Busy Times

 SO I got the burn pile under control! The first burn took us down pretty well, but look here!

We're down to the ground! No more brush pile here!

There was a small mishap with the lawn mower....my hose is now about 3' shorter now than it was before. 

When I went to Albion, I stopped at the Presbyterian Church. They are now closed. They were having a yard sale. It's a sad thing, but is getting to be a common occurance. This was my childhood church, and I loved the windows.

And the big organ-it never was used as I remeber it, but I heard that it does operate. 

This stereo set up was used to play carrilion music-from LP records- through speakers in the church steeple. It was only on a few special occasions, like Christmas, but the music sounded so cool as I remember it anyways!

It's a really beautiful sanctuary, I hope it gets sold to someone for a venue or somehintg.  The curved pews are so pretty. 

They have pew cusions now! That's an improvment-you'd think that would get some folks into the seats!

The small office rooms all have stained glass windows too. This was a Sunday Schol classroom for awhile when I was a kid. 

And here's the problem...

With only a dozen or so people in church any given Sunday, you can't even pay the electric bill with that attendance, let alone pay a pastor.  It's a big loss for the community-there is no church now and no school. That's a death toll for the town I think, lucky they are not a bad location for commuting for work in bigger towns. 

ANd this guy was being helpful and using the magnet roller to pick up nails from the brush pile ashes. He's pretty good help. 

And very busy help too!

The water is always a favorite-it was crazy hot the last few days.

Time to upgrade from the triccyle-he calls it his e bike-I've got a new bike ordered for him!

Shopping and Iris

 We have a new kitty at our house now. Iris is a polydactyl-she has extra toes on each paw. She was living at DD's house, but she couldn't keep her so now Iris is at our house. 

She's a little thing-not a year old yet.

See those paws? She's also very playful and limber and loves to knock things over and plays with anything on the floor. She went to the vet today to get scheduled for a spay. 

In other news.... I went over to Mom & Dad's Saturday, the Quilter's Shopping Spree was in Nevada, Iowa, so we drove over there to have a look around. 

There's always a lot to see at the Shopping Spree. 

Lots of quilts and gadgets. 

We also drove over to Ames and did a little shopping. Mom got a new purse! 

On the way home we stopped at the new Dollar General Store that just opened in Albion, Iowa.

It's a nice store, I hope they continue to staff it so they can keep it nice. 

Sunday-Things Are Changing

So it was Mom's birthday on Sunday, so I popped over there to change a light bulb for her. Dad's not so great on a ladder these days and so , well....I did it for her.  While I was there she said she wanted to change her sewing machine table.

 

 SO Dad and I measured all the tables available in the basement, and decided the old enamel top table would be the best fit.See it does fit well!

 And across the street, the school building in Albion, Iowa is being torn down. Sad, but decades of no maintenance and the roof was pretty much shot and there was asbestos and when the school district consolidated and closed this school, that was all she wrote.

 This building was the background of my childhood-I attended from K-6 grade there, and we played over at the school all summer long! We'd climb that fire escape stairway-so daring!!

 Playing on the merry-go-round, the teeter totters and the monkey bars and the highest slide! Well it probably wasn't that high in reality.

 The pile of rubble is where the gym and lower grades had class. It was a "new Addition" probably in the 50's I guess.

 You can see the sunshine through the windows in the upper floor in this picture-the roof is just gone...Mrs. Black's class room if I remember correctly.

 Really beautiful old building, but like so many old things that need a lot of maintenance, it would be cost prohibitive to keep it.

 Good bye my dear old school.

The view from the front yard will not be the same.

A Little Yard Work

 So the power company cut off a bunch of tree branches at my Mom & Dad's house. Being good kids, my Sister and my kids and me went over there to get the wood moved. See DD is almost done...see the pile behind her?

 We probably won't get an A for neat wood stacking but it's better than it was! We stacked it closer to the garage so Dad can cut it up to burn in the garage when it's cold.

 One thing was a pretty big deal, see that? Ben drove Grampa's pick up! He pulled close to the piles of wood that the power company left.

 Then we loaded it in the pick up and moved to the next pile. Then unloaded over by the garage.

 At the same time. Julie and Dad were burning the pile of sticks that was piled up.

 It was a pretty fast burning pile!

 Selfie!!

 One thing I can tell you is that hackberry wood is a lot heavier to pick up than walnut!

Dad pointed out this big old walnut tree is almost all hollow-look at it on the North side-I sure don't know why they wouldn't take the whole tree down! It's bound to fall at some point. They're putting in new power poles, so they cut away the branches they wanted, but you's think they would be a little concerned over a whole trunk falling on the lines.

 All done for now.  Really good weather for the fire-hardly any breeze. Glad this work is done.

Yard Sale Saturday

So on Saturday DD and I made the trek to my Mom's house to check out the yard sales. On the way we stopped in LeGrand Iowa...those folks know how to yard sale!!

 If you are Gary or Peggy, I was at a yard sale that was made for you! Look at this awesome vintage metal platter. I am in love with it!

 

This is the way to make a table! I love the good use of walkers!!!

 I always have an eye out for video games for Uber Son. He sells and trades them a lot! I think these were priced too high, so they did not come home with me. We did find a couiple of cute tops for DD and some shorts for the kiddos-in-laws.

 In Albion Iowa, where my Folks live, there was a sale in the building that used to house the local grocery store. Keeler's Grocery. Oh the fond memories! It's so sad to see the old building falling apart. After the Keeler's closed the store (they couldn't live forever, right?) it became a feed store for a little while. The upper floor was used as a meeting hall for the...Odd Fellows?, Kiwanis?.... One of those brotherhood groups anyways, now it's just pretty decrepit. I peeked in the front windows-  it is just filled with junk.

I can remember  parking my bike on the sidewalk in front of these windows and going into the store to buy candy. The wood floors would creak and it was always cool in the store. Walk past the freezer where the Popsicles and ice cream bars were and to the counter where we'd buy pixie stix and candy cigarettes. Mr Keeler, Grassy, is what everyone called him, would wait on us kids like we were just as important as any one else. Mrs. Keeler was mean (we thought) and wanted to charge us tax for our five cent purchases. The candy was behind the counter and Mrs. Keeler didn't want kids to hang around too long deciding what to buy, she'd always tell us to hurry up! Anyways That was a long time ago!

 The sale was in the backside of the building, we went in and saw that the floors were all the original hard wood but had a lot of places where plywood had been put down to presumably mend a hole.  

But look at the tin ceiling. Oh my, isn't it lovely!

 Look at the molding around the edges. Oh it is awesome! I can't imagine anyone restoring the building but I sure do hope someone comes along and re purposes this beautiful tin ceiling.