things we need to get fixed

Can I just quit now?

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Honestly. I would really like to just quit right now.

This morning, I tried calling a plumber about switching out our well pump in the basement. This would be the third plumber we’ve contacted in the past few weeks.

To recap: we are on a deep well for water. There is an immersion pump in the well itself, and two pipes going from the well to our basement, into another pump. The two pipes in at one end become one pipe out the other, pumping water into our pressure tank.

The well pump in the basement has been making noises. At times, the pressure is lost, as if it is losing prime, or as if we’re using the water faster than it can refill the pressure tank. When that happens, it makes a grinding noise. Once the pressure gauge on the pump is where it’s supposed to be, it goes quiet and stays quite for the rest of the time it’s running, but the noises return frequently, if not every time it turns on. Basically, it seems to be wearing out.

My older brother had bought us a new pump and was going to install it for us, but we ended up fighting with our septic, instead. So the new pump, with all the fittings, clamps and whatnot that he could think of possibly needing, has been sitting and waiting ever since. Instead of making my brother come back, we were just going to hire a plumber. Unfortunately, the “discretionary” funds had to go towards vehicle repairs, but I really wanted to get that done before winter, in case the plumber needed to go into the well, since there was also the possibility the foot valve in there was leaking.

I called the plumber and left a message, honestly not expecting to hear back until Monday. So it was a pleasant surprise to get a call back a couple of hours later.

I had said in the message what we needed done, and that we already had a pump. It just needed to be switched up.

When he called, he asked if I meant the immersion pump. No, I said. The one in the basement. He seemed confused. I brought up the possibility of the foot valve leaking in the well, but that it was the pump in the basement that was making the noise, and we wanted to switch that out.

He said they had better come out and take a look.

They came out this afternoon!

I now understand why he was confused. I’m starting to get the impression that we are the only ones that still have this old system. Once they were in the basement, checking it out, he explained that basically, no one likes to work on these systems, because they are such a problem. He asked me to turn on a tap to trigger the pump to turn on, so I went to the bathtub and did what we normally avoid doing: turned both taps on to full. This not only turned on the pump, but triggered that grinding noise and, eventually, I lost water to the tub. Which is when I shut off the taps and joined them in the basement again.

Once the pump’s pressure reached where it was supposed to be, the pump was nice and quiet again. He told me that, it’s not a matter of simply switching pumps. The front cap of the new pump would have to be removed and installed inside the well itself – and there would be just one pipe leading to the basement and the rest of the pump. There was a good chance changing it would cause further problems, which is when he asked to see the well.

They were able to get the cap off, with it’s one bent up handle. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever seen the inside. My only memories are of when the trench was dug from where this well was dug, towards the barn. That is where a water pipe to serve the barn and water fountains for the cows was laid, as well as the main pipe for the grey water from our septic tank. I don’t know exactly where near the barn these pipes split off in opposite directions, but I do have a general idea of where it must be.

Once the plumber used the ladder to get into the well, his assistant had to take it out so he’d have room to actually move around.

The news did not get any better.

It seems ours is a 4 inch well. Modern wells are 5 inch. That means there is a smaller immersion pump – a size that’s very hard to find these days.

Like the first plumber we talked to – the guy who has worked in our well before – he said it would be better to replace the immersion pump. This would mean one pipe into the house (the other could be used for the electrical wires to go through) and no pump in the house.

The other problem with doing that job is, the cap inside the well – what he was standing on to check out the system – would have to be removed. There’s no way to know how high the water table is right there, but given how damp and rusty things were, it’s probably quite high. Which means they’d be working in water.

However, this is a 50 year old well.

What we really need is a new well.

We could do all the other work, spending what might be as much as a couple thousand dollars but, in the end, we could lose out water entirely. He did not dare even switch out the pump in the basement, for fear of losing us our water.

