Firewood Bin

Here are the bones of the new firewood bin, constructed partially out of recycled materials.

Suna wasn’t feeling well by the end of church today. So we came home instead of attending the steering committee meeting as we had originally intended. That meant I had plenty of time to finish the project I started yesterday.

I used as much recycled material as I could. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of exterior grade 2x4 I had. That meant I couldn’t put the top brace on that I intended.

I laid this leftover mesh across the frame to help with smaller pieces.

But that isn’t a problem. I can use 1x2 instead of 2x4. That way I will have a lot more head room to work with, and the bin will be just as sturdy. In fact, I used so many deck screws that I probably don’t need to worry about the top brace.

Here it is with a little wood.

I will anyway.

After I finished, I had just enough daylight left to start loading firewood. I was able to clear one whole pile of trimmings. Soon there won’t be any brush piles left.

I wonder if we will be able to get grass to grow back there.

Liar

Water is relentless. A little drip can do a lot of damage over time.

Photo source: Pixadaus

Nobody believes me Liar

Why don’t they leave me alone?

—Freddy Mercury

Remember last week when I said I fixed the sink, and there were no leaks. I lied. There is an insidious seep leak. It takes a couple of days to leak enough to ruin paper products,

So I spent much of today on my back in the bathroom. All to no avail. The leak persists at the end of the day. Next Saturday, I’ll have to go to Home Depot for a couple of replacement parts.

“Why didn’t you get them today and be done with it?” you may ask. Well, I was the only one home today, and we were short one front door. (It was in the garage with a fresh coat of marine poly drying to a smooth, wonderous sheen.) So I was stranded home alone.

At least I know what I’ll be doing next week, and we can use the sink in the interim—as long as we keep a drip catcher underneath.

I’m a Plumber

I had to take the goose neck apart to get the sink unclogged.

I am a plumber now. I got the sink unplugged. Yea me!

This task was made unnecessarily difficult by the original plumber, who sealed all of the joints with plumber’s putty. A couple of master plumbers have explained that there is no need to use plumber’s putty on this fitting unless you just don’t know what you’re doing—or you want to make it hard on anyone who needs to clean the drain in the future. No putty went into the reconstructed joints.

And it even stayed dry once I put it the pipes back together.

Another Hot, Dry Saturday in August

The kids use a grid like this to play. When I was a kid, we had to draw our own grids on graph paper and the DM never commented about the accuracy of what we drew.

I’m taking a break to cool off and write this short update. Suna is on sabbatical with some of her friends this weekend, but I’m holding down the home front.

Mr. Stripey is gone. I ripped him out of the ground and ran over him with the mulching mower. Mostly, he is now part of my compost pile. The good news is that I now have room to plant a couple of fall tomatoes, and the unnamed variety that Suna bought now has a fruit. That little ’mater signed Mr. Stripey’s death warrant.

One of the New Guinea Impatiens I transplanted to the front yard has also returned to the earth. About a week ago, it just started dying back. I cut the affected stalk off, but the others soon followed and left a gaping hole. I haven’t got a clue why. The others in the bed are all very happy.

Not much else is going on. TubaBoy brought over a bunch of male friends, and they played D&D late into the night. They were not overly boisterous, but they did make enough noise to let me know they were having fun. Mostly, I tried to stay out of their way and let them have fun. Maybe sometime they will let me play, too. I really enjoyed that game when I was their age, but I stopped playing when I couldn’t find anyone who was interested.

Oh, and I’m putting up some shelves in the guestroom closet. I can get some of my books out of boxes that way. Let’s hope we get some rain tonight. I’ve been doing my part: leaving car windows open and watering the lawn when it clouds up, but still no measurable rain.

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18 August Update: The kids played again last night. I was able to update the picture to reflect their actual game area. Sigh! I guess I’m getting too old to really want to stay up all hours of the night to play. They didn’t get started until after Suna and I had gone to bed, old fuddies that we are.