Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound.
Based on the weather of late, it appears we are going to pretty much skip over spring and go right into summer. Along with summer comes yard work, and that means bringing out the hoses and sprinklers. Every year I discover that Washington is not the only place that has problems with leaks. I don’t know about you, but I seem to be very hard on hoses and the sprayer heads. I don’t buy the cheap ones, but after one season of use something happens to them. I drag them out from the basement, hook them up and then have water coming out of every connection. I can accept a little water out of the outlet, but I hate getting soaked while trying to water my flowers. That is why I have an inside shower! Plus it is expensive buying new hoses or shower heads every year. I did stumble across some plastic tape that is made especially for this kind of job. You use it like regular tape but pull it very tight as you wrap it around the leaking area. The tape stretches several times its length and creates a nice tight seal on the hose or the metal connector. Now that would normally be the end of this story, but it isn’t, of course. Last year I had a hose get cut [by a disgruntled neighbor], and I successfully used that tape to stop the leak. I started to use the hose again this year, and guess what? It started to leak out the bottom of the tape. Grrrrr! I do have more tape, but sometimes tape creates more problems than it helps. I had another hose that was leaking badly out of the metal coupling that fastens to the faucet. This is a very difficult area to properly seal since the leak is right where the cap screws on and fits on the hose. I got the tape on and added several layers to make sure I had all of the area covered, and I pressed it down tight into the grooves to make it as watertight as possible. I did a very good job, actually too good. Now the cap with the threads will not turn freely; it is locked in place by the tape. So I have to twist the whole hose around in order to thread it on to the faucet. It can be done, but it takes a long time to get it on the faucet. Good news, the connector no longer leaks; bad news, the hose is staying on until winter.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation, even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vince
CHICKS
A long time city dweller decided to start up a chicken farm, so he bought a hundred chickens to get up and running. A month later he returned to the dealer to get another hundred because the first lot had died. Another month passed and he’s back at the dealer for another hundred. “I think I know where I’m going wrong,” he told the dealer. “I think I’m planting them too deep.”
That is all I have for today. As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember the old saying…water, water everywhere and most of it is on me.
