Tub Cleaning
One item that was in desperate need of cleaning was our upstairs bathtub. Over the past couple of years we have occasionally cleaned the tub, but despite our best efforts the mildew insisted on continuing to grow in the horizontal caulking where the top of the tub meets the tile wall. And since it is difficult to impossible to remove mildew once it's growing into the caulking we decided it was time to re-caulk the tub. I seem to recall that we caulked along the vertical corners in the tub's tile walls, but never at the base of the tile wall, so the caulking there dated to at least the pre-Bishopian age, which means it was probably due for replacement anyway.
Food Garden Cleaning
Our food garden is a mess. After the end of its productive season the accursed clover started sprouting, and they have taken over the entire food garden. Last year at planting time we tried to manually pick out their seed bulbs as we encountered them, but we decided to try a different approach this year - a sifter box approach. The idea is that we can sift the food garden soil through a sifter box and pick out the accursed clovers and their seeds on a larger scale and with less manual labor. Before we could begin sifting, however, I had to make the sifter box. Initially I thought I would have to make the box entirely from scratch, but at Home Depot we found some small wooden crates that turned out to be just the right size for a sifter box. All I needed to do was to remove some of the wooden slats and attach some 1/4" metal mesh we already had, and voila!
Back Yard Cleaning
We now bring you the account of the Eighth Battle Of The Stump. The eighth stump was located in the back corner of our back yard - way back behind the fruit trees. One day recently we decided that the time had come to clean up this corner of the yard by removing this stump. It was old and decayed when we moved into our New House, and it had been bothering us (me) for quite a while. It was a sunny spring day, and the ground was still pretty soft from the winter's rains, so it seemed likea good day for battle. The stump battle team consisted of Longspade, Shorty, Spike, and Bari.
As usual, Longspade engaged first to test the dirt and probe the reaches of the stump and its roots, which extended further out than we had anticipated, for like an iceberg, the stump showed only about 10% of its mass above ground and hid the other 90% below ground. Next to engage was Shorty, with some more detailed probing and clearing of dirt around the roots. Bari was then called in to sever a root connection and Spike joined in to reach beneath the severed root and remove both the root and more dirt. The battle continued in this manner - digging and probing, chopping and severing, removing roots and dirt - for some time until all known root extensions were removed from the ground. Fortunately, this stump and its roots were quite decayed and crumbly, so severing and removing them wasn't that hard. After the roots were removed the battle moved on to the main body of the stump, which broke into several pieces for easy removal. After the main body was removed the hole was probed by hand to find and remove any remaining stump and root debris.
Pottery Cleaning
Cat Carpet Cleaning
No, it's not what you think. As you know, Daisy has been isolated in my office for a while, due to her being stressed out by Edgar's presence. Occasionally a cat or two will sniff under my office door and put a paw underneath to see what's on the other side. Recently this caused a problem, and we had to clean up the mess. My office doorway is where two pieces of carpet meet, and the carpeters did a good enough job of making it look seamless, but they didn't anticipate our cats. It seems that one or two of them decided to scratch the carpet and pull it up and see what was underneath.
Time to spring into action.
bIsh
