Yard Care and Garage Progress

Yesterday,  it rained most of the day. According to the newspaper, we got just over a half inch. According to my yard, we have a whole lot of wet leaves out there.

I’ve just come in from doing a blow job on half of the front yard. I recently purchased an EGO battery powered blower and string trimmer. I really like them both. They are effective tools in my battle for lawn care supremacy.

I need to get a second battery. I can do about half the front yard with one charge. It takes about an hour to recharge which gives me the perfect excuse to come in and take a break.

Since it rained yesterday, no work was done on the yard or the garage. So, I have to put in extra effort today to make up for the lost day. Whether or not I will do that remains to be seen.

A Couple of Hours Later: I should not be allowed to have stuff. The crap I am discovering in that garage is amazing and mystifying. I have a garbage bag full of garbage bags. I have 15 gas cans. I can't even imagine how it is possible that I have amassed 15 gas cans.

I can justify the garbage bags. They are construction grade bags, more heavy duty than regular bags and therefore reusable. I think I'm on my third year with some of them.

The pile of stuff for Habitat for Humanity is growing. There will definitely be another dump run.

I'm very big on pictures to track my progress. So here is one depicting my starting point and the next one is from today.

I'm seeing some progress but there is still a looooooong way to go.

The Tortoise and the Hoarder

I am not a hoarder!

I think it is important to get that definitive statement out there before I continue because I think I have the potential to be a tremendous, world class hoarder.

Our neighbor down the street, Sally, spends her winters in Arizona. She moved up here from there and still has lots of ties and a house down there,

Her house here is just a block away and she has a big, beautiful garage that I can only dream of having one day. If I were to covet, I would covet her garage.

Sally has offered to let us use her garage while she is away...about six months. I immediately accepted her gracious offer and have begun the process of emptying out our garage.

Our garage is a little single car affair, built somewhere around the 1930's, that is loaded down with more than 20 years of crap. There is stuff in there that the previous owner left behind.

I want to empty our garage of EVERYTHING, give it a good solid cleaning and then try to return the useable stuff we have in an orderly fashion. I can imagine putting up shelves or racks similar to the ones I put down in the Boiler Room.

I began transferring stuff over to Sally's garage last Friday. I've managed to move the large, easily moved stuff. I have most of the yard tools moved.

Today, I began pulling out garbage. At the front of the garage, all the way up against the wall, there are a crap load of aluminum window frames. They have been there since we moved in. Some have screens, some have glass, all are caked in dirt.

I loaded up most of the frames but held back the ones with large panes of glass in them. I can't bring myself to toss perfectly good glass. I might be able to use the glass for broken windows. Isn't that the thinking of a Hoarder? 

None of these storm windows are marked so I have no idea where they go. I suppose I could look around the house and see if I can match up like-sized windows. But you know, we've been here 22 years now and we have never needed the storm windows. I'm saving the glass but everything else is bound for the dump.

Here are a few pictures of the mess I started out with.

I have just returned from a dump run, my first of many, I expect. I had the back of the truck pretty full, but I was still able to cover the load with my bed cover. I only off-loaded 220 pounds, which cost $27.00.

I have barely made a dent.

My plan is to work on it a little bit every day. I am the Tortoise and taking it little step by little step.

Halloween 2026

We are getting old!

Every year it gets harder and harder to prepare for Halloween. It involves getting all the decorations out of storage and then getting everything set up on Halloween day. We can't leave our stuff out because the rain would not be good for it and it would probably get vandalized or stolen.

So, we have a group of friends come over to help with the set up and then help with passing out candy. I roam one side of the yard as the Grim Reaper and Susan is on the other side dressed up as this Pumpkin Monster.

We are expecting a big crowd since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year.

Here are some pictures of the yard and all the fun.

Editor's Note: The total this year was 1,851.

Grape Pressing 2026

The next step in our Wine making Process took place today. We ran all our grape pulp and juice through the fruit press, squeezing out every drop of grape juice, and discarded the pulp.

We pressed both our Tempranillo and Ellen's Syrah.

Here you can see Ellen loading a bowl full of pulp into the press as the very young wine drains into the bowl below and transferred to the carboy.

We ended up with a little over 6gallons of juice for both wines, so we took the excess and combined them into a blend, a 50/50 Syrah-Nillo. 

