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In an effort to reduce my procrastination, I made myself get up early & finally got around to burying two of my cats that died at night during the summer. I'd had them in the freezer & kept putting it off but I promised myself I'd do it before the end of this year & got up at 7am. It was cold but not too cold so the ground was soft. I buried them next to the shed they liked to sleep on top of behind the house. Other than the digging, the hardest part was the emotional reminder of their loss. I'm currently in the company of 5 of my cats and 1 of my dogs. I'm so out of shape that I had trouble breathing after digging & covering them up. I got lightheaded walking back to the house & I feel exhausted but at least my arrhythmia has settled down.
I'm trying to work up the energy to go paint the door down at the workshop. I want to at least got a coat of primer over the scratches before the new year.
 
In an effort to reduce my procrastination, I made myself get up early & finally got around to burying two of my cats that died at night during the summer. I'd had them in the freezer & kept putting it off but I promised myself I'd do it before the end of this year & got up at 7am. It was cold but not too cold so the ground was soft. I buried them next to the shed they liked to sleep on top of behind the house. Other than the digging, the hardest part was the emotional reminder of their loss. I'm currently in the company of 5 of my cats and 1 of my dogs. I'm so out of shape that I had trouble breathing after digging & covering them up. I got lightheaded walking back to the house & I feel exhausted but at least my arrhythmia has settled down.
I'm trying to work up the energy to go paint the door down at the workshop. I want to at least got a coat of primer over the scratches before the new year.


sounds like you need to start walking in the evenings
i am calorie challenged my self, i feel for ya

made this using my new sewing machine
credit card holders
 

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Frodo, those look pretty darn good!
Watch your fingers, though!

Speaking of dead cats, a buddy of mine had bought a new house, and was checking out the crawl space.

He spotted a black garbage bag, and it was heavy.
Someone had put a dead cat down there, which had become pretty much liquified.
The smell when he opened the bag still gives him nightmares, haha.
 
Frodo, those look pretty darn good!
Watch your fingers, though!

Speaking of dead cats, a buddy of mine had bought a new house, and was checking out the crawl space.

He spotted a black garbage bag, and it was heavy.
Someone had put a dead cat down there, which had become pretty much liquified.
The smell when he opened the bag still gives him nightmares, haha.


Thanks Jeff
here is a purse I made for my sister in law
creme colored elk
with cow hide accent


20191201_052804.jpg
 
IMG_8818.JPG
Been working on the tiny truck for the last two weeks, redoing the rear lights, and adding a roof mount light bar, with snow plow lights. The plow blade when fully raised blocks the headlights and turn signals.

Automotive wiring is a real pain in the tokus for those of us who are color blind.
 
Frodo, those are so cool! The purse is very neat. I bet you'd do well selling leather goods at a shop at a renaissance festival. I want to learn how to sew leather some day. Right now I've got so much on my plate & am trying to pick things to work on that I know I can do-- things that need to get done. I still need to steam clean the carpet that my late incontinent dog messed up and wash her old bed & clear up her bowls & stuff. I need to clean up the kitchen more (I scrubbed some of the counters the other day but need to pick stuff up off the floor). I need to caulk along the edge of the countertop against the wall bc it's getting pretty gross and the formica is starting to come up.
My brother actually emptied 2 of the trash cans for the first time in 6 months, but he spilled trash on the floor & didn't pick it up so I'm going to have to do some sweeping.

FishScreener, That looks very cool! I never even thought about how color-coded wires would be a problem for people who are colorblind.

I have been going down to the work shop almost every day to work on the painting. I had to do a few coats of filler primer that needs to be sanded between coats (24hour wait between sandings). Since it's a metal door, I used a white colored metal primer on top to even out the color so it wouldn't show through the topcoat. I don't know if the sprayer was defective or what, but it came out all spurty and splotchy instead of smoothly like the other primer- even had some drips for no apparent reason. I shook it for 2 minutes straight to make sure it was mixed properly. But it still did the job.

