Increments of progress

Recently I:

Put up the clothesline. (This is a metal clothesline that I found on clearance at Walmart for $1 years ago, and bought, even though we were living in an apartment at the time.) Last winter, when we were without a dryer for some time, I figured that we saved about 75 cents per load by hanging laundry to dry.

Pulled out the receipt for our dehumidifier, which had gone from not working well to not working at all, and discovered that we had two days left to return it. I am going to mark these deadlines on the calendar, for future major purchases.

Started mending a child's favorite cotton sweater, which was unraveling in many places. This involves more or less re-knitting the dropped stitches with a pair of yarn needles, but I'm enjoying making skilled repairs--a little at a time.

Finished buying the most essential birth supplies and washing the sheets and towels that will be needed.

Looked up how to submit a claim to our health insurance company, as this midwife does not have a billing service. This company won't even put a blank claim form on their web page.

Put several coats of linseed oil on the top of the coffee table. Linseed oil is nice, but it's slow; each coat takes at least two or three days to dry (oxidize, actually). Three more coats to go. The oily rags are hung on the clothesline until trash day, to avoid spontaneous combustion.

Used a $5 off coupon to buy the Danish oil that I need to (finally) finish the armchair to match the couch. Danish oil is very fast, you can put on several coats in a single day, but that means you have to be extremely careful with the oily rags; read the directions.

Looked up the manual to the refrigerator online, and discovered that over-cooling may mean that the coils need to be vacuumed. Discovered that they certainly did need it; they looked like they had never been vacuumed. So far this has only helped the fridge to freeze our food more efficiently; there is an exhaust vent on the back that also should be cleaned. The fridge was installed into a niche with less than the recommended clearances, so it is very difficult to pull out, and it may be that we are stuck with overchilled food because of insufficient air flow around it.

Noticed that egg prices suddenly increased a lot here...to $2.99 per dozen for large eggs, and the store no longer carries flats of 30 eggs; a carton of 18 eggs now costs what a flat of 30 cost before. Instead, they filled the shelf space with several varieties of organic eggs that cost even more for only a dozen. Still, a dozen large generic eggs is 24 ounces (1.5 pounds) of very economical high-protein food.

Found a wood alto recorder at the thrift store, for $2, which must have been from God because I only saw it as I was making a quick second pass over the toys, before the store closed. (Soprano recorders are fairly common; altos are much rarer and more expensive.)