Refrigerator Repair DIY

I've mentioned before and shown in previous posts that I have a husband who can fix just about anything.  Sometimes I take this for granted, but it occurred to me yesterday as he was replacing our refrigerator door gasket, that there might be people out there who are paying big bucks for repairmen or just buying a new refrigerator or freezer when the door seal breaks just because they don't know how easy it is to replace it themselves.  I know that it never has entered my mind before recently that this was even possible.

We have a Kenmore refrigerator and freezer placed side-by-side in our kitchen; bought when we remodeled our kitchen back in 2008.  They still work well, look good and serve their purposes.

But, a few months ago, we noticed that the freezer was running all the time and condensation was dripping from it.  Tom had a look at it and determined that the door gasket was torn, causing it to not seal properly.  He searched on-line and found that he could buy a gasket for our model and he ordered it.   A few weeks later, he determined that the refrigerator seal was starting to fail, so he went ahead and ordered a gasket for that one, too.  We just got around to replacing it yesterday.

It came with instructions on how to install it.  Just one little page about half the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  I know the print is too tiny to read on here, but this is just to show how simple the instructions are.  I didn't think to take pictures until we were almost done, so I can't show a step by step process.

To do the freezer was a little more complicated because we had to plan ahead to empty the contents of the door into coolers, then put plastic wrap over the freezer opening since we were going to have the freezer door open for an extended period of time.  But, for the refrigerator, we didn't need those things.  It takes less than a half an hour to do this, so it won't hurt the contents to be sitting on the counter for a while.  Although, if you keep milk or something like that in your door, you might want to put it in a cooler because after the new seal is installed, you can't open the door for an hour.

Anyway, the first thing to do is to remove the old seal.  If you lift up the edge of the seal, you can see a row of screws that goes all the way around.  Loosen those slightly, just enough so that you can gently pull the old seal off.  If you're having to tug real hard, then your screws aren't loose enough, although, you don't want the screws falling out.

Here's ours after being removed.

After that, you just put the new one in it's place.  The frame around the refrigerator door has a little groove that the lip of the gasket fits into.  Start at the top and fit that little lip into the groove all around the door.  It takes a little finessing and fiddling around, but once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty quick.

After the seal is in place, go back and tighten all the screws.  It really is that simple.  

It's so nice to have a new, clean gasket.  It makes the whole appliance look new again, which may inspire you to clean and organize your whole refrigerator.

Inaugural Ball...A Test of Endurance

So, Tom and I got an invitation to attend the 2017 inaugural events.  Wheeee!  We decided to fly to DC on Saturday morning, possibly attend the actual inauguration (depending on the crowds) and definitely attend the Freedom Ball that evening.

Our plane was delayed in Dallas, so we arrived in DC just about the time that President Trump was being sworn in, so we missed that and had to watch it on our phones.  A small disappointment since we weren't sure we were going to go anyway.

But, we did attend the ball and I just want to record my experience so that, if there is someone out there who is considering going to one in the future, you can know what to expect and plan for...assuming future inaugural balls aren't very different from the past ones.

First of all, it wasn't as cold in DC as it usually is reported to be in January, but we still needed our coats.  I took my full-length sheared mink that is completely reversible so that the lining, which is a heavy silk and actually feels like some sort of nylon, becomes a raincoat since it was also forecast to rain.  Tom took his long wool overcoat.  It was a good choice to take coats, because even though it wasn't as cold, and it's kind of a pain to travel with them (plus it was in the 70's when we left and returned to Dallas) , we needed them and did wear them.  We were blessed, though, that it did not rain, although there were a few instances of mist.  We both took light ponchos just in case.  I intended to wear mine over my hair if it did rain.

If I could only give one piece of advice to all the ladies who may attend an inaugural ball, it would be WEAR FLAT SHOES.  (more on that later)

Now, I was prepared.  I really was.  I am not one to sacrifice looks for comfort.  I mean, ideally, one can look good and be comfortable, and it is important to me to be comfortable and not ruin my feet.  But, I hardly ever wear flats with any outfit when I go out.  I even wear heels with jeans, even if it's just a small boot heel.   So, my plan was to wear my Fitkicks (super comfy gift from daughter) to walk to the ball and clip my gown up under my coat so it didn't drag, but that's not the way it went down.  First off, my gown wouldn't stay clipped up because the sequins made it too heavy.  Did I want to walk all that way and maneuver around the metro, holding my dress up?  Then, Tom made a face at my Fitkicks.  Sure, they looked goofy with a ball gown, but, who was gonna care?  In the end, *I* cared.  I stuck the Fitkicks in a bag to carry "just in case" and donned my red shiny pumps (which, for heels, are not uncomfortable).

