Wait... Green Slime Doesn't Last Forever?

 No bike or trike riding yesterday, Monday.  This week is typically weird and so busy we will be lucky to get in ONE day of triking, though hopefully I'll get out on the recumbent solo 2-wheeler.
Yesterday Jacque notified me the Tandem Terratrike had a flat tire on the left front.  BAH. Humbug.  At the time I was too busy loading junk metal on my flatbed trailer to bother with the trike.
After hauling 1600+ pounds of various engine blocks, steel junk, etc, that had been littering the yard and trees for years, to the Acme Salvage Recycler in Albuquerque, and receiving a grand total of $156 in exchange, I took on the Trike Flat.  We have not had ANY flats for several months now in spite of noticing and removing many goat-head stickers from the tires.  All 3 tires have tubes with Green Slime in them which seems to have slowed down our previous fix-a-flat-every-other-time-we-ride routine.  I aired up the tire 3 or 4 times and could find no trace of a leak, but each time I waited several minutes.  After inflating it to 55-60 PSI, it would be down to 40 or 45 PSI after such a short interval - NOT great confidence for a long ride in the country.  So I took it apart.
When I removed the wheel and opened up the air valve on the tube to let out the air, instead of the slimy green glue that normally comes out, I was surprised at the lumpy globs of green that came out instead:

 If you look closely on the bracket by the steering knuckle you can see a weird green 'booger' that plopped out of the valve stem when I opened it up.

 And here's some on my hands:  Clumpy instead of gooey.
My first experience with green slime was running over a green patch of goat heads on the sidewalk not far from work and hearing the dreaded "HiiisssssssSSSS" as the air started ripping through one of the thorn-holes.  Then, suddenly, a small dot of green appeared at the puncture site and the hissing stopped.  I had lost maybe a tenth of my tire's pressure but the green stuff had stopped the leak and I was able to ride back to work 2 or 3 miles' worth without further incident.
I had aired up THIS tire several times and listened and looked for leaks but nothing was detected.  However, when I over-inflated the tube now, outside the tire where I could examine it, I found the following:

ONE Green Leaky Pinhole

TWO Green Leaky Pinholes

  Nay, I also found ANOTHER leaky green pinhole, for a total of FOUR small pinholes that were NOT sealing shut with the green stuff.
It occurred to me that green slime may well not tolerate being frozen, and these tires have been outside in the weather for a year or so, with high summer temps and VERY cold winter temps.  The Green Slime had lost its stickiness and congealed into little non-sticky clumps, and what liquid was still there was not sticky at all.  Oh Well.
Since we carry new spare tubes, I just plucked the new spare out of the pannier and installed it, throwing the multi-punctured one away.
At ten bucks or so per tube, we have stopped trying to patch them and just throw them away instead.  For one thing, even a SINGLE hole is almost impossible to patch with slime inside the tube:  It migrates out and around the puncture, in spite of best efforts at cleaning, and pollutes the rubber cement when trying to glue on the repair patch.  Not worth it....  And I just ordered another thorn resistant, slime filled tube from Amazon.  I prefer to support my local bike shops but none of them seem to carry thorn resistant (extra  thick on the tire side) tubes.  
Then, for Truth in Advertising, I had to laugh at myself when I tried to reinstall the brake caliper AFTER reinstalling the wheel and fender:

Look Closely:  Shouldn't the Brake Disc be on the INSIDE?

So, I was blessed with the privilege of taking it all back apart and reinstalling the wheel the CORRECT direction so the brakes would still work.  BAH