May is black fly season. The first two weeks of May only the male flies are out, and they are annoying enough but they don’t bite. The last half of the month, though, watch out! That is a dangerous time to be driving on the rural roads, as the black flies drive the moose absolutely crazy and they come running out of the deep woods into the highway in a vain attempt to escape the biting flies. As one drives through the countryside one can see the lucky horses that have owners that care enough about them to put fly sheets on their backs and over their faces. It may look odd to the casual tourist that doesn’t know much about horses, but I’m sure that the horses are grateful to have them!
Broken zipper
A few weeks ago I saw a zipper repair kit for sale online at one of those “bargain” websites. I had been looking for something to give my wife to use to repair the zipper on the hooded sweatshirt that she had hand painted several years ago. The zipper had broken and she had stopped wearing the sweatshirt, but she did not want to throw it away because she had spent so much time and energy hand painting the thing.
So when the zipper repair kit arrived, we hunted for a while to find the sweat shirt. It had been put away in the back of a closet and was being elusive. Finally we put the zipper repair kit in her sewing basket and had given up looking for the sweat shirt. Well, surprisingly enough, when my wife was looking for a gray skirt to lend to her sister to wear at a funeral, she found that sweat shirt and pulled it out of the closet.
We tried to use the zipper repair kit, but we were unsuccessful with our attempt. We broke two of the replacement zipper heads in the attempt. Very discouraging!
I’m A Stubborn Old Cuss Sometimes
I really don’t know what all the fuss is about, my current address plaque suites me just fine, but I guess I’m the only one since I keep getting harassed by folks about looking at new address plaques and finding a new one to put up. You see the one that is presently installed on the front of my house is the one that I made in Shop Class back in high school and I’ve gotten pretty darned used to having it there. I know that it has faded out a bit during all of this time, I mean it’s been outside in the weather for all of these years, but I can still read it just fine, thank you very much!
This morning when I checked my email, my sister had sent me a link to a company that has a ton of house address plaques that is wanting me to check out and pick one to order to put up to replace my home made one. I have to admit that there are some might fine looking address signs there to offer, but I’m a stubborn old cuss and I’m standing firm on this issue.
Waterproof pet bed
One of the best investments I ever made in pet supplies was the waterproof pet bed that we bought about a year ago. At the time that I bought it I had hoped to keep it in the house for the dogs to sleep in, but the cat kept marking it so I put it outside on the back deck for the dogs to lounge on when they went outside. They love it there, and one of the dogs likes to sleep on it all night long if the weather is good. So I’m really glad that I bought it, and if I could find another one in a local store that was smaller than that one I’d like to buy that one too.
Solar is made easy
With all of the technological advance made in recent years, more than ever before solar is made easy to learn about and to purchase. From what I understand, solar panels that are installed on rooftops are used to generate electricity, and that the panels are expected to last for twenty years. Research has shown that after twenty years the solar panels still generate 80% of the amount of energy that they generated when brand new. Roof top solar panels can also be used to heat water, which can in turn be used to heat a house, but in northern climates such as New England or the United Kingdom that is not recommended as the sole source of heat.
Using solar power to heat swimming pools, by using special floating mats that are placed on the surface of the water in the pool is a very effective and popular way to bring a swimming pool up to a comfortable temperature, especially in cooler climates where summer time is very short. Recently my sister-in-law has been talking about wanting to install an in-ground swimming pool at her house, and I’ve grown interested in learning how she plans to maintain the pool. So far she has not mentioned heating it, or putting a fence around it.