Up on the hill...

It has been a bit crazy up here on the hill over the past 2 weeks.  After my last post, I browsed through my blog, touching on old posts about mothering, and noted that several years ago I mentioned that luckily I had never had to take one of my children to the Emergency Room.  "That's still true!"  I marveled.

The following evening, the girls and I were at the table, finishing dinner, when L jumped up and ran to the door.  "There's Toad!"  she cried.  Toad is the name that she gave to the stray cat  that we had been seeing around our house for the past week or so.  He always ran away when one of us came outside, which was fine - I didn't really want him to stay.  Because we feed our barn cats outside, it becomes the snack spot for every coon, possum and stray cat within a mile radius of our porch.

I admonished her not to touch the cat, and the next thing I saw through the window was her petting it.  I again told her not to get too close.  "He's nice!" she said, "he's purring and wagging his tail!"  I told her that means he's annoyed and he's going to bite - sure enough, that's what he did.  So...we finished cleaning up, got in the car, and were headed down the driveway to go to the ER for rabies shots, when we passed the cat.  The recommendations if bitten by a stray cat are to catch it if possible and watch it for 10 days.  If it becomes ill in that time period, it will need to be euthanized, and it's brain evaluated for evidence of rabies infection, and the bite victim will need the shots.  If it is ok after 10 days, everyone is in the clear. 

We were able to catch the cat (carefully) and put it in Kali's big crate with a litter box, a towel for a bed, food and water.  The following day, JP was able to contact the local Humane Society, who agreed to quarantine the cat for 10 days, have it evaluated by the vet, given shots and neutered, and then it would be available for adoption if all was ok.  We received word last Friday that the cat was ok, and word today that it is not a friendly cat and will NOT be put up for adoption after the surgery.  We agreed to re-release him back here after the surgery since he is obviously feral.

still haven't been to the ER with the girls...(whispered)

Last week the girls had their final rehearsals for the Spring Musical.  JP and I went to see it on Thursday, opening night.  It was a small crowd - limited to 200 due to Corona precautions - but the small cast did a marvelous job, especially J in one of the lead roles.  JP worked on Sat and Sun, so I went to both shows on Sat (even took my mother out of the skilled nursing facility to see it too!)

I don't think that I mentioned that my mother is back in our town, but has been at a skilled nursing facility for rehab following her back surgery.  A week and a half ago, she turned her head and felt/heard something crunch in her neck and had instant pain.  Because she had a similar surgery there about 5 or 6 years ago, she used both hands to hold her neck still.  They put her in a soft cervical collar obtained by the PT department and took her by ambulance down to the Hospital where she had her surgery.  They determined that she in fact fractured her 1st cervical vertebrae.  There is really no other explanation for it except for the fact that she has osteoporosis.  She sees the doctor back at the end of this week.

I am trying to visit once or twice a week, but the facility has multiple rules and regulations regarding visitors, and it doesn't always work out.  I have been trying to keep up with her laundry as well, since we do many more loads/week than my dad does.  I have also been trying to keep her plants watered.  I inherited this amaryllis from her several months ago, and it just finished blooming.

The morning of my mother's accident, JP and I were in the car, driving down to VA.  We looked at, and made an offer on a piece of property there.  Since that time, we changed the offer to include 2 properties together totaling about 45 acres, increased our offered price, dropped out of the bidding, re-entered the bidding and increased the offer again.  We are now in the process of obtaining financing for the purchase.  We intend to re-sell about half of the property at some point, and in the future, hope to relocate there to retire.

Here on the home front, the asparagus is coming up.  I have cut a little bit on two occasions.  The strawberries and blueberries are blooming.  JP cut the rye cover crop in the garden and tilled it in.  Today I built a cold frame out of shelving, clear plastic, duct tape and clothes pins, and moved my seedlings out of doors to "harden off."

Our chickens are growing more and more feathers.  I have introduced them to dandelions, and they now devour a huge bunch of them daily.  It won't be too much longer before we can let them outside!

Our third well, which we have just been using since October last year, failed a couple of weeks ago.  When the well drillers came out to check things out, they found that the same thing happened as with the second well:  lateral subsidence had crushed the well and/or pump.  JP contacted a local geologist, who felt that it was likely secondary to long wall coal mining in the area.  He then spoke to someone at the EPA, who confirmed that there has NOT been mining within several miles of our location.  We are waiting to hear back from the geologist, and in the meantime, are back to hauling water.  I HATE this!

Work has been busy, busy for both JP and I. L is having more problems with school.  J is getting ready for prom and graduation.  She has been accepted into the musical theater program at YSU (don't get me started.)  Sometimes I feel like I can't quite catch my breath!

