More on the washing machine

A while ago, I put out a cry for help about our washing machine. After lots of research, I discovered ours doesn't have one : ( The manufacturer just assumes everyone will consume lots of energy by drying everything in the dryer. We don't do that—especially sweaters and other delicates.

Based on that information, I figured that lint was just building up on the liner and the outer basket. I decided to take the thing apart and clean it. I hadn't played with a washer for almost 30 years, but I figured not much had changed...wrong! Or, I must have just forgotten everything... Anyway, ours is direct drive; all the ones I had played with were belt-driven. Plus, I couldn't figure out how to get the thing apart! I took out all the screws on the back; tried all kinds of things. Finally, I did what I should have done in the first place: searched the Internet.

I found lots of information of varying degrees of usefulness, accuracy, and usability. The best one, which led me to the other great one, was My Plastic Free Life. The post is hilarious, but very helpful. Her post led me to YouTube and British James. Most helpful, indeed. The first 12 seconds are redundant in all the videos, so skip them after the first time. Another site that was helpful on taking apart the cabinet was Repair Ave, but I preferred the video.

Fortified with the information from British James, I attacked the washer again (after putting it back together again!). Simple. But, if you have a newer machine with the screws in the back of the console, be sure to remove them completely. If you don't the screws will still grab enough to keep the thing from coming apart. I used diagonal cutting pliers (dikes) to get them out.

I got it apart and took the agitator out. I attempted to loosen the spanner nut with a screwdriver and hammer. Not a chance! I was starting to mushroom the nut, so I dropped some 3-in-1 oil on it and waited a while. Nope. Not gonna happen! Now what? It was Saturday, so I put everything back together again and ordered the right tool—which I should have done in the first place! It cost me about $15.00 with shipping from thepartsbiz.com. And I waited for it to arrive. It arrived on Wednesday or Thursday, but I didn't get back to the washer until the weekend.

It's amazing how much better things work with the correct tools! By now I was an expert at taking the thing apart, so I got it apart and attacked the spanner nut. It took a good bit of banging, but it came loose. But, trying to get the basket out was something else. I banged on the spindle, yanked on the bucket, shook the thing. Nothing moved. So, I poured some white vinegar down the spindle and let it work for a bit. And I prayed.

This time, I yanked and twisted it a bit. It moved, but didn't release. So, I twisted it some more and then yanked. It released! But that spindle was a mess! I cleaned it up and then began the task of cleaning the liner.

The liner was a mess! The top 3-5 inches was lined with black gunk that probably was lint—once upon a time! I attacked it with a very wet rag and a putty knife. I also cleaned up the basket and the removable lid that was over the bucket and liner. Stinky, smelly mess!

Once everything was clean, I put it all back together again. Just to make sure everything was working right, I ran it through a cycle with a bit of detergent. Looked good.

Debbie has done a couple of loads since then, and no lint anywhere. That's nice : )

More on the house

This house is full of blessings from God (Debbie calls them “kisses”). There are two very large picture windows (54” x 36” inches) in the kitchen; one faces east and the other faces south. You can see the lake from both of them. A picture doesn't do it justice, so I won't even try. I bring a stool into the kitchen, pull out the cutting board (the kitchen counter has a recessed oak cutting board) as a table, and sit there for breakfast. The sun shining through with the lake alternately freezing or being blown open makes a great background for sitting there and reading scripture in the morning.

I can't think of a better way to start the day!

Narnia!

I love Narnia. I've read the books well over 20 times, maybe over 30 times. In college and grad school, I would read through them at the end of the semester or quarter to unwind (I also read a lot of kid's classics, too, but that's another story). When the kids were young, we read them at the supper table together out loud. I will find myself using examples of things from the books as illustrations fairly frequently.

Well, one of the surprises in the house here is the entryway closet

Yep, a hidden access to Narnia! It even has a lamp (OK, it's outside of Narnia, but hey, it's close enough!)

I suspect it was built around 1999 as a “Y2K refuge” or some such, you can see that it used to be accessed from a bedroom

It's fairly spacious inside. One of the first times the grandkids came over (we weren't even fully moved in yet), they all wanted to bring stools into it, sit on them, and play. We decided it would be fun, so we painted the walls and are going to allow them to post their artwork. We thought about letting them paint the walls, but decided artwork done elsewhere and posted was safer : )

Where do we go from here?

Simple: Grand Marais Minnesota. When? End of June. Why? Because we will be assisting the fine folks at Sawtooth Cabins.

All good things come to an end this side of eternity, and it is time. I love my job here at Eisenbrauns, but it is time to move on. This has nothing to do with Eisenbrauns; don't go looking for hidden things that aren't there! It is just that God is leading us on.