We won't get many bottles out of that but it's a fun experiment.

Winey Weekend

It’s been a busy Monday to wind up a busy weekend.

We went to Prosser this weekend to get our grapes for this year’s wine making experience. The barn above is located in Sunnyside, just down the road from Prosser. Every year we go, we are afraid this barn will have been torn down. So, we are always happy when it appears at our exit. It does not appear to be used for anything other than a haven for a herd of pigeonses.

We picked up 100 pounds of Tempranillo for us and 100 pounds of Syrah for Susan’s friend, Ellen.

We did a whole bunch of wine tasting at a variety of wineries down in the Yakima Valley and then, on our way home yesterday, we stopped at Eclectic Vineyards and collected our grapes. 

We got home last night and felt pretty beat up. I don't enjoy long drives like I used to. It was early to bed for me.

Today we crushed the grapes. We have two buckets of mashed grape skins sitting out in the carriage house. It only took us about half an hour to crush both hundred pounds of grapes and then about 45 minutes to clean up.

After that, I got the hose out and cleaned the truck bed, getting all the dirt out of the back of the truck. I wanted to dry out the bed a little bit, so I went on a drive. I went to the gas station to clean my smashed bug riddled windshield. I stopped for a nice little mocha and then I went to the General Store to buy a new faucet for the back of the house. 

I would now say that job is complete. We have a new ball valve for the water shut off. We have a shiny new Pex water line and now we have a nice half turn faucet at the end of the line. And for the first time since we have lived here, we have decent water pressure at that faucet.

I feel pretty stupid that I waited this long to fix that problem.

The only problem I see is there is a small water drip coming from the back of the faucet. It's a little out of focus but you can see it there. I'll give it a couple of days to see what happens after my threading glue sets.

The bottom of the pipe had corroded away right at the threading so that may be where the leak is coming from. With the season winding down and my ability to completely shut off that water line, I'm not going to worry too hard over this issue. Still, I hate wasting the water.

 

Backyard Faucet Water Line Replacement

Shaun got here mid afternoon and we got to work on the water line for the faucet at the back of the house. Since we moved in, it has never been a very strong running faucet. I have a soaker hose hooked up to it to water the tomato plants and it seems to do okay with that job. But if I ever wanted to use it for washing the car, it would be useless.

Pictured above is the valve we are replacing. It is located in the ceiling near the clothes dryer. In this picture, we have removed the valve spicket and are preparing to cut the pipe. Shaun decided that the best thing to do is move the new valve into the closet where the water meter is. From there we will bypass the old pipe, using Pex to run the line back over to the location of the old valve.

This is a picture of the new ball valve and Shaun included a faucet there to be used as a blowout valve to clear the line of water. I'm going to purchase a cap to add to the nozzle, to ensure I don't have to worry about leakage.

Shaun cut out a short section of pipe in that area and I was surprised by the amount of sediment that had built up in it. It was only about three feet long and I could not see through it. No wonder that back faucet runs so slowly.

Shaun will be back on Wednesday to run the Pex line and finish this up.

In other water news, my shower turned cold this morning. The hot water appears to be running in the shower now so I'm thinking this is an anomaly. But I will be keeping a wary eye on this situation.

Water Valves and Electrical Work

We have an outdoor outlet in the side yard that has been inactive since we moved in. I finally got fed up with it and decided to get it rewired and working. I found a circuit box in the basement that it was wired to. I tried to follow the line all the way to the electrical box but that wasn't going to happen.

So, I wired a little jumper from the box to another box, the circuit of which is tied to the microwave oven. And voila, it works. I kind of half assed it from there, not having an outdoor cover that was solid and secure, and the outlet should have a GFI on it.

Today, I full assed it and put together a proper receptacle.

I bought a new box which would work with a cover I had. I pulled out the old outlet and wired in a new GFI outlet. 

It really took some doing to get the cover on and secure. I ended up wrapping a strip of duct tape around the outside seam to make it really watertight. 

So, I'm pretty pleased with my progress with that little job.

Over the weekend, I had Shaun here to fix a couple of water pipe issues we had. You may recall that Shaun is my handyman guy I call for little fixes around the house. He built the deck in front of the Carriage House this past summer. 

