Baked Pears in Americus and December 2010 project continues

It is a cold day here in Americus Georgia so I thought I'd start off with a warm thought - chocolate! Yesterday I made these delicious chocolate streusel muffins. They look scrumptious, don't you think?Today, I made baked pears. As it is going to be cold just about everywhere, I thought it might be a good time to share a warm fruit recipe. You can use almost any variety of pears, I used d'anjou today.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the pears in half.

Using a melon baller, remove the seeds.

Also, remove the stem.

In a baking dish large enough to hold the number of pears you are baking in one layer, sprinkle some brown sugar. I don't use a specific amount. I just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Then, just sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of the brown sugar. Place the pear half cut side down onto the brown sugar/cinnamon.

I made 6 halves today.

Pour some orange juice over the pears. You want to cover the bottom of the pan by about 1/4 - 1/2 inch.

Dot the pears with a little butter.

Bake at 350 degrees until they are somewhat soft when you squeeze them gently. The skins will shrivel slightly when they are done. They will not be mushy soft, just fork tender. Depending on the ripeness of the pear, it can take anywhere from 25 minutes to 45 minutes. I check them at 25 minutes and then every 5 minutes after that. These were not ripe and took 40 minutes.

You see all that juice in the bottom of the pan? That will make a delicious sauce to go over the top of the pears. You can reduce the juice in one of two ways: in the microwave or on the stove top. If you do it in the microwave, make sure the measuring cup is much larger than the amount of juice. When it starts boiling in the microwave, it will expand in the cup and may boil over.

I decided to do the sauce on the stove today. I poured the juice into a sauce pan and allowed it to simmer until it reduced by about half. It will thicken up some, and will thicken even more as it cools. In the end, it is about the consistency of honey.

Once the sauce is ready, let it sit for a few minutes. While you are waiting, you can prepare the pears for presentation and serving. I slice them into 4 or 5 pieces.

Fan the slices in a small bowl or plate and drizzle the luscious sauce over the top.

The finished plate - baked pears ready to enjoy.

The December 2010 - January 2011 project is continuing on its slow pace. On Friday, the crew continued working on the north side of the house.

They started at the bottom replacing the siding. Kim has already painted the siding so all it will need is some touch up as they go along. What you see is the exterior wall of the living room.

Work also continued on the window trim of the bay windows to the dining room.

By about 2:00 in the afternoon, they had finished halfway up the windows.

Kim was supervising the men and checking the progress of the work.

By Friday afternoon, they had the siding up to the top of the window.

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog for the latest "events" here at the Americus Garden Inn. Hope your New Year is going great.

December Project 2010 becomes January 2011 Project

Happy New Year from the Americus Garden Inn Bed and Breakfast. It's been a few days since I posted about the December project. Well, now, it is officially the January 2011 project and Kim is going to bring you up to date.

Although it was 60 degrees today, last week, it was so cold that the pond was frozen over almost every morning.

The materials we have been waiting for have finally arrived - the James Hardie Artisan Lap Board siding and the composite trim board.

Firring out the window trim with 3/4" plywood continues to accommodate the composite trim board.

These windows still need to be firred out with plywood.

Removal of the cedar shakes revealed some additional water damage and previous repair.

As we remove the old pine window trim, I am salvaging as much as I can and denailing it prior to setting it aside for possible future use.

The nails used to fasten it are the old "cut" nails that have rectangular heads and are very brittle. Removing them is a real challenge in that they almost always break before the entire nail comes out of the wood. Our original thought was to remove the old trim, pull all the nails and run the board through a planer to remove the old paint and then, put them back up. This is impractical for two reasons: first, any remnants of the old cut nails that don't come out of the boards (and there are always some) would ruin the blades of the planer; and second, due to the age of the wood and its brittleness some of the boards break during removal.

After removing the shakes, we again discover an opportunity to install additional insulation in the space between the first floor ceiling and the upstair's floor.

We call on the local insulation company to blow in loose fill fiberglass since the cavities measure up to 15 to 20 feet long.

Installation of the plywood is done after the insulation in preparation for the new window trim.

In removing the siding outside the Scarlett Suite on the second floor, we discover this honeycomb that our visiting honeybees constructed in under 3 days before we encouraged them to take up residence elsewhere (see previous blog entry from Memorial Day weekend).

In addition, we found what appeared to be an abandoned yellow jacket nest that was relatively large. Both of these were inside the wall cavities outside the Scarlett Suite.

Fiberglass batt insulation is installed after the old siding is removed and before any plywood and housewrap are applied as shown below.

We begin to remove the trim around the second floor bay windows.

The second floor Jacuzzi Suite windows are ready for the installation of the new trim.

New trim around the first floor dining room windows is nearly complete.

The new window trim is now installed around the Jacuzzi Suite windows and the front parlor windows on the first floor.

Susan here. Today, it was back to Spring temperatures, 60 degrees on the porch in the shade.

The pond has thawed and the fish are awake but very slow.

The sasanqua by the entrance look like beautiful roses, don't they?

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog. As you can see, the project is moving along. Hopefully, the time-consuming work has been done and the siding will go up quickly. We will keep you posted! Happy New Year, y'all!

December Project 2010 Americus Garden Inn - Part 2

All of the residential historic district of Americus is on the National Register, so, all work done to any structure or property in our neighborhood has to be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission. There was reluctance to allow us to remove the old siding, but, as you can see in these photos, we would not have been able to address potentially serious structural problems which were hidden from view. The prior photos showed previous fire damage. These photos highlight the wood rot and termite (old) issues that were underneath the siding. Remember to click the photos for a larger view. You can see in this photo that the supporting beam has significant damage. Another area with damage.
I was totally surprised by the beautiful wood under the bay windows. It was the back side of the baseboards in the dining room. It became very clear how important insulation was going to be for energy conservation.

With all the damage to the main beam, we had to cut out the rotten parts and replace it. Another area in need of attention.

Another view of the surrounding wood.

The guys had to get under the house to jack it up while they worked on the supports. (If you click you can see one of them under the house "cheesing" for the camera.)

Almost the entire length of the living room needed replacement.

And the bricks were in need of fresh mortar on the foundation.

Here, the bad wood has been removed along with the crumbling bricks.

A side view of the same area. You can see why this project is taking longer than expected.

The fresh wood has been installed.

You can't get timbers the size they used in 1847 to replace the original beams. Here is a side view demonstrating how they filled in the space from 1 single beam. That was a huge piece of wood!

Underneath the bay windows, the insulation was placed. You can see the new wood replacement to the right, old wood from center under the windows.

After the insulation was finished, the entire thing was covered with OSB.

I hope you are getting a feel for the speed (or lack of) of this project. Obviously, the December project will be extended into January...

Although it was very cold this morning, the sun is shining and the wind has finally diminished. The crew did not work today. Our trim materials for the windows arrived today, so, maybe tomorrow they can get back on track.

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog. I'll share more of the project with you soon.