How was your Labor Day weekend?
Ours was very busy!
On Friday we went for our weekly picnic lunch at a local winery, this time in Woodstock, CT. As we drove there, we went by a street where friends live. The husband is a trained chef, and was the chef in Peter's old dorm at UConn. (Peter was a waiter, so Ben was his boss.) I said, "Hey, let's stop to visit Benny and Elaine on the way home! We can call before stopping, we have our own chairs, and we can all sit outside. We can also get them a bottle of wine."
So there we were in the afternoon, ten feet away from Ben and Elaine, enjoying a beautiful day in the shade. Being a trained chef, I'm sure Ben will enjoy the wine! Little did we know that his 89th birthday was Monday. Stopping there was a good move!
On Saturday, our next-door neighbors got married!
It was a very small ceremony, of course.
We had plans to drive to visit Katie in the afternoon. We got takeout from a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Another lovely afternoon in the shade on her back porch!
After we got home, we wandered over to the neighbor's house when we saw their outdoor firepit lit. (Yes, we had been invited.) People there sat a little closer than I'd like, but we spaced out a bit from them and enjoyed the fire and conversation. We saw a few pictures of the wedding ceremony, which was nice.
On Sunday we decided to bite the bullet and get the flu shot from our local CVS. We were able to make a reservation and it was all fairly quick.
In the afternoon, we harvested our "Chinook" hops! Peter cut down the strings that held the "bines" up. We brought them home, and sat on our front patio to remove each hop. They then went onto a drying rack. Peter is now looking at making beer......no real surprise. He'll probably have more success with beer than I had with mozzarella, LOL!
The bines are actually very pretty. I took a piece of them and used them as a decoration on our table outside for the evening.
Monday was more relaxing, except for the part when I went to do my weekly bathroom cleaning. In the bathroom on the basement level I have been seeing dead winged insects around the base of the toilet. Gross, right? I've seen these before, perhaps a year ago, but they went away. Now they are starting up again.
Now they have ALL been found dead, mind you. I have been simply picking them up and then spraying the area with Raid every week. In the past four weeks there have been more each week in spite of that.
I decided I needed another person's perspective. So I pulled Peter down there.
Apparently he has seen these before when he had to get septic systems dug up. He was despairing that perhaps he will need to take out the toilet and re-seal it, something which he absolutely abhors.
I said perhaps we should google the critters, and maybe we can do something simple before considering such a drastic measure. He agreed.
I suggested that he google, "Winged insects around base of the toilet," but I guess he googled "septic flies" instead, and was successful. They are also known as "drain flies," but I'm sure that's not the official entomologist's term.
One site had some simple household interventions, like pouring boiling water down suspected drains twice a day for two weeks. After that, you can put baking soda down the drain once a week for maintenance.
Considering that the drains in that room don't get a lot of use, I decided this is a good thing to try. Perhaps they fly out of the drains and get drawn to the bottom of the toilet, only to eat Raid and die.
So this project has already begun. I hope it is effective!
Onward to our next season......
