Our Olde House: July 2025

My foot seemed in good enough shape to do some things in the yard, so I found the handheld chainsaw that Miss Sherry got me for Christmas. I needed to remove the ‘stuff’ growing next to our driveway, which has gotten out of hand. I have not used my chipper in a long time, and I was very excited to try out my new chainsaw. After the ladder incident, I was definitely keeping in mind that I needed to be ‘careful enough’ to not hurt myself.

I started at the sidewalk end of the flower bed, using my handheld chainsaw to cut the various small plants growing wildly in this side of the front yard. I found some kudzu which I cut and rolled up into a ball to feed into the chipper. The chipper still terrifies me, and when I turn it on I take several steps back away from it, just in case. The small stems were easily fed into the chipper which drew them in once the blades hit the stalk. The kudzu did not chip; it would clog up the feed ramp without moving into the chipper. I suppose I could push it into the chipper with enough force, but no, that seemed to be just plain dumb and stupid, and definitely not being careful enough.

The chipper is fantastic and makes a mountain of brush into chips that fit into one large trash bag for easy disposal. I finished cutting one eight foot section of the side yard, ran it through the chipper, stuffed the rolled up kudzu in the top of the bag and put it out on the curb for pickup. I did another eight foot section of the side yard the next day using the same process. Pretty neat, but it rained the following day, and for the next fifteen days putting eleven inches of rain in my home depot bucket rain gauge.

A break in the incessant rain allowed me to return to the side yard with my chainsaw in hand and the chipper in tow. I followed the same process of cutting the stuff with the chainsaw and feeding it into the chipper. The kudzu in this section was long and narrow stickery tentacles so I decided to try to chip them. This worked as long as I did not feed it too fast, and put an occasional branch in with it to help the feed process. Much better, and much easier to handle the kudzu after it was chipped.

After I put the cabinet over the toilet back into my bathroom, I remembered that my toilet had been making noises like it needed a new valve. As luck would have it, one week after finishing my bathroom, the toilet valve broke so that once flushed, the toilet would not stop running. Replacing a toilet valve is theoretically a very simple task, so one would think that the entire job would take less than one hour, including the trip to the hardware store, but one would be wrong if I was the one doing the replacing.

I went to the hardware store to buy another toilet valve, but this time I was looking for a different brand of valve since this broken one did not last very long. When I got the valve home, I was reminded that it would have been a lot easier to replace the toilet valve two weeks ago when the toilet was not covered by a cabinet.

I did not remove the cabinet again because it is difficult and heavy, and I thought I should be able to replace the valve with it in place. I sponged out the water from the toilet tank, disconnected the water line, and disconnected the valve. The space was cramped between the toilet and cabinet, but it was enough. I installed the new valve, connected the water line and checked for leaks; one slow drip. I tightened the nuts again on the valve and water line, but it still dripped. These are supposed to be ‘hand tighten’ only connections, but apparently my hand strength is not enough. I was thinking that I was going to have to remove the cabinet to get enough room to hand tighten the valve with a wrench, so I decided to wait until the next morning to start.

The following day I was still not happy about removing the cabinet, so I thought I would start by reading the directions for installing the toilet valve, mostly so I would be able to honestly answer ‘yes’ in case Miss Sherry asked if I read the instructions. Near the end of the picture instructions was a note, ‘be sure to install the nut with the beveled side up’; the side that is marked ‘this side up’. Oops, what are the odds that I installed it incorrectly? 100%.

I removed the nut and of course I had it installed upside down. I turned it over and reinstalled it, hand tightened it, replaced the water line and hand tightened it, turned on the water and no drip. A wise man, or more likely a wise woman, once said, ‘When all else fails, read the instructions.’ This never made sense to me before, but now I get it.