There is a lot of animal life out and about right now: Lots of mothers feeding their babies, lots of young animals that aren't experienced with traffic. So we are trying to be careful and not hit anyone. Friday evening we were out driving in the country and within a mile stretch we saw first one mama raccoon and two rather large fat babies trying to cross the highway, and then a second mama with three babies of her own, somewhat smaller than the first two. So adorable.
Then Saturday morning on the street near our house we found a sad sight: A female slider turtle with a shell the size of a platter that someone had driven over. She was trying to find a place to lay her eggs when she died. That's as specific as I want to get. I cleaned her up with a shovel. That had to be deliberate; as my friend Al commented, you have to try to hit a turtle. It's not like they scamper out in front of your car.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Demolition in Progress
The Evangelical Free brethren began tearing down Loretta's house this weekend. They are doing a very careful job, not just knocking it down with a backhoe or something. They're taking it down board by board. First came the asbestos shingles, then all the windows. It's now wide open to the weather. From what I understand, they don't actually own the property yet, as there is some law that says you can only tear down one house per year, so they are tearing down this house while the property still belongs to the Yeomans, and tearing down the other house as their own property.
Since Darlene and Gene Yeoman had already given us permission to be on the property and to take anything that we could use before the house came down, we went over there yesterday afternoon and saw the basement of the house for the first time. It's a wonderful basement, very deep, nice high ceiling - and poured concrete! The beams look good, too. We feel kind of sick about it. Had we known the foundation was so solid, we might have been willing to pay more for the property. Too late now. Now it'll just be filled in and eventually will be a parking lot.
Oh well.
Loretta is not very pleased with us. She wanted us to buy the house and we disappointed her when we did not try harder to do so. But this really is going to be ideal for everybody involved (everybody but us, that is) - Darlene and Gene get more money than they would from us, Loretta has her nice safe apartment, and the church will have a permanent home. And we'll end up with some pretty nice neighbors, so we're not doing too badly either. It's just... well, I hate to see old houses torn down, and I had such hopes that we could buy the property dating back to before we ever bought our place. Plus the church is taking down trees. They had mercy on a couple of them when I looked stricken at the thought, but now they are murmuring that the rest will have to come down, too.
What's a churchyard without shade trees?
*sigh*
Oh well. Again.
Since Darlene and Gene Yeoman had already given us permission to be on the property and to take anything that we could use before the house came down, we went over there yesterday afternoon and saw the basement of the house for the first time. It's a wonderful basement, very deep, nice high ceiling - and poured concrete! The beams look good, too. We feel kind of sick about it. Had we known the foundation was so solid, we might have been willing to pay more for the property. Too late now. Now it'll just be filled in and eventually will be a parking lot.
Oh well.
Loretta is not very pleased with us. She wanted us to buy the house and we disappointed her when we did not try harder to do so. But this really is going to be ideal for everybody involved (everybody but us, that is) - Darlene and Gene get more money than they would from us, Loretta has her nice safe apartment, and the church will have a permanent home. And we'll end up with some pretty nice neighbors, so we're not doing too badly either. It's just... well, I hate to see old houses torn down, and I had such hopes that we could buy the property dating back to before we ever bought our place. Plus the church is taking down trees. They had mercy on a couple of them when I looked stricken at the thought, but now they are murmuring that the rest will have to come down, too.
What's a churchyard without shade trees?
*sigh*
Oh well. Again.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Keehawks Shirt on CafePress.com
Lil Miss A designed a Keehawks logo one day last fall. I uploaded the design to CafePress and we just had a kids' hoodie sweatshirt made up with her drawing. It arrived today and it is so cute!
The shirt can be found here.
The shirt can be found here.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
The Coppertone Baby Artist Passes
I just learned that Joyce Ballantyne Brand, the artist who painted the famous little blonde Coppertone Girl with her doggie, passed on this month. Her daughter (the model for the Coppertone girl, actually) sells on eBay and I just found this news on one of her auctions.
Joyce Ballantyne was most famous for her paintings of American pinup girls. Ballantyne's style immediately struck me as similar to Gil Elvgren's, and then I learned that Elvgren was one of her teachers and mentors, so that's not so surprising. She, like Elvgren, believed that a pinup should be the girl next door, only moreso; not some unapproachable beauty, but an everyday American gal caught in a moment of surprise for the passerby to see.
Joyce Ballantyne was most famous for her paintings of American pinup girls. Ballantyne's style immediately struck me as similar to Gil Elvgren's, and then I learned that Elvgren was one of her teachers and mentors, so that's not so surprising. She, like Elvgren, believed that a pinup should be the girl next door, only moreso; not some unapproachable beauty, but an everyday American gal caught in a moment of surprise for the passerby to see.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
The backyard pond now has a waterfall
Our little pond now has a small waterfall with the water trickling over limestone slabs. It's very pretty.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Dumpy Is No More
It's a momentous day in the Stahl household. Dumpy, the faithful Dumpster who has swallowed old plaster and lath, moldy floor coverings, rotten studs, sodden insulation, and many other icky things without a murmur of complaint, left on a big truck today to go live with another family. We got tired of paying $25 a month to have Dumpy live on our lawn, plus another $85 or so every time he needed emptying, and while the demolition isn't entirely complete we think we can handle the rest of it with just regular trash pickup.
I'm sure the neighbors were all wondering when, if ever, we were going to send Dumpy back to wherever it was he came from. I'm happy to say that time has come.
I'm so excited because the spot he was occupying was a parking slot where maybe we can put one of the boats now so it won't be out in the middle of the lawn. (Some of us think a boat is a very ornamental piece of lawn art, while others of us do not agree.)
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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