07-14-10. Just a holly bush.
07-13-10. James the climber. He likes to climb inside cabinets, on top of chairs, and especially on top of the dining room table. You can't leave the room without him making a quick climb to the top of some dangerous perch. Falling and bumping his head hasn't seemed to teach him a lesson yet.
07-12-10. Boyer Refrigeration Service. Came home from work and fixed 2 refrigeration related problems today. Problem #1: Water leaking from the downstairs refrigerator. Small puddle on the floor every few days. Ice on the bottom of the freezer compartment. Diagnosis: Defrost drain tube is frozen over. Solution: Turn off fridge, remove evaporator cover, use hairdryer and hot water to melt ice, flush water through the pipe to make sure it is clear. Apparently this problem is common enough that the manufacturers make an add on part that attaches to the heating coil and transfers heat down to the drain pipe to keep it from freezing. The part costs $20. A free scrap of copper wire does the same job. I just wrapped the wire around the heating rod and directed it about an inch down into the drain. Hopefully this will keep this problem from happening again. Problem #2: Air conditioner not cooling enough. Barely a trickle of lukewarm air coming from the vents. Diagnosis: Coils frozen over due to insufficient airflow through system. I was a 'little' overdue in changing the air filter. I had also shut off a couple of vents to keep the smell of polyurethane from spreading through the house. Combine this with super high humidity, and you get frozen coils and a non-working air conditioner. Solution: Change air filter. Turn off AC and run in fan-only mode to thaw out the coils. Open up enough all vents. It took about 30 minutes to thaw out the coils, and I collected about 2.5 gallons of water from the condensate line. Turned AC back on and it worked like a charm. The joys of homeownership. Now to fix the small piece of trim that suffered water damage from the leaking fridge.
