Showing posts with label home repairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home repairs. Show all posts

Friday, August 1, 2025

The Friday Five Good Things


 Five good things that happened this week

1. When you don't want to cook, chicken stir fry over ramen is quick and easy

2. 2 Old ladies are going on the road again at the end of the month

3. A long talk with my cousin. She's been ill so it was good to catch up

4. The washer was fixed

5. This week I received birthday greetings galore and a cute video of the grandniece and nephew singing the birthday song sent by their mother.

How was your week?

Friday, July 11, 2025

The Friday Five Good Things


 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Attended the annual family gathering and met the two grandnieces.

2. I saw a bluebird pair in the backyard. The female flew towards the woods and the male stood guard on the corner of the sunroom roof.

3. I asked the florist to trim the stems for me so the bouquet would fit in the vase at the cemetery. She trimmed them perfectly

4. On the way to the cemetery I saw a man walking along that reminded me of dad with his Bermuda shorts and knee socks.

5. The washer repairman said the leak was from the soap dispenser. It would take a week or so to get the part in. I can still use the washer and I don't have to go to the laundromat. the Little Princess is very happy.

How was your week?

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

T Stands for Refreshing

 

A potential heatwave (3 days of 90 oF  + temperatures) started on Sunday. Himself had asked A ,the young man, who helped out with shoveling the driveway if he could take care of cutting up the large branch that fell on Friday and cutting down a small-ish tree

I went out to ask A if he wanted something cold to drink. I had water, Mountain Dew, and Pure Leaf Ice Tea. A asked for water and I had the ice tea. 

What's your beverage of choice when the temperatures skyrocket?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Friday, June 20, 2025

The Friday Five Good Things


 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Father's Day greetings for Himself and then take-out from Outback

2. Finally got around to having a consult for new exterior doors

3. After Himself used the car, he set the radio to the classical music station I like to listen to so it was already when I went to work.

4. Hazy, hot, and humid weather just the way I like it.

5. Perfect weather for a Raspberry Lime Rickey

How was your week?

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

T Stands for Miss Adventure

 

Here she is. Miss Adventure. Looking all sweet and innocent like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. What did she do, you ask?

Miss Adventure gave me quite the scare.  I had taken a nap and when I got up, it was kitty dinner time. I got their dishes and opened up a can. Calli is usually the first to come running, but no sign of her. Quill was pacing in the kitchen and seemed a little agitated.

"Who wants supper?", I called. That usually brings her running. "Go to places." and I brought the dishes to their feeding stations. Quill followed, but he circled back to the middle of the kitchen.

I went to look for Calli in my bedroom. We had taken a nap together. I thought she might have gone under the bed or to a hidey-hole. I called and called her. No Calli.

Quill was still pacing in the kitchen. Now, I live in a dollhouse. It's not that big and two rooms are closed off  to the kitties. (the office/studio and The Eldest's room). I looked around the living room and dining room. The Eldest helped.

"Where's Calli?" I asked Quill.

"I don't know." (It was very distinct and the Eldest heard him clearly, too.)

I went to the sunroom and to my horror saw the screen door was open. Not wide open, but open enough for a kitty to pass through. Either Himself left the screen to the sunroom open, or Calli was able to open it. I have a feeling she figured out how to open it.

Mitty, the first cat we had, was expert at opening the Eldest's bedroom door. He would headbutt it a few times until the bolt would slide from the lock. 

I went outside and called her. No white kitty in sight.

Himself was nearby filling pots.

"I would have seen her if she came out."

"No, you wouldn't. Your nose is buried in the pots."

Back inside to get the treat bag.

"Who wants cookies?" That always brings her running. No Calli. Where could she be?

The Eldest went down the basement and looked through the window that looks out under the sunroom.

"I see her! She's in the corner."


My worst nightmare! The clearance from the ground to the sunroom deck is about 6 inches. I got down on hands and knees and called.

"C'mon Calli. C'mon Baby."

Eventually, I saw a little white paw, but she wouldn't come out and there wasn't enough of her showing to make a grab.

