$61 – exactly

November 24, 2025 annbh356Leave a comment

stacks of quarters on a black granite countertop

From spring through fall at our First Street house, Richard, ever the car guy, would carefully coordinate the shade on the driveway and car washing to avoid direct sunshine and water spots. Later in the year, on those less frigid winter days, having collected quarters for months, he would use them at the self-service car wash thus keeping winter salt and slush to a minimum. These days, Med City Detail keeps our vehicles shiny and up to his standards. Since we no longer need this cash reserve sitting on the dresser, we decided a better use would be as an extra contribution to the Building Our Future-Beyond Ourselves church building fund.

As I lined up the coins from the Mason jar on the new kitchen island, I wondered if they might total 264 – just for kicks. While I only reached $61, they did trigger a conversation about our 1989 western vacation, which mostly followed that historic highway and included touristy adventures such as dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo, hiking the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest national parks, and spending the night at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, as well as a day at the Bob Bondurant School of Performance Driving. Definitely a chance to get your kicks on Route 66!

Embracing Change: Our Move After 40 Years

October 18, 2025October 29, 2025 annbh3561 Comment

forest green headboard and yellow-orange stained glass lamp shade

whisical car clock, wooden sculpture, and green plant

We kept waiting to be sad. For that tsunami of nostalgia to overwhelm. After-all, we were leaving our first house, our abode of 40 years, where we had celebrated the births of nieces and nephews and mourned the death of beloved family and friends; undertook remodeling and renovation projects, planted and transplanted blueberry bushes and rhubarb, prepared countless meals (the menus for which ran the gamut from a quick bowl of popcorn to gourmet auction prep).

One person suggested that our move was not just a move but a life choice and that distinction felt accurate. This was a decision arrived at over time, necessitated by health challenges and softened by the hundreds of details that comprised our construction project which also served as salve to lighten the mental soreness of loss. While we missed the opportunity of a topping off ceremony on Solstice Place, we carefully monitored construction progress – from the hole in the ground to the final walk-through. Each visit rooted us in the “rightness” of this change.

We spent a comfortable first night in the new house on September 25. We placed the bed slats on floor, having first put down an old flannel sheet to protect the new LVF (luxury vinyl flooring), followed by the twin springs and the king comfort mattress. The result – a tad lower than sleeping on the couch but higher than a futon. This odd predicament, of being bed-less (that is without a frame) was due to our decision to have the two antique metal bedstead that were once in my Grandma’s house, stripped via glass bead blasting and then dipped to powder coat them a rich forest-green. During their 100+ years, the color has gone from chocolate brown (the color in my childhood, as well as Momma’s memories of her early years in the 4th street house) to yellow, to creamy peach, and now to forest-green. Momma estimates these may have been her parents’ first purchase after arriving in the U.S.A. from Switzerland in July 1922, as by October Grandma was giving birth to Billie and most certainly had a bed for this home delivery.

Now, a month after closing, we have most (not quite all) of the boxes unpacked and flattened. Finding a place for everything has required expanding our decluttering skills yet again and each time we cannot find space we admit that we simply have too much stuff.

Still to be done – placing our eclectic collection of prints, paintings, and objets d’art. Once that is complete Solstice Place will be open for visits.

Art · New House

Packing Art

September 14, 2025 annbh3562 Comments

wood framed lithogrpah depicting a girl sitting on a front porch on a summer evening

The realization, last November, that we needed to move from our multi-story, 100-year-old home to a one-level house triggered rigorous study in the current phenomenon of decluttering.

We found new users for Richard’s heavy tools – the table saw with an assortment of blades purchased over decades, a planer, grinder, belt sander, and more. I lost count of the trips to the waste-to-energy site delivering remnants of 40-years of projects that we kept “just in case.” There were also hazardous liquids (turpentine and motor oil) as well as a Maxwell coffee can of 16-ounce lead ingots left over from Dad’s reloading days. But, even after months of work and knowing that all of the sorting and pitching was in preparation for a move, the result of these tasks simply made our First Street house feel more spacious. There was more room in the closets, and the cupboards no longer harbored expired spices. It was not until I took the art off the bedroom walls that the upcoming move felt real.

Having met Richard at an art gallery in June 1981 and with a favorite pastime of visiting galleries, museums, and street fairs, we have a lot of artwork. From lithographs to pastels, from blown glass to hand thrown pottery, our collection is eclectic. While these pieces will never garner millions at Sotheby’s, each offers a story. Our wedding present to ourselves purchased at the Junction City art fair in October 1983; a Murano glass plate – the only souvenir we purchased while on a family trip to Switzerland in September 1991; artwork by friends and Richard’s own creations. With the help of a friend, we will move our collection not chancing any of these beauties to the packers and movers who will pack up our lives in just 10 days.