OK, so nobody drives to the inaugural balls (well, unless you're the one in the Presidential motorcade).  Our hotel was about two and a half miles from the convention center where the ball was held.  We were told no limos, taxis, busses, ubers...no vehicles (other than security) are allowed within several blocks of the convention center (I noticed as we left, that there were cars driving around not too far from the convention center, so we probably could have taken a taxi).  So, we decided to take the metro train.  The station was just about a half a block from the hotel, down a hill.  The station  closest to the convention center was about, oh, three or four blocks away.  We walked.

When we arrived at the convention center, we discovered a line that wrapped around two sides of the center, so that added about two more blocks of walking just to get in line, then walking in the line (which moved very quickly) back the way we came, through security, then back another block to the entrance, to coat check, back out and down a couple of escalators to where to ball was being held.  Walking, in heels, walking.  Ouch.  I should have worn the Fitkicks.

The invitation said the ball started at 7:00.  It was recommended that we go early (doors opened at 5:00) to get through security.  I did not want to go early.  I just wanted to arrive at 7:00 and stand in whatever line we had to stand in.  But, Tom likes to get to places early.  So...we compromised at little and left the hotel at 5:00.  In hindsight, this was completely unnecessary.  If I had come across a blog post like this one, I would have known this.

Security was quick and easy.  They had done background checks beforehand, so we just had to have our ticket scanned and our picture ID to show that we are who we say we are.  We checked our coats (also very quick and efficient).  Loads of people had gone in before us, but it still looked pretty empty when we finally got in.

There were several places to have our photo taken, both with professional photographers and with our own phones and cameras.

Tom is announcing his run for Presidency in 2028, although, I told him we'll be too old and it should be sooner.  I don't want to be the First Old Hag.

I'm usually cold at these kinds of events, so I also brought my vintage mink capelet to throw over my shoulders.  I had to shed it a little later because it did become too hot in there, mostly because we were in such close quarters near the stage.

The place was starting to fill up as it got closer to 7:00.  These people are random strangers that we formed a bond with as we staked out our small section of floor space close to the stage.  Our thinking was that if we were close, we'd be able to see everything better.  That holds true for tall people.  I never really think of myself as being short, but at 5 feet 3 1/2 inches, I had no advantage being close to the stage.  We started out right up by the barricade, but as time went on, other people kind of inched in front of us.  We weren't really paying attention, but we ended up about five people deep away from the barricade.

So, while President Trump was on stage making his comments, then the family was dancing their "first" dance as President and First Lady, this was my view.  I say "first" because he had already had two "first dances", one at the Military Ball and one at the Liberty Ball, which we could see on the jumbotron.

And, this was my phone's view as I held it over my head trying to get a picture of the President.

The ball was scheduled to start at 7:00, but at 8:00, the announcer announced that the party was beginning and the entertainment started.  The entertainers were very good, although I could see very little of what they did without standing on my tip toes.  The food was mediocre, but plentiful.  They had several buffets scattered throughout so that lines were short or non-existent.  However, I really don't think people ate much.  I know I didn't.

They had cheese, fruit, and veggie trays with assorted crackers and breads, along with three different hot pasta dishes.  Because I have celiac disease, I couldn't eat anything except the veggie, fruit and cheese.  They gave us drink tickets and anything beyond the value of the drink tickets, you had to pay for yourself.  I didn't even bother getting a drink the whole time I was there.

Here's the thing...there were NO CHAIRS and NO TABLES.  Seriously, no place to sit.  At all.  There was a small section with chairs for the handicapped that was cordoned off, but none for anyone else.  Not even a ledge against the wall to perch on.  If you wanted to sit, you had to go sit on a toilet or leave the party.  After standing for so long, I was beginning to wonder what happens to a body that stands still for too long.  Seriously.  

Now, when I was young, I used to have a job that kept me on my feet for pretty much eight hours - and oftentimes I wore heels.  And, yeah, I know people work and stand for that long and longer.  And, yeah, my farm work requires that I'm on my feet a lot and I'm walking a lot.  But, in all of those situations, I can take a break and sit for a minute, even if it's on the ground.  But, there was no option at the ball except the cold, hard, dirty concrete convention floor...in a ball gown.  There was nothing to even lean on.  And, I didn't bother to eat much or drink anything because there was no place to even set a plate or cup.

Believe me when I say no place to sit, because I was desperate enough to want to go shove one of those handicapped people off their chair like we were playing musical chairs.

Anyway, it was fun and exciting to be in DC while history was being made.  And it was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience to get to go to an inaugural ball and to be with all of those people that were equally excited for this new Presidency.  But, it also was an experience to test my endurance.