When I sit back and think about it though, on a quiet evening (after a tumultuous day), we are all ok, and that is the most important thing.

Gardening

 Today the whole family went out to the garden to work.

We dug or pulled the remaining plants, including carrots, chard and kohlrabis.  I had already picked and pulled the beans and tomatoes the day before.

We removed the plank walk ways, and then JP used the tiller attachment to till the entire garden (with the exception of the blueberries and strawberries.)

Now it's a blank slate.  We will be planting winter rye as a cover crop in the near future, which can be tilled in at spring time to provide biomass for composting.

You can see a jumble of vehicles in the background.  That is the well drilling rig, which is currently not working.  The new parts are on order, and then the cherry picker is required to repair it.  There is also a trailer load of  the pipe for lining the well at some point in the near future.

Glass Half Full

 The past several days have been full - ALL THE WAY full!

JP discovered that our water cistern was empty last Tuesday while I was at work.  He hauled several loads of water from the water station that evening, so we could get showers and wash dishes.  The following morning, we had a water truck come out to fill it up the rest of the way, just to save time.  Our cistern holds 2000 gallons, and we can haul 200 gallons at a time at a round trip time of 30 min/load.  None of has had the time or gumption to spend 5 hours hauling water!

The good news is that the well people came out the following day, and confirmed that the 3 year old (2nd) well that we spent big bucks to install was NOT dry, but the pump is apparently malfunctioning.

The bad news is that they were unable to remove the pump from the well - somehow it has become wedged in there.  They are returning tomorrow with a crane to attempt to remove it again.  The rest of the bad news is that we have had to continue to restrict water and haul water until we can get things working again.  Also, I'm sure it is not cheap to have the crane come to your house!

L got 3 impacted wisdom teeth and an impacted pre-molar removed on Thursday morning.  She is doing much better, but still having significant discomfort.  The chipmunk cheeks from swelling has already gone down, so I missed my opportunity to document this milestone in pictures.

On Saturday, we FINALLY got the nice rain that we've been waiting for over the past 2 months.  We only got 3/4 of an inch all together, but it came down nice and gently over the entire day, so that it soaked in, instead of running off.

On Sunday, since the soil was loosened up in the garden, I was able to spend about 2 + hours pulling weeds.

Because none of us had to work today, and because the weather was reasonably cool last night, we decided to have another outdoor movie.  Because we had to wait until it got dark, and then had audio issues, we didn't finish up until almost midnight.  Oh well - it's summer vacation!

Today I looked through all of the beach glass and pebbles that I have collected over the past 15 years from Presque Isle, Put In Bay, Cape May, and Fay Bainbridge Beach in Washington State.  I made a couple of pieces of jewelry with some of it.

Last year I used some pebbles and drift wood to craft a memento from Presque Isle, 

and the year before, I built this stack, which still stands in my kitchen window.

Bouquet

I picked this colorful bouquet out of the front yard this afternoon.

 

It is all of the flags put out by the telephone and electric companies to mark the buried lines back in November.  Since the well people officially hooked up the new well to our running water this afternoon, I figured that it was finally safe to remove them.

They are promising to return on Monday to remove the drill rig, the ditch digger, and various and sundry equipment.  They plan to collect water at that time to test the quality, and I assume that they will deliver the bill at that time as well.

Good News & Bad News

I am sitting in front of the computer with a ginormous mug of tea.  This is, in fact, part of the good news - it has been a very busy day so far, including a meeting with the Administration of the Hospital before work.  I have a few minutes now that I have collected J from the bus stop & fixed her a mango lassi before I need to fetch L from Basketball practice.

On arrival home from work, I noted 3 men standing around our cistern manhole.  It seems that since the Well Driller has been unable to drill, he has temporarily replaced the pump in our current well (that has always recovered and produced adequately during the winter), so we are once again on line with Poplar Ridge water!  (And just in time too...it was my turn to haul water this week!)

The first thing that I did when I came inside was flush the toilets.  Although we will lighten the water rationing, I don't think we will abandon our conservation altogether.  In fact, when I told JP and J the news, JP said that he wants to continue collecting the shower water (we run it into a bucket until it is warm enough to stand under, and then use that water to flush toilets), and J said that she will probably never take a "regular" shower again.  (And then she burst into song, singing "You've made a Mennonite out of me!"  to a "Mulan" tune.)

