random updates

1. Worms. So we now have a little worm farm. At least, I think we do. After a bit of online research, I bought a medium-sized heavy plastic storage box, drilled a bunch of tiny air holes in it, wet down some shredded newspaper, added some leaf mulch and grass clippings, and dropped the surviving worms in there along with some strawberry tops and carrot greens. I'm not very confident that this will work, in part because there were only, like, three worms that were still moving when I dumped their little cups into their new home. I guess if everything in there just gets all rotten and stinky I can dump it into the compost pile and try again with a fresh order of night crawlers.

2. Appliances. Everything has been crapping out on us lately. A few months ago it was the car. Then the 20-year-old washing machine quit getting things clean. I mean, it filled up with water and moved around and made a bunch of noise before draining it all out, so presumably everything was still functional, but all the clothes and sheets would still have flakes of dirt and grime stuck to them when I hung them out on the line. It had also been leaking for years and was gross, so we finally decided to replace it and the decrepit dryer (also two decades old, and took just about that long to dry every load, even the small ones). For as much laundry as we do, even when I can bypass the dryer and hang stuff outside, I'm hoping this saves us some energy costs!

As if that weren't enough, a few days ago the lid to the coffee roaster came apart a few days ago. This roaster was designed to last two years and we've had it for six, which means we've gotten hundreds more roasts out of it than we thought we would, and when you compare the cost of roasting your own green coffee beans in bulk vs. buying fairly traded freshly roasted coffee beans at retail price, it paid for itself long ago. (Lest you think coffee is some kind of froofroo luxury indulgence, you must not have children who rise with the sun well before 6:00 every goddamn morning, nor have you met me at that time of day before I have drunk my three cups of espresso, or what Stuart and I call Life Force.) Alas, the model of roaster we had was discontinued a while back, so Stuart had to buy a whole new one. Hopefully it will last as long as the previous one, if not longer.

We're kind of holding our breaths to see what goes next. The fridge has been emitting an alarming death rattle for years now, but we don't want to replace it until we can redo the kitchen...

...which brings me to 3. Pending lawsuit from the neighbor. Actually, there's no lawsuit. At least, not yet. There should never be one because we have not caused damage or even done anything wrong. But we are in the unfortunate position of living next to and sharing a joint driveway with an uncooperative, hostile, and irrational person who is convinced we are constantly trespassing on her property. Should we do an addition and kitchen remodel to the house next year, things could escalate pretty fast, so we are currently looking for an attorney to get some preemptive legal advice. It's exhausting and stressful. I just hope the fridge lasts until we figure it out.