Maynard School and Election

Well, Tuesday, was election day and I finished the outside painting of School house buildings (outhouse included) just in time. I added a little color to the porch by painting the top and bottom rail dark green and the spindles white. The door is also green to match. It made a huge difference over the green-treated wood look.
I took these pictures as the sun was setting so they are a bit dark. The sun is setting earlier thanks to the time change. We can now count on it being dark by 5:30 pm.
We have had absolutely beautiful weather for nearly a week. No rain and temperatures way above normal in 60's and 70 one day. I have to say it spoiled me a bit. I know when it goes back to normal temperatures for November I will be complaining.
All the "girls" plus Bill Merkle manned the ballot machines from 7am to 8pm. With only 32 voters registered in the township, it makes for a lot of free time. Time they use up by snacking and playing a township version of Skip Bo that I can't quite get used to.
I worked on an addition I needed to get under roof before we get too much bad weather and stopped in at the end of the day to munch on some of the goodies. Who said there isn't such a thing as a free lunch? They haven't lived in our township. Voting time is definitely a time of catching up on local news and a time to see all the voting members of the township. I think they
ended up with somewhere around 26 voters by the end of the day. Well all that is left to do in the school house is a few more repairs on furniture, which I will do as I have time between jobs. One day soon I hope to set up all the school desks and get a nice picture of the building as it might of looked when school was in session. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.
P.S. Thanks to all who stop when they see me and say hi. Makes me realize how many people read and enjoy this little part of heaven in Elk Township.

Top of Maynard School

My mother will scream when she sees this post, she is afraid of heights. However, mom notice I do have my safety harness on! For the rest of you we finished painting the outside of Maynard School and by the looks of the weather just in time. The last part to be painted was the bell tower. I had hoped to get a picture of the bell, but without removing wood panels it was impossible to see much of the bell. On the very top of the bell tower was a wood pillar. I am sure something was on top of it at sometime. I am guessing either a weather vane or lightening rod, the first seeming the most likely.

Our power went off in the middle of the night and I had to get up before it got light of course lately that just means before 7am. I had a kerosine lite bowl of oatmeal to start the day. Fortunately the power out was solved by 7:30am so Lee didn't have to deal without power all day. It appears the problem was somewhere in the Cedar Run area.

We are under a winter storm warning for tomorrow. Estimates ranging from 1" to 10" are floating around. In looking at the weather map it appears we may be on the edge. So I am hoping for the closer to 1" amount. I still have a foundation and small addition to get up and under cover before the big stuff comes. I will let you know if we get anything of significance tomorrow. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Primary 2011

Lee Anne, Jackie O Neal, Sue Bonniger and I spent from 6:30 am to 8:30pm helping the township voters cast their ballots for the primary.
We had 24 of the 28 eligible voters show up. Pretty good for a primary and the fact it was a rainy gloomy day. After the voting ended Lee and Jackie drove the ballots to Wellsboro and Lee didn't get home until after 11pm so a long day.
The day started with the phone line being ripped out by one of the dump trucks. So Sue improvised by using a walkie talkie to reach her place and having Eldon make any phone calls we needed.
This was the first event to be held in the newly remodeled schoolhouse and most were pleased with the changes.
It takes just about everyone we have in this
township helping to make things work with so few residents. We are the least sparsely populated township in the state of Pennsylvania. Four township positions are open: one supervisor and three auditor positions all of which were write-ins making for a long process to cast your vote.
It takes 10 people writing you in to put you on the ballot for fall. As you can tell that can be a challenge with only 28 people voting and not everyone wishing to take the time to type in names one letter at a time.
All in all it was a fun day of seeing everyone and catching up on the latest. Ron Andrus said he found the Big Bull elk dead on April 17th and the DCNR is doing an autopsy to see how it died(no traumatic injuries were apparent). I guess a smaller male had died last year so that only leaves one in the area he knows about. For any of you needing to get rid of trash, spring cleanup is June 11th 8-noon at the township building. Lee is holding down the fort for a week while I am off to my dad's memorial this weekend in Wisconsin. I am hoping this rain will be done when I get back. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Maynard School inside finished

