A few months ago, I heard a scratching sound in my laundry room. I did a little investigation, and found out that there was something in my dryer! I couldn't decide if it was a mouse or a bird. I could hear scratching and see something grey hopping up out of the lint trap! I took the dryer apart, but still couldn't see the little guy. After a few screams, a few set mouse traps, and a box coming out of the exhaust hole, I left my laundry room, with the door closed over night.
In the morning I woke up to a bird perched on the window. I tried to get it out with the nearest stick I could find, with a wrapping paper tube. I swatted at it and tried to get it to fly out. It didn't. I had to get to work, so I left the garage door open, hoping it would fly out.
7 hours later, on a Friday night, I went home to fetch the bird, instead of going to happy hour. Who wants bird poo all over their laundry room?? I got home to not find the bird. I used my wrapping paper to hit every surface, but nothing happened. Good, I thought. Its gone. NOPE! I found it in a shopping bag. So I picked up the shopping bag, took it outside, and said, "Go free little bird."
It didn't go free! It fell over. DEAD! I think the drama of being INSIDE my dryer killed it.
I put the dryer back together. Fast forward 3 months. I start smelling a burning smell when I run my dryer. It also is taking 2 hours to dry my clothes! Something is wrong.
So, I unhook the vent, reach my hand in and pull out some lint. I go back and reach my hand in again. It feels like sticks, thinking it is a birds nest, I pull it out. NOT A BIRDS NEST! IT IS A DEAD SOMETHING!
I call my friend, Kent, nearly in tears, and tell him he needs to get here now. He says he will be there in 4 hours. Not cool. So I go to the hardware store and buy a cage to put over the dryer vent. Four hours later, Kent gets there. We examine the dead animal, and decide it is a BAT! Now, all I want to do is go to the lake, so we leave and say we will get back to it on Sunday when we return.
Sunday, we didn't do it. So later in the week, I ask my neighbor to borrow her ladder. I climb up to the vent, this time with gloves, and pull out a HUGE birds nest with 4 eggs. Then I try to put the cover on, it doesn't fit. So I taped it with gorilla tape. Fixed. No more animals.
But the story doesn't end there. In the mean time, I some how got the dryer belt/pully dislocated. So I had to fix that! Enter YouTube and the Internet! I watched and read these 2 how-to's and successfully, after a few cuts and bruises, fixed my dryer! Now it dries in 20 minutes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXf2AL1MEzA
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Replace-a-Dryer-Belt-on-Whirlpool-Models/
THE END.
Nope, not the end, the Gorilla tape didn't hold, so I had to enlist my friends to hold the ladder so I could tape it back up again!
