A house burning or burnt is not somethingwe want to see twice.I know I will be looking at the burned out shell of this home for a few days. The fire was just yesterday and only a few blocks from my home. A close friend lives directly across the street. Lucky for my friend that the wind was from the opposite direction.There are some things that deserve a double take.While this post is not directly related to Home Inspections it kind of is. Initial reports said the fire in the  home  above was started by an electrical problem.When I purchased my home the heart of the electrical system looked like this. The home inspector was not well educated on such systems so I had an electrician take a look at it. He discovered it was not adequate for the power service going into it. He commented: "You... 04/29/2025

Every Spring thaw reveals the garbage that was beneath the beautiful white snow. It seems to me that every year the volume of garbage revealed gets to be greater and greater. Even as a young man I never understood the mentality (or lack thereof) of anyone thinking it's okay to just chuck their trash anywhere on the ground.I think my disgust started with my first job at the age of 15 when I worked for a Holiday Inn as a porter and when things were slow I would pick up around the hotel (mostly cigarette butts).The picture above was the aftermath of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. What were they protesting... that the pipeline would pollute the earth. I would be interested to know if there has ever been a study as to who litters. My guess would be that HOMEOWNERS would be very low on ... 04/22/2025

I, for one, CAN make a stay-cation work. I love having a free schedule at home so I can tinker with things (tinkering is my passion). I also think camping pretty much is a stay-cation being our camper is pretty much our 2nd home.This summer may prove to be more challenging then others as far as camping goes. I had booked a few dates at our favorite campsite for the summer BUT just this week it was announced that our site and a few others we visit are closed due to staffing issues. After posting this I will be looking for alternatives and if nothing is found we will certainly be doing more stay-cation then planned.  04/19/2025

The photo above is a two fold sign of spring and with a new twist to me. The first thing that came to mind was the white duck. I have seen plenty of water foul all ready on the river but I don't think I have ever seen a white duck over the last 20 years. Second, today was the first day I've seen the river ice free this year.This picture is also two fold. I got the grill out and used it for dinner tonight BUT Timmothy and I also installed our screen doors today. There are very few flying insects out yet but now we are prepared for their invasion.And yet another double header. Timmothy and I got our bicycles out of storage and tuned up, ready to ride. In the background you can see the gate to Corbett Field is open (yes the gate that almost killed me last year). The Boys of Summer started ... 04/12/2025

This is the longest comic strip series I think Timmothy has ever put together. It could be titled "the home invasion of the ants". The other four episcopes are: It's Not What It Looks LikeThat Trojan GrapeDealing With The ProblemRunning On Emotion Can Lead Us Into TroubleWe started out with the ingenious plan of an ant colony to invade Joe's home. Their motive was clear, the search for food. The counter measure by Joe and the guinea pigs was to rid the home of the ant invaders. Big hearted as Joe, Titus & Philemon are they didn't want to kill the invaders.I say NUKE the invaders!If you are a homeowner you want insect invaders out of your home ASAP! I get the insecticide out anytime I see a problem that can not be remedied by a flyswatter. One benefit to living as far North as Minot ND i... 04/11/2025

I know Timmothy came up with this cartoon strip after visiting a new store a few doors down the street from us. This store is "new" in the fact that it was previously located a block away in a rundown location. They did a great job of setting up the store inside and out.Street view (just two doors from the Titus & Philemon Art Gallery.The sales floor.Rentable Party RoomMr. HandsomeTo me the message of the comic strip is go out, have some fun, and go home!  Chaos Games is NOT a house of gambling. I was so disappointed 13 years ago when the party of family values voted to legalize gambling in the State of ND. Keep in mind that ND is very conservative and that party has a 75% to 25% margin in ND government. On top of that it was a member of that party that pushed hard for his bill to pass ... 04/05/2025

This is a very brief video of Timmothy in his art studio creating two pieces (comic strips) for The Northern Sentry Newspaper (the official newspaper for the Minot Air Force Base). Timmothy produces a comic strip every day for this blog as well as for The Northern Sentry. I don't know how he does it, not just drawing the strip but having a funny message every day.  04/04/2025