The inside of the Maynard School House is finished just in time for elections next week. I took pictures without any of the furniture in building so you can see walls easier.
The original furniture to be saved will be cleaned up and made useable before it is brought back in. In some cases this will involve a bit of work.
I got the blackboard that was under the slate board back up with the names of people on it. It has been sealed so no one can erase it. We placed it in a corner next to the other board.
There is still a bit of siding work to do on outside and the entire building will be repainted outside this summer.
The very last picture shows the rope hanging down from the attic where the bell is. It can be pulled to hear the bell tolling once again. I am very pleased with this project and look forward to all the voters seeing it as they come in to vote. The township has talked about having an open house some time, if they do I will post it. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

School House Piano for sale

Just a note(no pun intended) for those of you who would like a piece of history....the Marvin Player Piano in the Maynard Schoolhouse is being auctioned off in Ebay listing no: 220764950681. It would need a lot of work to get things working right so no offer will be refused. I am sure this piano is a hundred years old. Get a hold of me if you want to take a look at it. Bids close on April 14th.

Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Maynard School Progress

Well things are moving along with the school house project. The walls are all done. The slate board is back up and I am putting in the suspended ceiling. It is difficult working around all the stuff in building seems I spend much of my time moving things. When ceiling is completed, I will be doing caulking and nail hole filling. I will also be starting to paint the siding boards and the exterior window trim inside as it is still too cold to paint outdoors. The high tomorrow will be 36 and the low 21, that is an upgrade from the low teens we have had for lows the last few days.

Looks like we may use an epoxy paint with

colored flakes in it for floor. There isn't many products that can withstand the changing temperatures and lay on a less than flat floor. Vinyl would have been an option except the school desks cast iron feet would tear it up.

So after the ceiling, I will probably be crawling under the school house to check supports for floor. I am sure more will need to be added. I am hoping we get some warmer weather soon as much of my next work will be outside.

The last picture is just a cool icicle on our back porch roof. It is about three foot long. I had to knock it down so it didn't kill, Speck the Chihuahua on one of his trips outside. Lee Anne would never forgive me if I killed her dog while she was gone.

Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Maynard School progress

Well, the walls have been painted and most of the electrical circuits are up and working. The tongue and groove boards and other pine boards for trim were delivered and I have routered the sill boards to get them ready to be varnished.

Lee will be varnishing all the boards while I am gone for a week and then I will put them up when I get back. Trimming out the 10 windows and getting all the sills to line up will take the most time. There is 900 linear feet of tongue and groove boards alone for Lee to varnish so she won't be bored while I am gone. You can see some of them in the second picture towards the bottom edge of picture.

I had planned on getting all the trim boards sanded for her as well, but yesterday my father fell and hit his head on a ceramic floor while on vacation in Florida. He suffered a fatal brain bleed, so my day has been filled with other issues. I am the oldest of five children, my father is remarried so it causes a lot of issues to deal with in arrangements. Fortunately, my fathers wishes were:NO FUNERAL! He wanted a celebration of his life, which we are planning at a time when my siblings can get together from all over the country. He was almost 82 and had been getting very frail the last few years. And though you expect to lose someone that age, I didn't realize how much it would hurt. It is like part of you is gone and there is a big hole in your chest. I am glad I got to see him in January and keep the memory of him singing: "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra and Irish Lullaby to me when I was young. I sat in the rocker he used to rock me and my kids to sleep singing this song last night when I realized he was moving on. I will miss my dad. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra

Maynard School progress

Just thought I would post some progress pictures on Maynard School house project. I had a company come in that sprays expanding foam insulation in. You can see how tightly it filled the walls and cracks. Even without insulation in ceiling and floor there is a significant difference in the building.

I fir stipped the walls as they didn't have even spaced or sized studs trying to get the wall as flat as possible. This also allows me to put the board in vertically and have tapered seams which mud much nicer.

The lower part of the wall is going to get vertical pine with a sill running at the height of the bottom of the windows completely around the room. Just above the tops of the windows will be a drop ceiling, which will allow me to put a level ceiling in to match windows. However, there is not much that can be done with the floor that slopes off as much as two inches to one side. Leveling that isn't in the budget so we will have to settle for level windows and ceiling.

