Cleaning Up

(Scroll down to the bottom of this post for updates written on January 27 and 28.)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 - We made it into the double digits!

We also went from 56" of snow to 117" of snow in 2 weeks - with the last 3-4" during the night. Steve spent most of the afternoon cleaning up outside. It's getting late, so I'll attach some new photos of the accumulation tomorrow.  

While he was cleaning up outside, I was inside - cleaning up this old portrait discovered inside a closet at my grandma's house. Here's the before shot.

What a mess! It's one of those old frames with convex glass. I’m still working on determining who the man and woman are. Before I took it apart, I was hoping the names would be found on the backing cardboard or even on the old convex portrait itself, but no such luck.  It looks like the frame is made out of some terrific wood, but upon closer inspection, I realized the grain is actually a painted design, and it had a lot of chips in the paint. I cleaned it thoroughly, conditioned the wood on the back and “fixed” the bad spots on the frame using scratch cover stain and a Sharpie marker. The glass was filthy, of course, but the portrait itself wasn't too dirty. I just wiped it very carefully with a dry microfiber cloth. Here's the after shot.

Much better, right? I have one more portrait to clean, but I know the subject, my 2nd great grandmother, Ellen Esther Hoyt. Wish me luck on my detective work on this one.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

UPDATE:
SUNDAY, JANUARY 27 - Sorry, time has gotten away from us today. We have some errands to run tomorrow. I'll try to update you on the snow situation with photos of the cleanup tomorrow night. It looks like another significant and prolonged snow event is on the way! All is well in the Keweenaw. (11:19 p.m.)

MONDAY, JANUARY 28 - Sorry again. Too busy running errands today to write a blog post. Had another 5 inches overnight. Here's a teaser. I'll tell you all about the next photo tomorrow.

All is well in the Keweenaw.