We thought that our house water filter problems were behind us, but two things have cropped up: the original water filter housing was damaged while being repositioned, and the new water filter cartridge for the new housing is the wrong size. So new filters and a replacement housing are on order. Someday we'll get it right.
Tightening up the pool railing was a success though. Some very fine-gauge stainless steel mesh between the sliding parts makes a good high-friction bond when the clamps are tightened, so the rail is about as firm as it's going to get.
We're continuing to harvest. We grew potatoes this summer in nine strong plastic bags full of dirt, which makes it easy come harvest time. But that's a lotta potatoes. We've cleaned out five bags as of Monday Oct 19, and we've been boiling them, smashing them, or frying them in olive oil for eating fresh. Pat has also grated a few kilograms, wrung them out, and frozen them for future hash browns. Our tomatoes and peppers are coming on strong now too. Pat planted San Marzano tomatoes (an especially delicious Italian variety) from seed, and once they got in the raised beds they took off.
Our beautiful summery weather for the last few weeks is cooling off now, as of Tuesday Oct 20. Gerrit actually had to put a tee shirt on with his shorts and sandals. It was cloudy today and rain is expected. Update: 4 mm (1/6") rain happened overnight, and the following day was clear and beautiful again. The tee shirt went back in the closet.
We've been back to our house projects. Pat is sorting and moving, still organizing and storing our Seattle stuff. We're having Seattle friends visiting here the middle of next month so she wants to at least have their bedroom livable. Gerrit did some repairs on her cedar chest and moved it up to the bedroom so she can make use of that for storage. Marcello our handyman was here Wednesday and Thursday Oct 21 and 22 to replace the kitchen faucet and add some outdoor electrical outlets (which are in short supply around here), and he did his customary excellent job. The following week he will come build Pat's appliance cart since we hope to have all the pieces by then.
On Wednesday Oct 21 we got the call from our furniture seller that both our bookshelf and our wall bed with storage will be ready for delivery in a week. It's been a long siege: we first gave them sketches and dimensions back in mid-July. Now we need to clear out the room spaces here so they can assemble and install, and then we will be able to fill the new places to put things. It will be another step toward a cozy box-free home.
Pat has so many tomatillos in her garden that she posted on a local WhatsApp chat that they were free for the taking. A very nice Dutch couple, living in
Gerrit wrote a technical paper which was published in 2006 to the sound of crickets. Very little interest was generated, and he resigned himself to obscurity (even though he thought it was awfully good). Then just a week or two ago he had a very nice email from a fellow electronic engineer who had just discovered the paper, 20 years after publication, and was very complimentary about it. Gerrit found other references to it (well, about six of them) in forums, academic papers, and technical exchanges, also. He dismantled his website long ago, which is where the references point, but he found a way to re-post this paper and other documents from his old website using the same URLs as his admiring audience (of a half dozen people) had used. Now anyone clicking on those old links in archived website pages will actually see the documents again. Gerrit awaits the accolades.
(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done. Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)