No great news

I should tell you stories about my mom.  One day in late winter my mom went outside to talk to the neighbor but didn't come back for a long time.  My parents got a dog that was  rather large puppy and all black.  Turned out after he grew up that he was a cross of a Saint bernard and a black lab, black color with st Bernard  temperament. A big loving playful  dog. This dog delayed my mother by rolling knocking her down and rolling her around in the snow, the more he aged, the more she laughed and couldn't get up. When she finally came in she was covered in snow and still laughing. 

One of the times she was in the hospital we stopped and got her breakfast and donuts with all the layout to make it fancy.  She started to laugh and the nursing staff thought she was getting hysterical, came on the double just to see her all happy and enjoying her breakfast. 

During on visit we decided to pull an all nighter, which excluded a trip to an Embers, where we sat with friends enjoying the chatter.  

Finally writing

Been busy and couldn't think of anything to say. Fell last week on the ice under the snow, messed up my knee. The cool part was two passing cars stopped to help me up, had to crawl past the ice before I tried to get up.  My neighbor took care of the snow and I had a brace for my leg so I  have been wearing it since. 

When I get up in the morning go to get the coffee started, I look out the window at the neighbor's roof.  I remember having to get the torch to thaw out the galvanized pipes at the farm so we could have water.  Old farm house was not insulated and had single layer glass in the windows, the frost would get almost 3/8ths of an inch thick. If you wanted to see out you'd blow on the window till the frost became clear enough to see through.  

Heating with wood means having to get up in the night to fill the furnace which is no fun. Hate getting out of bed in the middle of the night.

Christmas I Remember

The Christmas I Remember most is when we were really broke. Dad found some old toy trucks, fixed them up for my brother. Made a kitchen set from salvaged parts making cabinets for it. I remember helping him, what little I could as a young child, dad did not have the patience to work slow enough for kids to help. I know from experience that a kid helping is often more work than doing it yourself. I don't remember what I got that year I just remember working with him.  

One year we got so excited about what we might get that we opened everything on the 23rd, made Christmas day a let down. 

Hope you all had a good holiday.

Things I Remember

I remember a barn raising after a storm took the roof off.  A cattle drive to get our just bought cows from a few miles away.  A crop harvest for a farmer who was ill.  A wall phone that requires you to crank a certain way to get the person you want (one long crank, two short sort of thing). AN ice house where you put the ice you cut off the lake in the winter.  A time when calling on the phone to someone out side your town often required an operator and cost according to the distance.  A one room school house where I had first grade.  No emergency services so going to the ER ment driving fast.  Single pane windows so the frost could get to be a quarter inch or more thick.  Winters that are sooo could, I remember a winter with a wind chill hit -59 degrees.  The DNR had an orange truck that someone had to go out and run every hour, they forgot and slammed the truck door shut, hear a crack, looked out to see the snow turned orange....make truck.😉

Trips

Growing up my family took trips, mostly to see the extended family. Grandparents and cousins in Wisconsin and Minnesota, had reunions on both mom and dad's sides. I remember dad miscounting how many ice cream cones to get, shorting himself. Once he didn't realize the drivers window was up and smashed the cones I to it.  One time we could find an ice cream place but found a place that had milk in bottles like soda pop, we thought that was cool so got lots of chocolate milk.  Visiting dad's sister's in southern Minnesota we lost my brother out the car door when we did a quick turnaround, boy did he look surprised sitting there on the ground.  We lost mom's purse on this trip going down the road.  When dad got the new van he got home late on Friday and we walked down the driveway through the snow just to ride around in it.  We wanted to show it off to the grand parents and dad in his worked all day then drove two hours home drove the four hours to see them.  

I was suspected of murder

We moved into our first house in 1978, after we moved in the giant elm tree in the front yard was marked for removal by the city.  Dutch elm disease was spending across the country, ours had it and removal was the only way to stop the spread.

One day I came home from work work and the tree was gone, leaving a big stump.  A few days later I came home to find a huge pile of saw dust and wood chips. Julia had hired a guy with a stump grinder to take care of the stump.  My day off job was now to clean up all the grindings.  After I got them shoveled up I noticed that the roots were still there just below the surface, going down lower.  Julia went to work in the back yard while I started to dig. I had a nice two foot wide about six feet long trench with me standing in it up to my knees.  I noticed that people going by were looking at me weird.  I finally caught them looking down the driveway into the back yard then looking at me and taking off. Julia was laying on the ground, her back was bothering her from all the yard work.  My words to Julia "you can't lay in the yard, people think I killed you and are burying you in the front yard".  

Mom

Stories of our mom.  

Mom once wanted to walk from the front of the property to the back through the woods. She figured it would be cool as it was out of the sun but it also out of any breeze. It became a phrase that you don't go walking with mom or riding with dad.  When I went to school in Superior WI mom went up to talk to the financial officer, his last day in that office.  When he got to Spooner Wi mom was the first person there, so I got the aid.  

