water adventures at Knypplinge

[cimorene]

There were on and off thunder showers today and MIL and I watered the plants at Knypplinge and while we were at it, went round to put buckets under the 1950s downspouts, which are unlawfully still aimed at the sewer (gutters going into sewers was code in the 50s - in the US as well - but it hasn't been for a long time). It was an adventure.

1. MIL had to pry the last segment of gutter (which angled to go right along the ground to a mini manhole cover) off with her hands and a huge snake- or turd-looking cylinder of soggy rotten vegetable matter just oozed right out of it like Pillsbury biscuits when you unwrap one of those cardboard cans. The entire gutter was just completely 100% full, apparently. Nice. Or as I said at the time, "WAAAHALÖDJKGHKGBLPLJMGBB;Ø"

2. There's another downspout on the 'back' of the house which faces the street and is bordered with a very narrow strip of yard that has become a bit more overgrown than the main lawn, so I had to kind of wade through tall grass and do battle with a wild rose bush. The downspout originally ended rather high on this side, but somebody wedged a tin can over the end of it and used that to join it to a huge angled bit that went down to the ground and then all the way along it to just... apparently... spit the water straight out at the edge of the retaining wall to fountain out into the street???? The people who did stuff in this house in the past were TRULY eccentric. This is beyond quarter-assing, or letting Bob do it instead of hiring a handyman. Anyway, I put an old plastic bin under the downspout after wrenching the bottom bit off. No innards emerged but I didn't investigate it so I guess we'll find out when we get a lawnmower and one of those long trimmy things and actually clean up the yard.

3. Nobody told us there is actually still water on in the house? In our side, in the kitchen that isn't a kitchen and doesn't have a sink or even a counter, there's water available nonetheless in the pipes still, and the contractors have been using it with a hose all this time to make their cement & stuff. The efficient and sweet golden-retriever apprentice innocently was like, "Did you guys want water?" and filled up 4 watering cans for us. (The three of us have been carting water over there for like... two weeks now... in jugs and buckets.)

This is not related to adventures with water or gutters, but: why do those plastic composting bins cost so much money? What is the draw? Why would you pay that for composting? My mom had a compost that she just kinda dug a hole for in the ground and then put... idk what, composting stuff, mulch? Wood chips? Hay? Something like that? on. Haven't people been composting in holes in the ground for thousands of years? I don't get it. I asked MIL, who is super gung-ho to purchase one of these, and her answer was that it's super convenient to remove compost from the bottom of the bin using a little door. Um... okay??? But 250 bucks of convenient???

Comments

[hebethen]

People pay through the nose for convenience!

"WAAAHALÖDJKGHKGBLPLJMGBB;Ø" This is truly inspirational tbh.

[cimorene]

Yeah, I suppose so! I guess it's just convenience. My wife legit asked me how my mom "managed" to get compost out of her compost heap if part of it was underground... and I was like... "uh... with a garden implement... like a shovel?" And apparently using a shovel is too dangerous as a risk of back strain for her mom.

[oanja]

I had to google this to make sure, but you need to get a container for the compost to keep pests, like mice and rats and I guess birds away from it. I would also assume it's so that people wouldn't have to smell their neighbors compost.

The code also says it needs to be insulated from the cold. I think this is because the composting process would halt during winter and make the composting take much longer and be more inefficient otherwise.

This is the code in finnish: Eloperäisen keittiö- ja ruokajätteen kompostointi on sallittu vain haittaeläimiltä suojatussa kompostorissa. Taajama-alueilla kompostin tulee lisäksi olla lämpöeristetty. (Jätehuoltomääräykset 16 §)

[basingstoke]

If you have close neighbors and/or pests, you would want a container. I have raccoons and I had to order a special lock for my trash can to keep those jagoffs out. Also my nebby neighbors would call the city on me if I had a compost pit. (I don't compost, I just throw large vegetable waste down the side of the hill for the deer to eat)