After 6 months, we can finally get both our vehicles back in the garage! I still can't hardly believe it took me just half a day to move all the wet boxes and things from our basement to the garage after our spring seepage problem...but then it took 6 months to go through everything and move stuff back into the house.
Tomorrow, we're supposed to have snow flurries and strong wind, so it will be nice to have the vehicles inside.
One other good thing is that we can actually use the downstairs family room now for something other than storage! I'm very happy about that too!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Big Muddy River Rendezvous
Last Saturday we went to the Big Muddy River Rendezvous near Winona, MN. The rendezvous is held in a campground near the Mississippi River. When we started down the bluffs towards the Mississippi, we saw a layer of fog setting over the river valley. It was a bit foggy when we first arrived at the rendezvous, but within an hour the fog was gone and it was a beautiful fall day. Here are some pictures from the rendezvous.
The first one shows a mountain man wearing a skunk cap made from 3 different skunks. He didn't actually trap and make the cap, but whoever did had done a very nice job:
Of course there a lot of people dressed in various costumes and there were several blacksmiths among the people participating:
One of the men was Father Ryan. He was a friendly guy that was selling odds and ends. At the time I took his picture, he was enjoying a "Milwaukee lunch" consisting of beer with a raw egg in it. Cheers!!!
Not everyone was in the area for the rendezvous. There were people fishing along the Mississippi River:
The first one shows a mountain man wearing a skunk cap made from 3 different skunks. He didn't actually trap and make the cap, but whoever did had done a very nice job:
Of course there a lot of people dressed in various costumes and there were several blacksmiths among the people participating:
One of the men was Father Ryan. He was a friendly guy that was selling odds and ends. At the time I took his picture, he was enjoying a "Milwaukee lunch" consisting of beer with a raw egg in it. Cheers!!!
Not everyone was in the area for the rendezvous. There were people fishing along the Mississippi River:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Autumn
The fall colors are probably at their peak around here. Over the weekend, we had fairly nice weather considering the time of year. We still haven't had a good hard frost yet.
I worked on patching some of the cement and mortar around the house. I had not intended to mix up as much cement patching material as I did though. Right away, I added too much water and so I kept putting in more and more of the cement mix. I finally got it to a thickness that was workable, so it turned out OK. I ended up patching part of a crack in the driveway that I hadn't intended on doing anything with in order to use up the mix. Now, I'm thinking that I should buy some more and do the rest of the driveway...I also worked on caulking around the patio doors...and Richard worked on going through stuff in the garage and rearranging things in the house. We're still able to use the downstairs family room as a family room and not for storage which is really an accomplishment considering the way things were before the seepage problem in the spring.
Anyway, here's a picture of the fall colors that I took over the weekend. The picture was taken from our front porch and looks over the top of the neighbors' houses towards the east:
I worked on patching some of the cement and mortar around the house. I had not intended to mix up as much cement patching material as I did though. Right away, I added too much water and so I kept putting in more and more of the cement mix. I finally got it to a thickness that was workable, so it turned out OK. I ended up patching part of a crack in the driveway that I hadn't intended on doing anything with in order to use up the mix. Now, I'm thinking that I should buy some more and do the rest of the driveway...I also worked on caulking around the patio doors...and Richard worked on going through stuff in the garage and rearranging things in the house. We're still able to use the downstairs family room as a family room and not for storage which is really an accomplishment considering the way things were before the seepage problem in the spring.
Anyway, here's a picture of the fall colors that I took over the weekend. The picture was taken from our front porch and looks over the top of the neighbors' houses towards the east:
Monday, October 6, 2008
Rendezvous
On Saturday, we went to the Big Island Rendezvous in Albert Lea, MN. We had a very nice time. The temperature was almost perfect, the music was great, the food was delicious, and there were plenty of interesting people and things to see.
Tanglefoot gave an excellent performance even despite missing their fiddle player. Curtis and Loretta performed, but their performance wasn't quite up to par with the last time I heard them. It was still enjoyable though...
There was a guy dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow. He was pretty amazing. Here's a picture of the famous pirate and Richard:
I love the smug look on Captain Sparrow's face and the funny look that Richard is giving him.
The next photo is a picture of a "field doctor". He had a pile of sawed off limbs (feet, hands, etc.) under his work table. Of course the limbs were fake:
This is a picture of a "soldier" playing his homemade guitar and his buddy. The guitar actually sounded surprisingly good:
This is a picture of a cooper making a wooden bucket:
This next picture is a juggler. He and his brother were performing together. In addition to juggling fire sticks, they also juggled knives and other items and did some balancing stunts while juggling. They were very good:
Tanglefoot gave an excellent performance even despite missing their fiddle player. Curtis and Loretta performed, but their performance wasn't quite up to par with the last time I heard them. It was still enjoyable though...
There was a guy dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow. He was pretty amazing. Here's a picture of the famous pirate and Richard:
I love the smug look on Captain Sparrow's face and the funny look that Richard is giving him.
The next photo is a picture of a "field doctor". He had a pile of sawed off limbs (feet, hands, etc.) under his work table. Of course the limbs were fake:
This is a picture of a "soldier" playing his homemade guitar and his buddy. The guitar actually sounded surprisingly good:
This is a picture of a cooper making a wooden bucket:
This next picture is a juggler. He and his brother were performing together. In addition to juggling fire sticks, they also juggled knives and other items and did some balancing stunts while juggling. They were very good:
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Disappearing Owls
We've been making a lot of good progress with sorting through boxes, throwing away stuff, and giving things away. Last Saturday, Richard's daughter came over and hauled away a pickup load of stuff that we didn't want anymore. Some of it was probably worthless, but other things were very nice items like oil lamps and glassware...but then we already have plenty of those things.
In the process of going through boxes, Richard found some white owl figurines. They were bought by his mother, so he decided to keep them and clean them up. He wanted to put them in the dishwasher, but his daughter and I didn't think that was necessarily a good idea. He went ahead and did it anyway.
After the dishwasher was finished, he was unloading the dishes and was complaining that the soap he used didn't work. Everything had a film on it and needed to be wiped out...and then he made a discovery. In the bottom of a mug was an eyeball!
The eyeball was from one of the owls, but there was no sign of the owls in the dishwasher or of any other eyeballs. A closer inspection of the dishwasher revealed only a few small pieces of the owls which would disintegrate when touched. So, the mystery of the film on all the dishes and glasses was solved. It wasn't the soap it was the remains of the owls! Oops!!!
We had a really good laugh over that one. Who knows what the material was that the owls were made of -- probably some type of resin or something like that. His mother had some birds made of a similar material, but they'll be cleaned by hand...
In the process of going through boxes, Richard found some white owl figurines. They were bought by his mother, so he decided to keep them and clean them up. He wanted to put them in the dishwasher, but his daughter and I didn't think that was necessarily a good idea. He went ahead and did it anyway.
After the dishwasher was finished, he was unloading the dishes and was complaining that the soap he used didn't work. Everything had a film on it and needed to be wiped out...and then he made a discovery. In the bottom of a mug was an eyeball!
The eyeball was from one of the owls, but there was no sign of the owls in the dishwasher or of any other eyeballs. A closer inspection of the dishwasher revealed only a few small pieces of the owls which would disintegrate when touched. So, the mystery of the film on all the dishes and glasses was solved. It wasn't the soap it was the remains of the owls! Oops!!!
We had a really good laugh over that one. Who knows what the material was that the owls were made of -- probably some type of resin or something like that. His mother had some birds made of a similar material, but they'll be cleaned by hand...
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