Getting Stuff Done.

Well, I slept too many hours for several days, so at 4 am, I was just laying in bed not tired.  So I got up and decided to DO SOMETHING!

Early morning TV is awful, even the usual political channels.  So I did something I haven't done in a while.  I turned on the stereo.  Which was actually funny because I had to figure out how to do it.  No, I'm not stupid, it's just that there are so many options that it took a while to find just "music".  LOL!

Made breakfast.  Fed the cats.  Cleaned the litter boxes.  Emailed my trash collection company about the busted-up bin.  Did 2 loads of laundry.  Emptied the dishwasher.  Well, what do you do at 6 am? 

I had a package to return to Amazon.  Loki had an issue peeing on the bed a few times and I ordered a mattress protector.  Didn't realize it was a form-fitted kind (I have a waterbed).  I could buy a flat one, but I've been using a tarp to cover the bed.  Seems to be working.  But today was the last day I could return it, so I went to Staples as soon as they were open.  

That requires a QR code inside the box and outside for Staples to create a label.  The outside QR printout was too large and fuzzy.  So they cut the box open.  The inside one scanned perfectly.  And the person there said they cut the boxes open anyway to stuff the returns into plastic bags.  Who knew?  And I already have an email crediting my account.  

But at least that was done.

So I went to Petsmart to fill up the cat's pantry.  9 cases of regular Stinky Goodness and 2 cases of Marley's kidney care Hills stuff.  $400!  If I didn't have more money than Donald Trump actually does (joke, maybe), that would be a problem.  I mean, 45 pounds of cats costs more to feed than I spend on my own food at 165 pounds.  And I eat well...

And I bought a new 'betta splendens' while I was there. 

I normally keep a blue and a red one (in seperate tanks).  I was sad when the blue one died last week after a few years (they don't live long even naturally).  They display wonderfully when they see each other, but it exhausts them so I keep a piece of cardboard between the tanks most times.

And then I bought a new refrigerator (LG LRDCS2603D).  I had been planning to for months.  High Consumer Reports rating among bottom-freezers. But website pics don't show everything so I wanted to actually look at one.   I walked in to Home Depot (local DIY store) to just make sure I understood the shelves and freezer divisions.  

I walked out with a receipt and a delivery date, LOL.  No, they didn't trick me or anything.  I knew what I wanted.  I just needed to put my hands on the shelves and crispers and temperature controls.  It will be delivered Wed 27th.

But it has an ice-maker.  Which needs a water line to it.  I can make enough ice manually to suit my needs for my 6 pm cocktail, but it sure seems easier. to just always have more ice without effort.  Many of my recipes say "bathe in ice-water".  I've never had enough ice to do that, so maybe that will be good.

I had to laugh about one part of the sale.  The top door is reversible but the standard is on the wrong side for my kitchen.  The charged a penny for reversing it.  Seriously, it is right on the receipt.  The ink must cost them a penny.  LOL!

The Home Depot guy said to make sure the waterline extension ended with a shut-off valve directly behind the refrigerator.  I don't know why but he stressed that.

But the ice-maker function meant I had to decide on a plumber.  Many calls and questions about labor cost structure.   I looked at Yelp and a few other sites.   I decided on one that had good local ratings and experience and cost structure.

One I declined charged $150 per hour from leaving the previous job. Who gets $150 per hour for just driving, LOL?  Another I declined specifically said the shut-off valve would be in the basement (see above), so I told him I didn't think he was the right person for me.  

I'm hoping I have a good plumber to do the work.  It is pretty straight-forward, so I don't expect any technical difficulties.  But I won't know the cost until he examines the existing pipes and run-lines.  But he will arrive prepared to do the work immediately.  

That will be expensive ice for a while, but I probably grow to love it...

I am probably best off just accepting the plumbing cost...  Waiting for contractors to arrive in a 4 hour window drives me crazy.  They all probably cost the same, so avoiding the aggravation of waiting around is probably worth just having one person come to do the work.  For some things, it is worth getting estimates from multiple contractors.  For smaller matters, not so much.

