recent plumbing and More tomatoes!

Well, the sink issue in SS finally came to a head.  We tried using more draino on it Monday (and of course, the small snake) and it didn't improve.  in fact, it got worse!  I guess the draino adversely affected the plastic pipes?  Or maybe just the jostling of the plunging actions, but by Tuesday morning, it was leaking under the sink!

I took Tuesday off from work and proceeded to try to figure out a course of action.  I wanted to put in a heavier metal pipe based solution (I had a mix of light plastic and metal), but i couldn't find the parts I needed at Home Depot and time was running short to create a decent PVC solution.  The local Home Depot "experts" are useless, at least with respect to plumbing!

Anyway, long story short, I ended up going back and forth to HD only twice!  A miracle!  LOL  I did end up using the crappy light weight plastic pipe fitting that they offer.  Unlike last time i used those fitting though, I immediately bought pipe sealant!  I also got a 50 FOOT 1/2" pipe snake to clear that damn clog up once and for all!  It took a while to put the snake down and run it through, but I did it and cleared the clog (never did identify the clog though!)  I rebuilt the drain with all new plastic and sealed them good.  The build seemed solid.  Leak testing showed few leaks - mostly just needing to tight compression fitting around the garbage disposal connection.  Hopefully that will get snug and we will be OK soon.  Its good enough for use though, and saved me having a $300+ bill from James Wheat (and having to WAIT for Wheat!)

So that was my Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday night we got back to processing tomatoes (after Katherine spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning a BUNCH of dishes by hand!)  We got to use the squeeze-o style strainer (BTW, the mail order squeeze-o arrived Wednesday night - but we used the one I bought from Zimmermans because it was already clean).  We processed 5 pints of sauce and  7 pints of juice.

Also, I hung up the sunflower heads in the shop to dry so that the squirrels can't get to them!  Once the heads are dry enough I will remove the seeds and then soak the seeds in salt brine, then dry the seeds for eating.  I need to remember to save some of the seeds for planting!  Probably try to save those that are still on the sunflowers up at the farm.  I don't want to harvest them too early in case they aren't mature enough to make good planting seeds!

Today, I would like to process all of the remaining tomatoes that are ready.  I have a batch in the juicer right now.  Will update blog later.

Weekend update

Well, its been a frustrating weekend.

I went up to the farm Saturday morning, earlyish - got there around 11ish.  I immediately started to clean up the wood that I in the driveway last week.   But first, I had to sharpen the chainsaw chain.  After sharpening, the chainsaw was back to cutting through the wood easily!  I cut up the odds and ends that I left from last week near the old garage wood pile.  Last week I started making a round wood pile next to the garage. I stacked the wood that I sawed up.  I found a couple of pieces that I cut into chock-blocks for the trailer.   It occurs/occurred to me that I can't really use those blocks on the trailer while the trailer is in motion!  I had intended to use the blocks to help secure the tractor while transporting it, but I just don't see a safe way of doing it (the chock-blocks themselves would become dangerous if they fell off the trailer on the road!).  It would be safer to just trust the tractor brakes and the chains.  However, the chock-blocks are still useful for blocking the trailer while it is being connected/disconnected to a vehicle.

After finishing the driveway wood, I mowed around the paw-paw patch then went to check the tomatoes/garden situation.  I harvested a bunch of tomatoes and pumpkins (and some squash/cucumbers/cantaloupe etc) - most tomatoes came from the big patch.  After seeing that there were many tomatoes ready to process, I considered that I REALLY needed a squeezo/tomato strainer up there.   So I head off to tractor supply company/WalMart to see if they carried them.  I ended getting some canning jars at WalMart, and (too much candy!) some soda, but they didn't have strainer.  I went to TSC and still, no strainer, HOWEVER, TSC did have 3/8 inch hydraulic hose!  So I got 2 hoses that looked right and went back home to install them!  When I got home, it was getting too late to install the hoses so I went straight into working on the tomatoes.   I used the new strainer and it worked well!  I did scorch the tomatoes a little during the initial boiling (make sure you keep the temp REAL low and stir frequently - keep the setting under 4 on that stove!)  I got 7 quarts tomato juice canned with only about a cup of juice left over (which I drank).  It was past mid-night when I finished, so I went straight to bed afterwards.  I did take a shower while the tomatoes were in the canner (since it takes 40 mins in the hot water bath!).

