4-29-2022 End of April -- and freezes?

Howdy to all,

It has been a very cold week. Sub freezing temperatures 3 nights in a row. But, if the forno-casters are close to correct, this should be the last one for the next 10 days.

I tried to protect my outside garden beds by tossing tarps over them. Pretty much worked. Except for any pepper plants. They took it hard.

Fortunately, I have plenty of seedlings in the house to replace them. I’ll wait a week first though!!

The tomato plants did somewhat better under the tarps.

But these look as good as when planted. Won’t need to replace them,,,, yet.

Other plantings in the garden beds are not in too bad of shape.

Strawberry plants are making their way through the straw covering from the winter.

Spinach doesn’t seem to care there was frost.

In a week or so, I’ll remove the tops of these frames, since they won’t need that protection any more.

The mini-greenhouse with the basil plants, and seeds, on one side, and spinach on the other, mostly survived.

The basil plants are not so happy, but the seedlings are sprouting okay. If I lose the bigger plants, hopefully the new ones will take over production.

Inside the tent greenhouse, the freezes didn’t cause visible damage. I’m sure it slowed growth, but as of yet, the plants look fine.

Thriving pepper plants in tent greenhouse.

Fairly new tomato transplants that still look decent.

These tomato plants may not look great, but they look no worse than they were after earlier freezes in April..

Oh, and the lawn service came yesterday afternoon in the chilly weather and did the lawn. Looks nice.

All my work the last couple of years putting down seed and fertilizer, seems to have paid off with a green lawn. Yes there is still more weeds than grass… But they are green weeds!! And best of all, the neighbor’s lawn was weed whacked too. So it doesn’t look too bad (out front). The back yard still has logs and wood pieces in a huge pile, and just lumps of weeds throughout. They may be getting that cleaned up too. Would be nice.

As for me, I’m doing okay. Need sunshine!!! Oh, and my dental issues were not done for the year. A 45 year-old gold cap fell off last Sunday. The good news was that on Tuesday, the Dentist, just cleaned it out, cleared some putty from the prep tooth (the nub) and glued it back on. Shoot, the tooth never really hurt.

The bad news, some dummy (ME!!) overdid a temporary fix on Sunday with some very old DenTemp putty. Because the cap fell out within an hour of my first attempt to put it back, I used a ton of the putty, and bit down HARD on a roll of paper towel for like a half hour to try and make it stay. Well, that has made the entire jaw sore for the last week. And, everything on that side is now sensitive to heat or cold or pressure. Basically, I’ve irritated the crap out of all of the teeth and roots, and they are not ready to forgive me. OUCH!!!!

In other unrelated news, I’m still having issues with the AFCI breaker for my bedroom tripping randomly when I turn on things up there. The electricians have replaced the breaker about 4 times, and we’ve replaced outlets, and I’ve even replaced the equipment that trip the breaker.

These AFCI breakers will trip on things like shorts, or perceived shorts, when an electric motor starts. Vacuums, AC units, fans, etc. For me, this is a major problem because I like it to be very cold at night — 62-65 Fahrenheit is as warm as I want it. Even in the winter, if it gets to 45-50 outside, that bedroom collects all of the heat in the house and is pushing 70 — way too hot..

Thus, I use a portable AC unit to cool the room. But the AFCI trips every few nights. Sometimes multiple times. That means I need to get up and head to the garage to reset it…

I’ve given up on having it fixed. I got an estimate for a split unit AC heat pump that would be wired outside, but that is just too darn expensive. (like as in the $4500 range when you add in all the needed installation extras).

The electrician offered a second solution of running a second circuit up to the bedroom for the portable AC. Since the panel is in the garage, and the bedroom is on the opposite side of the house completely, and the garage attic envelope has no access to the house attic, most of the wiring goes in conduit outside and up and down and across and down. Total of 100 foot of cabling. Plus, redoing the panel to get another circuit (it is full, and then some, already!!). Their estimate for doing this, and creating an outlet (different color to make it obvious!!) in the bedroom, without an AFCI breaker, is just a little less than their part of wiring for the split AC. It is still just under a grand… UGH. But, if I’m going to stay in this place, I need to be able to get the few hours of sleep that I can each night.

Only other update at the moment, is for Kitty. She is doing fine. Likes it when the sunshine is available and she can watch the birdies and squirrels munching down at the bird feeders.

And when it is cold, she likes to curl up in her heated beds.

And she still likes having mini-Kitty there with her.

That’s the update for now. Be sure to stay warm, and

Enjoy Life