Waiting On Trane

I sure will be glad when the Trane heat pump installer arrives Friday morning.  This week hasn't been too bad.  It got up to 79 inside last Friday or Saturday and today.  Two exhaust fans and 2 open windows made it tolerable.  It seems weird when it is warmer inside than outside in May.  

Well, the physical house structure retains heat and takes a long time to cool.  I also have enough appliances that produce heat on their own, and I do cook dinner every day.  Plus, I had the whole house insulation improved some years ago so if heat/cool doesn't go out open windows or doors, it doesn't go out at all.  Normally a good thing, but not right now.

I've been lucky with the weather this week.  May can get pretty warm here, but it has stayed in the 70s daytime and gets down into the 50s at night.   So at least it isn't Mid-Summer, which is when my heat pumps usually fail.  Today and Thursday are forecast to stay cool, so that gets me to Installation Day.  Yay!

I'm prepared.  All the weeds around the current outdoor unit have been pulled up or cut down.  Everything with 5' of the indoor part has been moved away.  I've cleared off the workbench nearest the indoor part so the installer has some space to place tools.  I'll move the car out of the garage the night before so he has an easy direct route from his truck to the basement.  Everything but drinks and snacks and if he wants them, I have them!  😀

The Non-Joy Of Repairs - Resolution!

The current heat pump company was jerking me around a bit.  The Boss did call, but he was giving me conflicting information too.  So decided to consider a brand new company.  I tired of replacing these units every 8 or so years! 

I trust Consumer Reports, so I visited their website.  I was shocked.  The brand I have used for 30 years was near the bottom of the ratings chart.  It was listed as below average in virtually every category!  At the top were Trane and American Standard.  

Everything Consumer Report said about both was outstanding.  Most modern technology, quiet, efficient, long-lasting, etc.  Other good news from CR was that the energy and durability saving would pay for the unit in 12 years (less than the life-expectancy of the unit.  The bad news is that it is (of course) more expensive.  I've never heard of American Standard, so I called the local Trane dealer.  

A dealer Rep came out the next afternoon and examined my existing system, estimated the cubic feet in the house, measured the available space where the indoors portion would go, examined the ductwork capacity, etc.  He said the duct capacity was fine, that the indoor unit needed to be replaced  (the mechanical parts of course, but also the fan and condensation-removal mechanism.  And BTW "Your current 1.5 ton unit is underpowered for your house".  Which meant that the previous heat pumps had been laboring both too long and too hard (thus wearing out faster and costing me a lot in electricity).

He sent a proposal later that day.  He offerred a unit that Consumer Reports said was their better one.  He upped the capacity to 3.0 tons, applied a State and my energy co-op credits to the proposal (they simply reduce my costs immediately in the proposal and Trane gets it back on their own).  They will also haul away all the old equipment and install a better thermostat.  The unit can be expected to last 15 years.

Then there was the cost.  It was higher than I expected.  Let's just say "ouch"!  But it seems worth it and I can afford it.  I sent a 50% deposit immediately and received acknowledgement immediately.

Unfortunately, they can't install a new unit until Friday.  And the poor A/C from the existing unit failed that evening.  My house was not designed for good cross-ventilation.  And while it is not mid-Summer with 90F temperatures and high humidity, it got to 80F inside quickly.  I opened 2 screened windows and turned on the kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans, but it stayed warm inside.  In fact, despite it being cooler outside than in, I couldn't get it below 78F.  

I can't sleep well above 70F.  You probably think I'm a wimp (and I suppose I am).  So some history.  As I kid, I grew up in New England.  Staying warm was the whole point there.  When I was 13, we moved to Virginia.  Staying cool there was the effort.  At first it was pre-air-conditioning.  I lay in bed sweating every Summer night.  

After a couple years, Dad bought a used stand-alone A/C.  But he was (koff, koff) "thrifty".  It was only turned on in the evening.  It was often hotter in the house than outside.  We used to sit on the front or back steps after dinner and watch the "heat lightening" until it cooled down enough to stay inside.  I was still miserable at night.

