Random stuff

[johnridley]

The washing machine has been leaving the clothes wet. Some quick investigation showed that the water valve was leaking. I took it apart and found it pretty gummed up with rust, so 10 minutes with a toothbrush put it back in shape. It seems pretty good now. I ran a 2 hour test on it and it did leak a tiny bit but it was just a drop or two. Good enough, for now. If it causes trouble again I'll just order a new valve, they're only $30 and it takes about 10 minutes to replace.

The really cool sea serpent resin figure by our pond appears to have gotten kicked by a deer; the snout was smashed. I got that glued back together but managed to spill some superglue in the process; luckily onto a work newsprint I was working on but I got a lot on my hands. So I finally had to break into the super glue remover we bought probably 15 years ago.

I got the oil changed in the rototiller yesterday, and we bought enough Roundup to clear a couple of good-sized plots. Now I just need to wait a few weeks. I'll probably be tilling once early because I'm working up sod areas and it'll be easier if I break them up while they're still muddy from the spring thaw.

We have a whole lot of different kinds of flowers, mostly from seeds bought way back in 1999. I figure we'll just plant everything and see what comes up. We also have plenty of existing sweet corn seed, plus we bought some straight-8 cucumber seeds and a few other vegetable seeds to play with. I should probably get some of those started soon; the cucumbers say to start inside 8 weeks before final frost, so that's probably about now if not sooner.

I was reading my father-in-law's old Encyclopedia of Gardening and discovered that I should have covered the strawberries with straw over the winter. Well, anyway, I think we had enough snow that some of the plants should have made it, but they may have gotten frozen buds. So the yield might be low to nonexistant this year. We can deal with that, so long as the plants are alive, we'll get them producing eventually.

I'd kind of like to do potatoes at some point. Mainly because I always thought it was great fun to dig potatoes when I was a kid.

I got the new, leather Brooks saddle for my bike. It's been treated with Proofide and installed, though I may want to get some neatsfoot oil for it too. Looks like the first ride on it will be in the rain though. It's supposed to get covered if it's in the rain.