Major Historical Unearthment

I forgot to report on my most interesting historical discovery that I historically discovered in an interesting way yesterday.

I was removing the trim around the doorway from the hall into the dining room. As I pulled the piece off the north side of the door, I found this business card behind the trim.

We have lots of questions and only a few answers. The main question is why was this card placed behind the trim?

The writing on the back is the most intriguing to me. I assume the number on the top line is the model number of a corset and the price. The next line is a phone number. The last line is the biggest question because we have found no record of a Tracy family owning the house.

Did Mrs. Byrd Tracy drop by for tea one day and stow this card behind the trim, hoping to retrieve it later? Is a 23TR-38 Corset a good one? Does Dr. Armmori make house calls?

These and other questions will likely go unanswered. But I'm glad to have asked them.

Okay, here is a brief update. I found this on-line, dated Feb. 11, 1933. I'll have to check out the microfilm at the library of the Spokesman-Review from around that time and see if I can find any ads for Bartlett's Corset Shop.

Memorial Weekend Roundup

Welcome to the Memorial Day Weekend Wrap Up. It is the traditional start of Summer, the end of rain and of course, it rained!

We did a bunch of stuff this weekend and none of it was in honor of those who died to bring us Liberty. For that, we are ashamed and we clearly do not deserve the freedoms we so cavalierly enjoy.

So now I will talk about how we used our freedom.

Saturday I started a new job which will last me for the summer. I am working a booth at the Farmers Market for my friend Brian. He is in the coffee game and wants a presence at this market. I will work from 7 to 1 and hopefully make around $75.00 to $100.00 a day.

We will see how that goes.

I returned home to find Phil hard at work on the deck. It is mostly done at this point with just some minor items to complete.

Susan had to work on Saturday night so our interaction together was very limited. I tried to do some stuff with the trim around the stairs but screwed up all the wood I bought. I'm having a very difficult time making this all come together properly.

On Sunday we did some yard work, concentrating on the Arbor Vitae. They needed some serious tending to. I'm going to have to call my trimming guy and have him give them a clip.

We ended the day with our first trip of the year to Arbor Crest Winery for some music and wine and picnicking. Our friend Mark joined us. It was a mostly nice evening but got cold when the sun went down. Below is a picture of the rebuilt Riblet Mansion on the grounds of the Winery.

 After we had our fill of Arbor Crest, we returned home and enjoyed a lovely Stump Fire. The stump is of course long gone but I managed to pile a lot of debris onto the stump fire area and we had a wonderful time.

Susan finally had to excuse herself about 10:30 and stagger to bed. Mark and I remained out for another hour or so and then squelched the fire and called it a night. We did a very good job of consuming the debris pile.

Today we got up and I went out to buy three more boards for the new decking. We were just short of having enough to finish the stairs.

Susan then did some work upstairs on the new bookshelf while I removed trim on the main floor in the start of the next phase in the continuing saga of completing the entryway.

I shall now conclude with a note saying that the Volley Ballers have returned. We have not approached them yet.

Neighborhood Problems

A group of neighbors got together last night to discuss a problem in the park. I will preface this discussion by saying that it will be easy to conclude that this is a bunch of complaining white people. I'll give you that. It does not diminish our right to complain.

The problem is this. There is a group of people who have been coming to the park nightly. I think they are essentially one family with it's various offshoots. They are from the Marshall Islands.

When the weather is nice, they start to arrive about 5:30 and they go to the same spot. They set up a Volleyball Net and they have a great time until about 8:30 when they shut it all down.

None of this is a problem. They certainly have every right to be there and enjoy the park like anyone.

The problem is that they are there every night. They are not very good at cleaning up after themselves. They leave small amounts of random garbage and scattered chicken bones. They are slightly loud. They sometimes tie their net to freshly planted trees. They often drape clothing over the freshly planted trees. Their shear number and repetitiveness is starting to show on the lawn.

As neighbors, we decided we are going to approach them and politely ask that they rotate their location. The neighbors who are most affected by this group, Erez and Diane cannot sit on their front porch and enjoy a peaceful evening. They don't want them to leave, they just don't want them in that spot every night.

All we can do is ask.

We all realize that we have not much ground to stand on. We live on a public park. People, any people, can come to the park. Frankly, we welcome them. It is really wonderful to watch what a good time this family has.

