Brad Sondahl's blog

    Here's the view out of one of the two new windows I installed in our bedroom, of some nice fall foliage.
    Besides church today (which I also played guitar for), we managed to play tennis for the second time in a week, with pleasant overcast weather in the 50's. Then we rode bicycles around our town, remembering old acquaintances now gone and noting all the new houses on the east side of town, many of them currently for sale.
    When we moved here, there weren't any new houses, and about half of the old ones were for sale. It makes sense that the more affordable older homes are selling less now, since they aren't stressing the owners so much financially.

Oct. 19
    I made mugs and chicken cookers and medium pitchers this morning. This afternoon I put linseed oil on the exposed wood on the outside of the new windows, and worked on other chores around the house. The weather remains pleasant for the season.

Oct. 21
Things have been a bit slow lately... But the current task is to lift a 3 or 400 weight 8 feet in the air and add walls to support it. This would be the patio roof removed after it came disconnected from our house two winters ago. We moved it across the street to our view property, setting it on top or our car. Then we were able to set it on 4 barrels. Yesterday, using an old car jack, I was able to get the roof a foot higher, but it became wiggly. It's rather like raising it on a set of building blocks--not likely to be stable to 8 feet in height. So the new idea is to build temporary legs at the corners, well braced, then jack up a side at a time and add extensions to the legs--screwed on 2 X 4s. This will probably happen tomorrow...

Oct. 23
I've been down today with presumably a head cold. It's a good day for it--raining all day--so much for shelter building. I spent part of the day editing music for another instrumental hymn album.

Oct. 24
Okay, maybe it's the flu. My head is very stuffed up, and I'm only good for watching football. On the bright side, I watched some college football...

Oct. 25
Feeling better today. I played music for church again. Afterwards we had a Bible study, which was 5 of us last week, and for which we provided pizza last week, and spaghetti this week. Anyway, one of the regular's family showed up, so we had 11 for the Bible study, with about enough spaghetti to feed 5 of us. (There was also a loaf of French bread and an apple spice cake). Anyway we had cake and spaghetti left over, so it's too bad the text wasn't about feeding the 5000, although it was on the Wedding at Cana, similar theme...
    We went walking this evening, and saw a moose and calf feeding again in the Mill Pond. The lighting was too dark for good photos, but it will prompt me to look at the Mill Pond as I come and go, to try to catch some better shots...

Oct. 26
    We've had close to two inches of rain today, with wind to make sure you get wet if you go out. So after glazing and loading a couple kilns, I spent the afternoon updating my webpage sales pages with current photos and a few items I'd never listed there before, mostly because I thought they were pretty fragile to ship. I wouldn't guess that shipping is more than 5-10 per cent of my annual sales, but I figured I might as well bring it up to date.
    The moose might have been out eating today--after all, what's the difference to them between standing in frigid water and standing in frigid water in the rain--but I wasn't inclined to find out.

Oct. 27
Milton Blake's trunk

I've been fixing an old trunk that was cracked across the lid so that if you sat on it you would get pinched. We got two trunks in the 1980's at a church yard sale for $15.00--the one I was fixing was the bottom trunk. I'd never really noticed the set of keys in the bottom of the trunk. On one side was this:

Amos J. Blake, attorney and counsellor at Law. Fitzwilliam N. H.
On the other side, was this:

Keys to the two trunks of the late Milton Blake 2nd Keene
It looked so antique I thought I'd Google it and see what I could find. A lot of towns are putting their public records on the web. I started with
Amos J. Blake, lawyer, whose house is now a museum in Fitzwilliam N.H. In keeping with the season, Google also has links to ghost investigator sites related to the museum. Anyway, I learned he died in 1925, so the trunks had to predate then.
The actual owner, Milton Blake 2nd Keene, didn't make much sense, till I saw references to a nearby town of Keene on the museum webpage. A search for Milton Blake Keene turned up Blake, Milton, b. Keene, Oct. 18, 1837. However, further digging turned up this death notice:

Nov.24,1890

Milton Blake, 2nd

age 61

Mechanic

father Ebenezer Blake

mother Hepzibeth Jewett

From this it appears he was named after the first Milton Blake, who was Keene's town clerk. So from this I now believe the trunks were part of an estate sale in 1890, and probably a lot older, no doubt the oldest stuff we own. But for all that, they're just trunks. Unless they're haunted...

We finally got the roof raised for our new view porch today, the roof that formerly was detached from our house by the big snows:

    Here you can see the 10 X 12 foot roof, with temporary 2 X 4 legs. On top of the two barrels was an old car jack, which would lift each side about a foot at a time. (Bricks would also be used to heighten the jack when it was too low for a whole barrel.) Then the legs would be extended, secured with screws, and the other side would be lifted. Finally it was tall enough to slip the framed wall, leftover from when it was our porch (shown on the right.) Then it got dark, so the piece of tree trunk leaning against the left side couldn't be added as one of three tree sections holding up the left side. I hope to finish the roof part tomorrow. Then there's the cedar deck, in the lower left corner, cut into 3 foot sections for transport, to be reassembled.

Oct. 28
    I got the roof fairly secure today, using two log sections for two of the posts, and bracing it with 2 X 4's. I was eager to get this done, since 2 inches of snow was predicted for tomorrow. They've downgraded it now to less than an inch expected.
    I went in to Spokane for a music practice. Afterward, coming down the hill from the country into a more urban area, I saw the flashing lights behind me, as I had inadvertantly sped. After the usual interplay, including how I'd been going over 45 in a 35 zone, and a brief sojourn with my driver's license, he handed back my license with a warning and I was free again! That's twice this year... And I really do try to keep within 5 mph of the speed limit, but it's easy to let your mind wander...

Oct. 30
    Weather has been foggy and drippy and cold. Fortunately I've been busy getting ready for the Folk Festival this weekend. It took a good part of the afternoon just packing the pottery. There are also last minute changes to the Folklore society webpage as well. My 4 year old printer is showing signs of dying, tending to flash a lot of red blinky lights until you reboot it about 10 times. This adds stress, since there are lots of little pottery cards and things to print for a craft fair... So I ordered the same model, now hard to find as they're probably discontinued. It was always balky, prone to clogging, streaks, and other mechanical issues, but I'd rather stick with the devil I know than the new devil I haven't met, particularly since I had about $100 worth of ink laid in for this one...
    We had six turkeys come through our yard today. Wild turkeys are always awesome to look at. I wondered what would happen if they encountered our molting flock of chickens running around the back yard...