Non-Domestic Mama: One Hot Mess

Showing posts with label One Hot Mess. Show all posts

Friday, June 6, 2014

How Does Your Garden Grow?

No really, share your secret. Cause I haven't got a clue.

In the spirit of participating in link-ups I have no business being a part of, (Photography, Fashion) I thought I would jump on the Gardening link-up over at Cari's place.

I have absolutely no ability to make anything grow (other than children) or keep anything alive (other than children, pets and, with your help, one tree) but I do have some kind of obsessive need to kill tiny plants. It's sick really. I probably need Gardening therapy or something.

I blame Pinterest. It fills my head with these ideas of gardening as some kind of grand educational experiment, curb appeal and living off the land. Sounds great right?

The only plants I can manage to successfully grow are the things I don't even know about.

Check out these Blackberries I discovered growing in our backyard.

And the enormous mushroom village on this stump.

Here is my garden so far.

I pretty much planted a bunch of varieties of seeds in little pots to see what takes. Not sure what I will do with them if they should decide to pop up. Probably give them the exact right amount of water and sun to kill them. I have a talent for that.

Slab Leak Survival Tips

Now, I don't like to brag. But after seven slab leaks, I am starting to consider myself somewhat of an expert. So I thought I would share my expert knowledge with my readers. Just in case you ever find yourself unfortunate enough to have to deal with a slab leak. Or seven.

First of all, what exactly is a slab leak?

If your house is built on a concrete slab, then the plumbing is under the concrete. First, all the plumbing was laid out, then the concrete was poured on, and then the house was built. So if one of those pipes under the slab starts to leak, it isn't easily accessible for repair.

How will you know you have a slab leak?

If your living room starts to resemble a swimming pool, you might have a slab leak. If you start to suspect a child or animal is frequently having accidents in the same spot on the carpet, but they only get wetter when you try to soak them up, you might have a slab leak.

If you notice a high water bill, you might have been especially thirsty that month, or your might have a slab leak. If your water meter is spinning, it might be possessed, or you might have a slab leak.

How will you locate the leak?

Water is funny. It can come up in your living room and you may suspect a leak in the kitchen because it is the adjoining room. But you might find out the leak is actually in the bathroom located on the opposite corner of the house. Water will come up at the lowest point. It might come up in the house, the yard, or it may just drain away under the slab and you may never see it at all.

Plumbers will locate the leak by using equipment to listen for it under the slab. Wherever the water sounds the loudest is where they will dig. It's harder to locate if it's a slow leak.

How is it repaired?

Family Night - One Hot Mess

On Fridays we host "Family Night" which is when the family all come over for dinner at our house.

Which obviously means that every Friday afternoon, the dining room table looks like this.

And the living room floor looks like this.

Believe it or not, that entire mess was made today. In less than an hour.

The Culprits

So, the quick scramble to go from before.

To after.

Totally kidding. That's a picture from Thanksgiving.

See? I can clean. When I really have to.

Linking up with One Hot Mess (is that my kind of link up or what???) at The Fike Life.