Category Archives: home

2025, Family, History, home, Uncategorized, Weather

A Thing Of The Past

40 Comments

For the first time ever we have an insulated three stall garage with copius built-in cupboards and cabinets. It has yet to get below freezing out there.

There is some trouble in paradise, however, since the cupboards take up so much space that Husband’s pickup is too long to fit in the garage. He is happy to park it outside, but he is concerned how to make sure it can start on the coldest days.

When he worked on the Fort Berthold Reservation he had an electromagnetic thingy that attached to the engine block and kept everything nice and warm. The only problem with one of those now is that he has to crawl under the truck to attach it, and he isn’t that limber anymore. It also needs to be removed before you drive the vehicle. I phoned a local car repair place and asked if the still installed block heaters, something that he could easily just plug in. They hemmed and hawed and told me that block heaters are a thing of the past but they could install one. I declined, as they sounded so hesitant. We went to NAPA and got another electromagnetic thingy and he will deal with it. It is on the oilpan now. If he has trouble crawling out and standing up I will help him.

For some reason, this put in my mind a conversation I had with a directory assistance operator I had in the early 1980’s when we lived in Winnipeg. This was before computer search engines. I needed the phone number for the Curtis Hotel in Minneapolis. We had stayed there on our honeymoon a year or so before and were planning a trip to the Cities. The operator told me there was no such number. I argued with her that there must be, and she finally got exasperated with me and said “Ma’am, they blew it up!” I had missed that news.

What have you discovered to be obsolete? Any memories of the Curtis Hotel? Do you have an engine block heater?

2025, Family, History, holidays, home, Kids, Music, Uncategorized

Family Music

46 Comments

Husband and our 7 year old grandson spent most of Thanksgiving Day in the basement messing around with various string instruments. Grandson brought the three-quarter size guitar we got him in the summer. He and his Opa (Husband’s German name. I am Oma.) practiced tuning the guitar and his cello to eachother, and Opa taught him the difference between bass and treble clef, and that you could play the same tune in both clefs. Grandson also noodled around on the piano upstsirs using the sustain pedal until it got too annoying and we had to have him stop. He actually asked Opa if they could “jam” next time.

During the afternoon, grandson came upstairs and excitedly announced “Opa is teaching me finger picking”. He is to start piano and guitar lessons in the spring. At home he likes to just strum his guitar once a day and practice trying to play chords. He also thought Opa’s cello was pretty cool.

I learned cooking, gardening, and that History was a most interesting subject from my grandparents. Grandson wants me to make tirimisu with him one of these days, and loves to cook with his parents. I am so glad we can help foster these interests, as they really make for a satisfying life.

What skills did your older relatives and grandparents teach you? What names did you use to address your grandparents?

2025, Family, home, Music, Uncategorized

Misplaced

23 Comments

Except for thirty banker’s boxes full of books, we have unpacked everything else from the move. We are awaiting the arrival of seven bookcases sometime next week.

There are a few things that we can’t find, and I doubt they are in with the books. I am missing the widemouth graniteware funnel I use to fill canning jars. The cornstarch container has gone missing. Snow scrapers for the truck are nowhere to be found. All of those are easily replaced.

Husband was distressed earlier this week, however, when he couldn’t find his cello endpin anchor. It prevents the cello from sliding out from underneath him when he plays it on a wood or laminate floor. I found some on Amazon, but they would take several days to arrive, and he really wanted to try out the cello . We searched all over with no luck, and then I got what I thought was a brilliant idea for a temporary solution. The plug for the kitchen sink broke shortly after we moved in, and we went to Ace Hardware in town to get a replacement. Since we weren’t exactly sure what one would work the best so we bought a couple of different kinds. I remembered that one we had stored under the sink would work great for an endpin. It was rubber and perfectly shaped if put upside down:

He was so happy to play his cello. I will order some real endpins, as he always seems to misplace them, but this will work well for now.

What have been some of your memorable misplacements? What have been some of your more brilliant ideas?

2025, animals, Games, home, pets, Uncategorized

Annoying Pet Games

32 Comments

We have owned various terriers since 1989. One thing we have learned with them is that everything in life is a series of games, dead serious games that must be played to their fullest.