As we were chatting, I asked questions and mentioned various things, ranging from the snails that showed up in our fish tank after using well water to make a change (I forgot to mention the algae blooms), and how we stopped drinking the water since them,to having to shock the hot water tank with hydrogen peroxide regularly because of the smell.

By the time I got to that, he was looking a little wild eyed. What had been, to paraphrase, as sort of “I won’t go so far as to recommend it, but if it were me, I’d drill a new well,” became a “yeah… you really need a new well!” The more he heard about it, the more he wanted to stay away from doing things like replacing the pumps, either one at a time, or both at once. We definitely have issues that are beyond what they can do for us.

In the end, after apologizing for being the bearer of bad news, I gave him my email so he could send me some names for well drillers.

Oh, and when I asked if he knew what a new well might cost? Depending on various factors, of course, it could cost as much as $10,000.

I told him that if we had that kind of money, we’d have a new roof! :-D

Normally, they would have charged for a service call like this, but by the end of it, he said he would not charge us anything. Then apologized again for all the bad news. My response was along the lines of, with this place, I’ve come to expect it!

For now, we were basically told to hang in there with what we’ve got. We have water right now, and it’s not worth jeopardizing that until we are in a position to get the job done fully.

So, not only do we need $10,000 for a new roof, now we need another $10,000 (estimated) for a new well. That’s on top of everything else that needs replacing, like flooring and walls and repairing the old basement walls, and the weeping tile under the new basement… on and on it goes.

Coming up with that kind of money is a challenge all on its own. Doing it without jeopardizing my husband’s disability insurance is another issue. If we made that much in “income,” he’d basically lose his insurance. It’s not just a matter of his disability income that we are living on, but coverage for his medications.

Needless to say, I got zero work on the sun room door today.

It would be so much easier if we could quit, somehow.

But that’s just not an option.

So, I guess we’ll just have to figure something out.

:-/

The Re-Farmer

Wired

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Shortly before my husband and I left for town this morning, I happened to glance out the window and saw a couple of the renters cows.

On the wrong side of the fence!

So I quickly went out to close the vehicle and person gates in the chain link fence, then messaged our renter to let him know about it.

Next to the barn is a wide open area in the fence that used to have a barbed wire gate at some point. That has long since disintegrated. There’s no real point of trying to built another gate, since the posts themselves have shifted. We’d never get a straight gate out of it, and it’s really not worth the effort to try and straighten those huge posts.

The only thing stopping the cows from getting through is an electric fence.

Our first summer here, the electricity cut out, and the cows made their way through. The first time it happened, it was just a few of them, with a cow and her calf making their way into the inner yard before we saw them. It happened again in the fall, and this time the herd went on a stampede!

Last spring, I made a simple rope gate across the opening. There’s no way the rope would stop a determined cow, but it would at least be something the cows could see as a possible deterrent.

Well, it didn’t really work. :-D

As I was heading out to prep the van and moving it closer to the gate (normally, I would drive into the yard to pick up or drop off my husband and his walker), I startled the few cows that were in the outer yard, and they went back through the gate by the barn.

When we got back, I went over to check the state of the ropes. The top one was doubled, and both were broken. One, I was able to tie back together, but the other seemed to be missing a few inches, so I just wrapped the ends around the line.

The bottom one had been pulled well into the barn side of the fence. Pulling it up, I found it was pretty tattered and wet. When I tried to pull it towards the other post, it broke again. So I took the broken part and hung it on the post, on the side with the caribiners.

As for the wire for the electric fence, I could see no sign of it in the tall grass. Just the insulated holders were still standing.

When I headed out to go into town again, several hours later, I found that the renter had already come by and fixed the electric fence. We never saw or heard him!

He also changed things up a bit.

He made use of the bottom caribiner! He took off the bit of rope that was still tied to it, and now it’s holding the wire securely. The insulated wire that makes up the end of the fence is now tied around one of the other large posts. It’s looking a lot more secure than it was before.

