*sigh*

We checked the washing machine. Sort of.

After shifting the dryer, then moving the washing machine, my darling daughter squirmed her way behind it to see what she could see.

Besides cat fur dust bunnies from hell and miscellaneous objects that somehow made their way under the washer and dryer…

…and the round plastic cap?? of some sort, that was oily along its edge…

…and the rusted out screws…

…and the puddle of a yellowish oil.

We tipped the washer as much as we could, so she could look at the bottom to see where the plastic thing came from, or the screws, or maybe where the oil was coming from. Unfortunately, we couldn’t tip it enough for her to see. At least not without sticking her head in the puddle of oil.

The next thing to do was to pop off the back panel, to see if the drive belt was off or what else might be the problem.

The back panel turned out to be completely different from anything we found while researching stuff online. My daughter could not see where or how the panel came off. From her angle, it looked like all one piece. From above, I could see where there was a seam between panels under the power cord, but that didn’t help her any.

As she struggled with it, I made the executive decision.

Tomorrow, we’re going into the city and getting a new washing machine. It’s not worth the hassle to fight with and fix this old machine.

It’s going to decimate our contingency fund, but that’s what it’s for, I guess. Thank God we have it, but nothing had better break after this!

After looking around online, I found the best prices at Home Depot, of all places. Not that there is a lot of difference, really. We won’t be able to get top of the line, but we won’t have to get bottom of the barrel, either.

So everything is all put back again, until we have to drag it all out again tomorrow. We’re going to have to figure out how to work around that dryer. The entry way isn’t very big.

*sigh* I think we’re going to have to shove the table to the side in the dining room again. The only way I can think of doing this is if we bring the new machine into the dining room, pull out the dryer, pull out the washing machine, put the washing machine in the dining room, clean up the mess under it, install the new machine, put the dryer back, then haul the old machine out to join the old stove in the junk pile.

There are two steps between the entryway and the dining room that we’ll be hauling these over, too.

At least washing machines are light!

Well, I guess I’d better start heating to bed. The earlier we start for the city, the faster we can get this over with!

I want to end this on a fun note, so I have some photos to share with you. When heading out to do my evening rounds, I wanted to do some watering to empty our rain barrel a bit.

As I started towards the sun room, however, I found a furry visitor, eating cat kibble! Stinky was back for an evening meal. When he saw me, he started to head for the sun room door, so I decided to head towards the barn and check on things. With the winds we’ve been having, I wanted to make sure there was no damage, plus I wanted to give Stinky time to finish eating and leave.

When I came back, I found…

… two of them!

It’s been a while since I’ve seen two!

I watched them for a bit and took pictures – the zoom on my phone’s camera sucks, but it’s better than getting too close! 😀

This bigger one is the newcomer for this year. We had two coming over regularly, last year, and it may be these are the same two – or the little one is an offspring.

The bigger one ambled off and disappeared under the storage house.

The little one stayed to snuffle and nibble at the fence post we used to hook the chain to, when using the come-along to move the new cat shelter off the trailer a couple of days ago. After a while, he disappeared under the clothes line platform. At that point, I went ahead and did the watering from the rain barrel I wanted to. The rain barrel is right near the platform, but as long as Stinky was under there, he was well sheltered and would not see me as a threat.

Gosh, they’re cute!

The Re-Farmer