So That Happened...Weekend Recap

Happy Monday y'all!  How was your weekend?  Ours was actually super productive for once!   Friday I decided to take down all of the Christmas stuff until we break it out again in November.  Of course I had to undo all of the crappy things I just chucked in the bins leaving it for 'future me to worry about.'

(screenshots from Tenor.com)

Once I got all of the Fall stuff in the proper boxes and the Spring stuff stacked and ready to roll in a few months I could get my Christmas bins upstairs and packed up properly.  Now it's just cozy browns and neutrals to help me enjoy the winter.

After having our re-made slider blind box becoming a piece of furniture we were adept at stepping over, we decided to put it up since the tree was out of the way.  We have construction literally all around us and as soon as our tree went up, this became our view:

I can tell you, it is NOT cool to look out and see a bunch of worker dudes just looking over at you in your own living room.  I didn't feel like we should have to now live with the curtains closed for 8 more months so we got this light filtering blind from Blinds.com and now we'll have privacy on work days or at night.  

They also have free redo's if you mess up your measurements.  Don't ask how I know.  They don't even make you send them back, they tell you to donate them or do whatever with them so our annoying neighbor got one for free.

So after cutting myself on a stiff air dried towel, I was over it.  Thursday night I was perusing YouTube and they made it seem like replacing the belt/rollers was pretty easy as did the comments.  For under $35 I figured the worst we'd be out is a little money, time and be no worse off clothes drying wise than we are now.  I sent it over to the Mr and asked if he was game and he agreed especially since on his morning call when he mentioned it was broke, the guys were like "just fix it yourself."  Cute.  The Mr did not grow up with a dad who did that sort of thing and if something looks too hard to fix ourselves via videos then we usually call someone but given the current world situation...no.  So we ordered the kit we needed (hoping that the rollers were the problem) and they came Saturday after we hung the blind.

Armed with a few YouTube videos, we headed down, did a sign of the cross and dug in.  We had a time getting the top off initially but once we did, the rest went just as the video said.  With each part dismantled, it got a little more like "this will either work or the appliance store will be hauling away pieces in a heap in the corner."  It's unnerving seeing your dryer in pieces.

With each panel and part, the Mr would hand them to me and I would vacuum them out and wipe 'em down.  People, I know you won't do this but I highly recommend finding a YouTube video for your particular model and opening the shell if for no other reason than to vacuum out the insides.  We've had ours for 13 years and there was probably 2" of lint on the bottom but then the part where the lint filter sits is completely coated in lint.  We empty the lint filter after every single load so this was pretty surprising.  I suctioned all of that out then wiped it down so it's basically brand new.  The Mr replaced the rollers and the ones in the back of the dryer were a little more tricky.  We had to contort with him on the ground on his knees holding the back of the nut with a 14mm wrench while I was bent over him with my 10mm ratchet wrench like we were trying to spice up our sex lives or waiting to hear left foot red.  We finally got that situated, he replaced the pulley and belt (something he was dreading but was actually the easiest part) and started screwing everything back together.  We were happy that at minimum, we had it all back in one piece.

We decided to get a load of laundry going to see how we did.  After keeping an eye on it the first half hour and the dissipating smell of heated lint initially, SUCCESS!  I had the Mr grab all of the previously line dried towels to put in with the two we'd been using last week so we could have SOFT towels again.  I will never take a dryer for granted again, that's for sure!  We know we'll have to replace them but want to get as much out of them as we can.  I'm just glad he was game to give it a shot and we seem to be okay for now and it took about 2ish hours.

Saturday night we 'rewarded' ourselves with a binge on Ozark which honestly, I'm so over.  The only reason I watched last season was because Tom Pelphrey was so amazing on it.  This season is back to Snoozeville for me.  I think the Mr is more invested than I am but we finished "part 1" and at this point it's like get it over with.

Sunday the Mr was a bundle of sore, which I knew he would be.  Plus we got a decent little bit of snow to potentially walk in later so to thank him profusely for being down with my idea, I wanted to attempt to make his favorite brunch dish from Vermont, maple sausage and biscuits.  I made the biscuits from scratch and made a skim milk gravy.  (Southerners just fainted)  I knew it'd last us pretty much all day.

He was quite thankful and happy!  (Probably wondering what else we have broken to get fixin'!)  I got dinner thrown in the crockpot so I wouldn't have to do anything at all later.  We rested a bit and then strapped on our snow gear to get out in the white stuff.

While it was nice to be out again, the first round was utterly treacherous!  There was 2-3" of solid ice under the 2" of snow from the snow melt that froze from last week.  We engaged our core and butts praying we didn't go down.  Then the Mr remembered we had our Vermont arsenal still in the car and we got serious.

We strapped these crampons on over our shoes and breezed through another lap!  I was actually looking for exposed patches of ice and they handled them with ease.  Didn't slip once so we were very glad to have that option and burn off 700 calories worth of sausage and biscuits!

Then it was time to head home and I'll say there is nothing better than walking into your home after a workout like that to smell a whole chicken with red potatoes, onions and carrots wafting through the house and 3% work on my part!  WOOOOOOT!!

It was quite the weekend and we're feeling accomplished and rewarded and probably sore as hell today because snow shoeing never seems to come without a being hit by a mac truck feeling for us!

How was your weekend?

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