Special Helper
When we adopted our cats, I discovered some cardboard scratchers at the rescue organization which were distributed throughout their facility. I hadn’t seen such a thing before, and I was intrigued by them. We had just recently moved to our new home, and had a LOT of cardboard left over from boxes, so I cut some up and make a scratcher of my own.
Pequenita still seems to prefer our furniture, but Mozyr has really taken to the cardboard. He shredded this one until it didn’t work so well anymore, and then turned around and began clawing the other end.
As I was cleaning up the packaging from our new gas barbeque grill last week, it occurred to me that the heavy box would work great for restoring the cat scratcher. I brought the cardboard inside where it was warm, and started cutting it down to size. Mozyr showed up right away to offer his assistance.
It was special to have his help, and I think it makes him even more attached to using the cardboard scratcher. It appears he has acquired a sense of ownership from having participated in its construction.
Little Victories
First off, I want to thank everyone who took time yesterday to contact me with valuable information in support of my education in sink drain plumbing. Of course, the secret ingredient was, Plumber’s Putty!
I started the morning with a review of some youtube videos that revealed tips and tricks, which bolstered my confidence that stopping the leak was well within my capabilities. It also verified my suspicion that it would probably involve something like Plumber’s Putty. Sure enough, front and center, that is what was needed.
I headed to town with my sights set on the fireplace store, and the hardware store. I came home with new rope door gaskets, high temp silicone sealant, and the putty.
The day was filled with a series of minor accomplishments.
- Cleaned out some pallets and tires from the house garage, and got them moved down to the shop garage for storage.
- Tossed out dead mousesicle and reset trap in the garage. (Steve, I haven’t got the new trap you gave me set up in the barn yet.)
- Scraped some of the melting ice off the upper portion of the driveway, near the house.
- Sprayed lubricant into the latch for the hood of my car, getting it to hold the hood down properly (securely).
- Installed batteries and started the indoor/outdoor thermometer we bought weeks ago.
No, it wasn’t 75° here yesterday; I just didn’t clear the initial data
- Got the remote sensor mounted up under the eave, to protect it from rain.
- Mounted the other thermometer we bought, which sticks directly to the window.
- Dismantled drain of kitchen sink, cleaned all the parts.
- Re-installed sink drain, with putty, and snugged it up tight.
- Replaced rope gaskets on fireplace doors.
The number of obstructions to the success of each project were minimal, and I won praise from Cyndie for my success with the plumbing lesson, so it was a rewarding day of work.
We have an appointment this morning for the dishwasher, for which Cyndie accepted responsibility to be home, so I could get to my day-job.
At the end of the day yesterday, I had saved the expense of hiring a plumber, but I may have initiated something that will cost me a lot more than one service call. While at the fireplace store, I inquired about their geothermal heating and cooling system installations. I now have an appointment next Monday to host a visit from a salesman. We’ll talk about how such a system might fit this location, and what kind of financial commitment it would require to pull it off.
In my dream world, I would also add solar, or wind generated power for the electrical needs of the system.
As long as we are in this Wintervale Ranch dream, we might as well dream big.
Nuisance Items
Sunday dawned to an open agenda for us at the ranch, and I had it in mind to chip away at some small nuisance items that have been lingering, but not demanding immediate action.
Recently, the rope gasket around one of the fireplace doors came loose and it flaps around, getting caught out of position when the door is swung shut. Also, Cyndie has been saying that the soap dispenser on the door of the dishwasher is not working correctly. I planned to do some online research for both topics, so started there.
I quickly refined my search for rope gasket replacement kits, and then learned that one of the pieces, specifically, the one that has come loose on ours, is glued in place. Seriously? What glue do they use for that!? Something non-flammable, and able to endure extreme heat and still hold, I hope. I redirected my search to looking for a dealer in my area.
Being located as close to the Twin Cities as we are, I often question whether I should be looking in Minnesota, or Wisconsin, for good and services. Usually, results are better when searching Minneapolis/St. Paul. I found a couple of options for moderately convenient dealer locations in Minnesota for our fireplace. Then I checked Wisconsin and discovered a renewable energy expert company just 5-miles from us in Ellsworth. That’ll do just fine. I’m hoping to visit them today and discuss my situation with a knowledgeable professional.
Next, to the dishwasher.
I had pretty good luck finding a service manual and parts list for our model. Troubleshooting advice was harder to uncover. It appears the dispenser assembly will be about $70, and is in stock, if that ends up needing to be replaced. I decided to remove screws in the door and get inside for a look. I’m guessing my odds of making it better are about equal with my chances of making it worse. It didn’t leak when I started, I sure hope it won’t when I’m through.
I got to the business side of the dispenser and found a solenoid that should release the soap door latch. I removed the solenoid and then rigged up a way to put voltage to the coil. It worked, so I put it back together to test it again, in place. That also worked. The soap door popped open when I triggered the solenoid. Unfortunately, that leaves me to think it isn’t receiving a signal from the controller during the cycle. I don’t know how to test that. We are down to calling an appliance technician.
With luck, we might find someone who knows a little plumbing, too. While I was working on the kitchen floor, and Cyndie was occasionally using the sink, I found we have a leak around one of the sink drains. I developed a suspicion about it when I reached for the box of dishwasher soap, and the bottom appeared to have gotten wet at some time. I was keeping one eye under the sink as she used it, and caught it dripping.
My plumbing expertise is limited to tightening a nut or a fitting, to get a better seal. I tried turning a nut under the drain, and it turned rather easy. I was hoping to feel it get tighter, but it didn’t. It started to deform the rounded metal underside of the drain that it pushes against. I stopped and checked to find it still leaks. Whatever I was doing, it wasn’t helping.
