Navel Contemplation Warfare...

[nimitzbrood]

October 22, 2008 11:11 AM 10/22/08

Did a whole lot of nothing last night. I can’t keep doing that but I’m slowly wearing down.

And today I have to get home, spray the last remaining wasp nests in the garage vent, and then hopefully hang the weather monitor in the right place. Need to make sure the neighbor helps me with that because he offered and even borrowed another neighbor’s ladder.

I’m also going to try and get some more of that deck wood picked up. I’ll have to remember to take the sledgehammer with me so I can knock some of it apart before loading it up. That way I can take more of it in one trip.

I’d like to get the garden all raked up and bagged as well but I don’t know if I’m going to have time for that. I’m tempted to install one of my X10 floods on the back of the garage just so I can work back there when the sun goes down.

Also need to look at getting my own clamp meter so i can measure some of the circuit draws in that house without taking everything apart. Those are about $30 - $40 a piece but in a house with 1950’s wiring it’s almost a must to know what each circuit is drawing. And with winter on it’s even more important just in case we need a locational heater or something.

If the temperature when we moved in is any indication though it won’t be an issue as the house seems pretty warm in winter and there was snow all over the roof last winter so it’s got to be fairly well insulated.

It’s going to rain the next couple of days so I won’t be able to mow until this weekend. I’d like to put on the mulching cover for the mower deck and just mulch the leaves up but my wife thinks they need to be raked. (Hint: I’m going to mulch the leaves anyway. ;-P )

Drinking from a straw at lunch today seems to be helping me not chew the ice. A good thing an a good suggestion from yesterday! :-)

It does make me more aware of how much iced tea I consume though. I’m not too worried about that because the tea, even in commercial form, is considerably better than coffee for me.

That reminds me that I need to re-stock the drink fridge in the garage. I think other than having a six pack of Pepsi in there I’ll just stock some Guinness and the smaller water bottles. I should look into brewing my own tea and bottling iced tea for use out there. Since I don’t drink it with anything in it any more that should last an awful long time.

They really need wireless at this restaurant. 19.2k is way too slow.

Haven’t accumulated the parts for my small-scale VAWT yet. Maybe next week.

I wish I could grow vegetables at the same speed my task list grows! ;-)

Comments

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

If I brew tea it generally doesn't last long enough to get murky. I'm a serious iced-tea addict and can down a couple gallons easily. Though leaving it at room temperature would be okay as well provided it doesn't go bad. The tannic acid keeps quite a few things from growing in it thankfully.

We have an icemaker but it has the minor issue of leaking a little so it "globs" the cubes in the back of the tray so I have to empty this large chunk every other day or so. I'm hoping to have that fixed next year if it doesn't get any worse.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

It doesn't take very long for refrigerated tea to get muddy - it only has to get down to maybe 50° F. I go through about that much myself; it's almost the only beverage I drink. Leaving it at room temperature is fine if it's covered, but I have seen mold growing on top of abandoned cups/glasses of tea (and coffee) in an overly warm room.

Where's the leak in the icemaker? If it's the compression fitting where the copper tube enters the mechanical unit, you can probably just replace the compression fitting. If it's a pinhole in the tubing, you can replace that length of tubing. Or you can buy an entire new icemaker kit for between $50 and $100 (depending on what make and model of fridge you have). I've installed two of them (in the same fridge - the first one I installed had the stepper motor on it fail after ten years). Don't get one with plastic tubing if you can help it.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

The icemaker leaks a bit near the back wall of the freezer. I just haven't dug into it yet. Besides I'd likely have to go to the far corner of the crawl space to shut off the water.

If I've got to do that I'm going to cut the pipes once and put in a darn ball-valve and extra pipe so I don't have to got all the way under the house to turn off the water.

As for the fuzzy tea - I recently saw it when I left the one sun-tea jar in the fridge for almost a month. Ick.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

The icemaker kits I used both had self-tapping valves which went on the main water pipe. There were two mating saddle brackets, and small bolts to tighten them with, and somehow this pierced into the water pipe. Then there was a simple rod handle, which you turned to allow water flow to the icemaker. So when I replaced the icemaker, I only had to turn off the small valve. (And, of course, I didn't have to go through the whole process again with the valve included in the new kit.) But, yeah, you probably ought to have a shutoff valve near the fridge anyway.