Happenings

Posted on March 27, 2013 by curtis

Well since I really haven’t written anything here in two months you’ve missed out on a lot of stuff. Too bad I’m not really going to catch you up. Well, maybe a little.

Way back towards the end of last year and the early parts of this year, my wife had another bout of optic neuritis and temporarily lost vision in one of her eyes. This led to MRI’s and steroid shots and a partial diagnosis of her possibly having multiple sclerosis. This led to a visit with a neurologist and more MRI’s and a spinal tap. With the neuro doc not coming up with any real, my wife decided to do her own research and for some reason decided to cut gluten out of her diet. She had read reports of gluten being a cause of lots of medical conditions. I piped up and told her to quit drinking her diet sodas. For as long as I can remember she always drank diet soda. I’m not to knowledgeable on aspartame, but have heard mix reviews of it. Literally, overnight she quit both sodas and gluten and has been free of them since January. This has literally flipped the kitchen in a 180 degree direction.

I’ve been on a soap box for the past several years with her about food. What’s in it? Where it comes from? I talk to her about the use of genetically modified organisms in our food or, how far that fruit traveled to get to the grocery store. Before, I just got a nod and she went on about her business. I think the switch finally turned on in her head.

Its the food that is slowly killing us. Whether that’s how it was grown, or the pesticide that was sprayed on it, or the laboratories that changed the genetic makeup of a plant, or the living conditions of the animal that caused it to not be healthy when slaughtered.

I started a garden in my backyard some 5 or 6 years ago when I really started learning about GMO’s and food transit and all the other green mumbo jumbo. For some people, that “idea” is already gone. For me, it’s just beginning. I wanted to know what a true tomato tasted like. I never liked tomatoes from the store or in restaurants. The garden started small and Stephanie complained when I made it bigger and bigger. Now? She wants me to rip up the boxwood shrubs in the front and plant blueberry bushes. She has been educating herself. I think.

There are no breakfast cereals on top of the fridge with cartoon characters on them. The boxed ‘helper’ dinners are gone. The inside of the fridge is chock full of fresh organic. Stephanie is actually in the garden helping and tending to things. I nearly passed out when she asked me is she could plant something. I’ve even got her convinced that composting is good and she’s saving food scraps to put in it.

Really, its about knowing where everything came from. Those corn chips you eat at the Mexican food joint down the road? There is high probability they contain GMO’s and pesticides. Unfortunately, there isn’t anywhere you can go that serves food that you should really be eating.

Stephanie has now started making a menu with the weeks scheduled dinners. Having things planned is great way to keep up with whats in the fridge.

Well, I totally went off there didn’t I? Sorry.

Anyways, things in the garden are going great. Well, almost great. We had yet another freak cold spell for the second year and I’ve lost all my tomatoes again. At least this year I was on the ball and had them covered all weekend. It was Sunday nights dip into the 20′s that really did them in. I had only transplanted a few pepper plants, so not all is lost on that front. The wheat (that Stephanie can’t eat) is growing really fast. We are cutting lettuce daily now, and some spinach. The chard is still small. You can’t walk into the garden without smelling all the flowers blooming on the mandarin tree. Just lovely.

I’m this close to building a small a-frame type chicken tractor and putting a couple hens inside.

I’m over at Sprout today. Talking about a recent trip to a family farm in Keller.

Bathroom remodel

Posted on January 11, 2012 by curtis

I tore the bathroom apart of the weekend because the wax ring under the toilet was leaking. Instead of just pulling the bowl and doing a simple job, we decided to retile the floor since we had most of the materials on hand.

As you can see, the previous owner just painted around the tank and left a nice patch of unfinished wall. I’ll have to pull the tank when we repaint. The ring looked pretty old.

The old floor torn out. Just gotta sweep and mix the mortar and its go time.

Tile layed. Grouted. Almost done.

A finished product.
It was a simple weekend project.

Note to self – Watch what falls in the sink

Posted on January 7, 2012 by curtis

I left a coffee cup in the sink to soak overnight as a penny had stuck to the bottom (don’t ask.) I obviously had forgot about it and rinsed the cup out and finished doing the rest of the dishes. Turning on the disposal, it ran for a few seconds until it bound up. WTF? All I put done the sink were onion scraps. After sticking my hand down inside and not finding anything, it was time to take it off and tear it apart.

Yes sir, it was a penny that got stuck in the disposal. And look, the onion scraps that were in too. This thing stunk to high heaven! Put it back together and it was time to try it out again.

Don’t turn the water on just yet!

Everything is hooked back up and it works like a charm. Though, don’t do what I did and forget to hook the hose from the dishwasher back up. I missed it and ran the dishwasher. Three towels later, I cleaned up the pool of water under the sink.

Home Repairs Suck

Posted on January 4, 2012 by curtis

A few days ago, Stephanie stated something about the toilet in the master bath was leaking as she had found some dirty clothes that were soaked. I didn’t really believe her and told her the one of the dogs must have peed on them. Then, this evening I noticed a small spot of water next the toilet. Sure enough, its leaking. Not a lot, but enough that I’m going to have to pull the bowl and replace the gasket. I’ve never done this before. The farthest I’ve taken a toilet apart is pulling the tank to replace the gasket that connects the bowl and tank.

But, the fun doesn’t stop there! Since I have to pull the toilet she wants me to re-tile the bathroom floor. That doesn’t bother me, I kind of like doing tile. My kitchen job sucked as I made the grout lines too wide. We still have two boxes of tile from when I did the shower stall, and a bag of mortar. Just gotta pick up some grout and it should make for a cheap tile job.

But wait, there’s more! Since I’m ripping everything out, I might as well replace the black counter top that is absolutely hideous looking. With all this new stuff going on, the walls will need a fresh coat of paint. That’s perfect, since I picked up a gallon of mistint paint a few months back for a whopping $3.

I should be able to get to the floor and new gasket this Saturday. The new counter top with have to wait until the following weekend.