When I was 13, we moved to Maryland (which is not exactly New England either).  Dad tried to get away with installing a 3' fan in the bedroom floor ceiling, but that never helped much.  Finally, he bought a 2nd hand window A/C (again, only to be run at night).  

Couple years later, I left for college.  The dorms had rooftop A/C units.   Later I was in A/C apartments and then a house and A/C offices.  I have not been without A/C for 55 years!  You get used to what you live with I suppose.  If there was no such thing as A/C, I suppose I would have gotten used to the absence of it decades ago.  And houses would have remained designed for the lack of it.

So this week without A/C is a bit hard.  I sure will be glad when the new unit is installed.  

The Non-Joy Of Repairs

The heat pump has been making a lot of noise and the A/C is working poorly.  I contacted the company that installed it originally and repaired it once.  They sent out a technician.  It was very difficult to understand what he was saying (language issues).  Everytime I thought I understood what he was saying the problem was,  he then said something that made me realize I had not understood him.  

And in fairness to me, he said some conflicting things.  I can't repair a heat pump (very specialized equipment), but I have enough science and engineering to understand how they work.  And a few of the things he said didn't make much sense.  It was basically like he didn't really know what the problem was, but he offerred some suggestions that were contradictory.  It's like he knows what he is trained to do according to readings he gets from diagnostic equipment but doesn't really know why that fixes anything.  

And he said things like "the compressor is working fine" and then a few minutes later "there is a part in the compressor that isn't working".  Well, it can't be both, can it?  He also said the bad part in the compressor can't be replaced itself.  

And "it's 2-3 pounds low on freon (the coolant) and that's $130 per pound".  When I asked what would happen if the compressor had to be replaced (me knowing the answer), he said it would all be lost and I would need even more pounds.  At least he got that right.

He seemed to be suggesting I should just live with the noise.  Admittedly, the mechanical racket only occurred briefly while he was here.  It is irregular, and (of course) didn't happen very long while he was here).  There is an old joke definition of weird car noises.  "Something that won't happen in the presence of a mechanic".  😢

The heat pump is over 10 years old.  It is about time it began to fail.  After some repeated (and rather circular conversations, I concluded the best choice was to have the compressor replaced and asked him to arrange that.  He said he couldn't and that I needed to call the company.  I now think they sent out a local independent (barely-qualified) guy and I'm kind of ticked off about that.

But I called the repair company later Monday to arrange for a compressor replacement.  The scheduler said they had to get one from the supplier and would call me when they had a delivery date.  No estimate of when that would be.  

Then I thought I found the cause of the mechanical racket.  When I moved my ears around the outside unit, I discovered the side of the unit where there are ventilation slots was vibrating.  I also discovered that if I shook the unit, the fan wobbled loosely.  

I pressed a piece of tree branch against the side panel and anchored it with a cinder block.  That suddenly lowered the noise level.  I also shook the casing around the unit and discovered the fan wobbled loosely.  The screws that held the fan and motor were rusted tight, but some Liquid Wrench (a lubricant-penetrant) allowed me to loosen them.  Some were actually already loose (when I broke the rust loose.  So I tighten them.  The fan stopped wobbling and the heat pump operated quietly.  I thought I had solved the problem.

I called the company to tell them not to order a new compressor just yet.  The scheduler had other people on line and said he would call me right back.  An hour later, I called back (assuming he had forgotten).  Well, of course not.  He simply decided not to call me.

Why?  He said he had described the problem to his Boss and Boss said he was familiar with the sound I was describing and would call me himself.  So of course the scheduler guy didn't see any reason to call me back...  AARRRGGGHH!

The Boss hasn't called yet.  Meanwhile, the heat pump has started making the same noises again.  My temporary fixes didn't last long.  Well, I didn't really expect my little fixes would last long, but I did have some hopes...

But I did get one possibly helpful thing done.  Yesterday afternoon, I was clearing weeds where I plan to plant tomatoes.  Which is near the heat pump.  Which turned on and made the same mechanical racket and it continued.  