As I remove these treasures and carefully bubble wrap each one, I remember, with joy, how each piece came to grace our space, making a house a home.

Gardening · New House · Reading

A Gathering of Poetry | August 2025

August 25, 2025 annbh356Leave a comment

a small green bowl filled with dusty blueberries

It was the best of summer times – with plentiful potatoes and just the right sized zucchini, it was the worst of summer times – with chipmunks stealing succulent blueberries and cucumbers that overwhelmed. Almost making me regret planting this last garden on First Street all the while exploring options for next summer’s raised beds on Solstice Place. While carrots were not part of my planting plan, Leah Naomi Green’s poem is fitting for this month’s Gathering of Poetry.

Carrot

Take all summer, 
your ember

from the sun, 
its walking meditation.

Store it in small vaults of light
to keep the rest of us

when winter seals 
around each day.

We'll flicker 
to the table.

We'll gather 
to your orange flame.

Please excuse my blatant plagiarism of the hallowed Dickens Tale and for being a tad bit late in joining Bonnie and Kat for this Gathering of Poetry.

Knitting · New House

Yarn: Sorted and packed

August 15, 2025 annbh3561 Comment

four large plastic bins filled with yarn

I took up my knitting needles for the first time in 32 years when President-Elect Obama asked Americans to volunteer on inauguration weekend 2009. All of those first projects supported a new caring ministry at church, and I was very select in my yarn purchases: three skeins of Lion Brand Homespun for a prayer shawl or a colorful yet purposeful selection of Cotton-Ease for dishcloths. Eventually, I graduated to better quality fibers, but they were always chosen for a specific pattern. At the time, I was a “monogamous knitter” and that was also how I made my fiber purchases, one at a time. It would be five years before I ventured to that slippery slope of purchasing yarn without having already planned a project.

I have distinct memories of that 2014 purchase. For weeks, before the start of each sampler afghan knitting class, I gravitated to the bin of Frabjous Fibers fingering and admired the soft, springy texture. But the weight gave me pause. I had been working with thicker strands (worsted, Aran, chunky) and the fingering selections felt fragile by comparison.

But as brown was Dad’s favorite color and he would have appreciated the dark chocolate hue, I eventually purchased a skein in the Hedgehog colorway without any idea of what it might become. That was my first step into stash creation. Then there were yarn crawls hosted by local yarn stores – each an opportunity to purchase potential. And yarn clubs with boxes of squishy mail arriving monthly from Idaho and quarterly from Germany (although not in the same year.) Each purchase was photographed and inventoried, but organization was slightly haphazard with yarn tucked in six locations around our small house.

In preparation for our move to Solstice Place, that mishmash has been corrected. Each skein (all 115) has been sorted by weight and yardage, the location has been verified in the Ravelry database, and those skeins are stored in new plastic tubs that Two Men & a Truck will move in 39 days.

Happy knitting!

New House

Transforming Old Furniture

August 4, 2025August 8, 2025 annbh356Leave a comment

There are those who enjoy refinishing furniture. They revel in removing layers of multicolored history. Some hues subtle and sophisticated while others so trendy that the era is unmistakably identifiable. I am not one of those DIYers. However, my long to-do list to get ready for our upcoming move includes refinishing two nightstands and a chest of drawers.

two drawer nightstand with yellow lamp and round mirror

In 1946, after returning to Wisconsin from wartime Washington, D.C., my parents purchased a dark walnut bedroom set which included a double bed, a five-drawer chest, and a vanity. When the practice of bedroom vanities fell out of popularity, my carpenter father dismantled the unit and created two matching nightstands. Thirty years later, the chest and one of the nightstands went with me to my first apartment, as well as the round vanity mirror.

I considered myself lucky to find an empty apartment in the small town of Brodhead (population 2,690) when I was hired as the school librarian. The apartment was so empty that while it had a stove there wasn’t a refrigerator. Momma and I worked non-stop for ten days to get ready for that post-graduation move.

We painted two wooden chairs dark blue that had originally been at Shirley McS.’s kitchen table. Momma sewed Delft Blue kitchen curtains and a matching tablecloth using remnants from Mary Jane K.’s drapery store. A plywood shipping box that Dad built to move their household items from D.C. (which still had my grandparent’s address on the top) was transformed into an avocado green coffee table with brass corner protectors and handles. We let the newly purchased yellow, lime green, and white plaid J.C. Penny drapes set the color palette in the bedroom. A brown iron twin bed frame that had been in the upstairs bedroom of my grandparents’ house, my parents’ 1940s five-drawer chest, and one of the nightstands were all painted a cheery yellow and these transformed the drab, empty bedroom.

With 46 days until closing on the Solstice Place house, this refurbishing project lacks that first move frenzy. However, with each layer of yellow paint that dissolves using the citrus stripper, Momma and I reminisce during my daily progress updates about all of our hard work 50 years ago.

