Nice trip to Rhode Island

Sorry this is a couple days late, the last couple of days the blogger editor wouldn't let me upload the pictures for reasons I don't understand. 

 

I didn't do too much during the week last week, but I did pick up another couple of dressers.  The first one I picked up was actually quite nice.  It did not survive the drive back in the truck though.  When I picked it up, the door on the right was fine, and the piece of facing was still intact, the backing came off, etcetera.

 

I got the back reinstalled and got it put in the master bedroom for now until I decide whether to fix it or chuck it.

 

Instead I went and picked up another one.  I wanted one a touch deeper since the freezer is sitting on it, but it did fit, barely.  

 

Last weekend I went and visited Tim down in Rhode Island.  I went swimming (I had forgotten how buoyant you are in salt water), and we (Tim's son, wife, and I) visited  the Breakers mansion and did the cliff walk.  The mansion was built by the Vanderbilt family as a "summer home".  Must be nice to be that wealthy.  All the photos are at: https://photobucket.com/share/45f04ada-dc69-42ec-8341-1b0e77a7ba06 
Here are a couple of highlights though:

 

The cliff walk was quite nice too.  It reminded me a lot of Montauk to be honest.  I enjoy being by the water though. The complete set of pictures are at: https://photobucket.com/share/d84e784e-3e9e-4624-af49-de7b91e5dd3e

 

 

 

The guy came today to finish up repairing the mini-splits, so the compressor and leaks have been fixed on the other unit.  They both cool again.  It is a bit annoying to spend 13 grand on them one year and then have to spend another grand repairing them 1 year later, but oh well.  Fingers crossed they last better this time.

I think I caught something last weekend, so I haven't been too active after work this week.  It has been rather hot again too.

 

 

Smoked Cheese

Friday was pretty nice, but I wasn't really able to escape early from work unfortunately.  I  did do some work on the CR-V build on Friday though, getting the drawer installed.  I did hit an unfortunate snag; the drawer is too long apparently, even though I would swear I measured it.  I do have the means to make it shorter in the future if needed, it just means breaking apart all the pieces that I glued together.  For now I just installed it anyways, it just sticks out as far as the top, which is unfortunate.  Installing it was a pain.  

 

It sticks out.  Sigh.  It does open and close without issue, but I don't think I got the spacing perfect, it doesn't slide right.  Sounds like a problem for future Allen though.

 

If I want to make it shorter, I could just remove the front compartment on the right (farther side in the picture).  The right section is all individual pieces, and is about an inch longer than the prefabbed section on the left.

I also did some prep work for Saturday's first project.  I got everything out for smoking some cheese.

Saturday had two big projects: smoking cheese, and working on the ditch.  I have been wanting to try smoking some cheese for a while now.  It didn't start well, the original plan was to use one of the monster ice packs that I get every week with my meal shipments, but it didn't fit.  

 

Oh well, plan B.  Plan B was just use all the other stuff I have.  

 

The cheese sits on top of the ice to keep it cool.  I went with three different types of cheeses, mozzarella, monterey jack, and cheddar.   I also added some pepperoni sticks because I like smoked pepperoni.  It isn't normally cold smoked, but from what I read online, it should be okay, pepperoni has more than enough preservatives and chemicals to be fine, it just isn't clear if the smoke will permeate the skin.

 

Plan B didn't go well either.  It didn't fit in the grill with the smoke tube, my grill is too small.  It is only a little portable one.  

 

Everything fit after packing it tighter and using a smaller pan.

 

Smoke.

 

Everything came out with good color.  I did 2.5 hours (applewood pellets), but not quite the whole thing since the smoke tube actually ran out of pellets at around 1:40 minutes.  I caught it quickly and got it re-lit with more pellets in it.  Good to know it doesn't last that long though.  I did rotate the pan halfway through as well to try to get the smoke more even.

 

The temperature got a little close to being too warm a couple times, mostly after the ice had all melted, but none of the cheese melted, which is what I was trying to prevent. 

 

I discovered why everyone says to make sure you wear gloves.  The staining from the smoke doesn't wash off very easily.

 

Once I got it wrapped and in the fridge, I took a short nap.  I started the smoking at 6AM since I wanted it done before the sun got over the hill and would start drastically heating things up.

 

Once I woke up from that, it was time to move on to the ditch.  The part that I just dug out a week or two ago wasn't bad, it only took a little bit of shovel work.  The harder part was honestly getting the sand bags I put in there for the winter out.  Things were mostly dry, but not completely, they were still a bit slimy.  But it should now be ready for landscape fabric and gravel.

 

I also noted that the ditch was full of undesired vegetation.  So I went and dug out my sprayer and glyphosate, and sprayed down the front and the ditch.  

 

I also went out for a bit in the evening on the rail trail.

 

Sunday was on and off drizzly, with some storms in the afternoon.  I still managed to get a little bit of stuff done before it got too wet though.  I finally (it was waay overdue) got the snowblower off the back of the tractor.  I really need to find a better way to store this stuff, removing and installing 3-point stuff in a side slope is a really pain, especially the snowblower which I can't move.