The first project was to eliminate this giant array of hoses and valves from when this house had a functioning sprinkler system. It was toast when we moved in 22 years ago and I'm not sure how long it was toasted prior to that. I have actually dug up roots that had grown next to a sprinkler line and squeezed it off like it was strangling it.

For that reason and because there are so many roots out in that yard, I have chosen to not invest in a sprinkler system and just water by hand. As nice as a sprinkler system would be, I see how my neighbor Lou struggles with his every year. Having the wave sprinkler and moving it around, it works for me.

So, we removed the sprinkler array and made just a little more room in that tight little closet where the main water shut off valve is.

There was an old valve in there associated with the sprinkler system that, when you turned it, it leaked profusely. It probably cracked during a cold winter. It wasn't an issue as long as the valve was closed off. Now, it is not an issue because it is gone.

The other major valve repair I had Shaun do was to replace the outside faucet shut off valve with a shiny new half turn ball cock valve. I have been unable to completely shut down the two outside faucets at the front of the house when freezing weather arrived. Now, that will not be a problem and any further concerns about my lines freezing are unwarranted.

I'm hoping Shaun will be back today to fix the shut off valve for the faucet at the back of the house. Then I will be completely able to control my faucet world during the cold winter months.

It is all about control!

Prep for Dump Run

We've been doing a lot of work around the house trying to get more organized. This has all been brought on by the extra space created by the new boiler, which is working great so far.

So, we've been down in the basement doing some reorganizing and out in the Carriage House doing the same. I've finally gotten serious about getting rid of stuff. I've thrown out a bunch a cartoons I did that where years old and lots of bags of Dad's old stuff. I've been a little careful about what we throw out. There was this box that was full of old crap from Dad that all ended up in the trash. However, there was a really cool little curio box that I thought we should hang on to.

Susan got out the polish and cleaned the thing up. Then she went on line and found one just like it for sale for $3,200.00. We're going to check it out and I'm not holding my breath for anything right now. But, that's a cool little find.

In the meantime, the back of the truck is loaded up and I'm ready to go to the dump tomorrow. I hope I weeded out all the little hidden treasures.

Boiler Shelves

Yesterday was kind of a sad day because it was the Mariner's last regular season game. And since they have had such a crappy season, it's their last game for 2026. No playoffs. 

They ended with a losing record...76 wins and 86 loses. They were 5 games back from the Houston Astros who won the American West Division with a record of 81 and 81.

So Baseball is over for me for this year. It's time to move on to other stuff.

I spent part of the weekend putting together racks for the Boiler Room.

Here are some pictures of things down there.

Later today, Susan and I will try to get the shelves organized and loaded with all the stuff they are going to contain.

It's amazing how much room we have down there now. It's really going to be nice and organized down there.

Because of the added space, we are able to reorganize other rooms down in the basement. I took a rickety old metal shelf we were using and moved it to the back room were the outside back door is near the other fridge and freezer. I have it all organized with light bulbs now.

I managed to make it less rickety by screwing it to the wall. That baby is pretty solid now.

It feels like Fall has arrived out there in the world. It's a nice sunny day today but I think our high temp is going to be in the 50's. We have to start thinking about transitioning to colder weather. 

And Ghoul Alert, Halloween is just over a month away!   Eeeeeeeeeek!

Kitchen Faucet Pressure Improvement

Welcome to the first full day of Autumn.

I have returned from my morning travels. I ventured out and took the faucet back to the Depot and then looked at what else they had. Nothing I looked at worked. Partly because the valves on our supply lines are half inch and all the faucets I looked at were 3/8's.

I decided to come home and remove the faucet we have and search for whatever restrictors I could find.

I have tried and tried to remove the nozzle from the hose and all it does is spin. I messed with it a bit and found that by pushing on it and then turning it, it started to spin off. Somehow, pushing on the nozzle unit engaged the threads and I was able to remove it. 

Upon turning on the water with the nozzle removed, I got quite a much more powerful stream of water than we have been getting. That told me the restrictor was in the nozzle head. One of the first things I got to come out of the head was a big chunk of rusty sand. I banged it several times on the counter and got more sandy residue out of the head. I also removed some plastic pieces that were in there that I assumed were causing flow problems as well.

