Busy Day

We continue to have a very warm Spring. It was over 80 degF today. I spent a lot of time working in the yard. I changed out the clothesline (the old line was getting pretty worn). I then finished removing the fencing which was about the barn. It looks a little bare now, but the post were rotting out as well as the rails. It didn't take much time to take it all down.

I raked out the hosta garden. I did some touch-up painting around the barn, and also raked out some of the other flower beds. I built up a rock foundation around the well head to put an older pump head over the well head. It looks a lot better than a modern well head.

We have had some erosion on the creek. I spent a few hours stacking rock on the back to limit the erosion. While working on the bank, I found a horseshoe. I need identify it (if you know what type of shoe it is, let me know).

It was nice to be outside, but after several hours of working outside I was getting tired. I walked over to the creek to sit on the bench I put there last year. I startled a pair of mallard ducks. They flew just a few yards down stream, but stayed around a while.

We'll be grilling outside tonite. Enjoy the warm weather!

Progress

Spring is soon to come, and the outside projects are starting!

We found a contractor to put a new roof on the barn. They started this week due to the unusually warm March weather (it was nearly 50 degF - amazing we had 18 inches a snow just 2 week ago!). They got the purlins on the main roof barn, and are nearly finished on the east side of the main barn. They will then work on the single-story section over the gym. With the new roof, the barn work will be finished (for now)!

The well drillers are busy around the neighborhood. A number of our neighbors have followed our lead and getting wells drilled.

With the warm weather, the melting snow has brought the creeks and rivers up. Our creek is running high, but there is no worry about flooding.

Shopping Day

The tests of our well water showed it had very high iron levels, was hard, and slightly acidic. We have been getting serious iron staining in the tub and toilets. Keeping them clean is getting to be a pain.

We had water treatment company come in and give us a recommendation. Looks like we will be putting in a sediment filter, iron extraction system, and a softener / neutralizer. Its will run around $3200! Our yearly softening salt and filter replacements will run us around $150/yr. You never realize how expensive and precious clean water is until you have to put out big bucks to get a system installed. We will be getting the new system installed in 1 week.

On a more fun note, I bought a small band saw from Home Depot (thanks to my daughter and son-in-law for some gift money which helped to defer the costs). Its not a big bandsaw (9 inch throat with 3.5 inch depth), but it is good for the types of projects I work on. It will be nice to have a saw that will allow me to make precision cuts very quickly! I also bought a small hatchet to help with roughing out large pieces of wood. The blade needs to brought to a keen edge. I'll be setting up the saw this weekend.

Tomorrow I will attempt to row my second marathon for this season (26.2 miles or 42,195 meters). Wish me luck.

It's a Gusher!

Whew! We are nearly there.

We had a bit of a setback on the well. We had water at 35 feet - but just before the driller was going to hook the well to the house, we got a letter from the health department. It seems they decided to implement a new procedure to get a well put in for all of us in the town. Previously, you worked with the well driller. You picked a location which the driller would review. You sunk the well. Got it hooked up, had the water tested by the health department, and were good to go. Now we had to send in a request to the health department. Even though the health department had already been to our place and had given us a verbal okay, they now were going to inspect all the steps of the well installation process. Would be okay if they were responsive, but the engineer was never around. Finally, the driller told them we were moving forward and was not going to wait for them. He was getting backed up with all the people in the area trying to get wells put in. Once he got a backhoe in, they finished the job in about 3 hours.

We had to let the well sit for ~ 6 hours, and then draw water from the well for about 2 hours till it ran clear. They shocked the well with chlorine, so we don't want to wash our clothes or drink a lot of water for a few days. It was running pretty clear after 1 hour. I let it run for over 2.5 hours to be safe, then ran all the faucets in the house to get the air out of the lines. Still has a strong chlorine smell, but we notice the water seems clearer without all the little calcium floaters we had with city water.

I'll have to clean up the yard. One of the sweet woodruff beds was tore up as they ran the water line to the house. They also tore up some of the yard near the shutoff valve for the city water line. I'll need to clean up the yard before the ground freezes. I don't want to look at this mess till next spring.

It's a Well!

And the answer is . . .

35 feet!

The well is dug and it is running clean. Geologically, the area here is glacial moraine. The drillers found gravel all the way down. There are hills right across the street and on the other side of the creek, so they were worried that they may hit rock ledges. Luckily, the pounding went easy.

The well drillers were able to pump 10 gpm for 2 hours with no problem. The drillers have capped the well for now. They will be back in the next few weeks to trench the line to the house and run the plumbing and power.

Water, Water, Everywhere . . .

We just got back from a town meeting to discuss an ongoing issue concerning our water.

Forgive this little history lesson . . .

The majority of our town neighbors get their water from the nearby village. Living in the town, we don't have direct voting rights in the village concerning the water system. Over 2 years ago, the village announced that they did not believe they were required to provide water or maintain the system anymore. The system was established roughly 100 years ago and was in need of repair. I was part of an informal committee which was looking at options to assist the affected town residents.

The village stated that we town residents receiving city water should band together and form a water district. The problem with this is that the small number of dwellings would have to absorb all the costs for any future repairs - which could be very large. Needless to say, we were not real motivated to do so.

In tonight's meeting we found out that if we were on a well prior to the district being established, we would not have to be part of it. That being said, we will start immediately to put a well in.

(By the way, we do have a well pump like the one above on our property in the side yard. We bought the well pump and put it on a raised wooden platform that is over the septic tank! It's our little joke. Though it is not actually hooked up, we always tell people you don't want to drink the water...)

I'll be updating this blog to let you know what this entails over the next few weeks. Wish us luck!

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I almost forgot - we will be getting the main barn and the gym roofed. We got estimates and have selected a contractor who will be starting soon. We will get those section of the old barn roofed in metal roofing. I'll be updating this effort also.