Re: Home and garden projects
 

Our pool was 92 degrees today when we went for a swim.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Throw in a few bags of ice :ohmy:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Throw in Nutek, he seems to operate at 68°F, so he would cool it down a bit. :lol:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Have you had chinch bugs in that Zoysia lawn yet?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Not so far as I know. :unsure:

ETA Just been to read up on the subject and "chinch bugs" might explain the dead patch by the mail box, which has been slowly growing. :(

Re: Home and garden projects
 

The grass will be a dead looking brown/yellow color. They thrive in high heat. We have had them in our Zoysia grass already. Have treated them. They can spread fast.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Maybe that's not it then - it started as a small dead patch a couple of years ago and has slowly expanded.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

That's the old shallow grave thing coming back to bite you.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I have tried several times, but digging a grave below 3½ft is very difficult. :(

Re: Home and garden projects
 

ugh. pop up sprinkler on the irrigation broke this morning, so water gushing out. Luckily a neighbour woke me up but my water bill is going to be horrible.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Paint disposal - In the Bay Area, there are two ways to get rid of leftover / unwanted paint - there's a 'household hazardous waste' facility run by the county not far from my home, where you can drop off all manner of stuff, including paint. And more recently, a new program has been implemented whereby you pay an extra fee when you buy any paint, and in return, any store that sells paint must accept drop-off of old paint.

Both methods combine to make it easy to get rid of old paint, which I presume is being encouraged so as to stop people dumping paint down the drain.

Here in Scottsdale, I tried to get rid of a ton of paint; they have no drop-off facility, and the stores are not obligated to accept old paint. The city operates a program where they'll schedule a pick up, but that's only monthly and 'this months' pickup is already 'full'. It's also only open to single-family homes.

The guy at the city told me it's ok to put paint in the garbage as long as I mix it with kitty litter. I don't have cats and have never used kitty litter, so I shop for some at Safeway ... oh my, a dozen choices! So I pick the cheapest. Mixing it in with the paint is no easy task, and now 2 days later I have a goopy mess - not yet 'solid' by any means, but not runny either. What a pain!

What do most folks do with old paint?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Dump it out onto the ground, mix with litter, let dry, pick up and put in garbage.
That or just say "screw it" and throw the thing in the trash as-is.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Most probably do the latter. I would have thought in Arizona that you'd just need to put the can outside in the sun for a few days for it to dry out.

Round here there is a paint drop-off exchange thing, where county recycling centers take it and you can pick up a part can of paint, or they mix it with something and dry it out.

Me? I only throw out paint that has dried solid in the can. :o .... I need to check the stack of about 30 1-gallon cans of paint and varnish on the shelf in the garage to see if any are beyond use. IME 5 gallon buckets of paint last better, which is just as well because the last time I checked I have about three dozen of those. :blink: I very recently finished off a 5 gal bucket of Behr Ultra-white satin enamel paint that I bought shortly after we moved to NC in 2003. :)

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I'm clearing out a storage closet in my condo, and found paint with a date circa 2004 (I bought in 2009). This paint is no longer 'current' in any room!
This was in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, and was only 1/3rd full, but was still very liquid - it had separated out and had a top 1" of clear liquid. I stirred it for grins, and while it seemed to 're-mix' quite well, there were stringy bits in the paint.

I then put in the cat litter, stirred, and left it outside for 2 days. Despite being 100+ outside, it was still not 100% dry, to my surprise.

I would be very wary of that pile of 30 1-gallon cans; I cleared out my garage recently in CA, and some cans had 'failed' (not sure exactly how), leaking contents onto the floor. I ended up having to spend several hours with liberal amounts of acetone and razor blades getting rid of rock-hard, dried out residue on the floor and shelves. This was a stack of all manner of paints, from latex finish paints, to various primers and probably some oil/alkyd based paints. It was one of those 'dark corner' stacks that you tend to ignore indefinitely :) .

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Yeah, that is surprising. :unsure:
Mine are "up on a shelf" with other stuff I use from time to time on the shelf below, so I know none have leaked, at least not in a major way. Very few are oil-based, thankfully.