Friday, February 27, 2009

Whew!!

WARNING: MUCH RAMBLING AHEAD.

I took some new pics at Jessica's place on Monday afternoon so I'm just going to scatter them throughout this post without any captions. I think they're pretty self explanatory even though they don't have a thing to do with the rest of this post.This has been a long, busy, tiring but productive week. And I'm sure I could add some more adjectives, but you get the picture.

Now to update everyone on our plumbing and sewer woes. If you'll recall, every time we tried to wash a load of laundry the sewer would back up the drain for the hot water heater in our inside utility room. Our landlord had worked on it last Friday but hadn't fixed it, and had promised to come back and work on it Saturday but didn't show.

So bright and early Sunday morning Lamar called him and he came right over, believe it or not. It was about time! He fixed the flapper in the toilet tank first thing, thank goodness. He poured some kind of stuff that was supposed to dissolve clogs into the drain behind the washing machine and left, saying he'd be back that afternoon.

Well, he never showed that afternoon or all day Monday while we were home. Lamar and I both were gone most of the day but we couldn't see any evidence that our landlord and been here or done anything else to the plumbing, but we were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Monday evening Lamar started a load of laundry and stood over it when it started pumping out the wash water. As soon as it started pumping out the water it backed up the drain in the utility room.

Drat and double drat.

Early Tuesday morning Lamar called our landlord again and he surprised us again by coming right over to work on it. Our landlord climbed up on the roof and ran an electric drain rodder through the sewer trap. After 30 minutes or so he came down from the roof and told Lamar he thought he had it fixed. He said he pulled out a sock or some kind of rotten cloth and he thought that was clogging the line and causing the sewer to back up.

Now the only way for a sock or anything else to have gotten in there is for it to have gone over the side of the washing machine tub and through the water pump. I can barely get my fingers between the top of my washing machine inner tub and the plastic baffle that's there to keep things from going over the side of the tub.

I'm thinking it almost had to be one of Emmy's tiny socks or one of Lamar's handkerchiefs, possibly one of my thin trouser socks. Those are about the only things that could have fit through that tiny opening AND fit through the water pump.

I've been doing laundry ever since Tuesday and I'm happy and relieved to say that so far it seems to be working fine with no more flooded utility room. Other than a load of sheets and a comforter all my laundry is done up now and all put away, praise the Lord.On a related note, I've got my spare room cleaned and decluttered with the exception of running the vacuum in there and I hope to get that done on Saturday. Hopefully. I also hope to get those sheets and the comforter laundered and put away.Remember the sewer that backed up in my utility room? Well, thank goodness it was just water from the washing machine that backed up in there. There didn't seem to be any nasty stuff from the commode, if you get my drift. But still, it was nasty water and it left a yucky residue on the floor in there.

I have a good mop that's the kind with the hand action wringer that squeezes out excess water so you don't have to get your hands in the gunky water. I wasn't about to ruin my good mop on that nasty floor in my utility room, so when I did my monthly shopping today I bought the cheapest ($4.97) sponge mop that Wal*mart had to use in there. That's another project that I hope to get to on Saturday.This afternoon Lamar and I went to Jonesboro with his Mom to do our monthly shopping at Wal*mart. I'm almost sure there were no people anywhere you may have gone on Friday because they were all at the Wal*mart where I shop.

Good grief what a madhouse! It was almost as bad as it is during the Christmas holidays, and I'm not exaggerating by much. If it wasn't for needing silly stuff like toilet tissue, trash bags, nonstick aluminum foil and Coke*Zero, not to mention cat food and litter, I wouldn't brave that crowd.

But I'm glad to have all my shopping done for another month and everything put away. Of course I'll have to go back next week to do my grocery shopping but at least it won't be on Friday evening.Ever since Sunday evening I've been making deer jerky in my dehydrator. My nephew Danny, Ducky's son, had great luck this past deer season and shared his bounty with us. In return he asked if I'd make him some deer jerky, which I'm now doing.