Not that it would stop a cow, if the electricity stops again. :-D

You can see part of what used to be the bottom rope. It actually looks like a cow had tried to eat it!

The rope itself has been out there for more than a year, and the sun and weather has clearly weakened it. I could probably tear it apart with my hands, at this point. When I get the chance, I will replace it with new rope.

And get another caribiner, so this one can be just for the wire. :-)

The Re-Farmer

That’s it. I’m done.

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Well, for tonight, at least.

Tired Clip Art - Cliparts.co

It happened again.

When things cooled down enough, I took advantage of the temperatures to break out the riding mower and try and get at least the lawn around the house done, before the predicted rains. Thanks to my brother, it was running fine.

And then it wasn’t.

This time, it happened while I was in the middle of mowing. I’d gotten the South yards done, and was working on the West yard, when it simply coasted to a stop. The engine was running fine, like before. I checked, and the tire pins were fine. I could see nothing to cause this to happen again.

It had already started to rain a bit while I was out there, so I quickly pushed it into the garage and brought out the push mower.

Now, the push mower has issues, too. The control for the governor seized up, so my brother rigged up a manual control directly to the governor. It has one speed only. The prime pump doesn’t work, so in order to start it, I have to open the filter cover on the side and splash a bit of fuel directly into the opening under the filter. Once it has been started, as long as I refill the gas tank before actually running out of fuel, I don’t have to do this again. It’s also difficult to start in general. If it’s been used for a long time, it eventually just won’t restart at all for several minutes. But it does the job.

Until now.

Yeah. The push mower, too.

Did I mentioned there’s only one speed? That is supposed to be “high”. Today, it seemed rather sluggish, though.

Then it stalled, at almost the exact same spot the riding mower stopped moving.

Thankfully, I was able to get it going, and keep it going. until the West yard was finished. I was just starting to work on the North side when it stalled again.

This time, it wouldn’t start again. I was not about to re-injure my wrist trying, either.

So that got put away, too.

I gave the riding mower another once over while I was in the garage, and noticed the one tire that turned out to be the cause of the problem last time, seemed low on air. I tried to see if there was something on the tire to tell me what the max pressure was, and found nothing – but the tire looks like it’s starting to crack on the sides. I pumped it up a bit, anyhow, then checked the other tire, which didn’t seem to need any air, and also didn’t have the cracks the first one did, though it does have the beginnings of them.

So while I was already planning to take it in for basic maintenance and to get the blades sharpened, it might need a new back tire, too.

And if it needs that, what else will they find when they check it out? While I’ve tried to be careful of the mower, there were still times when I hit hidden rough spots, and let’s face it; I’ve really worked that thing over the past two years! It may have been completely refurbished, but it’s still older, and a lot more delicate than newer lawn tractors.

Since I also need to make another deposit at the garage to get my mother’s car fixed, there isn’t a lot of room in the budget for much more. I didn’t try it again after pumping the tire, though, with the weather starting to turn.

I’m just tired.

Tired.

Drained.

Wasted.

I’m tired of having to make do with old and breaking equipment. I’m tired of even the good stuff breaking down so weirdly like this. I’m tired of finally being able to set some funds aside to go towards replacing the roof, only to have to dip into it because something else has broken down. I’m tired of having to pick and choose what we can fix, what we can replace, and what we have to make do with. It just doesn’t seem to end, and in the back of my mind, there’s always that touch of resentment.

It didn’t need to be this way.

My parents had a fully equipped and operational farm. They had tools. They had all sorts of supplies and parts and so many other things. Things that would have been very useful in maintaining the place. Things that were in good shape and working, only to either grow legs and walk away while this place was empty, or get broken through misuse.

Usually, I have no problem letting go of this. I tend to be the sort that recognizes that things like this happen, but I don’t waste my time or energy fussing over them. I don’t have the spoons to waste on that sort of thing. It isn’t worth it.

