New House Blog: Episode LXIIII - Refuse And Reuse

It all started with a flyer that came in the mail.  It was addressed to "Resident," or "Occupant," or some such generic dweller in our New House.  This flyer talked about the joys and benefits of composting.  It also mentioned an upcoming (at the time) composting class to be held at a local Community Center/Farm/Park - The Emma Prusch Farm Park.  After due consideration we decided to attend this composting class to see if composting was right for us.

Composting Part I: The Class

The class was held at the aforementioned Emma Prusch Farm Park.  We first took a tour of the park's composting facilities, then we settled down in a classroom to hear a real master composter (and master gardener) explain all about composting and its many wonderful benefits.  The farm park is a nice place.

This is the entrance to the farm park.

 This is an old house on the property.  If I recall correctly, there is a bowling lane or two in the old house.

This prickly pear cactus is quite a bit larger than ours.

 The two basic types of composters we learned about are the basic compost bins, as seen in this photo, and the worm-type compost bins, not pictured here.

But why should anyone compost?  This sign provides a few answers.

Also, where we live we put our yard waste in the street and the city picks it up and ships it somewhere to be composted and packaged for sale back to us.  It might make sense to cut out the middle man and save a few bucks.

This chicken, which I am calling Henry, was keeping a close eye on everyone entering and exiting the farm park.

We'll talk more about composting later.  Right now we must switch gears and talk about our recent flushing woes.

Flushing Woes

It had been building up for a few weeks, or months - I'm not sure which.  The toilet in our upstairs bathroom, a fancy pressurized-air type of toilet, would run and run if we didn't jiggle the handle after every flush.  It seemed like no big deal for a while, but it quickly became a problem late one night when no amount of handle-jiggling would stop the toilet's running.  In desperation we turned off the toilet's inlet valve so that it would not have any more water to run.  Upon removing the toilet tank lid and looking in we couldn't tell a thing.  Being an air pressure toilet, it is not like a standard toilet with flappers and chains and rods and floaters and such.  No, it's somewhat more contained in a closed, sealed unit that we could not decipher at first.  After doing some research we learned the names of some of the parts, and how they are supposed to work together.

This is what it looks like inside.  Very briefly: the flush cartridge gets pushed down, which activates the flush cycle; water comes in the black hose; the vacuum breaker routes water into the black plastic tank and builds up air pressure inside as it fills with water. This air pressure is what powers the next flush.  This is how it is supposed to work.

In our case it turned out to be a combination of factors that was causing our toilet to run continuously.  We first suspected a faulty vacuum breaker, so we replaced that, and it seemed to only improve the situation slightly.  The next logical cause seemed to be that there was not enough water pressure coming into the toilet, so we replaced the inlet valve and hose.

 This is the old inlet valve and hose.  Upon disconnecting the hose we discovered several strands of some pale material, possibly plumber's tape, clogging the inlet hose.  Note that this hose and valve were not installed or replaced by us when we bought our New House, so we did not cause this clog.

 This is the old inlet pipe.  Note the buildup of rust at the end of the pipe.  That will definitely cause a loss of water pressure.

This is the new inlet pipe, valve, and hose.  With the valve, pipe, and hose replaced water pressure was restored, but the toilet still ran.  We noticed that if we jiggled the flush cartridge directly, and held it up in a certain way the black water tank would fill up and the toilet would not run.  Time for a new flush cartridge.

 You can tell that this is the old flush cartridge because the adjusting knob is green.





Incidentally, the website where we ordered our parts, http://www.kullysupply.com/, states that the flush cartridge is the most-replaced part on this type of toilet.

 The old (on the right) and new (on the left) flush cartridges with the adjusting knobs removed.

You can tell that this is the new flush cartridge because the adjusting knob is black.  I don't know why the knobs are different colors.

Replacing the flush cartridge was the final step in resolving the constant-running issue.  Our upstairs toilet is once again in proper working order, and we now know a lot more than we knew before.

Composting Part II:We Set Up Our Composter

After the composting class ended we decided to get one of each type of composter - a basic bin, and a worm bin.  Conveniently, the city of San Jose just happened to be selling both types of composter in the parking lot of the farm park.

Meet The 'Mposter (the M is a pronounced silent M), our basic composting bin.  As you can see it is somewhat near our eating garden and conveniently near a water source.  It is far enough from the house that if it ever produces odors they should not bother us.  Not seen in this picture is the 1/2" metal mesh beneath The 'Mposter that is supposed to keep critters from burrowing up inside the bin.

The 'Mposter works by accelerating the natural demoposition of organic materials.  You put stuff in the top, mix it up ever now and then, add a little water on occasion, and you should end up with organic fertilzer at the bottom of the bin after a while.