The portrait above is part of a painting by Ben Slocum's grand daughter Tarryl Gabel of New York. If you look at her work you can see it was heavily influenced by her grandpa.This print by Ben Slocum was created January 4th of 1966. It is print number 3 out of an unknown quantity (my guess would be of 12 or less). The actual print, not counting the frame or matting, is 12-1/2" wide by 9" tall. Ben was a farmer/rancher in SW North Dakota. Since it has been displayed in the gallery several Western ND ranchers have perked up when they have seen it saying "Ben painted my grandfathers ranch". The only information I have found on line about Ben Slocum is a snippet of an interview with Ben's granddaughter Tarryl Gabel. Along with the interview is an oil painting she did of her grandpa sitting ... 04/03/2025

The Art Work of Len HaabakLen Haabak is a guest Artist at the Titus and Philemon Art Gallery. Lenn is well known in the Minot area not only for his art skills but as a Musician, Troubadour, & Building contractor.Len has been with us, the Titus & Philemon Art Gallery since we opened in 2020. Here are a few pieces we have in the gallery. Pardon the flash distorting things a bit.The pieces we have here are all prints brought to us by Len Haabak himself however Len will sell originals and will also create Portraits for you from your photographs. For more information call me and I will hook you up with Len.AMMENDMENTWhen I wrote this post I noticed the link to his website was not working so I called Len. The result of the call is that Len brought in more art, many being originals! It was a w... 04/02/2025

I made an unscheduled trip to my office downtown to help a friend look for her billfold. She thought she may have left it there on Thursday when she came to help me clean. When I got to the building I could hear a whole lot of honking going on. When I looked up there was a never ending flight of geese above. I must have stood out there ten minutes and the migration never slowed. I thought I'd take a few pictures for you. This is one of my favorite signs of Spring... oh, and the temperature as I write this at 9:00 AM is 21 degrees.You get the point... there were a lot of them.Another one of my favorite signs of spring is for the last several years one goose in perticular likes to hang around downtown going from rooftop to rooftop calling out for his mate. I spotted him this last week but... 03/29/2025

The little snow squall we had this evening (03/28/2025) had the largest flakes I'd ever seen. It reminded me of an old movie with W. C. Fields in it and it was snowing. I believe He said "it tastes like corn flakes". It was an inside joke as I understand they actually did use corn flakes  in the movies back then to simulate snow. This short video gives you the idea of just how big the flakes were.  03/28/2025

Unfortunately many who are eager to be pet owners did not think things out before they purchased or adopted their pet. This is the number one reason humane shelters across the USA are full and even worse, animals are abused and reported to the ASPCA.There are two rescues for pets in the Minot ND area. One I do not recommend, the other is excellent. I advise people to avoid The Souris River Animal Shelter. It is my opinion their track record of putting fundraising first caused the catastrophic collapse and emanate closure until the City jumped in and took over.On the other hand I encourage people to support For Belle's Sake. For Belle's Sake is located SE of Minot (just a few miles) and they care about the animals FIRST and they have never had money management problems.Those of you who h... 03/28/2025

On Wednesday I posted a video of myself welcoming you to come see the Titus & Philemon Art Gallery. That video and this one were recorded to submit to the website builder working on Timmothy's Art Gallery and Studio website.We appreciate your input. The developer would like us to submit at least one or two video's per week. After these two we will work on stories about each creation in the gallery as well as Timmothy recording "how to" create comics, acrylic fine art, and more.Please let us know what you think and feel free to include constructive criticism. 03/22/2025

Timmothy and I have been submitting materials to a web developer for his new gallery web page. I just sent them this video as an introduction. We, Timmothy and I, hope to upload several more in a short amount of time so I hope you will let us know what you think is good and what is not so good. Here is my WELCOME video.I hope to have a welcome from Timmothy by the end of the day that I will post tomorrow. I don't want to post to much at one time. 03/17/2025