Today I got the top coat of the Behr Marquee Deep River satin exterior paint on the half of the door that had cured for 48 hours. Tomorrow I'm going to flip the door & do the other side. Had a funny "oops" moment when the moving blanket (in a plastic bag) that I was using to protect the door fell on top of it and messed up the wet paint. There's a big sanding machine on the table that is to heavy for me to lift. I slid it over as far as I could on the work table but it hit a plastic stop that is secured to the table & wouldn't move any more.

If any of the dings/scratches still show through when I'm done, I won't mind them on the outside but on the inside I can put magnetic whiteboard mats over them.

I also sanded a little rough round table that's been in the kitchen awhile. It used to have a tablecloth but it got ruined & the rough wood started snagging my clothes. Tore a hole in my new pants so I got mad enough to haul it down to the workshop. I'm going to paint the top with the blue from the door (after I put a little putty over the tip of a nail poking out). I'm still debating whether or not to paint the legs (possibly in a different color). What do you guys think?
Before sanding (had caked on cat vomit that had to be scraped off): roundtable1.jpg
After sanding: roundtable2.jpg

Door primed: Doorprimed6.jpg
Door painted: Doorpainted1.jpg
 
My internet has been throttled and I haven't been posting as much. My brother picked up a virus at work and passed it along so I've been exhausted and haven't been going down to the workshop (partially bc of the weather being so cold and wet). I've been working on the inside of the house-- cleaned surface of the cabinets, scrubbed counters down, washed dishes, etc. My brother stayed home from work and undid almost all of the work I did in terms of counters & dishes-- made a huge mess for me to clean up. Yesterday I cleaned up trash in the living room (my mother literally just throws it on the floor-- tons of plastic bottles & tv dinner boxes all over). I managed to fill 3 bags of trash. She had actually pulled one of the full trash bags from her adjacent trash can out and when I reached for it and asked her to hand it to me, she looked me directly in the eye while throwing it across the room. She has the trash piled so high I couldn't even get over to it. Needless to say, I was more than a bit miffed. For the record, my brother is supposed to empty her trash can when it's full-- he's supposed to empty all of them and take the trash bags outside. I admit, I should have just picked it up sooner, but was suffering from a case of the f***-its.

I got a couple coats of filler primer on the round table to try to fill in the grooves on the top. The nail point got sanded smooth so it is no longer a problem. I need to go back and sand it again and see if I can get one more coat on. I think I have enough for maybe 1/4 or 1/2 a coat left in the can. I had to use Killz mold/stain block on the door frame because it was exposed to a roof leak and got mold on the side. I'm going to have to talk to the local hardware store guy about how much it will cost to re-roof & reinforce the workshop so it doesn't leak.

I have 2 coats of paint on both sides of the door, but I had trouble flipping it over by myself and when it was up on it's side it slipped and fell and got scraped up on the finished side. I'm going to wrap it in a moving blanket to protect it when I flip it over to do the touch-ups where the paint got gouged off.

I'm debating whether or not to wait until I'm ready to install the door & frame to paint the frame and trim. It might be easier to get the lower parts done when it is up the steps a bit. On the flip side, it will be outdoors where the paint could be messed up. So, maybe I'll do a coat in the workshop and then do touch-ups after installation. I also need to figure out how to remove the plastic brackets that are on the bottom of the doorframe to hold it together during transport.
Will it mess up the weather seal if it gets paint on it?

How is everyone else doing? It's been so quiet here lately.
 
Yesterday I picked up the toilet supply line, got hay for the cows, made dinner, got Montezuma's revenge, cleaned the bathroom with lysol and shop towels, & went to bed early. This morning I got up and changed the supply line on the toilet. Had a hard time getting the old one off because my hands are not very strong and the last person to hand-tighten the top nut was a lot stronger than me. There was only one toilet supply line in stock at the local hardware store & it happened to be the fluidmaster click lock one. I read reviews saying it leaked even when it clicked but that using teflon tape fixed it. So I used teflon tape on both ends. It never clicked (hands not strong enough and didn't want to damage it with a wrench) so I just left it and thus far it hasn't leaked.

