Nov 4, 2009

Halloween and Clogged Drains

Here are some things we have been learning/doing recently:

1. Zach does not like carving pumpkins (don't be mislead by his face in the fist pic). Below you can see the photos of our lovely pumpkins. Zach's is the one in the back that you can't see because there aren't any holes in it. In fact, most of the insides are still inside. It wasn't his cup of tea.



2. George likes warm laundry. As I was folding this load, I kept tossing the socks over the side of the basket. I noticed a few had landed on him and he didn't move. So I decided to see how many he would let me toss on him. Apparently, the whole basket...


3. Clogged drains are hard to unclog. I'm not talking a little hairball is in the way either. I regularly clean out our tub drain because my hair collects very quickly. I used our little plastic snake thing, and it comes out perfectly clean. We buy an auger. First we try sticking it down the overflow drain: no clog there. Then we tried sticking it down the drain: the auger is too big. Darn. So we resort to stuffing a rag down the overflow drain and plunging the bottom drain. We do this for a while the first night and get some nasty particles but no water flow. We give up.

A few days later, I read a blog about unplugging drains, and they suggested pouring boiling water down the drain. So with renewed vigor, I boil some water that night to give it a try. After one large pot of water, not a budge in the clog. While we debate whether or not to try more boiling water, Dan goes back to plunging. More icky stuff, not a budge in the clog. After plunging for a while, he picks up the hanger that we had used earlier (I didn't mention that trick, but we did try it at one point). He sticks it not 1 inch down the drain, and FLOOSH down goes the water. Where did the clog go? Don't know. But I'm guessing we plunged the clog up to the top of the drain, and the hanger did the trick at the end. Magic.

Then we decided to clean our drain with baking soda and vinegar. Very cool science experiment.


The End.

4. Our dog, George. He is just super cute. This is him watching us unclog the drain.