Anyone of the items listed above is not a problem...except the litter. Together, they are a concern and the meeting last night was a group of neighbors from all around the park who wanted to address it before it gets out of hand.

Anyway, a group of us will approach them at the next opportunity we have. Considering the weather and the forecast, that could be a while.

I checked my little weather station this morning and a quarter of an inch of rain fell over the night. It is raining pretty good right now. More is coming. It will be a FABulous Memorial Day Weekend.

I shall end this White Devil diatribe with what a fellow blogger I know calls a Cyber Tree.

This is a Dogwood Tree located at the east end of the park. It will only be in bloom like this for a couple days more. It stands out like a giant pink sore blooming thumb among the greenery around it. It is really quite stunning!

Deck Work and the Rain

Thankfully the rain has returned. We went almost TWO DAYS without any and we were all becoming concerned. If it had not rained, we surely would have had to sacrifice a virgin or something.

The rain has been especially good if you are a fan of the Spokane River. The falls are unbelievable right now.

This picture is from the lower footbridge in Riverfront Park. The rapids are so strong that they are spraying up onto the bridge.

This picture shows the view of the river from the bridge. The power of the water is quite impressive.



Let us return now to what this blog is supposed to be about...the house.

I arrived home from work today to find my Yard Monkey, Phil busy at work on the deck. He had been working for quite some time trying to get everything lined out and lined up before starting to screw anything into place. That took him a couple of hours. He has had to do far more prep work on the frame of the deck than I had anticipated. I hoped it would be a pretty simple matter of removing the old decking and putting down the new stuff.  But that kind of luck has never been the case with anything we do here.

One of the things we discovered was that part of the deck had joists that were 2x4's. That might have worked in the olden days but not in these modern times. We used some 2x8's I had here and then I purchased a couple of 2x6's yesterday to complete the joisting.

We got an indication of how old the original deck is because those 2x4's actually measured two by four...what a concept!

Here is a nice before and start of the after picture of the decking going down. I know it is going to look fan-effing-tastic and it is clear that the cats like it.

Do the Hustle

One of my true strengths is accomplishing tasks after the fact. In that regard, I rode my bike to work today. Sure, "Ride your Bike to Work Week" ended on Friday but that did not dissuade me in riding my bike today.

I almost didn't make it this morning but decided to go for it. I over slept and knew that I really had to hustle if I was going to make the bus. I really made an effort to get downtown as fast as I could and I am still feeling a little shaky in my well honed legs. Well honed for sitting that is.

The one factor that really persuaded me to ride was the weather forecast. It does not look promising for the rest of the week and I really need to ride the bike more...perhaps turning the mythology of my well honed legs into somewhat of a factology.

I made it to the Bus Plaza with minutes to spare so now I know I can sleep as late as 6:10 and still make the bus at 6:42, but there will be "hustle" involved. That is not a word commonly associated with Stan.

A Grand Sunday

Susan was determined to complete her wall papering today and she won. I helped her but all I did was what I was told to do. The picture below shows the wall paper on the angled ceiling below the staircase. She did that in three pieces. There is one full width piece in the middle that runs to the top of the arch. The pieces on either side run from the top of the angled ceiling all the way to the floor.

Before Susan got started on the paper hanging, we took a trip to Windsor Plywood and purchased our decking. We have decided on a synthetic material called Rhino Deck. We spent just over a grand and it will be delivered on Monday or Tuesday.

I was able to pull up two large pieces of plywood that were secured securely to the framing. The rest of the plywood shown in the picture will come up easily because they are long thin strips. I already popped out a couple but decided to leave them until later in the week.



I am hoping that by weeks end, there will be new decking to show off.

My Armageddon Tired

You're reading this and I'm writing it so we are both still here. What does the dumb ass Ass Wipe Preacher Harold Camping have to say for himself now?

It has been an exciting day of much activity and accomplishment. So much so that we are going to celebrate and drink semi-heavily.

The day started with a bit of rain. But it was only a threat to remind everyone of the coming apocalypse.

We had our neighborhood Garbage dump day over at a nearby church with a huge parking lot. We filled 7 eight yard dumpsters before the scheduled time ran out. We had one dumpster filled by 8:45 and we weren't scheduled to start until nine.

We all thought it was very successful and we were amazed at the turn out. When you think about it though, OF COURSE it was successful. Free dumping right in your neighborhood. It would only get better if we gave away beer...and we'll think about that for next year.