But every now and then, things like this happen, and it just feels so frustrating and tiring. It’s hard not to feel defeated.

I know I’ll be feeling better after a while. My daughters are making supper, and a good meal followed by a shower and good night’s sleep are just what the doctor ordered.

But for now, I’m just so tired.

Tomorrow, I am going to dip into our contingency fund and buy a new push mower.

Until then, I’m going to borrow my husband’s bath chair and shower off the layer of bug spray that kept me from being eaten alive while I was mowing! :-D

Tomorrow, it will be better.

The Re-Farmer

Reclaiming space

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Well, it’s a good thing I was planning on using the push mower more.

While using the riding mower in the inner yard today, I stopped at one point, to go over to talk to my daughter, who was using the push mower. When I returned to the riding mower, it started just fine, but wouldn’t move. !! There were no issues at all before. One minute, it was working fine. The next, no go. Forward or reverse.

Well, we were planning to take it in for Maintenance next month, anyhow…

After doing most of the inner yard, I switched to cutting the outer yard, as there was so much of it that hasn’t been done at all this year. I quickly stopped using the bag to collect grass clippings. It filled so quickly, and the mower just doesn’t like to restart very well.

That did mean I was able to reclaim more areas of the outer yard.

For the first time since we’ve moved here, I was able to clear the area in front of this old shed.

Do you see where the colour changes from nice and green, to more brown?

While the clippings blur the line a bit, there is a clear demarcation where the colour changes. The brown is where I had not been able to mow, until today. Where I’d been able to mow for the past couple of years, the grass is green, thick and healthy. Where I hadn’t been able to get in with the riding mower (and it’s so rough, I still won’t be able to use it there), the grass was choked out by its own thatch.

I’ve now been able to reclaim pretty much all of the outer yard on this side, and I’ve started to reclaim the area leading to the collapsing log house and chicken coop.

I feel like I should have been making hay! The grass was starting to go to seed.

I will work on this area tomorrow, weather willing. With the push mower, I’ll be able to reclaim even more of the outer yard, little by little. I’ll be mowing a path to the other gate, as before, but will have to be very careful as I go beyond what I’d been able to do with the riding mower. Who knows what is hiding in that tall grass! Rocks and rough ground is one thing, but there could be chunks of wood, metal and small kitchen appliances, for all we can tell.

Since I was walking back and forth so much, I took advantage of it and opened up Pokemon Go on my phone. There is a feature in the game where you have a “buddy” Pokemon that walks with you. While it is your buddy, the game records distance, even when the game is not active. After you walk a certain number of kilometers, your buddy “finds” a candy.

The buddy I have right now is a Meltan. While most buddies need to be walked for 2, 5 or 10 km before finding a candy, Meltan needs to be walked for 20km. Once a candy is found, the meter restarts for the next 20km.

Based on the distance measured in the game, I walked at least 12 km this afternoon. And that doesn’t count the distance this morning.

My phone came with one of those “health” apps that I can turn off, but can’t get rid of. These apps irritate me, since they all basically measure “health” as “lose weight”. It doesn’t matter how good your other health measures are, or how much exercise you get, if you haven’t lost weight, you’re a failure. It does, however, have a pedometer. I’m curious to know just how many kilometers I am actually walking while doing basic yard work.

The Re-Farmer

Replacement door: that didn’t quite work

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After all that work to resize the replacement door for the sun room, painting it, carving out the recesses (and fixing my goof), touching up the paint, the door finally got hung up today!

Aaaaannnnd…

It doesn’t fit.

Part of the problem is the hinges. The original hinges on the door were put back on, not the hinges from the old door. The screws are stripped on some of those and we weren’t even able to get all of them off to salvage them. The hinges that were on the replacement door position the door slightly differently. Once the door was hung up, the girls found it was too “tall”. By mere millimeters!

The easiest thing to do turned out to be removing the top molding of the frame.

