Janie's touches of color & projects

 

A house can be built, and sometimes, even occupied and

still never feel like a home.  If the company we've had over the

years can be considered truthful, then we have been able to

achieve just that, a homey feel.  Many people who visit

volunteer comments about two things, the "Peace"

they feel, and the "warm homey feel".

If we've achieved anything, it's because of

Janie's touches and attention to detail.

 

Below is our front door in 2009. 

We had not yet decided whether to stain or not.

 

 

This year, Janie had finally decided to stain and with what color.

Color is very important to her.  Not so much to me.

So this Summer, she began to stain the outside logs.

I was used to the unfinished poplar logs, but this

shade of gray has quickly grown on me.

 

 

As I write, she has completed about 50% of the house.

See how the chinking stands out now?  I like it.

Then there is the question of the balance of the house,

porch and garage. 

 

I'm not much with a brush.  She is.

Can you see the difference below?  Does it show

in the picture?

 

 

 

Brush work is not her only contribution to home deco.

From ducks, fishing baskets and what-nots, ........

 

 

 

to her crock collection artfully arranged.

 

The problem with an "artsy" wife is that she likes to

arrange and rearrange often.  Just about the time I get used to

a look, she moves it all around, adding little things here and there.

Like that old kettle with flowers in it.

 

Flowers are a particular favorite of Janie's.

Here's her front yard garden.  (And a cat)

 

 

Orange ones.  (Sorry, I can't name them)

 

 

Red ones ..........

 

 

Yellow ones ..................

 

 

and stone ones.

 

 

These are one of her latest creations.  "Stone" steps

in the garden.  She's made them from mortar and broken

dishes and other stuff around the house.

 

 

Here's a few from the walk in the garden.

 

 

Last month we had some guys from Israel for dinner.

Janie quickly painted this little sign to greet them

to the left of the entry.  It's hung from a cobblers

shoe form.

 

Close up

 

There are tons more things she had made, painted

or asked me to make, but this will be enough for now.

I'm very proud of her and her abilities.  Perhaps later

I will post a few of her water color paintings. 

 

It's good to have someone who can do all the things she does.

Plant on a chair, on pegs, on a wall.

Aaah, Montana in the Spring

In April I was given the opportunity to fly to Montana, 

The university has a geology camp where student go to dig up,

break and look at rocks.  I was there to meet with the state

fire marshal, the local fire chief and so on.

I've posted a few of the pictures I took.

 

We flew into Bozeman.

 

 

 

 

Bozeman had all the regular stuff one would expect to find, the difference being,

Bozeman had a much more interesting backdrop of mountains.  On our way

to the camp, we encountered a sand /rain storm.  Very odd.

I found lots of old log buildings, most falling down.  No telling how old they are.

Here's a black and white just for my daughter.

 

 

 

A lonely house amidst nothing else.

 

 

The road to Pony Montana.

 

 

I saw a few ranch entrance's but no actual ranches.  The drives were very long.

 

 

Here is the drive to a residence.  No house was seen, but it surely was

large judging by the expensive entry gate.

 

 

 

We spent some time driving in the mountains looking for bear. 

We didn't see any but did miss seeing one in the camp.  Pictures are never as good as being there, so this shot fails to present the true grandeur of the site. 

 

 

 

Up toward Hollowtop Mountain, I found the river.  Awesome scene.  (My favorite shot)

 

 

 

It snowed two inches one morning.

 

 

 

The camp looking North.

 

We found this tent set up near the top of a mountain. 

 

 

Snow melted the next day.

 

 

 

A parting shot, leaving for the airport back to Indiana.

 

Another post in the same month!!!! Fire Department Training

 

This is a picture (A rather poor picture) of one of the Greek houses on campus.

It was scheduled to be torn down Summer 2013.  The city's training chief approached me about contacting the owners to see about using it for fire department training.  Which we did.

 

 

 

This simple training effort grew into a real state wide event, that included the state's Task Force, National Guard and a couple groups from Israel!!  (How often does that happen?)

 

The main group from Israel is called: "Home Front Command"

(Dark green) Three engineers from Israel preceded the main group.  These three, prepared the sited used during the drill, that included the above frat house, an unused building used by the university and an old Post Office in the city. 

 

 

Here's the frat house as it would be after a major tornado.

 

 

 

The various crews worked to flatten the house, creating voids where mannequins

were hidden.  The three locations varied in construction type.

Here's a victim, can you see him?

 

 

Busted up frat house.

 

 

A main function was for crews to build supports in order to be able to

search in relative safety.

 

 

 

They used many sheets of plywood and 4x4's

 

Here's the Operations Chief and an engineer from Israel.

 

 

A fire department crew

 

 

Retribution!!  You are sooo blogged right now.

 

 

This activity attracted lots of attention from the public.

Several apparatus on the streets.

 

 

It took time to mobilize the groups and equipment. 

 

Finally some heavy equipment arrived to do the major lifting.

 

 

 

Guard on guard!

It was hot!  about 90 at 1600hours.

 

 

Jane and I had Israeli guests for dinner before the training.

Very nice folks in deed.

 

 

This type of training is rare due to the expense and availability of

buildings and so on.  I was pleased to be a part of it.

 

I spent the majority of time at the command center as

Command Staff Safety Officer.

 

Here's a couple guys from Israel.

We will look them up if we ever return to Israel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boats on the water,................

 

 

In February we drove to Kentucky to look at this old boat

for sale on Craig's list.  The guy wanted $1,200 for it, we

offered $600 and settled at $650. 

I knew it needed work and all, but that's what we were looking for.

The floor was rotted out in places, wires hanging all over the place,

torn up seats and in general, very ugly!

 

It's a 1971 Glastron

 

 

 

It didn't occur to me early enough to take pictures of the boat as it was when

we first got it, but I started taking pictures of the progress in May.

We had driven through a snow storm from Kentucky and everything

about the boat was frozen.  Even the floor was frozen, giving the

impression that it wasn't in bad shape.  It was.

 

 

 

We installed a new plywood floor, covering the holes.

It's very solid now.  1/2" ply glued and screwed in place.

 

 

The boat when new didn't have this part, but I thought it

looked better with all that hidden behind a door,

creating an "aft" compartment.

 

 

Bad garage lighting, but this is the fiberglass drying over the new floor.

 

 

 

 

The side boards cleaned up nice!

 

 

The carpet went down fairly easy.  See the holes where a radio was. 

Maybe you do, but I don't go out on a lake to listen to music. 

The sound of the waves is music enough to me.

 

 

Carpet in the "glove" compartment covers a multitude of sins.

 

 

 

The white vinyl dashboards may end up becoming brown. 

I was trying to match the seats, but maybe brown would have looked better.

We bought new/used seats from a guy in Westfield at a great savings.

 

 

One of the last things we did was change the look of the bow,

by installing carpet over the red vinyl that was there. 

I have no way of telling if it was original or not.

The boat is 42 years old, so I'm sure it's had several

add-ons and fix-ups.

 

 

 

This is an odd angle, but shows the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

So, here's our sea trials on Lake Lemon.

Motor sounds good, ran good.