Raincharm’s Weblog

With any home there are maintenance tasks. With a vacation home there are also maintenance items, but they can be more difficult to manage. For one, you’re only there for limited periods so scheduling can be difficult. Plus, problems may go unnoticed for a longer period of time.

This summer our list just keeps getting longer. Today progress, of sorts, was made on 3 tasks.

1. The sleeping porch step repair.

1. Powder Post Beetle eradication

The bug guy will be spraying the interior and hopefully exterior (weather permitting) of the 102-year old log cabin on Friday. This is the 2nd application. Many lessons were learned in the first application, mostly that clean-up can be a bitch. So in addition to covering furniture and removing everthing from the walls, in this version we are also covering the floors. This will hopefully result in 95% less mopping and scrubbing, although more garbage. We made a good start today and will hopefully finish most of the rest tomorrow. Then Friday morning we’ll complete the room where we sleep.

1. Kitchen floor

Houston, we have a problem!

We have started the process of trying to identify a contractor to devise a plan to correct this issue.

I’m tired just thinking about it.

There’s a “salty” in the parking lot to the right side of the picture. They’re waiting for a pilot to guide them through the Soo Locks and St. Marys River to Lake Huron.

It rained on and off today. But as good Seattlites we didn’t let that dissuade our activities. We even broke out the umbrella,  to carry so the rain gods would look elsewhere.

First up was finishing the troll hunt.

Leif was really tall. See Carl for scale.

Not really a troll, and in this story a bit of a villain. The Golden Rabbit is not made from scrap wood, but from scrap plastic and vinyl. He represents consumerism and you can use Alexa’s elixir to thwart him.

This was the last troll we saw and was located near the Otter Tail river. It was also along the North Country Trail. A cousin-in-law is very involved in NC trail maintenance, primarily in Michigan.

Leaving the Trolls behind we headed to Minneapolis for ….. drum roll please … a baseball game.  Minnesota Twins vs the Phillies. The Phillies won 9-1.

The game was okay. Except that we had some over-enthusiastic, over-drunk fans rooting for the Phillies just to the left of us one row down. They stood and yelled at any play.

The family to our left relocated. Their kids couldn’t see anything. And finally, in the 8th inning they were relocated by security.

What we did learn is that other stadiums are trying to fill the air with noise. This was our first visit to Target Field. The rating will be debated over the next day. We did attend a game in the Metrodome in 2002, which was also memorable, but for different reasons.

We changed time zones again. The windshield wipers were on for the first 100 miles, on the highest setting most of the time. But that was less than a third of the trip.

Detroit Lakes, our destination, has several Dambo Trolls. We had seen one on a prior trip and started there. Then we added 2 more.

Barefoot Frida was part of a much larger art project. Many more pictures for a future report.

There are still more trolls, but I was getting hangry so we checked into our hotel and found a grocery store.

And now we’re off to Minneapolis.

We have roughly 1200 miles under our belt (butts) at this time. We’re in North Dakota for the night. Knock on wood the trip has been largely uneventful so far.

The highlight was visiting with a friend who lives in Philipsburg Montana. It’s a bit of a dot on the map, but their home.

These are the parents of some of the first kids Carl cared for, although our initial connection was from playing soccer together. We were playing, not our kids. In fact before kids, so more than 40 years ago. I noticed they was had a team picture up in their kitchen. We had our copy on display during the World Cup. In truth, we only got to see Barb on this visit. Wade was off on a project in Colorado.

I started to do some relocating this morning. The garage had been designated as the giveaway staging area. That meant that some normal garage storage items were in the basement. Plus some basement storage locations had been convenience in the moment rather than what makes sense longer term.

Enough of the giveaway has passed through the portal for it to make sense to think about longer term storage locations. The timing was also likely spurred by the relocation of the crib to somebody else, not us. I believe they help families in need locating supplies.

First I moved leftover paint onto our old shelving unit. The paints had been in the garage since the major remodel. I’m not sure if 10-year old paint can be shaken/stirred hard enough to be usable. A few cans were light enough to be almost empty. Further culling of these is definitely a project for the near future.

Then some outdoor chairs and tents (not sleeping) made the move.

I decided the leftover linoleum was destined for the trash. That is until Carl recalled one of our artist friends does linoleum block printing. She’s going to come over tomorrow to see if it will be diverted from the garbage. I’m all for diversions of this nature, and am willing to wait another day or two.

What this means is that it’s probably safe to come over to our house without worrying that I will drag you to the garage and force our detritus onto you.

You know sometimes you see someone you know, and it’s them but a bit off. And then finally you realize why it was off.

Luckily I noticed pretty quickly this time

In other news, I took the Corolla to the car wash for the first time in a few years.

In the garage clean out activities the crib has finally left the building! We gave it to a couple who source supplies for families in need. I hope it works out well. Now I can move on to transferring garage type supplies out of the basement and into the garage.

Link to another blog for Harry’s joke at his birthday party

I’m not there in person to celebrate this auspicious occasion, but the other sisters will be. I am in awe.

I really should remember to take before pictures when I am doing work where progress is visible. But I didn’t, so all you get is an after. I also did some general between house weeding, including a rather large blackberry vine removal.  It will come back, I could not get enough of the root.

I also paid for a certified copy of my grandmother’s birth certificate. I’m not sure I will need it, but I had requested it a few months ago – and they did their work. The cost was presented in Candian dollars, and I paid with a credit card. Seeing the actual amount charged it appears the exchange rate is about 70 percent!

Carl took his friend Chris hitting with the old and then older guys. Chris qualifies as old, but not older. It sounded like he had a good time, but may need an ice bath later. Especially after 3 hours in the car on his drive south.