Yard work, housework, hummingbirds, cats, swimming, snorkeling, underwater photography, dishwasher repair, kids, grandkids, Opp, Alabama, cats, possum, flu shots, FOCCUS, mountain climbing and who knows what else. The past 2 weeks has seen lots of varied activity.
I’ve fallen behind on all my indoor jobs and haven’t blogged except for pictures.
Hummingbirds- We got a feeder for the birds after seeing one trying to feed at our normal bird feeder. It sat there for about a week with little action. Then suddenly the level of the fluid began dropping noticeably in a single day. I finally saw hummingbirds feeding later that day and now it’s a daily occurrence. I saw 2 of them at it at the same time yesterday so I know there are at least that many out there. The birds are only here in spring and fall when they migrate through.
Water—I decided to take a couple of afternoons off this week and swim at the little beach while the weather and water were warm. I also wanted to try my snorkeling equipment out and try out Penny’s waterproof camera while snorkeling. The swimming was nice, the equipment works fine and Penny’s camera is really neat—it takes great underwater HD video and pictures and does good as a normal camera also. I also played around with my fishing rod on day 2 and had fun catching nothing but having 1 fish jump out of the water and throw the hook.
Here is video I took of a blue crab.
Maytag Repair Man—Last weekend when the Feagins visited I noticed our dishwasher was not draining properly. From the symptoms It appeared to be clogged up somewhere. Instead of draining completely water was backing up through the spray arm. I took the pump assembly apart twice and found some crud (some plastic wrap, balls of accumulated paper, a cherry pit and a floss holder) in the filter cage but the machine still wouldn’t drain right.
Finally today I removed the check valve that is the last part before the drain hose and found it full of crud. Apparently the cause was some monofilament bristles off a cheap basting brush that I foolishly put in the dishwasher. They wouldn’t pass through the valve and the bristles and pieces of plastic from one of those clips that hold bread bags closed along with bits of paper and lint had clogged the valve.
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| Looking directly down the valve cylinder |
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| The gunk I pulled out |
I cleared that out and reassembled everything and it is fixed. I’m glad I didn’t break the thing in the process. I now know a whole lot more about the dishwasher. I got guidance from the Sears parts site and other internet sites.
Mountain Climbing—we went to a quilting shop in Opp, Alabama, and I had the joy of watching Penny’s eyes light up as she looked through their fabric bins picking out the perfect pieces for a new quilt. On the way back we decided to climb up to the highest point in Florida. We hadn’t packed our climbing gear or walking sticks and weren’t wearing the correct shoes but we decided to brave it anyway. There is a small park at the site and a path leading to the high point.
We struggled up the path and conquered the mountain. Here are some pictures showing the steepness of the climb….
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| Note the steep incline leading to the monument. |
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| One proud explorer |
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| The other - tired after the long climb. |
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| The view from the top. |
Note how steep the grade is from the parking lot to the monument. (That's our car in the distance.) Next time we must bring hiking boots!
Cats and Possum—The cat situation is normal. Anywhere from 0 to 3 cats have been showing up for the past 2 weeks. I haven’t seen Velcro in a long while. One night at 10:30 I looked out to see Marmalade sitting watching a big Possum eat all the food. I grabbed the closest weapon, a broom, and jumped out an poked at the critter. As he ran away I gave him a good whack on the butt. I set the trap each night since but have not seen him return. Maybe I scared him off.
Flu Shots--We got them.
FOCCUS--We've got a couple coming each Sunday now. They are nice but young and lacking in relationship skills. I hope we help them some.
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