Friday, September 7, 2018; Garage door lock

Overhead Door came out this morning to replace the middle garage door lock which failed last week. This is the second lock to fail of the three we have. Both the failures have been on the middle door which gets the most use. The first failure occured in August of 2017. This failure was a year later and was on the lock that originally was installed on the east door. This means I am getting only 1 or 2 years of service out of these locks.

In talking with the technician who installed the lock today, he acknowledged that the doors are very secure even without the power door lock, but it is comforting measure. There are no handles on the outside of the doors for anyone to grab and try to force the door open. Whether I continue to replace these power door locks as they continue to fail will need to be evaluated.

Luckily, the power door lock was still under warranty, as was the one replaced last year. Therefore, as last year, I only had to pay the $128 installation labor. Last year, the price was about the same. Before putting in my replacement request, I looked into buying a new one and installing it myself. The cost of the new one was about $75. I opted not to try the installation myself due to the problem I was having with removal of the mounting lock screws. I watched the technician today and he overcame the problem of the lock screws by using a vice grip. I did not think of that. Watching him replace the lock, I have no doubt I could replace the next one myself.

Thursday, September 6, 2018: Window shade, ice maker, peppadew, okra seeds

Nick (Marvin windows) came out to inspect the shade that failed almost two weeks ago. Yesterday he had called to say Marvin would require him to look at the shade before they would accept a reorder. He arrived, looked at the shade and said "yep, we will have to replace it". I made him very aware that I was very displeased that Mike had told me 10 days prior to this that he would get the reorder in so that the shade would be here before I left town in a couple of weeks. Nick started to explain that Marvin would not accept the reorder without an inspection, but I told Nick I was upset with the fact that I was under the impression that the order had already been placed. Mike was well aware that I wanted to get this repaired or replaced before I left town. He told me he would place the order. He lied...again. I told Nick I wanted to talk with someone about the many lies Mike has told me over the past year. He suggested talking with Jim, the company owner.

The guy from the Doyle Patton company came out to look at the ice maker. He concluded that there was a bad circuit card which he would have to order. He said it might take a week or so to get it. He did not say how much it would cost, but it sounds cheaper than replacing the compressor.

I noticed today that the two largest peppadew plants are so laden with peppers that they are falling over. I put some posts in and tied them to them.

Weather forecast is for three to six inches of rain this evening as the remnants of tropical storm Gordon pass through the area. Today, I went ahead and cut off the two okra pods I had not picked so that harvest the seeds for next year's crop. The two pods were well dried out and cracked. I easily collected the seeds. I will let them air dry for a couple of days and then put them in a sealed jar in the refrigerator. I've read the seeds may be "good" for up to four years, but with fresh seeds available, I will discard the seeds I have remaining from last year.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018: Window shade, carrots, ants

I harvest about 1/3 of my carrots today. I will cook them.

I also harvested some more okra.

On a more disappointing topic, on August 27, I sent an email and picture of my failed Marvin window shade to Mike. I also called and he said they would just order a new shade. Today, I got a call from Nick (same company) saying no shade has been ordered and he wanted to come out and inspect and, hopefully repair the existing shade. I told him how disappointed I was that Mike lied to me but to come on out. If it turns out that they do need to order a new shade, I will submit a complaint to the company about Mike. It is not the first time he has lied to me.

The ants are back in the sunroom. Last year, they were REALLY bad. I was able to go outside and find a caravan of ants coming into the sunroom. While I have seen some similar caravans around the bay area, I have sprayed them and they have gone away. They were going in around the bay windows, but I do not know where they were going. Now I am, periodically seeing ants on the bar. Not massive like last year, but dozens at a time. Going around the outside, I do not see any caravans coming in. I may have Rottler come out before I leave later this month.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018: Another Chimney Update; ice maker; carrots; irrigation

In my Friday, August 24 posting I gave an update on the chimney repair. In it I stated that I had accepted the proposal from St. Louis Chimney. Not having received any acknowledgement, I called and talked with Chris. He acknowledged the acceptance and said he thought they would be able to start the job on Thursday, August 30, but he said he would call to confirm on August 29.

August 29 came and went without a call. On Thursday, August 30, I did get a call from Chris asking if they could come by that afternoon to start the work. I said OK. Chris and his companion showed up along with another person. They put a ladder up to the balcony on the MIL bedroom and then another ladder up to the roof. The third guy went up to the chimney and took some pictures. I came out and Chris said the top row of bricks was loose and expressed surprise that there was no cap on top of the chimney. I don't know what he expected to find since I could have told him there was no cap. Chris said it would take much more work than originally accepted. I told him to give me a new estimate. Chris said he would send me a new estimate on that day or at least by Friday, August 31.

I did not receive an estimate on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. I developed the impression that these guys don't know what they are doing and cannot be relied upon to do what they say they are going to do. Therefore today, I called the Mirelli Tuckpointing Co. They did not answer the call but I left a message asking them to call me back about their proposal.

I got a call from Mirelli. I told them I wanted to accept their proposal and asked how soon they could get it done. The lady said they are running about a three week backlog. I told her I would be leaving town in about three weeks. She said to put this information in the body of my acceptance email. I sent that email today. I also asked if they would need to use the neighbor's driveway. The lady said I would not necessarily need to be home for the work to be done as long as they had access to water and power.

Last Saturday, I noticed the ice maker in the sunroom was no longer making ice. This is not the first time the ice maker has tripped, but each time I was able to reset the breaker and things were back to normal. This time, the machine did not loose power, it just was not getting cold. Probably the compressor. Being the Labor Day weekend, I got out the ice trays and limped to today. I called the store we bought the ice maker from, ABS, Inc. I asked if they service what they sell and they said "no", but they could give me a referral. The ice maker is a U-Line. The referral was to Doyle Patton. I called them and they said they could do the job but it might be Friday or even next week. I told them to put me on the list and they said they would get out as soon as possible.

Tomorrow I will be harvesting carrots. I also turned the irrigation system back off after turning it on Sunday. We have a tropical storm "Gordan" coming ashore in Louisiana tomorrow. They are predicting it will result in several inches of rain coming through our area on Thursday/Friday.

Monday, September 3, 2018, Labor Day: Brugmansia...another try

Back in June, I "wounded" the Brugmansia to stimulate new growth. In August (see August 12 posting), I noticed a nice healthy sprout at the site of the wound. Today, I cut off that sprout and put it in a carafe of water to see if I can get it to propagate. My last attempt was not successful, but hopefully, this very young sprout will fare better. The Brugmansia stem that "followed me home" down in the French Quarter back in 2009 was put in a gin bottle and grew to a very large plant. I brought this plant home when I left NO and tried planting it in the back yard. It did not survive the first winter.

Sunday, September 2, 2018; Peppers, resume watering

I harvested some bell peppers and some Santaka peppers today. I followed the advice I found on line (https://food.unl.edu/freezing-sweet-bell-and-hot-peppers) regarding how to freeze them. Yesterday I harvested some orka, blanched them and put them in the freezer as well. Today I harvested another four okra. I will probably harvest and freeze the okra until I leave in a few weeks.

Bells and Santaka as harvested

Bell peppers seeded and strip cut before freezing

Santaka peppers washed and stemmed before freezing

On Friday, August 17, John (landscaping) came by and said he thought I was over watering the backyard and that was why the beech died and the west boxwoods were not doing well. He suggested I turn off the irrigation system for a few days. I turned it off that day. Over the next couple of weeks, we got so much rain that I never turned the system back on. Today I noticed the raised beds were looking a bit dry. I turned the system back on, reducing the shrub watering from four times per week to two times per week.