Instant Rust

     Yesterday's blog entry featured a metal garden globe.  It was my intention to let this piece rust gradually, but I couldn't wait.  I had to have it rusty.  Right now.
     Mike and I used a simple process to almost instantly obtain a rusty patina.  Pour a 16 ounce bottle of hydrogen peroxide into a larger spray bottle.  Add 2 ounces of white vinegar and 2 teaspoons of table salt.  Swish the mixture around until the salt dissolves.  Spray the metal and wait for the rust to appear.  Some people recommend spraying twice with vinegar only and letting it dry between coats before spraying with the mixture.  We added our own twist by sprinkling extra salt on the wet metal.  We sprayed several times until we ran out of mixture.  The process took less than one hour.

Here's our globe - bare metal with shiny, silver welds.

Here's our rusty globe.

Up close.

Steel Expressions, Ephrata, Pennsylvania

     Mardi loves mulch.  She likes to sniff it, eat it, and roll in it.  The problem with that is that nice, fresh black mulch sticks to dogs, and those same dogs track forever mulch stains all over the house.

Who, me?

   
     We tried various types of garden fencing from Lowe's and Home Depot .  The more attractive stuff wouldn't bend to conform to the curves of our beds.  The more flexible fencing had holes big enough for a little dog to squeeze though.  Plastic netting was just too ugly.  I called several metal fabricators in Burlington and Camden Counties who weren't interested in the job.  The two people who returned my phone calls explained that they would have to fabricate the fencing entirely on site in my backyard in order to accurately match the contours of the beds.  They also said they would have to charge an astronomical sum.
     It was during a trip to Pennsylvania that we discovered Bob Sims, owner of Steel Expressions.  Bob has a background as a welder and a supervisor in the structural steel business.  He started his own business in 2008.  Instead of saying our job was too difficult, he said, "I can do that."  All I had to do was roll out brown paper (lots of brown paper) and trace a template of the beds.  Bob made the fencing to match my templates, and he did it at a fair price.

This thin, wire fencing was our former dog barrier.  It wasn't pretty, but it was cheap, easy to poke into the ground, and it did the job. 

This is the fence that Bob built.  He made it in sections which we screwed together.  It is powder coated, so the finish will look good for years to come.  It's quite an improvement, don't you think?

   

Bob has also made other items for us.

This solid shoe rack replaced a flimsy Wal-mart shoe rack.  Upgrade!

     

This plant stand won't blow over in the wind like its predecessor.

This is my garden globe.  I emailed Bob some pictures of various garden ornaments that I saw on the internet.  We decided that he would make this.  I wanted the biggest globe I could fit into the back of the car.  We had one inch to spare.  Perfect.  There's no powder coating on this.  We're going to let it rust.

Bob makes all sorts of whimsical things.  This flower is made from transmission gears.

Bob Sims
Steel Expressions
120 Rosehill Road
Ephrata, Pa 17522
http://steelexpressionspa.com/

Brexit

     Brexit?  All I know is the Brits were pretty darned upset when we left the Empire.  Just sayin' ...

Dryer Vent Cleaning

     From time to time, on no regular schedule, I use a Lint Lizard to clean out the dryer and the tube that connects the dryer to the vent.  I wrote about that in my May 8, 2013 blog entry.  I usually find a good sized gob of lint when I perform this chore.
     Mike recently decided that the entire vent should be cleaned.  I figured that would set us back about $150.00, and I wasn't so sure it would be that dirty.  I use the dryer for a minimum amount of time because I like to save on electricity.  I hang clothing while damp to avoid ironing, and I use a drying rack for underwear because I think the dryer hastens the breakdown of elastic.  Sheets and towels smell better when dried outside on sunny days.  Also, I use fabric softener sheets sparingly because I read that they leave a residue that causes lint to stick together.
     I know Mike's insistence that the dryer exhaust system be cleaned, like his insistence that doors be locked tight every minute of the day, is based on his wanting us to be safe.  So, clean the vent we must.  Why not try to DIY it?
     I watched some YouTube videos and discovered that our venting is the most difficult configuration that could possibly exist.  Instead of going down to the crawl space and straight out through the foundation wall, it goes up through the wall to the attic, turns 90° and travels across the attic, then it turns 90° again and goes up and out through the roof.  Still, the guys on YouTube and the helpful reviewers on the Home Depot's website swore that the Everbuilt Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit would make the 90° turns.  The kit contains a brush and six flexible rods.  Each rod is two feet long.  All the pieces screw together, and they can be attached to a drill to form a unit that works like a drain snake.  I ordered two kits since we had more than 12 feet of venting.

The Kit

The first step is to unplug the dryer and remove the flexible tube.  That thing that looks like a tin can is a clean out.  Lint that escapes the screen in the dryer drops down into the clean out.

You can clean from inside the house to the roof, or you can go up on the roof and clean downward.  We decided to start from inside.

The connections between rods screw together.  We decided feed the brush into the vent by hand at the beginning, and we used duct tape to reinforce the connections.  If you spin the brush, either by hand or with an electric drill, spin it clockwise.   If you spin counter clockwise, the connections unscrew leaving all the segments somewhere in the vent.

This is our vent.  The first 90° turn is a place I have named "Dead End."  No amount of poking got us around that bend.  We attached an electric drill and that too failed.  We decided to attack from the roof. 

Going up to the roof was only good for a photo op.  We couldn't accomplish anything else up there.  The black cap that sits on the top of the vent has a floppy lid on the inside that opens from the air pressure when the dryer blows.  It flops closed when the air stops.  I could open this floppy lid, but I couldn't get the brush into the vent.  The cap probably is removable, but we couldn't figure out how to get it off.  We envisioned damaging the shingles and causing a leak in the roof.  Oh, that part you read earlier about safety concerns doesn't extend too much to personal safety - just house fires and home invasions.  