It was great for Susan and I because I cleaned up a lot of crap that was starting to build up around the house. Now I can start all over again.

After the dump party, I hauled some stuff to the Habitat store and then borrowed an edger to...well, do some edging duh!

While all this was going on, the Wall Paper Master spun her web of paste and completed two very difficult paper installations, one of them (probably the most difficult) by herself.

Pretty impressive, if you ask me. And even if you're not asking, I'm telling you.

We ended the day with a jaunt downtown to enjoy the Lilac Parade. We were joined by friends Ron, Kelly and Mark.

What I find most enjoyable about the parade is that you can walk right into the Olive Garden without having to wait. They seated us right next to a window were we could look out and see what was going on.

After dinner, we went out and actually watched the parade from the sidewalk. I figure we are now good for a couple of years. Susan doesn't seem to figure the same as I.

Finally, I would like to extol the virtues of a good pair of work boots. The boots pictured below have been with me for over 30 years. I first bought them at a store called the Two Swabbies when I got a summer job working at a lumber mill in Coeur d'Alene.

I wore them everyday of that summer while I suffered through that miserable job. Miserable because it was hard work, and at 21, that was not something I was interested in. The mill is now a business mall, hotel and apartments.

Anyway, I have somehow managed to keep these boots with me through all that time and they still fit and feel great. They are not even close to wearing out.

That fact that I have worn them about 30 times over those 30 years is not really relevant.

Bike to Work Week - Or Not!

I am a huge disappointment to myself, my community, the country and yes, God. Well, the God one we all knew about. That will be rectified tomorrow when the world ends. Some nut ball preacher has figured out all the Bible code and declared that the world ends tomorrow. I'm glad I'm getting paid today. I don't think I'll be making out any bills quite yet.

The main reason I am such a giant failure is I failed to roll out of bed this morning in time to ride my bike to work. The Bedroom Gravity Well is a tough nut to crack. But you know what? I'm over it!

I am ready for a big weekend of activity. I have borrowed the truck from my buddy Rob and am ready to haul. There is a Neighborhood Trash Day Event tomorrow and I am taking advantage of the free dumping. I expect to make two trips.

I will gather up the copious amounts of feral debris, crap and rubbish inundating the estate and haul it the three blocks to the dump site. Then I will return and re-fill with the extensive earthen carnage (known jokingly as "Clean Green") I have created over the winter months and off load that bundle.

Then I will spend the rest of my morning helping to run the show at the Neighborhood Trash Day.

Once the afternoon arrives and becomes my own, I have a donation run to make to the Habitat for Humanity store. I'm sure I'll find a couple of other errands to run involving the truck.

The day will end with a hostage taking. Susan does not have to work Saturday night as she had anticipated and so I am required to attend the 109th running of the Lilac Interstate Parade and Jubilee in the downtown area of the Spokaloo.

it's probably not the 109th year of the parade, but it will seem like it. I'm sure the 109th will look exactly like the one tomorrow. I'm sorry for not being a huge parade booster, but if you've seen one...yadda yadda yadda.

Hops Growth

The nice weather has returned after a couple of torrential days. It rained over three quarters of an inch from Monday through Tuesday. It's nice to not have to water but it would also be nice to be outside. I have a deck to resurface for crying out loud!

I took a specific measurement on the hops yesterday in order to get an accurate reading for one day of growth. It grew four inches.

It's pretty amazing to watch this stuff grow. It seems you can actually watch it, which must be a huge part of down time in the Columbia Valley.

I realized (again) that it can be a mistake to fertilize. The lawn is really growing. All the rain has helped, I'm sure but the fertilizer contributed greatly as well. I'm close to having to mow every five days...which will be a drag if that comes to pass. I have a deck to resurface for the Love of Pete!

It's Bike to Work Week and I haven't taken part yet. I'll get it in tomorrow for sure. I tried today but realized I had too much to do at lunch time.

There is just so little time and so much deck to resurface for the sake of Christ, who died on the cross for our sins!

I am currently playing with my settings to see if I can fix the date problem I have been having.

I may have it solved. Let's see!

Yes! I just published it and saved it and it had the correct date of May 18th applied to it. I am an genious! I'm like a Blogging Savant!

Unfortunately, that's all I have for today.