Unfortunately, when I took Stella outside after all of the well water excitement, I noted a dead hen in the chicken yard.  Over the past 3 months, I have been systematically checking the hens as we have some very poor layers right now.  I have put one hen at a time into solitary confinement (it's actually quite cozy, with nest boxes, roosts and her own food & water - just no outside access for a couple of days) in the other side of the chicken house for up to 4 days.  If she lays 3 or more eggs in that time, I band her right leg with a white band, 2 or less gets a black band, and 2 and/or soft/ugly eggs gets a blue band.  This one had a black band, which means that she would be one of the half dozen that we planned to butcher and eat yet this winter.  I've actually noticed a hen acting strangely - sitting in unusual places - for the past couple of days, so I'm assuming this was the same one, and I'd rather not eat her if she was sick anyway!  We will be getting new peeps in the Spring, and the rest of our old hens will "retire" to our freezer by next Fall regardless.  It may seem cruel, but it's our way of being self sufficient, and these ladies (although I find them delightful to watch) are by no means pets.

My neck wound is healing up very nicely.  I have gotten tired of wearing scarves when I am out in public, and both my patients and the general public have been kind enough not to comment on my uncovered neck.  I am still unable to sing, which is a bit frustrating.  I sound like an old hound dog if I try to sing along to Pandora or the radio, so what used to be fun is now kinda embarrassing.  I think it will improve with time, but I'm not known for my abundant patience.

I don't know if I mentioned that our cooktop died right before Christmas?  This one was just a month older than 2 years.  JP ordered a new one right away, and that arrived just a couple of days later.  Dad helped us figure out that the last 2 cooktops were wired wrong.  That may partially explain why we've already gone through 2 in 9 years!  Our past induction cooktops have been fabulous and one thing we really liked about them was the rapid heating.  This one however, is taking close to 8 minutes to boil a quart of water, when we were used to 2 1/2 minutes in the past.  I'm not sure what the issue is, but it's a little disappointing - maybe not bad news, just "meh."

We still have no gas in the house.  Luckily we are able to do without for the time being.  We are not using the furnace, as the outdoor wood burner is supplying all the heat we need.  There are 2 gas burners in the kitchen for "emergencies", but we haven't had any lack of electricity emergencies lately (knock on wood!)  The water heater is also fueled by gas, but we have a back up system that is electric.  It seems that the gas people will be out in the near future to replace the regulator, so this should also soon be a problem of the past.

And the final bad news is that I have effectively squandered my "free time", and I must close and head out after L.  Here's wishing you a January that is not bleak, and filled mostly with good news!

Well, Well, Well...

Look what arrived on Poplar Ridge this afternoon:

We are FINALLY on our way to a new well!

Deep Thoughts

"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?  We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason."  - Jack Handey

 

The title of my last post reminded me of the "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" segment that  used to run on SNL back in the day.  I had to go look up some "Deep Thoughts" and have a good chuckle!

The well driller came out last weekend and has selected a spot to drill for a new well.  Unfortunately, he will not be able to start for another week or two.  In the meantime, I've called the "PA One Call" number, and expect people out to mark the buried electric lines next week.

Three of the four vehicles are now in working order.  I take the van in to the Toyota place this week.  I am pleased to say that I was able to tear out the old glove box and surround, and then install the new one in the Subaru by myself!

Ole Bessie returned from the Ford Service department last Friday, and my dad was able to use her to haul water on Saturday.

We have really been trying to conserve water, and it seems to be working...a full cistern is lasting the 6 of  us almost a week.  In the meantime, we have become proficient at the 3-4 minute shower where the water is turned off while shampooing and soaping.  It's a bit chilly doing that some of these mornings, but luckily the weather has not turned super frigid yet.   We are sticking to the old adage "If it's yellow, let it mellow.  If it's brown, flush it down."  Please don't be offended if you stop by to use our bathroom!  In addition, I have been waiting until I have a really GIANT load of laundry to run the washer, and I try to repurpose dog, cat, rabbit or chicken water for the plants.

Chaz went out for a stroll in the clover this weekend

It is amazing how much we take unlimited running water in our homes for granted.  I know that I will do a little happy dance during each shower once I am able to leave the water running the entire time!

L's final soccer game was on Sunday afternoon.  It will be lovely to be able to observe "Girls' Night" again tomorrow evening.  (JP works late on Tuesdays, so the girls and I usually do something fun, like playing Wii, watching a movie, or going swimming in at the HS pool.)

The weather has been so lovely lately, that she, the dog & I had a great time playing in the leaves yesterday afternoon.  I've also been able to spend more time in the garden in the past 2 weeks than I have in the past 2 months!

The girls have a 4 day weekend coming up, and we are looking forward to it!

 

It's all sunshine and roses up here on the hill (watered only with rainwater & tears.)

