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Entry tags:
AC, lawn
It has been hot as hell here. Teri didn't want me to put in the air conditioning, but last night it was so terribly hot that she relented and let me install one in Sebastian's room. I put a big fan in the window in our room, but it was a hot and uncomfortable night.
Today it was even hotter - around 97°, or over 36° Celsius - so we installed the downstairs AC and the one in our bedroom. I opened up the downstairs one, and the intake was absolutely filthy - simply packed with lint. Teri tried to vacuum it out, but it wouldn't budge. Eventually I got an old toothbrush and used it to scrub loose the lint while Teri vacuumed. It was an effective combination, and when we started up the AC it blew colder than it had in a couple of years. Mind you, the lint wasn't in the filter - it was in the air intake itself.
Of course I cleaned the filters on ALL the air conditioners as well. So tonight we'll sleep in comfort.
Another point: our front lawn. Ever since it was excavated to have the main drain line repaired, the right half of our front yard has been a dead waste of dust, stones, and dirt. We'd put seed on it after it was dug up, but it never sprouted.
A while back we'd put down some fertilizer. We also bought a relatively cheap bag of seed from BJ's. Teri put it down about two weeks ago. Right after she did that, I read the instructions on the bag. It said to rake up the soil about a half-inch or so before spreading the seeds. It was too late for that, but I went all around the yards, both front and back, and used a metal rake to loosen up the soil and mix the seeds in a bit.
The instructions also said to water the seeds twice a day for a month or two. This seemed awfully wasteful, but we'd already put down the seeds so I decided to give it a try. And to my amazement, it seems to have actually worked! The grass has been sprouting nicely and growing with remarkable speed. It's not perfect by any means; there are lots of bare patches still, and the grass is still very young and small. Nonetheless, I was astonished this afternoon when we pulled into the driveway, because from the side it actually looks as if we have a lawn!
Today it was even hotter - around 97°, or over 36° Celsius - so we installed the downstairs AC and the one in our bedroom. I opened up the downstairs one, and the intake was absolutely filthy - simply packed with lint. Teri tried to vacuum it out, but it wouldn't budge. Eventually I got an old toothbrush and used it to scrub loose the lint while Teri vacuumed. It was an effective combination, and when we started up the AC it blew colder than it had in a couple of years. Mind you, the lint wasn't in the filter - it was in the air intake itself.
Of course I cleaned the filters on ALL the air conditioners as well. So tonight we'll sleep in comfort.
Another point: our front lawn. Ever since it was excavated to have the main drain line repaired, the right half of our front yard has been a dead waste of dust, stones, and dirt. We'd put seed on it after it was dug up, but it never sprouted.
A while back we'd put down some fertilizer. We also bought a relatively cheap bag of seed from BJ's. Teri put it down about two weeks ago. Right after she did that, I read the instructions on the bag. It said to rake up the soil about a half-inch or so before spreading the seeds. It was too late for that, but I went all around the yards, both front and back, and used a metal rake to loosen up the soil and mix the seeds in a bit.
The instructions also said to water the seeds twice a day for a month or two. This seemed awfully wasteful, but we'd already put down the seeds so I decided to give it a try. And to my amazement, it seems to have actually worked! The grass has been sprouting nicely and growing with remarkable speed. It's not perfect by any means; there are lots of bare patches still, and the grass is still very young and small. Nonetheless, I was astonished this afternoon when we pulled into the driveway, because from the side it actually looks as if we have a lawn!