Can the Electrical Stuff Get Worse?

The old family fake Tiffany lamp needs support/hanging hardware only a specialist can provide. The new "brightest" kitchen fluorescent bulbs seem dim.  The newly installed "bottom of the stair" light is newly-detached  so that the upper one works properly again and there is no light at the bottom.

Now the hall circular fluorescent light has suddenly failed.  The online guidelines said to "replace the bulb".  Did that, no improvement.  Then it said "replace the starter".  Did that, and after a quarter hour struggling with getting it set into the connections, didn't help.

And seriously, after a quarter hour holding your hands up not even doing anything, see how you feel.   There is an old trick about betting someone they can't hold a feather at arm's length for 10 minutes.  The sucker thinks "feather", but the problem is the weight of the ARM, LOL!  My arms were exhausted just holding them straight up from the stepladder.

I DID finally get the damn starter installed eventually, and it had no effect.  The light lit at about 10% and flickered.

To temporarily replace the misfunctioning hallway light, I took a floorlamp and put a screw-in fluorescent bulb and set the floor lamp on a narrow table.  It's just me here, so I can live with that a week.  But I had to replace a regular bulb in the basement light from where I took the screw-in fluorescent one out.

The base of the bulb broke off.  So I had to turn off the circuit breaker to that circuit so I could use pliers to unscrew the broken base.  I couldn't read the circuit breaker labels without my glasses. So upstairs I went to find them.  Back downstairs I went.

Oh, its the #13 circuit which I now see is printed SIDEWAYS which is why I couldn't make any sense of it without my glasses.  So I go to get my pliers out of my stupid fancy tray tool cabinet.  Which is LOCKED because I had contractors in the house and my friend had to take legal action because HIS contractors stole some of the same fancy tools I have.

So where did I put the keys?  Because I don't have a regular place to put them because I almost never have to lock the stupid tool cabinet.  I stand around upstairs trying to find them and THERE they are on the hook where the pizza paddle lives.  Of course, where else would they be.  Well at least I found them.

So I look in the tool chest for the best thing to spread inside the broken bulb socket (remember that?) and discover that the best tool for the job was sitting on my workbench the whole time.  I slowly spread the tin snips out in the broken socket (after double-checking the power was off) and slowly remove the broken bulb base.

I replace the bulb with a new one.  Hurray, I'm back to where I was an hour earlier!  This is actually progress.  I've already made the several required mistakes, and fixed them!!!

The new bulb is "oh so gently" screwed in.  The circuit breaker is set back "ON", it works!  Hurray...

And I had the damn kitchen fixture to deal with.  The electrician was going to replace the ballast but asked if I had any new 4' fluorescent T-12 bulbs .  I did actually, plant-grow bulbs for my garden-seedling light stand.  They worked.  The kitchen looked HORRIBLE, but they did work.  So after the electricians left, I went to buy better tube bulbs.  I selected "daylight" because I wanted bright light in the kitchen.  I do a lot of food-prep, so I figured "daylight" was good.

They were not good.  "Daylight" bulbs are rather blaringly bluish.  The light is bright but funny inside.  SO, I went out and bought what the store chart said was right for "kitchens".  The lumens output is less, but the color is better.

My addition of a hinge to one end of the 4' light fixture is the smartest thing I've done all year.  I've had to get at the tube bulbs a half dozen times just in this month and trying to be on both sides of a 4' fixture at the same time as one person is a real struggle.  Even the electricians admired the idea.  I tried the new "warm white" bulbs and it was like I remembered the lighting had been!  I could even put the diffuser panel back in and the lighting was still as good when I tilted the fixture cover back up by the hinge and attached it at the other end.

So there are 2 working fixtures of 4 again.  As lame as that is, I feel like I had a major success today.  That's actually pretty pathetic. but sometimes 50% is good.

I'll get the other 50% done next week or the week after, after bringing the fake tiffany lmp to a repair shop 40 miles away, buying a new hallway lamp for the electricians to install, having them install the fake tiffany lamp in the top of the stairs and fishing wires through the walls and across the attic.

I dont EVEN want to imagine the problems they will discover.  But at least the last electrician specified the details of the wire fishing and attic support and wrote that the work WAS ALREADY PAID FOR BY THE QUOTE IN THE FIRST PAID BOTCHED JOB!

I may get out of this yet without the house burning down by bad electrical circuits.

25 years ago, when I moved in, I would have done this myself.  But I'm not crazy-confident-brave 36 years old anymore.  I've zapped myself too many times doing amateur electrical work.   I nearly killed myself twice, surviving only because I wasn't grounded.  I'm not touching electricity anymore.

Now I just hope I don't kill myself gardening somehow.

Those Darn Ants!

For 2 weeks, I have had very small ants wandering around the TV room and adjacent kitchen.  They show up just inside the deck door, the kitchen windowsill, and on the backsplash board on the counters.