Eisenbrauns will do fine without me and I will always look back with good memories of my time here. And, I hope to maintain my friendships with the people here. They are some of the greatest. You would have a hard time finding a better boss than Jim.

We are excited for multiple reasons—one of which is that our daughter and 5 of the grandkids are in Grand Marais. We are looking forward to being 13 hours closer to them—and only about 5 hours from our son and 2 more grandkids.

We sold our house, closing on it about 2 weeks ago. In a miraculous move of God, it was only on the market 9 days and we didn't take a loss on it. This in a housing market where most houses are on the market for 6+ months and people take 10-20% losses.

So, where are we living right now? Well, that's another God thing. The place we used to live opened up for 3 months: April-June. Just exactly the time we needed.

The only down side is that the move is timed so I won't have a garden this summer...

Signs of Spring

I took this picture this morning, before the sun had really risen, so it is a bit grainy. I love this redbud tree; you can see it from the kitchen window. We didn't know it was a redbud when we bought the property, so it was a pleasant surprise the first spring.

But it sure is pretty

The view out our front door this morning:



This is what the north side of the house looked like (the wind was from the north):

Timber-r-r

On Monday morning, we had a very severe thunderstorm here in northern Indiana. Someone told me the winds were clocked at over 70 miles per hour. I'm not sure how strong they were, but they were strong enough to topple a 60 foot spruce tree in our yard.

It fell across the road, blocking it, but missed the power lines. If the wind had been from the west instead of the northwest, it could have gotten ugly. Instead, the county pushed it back into our yard, breaking it in half. It looked quite interesting in the front yard (no, I didn't get a picture of it). I was hoping that it would be their responsibility to clean up—it is within the right-of-way—but a call on Tuesday gave me the news that it was mine.

So, last night, Cliff (our neighbor) and I began the task of cutting it up. We got the limbs done and most of the trunk before dark and a burned out chain stopped us. Tonight will probably see us finishing it up. But, now I have a very large hole in the front yard and a much increased brush pile in the back yard...

Some projects take a while

Like the one I just finished last week. It wasn't hard, it just got split up over the SBL conference, Christmas, and forgetfulness.

We had a closet in the front entryway of our house. It wasn't very accessible, and in the winter, all the coats were cold. Plus, it made the entryway smaller. So, in the beginning of November, I began the task of removing it.

Several problems immediately surfaced. One, the wall, while not structural, was solid. There was drywall on both sides with a good solid layer of plaster on top of that. I ended up with blisters. Second, it is an original wall, which means 1943, which means dust! Everywhere! I put up a plastic barrier, but it still got everywhere. Here's what it looked like after I got the wall down.







Of course, my little run-in with the lawn tractor put a bit of a delay in things; it isn't easy to mud and sand with a hand that doesn't work :( And then, I missed a few spots with the grout. But, finally, here's what it looks like now.





What do you think?

How does the garden grow?

I picked spinach and a carrot out of the hoophouse this weekend. The carrots aren't growing very much this time of year and I planted them a bit late. But, still it was a garden fresh carrot :) The spinach is getting a bit old and the leaves aren't growing back as well—but it is January, after all.

I placed my seed orders last Friday. This year I ordered from both Pinetree Garden Seeds and Johnny's Selected Seeds, both in Maine. Of course, the next day, we saw a book at Lowe's The Kitchen Garden that we bought. As I was looking through it yesterday, I saw something I got to try—sprouting broccoli, also known as non-heading broccoli. This isn't broccoli raab, but a true broccoli that bears throughout the winter. Johnny's has it, of course. But, my order is already placed. Oh well, maybe a later order.

In other news, over the last week or so, I put a shower in the downstairs bathroom. When we moved in, they had one of those hang from the ceiling surround curtains and a push over the spout shower. Because they smoked, it stunk, so we just took the whole thing out. We have a shower upstairs, so we just kept it as a tub. But, all along we had intended to put a real shower in there for guests. So, last week was the week. I cut through the plaster along the stud, put in the shower line, a new faucet, and a tub surround. Well, it wasn't that simple (is it ever?). There was no shutoff valve on either line, so the first thing I had to do is install those. And, the offset on the faucets was different, so I had to use a coping saw in a very small space to cut away the supports, and... If you ever owned an older house, you know what I'm talking about.

But, last night, I finished caulking everything and it looks pretty good. Actually, with the new curtain and shower curtain that Debbie picked out, it looks very good.

I think I'll plant some tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli this week. It should be warm enough in the hoophouse six weeks from now for them to grow...especially under the cold frames inside it. Maybe by then my lettuce and radishes will be ready for harvest...

Cleanup that tree!