Oh, and Inaugural "Ball" is a misnomer, because there is no dancing at the ball other than the few moments the first family swayed back and forth a few times.  As soon as they left, we and at least half the other attendees made a bee line for the exit.  Like me, they probably couldn't wait to find a place to sit, even if it was a train seat.

For the walk back to the metro station after the ball, I did switch to my Fitkicks.  Otherwise, I might have had to crawl back.

If I had it to do again (and that won't happen unless I'm arriving in THE motorcade), I'd do things differently.

Things to know:

(1) Take a taxi and be dropped off as close to the venue as possible

(2)  Wear flats to and from the venue (I ended up taking my shoes off at around 9:30 and going barefoot (I had checked my Fitkicks with my coat).  I stepped in all manner of who-knows-what and my dress dragged the floor, but by then I didn't care.

(3)  Eat before going

(4)  Don't wear a wrap into the party and carry the least amount of belonging as possible

(5)  Invitations say black tie and most men were wearing tuxes, but it is not essential.  Nobody will care if your man wears a suit instead.

(6)  I did see a couple of women in street length dresses, but they were out of place.  Wearing a ball gown is a better choice.  Even though nobody will likely remember or care what you wore, you will not look like you belong there if you aren't dressed appropriately.  But, don't try to be Cinderella because a big, over-the-top princess ball gown is impractical in that crush of people.

(7)  Arrive late.  Really, there is no reason to go early.  As we were leaving, there were some people just arriving - they were smart.  Here's what I'd do...I'd arrive between 8-9:00, switch to my heels, dance to the great music away from the crush of people near the stage, watch the President from across the room (because he didn't arrive until around 10:00 and the view is better and you can see the jumbotrons better), nibble on the food here and there, dance some more after the President leaves, then go home.

Somewhere In Texas

I'm pretty sure I saw a Mockingjay fly by.

The Fixer

I really don't know how anyone makes it in life without knowing how to fix stuff, or having someone around who knows how to fix stuff...especially on a farm.  And, I really don't know how it can be that companies have been making farm equipment for so many years, yet they still seem unable to make anything reliable.  Seriously, we can't get through a season without more than one piece of equipment breaking, malfunctioning, or just plain dying...multiple times.

If Tom wasn't capable of fixing nearly anything, we'd spend half our time and all of our money taking equipment to repair shops.

 My mower, which is not very old, stopped working about three or four times this season.  This particular problem happened to be something stemming from a safety feature.  If I get up from the seat, the engine turns off.  It's a good feature because if the mower flipped over with me on it, I sure will be happy that it turns off instead of chopping me into pieces.

However, the sensor isn't in the greatest place.  It's kind of forward under the seat, between my legs.  Somehow, it got out of whack and was sensing that nobody was in the seat, even when I was sitting in it.  Tom insisted that I had lost weight and was now too light for the sensor to sense my weight.  As much as I'd like for that to be true, I knew I hadn't lost weight, so it had to be something else.

Thank goodness Tom could diagnose and fix the problem fairly quickly and I could be on my way.

Pink Eye

We managed to stave off the parasites pretty good this spring, so I guess we're due for some illness around here.  A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I discovered that some of the goats had pink eye and we had to treat all fourteen of them.  Billy didn't get it even though he was spending quality time with the does, but we treated him anyway...just in case.

It's pretty much a pain when the goats have to be medicated because, well, they don't like to be medicated.  They particularly don't like to have stuff squirted in their eye.  We only have one goat who likes medicine, but only the kind she gets to swallow.  You can see her in the video below, getting in the way because she wants to taste the medicine.

For two weeks we squirted them all in the eyes twice a day.  OK, the truth of it is that there were a couple who didn't get it twice a day because they wised up and ran away, even though we tempted them with yummy sweet feed.  It's really, really hard to catch goats that don't want to be caught.  For several days, it was a disastrous melee with horned goat bodies flying all over the place.  I had several bruises on my legs to prove it.  We desperately need a chute.  Don't ask me why we've been raising goats for eight years and still don't have a decent set up for situations like this.

But, we finally got it down to a manageable system.  By Thanksgiving, we thought they were improved enough to take a break.  Even though they're supposed to be treated until their eyes cleared up, it was a pretty laborious process, we ran out of medication, and I had been reading things that sounded like it would clear up on it's own anyway.

Whatever.

After Thanksgiving, there were a few that were completely well and a few that were worse.  So, we had to get more medication and start over with the ones still showing signs of illness.

This doe was the worst.  Her eye was completely clouded over and inflamed.  She actually had to have a shot in the eyelid.  Ouch.  But, she's getting better.