OK, ants seek food and sometimes they find their way into the house, but they aren't acting normal!  There is no trail of ants going anywhere.  There is no sign of them outside the house.  There is no paricular entry point I can detect.  There are never more than a few at a time, but there are ALWAYS a few any time I look.

They aren't in the pantry at some loose food box (I moved everything around and looked with a flashlight), they aren't at the cat food bowls, they aren't in the cabinets (flashlight again), they aren't even at the compost bin which is the main thing I would think would attract ants. 

They aren't in the ceiling of the basement below the kitchen or the TV room. 

Hey, this is vaguely sounding like a Dr Seuss poem...  I'll have to work on that idea!

I sprayed only once right under the base of the deck door inside and out (and then cleaned the exposed floor because the cats found the smell interesting).  I'm not too worried about the effect of the (organic) ant spray on cats because the stuff won't even annoy wasps and wasps evolved FROM ants (or vice versa) so they are very closely related, but why take chances.  But the limited spraying had no effect on the few ants visible at all times.

The point is that I can't figure out WHERE they are coming from, WHY they are in here, WHAT is keeping them searching around, or WHEN they are most commonly seen.  It seems completely constant, yet completely random.

I've probably killed over a thousand by finger and shoe.  It doesn't seem to make any difference if I kill them or not.  When I crush all the visible ones, there about as many in 10 minutes.  Yet after not bothering them all night, there are still ONLY as many in the morning.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I haven't yet had a fruit fly (aka fungal gnats) yet this year, and I usually have problems with them by now.  I'm pretty sure the ants aren't catching the fruit flies, but bigger theories have been proposed on such coincidental observations, LOL!

I expect the ants will simply stop appearing in a few days and I will never know why they where here or why they left.  It will be one of those mysteries of nature; those "Ants In My Midst".

New Cat Tree

We have a new cat tree in the house.  Actually, I assembled it several weeks ago, but with one thing and another (mostly Ayla's surprise medical problems), there wasn't wasn't a good time for the cats to post it on their own blog.  So I held off posting about it here until they could.

Here it is each step of the way:

Aquarium, Finished

Having finally gotten the plant light stand finished, I went after the aquarium again.  I tried sealing the leak in the old one twice, and failed.  Evidently, a structural failure in the glass just resists sealing.

So I bought a replacement 30 gallon high tank and got it in place.  It took a lot of pitchers of water to pill it 1/2 way.  I added all the plastic plants in.  I set a 12" long bubble aerator in place.   Oddly, it works better than it used to.  Bubbles all along the length instead on just in 2 spots.  I have no idea why, but I'm glad of it.

It was also good to get the several stylers of fake plants arranged into groups.  It looks a lot more natural now.    "Natural" being a relative term in such an artificial environment.  But I do what I can.

It is not a really fancy aquarium.  I have 8 tiger barbs, a few old serpa tetra, a couple of some rasbora that got added to a bag once by a really incompetent Wal Mart employee, and one really old plecostomus plecostomus (hypostomus plecostomus?).  That guy (gal?) is 8" long and my favorite indidual fish.  I think it is about 10 years old.  Possibly 15.  I didn't record the date.

It is SO LARGE I can't get it in a net.  To get it out of the old tank, I had to use a sieve.  To get it out of the temp tank, I had to put a pitcher in the water and encourage it to "hide" in there while I covered the opening with a net.  Fish are very strong.  I grabbed the pleco once and, at 8 ounces, it was like handling an angry cat!  And it had spines!  Not easy to handle.

So it was a relief to discover I could offer it a lace to hide in a pitcher and then cover the pitcher up with a net and slide it into the new tank!!!

You know where the pleco likes to hide?  Along the back of a piece of petrified wood!  You know where that petrified wood came from?  My dad brought it home one day in (guessing) 1957!  I've had that ever since and it is precious to me.  Cuz Dad gave it to me and I know about fossilized trees.

Hurray for the Pleco!  And hurray for the new fish tank!  I'm so glad it is finally up and running again.

The Aquarium

I mentioned weeks ago I had a problem with the fresh water "30 gallon high" aquarium.  It popped a fracture in the glass and leaked slowly.  I spend a long afternoon dragging stuff out of a deep closet to finally get at an old "20 gallon long aquarium" (same base size as 30 gal high).  I successfully moved all the fish to the 20 gallon long sitting on the floor (so I could siphon the water down).

I emptied the 30 gallon high of water, took out the plastic plants, and scooped out the gravel, and let it dry for days.   Then I bought a silicon aquarium sealer and applied it.  I let it dry for several days.  When I refilled it, it leaked again.

I drained it, let it dry, dried it mechanically  with paper towels and left the vaccuum cleaner exhaust blowing on it for hours, waited a few days, and re-sealed it.  It leaked again.  So I gave up and bought a new 30 gal high aquarium.  A 30 gallon high glass aquarium is not light.  I struggled to get it into the car from Petco (they had the vastly better price for the same aquarium).

