the weekend work

Yesterday I washed a section of the garage wall that had gotten moldy, with bleach. Boxes had been pushed up right against the wall, not allowing enough ventilation. This is the 2nd round of bleach on it, as after the first round a week or so ago, it still smelled musty from somewhere. I hope there isn't mold on the inside of the wall. It's plain unpainted plyboard.

Then, as I was doing bleach anyway, I mopped down (up) the sun-room ceiling too, as it had accumulated a bunch of mildew spots from the frequent moisture in there.

I looked up info on adjustable beds, as Qiao is planning to get one. Currently he switches back and forth between the bed and the recliner at night, trying to get comfortable. His foot hasn't been hurting him much the last few days though (hallelujah!).

Today I washed the dogs. They really needed it.

Then I tried to figure out why the kitchen sink drain was suddenly (since yesterday) making glug-glug-glug noises, even though the water was draining fine. Suspecting a blockage in the drain vent, I got out the ladder and went up on the roof to check the vent. There wasn't anything blocking it up on that end, and water I poured into the vent seemed to be draining fine / not backing up.

While up there, I cleaned out the sun-room gutters. Zorro chose to stand directly in the path of the falling dirt and debris. It occurred to me that I had just gotten her all nice and clean... Yelling at her didn't help any, but I finally managed to sweet-talk her into moving away.

I debated whether to go to the hardware store to buy a drain auger. I had tried pushing some cable wire down the vent, but it wouldn't go further than the bend at the bottom of the vent. But I didn't really want to go to the store.

I left the kitchen faucet running and checked the drain pipes in the basement. They were vibrating from the glug-glug-glugging. After a while, there was a change in sound - a larger rushing of water as if someone had dumped out some water into the sink. Whatever had been clogging it must have unclogged itself, as the glugging noise was gone.

While in the basement, I saw that water had leaked in during the flood-storm. It was absorbed into the dirt and didn't look too bad, but I carried a fan down there to help dry it out.

After the fact, it occurred to me that I could have simply tried using the sink plunger instead of going up to the roof and down to the basement.

I took advantage of the remaining daylight to cut down a branch that had cracked in the storm and which was leaning down on the shed. I had to use the extendable pole saw, with it extended to the maximum height.

And I washed 2 loads of clothes/towels, and made brownies. Finally.

Next, sleep-sleep-tired-tired.

nary a cully

Black-Eyed Pea Tempeh. I fried some up and tried it for the first time. It has the familiar tempeh flavor, but a different texture, in the same way that black-eyed peas have a different, mushier texture than soybeans.

Ackee. I'd had some back in 1999 during a trip to Jamaica. Ackee is a fruit that looks and tastes somewhat like scrambled eggs. If picked/eaten before fully ripe, it can be toxic. Around here, it is sold canned in the Caribbean food section of some grocery stores. Expensive and a delicacy. I bought a can a while back, and let it sit in my cupboard a long time, uncertain how to prepare it. But it simply needs to be heated in a saucepan, and served with margarine and salt. Yum. It has its own distinctive savory flavor, but yeah, scrambled-eggs-like.

Neat Egg - an egg substitute for baked goods, made from powdered chia seeds and chickpeas. When mixed with water as indicated in the instructions, it gels into an egg-white-like consistency. I tried it out with a box of brownie mix, and the results turned out quite well. I'll have to try it with cake mix next time. Neither of those usually work very well with my usual egg replacer powder.