Sunday, July 29, 2012

Spooky

It's an old house.

It makes noises - radiators tic and pop with temperature changes; floors creak and groan with humidity changes.

Weird things happen - light bulbs flicker; the cook top fan turns on when we boil water and the fan switch doesn't turn it off or on (surprise! something that doesn't work! ;-)

But they've always had reasonable explanations.

Until now...

See the little round makeup mirror?  It's one where you can touch the base to turn it on/off or brighten/dim it.

Well...

We had a couple of instances where it's turned on by itself.

Or off by itself.

Not just when no one is around.

One night I was lying in bed reading a book.  SWMBO was in the bathroom.  The light turned on. I got up, touched the base to turn it off, and climbed back into bed.

A minute or so later, the light turned back on again.  I sat up and looked around, wondering if the dog had brushed by it or something.  Normally, she wears her collar so I hear the jingling of her tags.

So I asked SWMBO, "Where's the dog?"

"In here with me," she replied from the bathroom.  "Why?"

"Your mirror light just turned on by itself."

"No way!"

"Way," I said as she walked into the bedroom.  "See?"

"You did that."

"Nope. I've been lying here the whole time."

She walked over, touched the base to turn it off, climbed into bed, and started to read a book.

Five or ten minutes passed.

The light turned back on.

She turned to me and asked, "How did you do that?"

"I didn't," I grinned back.  "Maybe Emerson did."

Her eyes opened wide as I looked toward the light and said, "If you want us to keep restoring the house back to what it should be, you'll quit messing with that light!"

And the light turned off.

It hasn't happened again...

Friday, July 13, 2012

RHA Garden Tour

Last Night the Ramsey Hill Association had a Garden Tour for members.  Ours was one of the featured gardens on the tour.

The Threadleaf Aborvitae was one of the plants that drew the most attention.  Also of some interest was the Canadian Hemlock "Gentsch White" and the detail of its foliage.  Here's a link to a photo album for the garden with lots of before, during and after photos for each step of the journey.  And we're not done yet, so the journey will continue.

We're hearing rumors that our house will be on the RHA's house tour this fall (link to last year's event).

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Stone Wall - Part 2

Every weekend the MN Historical Society has walking tours that start at the James J Hill House and end up going past our house.  Some stop and emphasize the stone wall around the property.  Usually they focus on the unique feature of the top of the wall; the vertical stones.

As the tour guide mentions, it's modeled after walls in parts of Great Britain.  The idea with the vertical stones is that they keep sheep from jumping over the wall.

As far as we know, none of the previous owners kept sheep on the property and we don't have plans to, either...  And the wall wasn't built until the 1920s.

The second photo was taken near Burford in the Cotswolds in England.  The area is known for its sheep.  Though the walls here are dry-stacked, they have a similar vertical stone arrangement on top of the wall.