So they did that.

It still didn’t fit.

This is the door, at the middle of the frame.

We’re looking at about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch here.

This is the door at the top of the frame.

Yeah.

There’s a gap.

So, weather willing, tomorrow we will get that table saw out of the shed and see if it works. If it does, we’ll take the molding off the top and side, cut it and reinstall it.

Straight.

Then carve out a new recess for the plate that gets installed in the frame, because that’ll be cut right off.

Once we’ve got that done, we’ll just repaint the frame.

What a pain in the butt this is turning out to be!

If the table saw turns out to not work… I’m not sure what we’ll do. I’d hate to have to take the door off and trim the door knob side! We can’t trim any more on the hinge side at this point. We’d have to take the door knob assembly off, and I suppose we could use the circular saw again. It would be very difficult to take off such a tiny amount with that, though.

*sigh*

Ah, well. It’s not like we have a lot of choices. We’re just making do with what we have for now.

Speaking of making do…

When my brother and I visited our mother earlier today, I made sure to ask him about the sump pump hose attachment, showing him the pictures I’d taken.

I learned all sorts of details from him! Like why he had to McGyver the pipes in the basement, adding an extension. Someone else had tried to replace the pump and pipes for my dad and… well, let’s just say, after my dad called my brother to come fix it, he found the pump dangling at about a 30 degree angle, because the person who did it couldn’t be bothered to add a section of pipe to extend it, so it could stand straight in the reservoir. So my brother did that, and the pump is now nice and straight. It may not be the prettiest job, but it’s solid, and I should not need to replace any of it.

I also learned that he had installed a flexible hose on the outside. No, not the one that’s there now. He used a proper sump pump hose kit, like what I bought two of. He said it was about 50 ft long, and drained over by the storage house.

Then one day, he came over and the hose that’s there now had been attached. The long one was gone.

From what he’d been able to gather, someone had run over the hose with a lawn mower.

So my dad used what hose he could find and, rather than getting a fitting to attach the larger hose to the smaller pipe, he wrapped something around the smaller pipe, then clamped the bigger hose on. I had thought the stuff looked like batting, and he thinks it was probably stuffing from an old couch or something like that.

I confirmed that the pipe going through the wall is 1 1/4″ pipe, and that it should be just the end of the pipe on the outside of the wall; nothing weird done to it – though it might have been cut shorter on the outside. I’ll know that when I take off the broken hose.

The fittings that come with the hose kit won’t work, though, since they have a threaded end to attach directly to the sump pump. I should have what I need to attach the hose to the pipe, though, in among the extra parts and pieces I got, just in case.

Now that I’ve double checked details with my brother, this is something I hope to get done, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer

Aaaannnd… something else to fix

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One of the odd things we have on this house is this window cover that the visiting goat discovered.

When I was a kid growing up here, this did not exist, but I think I understand why it’s here.

It is over the window we used to toss firewood through, when we had the wood burning furnace. The window is about 6 – 8 inches below grade. I clearly remember tossing wood through, bouncing logs off the ground in front of the window, into the basement. Sometimes, the log would hit the window frame. So the bottom of the window frame and the dirt in front of it got pretty bashed up. At some point, someone fixed the frame and added a dense, hard plastic to the ground in front of it, and made a sort of retaining wall out of bricks and paving stones on each side

Judging from the shape of this cover, it was meant to hang over the window, with the thinner portion fitting between the little retaining walls, to cover the basement window completely. It’s hinged, so it could be lift up as needed.

However, we have never seen it down, because a small fence post was put into the ground in front of it, holding it up above the window. My guess would be that this allowed access to the window, while the cover itself served as a roof to keep rain and snow out of the sunken area in front of the window. Otherwise, any moisture would leak into the basement.

We took advantage of this by putting the food containers for the outside cats under it, so rain wouldn’t turn it all into mush. It worked well, and it’s something we would continue to do, once the winter debris is cleaned up.