The ancient basement fridge (37 years old) is probably costing me a lot in inefficiency.  And the local electric company will actually pay me $50 to have them haul it away.  And good riddance to it.  I have had to chip away ice every few months from below the top-freezer for years.  

Why do I want 2 refrigerators you may ask?  The basement one is mostly a root cellar and for more freezing capacity.  I keep the cool part at 40F and the freezer part on full cold (0 F)for long-storage.  Buying large amounts of meat  a few times a year to freeze is both convenient and cheaper.  And I keep my garden seeds and "beer for bread" in the cool part too.

Now it's time to gt to the basement and plant some tomatoes and peppers and melons and flowers...

Well, after I call The Mews in and give them lunch.

A "representative" lunch...

Stuff

 Random and varied...

1.  I would like to go to bed, but I don't feel like I can sleep.  Yet I have to get up in 6 hours to call the vet about one of my cats (Lori) who is having bouts of diarrhea.

The 2 new ones I adopted in late November (Loki and Binq) came with some difficulties.  Loki had a head infection, eye goop, and lack of appetite.  That's all cured.  Binq was very claw-grabby and finger-bitey but with some steady and gentle discouragement (and me wearing heavy jeans), she is getting over that.

2.  I finally buried Laz last week.  He was bagged in the basement freezer for 45 days.  I just kept putting it off.  I have a dedicated Memorial Garden for past cats.  But the soil is very hard 6" deep and I go for 2'.  Took 2 days, and I have bad knees, which makes pounding on a shovel and jamming a breaker bar miserable.  But he is part of "The Remembered" now.  I miss his good days as BFF with Lori so much.  But that ended as he slowly went crazy.

I still have to build the aboveground marker boxes for Laz and pre-deceased Ayla now.  Like these...

Angled fronts for brass letters of the names and a brown resin statue on the top.  Those simple brown resin statues are getting harder to find.  Best I could find for Ayla and Laz are...

Not what I really wanted, but they will have to do.  

3.  I feel like visiting some obnoxious discussion forum (that I disagree with entirely) but I won't.  I don't live to annoy others.  

4.  Turned off the Holiday lights last nights.  This year, I may actually remove them.  I have some ideas of different ways of using lights in the yard next year.  The lights have been up since 2020, (only lit for the holidays of course).  Time to change things next holiday.  I'm thinking an artificial tree on the lawn with blue lights.

5.  With all the rain lately (so soft soil), I decided to pull the birdfeeder pole more upright (it was leaning slightly).  So I tied ropes around the feeder pole and 2 trees.  By Spring, it should be fairly well set in place.  There is a lot of clay at the bottom, and that 2' deep, it tends to keep things in place.

6.  Need to do the same with the post the hose reel sits on.  When I first set it up 10 years ago, it was upright.  But pulling on the reel pulled it forward a bit.  It still works, but the angled post annoys me.  If I rope it straight up over Winter and Spring, it may lock in place horizontally.  

If not, I will wiggle it around until I can pull it out and than enlarge the hole to set in in concrete with some rebars pounded in at angles to really hold it in place.

7.  Replanting all the lettuce trays.  When a hard frost threatened back in early December, I brought them all in.  But didn't put them under lights.  Most died.  I have to start again.  

8.  But that means a lot of cleaning in the basement.  So that is the primary task tomorrow.

9.  So many things I need to do around the house.  And most of them I can't do myself.  So I have a list of contractor projects.  Windows, doors, linoleum flooring in the computer and cat rooms, new appliances, new water heater, get the emergency electric generator hooked up, change the decrepit asphalt driveway replaced with concrete.  Well that's what money is for.

10.  Get the computer cleaned up.  Get the laser color printer printing in color again.  Get the laptop working.  Learn to use my smartphone.

That's enough problems for a year.

Back, Maybe

 I hate computer problems.  Well, who loves them other that repair-people?  I've solved some of them (I hope).  Email is still bad, but I can read my cavebear address on AOL and the marksmews and yardenman ones on apple (but still can't reply from them).  I got my RAM increased from 8 GB to 16.  Took a onsite tech guy 2 hours and I couldn't have done that myself in any length of time.  It took some really special tools and a steady hand.

