The Adventures of Harriet Homeowner

Owning a home could be seen as a thrill a minute (current mortgage crisis not withstanding!), as long as you keep a healthy, humorous attitude about the almost-daily issues.  It almost seems like the house is laying down a gauntlet for me, just to keep life interesting.

The latest recalcitrant piece of machinery was the garbage disposal.  I've had one for years since my first home in 1978, and occasionally had issues like too much food or the wrong food jamming it.  But after returning from a long trip recently, when I hit the switch for the disposal, it just quietly hummed.  There was no food in it, and I know it worked fine just before I left, so what the heck was wrong now?

Several queries to friends resulted in total agreement on defining the issue -- NOT being used had caused the problem.  Seems the very dry desert air reaches even the innards of the garbage disposer, so that it's not unusual for whatever is around the blades, even just a thin film of food, will dry to a glue consistency, which is apparently enough to freeze the motor up.

The solutions offered, from using two screw drivers pressed against the blades to dislodge them, or the sturdy handle of a plunger or broom, still made me nervous to try on my own.   Sure enough, a handyman friend told me that there's a tool - similar to an allen wrench - to use on the bottom of the disposal to start the blades turning.  My son's allen wrench set was tapped, and it took about 1 second of effort to take care of it.  My garbage disposal is grinding happily again, and I now am the proud owner - thanks to my handyman friend - of the special tool for this task.  It's duct-taped to the side of the disposer which almost guarantees it will never be needed again. 

 

So, in the adventures of Harriet Homeowner, this one was  a minor tale.  A good ending, especially since no cost was involved, but also good since I appreciate the plain ol' fun of discussing the latest item added to any homeowner's ever-growing "honey-do" list.

I hope it'll be awhile before I report the next adventure.  But who knows.......