Deep Subjects

We are no longer getting any water from our well.  We think that the pump is burned out - probably from trying to run when there is consistently little water to pump.  In any case, we are needing to haul water more frequently than in the past.  I discovered this issue a week ago when the cistern was frighteningly low.  Long story short:  we have a well driller coming this weekend to start the process of digging a new well.

We have also had consistent vehicle issues, which is driving me crazy.  I have spent one or more days every week for the past 4 weeks at one or more auto repair shop.

Ole Bessie:

Key wouldn't turn in ignition & eventually got stuck.  Dad took it apart and suggested ordering new lock cylinder.  When parts arrived from Ford, Dad discovered more bad parts.  Called AAA and towed to Ford Service Department.  This is bad news cuz she's our water haulin' truck!  Due back this weekend.

JP's old Pickup, "Monty":

This one just sits under the lean-to most of the time, but I had to jump it to start it to take it in for state inspection last week.  The guy doing the inspection had to jump it to get it into and then out of the garage.   I returned the battery (just over a year old) to Autozone yesterday, and they read it as still "good", but replaced it anyway as it was still under warranty.  With the new battery, it started right up, and I drove it to Autozone to check the alternator & starter, and they both read as "pass."  Guess this one is fixed for now.  Good thing too, cuz this is now our water haulin' truck with a trailer in tow.

Electra the 2 year old Subaru:

L broke the glove box out of the car last summer while throwing a temper tantrum.  Gorilla glue held for almost 4 months.  Ordered new glove box last week.  Installed yesterday, but still not staying in place.  Took car back to Subaru place today, where it took 2 specialists to discover that she also broke the part of the dash that the glove box connects to.  Ordered more parts.

Minivan "Rhonda":

JP walked into the house last night holding the handle from one of the sliding doors.  I called Toyota to order new parts.  They suggested that I bring it in to find out if any parts inside the door need to be replaced.  I guess that's my Friday outing.

All this is getting mighty expensive.  Let's hope that the current round of repairs lasts for awhile and that we can get a new well drilled and operational in short order!

No Showers Again!

The girls took a lengthy shower together tonight, while I picked strawberries in the dimming light.  Most of their showers are lengthy, as they find the acoustics in the stall great for singing, plus they fight over who gets to use the hand held shower head.

When I returned, hands red and sticky, they were snuggled up on the couch with JP, listening to the final paragraph of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.  I turned on the water to wash my hands, and a fine trickle of water dribbled out.

Perfect.  Another summer of hauling water?  Sigh.

We tucked the girls into bed, then started a team effort to regain water - because you never miss it as much as when you don't have it! 

Old Bessie was filled with a most of a load of wood mulch that I didn't get around to putting on the flower beds over the weekend (although I did get them weeded.)  JP backed her up to my flower bed, while I found a giant tarp.  Then we both shoveled mulch on to the tarp until Bessie was empty again.  At the same time, my Dad came over to repair the Water Buffalo, which blew out of the lean-to one windy day over the winter and sustained some minor damage.  Then he assessed the well situation, and (we're just guessing here) it doesn't appear that the well is dry, but that the pump is damaged...perhaps because of the half a dozen or more brown outs in the past week and a half.  Finally, I scrounged up a handful of quarters, and JP headed out to the potable water station at quarter to ten at night.

He has returned now, and it takes a while to empty all 200 gallons into the cistern.  I think he plans to return for a second load yet tonight.  In the morning, I will need to call our Well Man to check the situation.  Dad will probably need to make another couple of runs for water.

Well, at least we'll get showers tonight.  For now though, I need to rustle up a few more quarters!

When it Rains, It Pours...Except When it Doesn't

We have had a really dry and hot summer for our area.  Since it started early, way back in April, things are pretty brown and crispy around here.

The garden is quite stunted, but still green.  That is because I have been watering it with water from the 1000 gallon cistern that is filled with rain from our roof.  I have emptied the cistern twice now - one good rain will fill it up.  We haven't had a "good rain" for quite a while now. 

Yesterday, I finally broke down and dragged hoses all the way from the house to the garden to water from the well.  I was feeling a bit guilty about it at the time, hoping that the well was doing ok.  Unfortunately, I sort of lost track of the time, and the garden got sprayed for 2 or 3 times longer than necessary.

This week, both of my brothers and their families are visiting.  This means that we have more than twice the normal number of people hanging out, taking showers, and washing dishes.  Last night, we got the 3 girls through the shower, and one of my sis-in-laws got a shower as well.  Afterwards, I turned on the faucet and nothing came out.

JP and I got flashlights and opened up the man hole of the cistern.  We could see the bottom!  Yikes.