Our current Cesky Terrier is no exception. If he isn’t tugging viciously with his Wubba and dashing its brains out, he is chewing vigorously on his squeaky ball and tossing it around the room at our feet. You can see it in the header photo. We used to get him squeaky yellow tennis balls, but he can eviscerate those in 10 minutes, so we got him the rubber Kong ones. Those last a couple of weeks.

The dog would tell you that our frustration with his current obsession of tossing the balls at our feet while we sit in the livingroom is entirely our fault. We should have taken him and his squeaky ball to the furniture store in Sioux Falls when we bought the new sofa. arm chair, and matching ottoman. Then we could have made sure there was enough clearance under the furniture for his ball to roll under and for it to hit the wall and roll back out, or for us or him to retrieve it easily. As it is, he tosses the ball, he tries to grab it before it rolls under the sofa, and if he misses, it is stuck and he sits and cries until we retrieve it for him. This means we can use the Swiffer floor sweeper to sweep it out, get down on our hands and knees and reach under and grab it, or move the furniture. This happens multiple times a day. It is exhausting.

I tried to solve the problem by stuffing thin throw pillows under the sofa and chair to block the ball. We haven’t enough of them for all the fronts and sides of the furniture, so I plan to buy swimming pool noodles and cut them to size and see how that works. The games must go on. The only thing worse than a gaming terrier is a bored terrier.

What are your favorite games to play? How about your pets?

2025, Family, home, Poems, Uncategorized, Weather

Hiawatha’s Snowblower

39 Comments

We had about 8 inches of snow last week. Husband was prepared, and had even gone so far as to buy a pair of Carhartt overalls to have ready when he had to clear the snow. He decided he would only wear the overalls with his biggest snow boots and thickest socks while he operated the snowblower. For all the other outdoor tasks like filling the bird feeders, shoveling the deck, and walking the dog he would wear warm pants and his hiking boots with thinner but warm socks. The Carhartt’s are rather voluminous and don’t allow for as much freedom of movement required for the non-snowblower tasks. It was clear in his mind he would do the latter tasks first, and finish up with the snowblower and his change of outerwear. The Carhartt’s were too long to wear with anything but his snow boots. The thick socks were too thick for the hiking boots, so they required thinner socks.

Husband got somewhat disorganized, and thought he had finished all the pre-snowblowing tasks and had changed into the warm clothes only to find that the batteries for the snowblower weren’t fully charged, so he methodically changed back into the less warm clothes, boots, and socks. The socks are a big issue, as Husband really struggles to put on his socks due to carpal tunnel and arthritis in both his hands. Once the tasks were done and the batteries charged he again changed into his snowblower uniform. He did a really nice job outside, but it sure took him a long time.

Perhaps it is because we are now in Minnesota, or that we live just south of Pipestone (home of the now defunct Song of Hiawatha pageant), as I watched Husband change in and out of his outdoor work costumes and get ready for the tasks at hand, I was reminded of Lewis Carroll’s parody on The Song of Hiawatha, called Hiawatha’s Photographing. The poem uses the same laborious cadence as the original poem. It describes a 19th century man trying to take family photos. It is really funny. It is readily available on-line. As you read it, imagine a similar parody about getting ready to clear snow.

What are some of your favorite parodies? How do you clear your snow? Any thoughts about Longfellow?

2025, Family, home, Media, Music, Technology, Uncategorized

Surround Sound

49 Comments

The former owner of our home runs a satellite communication company that provides TV and entertainment systems to health care/senior living facilities and hotels nationwide. His office is right on Main Street. He and his wife insisted that the three televisions in the home had to stay when we bought the house. They are hard-wired into a myriad of cables that run through the walls and from upstairs to downstairs and out of doors. They also left us several DVD players and stereo receivers.

There are six speakers upstairs in the ceilings of the kitchen, dining room, and living room, along with three speakers in the garage, and two attached to the house in the backyard. The ceilings in the basement bedrooms and family room also have speakers, and another huge room in the basement has several speakers in the ceiling and walls.

The header photo shows the main controls for this sound system. It resides in a cupboard in the kitchen. One can choose what part of the house you want to have sound from the radio, TV, DVD. CD, computer, or any other media player you can figure out how to hook up to the main system. The former owner graciously came over last week to show me how to operate the system. I gave him a package of lefse. It is complicated. I am a successful trial and error button pusher, so I think I will figure it out. eventually.

