Thursday, January 12, 2017

One Way to Force an Under Refrigerator Cleaning

It is anyone's guess how long the ice had been building up in the bottom of our freezer, but I suspect it has been quite some time. While I was spending most all of my time in the sewing room, ice kept building, and building. And then, it started leaking out. Yup, one day I found a pool of water beside the fridge. Hmmm....I'll get a towel to soak it up. And so it went on for weeks like that. It is astonishing how much I can ignore when I don't want to deal with something!

Two things I made that were absent from this blog before Christmas are now making an appearance. I learned to make a fabric wallet with a key holder for Maureen, which I was pretty darn pleased with after this, my second attempt!
Seeing it in a photograph, I notice all of my uneven stitching, but I hope Maureen will find it useful. I used navy polka dot for where you put your dollar bills! I just love that fabric!

Then too, I learned to make a "needle house." What pray tell is that, you ask? Well, here's the inside of attempt number one:
When you have a son who lives an ocean away, making useful things for him is a good way to show your love, so when I discovered during Matt's visit that there are times you need large needles to complete knitting projects, I thought it might be fun to try making this after stumbling across it on some kind soul's blog. Kind, that's what I think of all the wonderful bloggers out there who share their talents with the rest of us! The front looked like this:
All kinds of wrong going on, not the least of which is that it opened on the wrong side!! When Bruce came home from his trip that week, I asked him about the scale of the door, which I also knew could not be right. He drew the dimensions on the one above, and I made a new one., A continuing theme, right?
The window fabric came from my stash of estate sale fabrics, the door button once belonged to Matt's great grandmother, and the blue rick rack came from his Grandma Peck. Now we are talking--three generations of women who sew!

I am working on something new which I'll show a little later, but when I could not open the freezer door without fear of yanking the handle off, I knew it was time to take action. Consulting Google, I learned it was probably a frozen, blocked line. Mr. Peck agreed to be dragged away from his desk to do what he does best..run the show! Once again, kind folks, sharing their knowledge on the internet, helped him know how to remove the drawers, which, frankly, were a tad messy.
I was not only able to clean up the spilled corn, but also the overspray from an exploding can of Coke, so there were several benefits to this fix!

The door came off next...
This part was kind of fun...
It took about ten minutes, using the blow dryer on high, to dislodge a pretty sizable piece of ice.
This was just what I was hoping for, rather than letting it all melt on the towel. Turns out, he also had to take the lower panel off of the back of the freezer to get to the little drain which is all clean; we are now the proud owners of a very tidy freezer that opens just fine and dandy.
Yeesh--you should have seen under the refrigerator...that's tidy now as well.

I've neglected to mention how our little Baxter is having some troubles with his house training. Sunday, when we came home from the car dealership the first time, we found a big puddle on the new wood floor in the sunroom. Sadly, not the first time this has happened.

Before leaving to trade in the Honda, we placed his blanket in the hall bathroom, keeping him in there with the gate I use at the front door. The gate, while useful, is cumbersome to use on that doorway, so I went to purchase a new one. Would it fit in the MINI? Why, yes it did.
I am all about the errands this week, finding any excuse to drive the MINI! You may remember from this post, the photograph I shared of Alissa taking a photo while the muralist was working. Me and my MINI, while in the area, stopped back by to see the completed work.
Furthermore, there is a lot to get used to in my new baby car. The horizontal lines, arranged vertically, are the gas gauge! The "command center" has a super fun ring of changeable lights.
This old dog will be forced to learn some new tricks!!

We had that little cold snap, but now we are back in the 70's during the day. Out on my bicycle yesterday morning, I visited my owl, well make that two, the first I've seen both in a very, very long time. Can you spot both of them?
One of them, I think the female, was impossible to photograph, but I did get a shot of the male saying good morning Miss Gail.
That would be a wave in owl language! Speaking of owls, for Christmas I received a number of owl related gifts, including this adorable one Irene brought back from Prague. Standing proudly amongst my birdie stuff...
To my dear readers, the above photograph merits a quick glance. For me, however, it is filled with memories of people and places. The framed photo is one I took many, many years ago in Switzerland, the vase belonged to Bruce's Mom, the painting is from when I volunteered at the Polasek, the yellow vase on the left was purchased during a visit to Deland with Matt and Tom one Christmas, the orange birdies were a gift from neighbors, and of course the canoe paddles, purchased in Vermont, and used for many adventures. That pretty much sums up how I feel about life, if there is a story connected to something, I flat out love it!

This rope coil bowl might be my latest obsession...time will tell.
Finally, only in Florida, a water skier I saw yesterday on my ride!
Brave soul that boy, even with a partial wet suit on!

Here's hoping you have no reason to clean under your refrigerator any time soon!

Gail

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