Well... the excitement is papable. I think that is a word. Two big bits of excitement in the back yard, and maybe three bits if you count differently.
A tree fell down and broke our fence in a windstorm around 1 November. I took some photos, but the weather has been so crappy that I only just got back there to do some clean-up. It is (was) a sweetgum tree in our neighbor's yard that snapped off at about the six-foot level, and almost twenty feet of tree fell on the corner of our newly installed fencing. Other names for the sweetgum are liquidambar and American storax. Unfortunately, besides the cleanup, about three panels of the new fence are damaged.
Under WA law, we are responsible for repairs - this is an agreement common among insurance companies. Metropolitan just sold our policy (the whole business) to, I think, Farmers or maybe State Farm, so I have to find the new insurance information to make a claim. In the mean time, I went back to do some initial clean-up. I am hoping that I might get a 4x4 board out of it, maybe 12 feet long. Looks like nice wood, but we shall see. I am concerned that an otherwise healthy-looking tree snapped, so the wood may be diseased or otherwise not useful.
Second bit of excitement - we had the septic tank pumped for the first time in about 5-7 years. We are pretty careful with, uh, what we put into the tank, so seven years is about normal for us. We had the silos put in (towers?) last time, thus no digging this time, just pumping. When he went to clean the filter (between the septic tank and leading to the leach field), there was a bit of discovery.
The filter fell apart when he pulled it out. Not surprising that 30-year-old plastic fails. As I understand it, the filter is a stack of filter plates that are held in a column by three plastic rods and capped by three plastic nuts. The filter serves to protect the leach field from solids in the tank (liquids only). The plastic failed, probably the nuts but perhaps the threading on the rods. Anyway, the operator got the filter out, but barely. He offered a replacement at $500 but also told me how I could get some replacement rods to repair the filter for another decade or three. I chose the latter option, but now I have to go to the hardware store, get the replacement bits, finish cleaning the filter, and replace the filter (inside the septic). I am not entirely thrilled by this option, but I am less thrilled by the $500 option.
In the meantime, I have ripped the first seven seasons of MASH to the family media server and Handbrake has only crashed twice. I am now completing seasons 8-11 and then the movie. Then on to House, Seinfeld, and some miscellaneous DVD movies that I have not yet ripped. I also have some French DVDs to rip, but they are a different Region (EUR rather than US), so I have to look into MakeMKV.
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