The home stretch for this trip

The sands of time are running out on this visit to Illinois.  I said to Pete at dinner, "I wish we had just one more week here."  He said, "We'd never leave if we did."  So I guess it's good we're leaving on Wednesday.

We had to get up at dawn today and this is what I saw out the west window.  Can you see the two stars?

And this is what I saw out the east window.

We hustled through some chores to be ready when the guys came to blow in insulation.  They added 10 inches of cellulose above the living room and kitchen.  When they were done, Pete fired up the new carpet steamer (same model we have in CA) and I started boiling water for it.  I had to go upstairs in the garage to search for something to heat large quantities of water.  I felt like I'd "stuck in a thumb and pulled out a plum" when my eye lit on these old treasures.  They haven't seen the heat of a stove for many a decade but two of the three were water tight and served perfectly to heat many gallons of water.

While Pete was steaming the carpets and I was boiling water, I decided to take the second oven door apart (I'd done one already) and clean all the glass.  That led to cleaning both ovens.  I also cleaned the concrete floor in the basement one more time.  Then it was off to town for lunch.  We spent the afternoon setting up wireless internet for Maynard and Sue.  And Pete put up new doorbells on the front and back doors.  Tonight we want to install blinds and wash the basement floor.  Then we'll be done with the big projects for this trip.  

I had a burn pile going out behind the pig house this morning.  Lots of construction bits, boxes, dead branches from the yard and old stuff to burn.  It just wouldn't have seemed right if I hadn't had at least one big conflagration.  One of the joys of country life.