Plumbing and Snap Peas

Phlox blossoms in the front yard (totally unrelated to the rest of the post)

Plumbing and snap peas: improbable combination, I know, but that's what I want to write about this time. I'll do the not-so-pretty first (the plumbing), though I'm sure for our brothers and other schadenfreude-ists out there, it will be the more interesting of the two topics. After all, the subtitle of the blog is "misadventures in home maintenance" and so far it seems like we've only blogged about gardening. So, last month I noticed a black spot on the caulking around the base of the toilet that seemed new or at least bigger than I remembered. When I followed the bead of caulk around to the back of the toilet, I found a giganto black spot and squishy linoleum. I had no idea what that meant, but I knew it wasn't going to be good. Turned out to be a leaky wax ring, which, to repair, involved taking the toilet off the floor (bolts were rusty and one had to be broken off), dealing with the maggot-like squigglers throwing a party beneath the toilet (just under our feet! yay!), scraping the old squiggler-infested wax ring off, positioning the toilet juuusssst-right over the new bolts (had to buy a second set because the first set was too short), and then cutting the bolts off to make them short enough to fit the cap over (yes, you read that right: we had to buy long bolts just to go and cut them short). This whole process was made much more fun by virtue of the fact that the area we had to work in was maybe two feet wide between the tub and the sink. But, we got it done and it hasn't leaked since. I consider that a success.

On to snap peas: we got 'em. Lots of 'em. We're freezing some and eating the rest sauteed over high heat in soy sauce. Yum. Otherwise, the greens are getting big, the carrots are about as big around as my thumb, and we ate our first green top onion just the other day. We're thinking now is about the right time to put in a fourth bed for tomatoes and peppers.