The Potting Soil Inicident

So, at Bible study the other night the topic came up that we were all forgetting things. Entire chapters have disappeared, a picture or reference instantly brings back a memory, but left to our own recollections, there are blanks.  That being said, I want to try to update more often and photo document more effectively. (New Year's Resolution maybe?)

That all being said, I thought I would share my most recent housewife-y faux pas.  Haylee, DJ and I have been rolling about it and thought it might bring smiles all around, and likely quite a few "oh, honey"s.  

It all started about mid October when I decided to clean out the planters on our porch.  I had basil and rosemary this year and they were so cute in their prime, but they had since withered and were now just a depressing remnant and reminder that winter was on its way.

I pulled out the plants & roots and dug around the bottom for the golf balls, wine corks, and stones I used to create a drainage system in the bottom of the container and was left with some potting soil.  It didn't look like too much to me, so I figured I could just rinse the containers out in the kitchen sink and everything would be all clean for my gardening endeavors come springtime.

Had that been the case, this would be a pretty lame story. Apparently garbage disposals and dirt don't work very well together because the sink quickly became backed up.  Eventually I got everything down the drain and cleaned up, just as I had pictured, all squeaky clean and ready to be put away. I moved on with cleaning & straightening things up, fixed dinner, and did not give it another thought.

It wasn't until the next evening as I was unloading the dishwasher that I was reminded of my not so great idea.  The entire dishwasher was covered in potting soil, dishes and all. I repeated the cycle on rinse, which did absolutely nothing. On top of that the dishwasher was not draining, so there was a nice pool in the bottom of it.  I unloaded a few dishes, hand-washed them, and used a cup to scoop as much of the water into the sink as I could and completely forgot to tell DJ about my issue until he was doing the dishes following dinner and I heard "oh my gosh, there is something seriously wrong with our dishwasher." He was seriously upset because we were just given a new one by our apartment complex and he was "so sick of dealing with everything breaking." I was in the middle of studying for something and only paying half attention until I heard "This is so disgusting, the entire dishwasher is covered in mold!"  It was then that I explained the whole story, oh I wish I had a picture of his face.  Big eyes, raised eyebrows, and and crinkled forehead that I knew was saying "you have got to be kidding me."  We called maintenance and were told they would be there in the next couple of days.

Well, the next day, once again I had forgotten about our little problem I had been choosing to ignore in the dishwasher.  Haylee came over to watch an online class at our apartment and brought some kale to make kale chips out of.   She prepared and seasoned the chips and put them in the oven. Well, as luck would have it, maintenance stopped by to check out the situation.  On the work order we specified "water in dishwasher," a completely true statement, but our maintenance man came slightly under prepared for the disaster he was about to meet.  Haylee was completely unaware of what was going on, all she knew was that the kale chips were about to burn and burnt kale chips would smell a million times worse than regular kale chips.  

The maintenance man left to get the shop vac, because, yes, it was that bad.  During that time, we caught the kale chips right in time and I filled Haylee in on the happenings.  The maintenance man came back and spent a long time trying to clean out our pipes, I felt soooo bad, and could not bring myself to make eye contact.  The dust he stirred up caused my allergies to flare up, sending me into sneezing & sniffling craziness.  So naturally, I went to sit on the porch, and left Haylee to awkwardly take responsibility for the issue.

All he said when he left was "have a good day." Praise the Lord because I have no idea what would have come out of my mouth had he said anything that required more than "you too, thank you!"  We could not have done more to come off as the strangest renters in our complex.  Who knows what type of leaves he thought we were baking, our incessant giggling definitely did not help, and the pipes filled with potting soil most definitely sealed the deal.

DJ got home soon after and between the smell of the potting soil, sewage, and kale chips, quickly decided we would be going to study at Starbucks that evening.  Since this incident, both Haylee and DJ have had some serious conversations about "appropriate things to put down a garbage disposal" and potting soil is definitely not on that list.

Happy Christmastime!