Sprucing Up the Mailbox

I have this thing about mailboxes. It's really the first thing a new visitor to your home will see when they come to visit. But some people totally neglect their mailbox. I've seen very expensive homes with rusty mailboxes and leaning mail box posts. Some people just have plain ugly mailboxes. Check out the link under Favorite Links called Ugly Mailboxes.

My mailbox post was looking pretty bad. The paint was peeling and the black numbers were no longer black thanks to the road salt and snow plow.

Here's a before photo.
Looks much better with a fresh coat of paint.
The day lilies planted at the base are burgundy and pink. Day lilies can survive the road salt and dry conditions.

Tomorrow I start painting the entry gates. R has been grinding off multiple layers of paint and rust. He spent some time today straighten the bent wrought iron. The bend was just about car bumper height. Looks like someone didn't notice the gates were closed.

Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI on the S.S. Badger

For our return trip to Michigan we decided to take the car ferry across Lake Michigan. Once you arrive at the dock for your voyage, you are directed to park your vehicle, leave the window down, and the keys in the ignition. S.S. Badger personnel load your vehicle on to the 410' 6" ship, unless you rode a motorcycle, in which you drive on to the ship yourself. Looks like the S.S. Badger is a hatchback.Here is a view from the upper deck looking down into the cargo area. R says they load the semis last so that the heaviest cargo is in the area of the propellers. I guess this keeps the propellers deep into the water. The Badger operates on coal, a domestic fuel. It is the only coal powered passenger ship still in regular service. It recently underwent a retrofit to burn coal cleaner.Originally when the Badger launched in 1953, it not only carried passengers and cars but also rail cars. Eventually with the decline of the rail road, the Badger was retro fitted to carry just passengers and vehicles. It's current carrying capacity is 620 passengers and 180 vehicles.

During the 4 hours it takes to cross Lake Michigan you can sun yourself on deck in a lounge chair. Notice how R is shielding his face with his Antiques Roadshow ticket.Or you can play bingo, watch a movie, walk the deck (6 times around equals a mile), drink, sleep, eat, or shop at the Boatique. The bingo area was hopping. They even had a karaoke contest. The bingo caller also kept the passengers informed about local happenings in Ludington. I heard him tell the crowd......

"Last night the Ludington police station was robbed."

"The robbers took all the toilets at the police station."

"They started an investigation, but they have nothing to go on."
The lake was extremely calm and the sky was nearly cloudless.As we neared Ludington Mi, we picked up a Coast Guard escort.Can you explain why people always wave at large boats full people???
and why do we wave back??? I felt like Queen Elizabeth.
Once we arrived in Ludington, the unloading began. Ship personnel drive your vehicle off the boat and park it with keys in ignition. When you see your vehicle, you hop in and drive off. I should have used this opportunity to upgrade my vehicle.Passengers wait here for their vehicles. Notice the ship in the background called Spartan? I guess this is an old ship no longer in use. It currently is used for spare parts to keep the Badger sailing.

You too, can be a Roadshow Appraiser

In an effort to drag out the suspense before I tell you the appraised value of our four items, I thought I'd let you take a stab at playing Antiques Roadshow Appraiser.

OK...here we go.

Item #1 is a post impressionism 25 1/2" X 32" oil on canvas and signed W.S. Davenport, 1868-1938 (William Slocum). Painting is in it's original white gold leaf frame. The frame has an exhibit tag that reads #600. On the verso is penciled #600 Society Nationale des Beaux Arts March 12th 1933.Item #2 is an unsigned American (was told French when I purchased it) oil on canvas. Painting is post impressionism and painted in 1890's. Frame is approximately 1910. This post impressionism painting measures 20" X 16".Item #3 is a framed pastel nude on board by Leslie Crump (1894-1962). The studio drawing measures 20" X 16".Item #4 is a framed oil on canvas dated '36 and signed with unknown initials. Painting is done in the modernism style.Pardon the bugs on the front of the SUV. I snapped these photos as I unloaded the vehicle.

In the meantime, while you mull over the info and formulate your appraisel, I'll post about the SS Badger.

Scenes from Beaver Dam Wisconsin

After the Antiques Roadshow we hit the road for Beaver Dam. We drove around Beaver Dam for an hour until we could check in to our room. The lake at Beaver Dam is huge and on this day it was extremely windy and the water was very choppy....but still beautiful. You may not be able to see this in the photo below but there is a little metal box on a pole right by the boat launch. It has a slot in it with a sign that says to put your boat launch fee money in the slot. R and I got a kick out of that. If that box was here in Michigan it would be empty...no wait...the box would be gone....LOL. But I bet that in Beaver Dam the people do put their boat launch money in the box and I bet no one takes the box either. While walking to the festival we noticed that everyone that walked by said "hello". The town of Beaver Dam has a festival every year called the 'Lake Days'. They have the traditional festival attractions like a beer tent and games. We missed the water skiing show but lawn chairs were lined up ready for the show and fireworks that night.
Here they are working on the firework barges. We were at the track at 10PM so we missed all the 'oooh and aaaaahhs'.I feel funny taking photos of houses owned by people I don't know. I guess I don't want them to think I'm stalking them! The house below was in the process of being restored and was built high up above the lake.
I really like this home. The home had great stone work and was neat as a pin. It was located at the end of the street and had a view of the lake. I really liked the patio which was a raised brick patio with a view of the lake.
Notice all the bikes.......I didn't check but I bet not one of them was locked and none of them turned up missing. A few other observations I made while in Beaver Dam.....no loud noisy cars or motorcycles, kids rode bikes all over town, even though there was a large crowd at the festival it was actually peaceful and free of shouting obnoxious people, and finally...NO DRUNK or even SLIGHTLY intoxicated festival goers despite a large beer tent.

