"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

5/14/13

Service Berries

Last I left you, I was about to tackle defrosting the freezer. Well, I did it. I'm so proud of myself. Daughter Ruth helped.

First we turned the freezer off and emptied the contents into the camping coolers. Then I set up the big box fan across the room from it (it's a tiny room. It sat on top the washing machine). I left the freezer door open with the fan blowing in it. This melts the ice faster than if I didn't use a fan.

One of the things I hate the most about defrosting it is that I have to empty a cake pan of water every 10 minutes. There's a little drain in the bottom of the freezer that leads to a little hose that comes out the bottom. It is very low to the ground so the tallest pan I can use and have it still work is a cake pan, which fills about every 10 minutes. It's a messy and boring process. However, this year my brain must have been on fire or something cuz I came up with a fantastic idea that removed the pan emptying step out of the process.


You can see the little gray hose in the picture. The hammer is anchoring it down. I made a chute out of aluminum foil and some wood pieces, set it up at an angle out the front door, and just let everything drain outside. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. It made the whole job a piece of cake. Took about 3 hours. While this was going on I knitted, puttered in the yard, cleaned house, and had fun. After it was done draining, I wiped it down with some warm water and a sponge, dried it with paper towels, turned it back on, and put everything back in. Job done.

Saturday was the hottest day of the year thus far. It got up to 88F degrees! In May! In the FIRST HALF of May! I did some knitting out on the deck in the morning. Then we headed into Coeur d'Alene to visit Home Depot to purchase supplies needed to install the hot tub. Spent all day there, pretty much. Spent a couple hours roaming around looking for what we needed. Then we went to Zip's for a quick lunch. While at Zip's Sweet Hubby remembered a couple more items he'd forgotten. So we went back to Home Depot for an hour. Finally, we headed for home.

When we got home Sweet Hubby discovered he'd bought the wrong sizes for two of the required supplies. So back to Home Depot I went. No one human would go with me though. So I took Cable. She enjoyed the ride immensely.

When I got home again I declared no more trips for me to Home Depot for the rest of the weekend! I was exhausted! By the way, I should mention, the air conditioners were not working at Home Depot. It's only the first part of May.

Sunday was Mothers Day and it was a good one. The weather was a bit cooler, and cloudy all day. My daughter Sarah and her husband sent me a lovely basket full of Jonquil bulbs. They've sprouted right away and are growing like crazy. I'm looking forward to them blooming. I spent the day knitting and working on planting the garden.



Sweet Hubby worked on getting the electrical set up for the hot tub installation. He had to go to Home Depot again. I refused to go. It was Mothers Day. I don't have to go to hardware stores on Mothers Day.

We went out for dinner to La Cabana, a Mexican restaurant in Rathdrum. I was in the mood for enchiladas. Dan and Sue went with us and we had a good visit.

One of the wild flowers that grows around here is Serviceberries. They have a dark purple berry that is actually pretty tasty, but by the time I get around to thinking about picking some, the birds have eaten them all. They are in full bloom right now. So beautiful. Here is the biggest one growing in our yard.



It stands about 14 feet tall. It's extra beautiful this year. Here are some close ups of the flowers. The sprinklers were on when I took this pic.



Oddly, they smell horrible. Not unlike the inside of a garbage can. So I don't bring cuttings of them into the house.



The petals are such a pure white.



A smaller bush by the deck has this on it.



There's a star in the center.



Monday was cold, gray, and wet. It rained pretty much all day, which is fine because we needed a bit of rain. Today I have Rathdrum Knitalong, and some errands to run. The day should be drier and just a bit warmer. The fridge is in need of restocking, and I need to go get a State Park sticker for the pick-up truck so we aren't charged extra when we go on this summer's camping trips. The sticker will give us free entrance to the parks too.

The new Star Trek opens this coming weekend. Hurray! I can hardly wait!

Live long and prosper. \\//

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