I can't swear that the RAM increase helped, but it sure can't hurt.  And I am still fighting to connect a new color toner printer with no success.  But that doesn't prevent me from blogging...

More importantly, it seems I have solved the routine involuntary shutdowns for now.  It was due to outdated apps.  Not that I don't update them when suggested, but some aren't good at telling you that.  And possibly an outdated external hard drive.  I've disconnected it for now.

But, for all practical purposes, I am back.

I didn't waste my "time off".  I got my covid booster shot.  I reorganized my basement planting shelves.  I collected every unused box in the house and stacked them within each other (I had a LOT sitting around).  

I finally received the 3 acrylic tabletop covers I ordered in November.  One for the new dining table to show off the detail work on the top, and 1 each for the 2 computer tables (Easier cleaning).  I have one older computer offline for games and security (I keep my passwords in an Excel file there - "they" can't hack an offline computer).  One came damaged though.  Naturally, for the dining table.  

If it was on a computer table cover, I would have set it to the back and ignored it.  But you can't hide anything on a dining table.  The manufacturer is sending a replacement in a week. 

They don't want the damaged piece back.  I can actually use it.  I do stuff with plastic sometimes, and I can cut it apart for topping some tool stands and such.  And an acrylic cover for my gardening table makes it relatively waterproof.

I spent some time researching flowerbed catalogs.  One specializes in self-sowing annuals.  Another offers both large collections of perennial plants and seed packets for pollinators, deer-resistance, and at good prices.

I've learned that perennials can be difficult to grow to flowering from seeds.  Many take 3-5 years to finally bloom.  Most places want about $6 per plant.  This place offers them $3-4 per plant (In large quantities).  Well, I have 500 sq ft to fill, so large quantities is good.  So, I'm spent time deciding of the individual plants (there are about 4 dozen to choose among).  

I covered more weed-vine areas with box cardboard.  I'll leave it there until they are dead.  It doesn't look great, but the vines have caused problems for years so months or even a year is worth it.  Ive tried digging and I've tried spraying with organic stuff, but it hasn't worked.

I've been researching refrigerators and chest freezers.  My old basement refrigerator (basically a root-cellar and freezer is failing.  It is so old, the value of the food I keep in it is probably less than the cost of running it.  I chipped off 4" of frost in the refrigerator section the other dasy.  

So the upstairs one goes to the basement and I get a new one for upstairs...  And a small basement chest freezer for long-term storage.  I buy large chunks of meats on good sales and then divide them into 4 oz bits for future use.

I got the aquarium renovated!  It was a sad mess.  Fish-shit all over the bottom, algae on the sides, plastic plants looking real dull and old...  That took an hour a day for 2 weeks.  I have a gadget that siphons debris .  Large 2" mouth.  You get the tube siphoning and stick the mouth into the sand.  It sucks up the fish shit.   You lift it and and the heavy sand falls out.  Then move it to the next spot. 

There are a LOT of "spots" in a 30 gallon aquarium; it was tedious.  And the fish-shit moves around as you do it.  So you have to wait for it to settle and do it again.  Took days to get the sand mostly cleaned. It's "OK" now.  "OK" is a lot better than "horrible". 

Had it been Summer, I would have netted all the fish into a smaller older aquarium for a few days, and drained the big one to hose the sand clean, bleach it mildly, and then overfill it several times to eliminate the bleach.  Then  let it stand inside again with water to age a couple days.  I might in Summer.

But for now, I have live plants set into the sand and I need them to grow roots.  And I want the youngest batch of fancy guppies to grow large before I restock it with some larger mid-level community fish (cherry barbs and serpa tetras) so they won't get eaten.  

I have been cutting saved big cardboard boxes into 2" strips.  Those are to cover the paths in my garden in order to smother weeds.  I'm saving the biggest pieces to smother vines in parts of the flowerbeds.  Things kind of got out of control last year..