Sunday with a Chance of Rain

What started out as a very nice day turned to rain by 1:30 so my project of the day got cut a little short. I was able to move on to another project and so it was a successful day around the house.

Susan had planned on hanging some very difficult wall paper but ended up with a plastering project that prevented her from continuing with the paper. Perhaps tomorrow.

I decided it was time to get something happening with the deck. I tore off the rest of the horrible outdoor carpet and then proceeded to removing bits of the decking...plywood really.

I needed to see the frame of the deck and see if it was going to work with the new decking I want to buy. There are a couple of ugly, rotting pieces of wood but it looks pretty good for the most part.

The rain cut short the deck work so I moved into the house and worked a some pieces of trim I have to cobble into place. It required lots of measuring and cutting little bits away and then returning to the measuring and then the cutting and then the measuring and then...you get the idea.

In the four hours it has been raining, we have seen a quarter inch of rain fall. I of course know this because of the WeatherRanger 5000. It is working well and capturing rainfall.

Below is a picture of the trim I replaced yesterday. The picture doesn't show it very well but it's that whole section starting on the right, continuing north to the little jog and then ending into the dining room bay window.

I am showing this off because I am happy with the job I did on the joints. I re-learned something I had un-learned a while back and then forgot. A compound miter joint is not a 45 degree cut. It's a 33 degree cut. That makes a big difference. How many joints have I screwed up over the years because I forgot that.

Probably only about two.

A Day of Accomplishmentation

It is just after nine in the morning and I am preparing for a day of accomplishment. Won't you join me?
First off, I have to turn off the computer and pull the CD/DVD player. It does not work and I need a new one. So I'm going to pull the old one out and make sure I get the right new one.

While I'm out, I'm going to "the Depot" to get some trim for item number one on "The List".

My third item to do while I'm out is to stop at the Farmers Market and check out my friend Brian's booth. He's in the coffee biz and he has a booth there. I may be helping him out during the summer by working the booth for him. I'll be checking that out and while it is the third item on this "to do" list, it's my first stop today.

Later in the Day:

Here is a shot of Brian's booth at the Public Market. It wasn't really busy but he was selling some coffee. I'm going to go down there again in two weeks and help man the booth.

I left the Market after about an hour and headed for the Home Depot to get the trim in need to fix Item Number One on "The List"!

I ended up going to three places, ending with Windsor Plywood, before I got the trim...and it isn't a match of the old stuff. It's close, but not quite. It has the same profile but it is about a quarter inch short in the width.

I had to replace a long string of the trim in order for it to look right. Now it looks right and I have officially crossed of the first item on the "The List!"

While I toiled in the lovely spring day, Susan continued hanging paper and is almost to the end. Tomorrow she is attempting the 45 degrees angled wall above the arch. That will be tense!

I bought the SuperStan-Climat-O-Tron 2000 a couple of years ago. It's my bitchin' Weather Station that I have in the kitchen. I put the collectors up on the roof and have pretty much left it alone. I had to climb the roof today to replace the batteries in the various Weather Apparati. It is all back together and running well so I am happy.

It looks like I got the Climat-O-Tron back on line just in time. The wind is starting to increase and the are some dark clouds approaching form the west. I'll have great data to share and this storm will live in Blogging History.

Yeah, I don't feel very self-important.

And then there is the DVD/CD player. There doesn't apper to be anything wrong with it now so I didn't need to get a new one...at least for now.

Out of Sinc

I have some issues with Blogger right now. 

I access this site through two different computers and I ran the upgraded version on my work computer.

I like to return to posts and edit them as I see fit, especially if I find a typo or something.

The new version of the Blogger software  updates the date of the post. So all of the sudden, the post I wrote about Bloomsday last week looks like I wrote it yesterday. I haven't been able to find the way to fix it so a few thing are not chronologically accurate...and that drives me nuts!

Editors Note: I figured it out the date thing. Everything should be cool. I shouldn't even write about it but I like to allow a look behind the curtain every now and then.

Mutha's Day

High five! Susan and I are quite happy with the results of our weekend. The Mother's were all pleased, we had a great time on the tour, and the house is all clean and ready for us to start making a mess of it all over again.

M.A.C. @ Corbin Park

The Northwest Museum Of Arts & Culture (Mac) has an annual fund raiser in the form of a Tour of Homes. They hold it every year on Mother's Day weekend. This year, after an 18 year absence, the Tour returns to Corbin Park. Our house is of course, not ready for this kind of scrutiny, but six others are.

