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.

Wednesday August 29, 2018; Garage door lock

Last year, the power door lock on the middle garage door (the one used all the time) failed. It would not retract completely to allow the door to open. It was replaced by Overhead Door company on August 3, 2017. The cost was $128.

Today, when I went out for my walk, it started raining so I returned to the house to get my rain coat. I found the garage door would not open. The way it behaved, I guessed it was the same issue...it was. Unfortunately, the keys to the garage and the house were in the garage, which I could not get into. I had to call Morgan and ask to borrow his key to my garage. This got me into the garage and sure enough, the power door lock was not retracting fully.

Last year, while the lock on the middle door failed, they had to order a replacement. I asked the technician to move the lock from the east door over to the middle door so I could use the middle door. When the replacement came in, they put it on the east door. So, the lock that failed today was not the one installed last year, but was one of the originals installed back in 2015.

I looked up ordering one and installing it myself. I found I could buy one for about $75. I then went out to see if there was any reason I could not install it. If so, then I would again move the one on the east door over to the middle door and order a new one for the east door. The only issue I could see with respect to removing the old lock was getting the lock screws off. I came to the conclusion I could not get these off. Therefore, I called Overhead Door, told them my story and asked if they could order a new one and have someone come out to install. They said they would but it would take seven to ten days for the new one to arrive.

Saturday, August 25, 2018: Window Shades and Acalypha hispida (chenille plant)

Noticed today that the Marvin window shade that failed in May and replaced as failed again. The last time the bottom of the left track pulled out. This time the cord attached to the bottom of the left track popped out. Disconcerting. I sent an email to Mike (window guy) and will call him on Monday. Will encourage him to have it repaired or replaced before I leave town in September.

I had taken the Acalypha hispida (chenille plant) outside a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would enjoy the warm climate. Earlier this week I noticed it was obviously not getting enough water and had shriveled up. I brought it back inside and watered it thoroughly. It has recovered nicely and is 10" tall, two or three times the height of when I brought it home from the MoBot.

Friday, August 24, 2018: Chimney Update

Three weeks ago, when I returned from my trip to Iceland, I found I had lost the chimney cap on the southwest chimney. This is the second time this particular cap has been blown off. The first time was about seven years ago and they people who put it back on (Irish Construction) did some repair tuck pointing. It obviously was not a permanent repair as two bricks came down with the cap (narrowly missing my sunroom windows) and another brick appears to be sitting loose on top of the chimney.

Anyway, since then, I contacted two companies about repairs. One company (English Sweep) I have talked with before. The other company (St. Louis Chimney) was one I had not talked with until now. Both companies said they would send out an estimator. English Sweep set up an appointment for a couple of days after I called. St. Louis Chimney said they would have someone call to establish an appointment. The English Sweep guy came out and took a bunch of notes and photos. He warned me that they were very busy and it might be October before they could fit me into their schedule. However, he said since this is such a "small" job, he would talk with his boss and see what they could do. Several days later, I finally got an email saying they had decided they were too busy and would not make an offer. They did give me three other companies I might want to contact. They were:

• Galati & Sons Tuckpointing
• Mirelli Tuckpointing
• Gress Masonry

I called all three of these companies and they each seemed willing to come out and give me an estimate. All three companies seemed capable and said they could get to the job before I left town again in late September. They all provided me with estimates. The estimates were:

• $1,700.00: Mirelli who suggested removal of any loose rows of bricks at the top of the chimney before reinstalling the cap
• $2,950.00: Gress who suggested some kind of strap to secure the cap and included the cost of tuck pointing the entire chimney plus repair of the limestone sill which was damaged by the falling bricks. If I agreed to the tuck pointing, I would get a five year warranty
• $3,480.00: Galati who said they would reset any loose bricks, reinstall the cap and repair the window sill

I had almost forgotten about the St. Louis Chimney people when I got a call from Chris this past Monday asking if he could stop by and take a look at the job. Chris and friend came by and on Wednesday sent their estimate for $450.00. Their approach was to "re-install the current chimney cap by tap con screwing the cap to the sound masonry" to prevent future decapitations. The caveat placed on this estimate was that they would have to evaluate the condition of the chimney when they got up there and there may be some additional cost for tuck pointing. I immediately accepted their proposal (before they could withdraw it) and today called and talked to Chris. He said he would target doing the job on August 30 (next Thursday), but would get with me on August 29 to confirm.

Monday, August 20, 2018: Cabbage bugs

Joyce came over today to harvest some basil. While chatting with her I noticed just how much damage has been done to both the cabbage and the kale. The kale is essentially eaten down to the stems. The cabbage has also been well chewed on. I got out the Bayer Natria insect, desease & mite control spray. It lists kale and cabbage as valid applications. We'll see if there is a improvement. The instructions say to reapply every 7 to 10 days or after rain fall.

Kale

Cabbage

The peppadew peppers are really doing well. I found a web site that says:

"Peppadew™ is the trademarked brand name of peppers from a pepper plant called “Piquanté.”

The trademark on the name is held by Peppadew International Ltd of South Africa.

The Piquanté bush grows up to 1 1/2 metres tall (5 feet), bearing up to 50 to 60 chiles per bush.

The peppers ripen over a four month period, with peppers lowest on the bush ripening first. The peppers are small and round, only about 2 to 3 cm tall (1 inch), with bright red thin flesh walls. They look like a cross between cherry tomatoes and small red peppers."

The peppers now are green with a crunchy skin.

The santaka peppers are now starting to turn red. I think I will dry them and make a chili powder.

Sunday, August 19, 2018: Barley

Cleaning up around the pond, I found the barley bale I installed on April 5 was completely gone. I put in a new bale in the same location, in the stream between the upper and lower ponds.