New House

Curbside Freebie

August 2, 2025 annbh356Leave a comment

four drawer file cabinet with a free sign sitting curbside in front of a white house

With gigabytes of storage at our fingertips, I hope a paper devotee needs a file cabinet. As we continue our “rightsize” winnowing of household items, this morning’s activities included moving this freebie to the curb and giving away an assortment of woodworking clamps to our friend Ethan E. as he begins building furniture. He will return in September for the small freezer chest, a pile of lumber, and motley assortment of nuts and bolts, nails and screws (more stuff gone!) Already out of the house and at a new home is the two-drawer cabinet that I bought in 1976 at the Eau Claire Book & Stationery store when I started library school at UW-Madison.

PS – Three hours on the curb and then it was wheeled down First Street on a dolly!

New House

56 Days to Closing (but who is counting?)

July 25, 2025 annbh356Leave a comment

new house under construction with siding one-half up the front wall — Work continues – July 17, 2025

There are no quiet days at our construction site. They hung sheetrock on a Saturday, finished siding the house on a Sunday and work proceeds steadily Monday through Friday. With our red door key (to match the red doorknob) we check the progress every few days. We are not looking for errors so much as we are curious as to the flow of all these sub-contractors who slip in and out of the timeline.

During one early evening visit, we discovered the electrician missed running the conduit for the in-floor outlet in the TV room. Unfortunately, we did not catch this omission until after the slab had been poured. But, as it was clearly noted on the approved plans, a worker with a concrete saw cut a trough and the electrician ran the wire exactly to my request. I had laid out the perfect viewing dimensions of the new TV room using a triangular ruler, graph paper, and snips of to-scale cover stock representing the furniture. Just as requested, we now have a double outlet 6’-5” from the west wall and 9’-6” from the south/garage wall for over-the-shoulder task lighting. The patched floor is ugly but all will be hidden when the LVP is installed.

With steady progress at the site, we fill our days with behind-the-scenes tasks. Two Men & A Truck walked through our 1st Street house and provided estimates for packing and moving. We selected window dressings at Hirschfields. And we continue the onerous task of evaluating 40 years of detritus tucked in closets. The timing of recent family visits allowed us to repurpose four bags of books and a unique selection of Cubs swag. As the days and weeks progress, our to-do list will continue to grow.

New House · Writing

We have a hole!

May 16, 2025May 17, 2025 annbh3562 Comments

large trough in dirt with houses in background

bare dirt trough with orange spray paint

Since March 6, when we selected Solstice Place as the location for our new house, we have scouted the neighborhood with a close eye for any progress on our lot. And today was the day for changes! The trenches have been dug for the footings and a nearby pile of dirt rests ready for future grading. Meanwhile, while waiting for the actual construction to begin, our days have been full of decisions, decisions, decisions.

Our first appointment was at the lumberyard for interior and exterior doors, door hardware, windows, and a hand-railing for the front steps. This visit gave us a sense of what would follow. With each visit there were offerings as bid and then the possibility to make choices from a broader selection outside the basic budget. For example: we were happy with the door levers as bid but opted for a different style kitchen faucet with the cost difference being our responsibility.

The tile store definitely lived up to the “and more” part of its title as we selected birch cabinets, granite countertops, sinks, LVP flooring, and (yes) tile for the bathrooms and the kitchen backsplash. We needed two visits for all those decisions. We even stayed within our allowance for flooring and tile but, I must admit, we went a smidge over in the cabinet category.

As our construction package includes new stainless-steel appliances, we will leave our functional white appliances on First Street. But even at the appliance store there is a lot to consider: slide in or free-standing stove? freezer on the bottom, side, or top? range hood or cabinet fan? Plus, double checking consumer ratings for reliability.

It took two appointments to determine the location of all the disc lights, although we were steadfast in our choice of decorative blue fixtures for the kitchen and dining room, the brushed nickel for the bathrooms, and the exterior, prairie-style lighting. From lighting we progressed to plumbing – from the kitchen faucet to the shower heads from grab-bars to towel racks the choices we made this morning will (hopefully) be the last, at least for a couple of days. But, in the meantime — we have a hole!

Gardening · New House

Garden Report #1

May 11, 2025 annbh3561 Comment

four whole potatoes and one cut in half resting on a white painted board

Folktale advice directs the gardener to plant potatoes on Good Friday. We opted for a more scientific approach and waited until the soil temperature reached 50°F. That occurred this weekend. The 20 hills of organic Kennebecs are the first of the plantings in this last garden on First Street.

And to boost the yield of late summer produce, I tried a slightly different approach when adding eggshells to my raised, square-foot beds. Usually, I just crumble the shells in my garden-gloved hand but after reading that smaller pieces release more nutrients, I put the food processor into garden service.