I spent an hour removing all the plants from the old aquarium and scooping the gravel out.  Square food containers do a wonderful job of that!   It took some lifting to get the old leaking aquarium off the stand and onto a chair.  Then the new one in place.  I spent several minutes making sure the new aquarium was positioned properly on the stand.  That was after removing the background sheet from the old one and attaching it to the new tank.  It's just a colored sheet, but it gives a sense of depth to the tank.

So I filled up the new tank slowly, watching for any leaks at each rise in water level.  I didn't see any.  Sand first with square food container.  Then water, 2 qts at a time.  Man that is tedious.  A 2 qt pitcher takes 30 fills to get 1/2 way up!

But at least I could put the plastic plants back in at that point.  At least it looked better this time than the last.  I grouped the several styles better.  But having arranged the plants in the gravel, I couldn't just randomly pour new water in from a pitcher. Water-force too strong that way.  So I filled up a 5 gallon bucket on the top  and siphoned the water in slowly.   I filled the upper bucket continuously until it neared the top. 

I had an 12" long air bubbler working on the bottom to recirculate the water while the chlorine got evaporated out.  I remembered I had some powder that claimed to eliminate chlorine, chloromate/chloromine, and ammonia immediately, so I added some of that.  But I will still wait til tomorrow to add the fish back.  The old an new aquaria are both at room temperature right now so the fish won't suffer any temperature shock.  But room temp is too low for them in the long term.  As soon as the fish are transferred back to the new aquarium, I will raise the temp 1 degree per day to get the tank temp up to 76 where I think they do best.  I know, some people say 78 degrees, but they live longer at slightly cooler temps.

It will be great to have the fishtank working again.

But I have to tell you something that made me laugh about getting the new tank home.

I found the fine print of the guarantee on a small sticker inside the tank, facing away from view...

1.  They specified that the 5 year warranty only applied to their tanks on their own brand of stands.    What are the odds of that?  My aquarium stand is 50 years old and as solid as rock.  No new company builds them that solid anymore.  But it invalidates the warranty.

2.  They also demand that "the aquarium has not been lifted by the frame"...  Um, do you know any other way to transport one from store to stand other than handling the frame?  At some point, don't you HAVE to lift an aquarium onto a stand?  But there goes the warranty.  Who writes these things?

Idiots...   LOL!

Ayla Out

I kept Ayla inside for a year.  It got so difficult that I decided to experiment letting her out as long as she wanted to be out.  It wasn't an easy decision.  The first time, she stayed out 3 nights.  But the next two times, she stayed out 2 nights.  Then one night.  After that, she came in the same day she was let out for several days.  I consider that a good arrangement.

She stays near the fence and has no desire to wander further to the street.

But Iza complicates things.  Iza and Ayla and Marley all cuddle up indoors.  They eat together,  They play together.  Iza likes Ayla indoors.

But outdoors, Iza considers Ayla an introoder.  I cannot understand this.

This afternoon, when I called Ayla inside, she came running happily.  But when I opened the door for her to come inside, Iza sprang out and attacked her.  As a stranger and in apparent anger.  Ayla fled over the fence.

Iza does not do this with Marley when he is out.

Iza only reacts badly to Ayla when she is outside.  And just as she goes outside.  Something about Iza says that Ayla is an introoder when outside.  It baffles me.

Iza is a bully, but only when Ayla is outside, and not when Marley is outside or Ayla is inside.

Driving me NUTS!!!  What is it about Iza that she reacts badly only when Ayla is OUTSIDE?  It cant be outside smells.  Iza has them, Marley has them.  Iza loves Marley inside and outside.  But Iza hates Ayla outside.

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seedling Light Stand, Part 3

OK, so I have the new light stand about half assembled.  The 2 bulb fixtures were 1/2" longer than the shelves.  I was thinking "4' light fixtures, 4' shelves with the supports on the outside, should fit".  I should have checked more carefully.  But it wasn't as if I was going to buy more light fixtures, so it didn't really matter.  I had to attach them a little lower than planned.  The fixtures have attachment holes in them, but I had to partially take them apart to get at them and drill though-holes so as not to drill the insulation off the wires inside. 

The 4 bulb fixtures were easier in one way.  The wires were channeled around the attachment holes.  On the other hand, they were designed to hang from hooks on chain.  So I needed to drill a hole through the fixture anyway.  I ruined a drill bit trying to drill through what I thought was aluminum.  It was steel.  I should have checked with a magnet!  That was a bit from my REALLY GOOD set of bits.  I'll have to replace it.  I partially disassembled THOSE fixtures...  You may notice I keep having to do a lot of extra steps to make this project work.  I was not thrilled, but having started down this path, I have to continue.