So I got a bright idea.  I made a video of it with my camera!  The picture means nothing, but the audio is documentation.   If the Boss knows about "bad sounds", I can play it for him over the phone or in person.  Now all I have to do is get in touch with him later today.

If you read all this to the end, thank you...

Garden And Yard, Part 2

The light stand in the basement is filled with trays of flower seedlings...  The lights were off for the night, so it looks a bit strange.

I think I missed watering those above recently.  They look a bit wilted.  So I watered them after taking the pic.

 The tomatoes are large for the small pots, but I gave them an organic fertilizer last week and yesterday, so that should help the roots grow.  When I plant them tomorrow, it will be deeply (they send out roots from any buried stem).  And I mix a slow-release organic fertilizer in the foot deep and foot wide soil I dig out and then mix back in.  Along with crushed eggshells (the calcium helps prevent blossom-rot).

Garden And Yard, Part 1

1.  Well, it seems I can finally plant my tomato seedlings outside today.  Mid-April was warm and the forecasts suggested it would stay that way  but weather has been more variable the past decade and the Washington DC area is historically difficult anyway.  

Not to get into details about that, but basically DC is at the border between the last cold fronts from Canada and the early warm fronts from the Gulf with some swirling winds through the gaps in the Appalachian Mountains.  

Really mixes things around.  A night with an expected low of 50 suddenly drops to 40.  But it looks like the Gulf fronts have won and the lows will stay at 60 minimum.  Not much a difference to we humans in our homes, but it sure matters to a tomato seedling.

Tomatoes are actually semi-tropical plants.  And below about 55, they don't do well.  They can get permanently set back in growth and production.  Ever read that you shouldn't refrigerate tomatoes?  That's why.  It shuts down their enzymes and that's where the flavor is.  And as seedlings, they don't recover.  Oh, I don't mean they die; they just don't thrive.

I used to try all sorts of things to plant tomato seedling outside early.  Black plastic on the raised beds to warm the soil.  Surrounding the seedlings with plastic tubes of water

The idea is that the water warms in the daytime sun and keeps the seedling warm through the night.  It's a pain.  Each tube has to be filled individually and then after a day of warming the water, you have to plant the seedling down through the top.

I did that for 20 years, thinking I was getting a good head start on my planting and would get a nice ripe heirloom tomato a couple of weeks earlier.  I adore heirloom tomatoes!

Then, one year, I did that for half the tomatoes and delayed planting the other half until the soil warmed above 55.  The tomatoes planted later did better than the earlier ones...  Lesson?  You can't really warm the soil before Mother Nature does it herself!  

Waiting 3 weeks until the time is actually right to plant beats trying to get around the natural course of the seasons.  

2.  For different reasons (Aphids and Fungus Gnats) I think I will give up trying to grow lettuces under lights in the basement.  In the basement, they have no natural predators (other than me) and they multiply faster than I can manage.  

I try to stay organic and the best organic controls are Neem (a tree bark product) Safer's soap (soap dehydrates insects and plants don't mind mild soap much), and yellow sticky-paper (yellow attracts them and they can't get loose when the land.  I had a dozen 3"x5" of those around my basement lettuce and pak choy.  I lost the entire crop twice last Winter.

I'm not exaggerating when I say I caught 1,000 of them on the sticky paper.  But there is no end to them!  There are always a few who escape and lay 1000s of eggs in the soil and then "there we go again".

And that's just one sticky paper!

I have the trays replanted out on the deck.  I never see a ladybug of other predatory insect there, but I don't see any aphids either.  But the lettuces are growing nicely and I'll replant the Pak choy soon.  I cut the celery down to an inch and they are growing new stalks quickly.  The Red leaf lettuce is doing especially well, but I don't have a picture (it was all blurry).  So here is last year and they are all doing about as well.

3.  I planted a dozen snow peas behind a trellis 3 weeks ago. 9 came up.  So I decided to plant more in front and fill in the missing back ones.  I soak the seeds overnight and then fold them in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag.  Most germinate and that lets you know which to plant.

