On Saturday night, on our way back from Greenfield Village, we stayed at the Grand Trillium Bed & Breakfast in Kenton OH. The house is a wonderful old Italianate mansion, and the town is charming too.

Greenfield Village

Lee ann and I just got back from a weekend getaway trip to Greenfield Village in Dearborn MI. We drove to Toledo on Friday and stayed at a Motel 6, then drove the rest of the way Saturday morning and spent the day at the Village. It was rainy and cool to start but the weather improved through the day.

Photo 1 - they didn't worry a lot about machine guarding a hundred years ago. Photo 2 - Lee Ann looks lovely in hats! Photo 3 - Here's the house Noah Webster lived in when he finished his American Dictionary. Photo 4 - This good-looking Greek Revival, home of Robert Frost, was our favorite. Photo 5 - Lee Ann sinks her fingernails into the garden wall at the Cotswold cottage, ca. 1600, saying "Look - it's following us home!" Well, maybe this was her favorite after all.

Cincinnati Reds Game

At the end of a three-day meeting with the safety managers from our various divisions, we all went to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game Thursday night. We had excellent seats and happily, it was an action-packed game with lots to watch and cheer about. Unhappily, the Reds lost 9-6. But the real fun is in the stadium experience. We all got stuffed on peanuts and nachos, goofed around within our congenial group and even watched the game from time to time. I got to sing the Star-Spangled Banner and Take Me Out To The Ball Game. This is the only possible venue where I can sing in public and not get laughed at.

The View - Scary Wonderful

From my perch atop the ladder I have this view of the beautiful Ohio countryside and the farmstead across Route 73 to the south. I would probably enjoy it more if I were not a good ten feet above my comfort level height-wise. The eaves of the house on this side are about 24 feet off the ground, so I stand on a rung of my extension ladder 17 feet high to paint them. Eek. My knuckles have been inventing new shades of white.

I always have been scared of heights, so it has been Lee Ann who did any high painting required on our various house projects (bless her heart) - but this house has been all mine. It took me a while to work up to this height. Contrary to good housepainting practice I started with the low parts of the wall and just now am working on the highest.

Siding - Detail

When you look at the existing exterior paint on the Tower House from a distance it doesn't look too bad. Up close, however, you can see that the old paint has failed completely. Here are before and after pictures to show what a difference the new prep/paint job makes.

This is my second night in a row staying at the Tower House. At the end of a productive day's work I sat on the stone bench at Lee Ann's pond and watched the sun set over the cornfields. The weather today was rainy and overcast with a lot of strong winds, but it got nice at the very end.

Now We're Cooking With Gas

I am staying at the Tower House for a few days to cut down on back-and-forth driving (the distance from here to home is 17 miles, which adds up). I brought out some basic foodstuffs and utensils and tonight I cooked on our antique Chambers gas stove for the first time since we left Georgetown in early 2005. Wow, I had forgotten how fast a gas burner heats up a pan. On our electric stove back home this simple meal (ramen noodles, chili beans and canned mixed veggies) takes twice as long to prepare.

Paint Job Status

The paint is coming along, but it takes a lot of time to make much progress on this house...

More Pavers In Place

Here are the newest pavers Lee Ann laid. They follow the line of an old sidewalk from the back door of the Tower House to the pond area. This was not an easy job - Lee Ann had to break up and remove a couple squares of the old cement in the foreground so the pavers would be flush with the remaining concrete visible at the bottom right, then slope the pavers gently upward to lay on top of the rest of the old concrete.

This is about half done, so we will need more pavers. The walk will go to a new garden shed eventually, which we plan to build on an old foundation which is just out of the picture to the upper left.

Flashback - Samoa Trip, 2002

I was looking in my old emails and came across the first digital photos I ever took. In the summer of 2002, when Annie was 10, we took a trip to Samoa so she could see where we lived when she was born. A guy I work with, Ray Turner, insisted we take along his digital camera. I was able to record us walking on lava flows at Turtle & Shark Point, poking around in concrete pillboxes left over from World War II, visiting the house in Tafuna where we lived, and generally seeing the sights. I took about a dozen photos and the card was full (this was in the infancy of digital photo technology!), so this is all I got. Annie promised that when she turns 20 she will take us back for another visit! I can almost taste the grilled swordfish at Tisa's Barefoot Beach.