We had a Plymouth with a push button transmission so she would let  my sister drive us to the lake to swim. 

I don't know how she managed the chaos in the winter with us playing in the house. Sometimes we would chase around the middle of the house on little trikes. When we got older dad had brought home a pool table that we set up in the living room, got pretty good at it.

Once we were going somewhere in Roseville MN, following mom's direction she had me take a right on this country road then left on the that road. This had me going through a bank drive through back out on the street we stared from, all she said was that's the way we went before. I wonder why dad would get upset on trips.  Mom like to have extra people around, she would take her friend along when they went to a reunion by Brainerd to be dropped off 100+ miles southwest of there. I don't think she understood distance. I did this run once just to find out when we got to where she wanted to be that the people where not home they were in the second town we passed through on this trip.  Yeah like I really wanted to drive an extra few hundred miles out of the way. 

Bert Stories

Dad was going to take Don and Laura for ice cream in Mankato MN, before it was built up on top of the hill.  He was flying up and down the hills and Don says, "you don't have to be in hurry".  Dad replied, "I not, I just don't have any brakes".  Don told me this story, I guess he never forgot it.  

One day on the Lake Crystal farm dad had to take a trailer for the car to go get something but he didn't have a license for it. He cut an inch off all the boards front and back, sure the police pulled him over. He told him he just made it and didn't have time to get a license, officer bought it and dad was free to go.  

Once an officer pulled him over for speeding, officer said, "if you weren't speeding you would be a lot farther down the road", dad says "yeah but I wouldn't of had the pleasure of meeting you".  Officer laughed, says, "oh get out of here" and gave him back his license.

Dad bought the 67 Chevy Van, got him very late after a snow storm and couldn't get up the driveway. All of us wadded through the snow down our long driveway, went for a ride around a little. Some how the conversation got to going to Madelia to see the grandparents and show the new vehicle. Got to Madelia in the wee hours of the morning, always admired dad's stamina, driving two hours home then four hours to Madelia after working all day.

My cousin thought the van was cool, dad had put a seat on the front for one kid to sit up front, and a TV on the back of the engine housing. The engine was between the two front seats under what they called a dog house. When we traveled we had a mattress behind the back seat so we could play around or sleep, great times. 

Dad would find deals on things, like bananas or portatoes (150 pound bag) and fill the van with people's orders. One time dad had to hit the brakes hard and a huge sack of potatoes went through the passenger side of the windshield, police asked where the body was, dad pointed to the potatoes. 

One time dad bought a chicken coup, had to move it himself, he built a brace across the inside, put a whole in the bottom for his feet and walked it down the road. A car saw this chicken coup slowly moving by it self, pull over, driver went over and looked in the door, started to laugh, said, "I should have known". 

When living in Staples dad had a nik name of speedy, and not for his driving, because he chased down a fox on foot.

That's it for now.

Dad without the war

Dad had quit school after the eighth grade to and went to work to provide for the family.  The family moved into a house that had been occupied by people that had the 1918 flu. Notice I don't call it the Spanish flu as it was everywhere but Spain was the only one to report how bad it was, everybody else was afraid the reports would make their country look weak. World War one was going on. Everybody got sick and dad's father died, working to take care of fourteen kids wore him down.  Dad would work, bring the money home and take a little for himself.  He would go to the junk yard every week and buy pieces to build a motorcycle. He would use it to get to jobs around southern Minnesota. The bad thing about this is he liked to go fast and would over shoot the turns on the road, remember the roads were just paths through the country.  His ability to see something them go copy it kept him out of at least one demonstration, which he thought was funny.  They told him he couldn't come in because "he would just go home and build his own".  

I remember a cattle drive when we first got to Webster, Dad deciding he was going to put in a road through the woods, the time he bought all of us an ice cream cone but forgot himself, the story behind the new van and the four hour trip, taking care a robin and her nest, his lawn mower trying to pass us going down the highway, etc.... Will have to do these stories later, I'm short on time today.

Power door system

I have been working on the front door system for a couple of weeks, work isn't hard, reading Chinese is.  The maker of this unit provided lots of stuff, motion sensors, badge reader, badges, remote Fobbs, and a basic instruction book with bad English and mistakes in the diagrams.  Had to reinstall it after I realized the instructions don't show an offset hings.  Putting in the 110 volt power wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Now it is set with the wall switch, badge reader, and fob, still have to put in the power lock and create a code to buzz in or use the card reader. 

It is so nice to be able to come in and out with out a lot of trouble, Julia likes the ease and I keep watch for Chip the Monk to make sure we don't have a visitor.

Have the railing on the wherechair ramp painted, touched up the planters, chase Chip the monk away alot. Chip has a pal we call Bobby, has a short tail. 

Next big project outside is to rebuild the arbor, years have been tuff on it.

