respublica

Sea Foam?

I was reading a post put up by someone who was having trouble keeping his lawnmower running. It would start, then quit. He wanted some advice. Now, let me say up front, I have years of lawnmower work. I've cut and trimmed and cleaned up grass and weeds etc for years here on Tillotson and at the seminary. So I've had this happen and usually getting a new spark plug helped or spraying the plug with something.

But so many responded with using Sea Foam. This was the first I'd ever heard of this product and I am very curious. Here is basically what it does: Sea Foam "dissolves and cleans fuel and oil residues and deposits, stabilizes fuel, controls moisture, and lubricates upper cylinders. Safe and effective when added to gasoline and diesel fuel and oil crankcases Just pour it in."

I watched a video of some guy showing how this was done, and frankly I was mesmerized and now want a can of this stuff before the cutting season begins. I was hoping our new Ace Hardware had some, but they are out of it but can order to receive on Wednesday. I'm not driving to Troy or O'Fallon for this today. Home Depot does not have it,  but of course Walmart has some in stock. Not going there on a Sunday but I may just go over early tomorrow morning to get a can of this stuff.

Also going to get a new filter for the carburetor.

 

Dale will build it!

Dale and I decided it was too nice a day to sit around the house and headed over to the Willoughby Farm in Collinsville. This is a fantastic place, a farm right in the middle of the city, and laid out as it might have been in the 1930's and 40's.  There are barns, animals of all types, old farm machinery, walking trails, and gardens everywhere. Dale loves the old machinery and can tell you the brand and what it might have been used for. The first thing we saw when we walked in were raised planting beds and they looked perfect for our own yard.

So Dale is agreeable to making a couple for us which will be wonderful. Our yard is not big and not right for vegetable planting so this is exciting. He's good a building things and this will keep him out of the basement for a while.

 

'

A new hint!

Here is something I did not know. Shocking? Right?

Well there are many many uses for those little moisture absorbing silica gel things we get in many items we buy. Most of the time we just toss them out. They come with new athletic shoes, new phones, anything electronic, and even some food products. Maybe we shouldn't throw them away, they can be used for a lot of things.

Put one in a tool box to keep moisture from rusting that screwdriver.

Another could go in a make-up bag.

And definitely stick them in running/walking shoes to take away that moisture

And in your suit case especially if you've been somewhere swimming or wet.

And this one is something no one would have considered: put few silica sachets under your windshield. They will absorb the moisture, leaving your windshield clear.

Supposedly you can tuck some in with some food packages but this is farther than I'd go.

In a box of old photos. I doubt I'd do this, but maybe if we lived in Florida.

Air Fryer?

Well, I just ordered one more thing and for once it has nothing to do with cleaning. I've been curious about air fryers for some time and have looked at them online and read reviews many times. Once in Ace Hardware and another time in Walmart I looked at air fryers on the shelf but didn't buy. I wanted one with reviews and explanations and not costing an arm and a leg. I think (hope) I found one we will be able to use. It's a Rosmoz. Ha. I bet I'm not the only person who's never heard of this but I love the look, it isn't black and it's big enough, I believe to do a whole chicken. We love having a whole roasted chicken or beer butt chicken or rotisserie chicken. But they all take a long time and do a bit of splatter. This thing should be quicker and much less mess. I hope.

I also love chicken wings, fries, toasted ravs etc and all this could make them taste better than oven cooking. So we shall see.

And it's on sale right now and with my Amazon points I cut that in half as well.

Dale is very patient about this type of purchase and we eat in all the time so...

Puzzle two

Since New Year's I've gotten into the jigsaw puzzle habit. I have to confess, I feel guilty doing something which seems like a total time waster and live with Dale who does not see the point in this at all. Well, we're even then, I see no point in his constantly tearing down walls in the basement to construct more bookshelves. But it is what it is. I find doing these puzzles good for my mind and it fills the time spent staying at home. And it stops me from constantly finding something to clean.

