Spring into Summer Again!

I have mowed five times already ! And Mugsy mowed once, way to spend your days off huh?

So, that means I have three mowers running, and the weed eater, and a couple projects out of the way already. As I'm sure you realize it must be, just to be able to get to the stupid lawn. I finally nailed the front yard crib together and still need to build a couple wooden boxes to set in it's top, so it can serve a couple purposes, because nothing can ever have only one purpose. It's main purpose is to disguise and cover the septic beds vent pipes, it's second will be to provide a raised bed for some sort of growing thing that the unknown gardner will later determine. And it made use of some lawn timbers that were laying in a pile when we bought the place.

Trying to find a leak in a plastic pipe 1200 feet long running though pastures is a challenge, but I'm guessing it is at the one junction, the rolls come in 600 ft sections, or where it goes through the basement wall. And as the basement wall is usually wet near where it comes in that's where I'm looking first.( After some investigation, it turns out the wet situation is probably due to a crappy gutter, which we'll fix later when we do the roof upgrade).

I started trouble shooting different areas of the system, but it's hard to do when it's a 1200 foot walk to turn things on and off constantly. Walk to the spring house and turn it on, go to the basement and check a valve, go back to the spring house and check it, turn it off, not the problem, start again! I walked miles, and determined the leak was in the line from the spring house to the little house. I was told it was 1200 feet of new line with one fitting half way and there was a marker in place to identify it. Welllllll, not quite accurate. I finally found my 100 foot tape measure and started measuring the situation. Actual distance, 625 feet, marker was a connection in what was surely a 250 foot roll of wire, not the pipe itself, though I did find the pipe where marked.

 

And in fact the pipe from the spring house is ONE inch and the pipe into the house is 3/4 inch. So there is obviously another coupling somewhere, to reduce the pipe before it enters the basement. So the two pieces of 600 foot long pipe are probably two pieces of 300 foot long pipe with some smaller stuff to bridge the gap. I finally gave up and went and got the previous owner to come and tell me where the lines went and he was pretty accurate. Though I know what it is like to try to remember something, and after 29 years I figure he did pretty good. Yep this was all new in 1981. So here is a partial explanation of some of the problem.

 

The original house had water from a spring near the road, and multiple pipes were put in place to get the water into the house. The garage, that was later turned into the current house, was later plumbed to this roadside spring, and a hand dug well was also driven on the east side. So the area is crisscrossed with pipes and some are laid, I found, in concurrent trenches at various depths. This makes things pretty difficult when you are looking for a particular pipe and find one, but it isn't the one you were looking for. see picture.

The next issue is that when an existing line is re purposed, by being cut and attached and rerouted, if the fitting used leaks, the water will be removed from the area by the unused section of pipe, thus giving no indication there is an issue or where that issue might be. You see this is what happened in this particular incident. And even though it appears there is a valve on the line they cut to use, (sitting on the yellow brush,) it was in the open position, and allowed drainage from the area. The water was leaking from the broken nylon "L" (90 degree elbow) and rather than making a wet spot that would have helped me find it, it was traveling down the severed pipe in the ditch, down to the old spring house, and that wasn't helpful ! The nylon "L" was in a position that had it wrapped around the point of a rock in the ditch, and as the pressure of the covering earth pressed down, the "L" was forced into a straightened position, and this caused it to crack, If the pipes had been laid in pea gravel, or even sand before they were filled over with rocks this " wouldn't have probably occurred" . Now who knows what happens underground in thirty years? But a few steps can make things easier, and I'm taking those steps in the areas I dig up, and any pipes I lay around here, will be clearly marked and properly bedded. This in an attempt to make sure they are easy to find, and less likely to need to be found.

Anyway the 600 plus feet of line, was spliced into the line from the Street area spring house, and the pipe it was cut from, was left in the same hole. About six inches above it, and nearer the street by about a foot, was another line to the spring house, which appears to have been cut by the backhoe when it dug the first line up. That line is severed, and about 16 inches from the leaking line, so there were TWO drain lines running from the hole with the leaking fitting, to places far away. The leak finally showed up, when I again walked to the spring house and turned the water on. Jenni watched the hole/trench, (where I couldn't find the connection) for water. After she saw where the water was coming from, I dug another six inches deeper and toward the south, and finally found the connector I was looking for and the leak it was creating. I also found the rock that was the probable cause of it's failure. I chiseled the rock away, and the next time I was in town, I bought the fittings I needed to repair the leak . And today June 3rd I returned to the spring house, turned the water back on, and the pump didn't continue to run. The pump just brought the pressure up to 40#, and switched off. NO LEAKS! Hooray!!!!!!!

So on to bigger and better things. Jenni was here due to a work weekend the kids arranged to help get a couple things done I just can't do anymore, the fact that I'm old, doesn't help, and neither does the fact that I'm officially crippled, both of which I try to ignore, but they keep winning the arguments.