In the area of the old chalk board the pine will be lower to allow an area to place the board back up. We did some major retying of the roof rafters and ended up doing some repair on two broken ones. One had broken completely in two. I have some more holes to varmint proof in the attic before I put in the insulation, which will be 12" blown in cellouse.

The weather warmed up so much today, I worked without a coat all day and felt hot. The roads started melting and made for a slushy slide home. Roads with significant snow on them in unplowed areas are basically impassable until the weather freezes or they melt a lot more. There is as much as 12" of slushy snow on some roads. Other roads in the sunny areas may be down to the bare dirt. It can be easy to start up a road that looks good only to find yourself in a bad situation fast. So be careful if you are coming up. The tow guys charge a pretty penny to come back if you can find one that will.

On a sadder note, Bravo Button's wife Helen passed away from her battle with cancer. Helen was the election judge for our township and spent many a day in the school house I am working on counting ballets. Sadly, she won't be around to enjoy a much warmer and nicer building to work in. Our sympathies go out to Bravo and his family. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Progress on School

The windows are in the Maynard school and it makes a huge difference. I am able to get the room up to a temperature I can work without gloves. The rough electric is just about done and the walls have been covered with a half inch foil covered foam board in preparation for the the expanding foam insulation to be sprayed on next Tuesday. The reason we put the board up was to keep the insulation from sticking to siding as there is siding we need to replace soon and in the future.

Once the insulation in the walls and ceiling is done working inside the school will be so much easier as I won't have to wear snowpants to do it.

Bending and moving in general with many layers of clothes on is difficult.

The outside work will be waiting until the snow and ice is gone at this point. Moving the ladders around in the ice covered snow was a bit more than difficult.
Thursday on the way to the lumber yard I saw a calf, which had been born laying in the field. Normally this would be fine but it was -4 and the calf was freezing to the ground. I stopped at the farmhouse to tell them, but no one was home. So I went to their neighbors and had them call owners. I continued onto the lumber yard, but the sight of that calf struggling and freezing stuck in my brain.

I decided if no one was there by the time I returned I would have to do something. Well, no one had come so I trudged out into the middle of the field. The calf's ear tips looked frozen much of its body was covered in ice and it could barely
move. I kept an eye on the mother as I struggled to lift the limp 80lb calf. I half lifted and half dragged the calf about 300feet through the snow with its mother watching me.

I got to the truck and shoved the limp calf up next to Scooter. He wasn't impressed. The wierd creature made him nervous at first, but then he started to lick it. I don't know if he was being kind or wanted to taste it.

I drove to a friends down the road with a barn hoping they would have somewhere warm for the calf. They didn't have anywhere so I told them I was taking it to the school house until the owners showed up. They called the Browns and let them know where I took the calf. I keep the calf in my truck with the heat running full blast until I could get the school house warmed up a bit. Then I brought the calf inside and set him on some insulation board by the heater. The calf was so weak and cold it wasn't able to lift its head. The owner arrived shortly after and retrieved the calf. I hope the little guy did okay, but it didn't look good. So I spent the rest of my day working and smelling like newborn calf. Never a dull moment in the middle of nowhere. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Winter is still here

This is the time of year when I get tired of winter. It is unfortunate because we have at least 2 more months of bad weather to go. We have gotten several small snows over the last few weeks the largest one being around 6". In between snow we got freezing rain which has left a hard crust on top of the snow. Speck, the chihuahua, is loving being able to walk on top the snow without sinking. The rest of the dogs and I are intermittent with staying on top. It is not a pleasant surprise to be walking on top and then suddenly drop through the crust. This often is followed by the rest of me knelling in the snow.

The deer aren't fairing any better. Their sharp hooves let their bodies drop through and make them slow moving targets for predators or worse give them a broken leg. One such deer is laying in the middle of the road about a mile up from me. The deer is mostly eaten by predators and is providing a mid-winter feast to a few crows. I watched other deer who get in the road happy to run somewhere with no snow, but as soon as they jump off the road they are belly deep in snow and struggle to move.