So I got out my metal step-bit and the drilling went fine.  I reassembled the fixture and dropped in the bolts through the plywood.  Did I mention the plywood?  The rack comes with 3/8' pressboard shelves.  Strong enough for shelving or plant trays, but not much to drive a screw up into from below or countersink a bolt from above to support the light fixtures.  So I added 1/2" plywood below to hold the fixtures and counter-sunk the pressboard from below to cover the bolts.  It works great.  The resulting upper surface is nice and flat for the plant trays.  Looks good too. 

Here is the first 4-bulb fixture attached to the bottom of the 3rd shelf.  The top shelf will be identical.

Except...  You may notice a shelf support missing on the photo above (right side).  That's because one was 2" too short!  The box came with an information sheet asking that I call the manufacturer before returning the product to the retail store.  My interpretation of that is "we make a lot of mistakes, please don't tell the store.  Well, gee, it is about all constructed.  It would be a lot of work to take it apart and the box it came in is all ripped apart.  I emailed them about the problem.

The emailed back that a replacement shelf support is being shipped for delivery in 7 days.  That's reasonable.  I would have preferred a UPS overnight shipment on principle, but all my seedlings  are outside now and the light stand is for next year.

Here is a photo of the plywood base I used and the fancy cover shelf.  The are the same size, though the angle makes it look different.

It's been an minor adventure - more than building a box and less than building a shed.  I seldom get to build anything to specifications.  I end up having to craft things by trial and error.  Drives me nuts.  I have the genes of an engineer and the talent of an art major!


Which reminds me, I need to replace the roof on the shed.  I didn't know about roofing paper 20 years ago, and now it leaks.  Time to redo it right.  That's on the list.  The really really long list of major "to do"...

The lesson here is that I should have built the light stand as I originally intended.  3/4' plywood, 6' high and 5' shelves with the fixtures simply screwed right up into the shelf bottoms!  Don't get me wrong, the new light stand will be great for decades.  But the original plan would have been easier and worked as well.

Live and learn...

Seedling Light Stand, Part 2

Well, at least I have some pictures to add for the assembly!  And I have to admit, the assembly IS well designed and simple to do.  The upright posts have "keyholes".  Think of a hole with a narrower slot below.  The horizontal side pieces have mushroom heads that fit through the hole and the "stem" of the mushroom heads fits the slots below tightly.  The connections are indeed "rigid".  You tap them firmly in place with a hammer (gently - I used a 2x4 and a deadblow hammer).  So far, so good. 

 This is the old plant light stand.  I am taking it apart as I transfer the lights to the new one.  The old shelves had a 2 bulb fixture.  The new ones have TWO 2 bulb fixtures per shelf.  

Here are the old light shelves being disassembled.  I really over-engineered the previous light shelf.  I am learning to back off on the over-engineering.

Note the plywood shelf.  I made those.  It's tricky.  The plywood shelf supports the light fixtures below.  But since the supporting bolts stick up over the plywood, I needed to countersink the provided fancy shelfs from below.  In other words, the top cover shelf has a hole in the bottom where the fixture bolts stick up.  Does that make sense?

This is the new light shelf.  There are now 2 light fixtures per shelf (4 bulbs).  The fancy shelf sits on the light fixture supporting plywood

In this picture, you see two shelves assembled.  The green box is a support of the light fixture so I can feed the support bolts from above.

Each of the rigid steel horizontal bars have a double curve to them.   A lower curve is for strength, the upper curve has a flat surface that supports the shelving (a 2'x4'x3/8" engineered material).  I initially thought it was a sort of rubber/resin, but it is pressboard.  The instructions said it would support 800 poubds per shelf.  It also said not to stand on it.  Huh?  I only weigh 160 pounds.  They must have loaded the shelves VERY carefully to support 800 lbs  if I cant stand on it.  Well, I didn't buy it for the weight capacity.  Plants aren't all THAT heavy!

Next. I complete (almost) the whole shelf rack...

Seedling Light Stand, Part 1

A while back, I mentioned I planned to build a better seedling light stand.  The current one has only a 2 fluorescent bulb fixture per shelf, and even with good daylight bulbs, I find the plants get leggy.  I found 4 bulb fixtures at a decent price and bought a couple, thinking I could put two 2 bulb fixtures on the other shelves.  I planned to make it entirely of 1/2" plywood, 18 or 16" deep and 5 feet long to easily accommodate the 4' fluorescent fixtures.  I planned to attach cleats to the sides to hold the shelves.  The light fixtures would be screwed right up into the plywood shelves.  The shelves would be spaced at increasing distances so that growing plants could be moved to shelves further from the lights as they grew.  Simple basic construction.

It was a good plan.  I wish I had followed it...