The single pane cartoons I feature by Timmothy Timm are strips that are actually submitted and printed in The Northern Sentry Newspaper (official newspaper of the Minot AFB). Timmothy basis these cartoons on something he read in the previous weeks paper.The Amtrak Empire Builder runs from Chicago to Seattle daily and is the only Amtrak service Minot offers. The Timm family has made good use of this service to visit Tina Timm when she attended The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).With the many choices of ways to travel the Empire Builder is often a good choice. I think what I liked best is that you can carry a lot of luggage but in addition to that the seats are comfortable and the rates are reasonable.If you are considering a trip I encourage you to consider Amtrak. I wish M... 03/15/2025

I am a little lost on this one but this is the comic strip Timmothy does for the Minot Air Force Base news paper, The Northern Star, and he gets all his ideas from the same paper. Thus I assume the base has a new Latin and Central American grocery store.It is somewhat surprising to me that Minot itself does not have any specialty grocery stores. I am going to assume that it is because all the stores in town are very large and cover a multitude of ethnic foods making something new coming in uncompetitive.I know when I first saw this I said to myself "why didn't I think of that" especially being I knew a friend who did very well with it in Fargo when I lived there.Oh well! Carol has probably stayed away from ethnic foods knowing I am a meat and potatoes guy. Now that being said I do love ... 02/22/2025

Yesterday's comic strip with Titus's portrait can be found here. Following up to today's strip sometimes it's just best to say NO to offers of help.Yesterday I had my first experience with Angi, formerly Angie's List). Here is/was my experience. The bold white print on their homepage above is BS, anyone who pays Angi's fee is "top-rated" (my opinion). The situation: Our dishwasher had ceased to function in a satisfactory manner. We purchased a new one at Karl's. Being an experience DIY person I thought I may install it myself. Timmothy and I removed the old one but the new one appeared to be more than I wanted to tackle.When I failed to get connected to the handyman who advertises on Christian radio I turned to Angi. I left messages at 3 numbers. The first "expert" quoted me $600.00. I ... 02/21/2025

Once again I've decided that I've outgrown the faith of the church I've been attending. I've explored denomination after denomination moving on most often due to church doctrines playing down the truth of what I consider the unchanging and inerrant word of God. Man, if you think the truth is a moving target then in actuality you don't believe in anything.And then there are the pastors. Two churches ago I was very content and loved every aspect of the church I was attending. The largest giver to the church cast his wife aside for a slut and the pastor defended him so as not to lose the biggest giver of the church. The church before that it was the pastor who was having an affair. In the church I am in the process of leaving the pastor runs every little aspect of it and feels he should be... 02/09/2025

It's been years but when I lived in Moorhead MN, sister city to Fargo ND, I remember a couple of storms where a snow drift was high enough to go over part of our split level home and the front door was completely buried. That was 50 years prior to Timmothy being born so I don't know where he came up with this cartoon as we have not had anything close to it in his lifetime.This home is very similar to the split-level home I grew up in during the 70's.Cartoons are meant to be funny so knowing that most doors open inward I find it even funnier that Joe doesn't think he can open the door.There are some good Real Estate applications to this subject and the picture above.#1) Snow is NOT light! If you live in an environment where this could happen you want a home inspection of the rafters... e... 01/22/2025

I know exactly how Titus feels. When I awoke this morning and put Baby out (my dog) it was a negative 25 degrees not counting the windchill. It's the kind of day where I'm thankful I have a warm home to live in. I'm thankful that I have a reliable furnace, and also that when we rebuilt our home after the flood we did not skimp on insulation or quality windows.If you are from a Southern State and you purchased an older home up North here you may be discovering the value of good insulation and windows today. Many old homes had inadequate insulation and single pane glass windows. Double pane is better and triple pane is even better. The best windows made today use argon gas between the panes. It's hard to bring a 100 year old home up to today's heating standards because re-insulating and n... 01/20/2025