was a photographer who printed her work out of a special metallic paper. I was not familiar with the material but she then mounted them on foam board. The material has a glossy surface and I don't know if the photo is printed on the backside of the material to show through the clear covering.

I am tired again today from the weekend of work and will be troubleshooting all day. The tech guy has stuff for me to do and I will pick up in rooms where teachers have to go to a meeting with an administrator.

Closing day was suppose to be today on my parents house but the support crew, a lawyer, doesn't have their work done. I will get back to you on that one. I know I would never have been able to not meet a contract date but I will be patient one more time.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

A report about the show.......

2011-11-14T07:03:00.001-08:00

We found out from our experience that the economy dictated what would be sold at the art festival. Framed work is more expensive and we found it kept people from buying them. They took the option of buying unframed items, cards and small prints to the most part. My wife and I did each sell one framed item apiece but that was it.

It is good to get a lot of our work framed though, even though it didn't pay. It will be hanging in our gallery for another time, another place and another show.

Our display table was a large drafting table designed by ISU students from Ames. They have classes in this room in Perry studying city planning and design. The tables had a place for the large light to shine down on the table surface, as you can see the slot in the table.

This is our view of our neighbors sales area. We were on the top floor of an old bank that was renovated and redesigned by the same ISU students who created the table designs. I will share about the corncrib board shutters later in another blog along with info about the whole project.

I am a high school math teacher today. Thanks for stopping by............

It's Showtime!!!!!

2011-11-12T19:20:00.001-08:00

Thursday evening we set up our show and Friday evening there was a special showing for a Rotary group. Today was day one of the actual start of sales and meeting the public. It was a good day.

Thanks for checking in on the progress of it...........another long day on Sunday.

Memorial Day

2011-11-11T07:56:00.001-08:00

Jesse T. Burgus 1917-2000

I blog a lot about my dad's war days and how it effected our family so I won't do much more than just remember the day. He loved Memorial Day purely because it was one more day that recognized all veterans of this nation. Dad never ever felt that he had received much for all that he had given up in his youth. I wished he had been alive and would have been able to see the Memorial in Washington D.C. He would have smiled and cried through it all.

Art show a'comin........

2011-11-11T06:50:00.001-08:00

We spent 12 yours yesterday getting ready and putting up our display for the two day art show. We have some tweaking to do this evening before the pre show to special members of the Rotary. Saturday and Sunday will be the two days for the event and maybe I will sell something.

Paintings do become like friends or a part of you so it is sometimes hard to let them go. The barn at top I painted in oil many years ago but I finally reframed it. I have it ready to be taken away to go to another good home. It had a bad frame on it and I think I was trying not to sell it. With the age of prints, I can make so many copies of the original so I don't feel like I am totally loosing anything. I know the original is so much better than the print but our prints are really very good.

I am back at school today and will finish off my day as an art teacher. Been there, done that as you know.

Thanks for stopping by............I will be clicking lots of pictures the next couple of days to share the event .

Too busy but......

2011-11-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

I do have lots of excuses as to why I don't have any pictures taken for my Creative Zone. One of the photos I would have taken is the dozen or so art works that have been framed or matted ready to go to the show this weekend. We work from the time I get home from school until 9:00. We took breaks to see one of our shows on tv but we were at it for a long time last night. I have a shortened day today at school so there will be more time to work.

Our school's volleyball team is going to play at state on Thursday and it is 133 miles away from here. They canceled school for that day and will make it up later in the year. The day off is a blessing as we have to set up our show in Perry on Thursday evening from 4:00 until 8:00. The last show we did we had only 45 minutes or so to set up so this will be another great thing for us to have plenty of time.

"A Brave New Journey" was the first painting that I created after leaving the teaching field three and a half years ago. I don't have the heart to sell it but I will be selling prints of it at the show. My wife and I have done one other show together but this one is a longer time period and we are actually getting a little excited about it. I know we will be tired but it will be a good tired.

I will try to get photos of our on going work in the gallery right now including the mess and maybe can get them posted tomorrow. My wife has been painting a lot and we have some really great work framed for this show.

Thanks for stopping by.............snow on the ground a much needed rain came our way the last 24 hours.

Tuesday's a white day.

2011-11-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

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.......

2011-11-07T07:09:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

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........

2011-11-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

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.........

2011-11-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

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.......

2011-11-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

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.......

2011-11-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

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.

Hydrangea in the fall........

2011-10-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

The hydrangea continues to be a showy plant in the fall. I really hadn't noticed it but while I was out and about looking at all the red colored leaves I saw this great yellow and green pattern.

The brown colors of the blooms are also very nice to see against the green leaves. We were very cold last night, below freezing, and it isn't going to warm up much today.

A grain wagon sits abandoned without it's wheels. I don't know the story as to why this is not on it's wheel base but there must have been a reason. There are two different wheel setups out there on the farm but both are without a rack or wagon bin.

It sits next to the barn door and the trees have grown up in front of the barn's two north doors. No entrance or exit will be taking place until some serious tree trimming takes place. There are other doors that are open on the south end so one can enter the barn.

I am a shop teacher today and it is cold out here. It takes time to get the heat from the large shop repair area into the classroom. One has to put a fan in the door and circulate the cold air and hot air until the room is warm.