Antiques Roadshow.....here we come!

Look what I have........tickets to the Antiques Roadshow.We are here in Madison Wisconsin for the Antiques Roadshow. I submitted my name for two tickets waaaay back in February. In May, I received an email saying that they were sending me two tickets. That's when the hard part started......what do I take? Rules allow for 2 items per person, so that gave us 4 items to have appraised. I knew I wanted to take some of my oil paintings, but which ones?

I decided to have three oil paintings and one pastel drawing appraised. I chose a large post impressionism oil painting by William Slocum Davenport. Davenport, an American living in Paris, was Whistler's dentist. James Abbott McNeil Whistler is most well known for the painting of his mother...you know....Whistler's mother. Personally, I like his later work. But back to the Davenport painting. This particular painting was exhibited at a salon in Paris on March 12, 1933. It is in it's original white gold leaf frame with an exhibit tag numbered #600. I purchased this large oil from a seller in England.

The pastel nude I chose was drawn by Leslie Crump. Ms Crump, along with her father, was an illustrator for Boy's Life magazine.

I also chose another post impressionism oil by an unknown artist. I was told by the seller that the painting was French and late 19th century. The painting is undated so I was skeptical. The frame appears to be original.

The final oil I chose was the crucifixion oil dated 1936. The artist signed it with his initials but I have been unable to learn the artist's name. I featured this painting in a post last year.

The tickets have a time printed on them and ours say 8AM. We were able to get a hotel room within a stone's throw of the Alliant Energy Center which is the venue for the show. We pulled into the parking lot at 7:54AM.
Here is the line. Look at all the people with paintings. Guns were a big item with the guys. Normally when I am watching the Antiques Roadshow on TV and they start an appraisal for a gun, sword, or knife I get up and do something else until I see a new item. I'm not big on doll appraisals either. I prefer art work, jewelry, furniture, and decorative arts.

Wow.....that line moved faster than we thought. Here's R loading the SUV. The time is 10:04AM. It all happened so fast that I forgot to look for the Keno brothers. After the appraisal we were told to get in yet another line to spin a wheel for a T shirt, tote bag, or travel mug. I really wanted a T shirt, so I could say....."been there, done that, got the T shirt." But unfortunately I will have to say..."been there, done that, got the tote bag."

We bypassed the feedback booth because we needed to get rolling to Beaver Dam. Yup...Beaver Dam...here we come.

What did you say???? I forgot to tell you what they said about our treasures. Haven't got time. We need to get to the race track. Yup that's right... a race track. You don't think R came willingly to the Antiques Roadshow...do you? I bribed him with a World of Outlaws race and as a bonus Beaver Dam is having their Lake Days celebration. Yeehaw!!!!!

I need to ask for directions to a Cheese Haus.

When is the best time of day to get on the roof?

R needed to install a new drip edge on a shed dormer last Sunday. The temperature was in the 80's. The roof is a dark color. There was no shade. R was hot...very hot. All I know is I kept hearing muttering coming from the roof. I swear it sounded like this...."She just had to wait until it was hotter than hell"....."what the #$%^!"......"ouch"....."couldn't do this when it was 60 degrees out".

So rather than listen to him...I went into the barn to take a quick inventory of our wooden storm windows. Behind some race car stuff I found a window screen that appeared to be the correct size for the window in the shed dormer that R was working on. So I thought while he was up there he might as well install it....Right??

Well I forgot it would not fit through the window so R had to crawl across the hot roof, climb down the ladder, get the window screen, climb back up the ladder, crawl across the hot roof, and then install the screen. Screen looks good. R looked hot. So to make up for having to go up on the roof on an extremely hot day....we went to our fav restaurant...The Holly Hotel.

We have been dining club members for years. We had Barbara and Gavin's rehearsal dinner there. I thought I had dined in all the little nooks and crannies that they have but I guess not. This time we ate in a little area that seats approximately 4 couples.....the area was called the Dining Car.The walls are not that light, they are more of a maroon color. My flash distorted the color. R thinks they need to vibrate the floor and have a recording of the sound of the rail car moving along the tracks....thump thump.

As usual we had a great meal. R had Beef Wellington and I had Halibut Cheeks and lobster served with mashed plantains and coconut corn. Very very good.

R asked me "what are you having?"

I said "the Halibut cheeks."

R said..."what did you say about your butt cheeks? I didn't hear you."

Ladies....you can't have him....he's all mine.

Habitat for Humanity Restore

My sister Ranee and I attended a canning class in Battle Creek last Saturday. On our way out of town, I noticed a Habitat for Humanity Restore. Ranee circled the block and in we went.

I could not believe it, they had 5 wooden store doors with the removable glass insert. Ranee found a small Craftsman style porch light for $2.99. She says she doesn't know where she is going to put it but she HAD to have it. I wanted the 5 doors but there was no way we could get 1 door in her Vibe let alone 5, so I just planned to come back later in the week.

Long story short, after dentist appointments, nail appointment, yadda, yadda yadda, we drove to Battle Creek on Thursday. It was no surprise that all the doors were gone but one and I paid $15.00 for it. So all together we purchased the one door, 6 hack saw blades, 2 wire brushes for the drill motor, and six brand new exterior lights for Gavin and Barbara's house.

While looking for the the phone number for the Battle Creek Restore I ran across the location of a Restore in my county. I might run by there tomorrow to see what they have in their inventory. Hopefully I will be able to track down a few more wooden storm doors. I either need 4 more or 6 more if it's possible to use two together for the double doors in the sun room.

Of course I forgot to take a photo of the door.