With that in mind, today I lifted the cover higher, so I could start cleaning stuff out from under it.

It fell off.

But only one one side!

It was an easy matter to rip it loose from the other side, too.

As you can see by the underside, it’s a fair bit of moisture damage.

The screws on the hinges pulled right out of the weathered wood.

Seeing this, I am amazed it didn’t come apart under the weight of that goat! :-D

This cover was made up of two wood panels attached to each other.

Oh, look!

The narrower piece was attached to the wider piece with screws, that were sticking through underneath.

Three of them.

I have gone under this cover, letting it rest on my back while I tended to various things at the window, so many times.

I’m now wondering how I managed to do that and never stab myself in the back, or scrape the back of my head, with those screw ends!!!

Meanwhile…

The hinge screws are still in the hinges. One of the hinges – the one that broke first – is quite loose from the wall, too.

So… this is something we’re going to need to replace. As odd as it is, it serves a purpose.

We’re going to have to figure out how to replace it, and with what.

Now that the old cover has broken off, we can think about making an improved version. Since I doubt we’ll ever have the cover hang down to cover the window, we don’t need to have the narrower end. I would also want it to be all one piece. The little fence post can stay to hold it up at the lower end, but I would like to use a material that is lighter; a hard plastic of some kind, that can handle the sun without breaking down, perhaps. I also would want to set it up so that it can be swung upwards, with something to hold it against the wall, so we can access the space under it without having to be bent over, holding it up with our own backs.

Hmmm… An idea just occurred to me. If we’re building a new cover anyhow, it could be made with legs to support it at each corner, instead of the fence post that’s there now, in the middle. The legs could be on hinges, so when it’s lifted, the legs will fold downwards rather than sticking straight out. That way, no one would be bashing their heads into a leg when it’s up. :-D

There is a piece of dense plastic near the window that may have been used as a cover there before. I could see no evidence it was ever attached to hinges, so it may simply have been placed against the wall on its own, to cover the window for the winter. I don’t actually know. I’m just guessing, based on the shape. It’s even heavier than the wood version, though, so it’s not something we can use to replace the cover, as it’s set up now.

This does remind me of something else for the to-do list, though. For the summer, the basement window, plus the foam insulation cut to fit into the frame, gets removed, and a metal screen gets used, instead. This helps with air circulation in the old basement, helping to keep it dry. My older brother even had a fan set up on the inside (which disappeared before we moved in) to draw air in, along with the big blower fan that’s still down there, to help keep that basement’s floor dry.

The wood framing the metal screen was pretty old and starting to break when we first moved her, and this past winter, it finally broke apart. We will need to find some wood to make a new frame before we’ll be able to use that screen again.

Another couple of things for the to-do list! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Nooooot quite!

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My daughter and I went into the shed to get the door I was thinking of using to replace the broken door on the sun room.

The replacement door is in pretty good shape, and even has complete hinges attached, so we took the old door off, hinges and all.

We did not, however, replace it quite yet.

The replacement door is about 2 inches wider.

It is, however, a wooden door, and we do have a circular saw. It was given to us last year, and we’ve yet to use it. Once the weather is calmer, I want to get the old saw horses out of the garage that are matching heights, and we’ll cut the hinge side of the replacement door to the correct width. It’s a temporary measure. Cutting the door will mean that side will be weaker, but we’re not in a position to buy a replacement door. The inside door will do to keep the weather out, for the most part, but it doesn’t close well, either.

Speaking of weather, it’s gotten wild and windy out there since this morning! My daughter and I walked around the yard (I found new deer damage, this time to one of the tamaracks. The bark was torn away all around the trunk, so it’s dead), and I noticed a fair few things blown around since I went through the same areas this morning. We noticed one of the spruce trees is starting to come up at the roots, making it another to keep an eye on. We also looked at where we were thinking to build the cordwood outdoor bathroom we are planning on. The ground is uneven there, but we’ll be removing the sod and leveling it with gravel, sand and some sort of base (possibly paving stones or concrete) before we build. There are a number of old tree stumps around the area, so we might be clearing out dead roots in the process.