 

I did eventually get it off and get the grading blade back on though.  Thankfully I can lift the grading blade for the most part.  It was raining on me as I finished it up though.  

 

it really has been wet this year, I grabbed pliers to remove the bolt for the swivel handle, and even my pliers have molded in the shed since it has been so wet.  Ugh.  

 

After that I went and did some inside stuff.  I got the AC's taken out of the windows on a short break in the rain.  They are now in the tub draining.  I also finally cleaned out my humidifiers from the winter.  They were a bit crusty because I let them sit so long before cleaning them.  I will need to decide whether to just replace that filter or I believe they are supposedly cleanable.  

 

My power went out during the storms last night.  It is nice having a spare power station around.  I was still able to nuke my dinner.  

 

I also used it for its intended purpose.  I bought this to be a UPS.  It ran my computer for the entire 45 or so minutes that the power was out, other than the few minutes I used it in the kitchen for the microwave.  I haven't finished installing it in the living room.   

 

I know I need more gravel for the drainage, so I am going to try to get that delivered this week,  I at least hope to get the pipe installed across where I drive the tractor and mower so I can get the excavator out when Dad comes to pick it up.  once that chunk is open, I can get the tractor back there to access the pile that is already back there for the drainage.

 

I thought it looked neat, so I took a picture of a leaf in the driveway after the storms.  

 

One AC finally works.

The HVAC guy came Tuesday morning.  He has the info to order the compressor for the one throwing the compressor code, and he said both units had leaked out all the refrigerant. He wasn't prepared to do all the leak detection and whatnot; this was just a diagnostic visit which is why he was able to fit me in on such short notice (I had just emailed him last weekend), but he recharged the second unit and we shall see if it holds.  This unit worked until I switched from heat to cooling and then died suddenly, so I think as long as I don't change modes on it it will hopefully be okay. My assumption is that the leak is in the switching valve, but he would need to verify that for warranty purposes to get a new one on order. This issue also highlights something interesting about Samsung: their units have no safeties in them. The one that still turned on was happily chugging along with no refrigerant in it, which will burn up the compressor in very short order since the refrigerant is also the coolant for the compressor. It is possible (probable?) this killed the compressor in the first unit. When I worked at Carrier, we used to monitor the pressures (both inlet and output) and the temperature of the compressor but Samsung apparently has a "it'll go or it'll blow" mentality, and then just cost reduced all the sensors out would be my theory.

 

The difference it made was remarkable.  In less than an hour it had knocked over 20% off the humidity.  It made a notable air quality improvement inside as well. It really is amazing how despite decreasing the capacity (I had more BTUs in portable units, 23k, than one of my mini-splits, 18k) , the mini-split is more effective at everything.

 

I also went and picked up some new chairs for Jess and Heather.  

 

I also picked up the stuff I wanted to try cold smoking.  I don't have a smoker, but a smoke tube and a grill (which I do have) is sufficient for a little bit of cold smoking.  

 

I got applewood pellets, though I wanted hickory (they were out of stock).  Applewood is common for things like bacon, hickory is more common for cheese.

During lunches, since it is frequently too hot to go out for a walk at lunch this time of year, I have been cleaning up and organizing the CR-V.  I finally have a plan for where to store everything, and more importantly, how to store it so it doesn't rattle since my previous haphazard storage system was really obnoxious and annoying.  I still don't have a good solution for the cargo netting, I might just switch to bungee cords or something.  Or maybe make a removable face board, I still have the underlay which is basically a 3/16 plywood (think wimpy paneling) that I put up and bungee in or something.  I could also try the smaller one I originally started with, and just use carabiners or something to make it fit better (it was too tight).  I also finally got everything but the toaster oven in the car last night.

 

I finally got my meal service box this week last night.  I have to say, the fact that it has been screwed up literally every week is really getting old.  It may be (mostly, if not all) Fedex's fault, but Factor chooses the carrier and if Factor can't get the meals to me it makes their service awfully worthless. The first week Fedex tossed the box on its side and ignored the "this side up" and some of the meals saw the trays get mixed.  The second week all the freeze packs were destroyed, and while it was still cold I had to wash the gel goo off of everything.  The third one Fedex sat on it and didn't bother putting it on the delivery truck, and thus was a day late and their ice packs were inadequate for the extra day of sitting in 90+ heat for shipping.  This week is also a day late.  Factor is one of the more expensive meal services, and if they don't figure out their logistics issues quick I am going to switch to a different one.

More AC failures, but finally mowed.

There were a lot of angry skies last week, but we thankfully did not get much rain.  Just a lot of thunder.  My creek is actually starting to look like summer.  

 

The first nice day was Wednesday.  Since Fedex screwed up though, my meals arrived a day late (they are supposed to be delivered on Tuesday), and the ice packs were not up to the task for an extra day of transit.  A couple of them near the ice pack in the middle (the only one that was below room temperature still) were salvageable, but I ended up chucking over half the box.  Thankfully they didn't give me any trouble and I got a full refund for the week.  I still ended up making an unplanned grocery run on Wednesday though.