Was gonna go to the workshop to do more painting and then later make stroganoff but I stepped on some of my brother's trash on the floor and rolled my ankle. Saw the tendon pop out again so I immediately wrapped it in a sport's bandage. I've been keeping it elevated and iced. It's already started to feel better so hopefully it will be ok enough for cooking tomorrow. It's the ankle I tore a tendon on a couple years back.

Hope everyone else is doing better.
 
When I was trying to remove the old toilet supply line the rubber washers for the tank split in half because that mofo did not want to come off and I had to really torque it so hard the tank moved slightly. I thought the supply line was leaking at first, but it was completely dry and then I felt around under tank & realized water was coming from the bolts. I thought the gasket (spud washer?) was leaking but really couldn't see. I got my friend to come over and take a look since it was his day off & I needed the leaking to stop. He was able to see the broken washers. I ran to the hardware store & got two different kits for washer replacement. One had larger rubber washers and the other had wing nuts. Went from having bolt to rubber washer inside tank, then rubber washer, then bowl, then metal washer & nut underneath the bowl. New setup: bolt & rubber washer inside tank, rubber washer, metal washer, nut underneath the tank, rubber washer, metal washer, and wing nut underneath the bowl. The gasket was in rough shape but still intact and it didn't leak. Will probably order a new one just in case though. Now the problem is the fill valve is leaking from the wrong spot and tank won't fill. I have an old Fluidmaster 404LG kit. I know the flush valve for that won't fit but I'm hoping the fill valve will and I learned the trick of removing the assembly from inside the tank-- but my friend is going to come over and help with that tomorrow morning. He was only going to help with the toilet tank and move a metal shelf rack in the pantry for me but he ended up cleaning my brother's room, helping me haul trash out, getting my brother to take the trash can out to dump (bag was ripping), helped carry the new little fridge in to my brother's room and loaded the old mini fridge in to the truck. It was my mini fridge that he was borrowing to store his diabetes medicine but he junked it up so much I didn't want it. My friend decided it was worth it to clean it up. I helped him clean it when we got back to his house. I picked up a bunch of stuff, threw out a bunch of expired stuff, and scrubbed the excrement (literally) out of the floor. Cats had gotten under the shelf and used it as a litterbox. I'll post pics when my internet is cooperating. For now i'm going to nap.
 
You are stuck with your brother, but get rid of the cats.

Take them to a shelter, place ads for free cats, whatever it takes.

The cat poop all over the place is very unhealthy, and the cats are obviously pretty wild, untrained, and will never use a litter box.
 
I'd rather get rid of my brother than the cats. LOL. There are no shelters that take cats in our area & I'm very attached to them. As much of a nuisance as they are, I love them as if they were my own children. I just need to be better at keeping the environment clean. I've locked them out of the pantry now. They didn't want to go back in it with all the Lysol smell, so that was a bonus. If I can keep them out of there, it won't be a problem.

Part of the problem is that the litterboxes haven't been cleaned (which is partially my fault but also my brother's because he promised to clean litterboxes and then announced one day that he doesn't "do litterboxes". My best friend had to trick him just to get him to take the trash out. He has no respect for me or our mother so he just makes messes & expects me to clean up after him. I started thinking back on it & realized that my dad and I were the only ones who cleaned. Mom always hated cleaning and wouldn't do dishes. She never taught us to cook or clean. My brother always got away with not doing any chores because he would put up so much resistance it was easier for my father to do it or to guilt-trip me in to doing it. So he never learned to be responsible for himself. After my father passed away, it all fell on me & my brother just thinks I should have to do everything by myself & won't even clean up his own messes. It's incredibly frustrating.

I'm going to continue to do some cleaning today and get the litterboxes fixed up again.