.I went inside and brought out her food dish. She poked her nose out, I made a grab at her scruff but she wriggled free.  🤬 Either she was very scared or something under the sunroom was very interesting to her and she did not want to leave.

I moved the food dish back a few inches and kept calling her. Eventually, she realized it was past supper time. She poked her head out and I pounced on her. I was able to her hold with one hand and with the other reach under her front paws and scooped her up.

I told her she was going in and she said No! But since I had a firm grip, she had no choice. Quill was very happy to have her inside. He kept sniffing at all the weird and different smells emanating from her.

I'm just lucky Quill didn't decide to follow Miss Adventure because I don't think I would have been able to wrangle the two of them.

They have lived with us for four years and this was the first time one of them made a run for the outdoors.

Himself will be heading to the hardware store to buy a hook and eye for the outside of the screen door. He'll be able to go outside and can unlock the door when he wants to go in, but Miss Adventure won't be able to pull another Houdini.


It took us a half an hour to find her and another half hour to get her out from under the deck. After all that excitement, a cup of tea to settle my nerves.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Whatcha Doin?

 

Since I'm on Enders Island, I'm not waiting to entertain the plumber as he installs a different kind of sediment filter and hopefully, locates it in a spot where it's easier to get to.

Whatcha doin?

Friday, September 8, 2023

The Friday Five Good Things.


 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself had trouble with the sediment filter when he went to change it. It started leaking so a plumber was needed as we had no water. Problem was all the plumbers were either busy or on vacation for the holiday weekend. Or they wanted to charge a ridiculous emergency fee. Fortunately, we found a plumber who came out a couple of hours after the initial call and only charged a very reasonable service fee.

2. We Enjoyed the family gathering at the Grand-Nephew's 3rd birthday party

3. A team effort. Over the weekend Himself fried eggplant. I put the eggplant together to make an awesome eggplant Parmigiana

4. I purchased a ship to store item at Kohl's. There was an app to use for the pickup. A service person in the area said the app might give me issues, but I had not problems and the app worked just fine.

5. Thursday play day with Teague. Lunch at Five Guys and then ice cream at the Dairy Queen.

How was your week?

Sunday, February 26, 2023

How Does Your Garden Grow?



Who was the one who put all their Winter things away and brought out their Spring and Summer clothes? Or the one who said it wasn't a bad Winter. At least we didn't get a lot of snow? Well, thanks a lot, pal, because you jinxed it. Winter is making a come back


A red sky morning


I'd rather have a glazed donut instead of a glaze of ice





The ice was like concrete and hard to scrape off


After the first pass on and salt on the front walk. One of the best home improvements we did was to have the stairs at the house electrified.


The salt did its job on the walk, and the electricity melted the ice from the stairs. Safe and dry to walk on.



Cold kitty


Ice encased rails. In the background, Calli watches me take a photograph


Fire and ice


Another red sky morning.


I know, Dedo. I know. Hang in there, only 115 days until the Summer Solstice.


Aw, 🤬

Friday, February 17, 2023

The Friday Five Good Things

Quill

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I received a Valentine from my Reggiment '17 (year long calligraphy class) tablemate.

2. The Home Depot delivery man kindly carried the 10 bags of salt for the water softener into the garage instead of leaving them in the driveway.

3. The Eldest's next traveling lab tech assignment starting April 3, will be at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston! Hopefully, we'll get to see her a few times.

4. Calli's new trick if I'm sitting to come up behind me, stretch up on her hind legs and pat me with her front paw. She lets me know she wants attention and a cuddle After watching Calli, Quill is doing this, too.

5. Thanks to my Lady for blogging about her experience renewing her license. It made me go look at my license to see that it expires this Summer

How was your week?

Friday, October 21, 2022

The Friday Five Good Things


 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Sunday morning we smelled heating fuel oil. When I went to the utility room, there was a small puddle on the floor under the oil tank. The on call heating tech arrived quickly. We had spread some kitty litter to dry the puddle. He found 3 pinholes underneath the tank. He spread more litter and said he would talk to the boss about rearranging the schedule so we could get a new tank installed the next day. The oil tank in the basement was original to the house and just like me is over 60 years old.