I make deer jerky the same way I make beef jerky and really, except for the deer being a little leaner than the beef, you can't tell much difference between the two once it's made into jerky.

I trim the tough bits and what little fat there might be from the deer meat then slice it diagonally across the grain into 3/8 or 1/2 inch thick slices. That may sound pretty thick but you have to keep in mind that it's going to shrink by at least half when it dehydrates, maybe more.

I marinate it overnight in a basic marinade of equal parts soy sauce and liquid hickory smoke. Sometimes I add some coarse ground black pepper or crushed red pepper to spice it up a bit. I also like to substitute teriyaki sauce for the soy sauce sometimes. It gives it a smoky and salty/sweet flavor at the same time.

I've made Danny some jerky marinated in Louisiana hot sauce and some more marinated in A1 sauce at his request. Those are both new for me, and I have to say I still like the soy sauce and liquid smoke version the best.Talk about your strange weather swings. It's been extreme here over the last week even for Arkansas. Thursday it was beautiful but windy here. The high was nearly 70F and sunny. I opened my windows to let the fresh air blow through my apartment and blow out some of the Winter stuffiness.

Thursday night we had some mild thunderstorms and showers. When I went to bed it was still in the upper 60'sF and comfortable in here. By morning the temps had dropped into the low 40'sF and it was downright chilly when I got up and put the windows down!

We've had more showers on Friday evening and the weather geeks are forecasting 3-6 inches of SNOW for Saturday afternoon/evening.

Get out! If we get that much snow it will be more than we've had all Winter and Sunday will be March 1st!

I'm prepared if it does snow. I bought some canned evaporated milk so I can make snow cream if we get enough snow. I'll personally gather the snow because I learned a long time ago that Lamar isn't very particular when he gets the snow. There's too many sticks and dead grass in it to suit my taste, but maybe I'm just too finicky? Blech.Now that I've written a small book I'll publish this and rest for a while before I head to bed. Lord willing I'll be back on Saturday evening to do my Sunday Dinner post.

Y'all have a great Saturday, y'hear?

14 comments:

Mary said...

Diane,

I'm so sorry about your plumbing woes. We too have a similar problem. If we do laundry, the water backs up in the bath tub. So does the kitchen sink. Thank goodness the bathroom sink and the commode is working fine. They're not backing up.

We'd had a plumber in January. Our regular guy was away. He didn't do anything, said there was no blockage and charged us $65. In mid February we had to have our regular plumber because the blockage had returned. He snaked all the drains and they seemed to be working fine.

Last weekend, it all started up again. Now we have to have pipes replaced and come to find out the pipes aren't vented, so that also has to be done to bring things up to code specifications. Price $1100 but smooth flowing drains are priceless, so we will bite the bullet and have the work done. However, our plumber can't come until next week. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. *sigh*

Love the photos you took. It's nice to open the house up in the spring, but that won't happen here for a while.

Have a great weekend.
Blessings,
Mary

Linds said...

It is about 9degrees C here at the moment, and that is better than below zero, but not very warm at all. I was hoping to get into the garden a little but I do believe that can wait.
I am so glad your plumbing saga is sorted and you ahve demolished that pile of laundry. I need to go through my linen cupboard and wash and sort and toss as much as I can too. We never use most of the stuff, but as my friend says, what happens if you have someone sick and have to change all the linen repeatedly. So I keep a pile.

I love random drifting - it is all I seem capable of doing at the moment. Trying to string together words in a thought provoking manner is impossible right now.
You make sure you get a rest this weekend too, after all your running about, Diane! Have a great weekend!

SaoirseDaily2 said...

I hate plumbing issues. Since buying this house we have had 2 floods. Both really bad. But knock on wood, none since replacing most of the pipes in the basement laundry room.

I have had a long and busy week. I am so happy it is the weekend. Time to relax and have some fun. Hope you do the same.

kkryno said...

Whew is right! I hate when the laundry has to wait like that; because it seems to multiply like rabbits! ;0) Thank goodness that's over. I actually had my windows open for about 30 minutes this week. The temps were in the middle thirties, while still cold were sufficiant enough for a quick airing. Come on spring! I keep hoping for some of you spring cleaning/energy burst to rub off on me. Send some my way!