The new fill valve worked in my toilet, although we have to hold the lever down for quite awhile before the toilet actually flushes. My friend had a hell of a time trying to get the old fill valve out. It didn't have the quick release inside the tank and the plastic nut was really stuck. He'd put it on when the tank was detached & tightened it well, but tried to remove it while it was on the toilet & it wouldn't budge. He ended up breaking it to get it off before putting the new valve in. It has a quick release so if I get another fill valve with the same release I can change it out without having to remove it from the bottom of the tank. I think part of the problem is that the toilet isn't seated properly- flange is still broken and needs to be replaced so the toilet moves. Once I get the house cleaned up enough, I'll get the plumber over to change the flange.

Here are some pics of the pantry before cleaning (but after my friend moved the metal shelf for me):pantry1.jpg pantry2.jpg pantry5.jpg

After: pantry6.jpg

I plan to move the shelf again and put something over the metal screen across the bottom boards and all over the metal screen to make it easier to clean. I'm trying to figure out what I can put over it-- maybe some sort of plaster that I can paint. Dad put metal screen around the perimeter to keep mice out but they got in when the door wouldn't close properly.

I'l do another after picture with the shelf back in place once I finish more cleaning. I still need to go through stuff on the shelves and throw out stuff that is expired. Some of the crud on the floor was from old sodas that expired & leaked-- cans of food that were so old they leaked, etc. There were a bunch of unopen red mountain dews that were empty or half empty. I'm going to put all of the cardboard and thin plastic stuff inside a bin to keep mice from chewing.

Editing to add updated pics. I finished cleaning the floor in the rest of the pantry-- had to get down on the floor to scrub it & got as much crud off as I could. Then I put some empty storage bins in there. I'm not great at organizing and putting stuff away so I need to figure out what I'm going to put in which bin and how to stack stuff. The shelves on the door made it so I can't fit a larger bin than the one that's in there through the doorway.
pantry10.jpg pantry11.jpg pantry12.jpg pantrybins1.jpg pantrydoor1.jpg
 
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Gearing up to help my friend tomorrow & hoping it won't rain (at least not before he can get some rake trim). Might have to take one of my cats to the vet because I think she swallowed a chicken bone last night. She dug in the trash and ripped open the plastic container to get it out and had it stuck to the roof of her mouth. She kept clawing at her mouth. First with one paw, then she'd switch to the other, then she'd grab with both. Then she grabbed ahold of my arm with her claws with one paw and desperately clawed at her face with the other. She would not let go of me. I looked in her mouth with a flashlight bc I couldn't feel anything when I rubbed my finger across the roof of her mouth at first. I saw it and she chomped my finger. Stuck some tweezers in and dislodged it but she chomped again and it slipped out & disappeared in her mouth, so I think she swallowed it. She seems to be OK so maybe it fell and I didn't see it or maybe she puked it up already, but I want to make sure it won't rip up her intestines.

I helped my mother file her taxes online-- she normally can do it fine without my help but she couldn't figure out that she had typed an extra zero on her account number on one page so it wasn't consistent with the page before. I found the error and fixed it. I also helped her figure out how to select the correct printer to print (she couldn't figure out why it wouldn't print until I told her we no longer had the Canon printer so she needed to select the correct one).

Went to the grocery store, heated up some food, did some cleaning, and filled the pet waterers.

I updated the true pipe sizes thread (Havasu took care of adding the PEX chart to the main post for me). I may do a sch80 pvc chart at some point. I was looking it up because I was trying to find an alternative to cutting PEX and using a fitting to make it go 90°. There are benders they sell that PEX can clip in to but they are not cheap & aren't sold at my local stores. So, I thought maybe I could run it through a long sweep elbow & found the sch80 conduit would work & it's less than $1. If I wanted to be really thrifty, I could cut it in half lengthwise, pop the PEX in along the curve, and then tape it or tie it up. That way I could use one piece for both bends when doing PEX from the floor, then to a 90 to go in to a barbed shower valve.
 
I was planning on installing this battery operated paper dispenser, but I could not locate my stud finder.

61vxXohSJ3L._SL1500_.jpg

Then I went out to get a new Zircon stud finder. Returned home too tired to put the dispenser up on the wall. Disappointed that we're still low on toilet paper in Hawaii, and frustrated by too much shopping and searching.
 
