Water Resolutions

Water filter after a year's use.  Started out white

We are past New Year's Day.  I'm a bit late. Finally made room in the Things I get to do today for changing the water filter at the kitchen sink.

Bins out.  Grit and dirt and water filter under the disposal.

Perhaps it's a month or so late because there is a sequence of events attached to the process. The filter is under the kitchen sink along with the usual and unusual other things: Recycling, garbage, compost, sink/dish cleaning materials and bin for spent egg shells.  We just keep cycling those shells through the chickens to keep more eggs coming: like returning your empty pop bottles and cans to have them come back full in a day or two.

Tool tray:  one more place to clean

Pulled out the bins.  Discovered the debris that had missed the bins in the last six or eight months. Changed out the old water filter which was the color Caramel Cream and way too rich for the color of water.  

Observed the filth in the tool tray on the front of the sink.  A bit of serious scrubbing changed its personality. 

Looking much better

 Wiped everything down.  Flushed the water filter.  Made a note on the calendar for the first week of January 2014 and resolved to change the filter before it starts to look like Weak Tea.  

All tidied up.  Happier kitchen.  Happier cook.

Be Sure to Pack the Dishwasher

In reviewing my activities for a week, I frequently find on my list of Things I get to do today “pack the dishwasher.”  Saying that evokes scenes from Thelma and Louise or a Leslie Nielson movie, but I’m not a half-crazed, over-zealous woman escaping an unacceptable situation.  If that were the case, I would be taking the kitchen sink.  Everybody knows the sink is what goes.  This is all about how I put things into the dishwasher.

I don’t load the dishwasher. Truth be told, I prefer washing dishes by hand, but my dishwasher is a great appliance:  quiet, thorough, water-saving, and just generally very sweet in her disposition.  I know her intimately.  I installed her.  Several years ago now when she came to live with us, I was the one who connected all the little hoses and private parts in behind, plugged her in and adjusted the clearances all around so she could sit comfortably in one position for the-dishwasher-version of forever.  Let's just say we’re comfortable with each other.

But a half-century ago, a high school exam reported that spatial perception was one of my strong points.  So in addition to helping out in the kitchen, my dishwasher provides me entertainment (I’m very easily amused) with an everyday spatial puzzle. An infinite variety of combinations make up this kitchen story problem.  The solution lies in using the right process.  While "load” implies just get it all in and close the door,  “pack” says loudly and clearly enough even for me to hear, “be attentive, make it tight, use precision, rearrange for better fit, slip it in that empty spot; and there's no need to put in the kitchen sink.”