Basket-Case

For supposedly "doing nothing," we seem to be awfully busy.  Most mornings are swept up with necessary daily chores like laundry, cleaning, gardening, home maintenance, and shopping.  For two people, we go to the grocery store quite often; perhaps that is because I do not plan meals well, or perhaps that is because what we DO have to eat around the house, neither of us feel like eating when the actual meal time arrives.

Walking each day also takes up part of our morning and time after dinner.  For some reason, we never seem to get around to pumping up the bike tires or riding the bikes.  They are there and readily available, but we choose to walk instead.  Our walks give us time to talk without interruption or distraction.  We get our exercise, walk off tensions so we can relax, and find time to enjoy the fresh albeit pollen-filled air.  With biking, we get our exercise, but talking is impossible, and the tensions of being on the road on low-slung bikes never leaves us.

When we finally do get to the point of each day to relax, though, that is my favorite time of day.  I can weave, sew, read a good book, or work on my Ancestry research.  I have just finished editing my cousin's non-fiction book, so I once again I can get into a good fiction book.

Rick spends his time reading or working on a set of nesting Nantucket baskets.  The history of Nantucket baskets is a fascinating study all by itself, and nesting baskets are a part of that tradition.  I would suppose one of the reasons nesting baskets became popular is because houses in the 1700 - 1800s in small, coastal towns were not large.  Families needed baskets, but when one was not in use going to market or holding yarn, the woman of the house needed a place to store them.  Having them fit one inside of the other was the perfect solution.  She could choose the size she needed to complete the task at hand, and the others would still only take up the floor space that was needed for the largest basket.

Rick just finished the first, largest basket in the set of nesting baskets he is making.  His hard work is pictured below:

The basket dries in the garage after Rick sealed it
with a clear finish.

The wooden bottom makes the basket sturdy and beautiful.

The rim also adds rigidity to the basket.

The handle finishes the basket.

The second basket sets on the mold as Rick
starts to weave it from the base up.

The last picture shows the start of the second basket, so stay tuned as the set continues to grow.

Crafty Business

We have been trying to "lay low" this spring as I heal from a concussion and Rick battles with sciatica and Achilles tendon problems.  To that end, we have chosen to finally relax in our home and to get back to some of the crafts that we enjoy.

Each day we try to take at least two walks, we complete some cleaning or maintenance on the house, and then we relax in the afternoon by partaking in things that we actually choose to do rather than have to do.

We both love to read, so our Kindles or other books are always by our sides.  Reading in the hammock is so relaxing... if we can stay awake!

I am working on some Christmas ornaments that I cross-stitch and then frame.  I have made an ornament for Owen for every Christmas of his life.  I have a special series that I do with the year on the ornament to mark when he received each one.  I am working on one for the year 2024 right now which will probably be here before we know it!

I have woven a few things on the loom including some outdoor placemats made from heavy-duty poly cord, and I have used some "loom waste" and scrap yarn to weave some simple bookmarks that I have been giving away to family, friends, and neighbors. Rick is planning a set of placemats also, so that will be the next warp to go on the loom.

Rick has continued with his craft of weaving magnificent Nantucket baskets.  He has finished weaving the largest of a nesting set of baskets, but he still has to finish the handle and rim.  Since that is NOT his favorite part of the construction, he has moved on, for now, by starting to make the staves for a second basket.

The largest Nantucket basket needs to have the rim
and handle attached.  Then the whole thing will get a
couple of coats of varnish to keep it clean and strong.

The staves are all hand-shaped with a small, very sharp plane.  Since the task is messy, he uses his workbench in the garage; however, standing for hours at the workbench does not work well when one has a sore back and a sore heel.

"Why don't we buy a shop stool for you to use at the workbench?" I asked.  Rick immediately did what he does best: he logged on to the Internet to search which stools got the best reviews, which stools were available, and which stools were within our price range.  He settled on a stool that we could purchase at Lowe's, so a couple of hours later, the box containing the stool was in our garage.

The stool was one of those "easy assembly" types as long as you were related to an octopus and actually had eight hands to hold all of the pieces at once.  In the end, we made just our combined  four hands work, and Rick now has a pneumatically adjustable stool that he can sit on while he works at his workbench.

A simple Kobalt stool will make working at the workbench
less of a back-breaking chore.

We are happy that we are able to enjoy our more simplified life.  Our time is mostly our own, and we can work at our own pace on most tasks.  We both worked hard all of our lives, and being able to slow down now has been our goal of retirement for many years.  With all of the remodeling that we have done on both houses, getting to the relaxing phase just took us a little longer than we originally anticipated.