New Team Members

Before we talk more about composting, meet new team members The Pitcher and Clippy.

 Clippy is a stainless steel grass clipper.

The Pitcher is a wood-handled pitchfork.

The Pitcher and Clippy have already been put to use, and both were outstanding.  We expect continued great things from them both.












Composting Part III: Worm Time

The model of worm composter we got is called the Wriggly Ranch Worm Bin.  It consists of three trays - two worm trays and one liquid tray.  Worms were not included - they had to be imported all the way from Florida, which is odd, because the website for the worm farmer lists it as a local San Jose business.

 Meet The Wormhole (or W'hole for short (the W can be either silent or pronounced)).

The W'hole works by worms breaking down food waste and turning it into what is called worm castings.  We started with one worm tray, and when the level of castings builds sufficiently we will add the second worm tray above of the first worm tray.  The liquid tray, on the bottom, collects liquid - which liquid I have been told is some of the best fertilizer that can be had.

 Meet some of the worms.  Here you can see Bish jr., on the left, and Becky Jr., on the right.  Our worms are red wigglers, and they are supposed to be a very good type of worm for composting.

 Here you can see Miles jr., on the left, and Chirpy Boy on the right.  We are told that it is normal for some worms to try to escape by climbing to the top of the tray.

This is a great photo of Amy jr.  The worms are living in a special bedding material that came with The W'hole.  Some of the worms not pictured are Satchmo jr., Daisy jr., Wally jr., Spot jr., Herman jr., Ringo jr., and Antwan.

Satchmo Interlude

This is a photo from Satchmo's recent annual trip to the vet.

When the vet put him on the floor to see him walk around he sought out, and found, shelter in her cabinet (yes, Satchmo knows how to open cabinet doors).  He seemed to be calmer in the cabinet, so we let him stay there for a little while.












Go Chirpy Boy!  Go Bart Junior!
          bIsh

New House Blog: Episode LXIII - Game Of Numbers

September is here, and that means that summer is winding down, as is our food garden.  The various cucumber plants are just about played out, and we expect to harvest the final cucumbers of the season over the next few weeks.  Our melons, on the other hand, are just coming to full harvest, while our potatoes are used up.  Some of the lettuces are done and have been replanted, and some are still going strong. Our pottery garden is still thriving, and we are enjoying a bountiful crop of various bell-type peppers and some herbs.

New House Numbers

House numbers.  They're not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, or noticing.  I tend to notice curb numbers more than I notice house numbers.  When you live in a house, however, you see your own house numbers a lot, and we got tired of looking at the house numbers that came with our New House, so we changed them.  We didn't change the street address or mailing address, but we changed the actual physical digits that were attached to our New House.  They were quite outdated and poorly painted and attached to the house.  The first photo below shows you the style of  the new numbers we picked out at OSH one night.

The style is 5" Aged Bronze Floating House Numbers, as it states in the photo.

 This photo shows our New House's old house numbers.  Obviously they have been obscured because I'm not going to post my actual address in this public forum.  But this should give you a general idea of their size and location on our New House.

 This photo shows the new number templates taped in place for proper alignment and spacing. 

These are the actual new house numbers mounted on our New House.  As you can see, the aged bronze look is quite fetching, and the floating effect is awe-inspiring.

We promise that actual, corporeal visitors to our New House will be allowed to view the actual house numbers unobscuredly.

Ye Olde Landfille Revisited Again

You will recall from this Episode that we got most, but not all, of our back yard concrete loaded into brother Mike's truck and delivered to ye olde landfille.  Since that time the remaining concrete pile has grown a little, thanks to our replacing bricks in the front yard garden and replacing the circular stone things by the driveway.  This, it seemed like the time had come to load up the truck again for another exciting trip to ye olde sanitairie landfille.  And for this trip we didn't need to borrow any trucks from any brothers - we loaded up Becky's new truck and headed out.  Here is what the load looked like. 

Notice that we also took our old garage door opener with us.

Sweepy came with us, but only for sweeping out the truck bed - we did not leave Sweepy at the dump.

Let us now enjoy some more sights and sounds from ye olde landfille.

 We seem to have rather a good view from the top of the heap.

And that's it for this Episode of the New House Blog.  I was going to tell you all about a mysterious blue light that was flying around in a most unusual way just north of our New House - pictures included (Becky saw it, too).  But then I thought that some of you would be skeptical, or misunderstand me, or tell me it was just an airplane or heliocpter or other known aircraft (I know how airplanes and heliocopters normally move through the air), or you might be in on the conspiracy and would have to silence me somehow.  So I think it's best to leave it as it is for now - an untold account of an unexplained event.  Maybe I'll revisit the issue in a future Episode.

Food for thought.
   bIsh