But I saw an ad for rigid steel frame shelving at a really great price.  It was 4' wide, 2' deep and 6' tall.  Sounded great.  The shelf supports were adjustable in 1" increments and the shelves themselves were 1/2" recycled material that could support 800 lbs per shelf.  I measured the 4 bulb fixtures carefully and measured the floor display model.  It seemed they would fit right under the shelves perfectly!  It promised "easy assembly" (which, for its original purpose, was true).  I bought it. 

It weighed a ton!  Well, not literally "a ton" but I couldn't even pull the box off the stack due to the weight and friction.  I had to get a store person to help.  The top box was broken open (probably items missing).  The 2nd was fine.  We got it on a flatbed cart.  He assured me that there were outside people to help me get it in the car.  I planned to take the box apart from in the car at home.

Needless to say, no outside person ever became available.  In fairness, they were there, but backed up helping other people.  I finally did manage to wrestle the box into the car.  I'm not weak, but I'm not a weight-lifter either.  Fortunately, I do know some simple mechanical principles...

But I should have known I was off to a bad start!

Next, assembling the stand...

Aquarium Leak

It is almost funny.  I was sitting watching TV an heard a little "Pop".  I assuned the cats had whapped a pen off a desk.

But when I went to feed the fish, I saw a small puddle of water; only a couple of spoonfuls.  Tracking it up from the base with a paper towel, I found the spot.  There was a tiny fracture in a corner.

This is going to sound weird.  To get at an old 20 gallon tank, I had to empty out an understairs closet I have not investigated in years.  It was so old, I found a manual typewriter and an old 8 track player in  there!

But the 20 gallon long was still waterproof, so I got the fish in there.  I will try to seal the 30 gallon high with the silicone sealant I bought today.  I'll give it 2 days to set, then add some water to see if the leak is fixed.

Oops, I Completely Forgot...

...to post about the storage/cat room.  I KNOW I wrote about it, so I must have deleted it somehow...  Or I transported to an almost-identical alternate universe AGAIN and in THIS one I didnt post about it (This seems to happen a few times a year - LOL!).  ;)

Anyway, at least I intended to (see here at  Feb 16th Item 4), and I DID do the project on March 9th.  So here is the missing post...

When my parents stopped traveling, I sold the guest room furniture to make it a storage room.  But when I got my 3rd cat (Marley), I decided they all needed a playroom.  So I decided to combine the two ideas.  The long sold wall of the room would become storage and the rest a cat play room (The "Mewsroom").

I checked for the depth I needed for boxes, vacuum cleaners, the carpet cleaner, etc; located the wall studs that would accept those things.  Naturally, the nearest stud was 2" too narrow, so I had to move out to the next one.  That was more space than I really needed to store stuff, but I will probably appreciate it in the future (if I'm IN this dimension in the future).

So, the concept was to take about 2' of the room and hang drapes to make a storage space and make the rest of it a cat playroom.  I tried to find drapery rods that could bear the weight (I have some old but nice drapes), but rods are not designed to float 2' out from the walls and I didn't want to go into the stipple ceiling for vertical support.  I checked out a few other ideas at home stores.  But what I ended up with was a 1" iron pipe.

Now, the iron pipe comes in 10' length and the walls were 10' 3" apart.  Pipe couplings only add 1/2".  So I thought about that.  The 2 ideas I came up with were"

1. Attach 1.5" boards to the walls (1.5 plus 1.5 makes up the 3"), or
2. Hang the pipe from 3" corner braces

If I had used the boards, I would have have to fancy them up.  Plane them to size, sand them, chamfer corners, stain and finish them, etc.  I just didn't feel like doing all that.  Maybe I will next year.  I went with just hanging the pipe on corner braces.  Hey, I had other things to do, and the gardening projects can't be delayed at this time of year!

So, there I was deciding to hang drapes from a 1" pipe.  I decided that wouldn't work.  Drapery hooks don't slide over pipes.  But shower curtain rings do!  Which gave me a further idea.  Why not get some nice light outer shower curtains?

I attached the corner braces to the stud.  The board was there to hold the other end of the pipe.  I couldn't be at both ends. 

When I maneuvered the pipe onto both braces, there was enough movement for the pipe to slip off one.

So I added wood blocks on both to keep the pipe from moving.  I'll screw the wood in place one of these days...

Here is a clear picture of the shower curtain pattern.  Not to plain, not too busy, not too cute.

And the closet is looking better.

The lamp will be hung up soon.

Games I love, using some freed-up space!

Here are a few pictures of what I wanted to hide behind the curtains...

Here are some of what it looked like afterwards...

 That cats loved the changes...

Isn't that a nice curtain to hide stuff behind?

Plans

I have my tomato seedlings started.  Plus peppers, celery, lettuces, and a bunch of flowers.  More to come fast on the schedule!

But it bothers me that my plant stand only has 2 bulbs over each shelf.  I use daylight and/or plant light bulbs in them, but it seems my seedlings are always "leggy" (long and thin).  So I decided to change to 4-bulb fixtures to increase the light the seedlings get.