Early Space Exploration

This has been a very interesting week.  We started with a tense few days trying to see how Stephanie could get from Rochester to the Cities to catch her flight here when the skies were dumping tons of ice and snow on Minnesota.  After rescheduling her flight, she found that the roads still were impassible, so she cancelled her visit.  We all were extremely disappointed.

Blue skies greeted us at Kennedy Space Center.

Since we had purchased tickets for a special tour at Kennedy Space Center, we decided to take our planned trip without Stephanie. This tour was special because it actually went on the military side of the Space Center, going to Cape Canaveral rather than the commercial Kennedy side.

We left on Tuesday, driving as far as Orlando.  In addition to the amusement parks, Orlando is ground zero for outlet malls.  We visited a couple but left with only two pair of jeans for Owen after hours of shopping.  Traffic in Orlando is a nightmare.  We were happy to get back to the hotel at the end of the day.

Rain was predicted for Wednesday when we actually went to the Space Center; however, we were greeted by sunshine when we arose in Orlando that morning.  We packed our raincoats in the car just in case the rains arrived, but we went through the entire day without rain.  Just as we were leaving the Center, a few sprinkles started, but that was the total of rain that we had to deal with that day.

We arrived early which afforded us excellent parking.  That was a good thing because we immediately went into the gift shop to do a little shopping.  Rick took our purchases out to the car, and not carrying them with us all day was great.

After that, we did a little tour of the Mars exhibits.  NASA is very focused on getting to Mars within the next decade or two.  The exhibits showed models both of the robots that we have sent to Mars and the vehicles that NASA is developing for human exploration of Mars.

The early and small original Mars Rover.

The most interesting vehicle was the Mars Rover that will carry astronauts around the red planet. It is HUGE as the following pictures show:

The two men in front of the Rover show the enormous side of the vehicle.

The tire design on the Rover allows it to be sturdy,
lightweight, and impossible to deflate!

I felt dwarfed standing in front of the Mars Rover.

Posters inside the exhibit showed the variety of
occupations necessary on Mars.  This one is for you,
Christopher!

This poster was near the display showing the habitat
that astronauts will have to build once they reach Mars.

We did something new on this trip.  We attended an "Astronaut Encounter," and it was both interesting and informative.  The guest speaker that day was Space Shuttle astronaut Bob Springer.  He talked about the two missions he was on and gave some insight into his background, training, and life as an astronaut.  His personal stories illustrated the bad, the good, and the funny things about being in space.

Bob Springer was an excellent speaker with an educational
and interesting presentation.

After a quick, expensive lunch at one of the Center's cafes, we were off to our bus trip that was centered around exploration of the early days of the space program, including the early missiles, and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

Our tour included seeing full-size models of the early missiles and satellites that the US sent into space.  Our tour guide had worked at NASA and kept our interest though the entire three-hour tour.  I was surprised at how small the early missiles and satellites were that we first launched.

The people show how small the early rockets and
satellites that we sent to space really were.

As we were traveling on to our next stop, our bus had to pull off the road into a parking lot. Coming straight at us, with a four-squad-car escort, was the first stage recovered booster rocket from the Falcon Nine Spacex flight that was launched last week.  The rocket was burned from re-entry to the atmosphere and enormous.  This was an unexpected treat for our tour.

Look over the shoulder of our tour guide to see
the first stage booster rocket as it came down the street.

The Spacex rocket is charred from its journey.

The bottom of the rocket shows why this vehicle
was called the Falcon Nine.  Note the nine rockets
used to get the vehicle into space.

As the tour continued, we were taken to a bunker that was used to launch Alan Shepherd into space.  The bunker is now a museum, preserving the ancient computers, wiring, and structures that were used that day in 1961.  A sign on the wall said that the rooms full of computers had less computing power than a $30 watch has today.  Our tour guide said the sign was outdated: today a $10 watch has more computing power than those old computers and that today's iPhone has 1000 times more computer power.  Looking at those ancient computers and primitive methods made me wonder how we ever were successful in getting Shepherd and then John Glenn and others into space and back safely.  They were taking great risks and really had no assurances that they would survive either the blast off or the return to earth.

The command center that sent Shepherd into space
had minimal power and was all hand-wired.

Rick looks in disbelief at the tape reels that were used in the
early part of space exploration to send men into space.

A replica of the small rocket used for the first
manned space flight.  Shepherd was in the
black capsule on top.  Above him was the
red "escape rocket" that could pull the capsule off
the rocket in case of an emergency.

A discussion of safety took us to the launch pad where Astronauts White, Grissom, and Chaffey lost their lives in a space capsule fire.  They were testing systems when a spark from one of their chairs ignited the oxygen-rich atmosphere inside the space capsule.  Their tragic deaths resulted in a redesign of the capsule so astronauts quickly could escape the capsule if necessary.