This is one of the does that ran away and made it more difficult than it had to be.  She missed a few doses the first time around and her eye got pretty bad.

Another picture of the goat above.  If her eye was normal, you'd be able to see the rectangular pupil and a clear amber colored iris.  As it is, the eye just looks dull.

This guy got better, then worse.  Both of his eyes are cloudy.  You can barely make out his pupil.

If you enlarge this one, you can see that her left eye is clear.  Compare it to the other pictures of cloudy eyes to see the difference.  When they have pink eye, it kind of looks like a cataract, a cloudy spot that can cover just a spot on the eye, or the entire eye.

Her eye has begun to clear up, but it's still swollen and partially clouded.

Here's a video that I made with the GoiPro of our morning goat medicating session.  Too bad I didn't think to video our earlier goat wrangling efforts because I think it would have actually been funny to see.  It involved lots of running around, chasing, falling, and trying to fake the goats out by acting like we were just ambling on by and weren't actually going to grab them (no, that doesn't work), a bit of failed amateur lassoing, and snagging goats with a staff.

It's hard to see in the video, but goats have an extra eyelid under the eyelid that you can see.  It closes from the back of the eye towards the front.  Some of the goats are particularly hard to medicate because they'll clinch their outer eyelid really tight and when I pry that one open, they'll close that inner eyelid which blocks the spray.

The video doesn't work anymore because, apparently, Blogger doesn't give a flip.

Litterbugs. Ugh.

One of my farm chores is to do the mowing of what I call "the grounds" on a weekly basis.  That includes anything that is mowed "for looks", so that our place will look nice an tidy - the yard, down the driveway, along the road, etc.  Since our property is a corner lot, we have a lot of area along the road that I maintain.

I just don't understand, in this day and age, after years of anti litterbug and "don't mess with Texas" advertisements...why do people still throw trash out of their vehicles?  Every time I mow, I have to stop numerous times to pick up trash that people have thrown onto our property.  I just don't get it.  Can't they wait until they get home and put it in their trash can?  We aren't on a busy highway.  We're on a county road, off the beaten path.  It's a destination to nowhere except a cemetery or someone's home.

I keep this empty container in my mower cubby to stash the trash while I'm mowing.

Fits in here, nice and tidy, with my clippers to snip little rogue trash trees that grow along the fence line.

This is the trash that I picked up yesterday.

Along with... surprise! THIS!  

Hello, Karma.

Vardo Setback

Well, it's been a while since I've worked on my RV-to-vardo project.  When the mood finally struck, I made a horrible discovery.

We had a leak, which damaged part of two walls and rotted out a large part of the floor on the slide out...the part that I had already done several things to.

So, this sets me back and will make the reno more involved than I had intended.

Tom tore out the floor and replaced it and also tore out part of the walls.  We're trying to save the wallpaper job that I did, so that's one reason we didn't tear all the walls out.  Thankfully, most of the damage was below the windows.

It's not all bad, though.  I didn't like that old carpet that was in there, but I couldn't justify tearing it out - expense AND it was just a lot of work.  So, now at least the carpet is gone.  The bottom of the banquette rotted out, so that's a loss.  Since the whole floor had to go, I just took the jackknife sofa/bed out, too, and am getting rid of it.  I have a great plan for a replacement bed that I'm excited about.  Also, having a little table and chairs instead of the banquet might be nice.

The Coop Yard

This is how the conversation went early this spring:

Me:  We need to rebuild the chicken coop yard.

Him:  Why?

Me:  Because, for one, it needs to be bigger.  Sometimes, we need to keep the chickens in their yard for a few days at a time and they need more room to scratch around.  Like now, several chickens are laying their eggs somewhere besides the coop and we're only finding one or two eggs a day.  It's ridiculous to have 18 chickens and get so few eggs.  Also, we need a safe place for the newly hatched chicks to be.  Out of nine that hatched this spring, only two survived.  Secondly, we built the yard we have now back when we didn't know anything about chickens.  We only made the sides about four feet tall and the chicken wire that goes across the top is sagging so much.  The weeds took over last summer and it killed my back pulling all those weeds out because I had to bend over double to fit under the "roof".  Also, I'd like to incorporate a few other features into our chicken yard.

Him:  We don't need a new chicken yard.  It's too expensive.  It will cost a thousand dollars.

Me:  Ok, well, you'll have to keep the weeds cleared out of it because I just can't do that anymore.

Him:  **blank stare**

'nuff said.

Shall We Try This Again? (Saving the Pond)

If readers will recall, back in the spring of 2015, we had torrential rains that washed part of our pond dam away.  We made a valiant effort to stop the damage (and here, too), but to no avail.