The stand for the seedlings is an awkward size.  Prebuilt shelf systems are 4' long.  But the fixtures are a couple inches longer.  So I have to build one to suit the fixtures.  The important considerations were strength, cost, and ease of construction.  I'm fine with general carpentry, so I sketched and priced several designs...

1.  All plywood - I can make it all 1/2" or 3/4" plywood with a good sanded outside surface.  The "pro" is that it is all same size solid pieces.  Stainable.  Three easy 16" wide sides, top, bottom, and shelves per sheet.  And plywood is stable.  Cons:  Would need 1"x3" board attached to the shelves to resist bending under weight.  And lots of ugly (to a woodworker) plywood edges.

2.  1" board - 1" board frame and shelves.  Pro - Easy wood to handle and cut.  Stainable.  Easy to make dado cuts for solid shelves.  Cons - Have to join two 8" boards to get the 16" depth I need for the 4-bulb fixture on all pieces (sides, top, bottom and shelves).  I can do that and it would be strong, but that's a lot of extra work.  And dado cuts into 1" nominal boards have to be shallow.  Boards more likely to be "unperfectly straight" in all dimensions.

3.  2" board - 2" board frame and shelves.  Larger "glue and screw" edges.  More solid in appearance and actuality.  Little support needed.  No concern about shelves bending under weight. Dadoes can be deeper, so more solid.   2" Boards are usually straight.  Cons - Heavier and inelegant.  Wider dadoes needed.  Bulky-looking.

I considered combinations of 1", 2", and plywood cases and shelves, but didn't see any advantage, and the imagined results were practical but ugly.  The cost of all the above ideas turned out to be from $105 to $128 so the cost is not a concern.

I have decided to go with a solid 2" frame and shelf design.  True, I will have to join 8" boards at the edges, but I have a joiner edger machine and biscuits to attach them flush.  Not as easy as plywood or 1" boards, but stronger.  And something I will be happiest with in the long range.  Those 2" boards will never sag under the weight of the 4 fluorescent bulb fixtures!  I built a plant shelf once; I don't want to have to build another!

The shelves will be of graduated heights.  Shelf #1 is 3" below the lights, shelf #2 is 7", shelf #3 is 10", shelf #4 is 13", and shelf #5 is 16".  That lets me move the seedlings to only a couple inches away from the lamps as they grow.  And with 4 bulbs, much sturdier seedlings anyway!

Oh, and the existing 2 bulb fixture plant stand?    I bought 2 new 4 bulb fixtures.  That will take care of 2 shelves.  The 2 bulb fixtures on the old stand will be removed and doubled under the other shelves so there are 4 bulbs under each one.

The old stand is destined to be moved to the Mews Room to become a cat exploration area with cat-sized holed cut out randomly in the shelves...

Pictures to follow as I build the new plant shelves this week!

Seedstarting Fun

Is there a rule in life that nothing can ever just go smoothly?  I ask because I went to start my garden seedlings a couple of days ago and it was harder than it should have been.

Now, maybe I am fussy about my seed-starting, but I have 40 years experience at it and I know what works best.  You start seeds indoors, and you want sterile, unfertilized non-crusting soil. That means something called "seed starting soil".  It is finely sifted, loose, and no fertilizer that encourages fungal growth to kill the seeds.

It was time to start my tomatoes, peppers, etc.  The home stores did not have seed-starting soil available!  What???

 They said the demand wasn't high at this time of year.  But THIS is the time to start seeds!  The garden-department guy just looked at me weirdly, like maybe I was a communist.  After visiting 2 other home stores, I went home defeated.

But I checked my supplies.  Seed-starting soil is milled moss, vermiculite (or perlite), and sand.  I had the first two, but no sand.  And I found a bag of potting soil with almost no fertilizer (0.07%).  I made my own!

The potting soil and the sphagnum moss had chunks of stuff in it.  I tried using a kitchen sieve, but it was too fine.  The kitty litter scoop on the other hand worked GREAT (cleaned and dried).  3 parts sifted potting soil, 1 part sifted sphagnum moss, and 1 part vermiculite, well stirred, and I was in business! 

The sifted-out stuff will go in the regular potting mix for houseplants and outdoors containers.  They won't mind the extra material at all.

So I have my heirloom tomatoes, hybrid bell peppers, broccoli, and various annual flowers going just fine now.   The tomatoes, etc are upstairs where it is warm to germinate best.  The flowers are in the basement where THEY germinate best, and the petunias (that need light to germinate are under artificial "daylight" lights. 

At least the new season is started!

I guess that, in the future, I will have to buy my seed-starting soil later this year for next year!  Glad I have a storage shed...

Various Stuff...

I help the cats blog so much I start to lose track of my own stuff at times.  So it is time to catch up a bit.