Memories of Dad

I once met dad's Army buddy, we were going into Webster.  I was in the middle seat, the buddy says this is like driving truck in the war...only we couldn't use lights and we had to find the road by hanging out the window and the Germans were shooting at us. Dad once had to dig seven fox holes in one night as the shelling kept getting close.  One shell landed in the front of his six ton truck with him in a fox hole behind it.  Any wonder he ended up deaf.  

He used to scavage parts to make generators to supply his company  electricity. He would tell everyone what size bulb they could use so they wouldn't overload the system. Of course they had a smart ass lutenant that put in a hundred watt bulb because he wanted, this would always blow the breakers.  When dad finally found the bad bulb he march into the guys tent and smashed the bulb, told the guy if ever did it again dad would make sure he wouldn't get any electricity.  End of problem!  He was in a fox hole once when a luey threw a match in on him, dad jumped out, stuck his rifle in the guys gut and told him. Next time you try to kill me again I will kill you first....guy looked surprised.  Dad said gas tends to acqumilate in the bottom of fox holes and you were trying to burn me to death.   He got an apology and a promise that it wouldn't happen again.   He was once hunting generator parts, was stopped by M.P.'s.  They told him he couldn't go into that town as it was still occupied by the Germans. 

He made deals with the locals for eggs and milk and made five gallons of ice cream, then found out that all but three guys were given leave that night...they had to sleep with four blankets on the bed and still froze.  His helmet fries sounded interesting.  He bent the visor over and sharpened it so he could just scrap the potato over it and it would peal it off and into the cooking grease in the helmet. 

Fighting in the mud, his rifle got jammed and blew up, took off some fingers that they put back on.  This is when he met Jimmy Cagney the actor.  In his life he had nine finger blown off or chopped off and put back on, one he just put in place put bag balm on it and bandaged it as he couldn't get to a Dr.    

Planter from old pallet

 

This is the pallet with box attached that we got from the local hardware company, big box store.  They didn't want it  and I thought it would make a planter that Julia could drive up to in her wheelchair.

I had some old Styrofoam from packing boxes that I put in to insulate the sides from the cold Minnesota winters.

 After the insulation I lined the inside with old vinyl siding and aluminum taped the corners to keep the insulation dry.  The bottom has drainage holes in it to let out excess water. 

Then I vinyl sided the whole thing so it would look good  I am using salvaged parts as much as possible.

I bought two pieces of treated trim boards for the top trim to finish it off and protect the edges of the box.  Wild strawberries are already in it.  

Julia putting in the strawberries before the trim, winding day.

Nothing major to write about

We started a go fund me page to try and get Julia's wheelchair paid off and get a wheelchair van as getting transportation to the doctor is very difficult. There is only one company that will take her in her wheelchair, the  chair even has built in to downs on it.   Please go to GoFundMe and check Julia Morrill's page, share it with social media and help us   Doug

Pallet to planter

Just a note to say I am going to be making a raise plant out of an old pallet I found at Northern Tool.  I will be using other old pallets to reinforce it and putting old siding on and in it.  Stay tuned.  Doug

Trampoline in the Washing Machine

The broken spring on the washing machine has thrown the machine out of balance so when it does the final spin it really slams around. I did some checking on the internet and they gave me the impression that the main bearings were shot so I bought a new set of bearings and a new drive belt. After I opened the machine it was easy to see the spring was broken. After I ordered a new spring I remembered that the neighbor once gave us an old trampoline so, I went to the storage and brought one up.  As you can see the trampoline spring is longer. The temporary spring does hold the drum up but since it's longer I have to pull it over to one side.

I am getting ready to run the washer. I have the machine connected to the garden hose, cold only, plugged it into my outside power.  Ran a load with the drain hose on the ground, the machine is on my furniture mover.  It ran a full cycle with no trouble but I can hear that there is something in the drain filter, which I didn't know the machine had, so I will have to get the pliers and pull the drain hose off to get at the filter.  This will be an annoying job but not impossible.

Can't afford power door opener

I wanted to make it easier for Julia to get in and out the front door but could not afford a power door opener. I put an eyelet in the top left corner of the door, another in the bottom of the shelf where the door stops when full open. I ran a clothes line rope through the eyelet under the shelf to the one in the door, tied it off at the door​, put a weight on the end.

Moving tulips

I have been trying to get the tulips out of the roses. They didn't start out that way the roses just kept coming out till they took over the whole area. It is hard to dig a must the roses without getting scratched.

Gas Works

This is the start of the gas works, they were nice about it all and dug up the flowers before digging the hole.  Then they drove the new line horizontally to the back yard to connect with the new line across the front yard.  They re-plumbed the gas line into the house for the new pipe.

After they finished they filled in the hole and packed the dirt back down, if the don't sod over this I will be able to plant flower  bulbs and level it off myself.

Making a storage shelf unit

This is the pocket jig I use on all the boards to hold the shelves in and the ends where the belong.  The main body is glued in the corners and at the base.

This is as far as we got when the weather looked like serious rain.  We also started to make mistakes, so time to quit till we got rested.

Onions by the deck