Matt and Russ moved two lathes and a few tons of other stuff so they could get to the area in which, I couldn't complete the metal ceiling, for the garage, machine shop. The metal ceiling sure makes a difference. Now the insulation I put in place, two years ago with Russ's help, isn't hanging down inviting the birds to nest in it, and the white color makes the garage brighter. It also means I can begin hanging the light fixtures, finish the wiring, and complete the insulating of the building.

 

 

 

 

 

There are many ways to look at the work done here. But in this picture note the clearly red end of the structure. Well I think it is obvious that the corn crib is red , but some folks seem to take umbrage with that determination, so maybe I'm just used to things being in a "used to be" condition. I really hate to pay the price for new, particularly when the price for used is about half and the desired outcome is very nearly the same. But on to the good part of the story, the corn crib is now RED, without any doubt about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mostly you see a small change in color, but really it is a total change of attitude. From a dilapidated relic to a functional structure this is the first step along the path. There were many ideas floated about painting, from a variety of color schemes, to a mural, large flowers, even a tobacco ad (my great idea), to a Double Bubble Chewing Gum ad ( Chris's totally silly idea). It ended up red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenni, Brenda, Chris, and Ryan, along with Alex's help, painted the Corn Crib, so I'm hoping not to hear about it not being a "Red" Corn Crib. Okay it was a little faded, maybe to the point of being more gray than red, but it was, if a color was to be noted, a red corn crib originally. And now it is again. But if you look carefully the picture shows what a difference painting the edges makes, the area at the top that the edges couldn't be painted in the beginning, looks much lighter than the areas at the bottom where the edges were painted as they went. Really weird. Hopefully now nobody should have trouble finding the place for the 95th Rankin Reunion.

 

 

 

The Garden House, which was a pole building of sorts, was moved after we moved in. I though I chronicled that ordeal but maybe not, I can't find it, so here's the quick and dirty. LOL Like that will happen, anyway.The building is 12 x 8 built of chip board, OSB, and was a playhouse for the previous owners kids, and used for storing yard junk mostly. Chris wanted it up by her garden so I built runners out of 2x6's and skidded it up beside the main house. I only tore it up a little, and didn't dump it over sideways though it tried, twice! It has been sitting on the skids for over a year and as I will need those boards for rafters when we re-roof the little house, I needed them not to rot.

And, I promised Chris I'd get it on a stone foundation for her to use as a garden shed. Well the boys jumped in and helped with getting that done as well. It now sits level on four substantial field stones from the old barn.

 

The reunion was a success, and Oscar had sufficiently recovered (from his lost battle with the lawn mower deck stack LINK) to wander around and nibble everyone's clothing, and get in the picture of the reunion, held on the" Hay wagon" trailer that I borrow from the neighbors, (Chad K) for the hay ride.

 

 

 

 

 

A. J. insisted on hamming it up and driving the tractor, you know how kids are. Probably be even more demanding, if he could talk! He seems to be a pretty happy little guy, he has only reacted badly to bad things, and as he is still small he has time to be trained to be a NADA FARM kid...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar wasn't sure what was happening here, this guy wanted to play Butt the Goat. But Oscar hasn't really done that with anything but maybe a shin here or there. They had a good time anyway , but Oscar kept a close eye on P.C. for the rest of the day...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now we are into Summer and trying to keep everything from getting entirely over grown and inaccessible. I had to trim the trees away from the main path back through the woods, and mow the trail, so that it didn't close completely up. I don't seem to be getting the help from the wildlife that I did in previous years, in fact, haven't seen too many deer. Though I see their tracks and "sign", I don't see them as much as the first couple years. I think they are on to me, that I know they taste good.

 

Unfortunately I have had to try to thin out the rodent population in the buildings. I have eliminated 6 raccoons, 8 rabbits, and have a trap set for a groundhog that is in my red barn. I also sniped a ground hog under the corn crib, it was truly a beautiful shot. I don't mind the critters back in the woods, cause that's where they belong, but they can't keep chewing up everything in my buildings, they have to go. I really feel kind of bad about it, in a way, but I have learned, that they don't. They go right back where they are removed from, if they aren't eliminated. So if they are in the buildings, or the garden, they go bye bye. Now to prove my point there is a black snake that was placed back in the barn, Russ found him near Oscar's pen, and brought him up to the house to show us. When it was time to dispose of him, he asked where I wanted him , so I had him let him loose back at the red barn, a couple days later I saw a tiny version of him? Maybe it was a her! Back at the barn, slithering around the tires of the Ford tractor. Point being, I'm just not interested in letting the varmints destroy the buildings, but If they can live harmoniously, I prefer to let them be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chores, Fresh Air, Green Acres is for ME.