The skeleton of the launch pad where the Apollo  1
astronauts perished remains as a memorial to them.

As our tour concluded, we drove past the construction site of the new NASA headquarters.  The new building is modern and bright.  We also saw the old headquarters, positioned next door to the new building, that ultimately will be torn down.  The old headquarters had no windows on the first floor to protect the work inside from being spied on by unauthorized eyes.

The new NASA headquarters is under construction.

The old headquarters was only three stories high and very reflective of the era in which it was built.

The old headquarters with no first-floor windows.

We really enjoyed our tour, having remembered events that we witnessed as children and learning about what went on behind the scenes to make our space program a success.  The entire complex is designed to show that while the Shuttle missions are complete, space exploration continues through cooperation with private space companies.  NASA will continue long into the future.

Spring Cleaning

Even though the snow flies in Wisconsin, Rick and I have been busy with a little necessary spring cleaning.

Gladys' windows were filthy, to say the least.  Rick had to start with the eves since washing them later  would just drip dirty water on the clean windows.  While Rick scrubbed the eves, I followed behind with the hose to rinse them.  Then Rick scrubbed the eves troughs and downspouts to get the mold and pollen off them.   The whole process was quite a task, but once that all was done, we could move on to the windows.

The great thing about Gladys is that as it is a ranch-style house, we have no second-story windows to clean.  Rick took off the screens and gave them to me.  As he washed and squeegeed the windows, I scrubbed down the screens with the hose and dried them.  We also washed the window casings.  I took a bucket of water and washed the shutters around the front windows too. Thankfully, the sun was shining brightly, so the screens and shutters quickly dried.

Rick cleans the windows and sills at the front of the house.

What a difference washing the windows had on the light that now flows into the house! We knew they were dirty, but I did not realize they were THAT dirty!

Today we tackled washing the white vinyl fence that surrounds our back yard.  We love the fence, but it gets dirty and moldy without yearly scrubbing.  We were able to finish the inside of the fence today; however, washing it took us all morning to do.

We started with the side of the fence that faces south
so we could complete it before it was in full sun.

I spoke with our new neighbor Leslie to get permission to go into her back yard tomorrow so we can scrub that side of the fence.  She had no problem with that and promised to lock the dog door so their giant Mastiff, Bamma, would not come out to "help" us.  Mastiffs are wonderful, gentle dogs, but they are also large and muscular.  They are very loyal and protective of their human families, so Rick and I do not want to intrude on his territory when his owners are not present.

The back fence was the dirtiest thanks to the trees and the
critters that live in the trees.

We are happy with the results of our work today.  I did the ladder work, climbing up to wash the tops of the posts and the top rail of the fence.  While I did that, Rick took a soft scrub brush and a pail of soapy water to wash down the fence.  We found that car-washing soap works well on the fence.  Our thanks to Lindsay for giving us a bunch of round "scrubbies" for Christmas.  They worked well on the more stubborn stains on the fence, so it now gleams in the sun.

While he was in the scrubbing mode, Rick also washed
down the two sheds in the back yard. 

By noon tomorrow, we hope to have both sides of the fence clean and looking like a new fence again.  Then everything will look good and we can relax when Stephanie comes for a visit.

Busy Blooming Days

Now that the weather is sunny and the temperatures are mild, we have had a busy couple of days.  I wrote last time about searching for new plants to put next to the tree in the back yard, but a review of available plants quashed that idea.  Instead, Rick and I decided to take some left-over fence materials out of the rafters in the garage and to use them to fill in the spaces next to the tree.

The gap was a bit too much on either side of the tree,
so we came up with a plan to give us privacy
from the neighbors while keeping critters out of the yard.

We took out the lattice that we had used to support the bougainvillea.  Then Rick took some fence boards, attached them together in the back, and attached them to the fence.  We could not hug the fence to the tree any closer than we did because the tree continues to grow.  We think we have left it enough room, though, to expand for many years to come.

The filled areas look simple, but they took quite a bit of work
(and a few gymnastics on the ladder) to complete.

The tree looks "bare" now without the plants, so we will have to think of ways to bring color back into that portion of the yard.  We may plant more hibiscus or allamanda bushes next to the fence to add a splash of color.

While I was outside, I gave the Splattered Paint crotons in the corner garden a "haircut" to keep them from taking over the whole garden.  They seem to be doing the best of any plants in the yard. We did purchase two Aztec grass plants since two in our front garden are looking a little worse for wear.  I also bought an arboricola plant to put in the shady corner in the back yard. Our third purchase was a new podocarpus tree to replace the one that died over the summer.

