When I came out this morning to feed the yard cats, I found the heated water bowl empty again, even though it was refilled a couple of times, yesterday. I always put the kibble out first, but when I first rinsed out the empty water bowl, I had kittens already jumping into the water shelter, going for the bowl! They were very thirsty.

The two metal bowls were, of course, frozen. They, at least, are easier to bash the ice out of, so I did them first.

The big plastic bowl, however…

… that took a bit more effort! Basically, I just chopped a hole in the middle. In these temperatures, I don’t want to shatter the plastic.

I should probably plug it in, just to test it out and see if it still works. It stopped working last winter, but there is no sign of damage. The extension cord from the cats’ house has only one plug but, if it works, it would be worth replacing that with another cord with multiple plugs.

In other things, after getting the plugged drain cleared yesterday, I set up the washing machine and ran it through a “tub clean” cycle. I stood there and watched it for about half an hour, before it started to drain!

I love having a washing machine with a window in the lid! 😄 It doesn’t take much to entertain me!

Once it started draining, I had my finger hovering over the pause button, ready to hit is if water suddenly started spurting out the drain pipe again. I also kept a close eye on the floor for any leaks.

Everything worked fine!!!

I gotta say, though, the water running into the drain is LOUD now! The washer pushed that water out and a very high velocity, so even with the pipe clear, it still sounds like it’s backing up a bit. Whether it actually is or not, I’m not entirely sure. The important part, though, is that we can put away that sump pump hose we’d been using to run the water out the door! Now that we’re no longer needing to run it through the storm door window, we can also insulate the main doors for the winter, so we don’t get frost building up on the inside.

Which reminds me. We need to insulate between the dining room doors, too, for the same reason. At least with that one, we can just shove the insulation in and leave it. We don’t use those doors. For the main entry, we have to figure out how to fix the sheets to the door. The first time we did it, we used self adhesive strips of Velcro and attached it to the inside door. Unfortunately, we discovered that there’s enough of an air pressure change when we opened the door. Between that and the cold, the adhesive strips started to give out and once they did, they never stuck properly again, so every time we opened the door, the insulation would get pulled loose. Because of this, we never use the insulation last winter, and that was not good.

So now we’re trying to figure out a way to maybe tie the insulation to the door somehow, or maybe attach it to the storm door, instead.

We won’t be able to get it done for this winter, but by next winter, I hope that we will finally be able to replace the entire door/frame assembly with a proper, insulated, metal door hung on a metal frame. We don’t use these doors as much, though, as going through the sun room works so much better, so at least it’s not an urgent thing. It would be really good if we could replace it with a wider, more accessible door, too. The arm bar mounted in between the doors is great, but all the doors are a tight fit for my husband’s walker.

On the “when we win the lottery” list: accessible doors, and a wheelchair ramp. The ramp would have to be off the dining room doors, so it would be good to make it part of a covered deck, too. If we do it right, it can double as a greenhouse, too!

Some people dream about winning the lottery and doing things like travel the world or buying nice cars and houses. I just want to renovate this house, and buy the tools and equipment that would allow me to get more work done! Or hire more able bodied people to help do the work we can’t anymore. Which is funny, because we don’t even own this place, but at some point it will go to my brother’s grandsons, and it would be nice to leave them with a place that isn’t falling apart!

The Re-Farmer