When did you get your first sound system? What did it consist of? What music do you think we should play on the outdoor speakers?

2025, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized, Words

Cooking With Gas

47 Comments

One major adjustment to living in our new house is relearning how to cook with a gas stove. My parents had a gas stove until I was about 18 when we moved to a new house and they had a glass topped stove installed.

My mother instilled in me a fear of gas stoves. In her mind they were just bombs waiting to explode. I know there are lots of safety features in these stoves now, but I still am anxious. With a glass stove top, spilling liquids or having drips from lids that are slightly askew is no big deal. On one of my first forays into using the new stove last week I spilled a very small amount of water near a burner and it wouldn’t ignite, just clicked with no flame until a few minutes had passed and the water evaporated. We are being much more careful as we cook so we don’t spill on the stove top.

It is hard for Husband to hear the igniting clicks if he doesn’t have his hearing aids in, so I find myself surreptitiously monitoring his stove use. I hope I can relax as we get more experience with this stove. It cooks things really well and we seem to have more control as we cook and bake. The phrase “Now you’re cooking with gas!” was a marketing slogan to encourage people to switch from wood or coal burning stoves to gas stoves in the 1930’s. It then became a general idiom to indicate the someone was doing really well. I hope we can “cook with gas” as we learn to cook with gas.

What are your experiences with gas stoves? Any favorite idioms or sayings?

2025, animals, Fantasy, home, Media, Uncategorized

Optical Illusions

14 Comments

Earlier this week I thought of this song as I watched our dog navigate the space in our new home:

How much is that dog in the credenza?

The one with the beard that is grey.

How much is that dog in the credenza?

Why won’t he come out and play?

Kyrill hasn’t had much opportunity to look into mirrors until now. We had this curio cabinet with a mirror that we kept in the basement in our old house. The new house has more space upstairs, and we could move the cabinet upstairs. Kyrill saw the dog in the mirror, wagged his tail at it, and spent much of a day peering into it. He really loves playing with other dogs and wanted the dog to come out.

Kyrill’s breeder told me that his show Ceskys love to parade back and forth in front of hotel room mirrors. I wonder if they know that it is them or think it is some other dog?

What are your favorite optical illusions? How have your pets reacted to mirrors?

2025, Food, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Bye Bye Summer

29 Comments

I swear I’m not doing yet another blog about hand pies, despite the header photo. 

A discovery was made a couple of weeks ago that if I ask Alexa to play “You Butter My Bread” by the Divers, I will get a nice mix of songs that remind me of TLGMS.  Some of the songs are actually TLGMS favorites.  

Yesterday morning, while I was making something that I’ve promised I won’t mention, I made my request and one of the songs that Alexa coughed up was “Canned Goods” by Greg Brown.  You all know I adore this song; this morning, looking out a the slight dusting of snow on the neighbor’s roof, I realized that it’s official that summer is over. 

So going into fall/winter, this is what I’ve put up this year:  strawberry jam, raspberry jam, pesto, applesauce, tomato sauce, basil/oil cubes, chive/oil cubes, mint/lime juice cubes, strawberries, raspberries and grapes.  Somehow it doesn’t seem like I’m keeping up with Greg Brown’s grandmother!

Any favorite summer songs to tide us over?

2025, animals, Family, Health, home, Uncategorized

Billows

34 Comments

I couldn’t find the cat yesterday afternoon, so I looked in our bedroom and found her snuggled in the down comforter we keep on our bed. She had been there for hours. You can see her in the header photo. She looks pretty comfortable, I think.

We have twelve very nice goose down pillows for the three queen size beds in our home, plus down comforters for each bed. Our friend who will live with us is allergic to feathers, so we bought two non-down pillows for her when she visits. The dog sleeps with us and also expects to have a pillow for his head at night. We are a spoiled bunch.

Husband’s allergies are so much better here. He is very allergic to cats and dust. There is very little dust compared to western North Dakota, and it seems the cat is shedding less now, probably because the humidity is higher. Our friend’s four cats will stay in the basement after she moves in, but I think we will get an air cleaner or two to mitigate any upward cat dander migration. I just had a Shark vacuum delivered that is especially good for pet hair, so I think we are covered. The dog doesn’t shed.

What kind of pillows do you prefer? Do you let pets sleep with you? If you have allergies, how do you manage them?