Planting dry peas gets me about 50% seedlings.  Planting pre-germinated peas gets me about 80% seedlings.  BTW, the pea trellis is 6' wide in the middle of a 10' wide raised box.  So I'll be planting two grids of corn on either side (both bicolor, but one early-maturing and one later).  And I will soak the corn overnight too.  That helps.  But I don't have to wait to see a root.  The soaking itself is sufficient for corn.

4.  I have actual meadow flowers finally growing in my 4 year old meadow bed!  I knew they tended to take a couple years to establish good roots, but I was beginning to worry.  But suddenly this year they are growing upwards fast.  I know which ones they are because I stuck the labels in the ground AND stuck landscaping flags next to each.  So I will be sneaking around them with clippers to cut the grass back and give them less competition.  

As far as I can tell, 33 of the 36 meadow seedlings I planted are growing.  I am THRILLED.  Some are a foot high (after staying near ground level last year).  There is tall grass throughout the bed, but most of these meadow flowers grow 3-5' tall, so they will overcome that.  Well, they survived at 2" last year, so they should do better at 2-3' this year.

5.  The pollinator bed should also do well.  I transplanted a dozen Black-Eyed Susans last Spring and I suddenly see dozens growing there.  And I have 38 seedlings (several each of about 10 different kinds designed to support a wide variety of butterflies for adult nectar and larva-feeding).  Also good for hummingbirds and bees (bumble, honey, and native).  I did some research...

6.  2 years ago, I planted Maltese Cross and Tithonia flowers in an empty spot.  The Tithinia frew to 4' rapidly; the Maltese Cross about 8" high.  There is one Tithonia regrowing (can't win them all).  But I have a dozen Maltese Cross 2' tall now!

I will transplant them to the fenceline flowerbed this Fall.  They are self-sowing too, so I'll have more in a few years.  Aside from the meadow bed and the pollinator bed, I am trying to establish a cottage flower bed of self-sowers.

7.  I have more flower seedlings growing inside (and oddly not bothered with aphids), but that is for tomorrow.

 

General Stuff

I have some assorted items to catch up mentioning...

First, I have given up of the existing camera.  The color is shot.  It makes Lori and Ayla look a bit orange, it blotches the color of even a solid wall, and it starts at 0001 every day (even though I have it set to continuous).   

I have a smartphone, but I haven't learned how to navigate around in it , and I'm not likely to learn how soon).  So I bought a new camera.  Very simple inexpensive camera ("for kids and seniors").  Well I don't need much.  In fact, half my photo-processing effort is reducing the quality of the pictures...  The current one takes 3-5MB pics and I keep the processed ones to 200-300 KB for the blogs and forums.

Second, I have been having problems getting at my Feedly reading list for a month.  I keep getting a message that it can't load.  I tried to find the problem several times with no luck.  So please forgive my not visiting and leaving comments lately.

Today, I "fixed" it.  Which actually means I discovered I was the problem!  About a month ago, I eliminated cookies (on advice from my AV app) and added some extensions (on Safari's advice).  It caused problems and I don't know how to undo the extensions.

For whatever reason, cat blogoshere shows up like a Word page, but I discovered that if I click outside of the "page" I get the normal view.  I need to dig into the settings...  But it occurred to me yesterday that the Feedly "can't load" message looked a lot the same.  So I clicked outside the message and WOW, there was the normal Feedly view with the list of cat blogs!

Made me feel pretty stupid, but I'm glad I can get at Feedly again.  So I'll be visiting and commenting again soon.

Third, I got some confirmation that my regular Twisted Wine Cellars winery has closed.  They are offering (I saw on Go-Daddy) to sell their URL for $400,000!  That pretty much settles my question of whether they are closed.  

Which is a real shame.  I really liked it and it was inexpensive ($9.99 for a 1.5L bottle).  One site said "This Old Vine Zinfandel is medium-bodied with aromas of black cherry, red currant, blackberry bramble and a hint of spice. Concentrated ripe fruit, dark berry flavors and black pepper carry through to the palate while nicely balanced acidity and plush tannins lead to a lingering finish".  Not bad for an inexpensive wine, LOL.  