It is time to start my garden veggie seeds.  The basement is, quite frankly, a mess!  All Winter long, I just kept "doing things" and never mind the clutter.  There was always time to arrange things for the early seed plantings.  LOL, guess what time passed?  Yeah, it is time to plant seeds and I am SO unready for it.

Grandiose plans for better seed/light planting shelves are now forgotten and I have to make do with the old structures.  I have almost no southern light to help the plants, so I depend on fluorescent bulbs.  Even the best ones are inherently weaker than real sunlight.  I had thought to widen the shelves to increase the 2 bulbs to 4.  I had thought I might add mirrors behind the shelves and in front to increase the reflected light.  But I didn't.

So, what I did today was the best I could.  I cleaned and reorganized enough space in the basement to collect all my gardening seed-starting materials into one place.  I was actually leased with the results, though it is not worth a picture.  If you want to picture it, just imagine a workbench with 10 sq ft empty space where there was none yesterday.  :)

Well, at least I have THAT!  And I sorted through my various bags of soil amendments to see what I had for a good seed starter blend.  The local garden centers don't even have sterile soil-less mixes available yet.  I am thrilled to see that I do have vermiculite, milled peat moss, fine sand, and some sterilized loam left over from last year.  At least that will get me started!


On other news, Marley the cat is getting used to the new home.  He is the fastest adapter I have had in decades.  The others hid for several days, but Marley was ready to come out and find his place in the house after the first day. 

He plays  with Iza mostly.  Iza outweighs him 12 lbs to 6 pounds, but he is fearless.  It was a shock to Iza at first because she was "Top Cat" mostly by virtue of weight.  Marley pounces from anywhere!  At first, Iza was quite upset and poofed her tail and whapped him hard, but lately it has become more cooperative play with them taking turns chasing and then curling up together.

Ayla is the "odd cat out".  As a small cat (yet the oldest) she never has been one for aggressive play.  I think she is getting used to it though.  She isn't doing the "chase and wrassle" that Iza and Marley do, but she does a certain kind of "you can't catch me" game with Marley.  She hisses mildly, then provocatively hops OVER him several times then runs off.  I think she is showing him that he really can't pounce her because she is just SO much more agile than he is.

That doesn't stop him from trying, of course.  He's only 6 months old and braver than he is experienced.  Marley chasing Ayla is like Marley chasing a shadow.  When when she lets him get close, suddenly she is up on the top of the closet door and he is looking around for her on the floor.

The crocuses are starting to bloom!  Yay!  Spring is coming. 

I made a hamburger yesterday.  That may seem bland.  But I ground up the meat (short ribs) myself.  I sauteed mushrooms, red and green bell peppers, and some onion.  Then I made a mayo/mustard mix with some minced garlic.  What a great topping!  I've had worse (good) steaks!

Tomorrow, it is back to cleaning the basement.  There is so much more to do!

Cable TV Annoyances

It started with the remote control slowing down as I tried to change channels.  Then, the TV Guide part started working slower too.  Finally, I couldn't enter the 3-number channel numbers.  It would transmit 1 number (sometimes 2) never the last.

I changed the batteries (rechargeable) and then changed them again.  No good.  I cleaned the window on the remote control, on the TV, and on the cable box.  No good.

So, I took the remote control (which needed to be replaced because the battery cover has to be taped on and you can't read the buttons anymore) to the local cable site.  The place is more fortified than my bank!  2" plexiglass (or whatever they use these days),  a double-covered opening to speak through (have they never heard of microphones?), and a double-locked box through which can pass equipment.  You open your side and put the equipment in and close it.  The cable person locks your door amd opens his to retrieve it.


I'm not kidding.  My bank doesn't have that kind of security.  It has no barriers and they have real money behind them!

But be that as it may...  I told them my remote control seemed to be failing.  The guy said "put it in the box".  I started to do so and he shouted "No, in the BOX, man, I don't want it".  Huh?  He meant in the trash can on my side of the Embassy-quality security barrier.  I pointed out that the logical "box" was the one for returning or receiving equipment.

Strangely, he seemed pissed at my incomprehension.  OK...  not one to fight the system, I dropped it in there.  Then he said he was passing me a new remote control through the "box".  Silly me, I looked at the trash can.  No, it can through the FT Knox quality plexiglass-survive-an-atomic-bomb box. 

No, I did not even point out the silliness of the terms.  I wanted to get the hell out of there!  I just took the new remote and went home.

Never mind the huge sign that said that NO EQUIPMENT WILL BE PROVIDED WITHOUT PROOF OF IDENTITY, and I hadn't.

So I got home and the new remote control had no effect.  I tried newly charged rechargeable batteries in case the provided ones were dead.  No change.

*GLOOM*

It had to be the cable box itself (only months old).  So I pulled the TV stand out from the wall and detached the cables, leaving them in place to make it easier to reattach them.  I CAN figure out cabling (and did it succesfully when I added a DVD player/recorder to the system last month), but it wasn't easy.  So I am very careful.