2. The oil techs arrived early and replaced the tank and cleaned the utility room.

3. We had no Internet service while the techs were here. It took us many hours and a call to tech support to figure out someone had unplugged the service box.

4. The smell from the oil leak has finally dissipated.

5. The lawn guy showed up and mowed and then more leaves came down.

How was your week?

Monday, September 5, 2022

Well, Well, Well

The day before I was to leave for my trip, no water. Not very good. A call to the well company to find the tech had 2 or 3 other households to take care of before he got to us. 


I removed the lighthouse cover from the well cap and waited.


The night before we had some strong thunderstorms that rolled through. Quill and I were in the sunroom when lightning struck close by. The boom made us both run into the house. We lost electricity for about 20 minutes. The solar battery backup kicked in and I reported the outage to the electric company. The well circuit had tripped and we couldn't get back on.

When the technician arrived and I told him about the well circuit breaker, he knew exactly what happened. We were struck by lightning. We were the 5th household in the surrounding towns that had the same problem.



When he opened up the well cap, he showed me the wires on the left going to the well pump that were fried. The underside of the cover was charred and he said there had been a fire as well. He said we were lucky the bolt went through the well, shorted the pump, and then headed through the ground away from the house.

We were also lucky there was enough wire for him to cut the charred part and to splice new wire. If he had to pull up the pump, they charge by the foot. Our well is 440 feet deep and the last time 20 or so years ago when the pump had to be replaced it cost $7 or $8 per foot. I can't imagine what the cost has gone up to now!

Anywho, he had the wires connected and water running within a half an hour. He even gave us a bit of a discount because we had to wait all day for him to arrive.

All's well that ends well.

Friday, September 2, 2022

The Friday Five Good Things


 Five good things that happened this week.

1. The well tech quickly repaired the pump wiring in the well and

2. I got to take a shower before leaving for Ogunquit

3. Perfect day at the beach, but it was magical at night when no one was on the beach. We waded in the water, watched the stars come out. Jupiter was so beautiful.

4. We had ice cream for supper. I had Black Bear which was raspberry ice cream with chocolate truffle

5. We walked the Marginal Way

How was your week?

Sunday, August 28, 2022

How Does Your Garden Grow?



Ugly buglies on the squash plants. The bugs look like white stink bugs.


The heat and humidity


taking their toll


Finally morning glories where they are supposed to grow


Clematis


A bumblebee enjoying a pepper flower


A squash


One of the snowball bushes looking like the pride of Morticia's garden


A wish and green grass. Grass is always greener over the leach field


A lot of New England is in severe drought. The ash trees are stressed and dropping leaves a month before they usually turn and drop.


Strong thunderstorms rolled through and brought much needed rain.


But it wasn't needed in the sunroom


This bucket was joined by 4 other pots and pans. I think we need a bigger boat.


If the leak in the sunroom wasn't enough, yesterday morning as I was taking a shower, no water! I'm glad I had pretty much finished and hadn't washed my hair. Himself went downstairs to see if he could figure out the problem. He found the circuit breaker had been tripped. He reset it and it tripped again. 

A call to the well company. Turns out two other households had the same issue. During the storm, there was a lightning strike that was very close. Quill and I were in the sunroom and we both jumped and ran into the house. Maybe the well got struck by lightning.

Fortunately, Himself has been emptying the water from the dehumidifier and putting it into empty kitty litter containers to water the garden. Not today, the water is being used to flush the toilet. The joys of country living.

How does your garden grow?

Sunday, April 10, 2022

How Does Your Garden Grow?



Signs of Spring, green grass and a robin


The mailbox is back! Like magic. One minute I looked out the window, and no mailbox. The next minute, I looked out the window and the mailbox was there! We put some pansies in the planter.

The next time the mailbox get whacked, it will be encased in stone like this.


Tomato cages ready



The trough gardens prepared


Empty acorn shells litter the backyard!


Forsythia getting ready to bloom


Ominous skies and buds on the honeysuckle vine


Daffodils on the hill


Late bloomers


Himself transplanted some of the seeds he started, and Timex (chipmunk) had a feast.

How does your garden grow?