Anyhow, here is the second one by Jane Wooster Scott. Today I'll receive a third from Amazon and I'm looking forward to this because it is a Charles Wysocki puzzle. His puzzles are great and they sell out pretty fast, I haven't found one around here lately.

A shot in the arm!

We made it yesterday. Received our first Covid Vaccine and we are very thankful to Memorial Hospital and BJC who are doing a yeoman's job. They are so organized from the moment you drive into the parking lot to the send off. The parking lot has signs all over with the word Vaccination and arrows pointing in the right direction. The shots are not done in the hospital itself but in the big office/research building behind it. Inside the lobby really nice people were manning the elevator to take us to the third floor and immediately walking out to a huge room with workers everywhere. Tables were set up all around, some with sign in, others doing the shots and a middle area we were to wait for 15 minutes after the shot. Each area had guides taking us to the next place.

Amazing. Each person was cheerful and kind and helpful. I mentioned to several how unexpected it was to see such kindness while they dealt with people constantly all day.

In any event we now have our second shot scheduled for March 15 at the same place. After the shot the medical lady told us to take tylenol when we got home in case the shot area started to hurt. Dale did this right away but I waited until I went to bed.

We both woke up with a sore arm muscle where the shot went in, but no big deal. One more Tylenol and it's gone.

I can't  recommend Memorial and BJC enough. The best thing is you can go to that website and see available times for the vaccine. Sometimes you have to scroll down the page, but as of last night there were still openings for this week. And next week will show up probably over the weekend.

Another cleaning tip

This must have been around for a while, but its the first time I've heard of it. Dishwasher tablets have amazing cleaning power in many things beyond your dishwasher. The tablet needs to be the pressed powder type, not the gels. Drop a tablet in some water just to moisten it and rub it on the oven window. Grime comes off. One example.

But, they clean oven windows, racks, burned pots and pans, even the washing machine. Who knew we had to clean a washing machine. It seems dropping a dishwasher pod into the machine and running a cycle on hot will really clean it out. The water drain water will be dirty if the machine needed cleaning.

I plan to give this a try.

One good idea for opening those clamshell packages

Honestly this sounds like one of the best ideas yet. We've all fought to open something that came tucked into the hardest plastic ever and not for nothing named a clamshell. I've had to pry open these things for something worth 2 bucks. Like it was the hope diamond. But lots of things are now sold in the clamshell and lots of us have cut our hands trying to get the product out.

So when I ran across this advice today I was amazed and almost giddy. Take your every day can opener, the kind that has the turn knob that you place on top of a can and turn until the whole thing comes off. With a clamshell, place the opener on the end of one side, any side, and turn like you normally would until you get to the other end and voila! Open sesame.

I just ordered one more thing

Since the Covid thing began and we have been pretty much tucked into our house, I've noticed a lot of things that our house needed and many it didn't. The ease of getting something has had me living the "immediate gratification" life.

Most have been things we did find useful, one of which was the air purifier. It worked so well in our bedroom I got a second for the TV/kitchen area. They seriously cut down on dust which we had constantly from Dale taking down walls in the basement and sawing other things down there. I do not regret this purchase. I dusted for the first time in a couple weeks and almost no dust on the rag.

Today I woke up once again with a really dry nose. It is obviously from the heat in the house drying the air and the frigid cold dry air outside. We'd talked about a humidifier but quite honestly didn't want to bother with the constant refilling. But today I bit the bullet and ordered a small one just for the bedroom. My feeling is anything will should help this dry air while sleeping.

This is what being home all the time does to a person.

I've also bought a lot of bird seed lately at the Wild Birds Unlimited store. Do not regret this at all.

What's missing on the roads lately?

The St. Louis area has had a lot of crashes due to the snow and other weather. But for some reason there has not been any mattresses or ladders falling onto the highways lately.

A good thing.