Susan and I volunteered at one of the houses today. We just took our stations in rooms in the house to keep people moving in the right direction and offer some information about the home.

We went the extra mile and dressed up for the event.

Right off the bat, I had four comments that I look like Laurel and Hardy.

We will be going on the tour today with a gaggle of Moms. We are hosting Mother's Day Brunch at our house for five Mom's, all women I've known most of my life.

Normally I would mention something here about Susan's stress level, but everything seems to be under control. I expect a spike in the stress level just before one o'clock.

The Day the Boiler Went Dark

At 6:00 P.M. today I shut off the gas to the furnace. We will now save about $80.00 a month for the next four months. Hopefully, we can go five, we've done it before!

While I am not able to cross off anything from "The List", I can make a couple of check marks on a couple of items. I worked on the front flower beds a little bit tonight, and I cut a large portion of the stump into a smaller, much lower portion of the stump.

Star Wars Day 2011

May the Fourth Be With You! And also with you!

I was looking at the house a couple of days ago, taking a few pictures, and I remember thinking that the leaves on the trees are way behind this year. That was on Sunday, I think. In fact, if you look at the picture in the last post about the Rain Gutter, you'll notice the leaves and barely budded.

Here is how the leaves looked today. All of the sudden, they are everywhere. It won't be long now before they fall to the ground and clog up my Power Vac.

We are in Massive Clean Up Mode in preparation for Mother's Day and the big tour of homes around the park.

Our house is not on the tour but people will be stopping by.

I'm in charge of the upstairs and Susan is meticulously cleaning the main floor. I should probably stop writing this and get back to work. Eh! It's no biggy. She never reads this!

The List!!!

It is time to try an experiment. There is a lot to do around this house and I really want to get some of it done. But, we have a problem. I lack focus! So, how does one create focus?

That's Right! A List. You create a list of the things you want done. And so, I have scribed and dated

"The List".

It will serve as my guide for quick easy things to be accomplished.  It's dated so it will remind me how long I take to do stuff.

What follows now is a pictorial guide to "The List".

T

 Fix Squirrel Damaged Trim. I intend to fix it by replacing it.

 Remove stump and roots. "This will be a fun day", he said sarcastically.Easier said than done but it must be done. This area pictured above is the future home of some sort of bricked breezeway sort of thing. I want it bricked in the area where the hose is. It gets crappy light there and the grass grows poorly. Probably because it's in competition with all the roots!

 Clean the East Front Flower Bed. Lots of roots!

 Smell the Tulips. For the sake of momentum, it's important to have an item on the list that's easy to
cross off.

 Finish cleaning West Front Flower Bed. Yeah, Dumbass! Finish what you started!

 Move Arbor Vitae to Hole. See that Arbor Vitae on the right? See that hole back by the fence? I believe you get the picture!

Rain Gutter on Front of House. What I mean here is to install a rain gutter and place it on the front of the house...in an area that is consistent with the smooth operation of a rain gutter. I might even consider those decorative chains or something like that for the down spouts. I've already priced this job out and I can get the stuff for about $150.00.

Okay, I'm about to hit "Publish",upon which time the clock starts ticking on....

..."The List".

Bloomsday, May Day, Osama Bin Dead Day

Susan ran Bloomsday today and did it in one hour and twenty-two minutes and an unimportant number of seconds. As with every year, she is happy it is over. Now we move on to the next challenges life has to throw at us. Next up, Mother's Day and the Tour of Homes on that weekend.

Today was pretty much a waste as far as getting anything done. I went canoeing while Susan ran and had fun doing that. Then I scurried back downtown to get a table at the traditional post Bloomsday feast. We drank quite a portion of beer and then came home and napped.

We woke up around five and managed to get ourselves together enough to go across the park and enjoy a party one of our neighbors was having. Diane and Eraz moved in last year. As you might guess from his name, Eraz is not from here. He is Israeli. That is, until today. He became an American Citizen after quite a long ordeal.

On a day when we were able to celebrate a new citizen, it was appropriate and poinient to celebrate the demise of Osama Bin Laden. We got the news late in the evening of some announcement coming from the President. After 45 minutes of speculation by the various news outlets we watched, President Obama came on the tube and made the announcement.

This is not the type of thing you would want to go out and start partying about, but I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over the death of that Asshole.