Sunday morning, I woke up late - almost 9am!  After breakfast, Jay Knepper rides up on his ATV and I go out to talk with him.  He wanted to know about the wood pile situation.  I showed him the wood in the basement and garage.  He mentioned that while he was bush-hogging my field (there were ornamental pear trees left over after he hay-bined it last week) he saw that there were several dead trees along the fence line - he asked if he could cut and drag them out - I told him it was fine.  He mentioned that his friend at work was interested in the wood and that he would mention the would in the garage was available for sale (which I agreed to - but only if they came to get it on the weekend while I was there).  I am not sure of what I should charge, since I do want to get the wood out of there so I can work on the garage/shop (I am still considering converting it to two floors next year - need to talk to FetterVille).  He said a pickup truck load usually goes for about $30-$60 (depending on local demand- if there is snow on the ground).  I am guessing about 3-4 truckloads there - at best maybe 4*30 = $120 for all that wood, does not seem like much money. HOWEVER, remember - it gets the wood out of there and they are moving it!  While we were talking, I spotted a fox running out of the thicket below the front garden.  The fox ran up to the paw-paw patch - i think maybe he was hunting a mouse/varmit.  He looked in good shape though - maybe a bit thin. Then I noticed him running up the hill - right along the road toward Keller's driveway.  I told Jay about my issues with the tractor hydraulics, he confirmed my guesses.  Just turn the tractor off and raise & lower the front and back attachments to make sure they are depressurized.

After Jay left, I went to try the new hose and found that while one end fit, the other end did not!  I thought that the issue was that the hose was marked 1/2 inch and I mistakenly got the wrong size ( I got the 3/8 hose).  So I went back to TSC and got the 1/2 hose (after I called to confirm that they had it) . I got back home to fine that 1/2 hose didn't fit on EITHER side!  Then I noticed that the original hose had a different connector on the one end!   Anyway, after this I was frustrated so I went to harvest tomatoes from paw-paw patch.

I harvested tomatoes, and sunflowers and green beans.  I also picked up many of the red "pins" - hold-downs.   I decided that that point to just pack it all in and head home - since there weren't that many tomatoes ready to can and I didn't feel  like heading back monday morning.

I went back to house and looked down to the paw-paw patch - just a minute away - and saw turkeys moving along the edges of the paw-paw patch!  I took some pictures of them as they moved up the hill.

I packed all the produce and headed back to SS.  Didn't even clean all the dishes because it was already 6:30pm and getting dark.  I took the scenic tour using the waze app - get back onto 70 just before Hagerstown.  Was kinda cool.  Might be nice trip coming up, as well - we would pass a number of grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants (at least 2 chinese restaurant that i saw). 

I got back around 8:45pm, not a bad time.  About 2 hours an 15 mins.  After we unpacked the car and settled down, we cooked the green beans with some meat and some of the leftover tomatoes that Katherine was working on.

Later on I looked up a possible solution to the hose situation.  I found a 3/8 inch NPT to 3/8 inch JIC connector that should do the job.  Note that a 3/8 JIC is actually 9/16, I think.  I ordered from a hydraulic connector site: hydraulic warehouse.  Expensive shipping!  Hopefully will arrive this week, but I doubt it - I paid only for standard UPS shipping. (was still about $16 shipping for tiny objects!).  I preferred the adapter solution since this allows me to replace the hoses with cheap TSC hoses instead of custom hoses from CASE!  I still will probably call CASE  (hines) and see if they can order me some new hoses for the loader hoses.

Katherine stayed in SS to process tomatoes and eggplant.

Unfortunately, while processing the carrots I managed to cause a clog in the sink which did not clear the whole weekend, so poor Katherine had to work around that WHILE CANNING!  Ugh.

None-the-less, Katherine managed to process all of the eggplant.  I think its about 2 quarts of eggplant, after processing.  Processed by breading, baking, then freezing.  She also did 12 pints of tomato sauce (not seasoned).  She roasted the tomatoes in the oven - cooked them AND removed quite a bit of the water!  Great idea! Also, it gives the tomatoes a bit of a roasted flavor.