It seems to be a bad start of a Monday for me but things will get better. I have a good class right now and the rest of the day should be pretty mild. The students are given study hall when they have woodworking to do as the teacher wants to be here for their construction work.

I return to the farm one last time today after school as to help ready the place for final inspection from the city. We needed to clean up some things so they would meet safety codes even though it is a farm and not directly in a housing area. The farm does sit in the city as they captured the whole area many years ago to call it their own. There is another farm to the south of us and farm land to the west of us also.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Monday.

Sunday's late posting......

2011-10-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

A photo taken down on the farm looking toward a main four lane highway.

Thanks for checking in on my blog. I will catch up tomorrow with more words and more pictures than today's showing.

Fall color.......seeing red.

2011-10-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

The red maple is giving me a great show this year. It sometimes doesn't but this year it is the best show of all of my trees.

This burning bush, one of three, is starting to take on a new brighter look.

Thanks for stopping by at my today's post. Friday is here and Saturday is coming. Everyone take care and have a good weekend.

High School Social Studies. US History, American Government, 7th grade reading.

Cactus sprout......

2011-10-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

I helped my neighbor move her tall cactus plant back into the house for the winter. Needless to say but I did have running blood wounds before the job was done. I took a sprout that had broken off on the moving journey.

It was heavy and I had to use a carrier to bring it up a set of stairs. The pathway to it's final display area was a challenge as her house is small and the walkways are less than a foot wide. We had to move furniture to get through the areas of three rooms before it landed at it's winter home.

Collections are like stray cats, things come around, you feed them and before too long you have a litter. In this case, as I went through burn piles on the farm I found white milk glass items. I know they are commercial product containers to the most part but they do have an individual good design in a quality material. The vase I pulled from the cupboard of the house on the farm. I was going to tell you I don't collect these, but I know you do know better just by looking at the photo.

My wife actually has a collection of milk glass of her mother's that she received years ago when she and her brother divided the box full of items. I have a couple more items now that were not around when this photo was taken.

I helped my neighbor pull up her zinnia's last week and she laid out her geranium plants that she was tossing in the dump. She said to take what I wanted and don't scolled her for throwing them away. I have a white one and a pink one now to nurture through the winter to take out in the spring.

I am subbing for a couple of people today. I came in and they said they had nothing, just go to the library. Within a half hour I took the music instructors classes as he is headed to a meeting and the middle school English teacher is heading home this pm. I took out the kitchen window air conditioner last night and I have to keep reminding myself that I am not having a heart attack. Those chest muscles are the ones you only use for removing heavy objects from windows and the pain will subside in a couple of days.

I have to go for now, as I find that I have to sneak my blogging in when I can. Thanks for stopping by at my post and Friday is coming.

Glass in the past !!!

2011-10-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have seen these at antique stores and mall shows where they were attached to the older type of bird cages. Seed is all that could be fed from it. I can't see how water could be placed into it when it has to be turned to go between the wires of the cage. It is cast in glass and is so fancy compared to the plastic bird feeders used on cages today.

This is a glass globe of a gas light used in an old house of the my wife's family home. It would have hung down off of a metal fixture or bracket. The home eventually was switched to electricity and I found this in the attic.

The etching on the glass interests me and I don't really know how it is done. I know stencils and sandblasting works on glass to get a cut glass look with out manually having to grind in the design. I think a large candle sitting on a glass dish with this as globe will make a great decoration. I don't really like to burn any candles in our house but at a special meal it would work.

I am a floater today as a sub and will be doing office work and teaching high school math in the afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by and stay warm.

Broken...... but a beauty.

2011-10-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

I have a new glass toy candy container. It has had some damage but I still like it. I have a collection and sometimes these things just show up. Another view of the train is on my Photo a Day blog.

The phone and the car were my mom's candy toys. The bottom one came from the house of my wife's Aunt Irene. The phone is missing it's wooden receiver that was attached to the wire holder.

Other things that I will be adding to my toy collection is the tin bank and the two wooden pins. The slot hits right on Europe for some reason. They could have placed the slot at a different location but I am sure the factory line worker didn't care where the slot was placed.

This homemade checkerboard also is an oldie with the hand painted or inked squares. There is a line or ledge where the two top boards meet that will prevent the sliding of checkers smoothly across the middle of the board. I guess I need to keep my eyes open for some antique checkers. I have a couple but not a complete set. It will get a good cleaning which should make the wood have a richer color.

I was an office helper yesterday and have taken on a job to help the administration to update their school website. The secretaries are trained to do it but the time it requires is too much for their workload. In reality everyone who could work on it really are avoiding it as it takes too much time with the busy things going on in a school office. They will still put on quick school closing messages and things like that but I have been asked to update and clean up some of the site's problems. I will have to use my blogging skills and plus in order to get that job done, I will need some side training from whomever that will share the information I need to get the job done.

I did teach one class of freshman science yesterday and today I won't know until I arrive at school what I will be doing. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my posting.

A busy Monday........

2011-10-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

A one photo day with a one white dog and a checker board in the background. I hope you have a good day. The dog does need a haircut but I am busy.

Thanks for checking in on my post.