I actually need advice!

I know that I give more than I ask for but, I actually need advice. Some of you are more avid gardeners than I am. My desire being lost when we acquired the "Old CrackHouse". Right now I am just trying to maintain it at the residence. The "CrackHouse" yard looks like some woodland scene right now.
What will get rid of thistle? This stuff won't quit! It looks nice on a prairie but not in my back yard! If you pull it up, five more replace it, if you cut it down it branches out and "Round-up" won't eliminate it....

Sections of my yard are looking like "The Day of The Triffids" (did I just age myself?). I could try salt water but I think the thistle will suck it up and spew more thistle!

My other thought is napalm........ but the neighbors might complain........ just a little.

There be treasure under thar!

During one of my putzing moments I started to strip paint from the mantle in the master bedroom uncovering some nasty burn marks in the wood. (Which explains why it was painted.)
I concluded that it would be easier if I removed the mantle from the wall, so I removed it. After stripping the paint from the alabaster hearth I thought "If I could lift this out and get it downstairs then I could polish it." So, I did that too. Here is the room now....



The space below the hearth is filled with rubble and ashes and this stuff!



There are several bits of paper. One is a calender page from May 1883, there is a receipt from Legler and Barlow Co. Here is what I found about them;

"In 1865 Messrs. Legler, Barlow & Co., began the dry-goods trade in Dayton. This branch of commercial industry requires more skill and offers a wider field for legitimate operation than any of the other industries, hence the dry-goods traffic needs to be mentioned in order to make this book complete.
We find by careful inquiry that the well-known and popular house of Legler, Barlow & Co., of Nos. 35 and 37 North Main street, ably represent this branch of commerce in Montgomery. They import and job all kinds of dry-goods and notions, and enjoy the confidence of the entire public. They use for the prosecution of' their business a building 140x40 feet, five stories. All members of this firm are gentlemanly to all."

There is a pair of scissors (that work well) as well as some china and glass shards, a broken piece of a hinge and some HELP WANTED ads.
I found the ads amusing myself. Work seems as if it was so much simpler then.....

Patching plaster and covering cracks!

I have taken a diversion into the master bedroom while waiting on some tile to arrive that will finish my shower pan and allow me to grout it. I have been patching cracks with mesh tape and smoothing the walls with joint compound. Two areas were particularly bad as this room settled away from the main house after the bay addition was installed around 1890. There were two floor - ceiling cracks that extend up into the attic as well as the full length of the parlor walls below. They are right where the addition was attached to the house. The cracks were filled with a combination of caulk, "great stuff" and patching plaster depending on the width at various locations, taped over and then joint compounded! There was a portion of wall around one of these cracks with extensive water damage due to efflorescence. It is mostly smooth now. I am on my 2nd bucket of joint compound already.

Anyway, if you want to know how to get nice crisp corners without buying the metal or plastic ones HERE IS A PICTURE. Yes, that is a plank of wood attached to the wall!

When patching plaster to brick, it is wise to wet the brick first so that it doesn't suck the moisture out of the plaster. I also add sand to the plaster to give it more volume and fill the space but keep it recessed from the wall surface. I then use the joint compound to smooth over the patch. If you plaster over wood lath it is easier if you staple some metal lath to it first or some wire mesh to which the plaster can "key" or hold on to.

Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...

There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead



And when she was good she was very good indeed



And when she was bad she was horrid



Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 - 1882

Pictures with the co-operation of Elizabeth age 2 whilst eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Weights and Measures Part 2

Did you know that a pound of iron weighs more than a pound of gold? However an ounce of gold weighs more than an ounce of iron! Let me explain;

There are three principle systems of weights in general use: avoirdupois weight (the universal standard) from the Norman "Avon du poids" or "goods of weight"; Troy weight for coinage, precious metals and jewelry (From Troyes, in France where this was first used in Europe): and apothecaries weight used by druggists and physicians.

Way back in the Middle Ages grains of wheat were used to establish a standardized system of weights. 32 grains and later 24 grains established the weight of an English silver penny also known as pennyweight (dwt. or pwt).

On the Troy standard;

24 grains = 1 pennyweight (dwt.)
20 pennyweights = 1 ounce (oz.)
12 ounces = 1 pound (lb.)
1 pound = 5760 grains
1 ounce = 480 grains

For the gem collectors out there or in case you really wondered about the size of your best friend's diamond ring - 1 carat = 3.2 troy grains.

Avoirdupois weight has both English and American variations (we aren't just two nations separated by a common language). they are basically this;

American

16 drams = 1 ounce (oz.)
16 ounces = 1 pound (lb.)
25 pounds = 1 quarter (qr.)
4 quarters = 1 hundredweight (cwt.)
20 hundred = 1 ton (T.)
2000 pounds = 1 ton

English

27 11/32 grains = 1 dram
16 drams = 1 ounce
16 ounces = 1 pound
14 pounds = 1 stone
2 stone or 28 pounds = 1 quarter
4 quarters = 1 hundredweight
20 hundred = 1 ton
2240 pounds = 1 ton

The avoirdupois pound has 7000 troy grains.
The avoirdupois ounce has 437.5 troy grains.


The apothecaries use the Troy standard except that an ounce is divided as follows;

20 grains = 1 scruple
3 scruples = 1 dram
8 drams = 1 ounce troy
12 ounces = 1 pound troy

All this information is in my copy of Household Discoveries & Mrs Curtis's Cookbook (1909) that we bought on one of our antique mall excursions. I haven't even got to the cook book section yet.
You know, this book should be added to the curriculums in public school! Hmmmm, on second thought maybe not. Some of the people in my town might take to washing their mattresses with gasoline.... (see my earlier post on this subject.)

You want to know the local pick up line?
"Nice tooth!"

Things are not what they seem....

It would appear that I have been duped! For the last month I thought, I really thought that my pigeons had gone. They haven't! Now there are two more!

I noticed that there was some old style glass fiber insulation on the floor of the balcony, the kind that is in the attic of the "cottage" side of the house. So I stuck my head up into the attic and there I saw two young pigeons with undeveloped tail feathers. They obviously can't fly yet because they would have taken off. Mama or Papa was nearby watching me.

Damn birds didn't leave at all. They just relocated to the inside of my attic. I think it is time to put a ceiling up on the balcony!

I must admit, these birds have been pretty good about limiting the amount of guano deposits on the balcony, which is why they have remained undetected these past weeks.

If only some of my neighbors were as clean as these birds.......

This you HAVE to see!

This is amazing, I have actually managed to impress myself! Last year I stained and urethaned two doors. I thought that they looked good and was happy with the result. Here are some pictures. If you click on them you can see a larger image.






These are brand new pine doors from Home Depot.

Well, yesterday I stained two more doors. Again brand new from Home Depot using the same "Golden Oak" stain BUT this time I put on three coats of Zinsser "Bullseye" amber shellac and NO polyurethane.

Besides the fact that I had both doors finished and hung in the same day (because the shellac dries in 45 minutes), they look like they have been in this house for 100 years! Look at these pictures







WOW!
I know that I keep pimping this stuff but, if you need to replace a door with a new one and want it to look like it has always been there, then shellac is the way to go!

I know of two doors that are going to get the shellac treatment sometime soon! Amazing, simply amazing....