I'll be going to my local wine/deli/meat place to buy a dozen bottles of different zinfandels to see which I like best for the future.  Might try a few pinot grigios and merlots, too.  They were listed as "similar to zinfandel" at a site I found comparing varieties of wine.

I emailed a wine-blogger who invited questions (and didn't seem like a wine-snob) but I haven't gotten a reply yet.

I usually only have 2 small glasses with dinner, but I do look forward to it and I don't like most wines.  On occasions when I stay up all night, I do have more.  😃

Fourth, TV could get annoying soon.  Not so much because of the writers' strike, but because the future of 3 of my favorite shows's future is "iffy".  'Archer' is an animated spy-spoof and the next season has not yet been renewed.  'La Brea' is expected to return, but no season premier is scheduled.  'Ark' seem planned for a 2nd season, but no date is set.  I worry about 'La Brea' and 'Ark' because they seem to have an irregular and short season, so you never know what might happen.

My other favorite show (other than MSNBC and CNN news) is 'Real Time With Bill Maher'.  It is not news, but it is "topical" and he has some very unusual guests.  I have a fondness for intellectual sarcasm, and he is a master at that.  The writers' strike will affect his show.

The other channels I watch won't be affected (Science, History, National Geographic, Smithsonian).

Fifth, Superglue is dangerous stuff.  The adjustment buckles of 2 of my suspenders (braces to some of you) won't stay tight and the clips to the pant waist come loose sometimes.  I could buy new ones, but I have a repair-it mindset ("Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without").  Well, OK, I don't do the "do without" part, but my first instinct is "make it do".

So I decided to set the adjustment buckles in a correct place and then superglue them there.  If the elastic weakens and stretches after that, I'll give up on them (or more likely, find some other use for them) and get new ones.  So I set about supergluing the adjustment buckles.

That's when superglue becomes evil!  The first time you open one of those tiny tubes, it works fine.  Afterwards, it is always a problem to get more out.  Sure, there is a tiny pin that is supposed to keep the outlet open.  It doesn't.  

So I was squeezing the tube to apply the superglue to the buckles and nothing came out.  I cut the tip shorter, and it came out in a blob.  Which was OK because I spread the blob on the suspenders with a toothpick.

I didn't realize I had gotten some on a fingertip and then touched my thumb to the finger.  Don't worry, I acted quickly and apply some mineral oil to the spot.  They separated with a bit of pulling.  A slight shell remains but it will flake off in a day or 2.  This isn't my 1st experience with superglue on skin, LOL! 

The next part of the suspender renovation is to add thin rubber pads to the past clasps.  Some of my pants have a belt holder strip (that gives thickness) at the right place; some don't.  So I plan to use rubber cement to attach thin patches of that rubbery shelving mesh inside both sides of the clasps.  It will grip better.

That's enough for one day...  Thank you for reading this far!

A Lost Wine

"I am rather sad today,

My favorite wine has gone away.

It was not one wine-lovers love,

But fit my pallat like a glove.

 

It went with everything I made,

From chick to pork to steak saute'd.

It thoroughly did suit my taste

And now I'll find no more of it.

 

The winery has closed, it seems

To end 10 years of vinous dreams.

I'm sure this hits them harder, though

I'll also miss them, don't you know."

 

   .................

 

Seriously, I started drinking wine 20 years ago.  I graduated from "too much beer all day" to "just enough wine with dinner".  I tried beaujolais, merlot, cab, burgundy, other red wines before discovering zinfandel.  I liked that best for the fruity but complex flavor.  And, as I said in the poem, it suited my cooking style.  I tend toward small amounts of roasted meats, some stir-fried veggies, or spaghetti with meatloaf tomato sauce, and vinegary tossed salads (heavy on the tomatoes).

 

I was originally able to get it from my friendly local deli/meat/alcohol store.  Then they stopped stocking it, but would special-order multiple cases for me.