I brought the cable box to Comcast.  And standing there, I had to listen to a customer making small talk to the service guy (obviously trying to get a date).  Hey, don't do that on MY time, OK?  So, I explained the problem to the service guy (eventually).  He spoke very quietly through the barrier.  And as I tried to hear his words, another customer came to the other window and started YELLING about his bill problem.  And the other guy was OBVIOUSLY wrong.  I almost offerred to throw him out.

I did pass my cable box through "The Security Box".

But I struggled to hear my own customer service representative (with a BAD accent).  He was trying to tell me that he didn't have my type of cable box in stock and that I might have to wait for several days.

Sorry, no, that wasn't acceptable. and "could I at least have my previous box back"?  Slow channel selection is better than none...  He said he couldn't give me a damaged box back because I said it was "damaged".  He said the only ones available were for "better systems" but he could give me a lesser box until the right one was available.  I have everything they OFFER!

He said the "better one" was HDMI.   I pointed out that the box I gave him was HDMI!  He didn't believe me, but disappeared into a room for (and I measured it) 5 full minutes.  He finally came out with a cable box identical down to the last to the last outlet and input and said "I'll give you this one", as if he was reluctantly granting me a heart transplant.

And remember that sign below the counter about not giving out cable equipment?  They never did ask me for mine.  If I had stolen a discarded broken one, I would have gotten a new working one!

Strange people...

So I got home with the replacement cable box.  I hooked it up properly (I thought).  This part is my fault.   You have to call the cable company and go through a bunch of questions to get a signal sent to the new unit to activate it and wait (up to) 45 minutes.  I called and the voice-only system said it send the signal.  45 minutes later, there was still no signal.

I hadn't fully seated the power cord properly.  My fault all the way.  I had to talk to the VOICE again and get a new signal sent.  At least it worked this time.  The cable system is working again.

I shouldn't even mention that coding the new Universal Remote meant I had to go through a bunch of nonsense.  But the cable TV instructions were in invisible print and I had to copy it from their site to PDF and from there to WORD and expand it to 20 point font just to read it.

And I will add that the "Universal Remote" isn't.  It will not control my TV except to shut it off and on.  It won't control my new DVR at all.  For me to watch a DVR, I have to use 3 separate remotes...  LOL!

But at least I can finally change channels on the cable again with A remote..

Assembling a Cat Tower

I decided to splurge by buying a cat tower.  I saw it in an ad and it looked too complicated to just copy.  Sometimes it is worth buying stuff.  So here is the sequence for assembling it...

 Be careful to use the 2-screw bolts at this point,  I missed that and had to undo some bolts!

The box wasn't drilled through all the way on mine,  I expect that was an anomaly.  Yours should be fine.  Cat not included, BTW...

 You can tighten the sisal posts very hard.  Big 3/8" bolts...

 Here you can see Iza in the box.  She liked it so much that she was IN the tower as I was constructing it.

That side ramp is hard to put on.  You might want to not bother with it,  Ayla and Iza don't use it.  But if you do, be aware that the set screw heads in the small bolts are weak and can strip out.  And I recommend you attach the brackets to the bottom of of the platform first rather than the ramp first...  It leaves better vision and set screw angle.  I did it the wrong way and had to crawl underneath the platform.  That was awkward.

 Its reaching the final stage...

 Complete!

Multiple views.

1 hour 45 minutes for complete assembly (from car to completion).  But I was taking pictures and not rushing it. And it is a heavy box.  I had to take all the parts out of the box in the car and some of the sisal rope posts are locked in pretty tight.  It would have been better to open the top box flaps and turn it upside down to get the parts out.  But its a good solid structure.  The 3/8" bolts can be tightened as hard as you can turn the posts.

Petco has this on for $149 sale til 12/18.  The $99 model is almost as good.  So far, the upper box is most popular.  The cats seem to like to look out the small square.

No home tools required, BTW.  All bolts and braces are attached with 2 hex head drivers provided.  Another thought...  To align the bolt holes with the tapped screw threads, a fat tapered pen works well. While I didn't rush the assembly, I did have to struggle sometimes getting the pre-drilled holes to match up with the tapped inserts.  And for those not familiar with hex head screws, I will point out the both ends fit the bolts.  Put the short end in for best leverage. Making the bolts really tight matters.  All in all, the structure is more solid than I first expected.

I almost forgot to mention that there are sturdy yarn loops under some of the platforms and boxes.   The instructions don't mention what they are for.  Those are for the hanging cat toys!  Do remember to hang those from the loops!  And position the platforms so the loops are where you want the hanging toys.

Family Art

I meant to show this before.  I inherited these things because my Dad is selling the NH house.

He and his dad made some very nice items that he wanted me to have:

Did they have talent or what?

I am so proud to have this stuff!

I am merely the caretaker.  It will go from me to the 3rd generation when I die.