Gearing up to help my friend tomorrow & hoping it won't rain (at least not before he can get some rake trim). Might have to take one of my cats to the vet because I think she swallowed a chicken bone last night. She dug in the trash and ripped open the plastic container to get it out and had it stuck to the roof of her mouth. She kept clawing at her mouth. First with one paw, then she'd switch to the other, then she'd grab with both. Then she grabbed ahold of my arm with her claws with one paw and desperately clawed at her face with the other. She would not let go of me. I looked in her mouth with a flashlight bc I couldn't feel anything when I rubbed my finger across the roof of her mouth at first. I saw it and she chomped my finger. Stuck some tweezers in and dislodged it but she chomped again and it slipped out & disappeared in her mouth, so I think she swallowed it. She seems to be OK so maybe it fell and I didn't see it or maybe she puked it up already, but I want to make sure it won't rip up her intestines.

I helped my mother file her taxes online-- she normally can do it fine without my help but she couldn't figure out that she had typed an extra zero on her account number on one page so it wasn't consistent with the page before. I found the error and fixed it. I also helped her figure out how to select the correct printer to print (she couldn't figure out why it wouldn't print until I told her we no longer had the Canon printer so she needed to select the correct one).

Went to the grocery store, heated up some food, did some cleaning, and filled the pet waterers.

I updated the true pipe sizes thread (Havasu took care of adding the PEX chart to the main post for me). I may do a sch80 pvc chart at some point. I was looking it up because I was trying to find an alternative to cutting PEX and using a fitting to make it go 90°. There are benders they sell that PEX can clip in to but they are not cheap & aren't sold at my local stores. So, I thought maybe I could run it through a long sweep elbow & found the sch80 conduit would work & it's less than $1. If I wanted to be really thrifty, I could cut it in half lengthwise, pop the PEX in along the curve, and then tape it or tie it up. That way I could use one piece for both bends when doing PEX from the floor, then to a 90 to go in to a barbed shower valve.

you do not need the sleeve. just do not run the pex so close to the valve.
back off to the next stud. and strap the pex to that stud. first pic is 2 ways to run pex to the valve
the other pic. is if the pex is to close.
clik_bait.png one_001.png
 
Thanks, Frodo! I didn't even think about strapping it to the stud. I'll mention that to him. I'll have to talk to him to see what his plans are for Tuesday & hope this cold I have doesn't develop into something worse. My brother was sick enough to call in to work today & he can't afford to miss many more days.

I popped in to the store to grab my RX & some milk. All the large containers were sold out so I had to get smaller ones (I use the milk to make stroganoff & other hamburger helper stuff). They had a hand sanitizing station right inside the store and had wet wipes near the carts. I've seen people licking their fingers and touching the touchpads at the checkout so I used the wipes on the touchpad while checking out.
 
I bought 2 of these lights for my showers and installed one today. Very bright and very easy to install. In this bathroom I had a can light already there that was easily removed. I had to add the outer trim ring because the hole was the exact size as the new light. The other shower has no light in it. I'm thinking of just connecting power to it from the main light.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VYTYWKD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

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Is everyone able to access this new site? If you have issues, clear your cookies and cache, and try it again.

Had problems yesterday with Chrome after Google modified some security feature on their browser. An unusual message about "Invisible Capcha". Tried again on Tuesday with Firefox and everything went fine. Good advice on plumbing (and construction) is always hard to find, and this is one of the better sites to find the answers.
 
Is everyone able to access this new site? If you have issues, clear your cookies and cache, and try it again.
I use Chrome and got an extension to delete cookies for a specific site. Found I had to spam it more than once, close the page, reopen it fresh, and then it let me login. Otherwise it kept giving me security errors and kept telling me I had to accept cookies instead of letting me login.
Feeling nauseous today. Brother got called in to work for a meeting that ALL employees were required to attend. I think they will be clearing out the kitchen & disposing of the perishable food that will go bad in the 2 weeks the place will be shut down. At least he's supposed to get his full salary during the shutdown. My friend who works in the arcade is only getting a partial salary which means he'll probably end up short on his utility bills.
 

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