PEP Badge: Oddball

Here is my submission for Oddball Points.

Recently, my sister and I were doing housecleaning with my sister.  She was vacuuming and I was picking up and putting things away (including laundry.  I walked back into the room she was vacuuming and noticed the smell of the vacuum belt so I decided to inspect and clean.  Initially, the beater looked pretty clean but the belt was under the cover so I got out some tools and my camera and cleared out the mess.  I'll narrate the photos below for more information.

This took me about an hour and I had to learn as I went

I consider our vehicles to be extremely important to our operation and I do most of the maintenance myself. Luckily we have two minivans so when one breaks there is a backup and we just need to be a bit better at carpooling for a while. This was kinda a fun and interesting little fix so I thought I would post it up here. It's pretty much electrical but doesn't really fit in the electrical BB so....

Anyways, last week our orange van (Bert) wouldn't start when it was cold outside. I did some reading online and found that the fuel pump relay is often faulty in these vehicles. So I did some testing and used a jumper wire in the fuse box to get power to the fuel pump temporarily. The fix worked okay but it didn't work when it was cold out because the auxiliary power gets cut when the vehicle is cranking over. This meant no fuel pump and no fuel to the engine while the starter circuit was running. Residual fuel pressure would sometimes get enough gas to the injectors until the pump kicked on again, but I needed a better fix.

The fuel pump relay in these vehicles is integrated into the power module (the fuse box there) and is about $1000 to replace. Not a great option for me.

Enter the racing switch!

I think I can get a few (or 1/2) oddball point(s) for what I did. I first carefully read all Textile Straw BBs, but this was not there. There are BBs for making a garment bigger or smaller, but not for shortening it (at least: I think by 'smaller' you mean 'less wide'). And this was a knitted garment, that's different from something store-bought made out of woven fabric.
But if you think this fits in the PEP Textiles, that's OK, I can move it there.

A year ago I knitted this 'garden jacket'. I wear it when I work at the allotment garden (under my coat when it's cold, otherwise instead of the coat). It has stretched, became longer and longer ... I think this lengthwise stretching was because of the heavy pockets and because I knitted it sideways. Yesterday I found it really was too long and decided to make it shorter!
Alas the pockets needed to go then ...

Photos and explanation

It was this long! Because of the sideways knitting I couldn't just 'frog' the underside. I decided to 'steek' it.


First step of steeking without a sewing machine: crochet a line (thanks to 'the Knitting Man' I know now how to do this).


Second step: cut a few stitches from the crochet line.


Third step: fold it and hem with a flanel stitch (I'm not sure you call it like that in English).


Finished. Now it won't hang over my knees anymore!  

Does a compost bin count? It's more a building project than a garden project. In my climate I can't put undecomposed material on the surface of the garden without attracting a ton of slugs, so composting stuff first is important for the vegetable garden. I trench composted for many years, but after trying a no dig approach and getting much better harvests, I decided to invest time into a compost bin.

I built this 3- stall bin in 5 weekends, spread over the course of a year, as I was able to gather supplies and time. It was built using all free wood, either scraps we already had on hand or free pallets. Reusing materials that are otherwise going to waste is important to me. The front panels are mostly plywood, but the rest is solid wood.

Here's a submission for animal care of my snails.

I'm trying to raise apple snails. If I get good enough, I could raise them for food! I noticed the snails I had were getting thinning shells. So I looked up solutions and made "snail jello" for them, which includes calcium for their shells. They also seem to really love it.

Submitting about 15 minutes of work (so I think 0.25 Oddball points?) crocheting a scrubby for washing dishes.

The yarn I used is unfortunately a cotton/polyester blend, but I couldn't find a natural fiber yarn that had enough texture to scrub dried-on melted cheese off dishes (a common problem in my house). This yarn is specifically called scrubby yarn, and it has extra fiber twists coming off of it for extra scrubbing. I basically made a circle with split single crochet and chained a small loop for hanging. I'm a pretty accomplished crochet-er and it took me about 15 minutes start to finish.

Jay Girardot wrote:...
The yarn I used is unfortunately a cotton/polyester blend, but I couldn't find a natural fiber yarn that had enough texture to scrub dried-on melted cheese off dishes (a common problem in my house). ...

Jay, I used sisal (that's sold as twine or rope) for crocheting such scrubbies. Did you try that (with the melted cheese)? It's a plant fiber, made of a tropical plant, some kind of Agave.

Yuri here with another odd job... Well it's already getting too hot in the new greenhouse that I finished in the fall. I got these automatic window openers last year to install in the roof to dump heat. I've used them before with great success on wall windows, but this is the first time I have installed them in a roof mount. They typically start to crack the window open around 15 degrees (49 F) and reach full expansion around 35 degrees (95 F)

The roof panels are corrugated plastic but they are not very flexible, so it was a bit challenging to figure a way that would not leak if it's raining but still allow the window to open properly. Here are some pictures:

I fixed the timber tool at wheaton labs.  I cut out the bent section then butt welded it back together.  I followed it up with some pieces of angle for overkill.  Took me about 4 hours.

Here is my submission for Oddball Points.

I'm staying in the Solarium while attending the BB20 Event and am enjoying the rocket mass heater.  Unfortunately, the vertical exhaust components did not get screwed together and one of the crimped ends was cut off so there was barely 1/4" of the crimped section left.  This was not enough to screw that joint together so I predrilled and screwed two of the lower joints together and fit the upper joint back together.  Unfortunately due to the short overlap, it still wiggles so I added a piece of aluminum tape to seal the joint.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
 -  photos before, during, and after