Garbage disposals are my friends. I've said before that I'd rather have a disposal than a dishwasher. It's true. I'll admit that in the first year of our marriage I stuffed bits of food down the holes in our non-disposaled sink. Trash stunk often, and I didn't quite know how to handle the situation. In our 10 years of marriage, Jared and I have never fully agreed on the usage of garbage disposals. Growing up, it seemed that Mom stuffed everything down those things. Grinding up canteloupe rinds was a blast, watching them go round and round until they disappeared completely. Wikipedia defines a garbage disposal as a device that "shreds food waste into pieces small enough (generally less than 2 mm) to pass through plumbing." Unless we have sheep to give fruit and vegetable peels to, I grind up most all of our food waste, including potato peels, carrot skins, and cucumber peels. (I don't do the canteloupe rinds anymore. And peach pits don't work either.) It's even convenient to crush egg shells in there. When we first heard and felt this San Angelo disposal grind, we shuddered. It seemed to move the whole kitchen just turning that thing on. Jared warned me about it, as he warned me about past disposals. On Sunday, my thought was, If this disposal fulfills its purpose, we shouldn't have a problem if I just stuff these potato peels down. To my surprise, the pipes became plugged up with potato peels. This has happened before. Twice. Disposal running. Water running. Water not going down. Turn disposal off. Turn it on. Off. On. Off. Water is not going down. Frustration. I do the ever-dreaded thing of sticking my hand down into the disposal to see what potato peels are left in there. I brace myself, ready to pull out whatever yuck I find. There's nothing down there. Jared sits comfortably in the rocking chair, watching, but never telling me I told you so like I so deserve to hear.
I took the kids to Wal-Mart to buy a plunger. We were lucky this time; last time the plunger didn't work, nor did it the time before that. Obviously, this disposal did not grind up the potato peels to 2 millimeters or less.
My main question is: what are disposals for if they can't grind most everything up?
Hmmm. Yeah, I don't do potato peels, banana peels, pits of any kind, melon rinds, meat, onion skins . . . ok . . . not really sure if I ever DO use my disposal!
ReplyDeleteActually, since we got chickens, we really don't send much down the drain. Do you have room for some chickens?
Oh, yeah: Since you have a birthday coming up, Myra, I also know from experience that accidentally letting birthday candles go through the disposal isn't wise, either...watch out next Saturday!
Chickens are good, but their freaky, drawn-out baaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwkkks are a little intimidating. And do you honestly think they'd survive in the Land o' Lucy?
ReplyDeleteWell, that's what fences are for! And the old trick of tying the dead chicken around the dog's neck to punish him for the murder...I hear you're supposed to leave the chicken tied to the dog until it rots off....we've never had one last more than a day or two on any dog we've ever had. Actually, those chickens are kind of gross anyway! Glad I'm not the one who has to gather eggs at our house!
ReplyDeleteInstead of a plunger, let me recommend an In-Sink-Erator. I've never had trouble with any of mine :) Does Jared need a birthday gift suggestion?
ReplyDeleteOne important tip: Always run plenty of water down with your wastes. Better luck next time!