And I was right. The water pressure is much better, and I can live with that, for now. 

So, that all turned out to be a much easier fix than I anticipated and much less expensive than a new faucet, which is a good thing.

Now I can turn my attention to the Boiler Room and getting an idea of how we want to place the shelves.

Inspections and Shelvings

I got a call from the Spokane Building Inspector first thing this morning. He said he would come by around 10:30.

I was out on the front porch reading the newspaper when he walked up. His name was Eric. I took Eric down to the Boiler Room and showed him the new outlet and the Boiler. It took about three minutes for him to say it all looks good and he was outta here.

So, my concerns about him finding problems down there from other projects we have done were assuaged, and we still get to live in the house.

Next project was to get a new faucet for the kitchen sink and to look at some shelving racks for the Boiler Room,

We went to Home Depot and bought a faucet and also looked at some racks. The stuff they had there wasn't what I had in mind, so we went to Costco.

To make parking even more fun at Costco, they had a huge section closed off as they are planning to repave the whole thing...one section at a time.

We got in and found the racks, and I think we are going with the really solid one that is six feet tall and measures 48" x 24". At 95 bucks, I think we will get two.

Once we got home, I started to check out the new faucet and quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to work.

So, that's going back and we will proceed into the future and figure something else out.

 

Faucet Inspection and Boiler Inspection

I got under the kitchen sink today to see if I could figure out how to improve the water pressure. The first thing I did after removing all the stuff under the sink, was to disconnect the hot water line of the faucet from the hot water supply line. I attached a short hose that I was able to direct into a bucket and turned on the valve.

The water pressure was quite strong, much better than what the faucet delivers. 

And it only took about thirty seconds for the water to turn hot.

Obviously, we are replacing the faucet. We will go to the Depot or some place and see what we can find. However, before I open up the new faucet and install it, I'm going to closely inspect the old faucet and see if there are limiters in the hoses that keep the water pressure at such a useless force.

So, stand by cuz this is not resolved.

In Boiler news, Element Air hired an electrician to come in and install an outlet in the wall next to where they hung the new boiler. Apparently, the electrician pulled a permit. 

Other than our re-roofing project a few years ago, there has not been a permit used on this property for anything we have done.

Because the electrician pulled a permit, the inspector told me that Element Air needed a permit to install the boiler. 

So, after some wrangling around, we now have a permit for the boiler, and I guess the inspector will be calling on Monday to arrange the inspection. 

Because I have done all the wiring down in the basement, I'm just a little worried about getting the inspection. My plan is to show the inspector as little of the basement as possible.

I guess that would include any access to this Blog.

Tankless Success

I have just completed my first tankless hot water shower. It was lovely. The water was hot for the whole shower, and it took about the same amount of time for the water to get hot in the shower.

Our kitchen sink is another matter. I just timed it and it took over three minutes before the water was hot.

We have had an issue with the kitchen sink since the remodel. There is not a lot of pressure in the water flow which adds to the time it takes for the hot water to get to the sink.

I'm considering buying another faucet to see if that solves the water pressure problem. Another fix for the hot water delay is to buy and install an under sink hot water tank. It's a small one-gallon tank that will serve the kitchen sink only. 

We have resisted doing this because we did not want to lose the space the small water heater will take up. I'm investigating the possibility of installing the small tank in the basement.

Boiler Installation - Finally

The days are getting shorter and the night are getting cooler. So, it is perfect timing that the guys from Element Air have started installing our new boiler yesterday. They got the new boiler unit hung and vented.

Remember this?!

This is how it looks at the moment. 

Quite a difference.

We have so much more room down in that space. We are thinking of purchasing some nice, sturdy shelving racks that we can place down there. In the meantime, they have a lot of work to do.

Zane has just told me they won’t get it done today because their suppler is out of a crucial part.

One of my projects for today was to put away all our air conditioners for the season. We have one in the kitchen and one in each of the big bedrooms upstairs.

It turned out to be a fairly easy job. The most difficult part was getting the kitchen a.c. upstairs to be stored. I’m not supposed to lift anything that heavy even though it is well within my capabilities. But Susan won’t let me.

So, we carried it up together. It went very well and everything is packed away for 2026.

Now all we need is a furnace.