Rae: My friend Nancy was here briefly last week on her way to Iowa to see her Dad via a trip to her sister and brother-in-law's new winery in Freeport, IL. The winery was Grand Opening last weekend and... Nancy did an impressive job designing the logo and the wine labels.

It was another perfect Fall day when we drove Nancy to Freeport. I think the winery is about 3 years old. This is the first year they will sell wine.

This is Pam and Ken's lovely home built in the late 1800's. Over lunch Pam shared some about the house. As most of you know John is rather inquisitive and charming and will try and weasel his way into places he maybe should not go. What you may not know about John is that not only is he inquisitive he has a thing for doors, small ones in particular and he will go to great lengths to explore. Often I will turn around and find John has gone missing. After lunch I asked Nancy if she knew where John was I thought he was outside. No... apparently he had gone up to second floor to explore.... unattended... and to take pictures... you just can't take him anywhere...

John: Inquisitive and Charming...probably. Weasel? Fortunately she uses it as a verb rather than a noun! That's at least partially accurate!

John: We were in the kitchen and I opened a door. OK. As a kid I was highly influenced by the Wizard of Oz and "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"! What's not to like about doors? Anyway, Pam said the stairs behind the door led to the "maid's chambers"! Now, what's more intriguing than that? (Unless the stairs led down to the torture chamber, I guess!) So, upstairs, in one of the bedrooms...behind another door, is this VERY small door. Literally, we had to crawl BACKWARDS through this door to enter the maid's quarters. Once in, this is what we saw. A small room with a very low ceiling. Maybe six and a half feet at the peak. But for me...what a treat behind the small door. The stair was boarded up so the only way in...was through the small door I am being maligned for choosing to open! (What Rae didn't see was me climbing the stairs to the immediate left of the small door and opening another boarded entrance...to the attic. Very cool and Mrs. Bates was not holed up there! Viva open doors!