 

One perk of the back not being mowed is that it is now tall enough that wildlife seems to think they are in cover and come out during the day.  Three times this week I have seen deer when cooking dinner or whatever, and turkeys twice, gobbling up all my ticks.  The bugs have been really bad this year with all the moisture, but I have only had one tick on me all year, which I picked up in the driveway of all places.

 

My temporary AC solution has been a bit lackluster, so I decided to try keeping it drained.  Most portable AC units have ways to evaporate the water off, but it drops their efficiency and frequently their BTU output to do so.  So I made a trip to Harbor Freight and came up with a solution.  I had to put the AC up on blocks to get the drain pan underneath it. 

 

But it worked, kinda (more on that in a second).

 

Saturday I had yet another AC failure.  This one decided to eat its blower, which is a shame because it frankly worked better of the two.  I woke up Saturday morning to the fan sounding unhealthy, and a couple hours later it started going into a reboot loop.  

 

This kind of threw my Saturday plans for a loop.  I already didn't have enough cooling capacity.  So I made some calls, emailed a bunch of guys and found one.  This one is a tiny bit larger (10k BTU instead of 8k), so I decided to move the one ineffectively cooling the living room into the bedroom, and put the bigger one in the living room.  This time I installed the ducts with foam, which hopefully works better.

Thankfully the weather on Saturday wasn't excruciatingly hot, because I learned that my drain pan solution was leaking.  The o-ring in the cap wasn't installed properly (only the finest from Harbor Freight).  It made a huge mess.  I noticed that the blocks the living room unit was on were wet when I went to move it.  It filled three towels, and even with my big box fan, still took the rest of the day to dry up.  Ugh.

 

I got the o-ring fixed and tested it.  It is now water tight.

 

I didn't wait for everything to finish drying to set up the other one, I will just need to readjust everything later today.  

 

I couldn't find my door snake (I probably chucked it), so I took some scrap corner bracing and a board to hold it down to reduce the draft.  I could feel hot air being pulled into the living room.  

It was supposed to storm in the afternoon Saturday, so I was originally planning on doing the mowing Saturday before everything moved in.  The AC destroyed those plans, and I ended up driving through all the storms to pick up the new unit.  The storm cell however missed Sullivan in a bit of unusual freak luck, so I was able to do all my mowing on Sunday instead.  

 

It didn't start off well, the Troy Bilt runs worse each time I fire it up.  Even though it started with almost a quarter tank (I don't fill it because it leaks if you forget to close the shutoff), I only got two loops before it started coughing and sputtering.  It was almost out of gas, which admittedly makes me wonder how it managed to burn a quarter tank in two passes when a quarter tank used to do the whole yard.  

 

After running into town to get more gas, I did manage to coax it to run long enough finish the front yard.  

 

I also ran it up to the shed, and discovered that the tarp that was covering my snowblower was wrapped around a tree and no longer over the snowblower.  Ugh.  I just pinned it under the grading blade for now; I need to take the three point snowblower off the tractor soon anyways. 

 

I didn't grab a picture, but I also did most of the back with the pushmower.

I came back in to my smoke alarms going off, which is never fun, and I think I might smash these damn things and get a different set.  These ones just go off when the battery is low (most normal ones chirp), and I just replaced the batteries three months ago.  And I put Energizer batteries in them, not cheapo garbage ones from work.  Since they are also wired into AC, batteries shouldn't be going bad until they expire.  For now I just ripped them all down, any that were showing low battery.  I still have two in the house.

 

I got the freezer set up that I brought home.  It still works.  Very very well I might add, it railed my thermometer at 0F.

 

I noticed when I was doing laundry that my laundry room has apparently become a bee graveyard.  I keep the door closed (minimize the area to cool) which is probably why they haven't been seen in the house, but I am not sure where they are coming in from.  There were three dead ones on the floor, and I swept up a bunch of carcasses a couple of weeks ago.

 

One thought is that there is a small leak around the doorframe somewhere that because the trim is peeling from the humidity, is now accessible.  I didn't have a single bee get in last year though.  I think this is happening because of the humidity; the trim, which is just pressboard, is absorbing moisture and expanding too much, causing it to pop off the wall.  This door is actually two pieces of trim just sitting on top of each other, a standard flat trim, and then the interior decorative trim.    

 

Maybe I am just noticing it because of the AC troubles and have an indoor and outdoor monitor now, but it feels like the humidity this year is the worst I have ever seen.  To the point where I even have seen condensation inside the house, and if you walk into the rooms I have closed off (which I did when I first bought the house and only had the window units) you can smell the musty and the smell wet wood makes.  In addition to the few pieces of trim that have popped off I noted above.  The lowest humidity I have seen in the house is 78% for the last month or two.

Even though I didn't make any progress on the checklist over the weekend, the mowing was waaaaaay overdue.  This was only the second mowing for most of the yard, only the section of front between the septic tank and leech field has been mowed three times.  The far back still hasn't been done, nor has the side where the other drainage ditch is.  The side I don't think I can mow now; I can't see the ditch anymore to make sure I don't end up in it.  I have started loading stuff into the car camper, and now it makes a lot of noise when driving so I have started putting stuff in totes and whatnot.  I still need to test it.