Have a great Saturday!

Vikki

Brenda said...

Yep, if you're not careful when retrieving your snow you end up with 'cookie's and cream' snow ice cream. Tooth-breaking crunchy!
Glad your laundry woes are over.
It's been really nice hear, sometimes windy, but in the 60's. Not to be negative, but we do get a lot of snow showers in March and even into April. I remember one season getting a foot of snow right before Easter. Hard to hide bright colored Easter eggs in snow, doesn't make for a very challenging hunt!

Anonymous said...

Grandma's baby girl is looking so charming and don't she look very much like her Mom too? :-)

Glad to know the flapper is fixed!

A lot of snow in Oslo, Norway to, as you know and we're expecting more during the weekend.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend Diane!

Love and hugs :-)

Dick said...

Plumbing- isn't it odd how something that should be so simple can mess us up so much?

As to weather, here last Sunday we had high temps into the 60s for the first time this year. Then Wednesday evening it snowed. Not much but enough to make a mess of traffic that night and the next morning, especially in Seattle. Seattle has lots of hills and almost no snow removal equipment. It is still kind of cold outside and tomorrow is March. And they call this global warming?

Dawn said...

Our upstairs toilet is not a good situation and we need to replace it. Yucky way to spend money! Kristen's washer quit on her (not a good thing with 4 little girls!), and it was a sock stuck somewhere.

Glad it seems to be working.

Nancy said...

Sounds like you had about had it with the drain problem. It gets aggravating when you've been told it's been fixed but hasn't. Glad you are back to normal once again in the laundry department. The last time my washer leaked, the repairman came and discovered that the feral cats had been using the drain hose as a scartch post, and that was what was leaking, not the washer at all. $82 to get that replaced...thanks to the cats! LOL

The pics of little Emmy are priceless! She's growing up all too fast, isn't she? She looks like such a happy child...that smile of hers is priceless, too!!!

I stopped by to see what you were cooking tomorrow, but I'll stop back by again later on...It's always fun to see what others are cooking when I'm not. LOL Not much fun to cook for one...

((( HUGS )))

Jess said...

Those are really good, I think I will steal some!

Love you,
Jess

Anonymous said...

wtg on the spare room

yum jerky

like the photo of Jess, the cat and Emmy

weve had similar weather it POURED down yesterday and was cold today its hot and sunny again

have a nice week my friend
Jen

Anonymous said...

opps dont know where that last referrence came from

it was me if you hadnt guessed

Jen

Karen H. said...

Eoe, sounds like you have had your air share with plumbing problems. Sue am glad you got it fixed and back in ubusiness sdoing laundry again. That Emmy is really gwrowing like a weed ans so precious. I harte going to Wal_Mart myself anymore these days. They move things around too much for me. We went Thursday night asnd I got my new computer an some more things. If you make some Snow cream eat some for me please because I can't hae it any more. I have to watch what I eat now. I have to take my b lood pressue and check my sugar twicd a day now. So far I've sdone prett good. I so ha sd some sugar-fere ice cream I can eat tho. One never knows how the weathe here in AR is going to be that's for sure. Take csre my friend and have a great evening. May God Bless You and Yours.

Love,
Karen Horton

Boo-Bah AKA Iris said...

Let us hope that your plumbing problems stay fixed.

I have to call the washing machine repair man on Monday as it works sometimes and sometimes it don't. I hate to call him as I know the part will have to be ordered and I am afraid he will take the faulty part with him and then the machine wont work at all. The laundromat for me is a nightmare.

Today it felt like summer. It was in the eighties here.

It sounds as though you have had a productive week with cleaning that room. I am still trying to work on the sewing room but I just can't seem to stay with it for very long.

Loved the picture of your granddaughter. She is a cutie.

Hope you have a nice Sunday.
Hugs from Boo-Bah in SO. CA.
AKA Iris