The last of the tree trunk disappeared last week. But, there was still a lot of sawdust and brush all over the front yard. Over the weekend, I spent a little time hauling the brush to the backyard and adding it to the brushpile—now a very big brushpile—but didn't get a chance to rake up the smaller stuff. So, Monday evening I got out the shovel, rake, wheelbarrow, lawn roller, leaf vac, and lawn tractor for some serious cleanup.

I raked up the smaller limbs and some of the sawdust; it was about 3-4 wheelbarrows full. Then I took the shovel to the large divots in the yard from the falling limbs and trunk. It still looked like a mortar practice field, so I hooked the lawn roller to the back of the tractor and ran over it a few times. It looks a bit better, but the roller was only about 1/2 full of water, so I will need to fill it and do it again.

Last of all, I hooked up the leaf vac to the back of the tractor and began making passes over the whole area. Saw dust and dust everywhere! I wondered if any of it was going into the vac, but it was. There was just so much sawdust that it seemed to be ineffective. I think I finally ended up going over some areas 7-8 times, but here's what it looked like in the end:




It filled up the vac all the way with a nice compost mix of grass, sawdust, and dirt. I won't be able to use it on beds where things are growing right now; the sawdust actually steals nitrogen while it is breaking down. Once it breaks down, it returns all the nitrogen (and then some) to the soil, but not before. But, that's not a problem because I am digging 2 new strawberry beds, a new raspberry bed; it will work wonderfully there, breaking down over the winter and being nice and loamy by spring. Here's a picture of the sawdust pile. For perspective, the pile is about 3 feet tall and about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. That's a lot of sawdust!



Ah, but what to do with the stump? Good question; Debbie had the answer. What do you think?

Timberrr!

We had a tall, and I mean tall—80 + feet—elm tree that was dying. In the ice storm 2 years ago, it shed 4 branches. It was about dead and leaning toward the house. All in all, not a good situation. So, we had it cut down 2 weeks ago. Here's some pictures of the wreckage:





We offered the wood to some people for firewood; they have been cutting a bit each day, but the rest is too big for his saw. Here's what it looks like today:


We have someone else with a bigger saw coming this week to cut and take away the rest. To give you an idea of how big it is, here's a picture of the stump. It is 53 inches in diameter.

Mosquitoes!

Bugs haven't been much of a problem this year; it has been quite dry; the garden hasn't suffered, though because of the drip irrigation. But, the rain 2 weeks ago sure changed things!

For the last few days, you can't hardly walk outside without being accosted by mosquitoes. I have started wearing long pants and a rain jacket while working in the garden. They bite right through a regular shirt; the nylon jacket seems to stop them. But, my hands and head are getting attacked continually while I am working.

Debbie read somewhere that Bounce™ sheets work for repelling insects, so she has started attaching the sheets to herself. Last night, she had one pinned in her hair, one on each sleeve, and one on her belt loop. It looked pretty funny—and she still got bit!

It reminds me of living in the north woods! But, "count it all joy..." keeps coming to mind.

idle musings

<idle musing>
I haven't had much time to read lately; the garden is taking a good bit of time. Last night I canned 18 pints of bread and butter pickles; Monday night 5 quarts of dilly beans. That takes a chunk of your night away :)

Summer finally arrived over the weekend, with temperatures in the high 80's F and humidity to match. Good for the tomatoes; bad for physical labor.

I was hauling wood chips on Saturday to make a trail in the woods. Sunday, I took apart our 8' x 12' sandbox. The cats had turned it into a litter box :( That's a lot of sand to move, especially by hand with a spade and wheelbarrow. The whole thing was complicated by the nearby Maple tree deciding that the sandbox was for its roots. I suppose riding 40+ miles in the morning against a stiff wind didn't help...

On other notes, I saw a flier last Friday that was trying to guilt-trip people into getting their pets neutered/spayed. They claimed that a cat has 12 kittens per year and lives about 9 years, with the result of several thousand offspring. I don't know how they got that number, but you know the old saying about statistics...

My experience is that a cat might have two litters of 6 cats each per year. But, so far we have had 0, 1, and 1 as survivors in the 2 years we have lived here. We started with 2 cats, now we have more, but not the 144 that they claimed after 2 years...

And, speaking of misuse of statistics, did you see the cover of Time Magazine this week? It says that exercise doesn't make you lose weight. Folks, weight isn't the problem; fat is. I weigh more than I have at anytime in my life; I also am in better shape than anytime since high school when I was swimming on the swim team. My resting heart rate is in the low 50's; I can do 50 push-ups, etc. The bottom line is that muscle weighs more than fat.

