At least it gives a person something to talk about that's a bit out of the ordinary. And, of course "we" are still #1 (so far). Go Dawgs!
The 2-bedroom, 2-bath double wide with FISHING PRIVILEGES sounds amazingly wonderful, @Nancy Hart ! ! How do @Bobby Cole and I get onto your visiting list ? We will happily take you out to dinner, we even know that you like both McDonalds and Burger King, so we are good with either of those…..
Some trees up near the road are full of black walnuts this year. I think they only produce every other year at most. These are younger trees from nuts dropped years ago. The original trees were in a fire at one time and eventually all died from the damage. I wonder if the nuts from these would be the same. So much preparation is involved. This old variety has thick shells, small meat, and very strong flavor. Still it's tempting. Nothing better than old fashioned chocolate or vanilla fudge with black walnuts. Just a cup? My mother collected a bunch one year and laid them out on a canvas under the cabin to dry. They all disappeared. We found them all in the attic later. Too hard for even the squirrels to crack.
Cracking black walnuts and picking the meat out of them is a job. My grandparents had a huge black walnut tree in the yard. They would lay the walnuts out in the drive way and run over them a few days with the tractor, car, or whatever else happened to come in the drive way. We would gather them all up and sit under the big tree and commence to pick out the nut meat. It took forever to get a fair amount of nuts out of those shells. But my grandparents did not waste a thing on the farm. I remember my Grandma would make the best oatmeal cake with black walnuts and a sprinkling of those walnuts on homemade ice cream was pretty darn good too!
Yeah, my grandmother and mother were the same way. I remember one time my cousins and I going through the woods in Ohio with our grandmother collecting wild black walnuts. Probably where my mom got them to make fudge.
The power company cut down our best trees along the road, within 40 feet of it, at the farm. Hubby actually helped in prepping the nuts with me. I used the vice on the workbench to crack the nuts although running them over might have merit after hubby husked and dried them. There are alternative methods on you tube. One with a pipe connector and a hammer looked promising.
I prefer my own produce but I will let you in on a little secret. You can order them on line from Walmart already cracked and cleaned.
Don't say that. It spoils all the fun. Are the ones you buy strong like the wild black walnuts? These are actually not very tasty just to eat out of your hand , but great in fudge and cookies. (my opinion only) My mother used a vise also. She cracked them in the garage because the shells flew all over the place.
They are definitely black walnuts but sometimes they taste like moth balls. Maybe rancid? But they do work well with chocolate.
9/3/23 Sunday The battery on the tractor sounded sluggish to turn over last time. Maybe that's the way all diesel engines sound? Anyway that little trickle charger/maintainer finally charged it all by itself. That means the battery is still good. It is only 3 years old, but previous ones barely lasted 2 years if I let them just sit all winter. Mowed the lawn. Maybe only one more time this season? Headed for the dam to spray and clear the road. Got blocked by one log across the road. If I had a sharp chain and a prybar with me, I might have cleared it. Headed around the other way and got blocked by 3 logs and a treetop across the road. Only one picture (You're welcome). This will be easy to clear and good exercise. One could still get to the dam by going over that steep hill from the back side. At least I'd get another look at the faux stinging nettles that way. Something kept biting. It crawled under your sleeves and up pants legs and left little red divots, which kept stinging late into the evening. One little black bug, about 1/8" long, scurried away before I got a good look at it. The closest I can find on the internet is black flies (buffalo gnats). Never heard of them before. It was not a pleasant day because of stinging all over. The sink drain. This P-trap leaks at the red arrow. I don't understand it. It seems to be one unit, and I can't get it apart at the leak. I guess I'll try cutting out the whole unit at the green line, and putting in a new unit. If that doesn't work, maybe you can start from scratch with individual pieces.
Regarding that drain... Try removing the tailpiece from the drain so as to free that J Trap from the sink. Then you can pull the J Trap toward you and try to break the threads loose where it screws in to the drain at your red arrow. I see white stuff at the bottom of that collar nut. If the compression washer in the thing is doing its job, there should be no need to have to seal that spot. Hopefully it's Teflon tape and not epoxy or silicone edit to add: I did not put those labels on for you. I was not sure of their names, so wanted to make sure you knew what I meant if I was wrong.
I never thought of taking it loose from the sink first. Wish I were was (autocorrect didn't like 'were') there right now to try it. You got me all excited.
You might still need a monkey wrench. If the threads are really seized on the connector, the J Pipe might just spin on the drain. But the handle of a wrench that's been put on the large nut will be blocked by the vertical pipe when you pull the J Pipe...then you can put your back into it. When I moved in here, I had a new countertop and deep stone double sink laid in with it. I installed the faucet, but for the life of me I could not figure out how to configure the double drains in the constricted space. I had just moved in and not had internet to look at for pics (and didn't think to do it at work.) I ended up having a plumber come over and do it when he installed a filter on my well water. He moved the pieces around like you & I would try to envision a jigsaw puzzle, and then put it together. It took him all of 2 minutes. I was embarrassed.
So you are saying that unit actually comes apart in 2-3 pieces? I will tear it apart one way or another next time I go out, even if I have to use the chainsaw. Nothing to lose. I could just put a big tub under the drain, lock the cabinet door, and not tell my cousin when she shows up.