I used the brush to clean things out as best I could.  I got a small hand full of lint from around the floppy lid.

Since we couldn't use the brush for the second half of the vent, we used a leaf blower to blast air out to the roof.  I stood outside and watched a few small pieces of lint pop out, an insignificant amount.

We got this much lint out of the dryer and the trap - about two handfuls.

We got this much out of the first part of the vent, up to the dead end - another handful.  That's not much for seven years of clothes drying.  Judging from these amounts, I'm sure whatever amount of lint might be clinging to the unbrushed  part of the vent, is not a fire hazard - yet.  

     We didn't get to use the second kit since we didn't manage to stuff more than twelve feet of flexible rods into the vent.  I'll take that kit back to Home Depot for a refund.  The cost of this job was $21.00 for one vent cleaning kit. Now my assignment is to figure out how to get around the 90° bends or how to remove and replace the vent cap.  It would be a good idea to eventually get the rest of our vent cleaned.

Is he looking up my shorts?  I think he's looking up my shorts.

  

     
   

Corian® Clean Up

     I research and research and research before I make a decision, and sometimes I still manage to choose wrongly.  Selecting Corian® countertops with integrated sinks for our bathrooms was one such wrong choice.  The sinks are easily scratched and show some stains.  We replaced the ugly public restroom style faucet in one bathroom with a prettier bronze fixture, and this happened to the sink:

This ring appeared around the drain immediately after the old faucet and drain were replaced.  Is it a scratch or some sort of plumber's goop?  Why didn't I lasso the plumber before he got out of the house and demand that he explain? 

 
     This ring was rough to the touch and no amount of cleaning with mild cleaners like Simple Green or dish detergent removed it.  I was afraid to use Soft Scrub (even though the label says it is safe for use on Corian®) or Bon Ami.  After a few years, I had all I could stand of looking at this imperfection, and I decided to get rid of the blemish or get a new sink.
     More researching.  I read about several methods - using Soft Scrub, wet/dry sand paper, or attaching polishing pads with various abrasion factors to electric drills.  I had previous experience polishing hazy, weathered plastic headlights, so I decided to sand with super fine grit wet/dry sand paper and finish with the polish from my headlight restoration kit.

My arsenal - polish from the headlight restoration kit, 800 and 1000 grit wet/dry sand paper, and a rag.

     
     I wet the sink and the 800 grit paper and gently rubbed the ring around the drain.  Nothing much happened, so I switched to 600 grit paper and rubbed so, so gently.  The ring disappeared.

The ring is gone.  If you look closely, you will see that the water collected around the drain is milky from the particles removed from the sink's surface.

      I rinsed and repeated sanding with the 800 grit, then the 1000 grit paper.  I finished by scrubbing around only the drain with the headlight restoration polish and a wet rag.  After cleaning with Simple Green and drying the sink, I saw a perfectly clean and flawless ring around the drain... and the rest of the sink bore the fine scratches of seven years of daily use.  My first impulse was to go through this process on entire bowl, but the little voice in my head kept repeating, "Less is more, less is more."  I decided to clean the sink with Soft Scrub.  Good choice.  The ring of perfection (as I have taken to calling it) blends invisibly with the rest of the sink.

Looking good!

     A word of warning: All Corian® sinks have a matte finish.  The matte surface is the reason this worked so well.  I wouldn't do this on the semi-gloss or glossy finishes of a countertop.

     A lesson learned: You really can use Soft Scrub on Corian®.  

All That and a Bra Full of Chips

     I love birch trees.  I especially love Paper Birch (bitula payrifera), the ones with the white bark; however, it seems they grow to a certain size, turn spongy, and fall over.  River Birch (bitula nigra) are not as susceptible to the bronze birch borers that attack white birches.  When Mike and I built this house, I decided there would be a birch tree in the landscape.  I settled for the peely bark of a River Birch and planted it in what I thought was the perfect spot.

2009
This tree was the fulfillment of a dream.  What can I say?  I dream small.

     My friend Eva took one look at my tree and predicted, "You're going to wish you hadn't planted that tree so close to the house."
     "I'll keep it small with pruning," was my response.
     Within two years this deciduous object of my heart's desire had grown six feet taller.  In the fall, I pruned it back severely.  "You probably killed that tree," another birch expert supposed.  No such luck.  The following spring the birch sprouted three branches where one was cut.  It was so dense that two bird families took up residence in it.  By its third autumn, it seemed to have regained every inch of its former height.
     By 2014, I was hacking away at my birch in the early summer and again in the fall.  It seemed to take only two or three months for the new growth to rise over the rain gutters and spread out over the roof.  All sorts of critters were gaining access to the shingles from the branches.  My love affair with bitula nigra was over.
     Today Mike and I gathered our tools - pruners, shovels, rope, an extension cord, and the electric chain saw.  An electric chain saw is a girl tool.  It's light weight, and all I have to do is plug it in and press two buttons to get the wood chips flying.  I love this power tool.  I bought it for me, and I never let Mike use it.  We dismembered the tree pretty quickly, getting the two trunks down to about four feet tall.
     I read that birch trees don't damage foundation walls since they do not have a particularly strong root system.  We decided to dig around the tree to determine if we would be able to get it out, roots and all.

Looking from above, this is how the root system grew.  The tree was in a large black plastic pot when I bought it.  The roots grew around and around, circling the pot during its "captivity."  Once in the ground, the roots grew out from the original root ball forming a shallow network.  We cut through the roots with our pruners.  When we got to the bottom of the original root ball (a little more than a foot deep), we began rocking the tree.  We cut under the root ball with pruners.         

This was all that remained of the once towering tree... until I undressed for a shower and discovered a bra full of wood chips!