Fortunately, the water hauling peeps were out to fill up both cisterns for a grand total of 3000 gallons of water and $145 by 8:20 AM.  The well had managed to dribble a bit more into the cistern over night, so it isn't COMPLETELY dry...just overpowered by 14 people and unconscientious garden waterers.

Today, we celebrated (belatedly) my Dad's 70th birthday by going to a Frontier Baseball game.  It ended up being a double header, since last night's game was apparently rained out.  (None of that rain made it HERE!)  We saw them win game one, then sweated and melted through 6 innings of game number two, which they also won.

We saw lightening the whole way home, and by the time we pulled into our driveway, there were a few drops of rain falling.  The sky remains dark and threatening.  Maybe now we'll get that "good rain" we've been needing.

In any case, the rest of us finally got our showers.  Let me tell you, it really felt great!

We're Here!

We rented a small U-Haul on Wednesday and made 2 trips out to the house. After cleaning the apartment on Thursday night, we decided to spend our first night at our new home. It isn't perfect...we have no air conditioning or hot water in the kitchen and 2 out of 3 bathrooms, but we are slowly emptying boxes and making it feel like home. J commented this evening, "When we REALLY live here, we'll have a table!"

We've had a number of interesting experiences already, including washing dishes with rain water caught in a 5 gallon bucket. More later when I can add photos...just doing wireless with the laptop at the moment.

Pig Garden

We decided today that it was high time to plant some flowers on Poplar Ridge. The girls and I dug up about 3 square feet of weeds at the edge of the woods (well out of the way of random heavy equipment), pulled out the roots and sticks, and sowed some wildflowers. J reminded me that George Washington Carver used to say "A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place."

I couldn't find my flower bed fencing in the garage, so we put some pigs around to keep the seeds company, and did a little Totoro dance, willing them to grow. Thus begins our first gardening venture on the hill!

Our builder is home sick today, he sounds awful! The drywall finishers were in and things are looking good. Here is the great room.

The tray ceilings are really looking nice in the Master Bedroom.

The well man put our gia-normous holding tank in and dug trenches to run pipes from the tank to the house

and the well to the tank. We should soon have running water, which we will need to get tested A.S.A.P.

L painted this picture today. I thought it was an appropriate sentiment for this post.

Our New Toy

I made it up to Poplar Ridge almost every day this past week, so I don't have much new to report. The BIG news is that on Friday, after nearly a year of looking, hubby finally found a tractor that comes close to meeting all of his requirements.

It is a 1996 Massey Ferguson, with only 500-some hours on it. It came with the front end loader and brush hog. The important thing is that it is 4 Wheel Drive, in order to navigate our hill. It isn't beautiful, but meant to be our "starter" tractor.

The vacuum guys finished up their preliminary work on Thursday. They will be back after drywall and painting to put in the unit and hoses.

The builders have most of the duct work in, and started working on the porch eaves and breezeway. Next week is the week of inspections, as we are expecting to begin drywalling a week from tomorrow.

The well man should be up soon to put in the holding tank, and to hook up the water from the well.

We have had several other visitors to the building site in the past couple of days: Raccoons...

And cows!

We made a very unsuccessful shopping trip to Lowe's on Saturday. Our list was long: light fixtures, kitchen counters, bathroom tiles and paint. We came home with one light fixture, only 20 more or so to go! The choices are overwhelming, and sometimes, as was the case with the tiles, too limited. Perhaps we will try again next weekend, but get a babysitter first!

After the rain...

The well driller called on Sunday afternoon to report that he had finished the well and at nearly 200 feet, he was getting a return of approximately 2.25 gallons/minute of water. There is still a bit of work to be done to make it ready to use: put in a pump, connect pipes to the house, etc, but we've made excellent progress! We also need to send a sample for testing so that we know it is safe to drink, but I am already looking forward to have clear, cold, nice tasting well water again! The only down side is that we will have to put the girls on daily Fluoride tabs...that's definitely a small price to pay!

We had quite a lot of rain here Friday night and Saturday. So much that it sent my Dad home early without a deer for the 3rd Fall in a row. I think he is planning to come back for rifle season in Dec. In the meantime, the concrete forms that had already been placed on the footing got flooded, and some of them washed out. I guess the crew will have to do some repair today before they can move on.

After One Month...

This afternoon, our hilltop was buzzing with activity. The masons have made good progress on laying block for the garage today. There has been no more progress on the well, so they are having to truck in water for the mortar.

Meanwhile the forms for our poured concrete house have arrived and started going in. Good old Allegheny Power still hasn't put the final poles up in order to connect electricity up the hill, so they are using a generator.