What's New; What's Gone?

Now you can see...

 a wall with a door framed for the upstairs balcony

...and the outside of that wall covered with foam insulation.

But, what is important from the inside is the beginnings of a floor above the room with a wall so no one will roll out of bed and into the basement.

However,

what is really important in this post

is what you don't see.

What is not in this picture? (It is a picture of the garage looking through the link from the kitchen.)

And, what do you not see here?

Ribfest

They are gone! Well, they are down, anyway. Gone, no, just stacked in a few piles...

...and turned into walls so someone won't roll out of bed and down the stairs.

The hole in the wall upstairs will be the door to the balcony off the bedroom.

Notice the half bucket in the picture.

It is the center of the dome.

And, if you stand there

and look

up:

However,

the second floor

will be in the way so

this will not be the view

once that floor is installed.

The outside view has changed a bit, too:

The white is foam insulation, the dark is about the size of the doors.

Other views that you should recognize:

And, we have a guest room that was not in our plans:

There are at least two hungry mouths to feed, and yes, mamma scolds us every  time she comes in.

Grandma's Kitchen

We had a family reunion at one of the local lakes--I had wanted to attend.

The day before, we took down the rib support system in the house. The lumber and material was scattered hither and yon making the house impassible. So if anyone came to see the domes, they would not be able to get into the house and would only see an apparent pile of debris.

So, if I go the the reunion, I will invite people to come see the house which is a mess. On the other hand, if I stay home and clean up to make the house presentable, there is a chance that no one will come.

I had a surprise waiting in the machine shed just in case anyone came:

What you see from Grandma's house: Swivel chair from the living room; wringer washer; wood stove (over 100 years old); wood cook stove; wood box (hard to see, to the right of the cook stove); table my uncle made; desk from the living room; lamp on the desk (a vivid memory from my youth--I did an art project based on this lamp); chairs around the table; and the bench. The table was about as long as the bench.

Imagine ten children, their parents, plus their grandfather sitting around the table--most of the children on the bench. I would guess that the bench is more than 80 years old.

A cousin stopped by with his wife, their son, and teen-aged grand daughter. I brought L and his son into the machine shed. L walked between the table and stoves, looking things over. He then came out, looked at the bench and fell silent. After a few moments, he sent his son out to get the ladies who were waiting in the car. We all sat around the table and talked about the past, almost forgetting to go and look at the domes.

No Rain since the Last Post

Dry...drought...and to think this spring was one of our wettest.

                                        BUT:

the tiger lilies are blooming.

Not much progress on the house since the storm until last week, that is. As of today, most of the concrete work is done. Most of what is left is around the doors and windows, so they are framing those openings now and will then finish the concrete.

In case I haven't posted pictures showing the temporary framework, yet, this is what the house currently looks like inside:

The House

The Link

The Garage

Check back to see as the dormer and entry holes become the rough openings for the doors and windows.

21 July, What a Storm

I watch the line of green, yellow, and orange/red march across North Dakota. By the time it reaches the border with Minnesota, it stretches almost the entire north/south distance of ND.

"Potential heavy rain, tornadoes, and 80 mph straight-line wind."

Watches and warnings come across the emergency broadcast channel. One by one the counties to the west of me are named, each report naming a new county. Closer and closer it comes: Cass County to Grand Forks; then western Clay, Norman, and south-west Polk; Fertile, Crookston, and Red Lake Falls are placed in a tornado warning.

"If you are in Crookston, seek shelter on the lowest floor of the nearest building, NOW!"

Finally, my county as well as those to the south, east, and north with me in the middle: "Sever thunder showers with torrential rain and quarter-sized hail. "There will be hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to trees, mobile homes (*gulp*), and roofs."

Flashlight in one pocket; cell phone and wireless land-line phone in their pockets; rain jacket in hand; camera by the door...Lightening! Steady, almost no need for a flashlight. Rain, the torrential rain that was promised, or threatened, or warned (you decide) is here.

A quick look at the radar shows the first green blended into yellow, then orange, then yellow again (no red this time). And that is where we are now, winding down on the thunderstorm and getting set up for a lot of rain for another hour or two.

All is well...

...out here, anyway. However, Crookston and the area around it can't say the same. Initial reports say about half the city is without power and there are a number of trees down. It is still rather early, the sun has been up only a couple hours so far. More reports will be coming in as the day goes by.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Otherwise known as striped gopher or, more technically, the thirteen-lined ground squirrel or even the mascot of the University of Minnesota sports teams.

They ate my sweet pea plants! All of them! If the college is going to use the talents (or cuteness) of God's creatures, should they not feed them?

They come out on warm sunny days to play and run around...and to raid my garden. However, the other day, a nice sunny afternoon, I noticed that there was not one small furry animal to be seen. The yard was eerily calm and quiet. Then I noticed them. Well, one initially, then the other, larger than the first and with a white head and tail where the other was just brown all over. Gracefully floating around up there. The white head, barely visible from so far away, was noticeably scanning the ground for some tasty, furry snack; a jock stuffed with fresh organic leaves of man-grown sweet peas!

Another Phase Complete

The flower is open all the way:

The peony cracked its shell and shows its colors:

And the last manufactured piece of the dome and most of the first coat of concrete have been placed:

The sun is shining, temps tonight will be in the 50s, and tomorrow is the first day of summer--nice!

(I hope you've noticed the change in color of the vegetation from when we arrived in May.)