I am slowly working on the school house in the cold weather. The outhouse isn't nearly as fun to use when you have multilayers of clothes to remove. Stepping off a foot high snow pile into the outhouse yesterday, caused me to misjudge my height as I entered it yesterday knocking myself in the head on the top frame of the door. As I trudge to it knee deep in snow I often think about the kids going to school here long ago doing the same thing and feel much empathy towards them.

I had two days I couldn't work this week one due to weather and one due to a dentist appointment and a broken snowmobile tow for someone. So I am making it up this weekend. Thinking of stopping into the snowmobile club for breakfast tomorrow morning before I work. All you can eat sounds good before a day in the cold. All I can say is the groundhog best be right and Spring is early...cause I am ready. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Memorabilia from Maynard School

The first picture is a copy of a report on George Washington by Ida H. Hoagland written Feb 21, 1895. I found it inside a wall half chewed by mice. All I have been able to find out about Ida is she later was Silas Ripley's second wife after his first died young. The second picture shows an old honey bee hive inside one of the walls. And the last picture is a blackboard we found under the slate blackboard. This was simply boards painted black and used to write on. This is a list of kids who cleaned the school house in Nov of 1905. Hopefully, I can find out more about Ida, I still have one area to look through to see if I can find any more papers. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Maynard School Continued

I am posting some pictures of the outside of Maynard School. Also a video showing the inside before I started remodel project. So far the entire interior walls have been taken off. The slate board has been saved to be put back up when remodeling is done. I found some homework written by a student about George Washington the father of our country...it was in between the walls and is dated 1895. The mice had chewed off a corner so I couldn't see the first few sentences. I am surprised it survived inside the wall that long.

I also made another find in the wall near the front door. I saw what appeared to be a large rag stuffed in the bottom of wall. However, when I pulled it out..it was apparent my rag was a dead cat. The cat was almost mummified it was so dry. I don't know if the cat died cause it fell in there or died from other reasons. This also solves the mystery poop that fell on my head in a couple spots. I had figured it to be a cat or raccoon. Now I know it was a cat.

I started taking the old windows out today. The wood was so rotten on the windows nothing could be saved. I am reframing for new ones. You can tell from the interior the windows were added after the building had been up a while. Because whoever cut them in...just cut straight through without framing around above or below them. They just sort of floated there. The walls are 5" thick so a 2x6 has to be ripped down to match. I can tell there is some variations in the wall thickness so there will be a lot of shimming to make it look good later.

I was glad it warmed up to slightly above freezing today as I have no heat while working on the building. There is a space heater, but with the walls gone and the windows open it is a lost cause. Tomorrow more window pulling and framing...then it will be onto other structure issues and trying to figure out ways to keep out the animals. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Maynard School

I started working on remodeling the Maynard School house this week. It is a one room school house built sometime in the mid 1800's. We use the building as a township meeting hall. It isn't currently being used as a school house although several of the township members went to school there.

The building is 22' wide and about 30' long. It is divided in

four parts with a wall about 6' back that contains three rooms: A middle entry area and two closets to either side. There is a view inside one of the closets in the first picture.

the building has lot of leaky windows and no insulation, which has made it hard to warm the building up for meetings and elections, which are it's primary uses.

The building still has some of the old school desks and the original slate blackboard(which we hope to put back up). As we tore the board off there was another smaller board under it which seemed to have a thin black coating on they were able to use chalk on. This board had a few people's
names on it and the date of November 1901. I assume that might be the day it was covered with the other slate.

I will continue to take pictures of the destruction of the interior walls and keep you posted on its progress. I plan on having some more details and maybe stories from people who went there to school.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. It has a school bell that works. I know cause I climbed into attic and rang it. I could almost see the kids running to school as it rang out. Not too many school bells are still hanging in their respective school buildings so this is a great find.

The old piano you can see in one of the pictures I am afraid is beyond repair at least musically. Unless someone really dedicated to spending the kind of money it would take to fix it loved doing it. It is probably not worth doing much to. So far I have mostly been covered by the dirt and animal debris falling on me as I strip the walls down to the bare frame inside. Getting this building animal proofed and structurally good will be a lot of work, but a fun job. I took a short video of it and will post that separately in next blog.

Mountain girl, logging out.