The new podocarpus adds some height to the corner
of the front garden.

I planted the podocarpus tree while we still had some daylight left, but it was too late to plant anything else.  I was tired.  I knew if I left the remaining plants outside in their pots, they would be fine until the next day.

This morning, after my Friday cleaning chores in the house, I went back outside to tend to the potted plants.  I put the arboricola in its pot in the location that I intended to plant it, but I did not like how it looked.  Rick agreed that since we have three Splattered Paint crotons in that same general area, we were getting too many green and yellow plants all in one place.

Instead, I left the weary Firecracker plant in the corner, and I planted the arboricola in the big brown empty pot that used to hold something else.  Rick argued that if I put the pot in the yard, our lawn care people would chip the pot with weed wackers.  He is probably right, so I looked for a more suitable location.

The arboricola fills a vacant area next to the gate.

I decided that the area next to our north gate looked a little bare, so I put the pot with the arboricola there.  I don't know if it will survive the summer, but it looks good right now.

While Wisconsin continues to be bombarded with ice and snow, we are enjoying the moderate temperatures and warm sunshine that allows us to work outside.  We bought a house in Florida for the winter weather, and I have enjoyed working outside to make Gladys look beautiful once again.

Bougain Be Gone

Several years ago we planted two bougainvillea plants next to the gap in our fence that we had to create because of the large live oak tree planted on the property line.  We had hoped that the bougainvillea would fill in the space and prevent unwanted critters from coming through the gap because bougainvillea plants have long, sharp, nasty thorns.

The first couple of years, the plants were fine.  Then a combination of weather (lack of rain) and poor nutrients started to take its toll on the plants.  I tried special fertilizer, special plant food, and lots of watering, but nothing much seemed to help.

I trimmed the bushes a couple of times because they were getting "woody," but that also was a rather lost cause.  When we came back this year, the branches were tangled and scraggly, the leaves were sparse, and what leaves remaining were diseased and brown at the edges.  We determined that the location where I had planted the bougainvillea just did not have enough sunlight or nutrients for the plants to do what we wanted them to do.  So out they came today.

The bougainvillea just did not fill in the area
the way that we had hoped it would.

While I cut and bagged the thorny branches, Rick got out the shovel and started to dig up the roots.  We worked for a couple of hours.  In the end, the bougainvillea were gone and the leaves around the area were raked and bagged.

We are back to a clean slate to add some color
to the area.

Tomorrow we will go to Lowe's to pick up something else to try in that area.  I still want color against the brown tree and the white fence.  I might try some dwarf schefflera (arboricola) with the variegated green and yellow leaves.  The schefflera is one of those plants that we see growing everywhere.  I seems to thrive in either sun or shade, tolerates droughts in the summer, and fills in well.  It is easy to trim to the desired height and shape that we will want, so we are going to give it a try.

If the schefflera don't work, we'll just have to look for something else.

Finished at Last

This past Tuesday, we finally were able to complete our summer-long project as the installer came to glue down the granite countertops.  He did not come until late in the day, so we were not able to officially move into all of the cabinets and drawers until the next day, but we can celebrate that the room is now complete.

The molding next to the desk edge blends right
in to the cabinet wall.  We don't even notice it anymore.

Transforming a den into a laundry/ office/ craft and weaving loom took much more time, money, and effort than either of us had imagined; however, we are happy with the results.  I easily can complete the laundry without having to lug clothes up and down the stairs.  I now have a customized desk that is just the right height for my laptop computer as well as my sewing machine.

We both have counter space to assemble what craft components we need, and weaving in a room that is open, airy, and filled with light is a pure joy!

Owen even has his own lower cabinet to store his toys.  They are accessible but out of sight when not in use.  I love this new room!

This past week we spent time transforming yet another room: the kitchen.  After living each winter in the much brighter and sunnier Florida environment, we found this house "dark" with all of the walls painted in umbers, golds, and browns.  To liven things up, we decided to take our kitchen from a butterscotch tan to a soft butter color.

Lots of cabinets meant lots of plastic used to protect them.

The first task was just draping all of the cabinets with plastic and taping around the doors, cabinets, and  woodwork.  What a pain painting a kitchen can be!

We chose a slightly whiter and brighter color
for the kitchen ceiling.

Once everything was covered, we tackled the ceiling first.  It desperately needed a fresh coat of paint; the whole room looks much brighter and cleaner just with the ceiling refreshed.

Rick cuts in the butter yellow color on the soffits.