Got Lori to the vet for rabies and follow-up shots.  I just tell them "whatever shots" they think best.  In 50 years of cats, I've never had one that had a problem with any shots, so "OK".  She is soon to get spayed.  But they want her to go into heat once to establish an in-between time for an easier operation.  THAT is new to me; vets always used to do it just by age.  Well, whatever is "better" is good.  Vets learn better ways through time like every other profession.

I did other routine stuff.  Kept the birdfeeders filled, cooked, cleaned the basement a bit.  Not like I was sitting on my butt watching TV.  Fought with the computer...

Probably some other stuff that escapes me at the moment...

But I think we are pretty much "more functional" again.

Daily Stuff

I spend yesterday in the basement.  It needed some work...

I had too many things sitting out that needed to be put away.  I had leftover pansies that needed to be under lights until I get them outside.  I had garden supplies all over the place that needed to be put away in some orderly fashion.

I had an outside plastic watering can that was ruined because I kept unscrewing the top off to get toads out.  Why they loved being in the top is beyond my comprehension, but eventually the screw top broke.

My in-line vent humidifier had failed, so I had ordered a few new parts.

I had 4' fluorescent bulbs in the light stand that had died.

There was ice under the basement fridge freezer.

So I got to work at it all...

I replaced the dead bulbs in the light stand.  I'm fussy about the bulbs.  The best for seedlings are 5000-6000 lumens.  I don't have garden seedlings growing, but I'm growing celery, basil and 4 kinds of lettuce.

I have 2 shelves under a part of the stairs, so I organized them all by type on the shelves, and got my table saw top cleaned of them.  I have a sliding cover system for the shelves, but that is for another day.

I looked at the watering can and decided it might be repairable.  If I cut the spout to allow te spray head to just fit in, rubber contact cement might work.  So I tried cutting it with my hack saw and made no progress.  But I had a 2nd hacksaw (small and designed for narrow cuts) it cut right through.  Apparntly, I need a new blade on the larger hacksaw.

I shook up the rubber cement contact cement as directed.  Applied it to the water can and the sprayer part separately.  Now, understand that when you use contact cement, it wants to adhere immediately.  No twisting or anything.  "CONTACT", right?

And I wanted to move it a bit.  Well, I decided that it could be fast but not "intsantaneous".  So, I set the watering can into a vice, held the spout in position, and then smacked the spout with a rubber mallet!  And then brushed more contact cement around the joint.  I'll find out if that worked tommorrow.

Then I went at the humidifier.  My original one was a turning sponge in a tray of water.  That worked well.  But it eventually died and I tried one that had water dripping over a ceramic honeycomb.  That was wasteful.  It was like a badly dripping faucet.

So I bought a new one like the first.  It was good for several years.  But you had to remove all the water mineral deposits from the rotating sponge and tray water once a month.  I'm not great at routine maintenance...

But it is better than wasting water like the drip system.  So I bought a new rotating sponge and some other parts.  And set about installing them.  What a frustrating experience.  Every connection leaked.

I finally surrounded all the threads with pipe tape and tightened them as hard as i dared.  The floater (that controls the level of water in the tray) was counterintuitive.  A screw adjust the level where the float shuts off new water inflow.  But loosening the screw REDUCES the inflow.  That threw me off for a while.  Because when you put pressuse on the adjustment screw, it actually increases the waterflow while you are adjusting the screw to reduce the waterflow.  The pressure of the screwdriver fools you.

I finally figured that out.  It's working perfectly now.

The basement refrigerator is 25 years old.  It probably costs me more money than the stuff I keep in it.  Last month, I noticed a lump of ice in the refrigeration area and chipped it off.  It's growing again.  My currebt refrigerator is 15 years old and it doesn't recoup the cool temp very well.  I'm thinking of buying a pure refrigerator for the kitchen and a separate dedicated freezer for the basement.

Anyone who has done the like it?

Lots more things to do in the next few days.  I looked at the trees and they have no more leaves, so I can mow the leaves into the lawn when it gets dry in a few days.