We also talked about when we can get the tree guys back to take down three dead spruce trees that are of most concern; two nearer the house, and one near the garage. We were quoted at $750 to get all three done. Depending on what other expenses come up in the next while, we might be able to do that by the end of May. It’d be nice if we could get the wood piles chipped, too, but that was another $650. The live tree in front of the kitchen window that keeps overgrowing the roof and dropping branches was also quoted at $650, all on its own. That tree can probably wait a few years, but the dead tree removal and the chipping is something we really should do sooner rather than later.

Which gets me to thinking about our need to replace the roof. With all these things that need to be done, that’s money that isn’t getting set aside to replace the roof.

So many things, pulling at the budget, and so many of them are urgent or essential.

Hhhmmm… Thinking of removing trees to protect buildings, I sit here watching the wind blowing the branches of one of the maples outside my window. Among my goals, as we are able, is to take down some of the lower, heavy branches. The main trunk of this maple leans heavily, and I’m hoping that by removing the weight, it will prevent the tree from breaking in these winds and extend its life. Maples like a good pruning!

So much to do, and I’m really looking forward to the work! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Van update

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I just got a call from the garage about our van. Apparently, he’s been trying to call me since yesterday, on both the land line and my cell phone, and couldn’t get through. I have no idea why; my mother phoned earlier, and got through no problem. I had just got off the phone with her when my cell phone started ringing. There wasn’t enough of a connection and the call got dropped, but I could see that it was the garage and called back on the land line. Weird, but not too unexpected out here, really.

Anyhow.

He gave me estimate for 2 options. One was to fix the boot, the other was to replace the axle. He said that a small amount of dirt has gotten into the grease. I started talking about replacing the axle right away, which was going to be his recommendation. It would cost less to fix the boot, but we’d end up needing to do the axle later anyhow, so we’ll just get that done now, before it becomes an issue.

It still shouldn’t be the cause of the knocking and shuddering, though. It just wasn’t that bad in there. Still, I’m glad it’s getting done now, before it’s a major problem.

He might be able to get the job done by the end of today, but we have an appointment with Two Face and the vet tomorrow, so we’re going to combine trips. When it comes time to pick up Two Face at the end of the day, we’ll drop my mom’s car off at the garage and pick up the van. I’ll be leaving my mom’s car there so he can check it out whenever he gets a chance, and see why there is still a noise coming from the differential. There is no hurry on this. In fact, I’d prefer it wait until the end of the month, when pay comes in, though that decision will be made after he’s had a chance to figure out what’s going on.

Ah, vehicles. They are such a necessity, but such an expense, too! :-(

The Re-Farmer

Long Day

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Yesterday was our day to do our monthly shop, which always makes for a long day. We actually decided not to do a full shop, though, and will go back later in the month. Specifically, we didn’t get all the cat kibble and litter we usually do. It gets really hard to pack the van with groceries with so many bags and boxes taking up space!

I’m really enjoying the longer daylight hours, too. It was still daylight when we came home!

We were greeted with gorgeous views in the morning, too.

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Seriously???

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

This evening, I got a call from my brother, saying he would be coming over tomorrow to install the new well pump he found for us. Yay! He would need to pick something up along the way, though, and could I get measurements of the pipes for him?

So I went into the basement to see if I could get that for him and…

There was water, all over half the basement.

WTF?

The side of the basement where the laundry used to be has a drain in the floor, but it was covered over with plastic, so I took that out and water started to slowly drain into there. Unfortunately, there was also mostly dissolved toilet paper in the water (no solids, thankfully), and I didn’t want that getting in there. So we had to be careful.

Where, however, did the water come from?

Here.

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