Started well, ended well, the middle was meh

[elfs]

I had an amazing night last night (see previous post) with a beautiful woman that kept me out way too late. I slept in until almost nine, at which point we had leftover waffles and pancakes from the freezer. After a brief run of errands, we came back and I went to work outside. Today was a classic Seattle El Nino winter day: most of the time it's terribly wet and rainy, but of the thirteen weeks of winter or so, one or two are often so warm every day feels like the day right before spring.

The gutters of my own home needed doing, so I climbed up on the roof and that's what I did. It's kinda high up there, on the second floor, and the seat of my pants soaked through from sitting on the moss that was forming up there. I chipped a lot of the green stuff away.

After that, I finished the job of cleaning out the drainpipes that run under the garage. Whoever thought that the garage door should be at the bottom of a slope was an idiot. The drainpipes had so badly clogged with water that a blackberry vine had started to live in there. I snaked out the pipes and dug out the muck and had flow and was happy.

I also power-washed about a quarter of the driveway that leads down to the garage. That was something else that's needed doing; the third parking slot has been unuseable since the moss grew thick last summer.

Kouryou-chan played with her friends all afternoon, and Omaha took down the last of the Yule lights and swept a lot of moss off other portions of the roof.

I napped for about an hour, then sat up and just surfed for a while. I had the strangest craving for a brownie, so I made a batch which turned out really good.

We went out to a Thai restaurant for dinner, then came home, put the kid to bed, played some Quake. A good day, just wished I hadn't surfed away three hours or so.

Comments

FYI

[kistha.livejournal.com]

A great moss killer that doesn't hurt the environment is of all things, baking soda. We use it on the driveway and on the roof. And now we're almost moss free every spring.

Re: FYI

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the idea. What ratios do you use, because I'm finding ratios all over the place. Also, is there any impact to the water table with baking soda? We aren't on the sewer line...we have a septic system whose water goes directly into the nearby water table, so we always have to take that into account.

Re: FYI

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I just get a big bag from Costco, and then use a metal mesh kitchen sieve and shake it out over the moss like powdered sugar. And then the next rain takes care of the water, and it turns brown and dies off.

The friend who taught me this method is a toxicologist and a farmer. She uses this method, and her septic system empties into the same water table as her well, so I'm assuming that it won't hurt yours. I can check though, if you like.