Of course, the article qualifies stuff, but the bottom line is exercise without diet change won't help much. And, the part that most people still don't get, is that diets don't work! Covert Bailey preached that for years on PBS and in his books, but people still don't get it. Change what you eat to be more vegetables and fruits; cut out the fast food. Drop the corn syrupy soft drinks; add milk and water. As an aside, we drink about 5-6 gallons of milk per week between the two of us; I drink 2 liters of water at work per day.

Boy, what a rambling post...
</idle musing>

Garden shots

As promised some time ago, pictures of the garden.

Looking west, from the road. The herb garden is in front, with wire mesh over the dill, basil, and parsley until they get tall enough to discourage cat-rolling. The bushes are raspberries; you can see where the garden used to end on the left and right ends of the rows.



The main garden; the rhubarb is in the two boxes in front.



The plot on the left is the watermelon patch. Originally it wasn't fenced, but a dog decided it made a nice toilet one day, so we fenced it in. Notice the asparagus patch attached to the main garden and covered with wire mesh:



A bonus picture. Looking toward the creek, with the firepit in the foreground:

Spring!

We have a flowering tree outside the office. I've posted a picture of it before, but it is so nice it deserves to be posted again:



Here's a picture of the barn at our place, complete with redbud. The redbud is out more today; this picture was taken on Monday morning.

Gardening

For the last two weekends I have been getting compost from the city of Warsaw and spreading it on our garden. For 5 Saturdays every Spring and Fall, Warsaw offers free compost from the leaves that they collect in the Fall; I got 3 pickups full each Saturday and spread it on the garden (6 total). I hope to till it this weekend.

We are expanding the garden by about 50% this year and adding more crops. Last year was just an experiment to see what the soil was like—rocky, very rocky, hence the compost. We live along a creek and the soil reflects it in being mainly rocks with some topsoil. In fact, one of the previous owners, back about 40 years, used to sell gravel to the county!

I'm growing the tomatoes (roma, cherry, and beefsteak), peppers (chili and bell), cucumbers, and watermelon from seed in the basement. Yes, there is a grow-light over them; I know you can't grow plants in the basement without light :) If everything grows as hoped, we will have plenty to give away.

Meantime, I also got two loads of wood chips and spread them around the lilac bushes and the house. We took the black plastic edging out and replaced it with landscape timers. I think it looks better; it sure will be easier to mow. We also cut down the bushes in front. If we had trimmed them, all that would have been left was branches without any green. Maybe, if I remember, I will take some pictures...

More ice pictures

These were taken Saturday.

The willow tree in the back yard:


The backyard looking toward the creek:


One of the bushes by the house, the others all look about the same:


The view from the front yard, right outside my study window:


The elm tree in our front yard. It lost 4 big limbs on one side:


The barn:


One of our lilac bushes didn't fare so well:

And then there were three...

Time for an update on the cats, so for those of you who don't care about cats, stop reading :)

For most of the summer we had 2 adult cats and 3 kittens that were hanging around our place. Toward the end of September, someone dropped off a young tiger-striped male. He seemed friendly enough, so we let him stay. So then there were six.

But, after about a week, he got mean and started driving the other cats away. We had to take him to the animal shelter. So then there were five again.

A few weeks later, one of the kittens disappeared. From what we gathered, he was adopted by someone on the other side of the creek. So then there were four.

As it started getting colder, one of the kittens got sick. We had called her “Puff” because she was just a little puff of fur. Once she got sick, she started losing weight fast, and one Saturday, about 2 weeks ago, she died. So, then there were three.

Right now, there are three cats, two living in the barn, and one in a shelter by the back porch. They are all healthy and it looks like that will be our cat population through the winter, although yesterday I saw a black and white striped male go into the barn, so maybe there will be four...

Cats

We have been adopted by another stray cat. This one is a tiger striped cat. It appears to have been dumped on the road in the last several days. It showed up on Monday and is very friendly; probably a pet that a family decided to get rid of and hoped that someone would adopt. That makes three now...

No, they are not inside cats; we feed them and let them stay around. One lives under the deck, one in the barn, and the new one appears to have found a place right across the road from us. Unlike some bloggers, I don't think cats are demonic. In fact, I think people who consider them so are themselves deceived :)

Nuts!

No, really, genuine nuts. let me explain. We have a shag-bark hickory tree in our front yard. It must be about 50 feet tall and it is loaded with hickory nuts. My first thought was that it would be a pain to take care of all the nuts—remembering acorns from days past. But, I checked it out and they are actually edible!

They are quite small (sorry, no picture), but they look and taste like 1/4 sized walnuts. So, instead of dreading the falling nuts, I am harvesting them. I let them sit in our basement in a box for a few days, and the husk comes off nicely, leaving a hickory nut.

They will make a nice snack this winter...if I don't eat them all before that :)