Thinking, "There's no way we'll have that much rain again in our lifetime," Tom and neighborly neighbor repaired the spillway.  And we were so happy and proud.  However, we were wrong.  Oh, so wrong.  We got even more rain in the fall of 2015, which totally washed the spillway away.

And, it's been too wet up until now to repair it.  So, now we are killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

A few years ago, we were having drainage problems in front of the barn, so Tom dug sort of a trench in front of the door so the water would drain away.  Unfortunately, that's one of the few spots on our property that has red clay instead of sand.  The grass didn't grow back to cover it and it turned into a huge mud puddle every time it rained...which, obviously, was a lot.  So, he is taking this opportunity to fix that problem.

My brother had given Tom these huge pavers out of his Oklahoma back yard (thank you brother).  Fortunately for Tom, I was not able to lift them, otherwise I would have nicked them for my own project.  (I didn't actually have a project to do, but I'm sure I could have thought of something to do with such a cool freebie).  So, once again we called upon neighborly neighbor and his handy big machines.  He and Tom dug out and leveled the trench and put these pavers in.

The next thing to do was to scrape the area down so that the water flows away from the barn.

Neighbor used his Bobcat and this disc thing that I'm pretty sure he just whipped up in his shop the day before.  It tilled up the grassy area so the topsoil could be scraped off and saved, to be reapplied later.

The topsoil was put in one pile.

And the clay underneath was put into the dump truck.  By the way, neighbor is pretty accomplished with his big machines.  He changes attachments on his Bobcat as quickly and easily as I change attachments on my vacuum cleaner.  Click, click...one attachment off...click, click...another attachment on.   I'm kinda diggin' the Bobcat.  Maybe that can go on my wishlist. :)

So, here's the pond.  It's a mess.  It's lower than we'd like because every time it rains, the water just flows right out of the broken spillway.  We haven't been able to get over to the other side of the pond to mow for months, so it's a big weed patch.

The remains of our previous fix were dug out.

Ready for new drainage pipes.   The clay that was dug out from in front of the barn and put into the dump truck was trucked to the spillway site to use in place of the sand that was previously there.  You know that Bible class song that we teach our children..."the foolish man built his house upon the sand" and "the wise man built his house upon a rock"?  Well, that's more than figurative.  There's a reason that you don't build things on sand.  "and the rains came tumbling down"

Three culverts this time instead of two.

Now, we can finally drive across the dam.

And, here's the other side.  There's a big scoop out for the water to flow into before it starts flowing downstream.

Bring on the rain.  We need to test this bad boy out.

Well, we are hoping for only moderate rain so we can get some grass growing in the sandy topsoil first.

And...in front of the barn, all nice and smooth.

All in one day.  Awesome.

Farm Camp with Niece

I invited our young niece to come stay for a few days and have a "farm camp".  My intention was to time her stay so that she could help me with the milking and care of the goats, then to make several things with the milk so that she could have a farm-to-table experience.  Unfortunately, her spring break didn't exactly line up with the kidding of the goats, so I wasn't milking yet when she was here.

I have to wait until the kids are two weeks old before I start milking for several reasons.  First of all, I want to make sure all the colostrum is gone because it doesn't taste good and I want the babies to get it all anyway.  Secondly, the mothers are still sloughing off the material in their uterus so that they have gunk stuck to their tails and bottoms.  That's kind of gross because there's a possibility that it might fall in the milk.  Thirdly, I usually separate the kids from the mothers at night while I'm milking so that their udders won't be emptied by the babies during the night so that I won't get much in the morning when I go to milk them.  Why go to all that effort of getting up early, milking, and cleaning up, if I only get a pint or two?  So, until the kids are about two weeks old, they are too young to separate from their moms because they need to nurse every few hours.

Anyway...I happened to have a lot of milk in the freezer left over from last year's milking season.  So, we were able to make yogurt (which was a total failure), ricotta cheese, cajeta, and three different kinds of ice cream with that milk.

Niece was very helpful with the goats and she did some chores with Tom, too.  I gave her the main chore of cuddling goats.  That seriously is a time consuming job.  It's important that the baby goats are socialized so that they don't turn out wild.  She spent hours with them and it really has made a difference with this year's crop of babies, especially the meat goats that don't come into the barn every night like the milk goats do.

She learned that it was counter productive to chase them and that it worked out much better to sit quietly and let them come to her.

This one and it's brother were particularly affectionate.

She thought it was hilarious to let them use her as a trampoline and balance beam.

They like to chew on hair.

More jumping.

Sweet kisses.

And cuddles.

And a few nibbles.