I decided to stop trying to fix things for the rest of the day. I’m gonna need to learn a bit more about plumbing or we’ll be facing the added expense of another visit from a service person.
Blue Sky
There was snow stuck to all the tree branches in sight, but the eye-catching feature of the image is the blue sky. This morning, I am a man of few words, so I will let this picture tell today’s story. This is the view out the back of the house last Thursday morning after the overnight snowfall.
Mighty Purdy
I don’t have time to compose a proper description of my exciting day on the ranch, yesterday, so I’m going to leave you with a couple pictures to enjoy. Overnight, between Wednesday and Thursday, we received around 3 inches of snow. It was mighty purdy! I think I mentioned that our snowman didn’t survive the winds. He got toppled over the night we made him.
New View
Not long ago, I posted a picture of what our planned hay shed might look like, situated by the barn, and with the new loop of driveway around it. Creating it had been a rather quick effort to find a shed that looks like what we have in mind, and paste it onto the existing image. A little while after that effort, I was walking down our driveway and experienced a moment of clarity. The hay shed in that image was in the wrong orientation.
We have been mulling over how it might look, and I suddenly realized that, when coming up our driveway, the view won’t be directly in at the stored hay, you will see the side of the shed. So, I spent some time last night doctoring up another photo image.
In trying to correct for the scale, I may have overdone it a bit, and made it too big this time, I’m not sure. I also darkened the new portion of driveway, to make it more visible. However, then I went and covered it up by adding some fence for the paddock that will be going in. Here’s a representation of the current plan we have in mind:
The fence line isn’t quite right, as we haven’t exactly determined where we will be putting gates, and what route it will ultimately follow, but it helps to see it there, to envision the impact it makes on the look of the new shed in that location.
I’m feeling encouraged that it might end up to be a logical and coordinated layout, and hopefully won’t look as disjointed as I originally feared it might. Now, if the weather would just cooperate, we could start making some actual physical progress on the project, not just image-manipulated simulations of progress (even though simulations are a lot easier and a heck of a lot cheaper).
Snow Scene
The April-like snow storm we enjoyed over the past weekend has left things an icy mess around here. Yesterday, the temperature climbed up around the freezing mark, and there was enough sunshine to do some melting on the south-facing side of the house, but to the north, not so much. The driveway is a bit of a skating rink, with some spots of drifted snow mixed in. The snowman we made has already fallen over, pushed down by gale-force winds that followed the storm. I don’t think we’ll get Cyndie’s scarf back until spring.
When I got home yesterday afternoon, I could hear water running from the roof-melt, but I couldn’t see where it was going. There is so much ice built up around the place, that I don’t know how the runoff is draining. Then I noticed the concrete block wall at the bottom of the stairs to the basement, in the garage, is showing signs of being saturated with water. There is a little puddle at the bottom. My fears are realized: the water can’t go anywhere with all the ice buildup, so it is soaking into the foundation. Nice.
I am choosing to dwell on a beautiful moment that I captured at a time when the rain had turned to snow for a bit, and was coming down thick. A couple of cardinals perched to give the scene a little accent. Enjoy.
Relative View
It came to my attention recently, by way of a public radio program, that the image of my face that I look at in my mirror everyday, is not the version of me that everyone else sees. I heard a rebroadcast of the program, RadioLab, specifically, a story about symmetry, which included a segment called, “Mirror, Mirror.”
It isn’t really a surprise, …at least, it shouldn’t be, yet, it seemed really profound to me at the time. After having let the idea simmer in my mind for over a week, it continues to spark a feeling of significance. I’ve yet to gain any clarity as to what that significance might be for me, so I believe writing about it might be a worthy exploration. Maybe the significance is not for me, but for someone who is reading here.
I am well aware that a mirror reverses images. We all know that text in a mirror will appear backwards. I’m guessing people will recognize the phenomena of giving directions, say, when carrying a couch, and needing to specify, “my left.” The reversal of image does appear to be an obvious fact, but it is one that is easy to lose sight of with the occurrence of daily viewing our own face.
If you click on the link above to the RadioLab site for, “Mirror, Mirror,” you can find a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, with the ability to click to then see his mirror image. It is an interesting exercise to see the view he would have looked upon in the mirror, as compared to the man the rest of the world saw.
I decided to look at two opposite images of myself, side by side, and see if I could recognize a difference. It won’t mean much to people who don’t know me, I suspect, but I’d be interested if those of you who do know me, recognize one of these images as being the view of me you see in real life, face to face encounters.
It seems to me that I would have noticed that the face I see in photographs of me would look different than how I see myself in the mirror, but I don’t have any recollection of ever having had that thought. (Of course, I don’t have an obvious left or right hair-part that would make the visual difference more dramatic, which, by the way, is the point that is featured in the RadioLab episode.) I do know some people who complain that they never like how they look in photographs, and a few who flat out refuse to have their pictures taken.
Maybe that is akin to the phenomenon of not liking the sound of our own recorded voice, because it doesn’t sound like us. Since we usually only hear ourselves with the internal resonances of our own heads, our recorded voices sound foreign.
It could be that our being accustomed to the view of our faces in a mirror, is why images of us in photographs can look foreign to some people.
Interesting topic of perspectives, don’t you think? If nothing else, it is a darn good topic for a blog called Relative Something! I still don’t sense what it is that I might want to take from this new insight of perspectives, but it has me freshly aware that the guy I see in my mirror is, indeed, opposite from the one everyone else sees.
Now you have an excuse to spend a few extra minutes in front of a mirror, next chance you get, pondering what it is you are actually seeing!
For reference, if you are interested, it is possible to get a mirror that double-reverses the reflection, so you can see yourself as the rest of the world sees you. Check out the True Mirror (featured in the RadioLab program) for one such version.
