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Monday, October 14, 2019

OMG a new toilet! and a sweet surprise.


I'm not sure what this says about my social life, but OMG I got a new toilet!  It had been languishing in its giant box for over two years - waiting for me to make up my mind as to whether I was going to put it in or have someone who actually knows what they're doing put it in.  Luckily, common sense won out over delusions of competence and time.  It also helps that I finally found a plumber that will a) show up; b) come on a weekend (Sunday); c) not charge me an arm and a leg.  As it turned out, the Pat loved the plumber almost as much as he loves my handiguy, Billy.  I had to shut the door in order to let him work in peace.  The Pat wanted to be 'helpful', as did Lovey, but...

Saturday was a lovely day - one of those glowing fall days in the Northeast that makes all the leaves look luminous.  It was warmish, with a nice breeze and everyone seemed to be in a happy mood.  Lovey gets the zoomies in this weather, so I try to let her out in the back fenced-in part of the sheep paddock so she can safely get it out of her system.  The Pat just ricochets around, yapping.

I got my hair cut, met my sister at the farmers market, visited with a couple of farmers that I know, admired the pies at the apple pie contest table, and made my parental pilgrimage of the week.  Then I did a little shopping and stopped to see Marianne and hit the transfer station on my way home.  It was a very pleasant day, but I was knackered when I finally came through the front door.  Knackered or not, the sheep were bleating, and the dogs were pointedly looking at their empty food dishes.  Just as I collapsed on the sofa after evening chores, there was a knock at the front door (setting off the deafening dog alarm).  It was my neighbor up the road - with a pint jar of his own honey as a thank you for planting all the flowering perennials enjoyed by his bees!  Woot!

Sunday was a stay-at-home day.  I fed the farm cats and then applied myself to garden clean up and house clean up.  The fence is down, rolled up and stashed away for the winter.  I've gone around the raised beds with the weed trimmer, the grass has had its final mowing, and a goodly amount of trimming, yoinking and cleaning up has been done outside.  I steam cleaned the kitchen floor (I so love my floor steamer), did three loads of laundry and got it on the line, vacuumed and dusted(ish) and cleaned the bathroom so as not to horrify the plumber, then got dinner started.  I had invited my neighbor who mows and trims for me over for Sunday dinner.  As I sashayed around the kitchen, thinking about my new toilet and clean kitchen floor (so, so, smugly), I looked down and realized that my package of cornstarch had sprung a leak.  As any of you who have dealt with cornstarch knows, this is a disaster of epic proportions.  The more you try to contain it, the more it wafts over every surface within an arm's reach.  Within a nanosecond, I had cornstarch on my counter, floor, shoes, pants and dogs.  It doesn't pay to be smug.  By the time my neighbor arrived, everything had been recleaned and was in order - except, of course, for the cook.  My hair was standing on end (probably generously dusted with cornstarch) and I had started adult libations without him.

And then it was Monday.



15 comments:

Michelle said...

Hmm; I wonder if he thought he was invited over for more than dinner when met with a tipsy, wild-haired woman in a clean house! =:-O ;-)

Susan said...

More likely, had he not known me better, he would have run screaming from the front door!

Sam I Am...... said...

You had a great weekend and I wish I was your neighbor! You are so funny and talented! You are one of the few single self-sufficient female bloggers and I love it! I am single but old and getting less self-sufficient by the day but I can still carry my own salt bags and mulch so don't count me out yet! LOL! I was just thinking about getting a mower person simply because I hate the 90-100's we get down here...I just can't handle the heat anymore. I'm from the North so I'm thinking that's why....I like it cold! LOL! You got so much done....you're amazing! I hope you have a great week too!

Susan said...

Yes, we single female homesteaders have to stick together! There are times when, usually around February, I feel that not having to wade through waist deep snow would be a blessing. Then the heat and humidity hit and I'm longing for the cold! I think getting someone to mow is a great idea. Here's hoping we both have a great week!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

A momentous weekend, cornstarch and new toilet included!

ellen abbott said...

I wish my do-it guy would do the alteration to my gutters before the next big rain hits but it's a quick job for not much money and he tends to spend his weeks on the big jobs that actually support him. he'll get to me, usually on a Saturday. our coolness lasted a big two days. I'm back in my summer clothes.

Mama Pea said...

It's all the activities of your weekends that make me want to drink. A clean house, the garden put to bed AND a new toilet? No comparison to a smallish cornstarch "explosion" to deal with. Oh, if your Mondays just didn't come with such frequency, eh? (Wait until you retire, my dear. If I know you, you will make your Mondays through Fridays as busy as your weekends are now!)

Ed said...

We have a steam mop and love that thing on our tile floors. However now that our tile floors have been reduced to just the bathrooms, it won't get a lot of use anymore.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

now that i am coking with tapioca flour, i have the same experience almost every time i open the bag. it seems to increase exponentially when it hits the floor or counter. glad you are enjoying fall! we have had glorious days though a wee bit warm for my liking. i am enjoying every minute of it!

Joanne Noragon said...

Monday's come round like that, cornstarch notwithstanding. It's attributable to the universe in motion, I believe.

Goatldi said...

You steam clean your floors? This is being proposed by a woman who couldn't get the exact mop she needed anywhere. I finally hooked up after 14 weeks of residing here to a fairly local (only 40 minutes one way) Azure group . I now have the mop of my dreams as I had before the move and the floors are clean after 14 weeks of accumulation. On the other hand 14 weeks without mopping? Perhaps there is something to say about being picky.

Annsterw said...

LOL! I love ANYTHING new - congrats on the new toilet!!

Nancy In Boise said...

Omg, we're getting a new toilet too! Had to take a bathroom redo, that's ok
Autumn is here to. Leaves getting lots of color!

Susan said...

I am not a single female homesteader but some days, more than some, I might as well be. I slogged around in the rain today addressing issues after a long weekend of travel, the other person in the house worked in his studio and had a nap. He is, however, good at removing and replacing toilets due to the fact our mismatched union produced a child who was a fiend for ramming toilet rolls right down to the bend in the toilet.

Rain said...

LOL Susan...the cornstarch, I can just picture you with your libation in hand ha ha! Great post. A new toilet! That's fun! :))