 

Then their distributor stopped offering it several years ago.  I found a store in NY that did and would ship to me.  Shipping wasn't exactly free (cost an additional $5 per bottle) but that wasn't the point.  I liked the wine.

 

That place hasn't had it available for a few weeks.  I found another place and ordered some, but they just emailed me to say that the winery had closed.  

 

I feel like I did back when Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke". 

 

So, now I need to try to find a new wine for dinnertime.  It can't be just any Zinfandel.  The Twisted Wine Cellars version was from "old vines" and that affects the taste.  

 

And it's not like I'm going to buy $20 wine.  I refuse to pay more  for wine than the dinner costs.  On the other hand, I only have 12 bottles left.  While that will last 36 meals, a month is not really a long time.  

 

One time years ago, I found a place that was based on "if you like this, you will like that".  It had charts that compared products for similarity (by user reviews).  One of them was wine.  I now wish I had saved the graph or bookmark.  I didn't find it tonight, but I will look again tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile, I'll be talking to the wine guy at the local store and see what he recommends.

 

Farewell, Twisted Wine Cellars Twisted Zin...

 

Tulips And Other Flowers

The tulips were generally at their best yesterday.   

I used to have a lot more, but there are 2 problems.  First, the voles love them!  They find them almost anywhere.  Second, the fancier ones have short lives.  They are hybridized within an inch of existence for color rather than length of life.  Even if I plant them in wire mesh cages  (small enough to keep voles out but large enough to allow the stems to grow through), they still die younger than standard red ones.

Years ago, I planted perhaps 100 tulips in 2 years.  The first were among the daffodils around the backyard woods.  And some near the deck.  The following Spring, all I found were holes where the voles dug down and ate the bulbs.  The last 2 pics are of the only survivors (and notice they are solid colors). 

You can see how many there used to be...

So, when I established the 25x25' daffodil bed around the birdfeeder, I put the hyacinths and tulips in wire mesh cages.  But even that didn't help much.  At  8 bulbs per cage, about 10 cages, 80 bulbs...  I have 8 left and a few that are just leaves this year but might bloom next year.

I plan to dig up the cages in June when the leaves die back and try again.  But this time with standard old red tulips in the Fall.  They will stand out among the daffodils better anyway.

I have no idea why the caged hyacinths all died out.  They are usually long-lived if not eaten by voles.  Maybe the hyacinth stems are too thick for the wire mesh.  Maybe I'll try putting them in slightly larger mesh and surround them with sharp gravel chips.  I've read that deters voles very well.  

I want more hyacinths.  The fragrance is wonderful!

Tax Day

 LOL@ me.  I meant the previous post to be a draft to be added to later.  It slipped past my noticing...  I guess I left it "scheduled" rather than "draft".

But I did my taxes yesterday.  It was miserable even with helpful software.  There are questions I don't truly understand, so I just do my best.  I probably make some mistakes.  But I bet I overpay rather than underpay.  I'll survive.  If I get audited, they will probably owe ME money.

The annoying thing is that my e-filing was rejected for the wrong PIN.  My taxes took 2 hours to do and trying to figure out the PIN error took 3.  I will probably never try to e-file again.

So I printed the damn forms out and will snail-mail them as usual.  I'll have to stand in line at the Post Office to get the proper postage and a receipt.  I'll get a few $100 back on the Federal and pay a few $100 to the State.  It balances out, so I don't really care very much.

But it sure could be simpler...  If H&R Block and other places can offer tax software that the Govt accepts as accurate, so could the Govt.  And it would be more official that way.  If they made a mistake in the software, it wouldn't be MY error.  Maybe that's why they don't.  😀

Tax Day

Damn, need to clear the computer desk for the tax day.   I hate doing it.  I get some slight money back, but it is always a pain.   The software sure helps. but I put it off as long as I can.  "Helps" doesn't make it easy... 

I bet the IRS knows exactly how much I owe.  Why can't they just tell me to send them that?  LOL!