Trouble Comes in Threes

A delightful 65°f this morning, 18.3°C. Clear skies.

8:00am

But solutions came in threes too, this time. Remember that our washer and dryer both stopped working last week? Then over the weekend the fridge decided to join the fray. And with temperatures still in the nineties, that was a serious problem.

As I noted the other day, the washer problem was resolved with the one our son had, the dryer was fixed when Larry did a thorough vent cleaning, and praise heaven the fridge is also fixed. Apparently ice had built up in the (self-defrosting) freezer compartment, blocking the drain. Now the freezer still worked, but the refrigerator part didn't. But after Larry unblocked the drain, and did a good cleaning in the compressor area, the fridge was back in business.

So now the washer is washing, the dryer is drying, the fridge is fridging, and the total cost was about $25 for the washer part. What a relief. We live on a pretty tight budget, so major appliances are a big hit if they break down. For the moment, anyway, all is right in our appliance world.  Hope I didn't jinx us by saying that!

On the garden front, things are not doing well. The green beans had a couple good pickings but the poor plants look worn out, and we will pull them up soon. The cucumbers too are beginning to fade, as is the squash. The early corn had ears smaller than usual, and the onions did not get nearly as big as they should have. All the watering we did just could not replace rain. Still, we have had some good crops from the cabbages, broccoli, garlic, carrots, beets, lettuce, chard, and the tomatoes are doing great. So I am not going to complain. Our late garden plants are doing well--beans, corn, cucumbers,  squash,  and the leeks and celery are holding their own. I am pretty sure the new rhubarb plants are not going to survive, doggone it. They looked so good too! But the horseradish looks fine. So, a win some, lose some garden, but considering the weather this year, I am satisfied. 

We stocked our booths yesterday and visited with our good friend Rachel for a bit. She gave us 2 small boxes of stained glass pieces, leftovers from her late husband's work. He did the most beautiful stained glass lamps, full windows, etc. His workshop was full of glass, big sheets of it. Rachel sold most of it, but no one wanted these boxes od small pieces, so I got them to give to my friend Nancy from Arizona, who will be here visiting soon.  Nancy also does stained glass, mostly small pieces and mosaics, so she will put the glass to good use.

I finished up this small table and took it in to the booth. This was a $3 find, cheap because a dog had apparently chewed out a piece of the bottom shelf. Larry repaired it with Bondo, and with sanding and painting the little table is ready for a new home.

Sanded and repaired:

And finished:

We also took in this wagon seat made into a bench. It too had been chewed on by some puppy, but the sander took care of that, and a good coat of dark wax really brought the whole thing alive again. 

A few other change-ups:

Two Fenton pieces

Hankies always sell well.

I finished reading an older book, The Water is Wide, by Pat Conroy. It is a memoir of his year teaching on a remote Georgia sea island in the late 1960's. It was a fascinating read; Conroy's writing is lively, his descriptions vivid, and his characters such, well, characters! It infuriated me to read of how the children on the island were so neglected by the school system, and regarded by the powers that be as basically unable to learn. The kids Conroy taught were the older children who had been in school some years, yet most could not read, count, recite the alphabet, write their names, or even identify the country they lived in. His book was really an expose' of the school system, and I wonder if the book compelled action? I certainly hope so.

Today's agenda will be canning the beans picked yesterday evening, finishing up painting this table, and then garden work in the evening. The cooler temperatures sure make all of these things much more pleasant to do.

2:30pm

The beans are canned, and biscuits and cornbread baked to use up milk that soured when the fridge wasn't working.  We had potato leek soup from the freezer for lunch, and there is a blueberry pie in the oven to use some of the 30 pounds of blueberries we have frozen. The leftover biscuits and cornbread will be vacuum sealed and frozen for another day. Now it's break time! And time for me to catch up with your blogs.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.