Then we were on to the soffits and large walls.  Rick does not trust anyone but himself to "cut in" at the ceiling, so he ended up with the majority of work.  He did a good job, and if he does not like something now, he has no one to blame but himself.

The dining room wall gets a bright new finish.

While he was on the ladder, I was on the floor cutting in around the baseboard and around all of the outlets.  We finished the first coat on the soffits -- which eventually took three coats! -- and the large dining room walls by the end of the first day.

Day Two saw us pulling out the range and the refrigerator to paint behind each.  We also painted the area between the countertop and the upper cabinets.  I am amazed at the collection of dirt, crumbs, and unidentified tidbits that one finds under the range and the refrigerator.  I even found an Advil under the 'fridge.  It must have had a headache one day.  Out came the vacuum and the mop bucket before I would even venture behind the appliances to paint.  I eradicated an entire village of dust bunnies from one of the vents on the back of the refrigerator.  It seems to be running much better now.

The kitchen now looks clean and new.

We are happy that we can cross another job off our "to do" list.

In two days' time, we transformed our dark kitchen into a fresh, lighter, cleaner-looking room.  It was a job that neither of us really wanted to do, but it also was a job that both of us wanted to have done.

After we were finished with the painting yesterday, we needed to get outdoors away from the paint smell.  The afternoon was sunny and not too windy, so while Rick blew the leaves into a big pile in the back yard, I took the mower and mowed and bagged the front yard grass and leaves.  We already had a pile of leaves at the curb, so I just emptied the bag onto the pile.  Once the front and sides were mowed, I helped Rick put the pile of leaves onto a large tarp that we dragged to the leaf pile at the curb.  We needed two trips with the tarp to move all of the leaves.  Then I mowed the back yard to collect the "stragglers" left behind.

I had read online that the city would "follow the garbage trucks" to collect leaves.  They have picked up leaves once in the neighborhood, so we wanted to get the leaves on the curb since Thursday is our regular garbage collection day.  Sure enough, this morning the city workers were in our neighborhood collecting all of the leaves.  Rain is predicted for most of the coming week, so getting the yard cleaned up before rain -- or snow!-- arrives was our goal.

We have had a busy two days.  Perhaps now we can get back to the crafts, weaving, baking, and reading that we have wanted to do all summer.

Stoney Decisions

We now have met three times with the granite people who mis-cut our desk piece.  They took a substitute piece of stone into their shop and were going to cut it to replace the desk.  We told them that we wanted to see it, and upon arriving in their shop, we promptly rejected it.  It was way too grey  in the background.

The desk piece is too large for it not to match the rest of the granite in the room.

We went back to the original granite yard and found a piece that we thought would work.  The cutters agreed to pick it up today.  We met them at the granite company and discovered that the piece we thought would work also was not the right background color.  However, it was close, so Rick took a couple of pictures of it, and we agreed to a certain cut -- with lots of browns in it -- for the desk.

When we arrived home, we held the pictures up to the desk area and once again rejected what we saw.  The browns still did not match what we thought we had, and the new piece would have been terrible.  So for the third time, we contacted the cutters and told them that the slab would not work.

Our final choice: keep what we have and do what we vowed not to do.  We will install a thin piece of molding behind the granite on one side and keep the beautiful piece of granite that they originally cut for the desk.  In the end, this is the least of all evils.

Rick spent the afternoon searching for different types of molding, trying different designs and cuts, and rejecting everything he tried.  We eventually ended back at Home Depot to get a simple, smooth piece of molding that we can slip in behind the granite to fill the gap. It looks the best and will suit our needs.  Is this what we wanted to do? No, but it will be the best choice in the end.  I guess a little touch of molding on the side is better than a four-foot piece of granite that does not match the rest of the room.

A blurry but accurate depiction of the workbench we bought from Home Depot.

While we were at Home Depot, we also bought a small workbench that we can use downstairs.  The workbench is movable and will take the burden of projects off other pieces of expensive woodworking equipment.  Rick is using his Festool table and router table as workbenches, and that has to stop.  A new workbench will serve us all well, and since it is adjustable, Rick and Owen will be able to use it to build interesting things together.

This may not mean much to people who do not weave,
but weavers know how valuable this station can be.

Storage at the side for lease sticks and reeds is invaluable.

While we were waiting for the granite fiasco to work out, Rick was busy downstairs saving us lots of money by building us a bobbin-winding station for the loom.  He added a rack on the side to hold lease sticks and reeds for the loom, so now everything is together and accessible.  He did a great job and saved us at least $400 over buying a station and stand commercially.

This has been a trying week, but we are happy with the stand and content will our decision to keep the granite that the cutters originally brought to the house.  We just want this room to be complete, and hopefully by the end of next week, everything will be done.