Cal Jorgensen

I caught water from several pooless showers in a 5 gallon bucket for flushing the toilet.

Cleaned the kitchen yesterday. I used a bit of diluted vinegar on some of the tougher spots, mostly the sink and stove, but otherwise this was all done with water and scrubbing (or sweeping, for the floor). I didn't replace the mats after cleaning underneath them because I decided they could all use a wash first.

Trying this again with a different soap. Dr Bronner's 18-in-1 Pure Castille Magic Soap (lavender scent, refill carton)

I'd been meaning to get a dishpan anyway for reusing dishwater, so I got one now. Its total volume is 3 gallons, and between these 3 loads I definitely would not have filled it. For the first one I experimented a bit to see just how little water I could use, with no soaking anything (scrubbing only) and spray bottle rinse. I found that if needed, I could do dishes with only 14 oz of water, but it's not very pleasant!

Third time's the charm? I'm going to consider this an opportunity to demonstrate how my process has changed over time; I've gotten considerably more efficient, and no longer have to do everything outdoors!

I process quail in a bucket over the sink, still using scissors. Head, skin/feathers, blood (and usually any innards I don't intend to eat, but they're plated for the BB) drop directly into the bucket to be buried. I kept the wings separate this time since I want to save some feathers for crafts. Feet and spine will be used for broth, heart and liver fried and eaten tonight, body roasted over vegetables tomorrow; all this goes directly into the fridge, sorted by use.

Mike Barkley wrote:I see what happened Sean. The way to prevent this sort of thing in the future is once a rejected BB is updated by editing it needs to be re-selected as a BB. That will alert reviewers that it is ready to look at again. The button is sort of hidden. Push the three dots (...) to find that. If you can't find the button just edit the original post then use the report button. That will minimize the possibility of a lingering deduction or waiting too long for another review.

I noticed there was a similar situation with your hugel BB so I corrected that by deselecting the first one as a BB.

Is there a time limit on this? I have an old BB (slaughter/clean quail) that was marked edge case a couple years ago for a missing description which I edited to add. Would I need to take new pictures and redo it entirely at this point? It would look very different by now, being in a new location where I can do it indoors, so maybe it's worth the inconvenience of pausing for photos to show how my process has changed over time?

Cleaning the glass between the original windows and the storm windows installed over them required removing the storm windows entirely. The previous owners don't seem to have done it, and I was tired of seeing so much dust in there, so I took them all off to clean.

Cleaned with water and a tiny bit of castile soap (Dr Bronner's) and a damp rag, then wiped dry with dry rags. Exterior was done first after removing the storm windows, then interior after those were reinstalled. It was dark by then!

This, and cleaning the windows themselves, turned out to be way more complicated than I expected! The screens for these storm windows were stuck, and trying to force them out could have dropped the glass panes in the same track above them. Given I'd like to keep them intact, and I really needed to clean between the panes, after a bit of research I decided the simplest solution would be to remove the storm windows entirely. I washed four storm windows and their screens, as well as the screen from a door, and reinstalled after washing the exteriors of the windows underneath. I don't believe this has been done in decades!

I think it's time to admit that if I've held on to these shirts without mending them for this long, I'm probably not going to, and I could use a few cleaning rags, so I picked one to cut up.

John C Daley wrote:Well done!
Some photos will be nice.
Earthen floors in 'basements' can be good. How high is the ceiling?
I shared homes I owned with a boarder for 20 years when I was 25 or so, it helps with the cash flow and socially is nice also.
I was careful how I selected house mates, had rules;
- shared food
- no loud music
- shared cooking and cleaning
- had to have a job
- had to invite somebody over for dinner from time to time.
It was good fun and I developed good friends to this day.

The basement ceiling is tall enough to stand in, but I have to duck to walk under the... ducts. Access to it is the real challenge; I believe it had an actual door to the outside at some point (maybe used as a root cellar?) but a newer room built on to that side means getting in now requires climbing down through a trapdoor and walking through the addition's shallower crawlspace (about 3'). Maybe usable for storage, assuming the flooding was a one-off event as all my neighbors tell me it was, but I wouldn't trust anything valuable or delicate down there and it's never going to be a living space. (I actually kept my quail in the basement for the first few months, since I moved in December and didn't have their outdoor housing up yet. Having to emergency relocate them was unpleasant, but I may not have noticed my basement was flooding as soon as I did otherwise!)

The economy around here is mainly seasonal/tourism. I was incredibly lucky to have found a job I actually love doing in one of the few shops that stays open year-round, really perfect timing. I'd been prepared to take another factory job despite how much I've hated it for the last five years, or possibly a summer job here and then have a longer commute to work in a ski resort in winter. But there's a major housing shortage for summer workers, so I can easily offer a room to someone for just a few months out of the year and know that it's a huge upgrade from the tiny apartment, if that (two of the people I work with have been camping all summer!) they'd be sharing otherwise. If I do happen to end up with a terrible roommate, at least I know they'd be gone soon enough.

My yard is one long narrow strip of dense packed clay with an 80' sickly elm in the middle. I did finally confirm last week that it's not Dutch Elm Disease, it's slime flux! Gross, but nowhere near as deadly. It rained last night so I'm about to head out to work on digging up a few clusters of knotweed while the ground is still as soft as it gets.

Bathroom was due for some scrubbing. The hardest part was the bathtub; the hard water and rust leaves some nasty stains. Everything was done with either water alone (mirror, floor), water with vinegar (sink, toilet), or water with vinegar and baking soda (the bathtub).