Leaves are still green on the quince, but the wisteria has given up.
Meanwhile Jane is still laboring over almost-the-last job we do, until we re-stock/shelve the kitchen. Scott is working for our friends Tim and Cheryl tomorrow, but hopefully (we thought we would hear from the cabinet delivery Friday, and now hope for Monday, with a Tuesday delivery) he will be here on Tuesday.
The cats explored the garden this morning, but are now in my room huddled around the air vent. Jane atypically has the heat on, since she is trying to get stain to dry on the pantry doors in the kitchen, which is full of sawhorses.
We had our first freeze last night too. The Meyer lemons should be ripe in a few days! 🙂
We got down to 29F (-1.6C) last night, and going down to 26F (3.3C) tonight. Fine with me. I got lap robes, shawls, newly knitted slippers, and I’m staying in out of it. I’m having my usual cotton stripping/ginning allergies. Sneezing my head off, my nose is running the marathon, and my eyes are watery and bleary. Thank Ghod for antihistamines and decongestants.
I trust the pond thingie is doing its job correctly?
Yes. We have 2 units in, plus the winter shade ring, which simply provides dark over the deep end. The first is a floating heater which keeps a degassing hole open, and the second is the deeper (though smaller) degasser, which continually pulls water from the wintering-over depths (a pump sunk about 2′ deep on a cord and hose) with a little heater keeping a fountain going inside a sheltered large tube. This should cause at least a small circulation to relieve the CO2 buildup.
And we got the range fixed.
Trouble from the get-go. I know a convection/hybrid oven is a learning curve. A glass top is definitely a learning curve. (Cerama-bryte is your lifeline.)
But the darned oven just would not heat right. Undershot. You CAN adjust the temperature scale on these modern electric ovens, but only within 30 degrees. THis was off-er than that.
We jiggled wires. We tried various things. Close, now, to getting the cabinets, I decided to bite the spendy bullet and call a reliable appliance repair. Well, they sent me a guy who set me off with his carny-style manner, but… he replaced and then hardwired the temperature probe. And by golly, he fixed it. He said it was the first thing to try, before anything worse. And when you look at the connector, its one of those wispy threads of wire going into a sub-dimesize computer style connector. He hardwired it with wire caps. I don’t know whether it was a defective probe in the first place, or that skimpy 20-for-a-dollar connector, but I now have an oven that works. We got crispy chimichangas for lunch!
Yay!
I’ve had reasonable luck ordering fabric online, so when I saw 20 yards of upholstery fabric on sale for about $6 per yard, I went for it. I have to cover both my couch pillows that are finally starting to develop holes after 15 years, and the major sectional I’m planning on creating; having them match would be a nice bonus.
The fabric came in Wednesday, and I finally managed to open the box. One of the things that attracted me about this pattern is that it looked like it would be a close color match to the Coastal Pine Pergo we have in storage to eventually replace our carpet. The colors are an even better match than I had hoped — weathered grays, taupes and hints of pink. OTOH, the fabric was described as ‘durable’, among other things. They weren’t kidding; I’d say ‘industrial’. It feels like it would be good for covering deck furniture more than what you want to sit on in your living room. Still it’s here and while it’s not as pleasant as the microfiber I’ve used on other furniture, it may break in and soften some.