Plumbing Woes

This is a hole. Do you see the hole? Good. I was afraid I was hallucinating because last week when the plumber I was referred to by a friend came to fix this leak just off our water main, he didn't seem to notice it.

Well, I take that back. He noticed it enough to wrap teflon tape around the hole, but, evidently, didn't think the damaged pipe warranted replacement.

He was more concerned that it might rain later in the day and if he were to rip up my yard fixing the pipe I would be left with a big, undesireable mud hole . . . as opposed to a big, undesireable lack of running water in the house!

So it seems he didn't want to take the effort (beyond the five minutes it took to 1. unscrew the fitted cap thing from the threads, 2. wrap the hole with tape and 3. rescrew the fitted cap thing onto the threads) to actually fix the pipe. Though, since I paid $100 for his one-hour minimum service call, he was gracious enough to give me an unexpected 20-minute history lesson entitled "The Unknown Truth About Texicans, Davey Crockett and Andrew Jackson."

After a day or two, the pipe started to leak again (surprise, surprise). This time, however, I decided to go with the same franchised company I had to use when our water heater was spraying water everywhere early one Sunday morning and there wasn't time to ask around for a good referral.

And, much like they did with our water heater problem, this company's guys arrived quickly, gave a written estimate before the work was done, gave a six-month guarantee after the work was completed, stayed focused on plumbing and didn't get sidetracked with other educational subjects.

So much for trying to help support local Mom and Pop businesses. Here's to globalization!

P.S. In my defense, before you ask why I didn't make the first plumber fix it properly, I was busy cooking in the house when he was working (since it took a couple hours between my call and his arrival), so when I checked the hole (after the history lesson) and didn't see any leaks, all seemed well. Only when we went to Home Depot to try to get some stuff to fix it ourselves (don't ask), did my son see the teflon tape and tell us "that's the stuff the guy used on the pipe!" He has since been instructed that if he ever sees a repairman wrap tape around a hole again, he's to come inside and tell mommy!

Creature Feature

This was the newest member of our family, our little spicebush swallowtail butterfly who was (re)born this afternoon. We missed the actual hatching, but did catch her soon enough to watch her wings dry.

Unfortunately, we only got to enjoy her about 75 minutes before we had to leave the house on some errands and by the time we returned, she was gone. She squeezed out of a small hole in her netting and is probably somewhere in the house right now, hungry and thirsty.

At first, I would have worried that our cat found and ate her, but upon checking, he hadn't moved an inch from the catnap he was in when we left.

So it seems she was too beautiful a creature to stand living with us. We would have let her go anyway, but it would have been nice if hubby got a chance to see her first. And, yes, I know she may have just been eaten by a bird two minutes after her release, but if that did happen, I wouldn't necessarily know about it and therefore wouldn't feel the wave of guilt I do now. How many people can boast that they've lost a butterfly?!

This lovely creature was the one my hubby found (during our errands) a few moments after he found a $20 bill stuck in the dirt. Crazy, I know.

What's really wacko is that yesterday I was a bit freaky about money and the going rate of plumbers when we noticed a water leak which the city utility crew tells us is about four inches away from their responsibility and therefore, our problem. This seemed to be just one more issue in a long line of problems that have come upon us in the last few weeks, and as of last night I was getting a bit discouraged. We were being so water-conscious by not watering our lawn, collecting rainwater for the garden, recycling our greywater to flush our toilets and water the landscaping that to have a leaky water heater and now a leaky water main in the space of a few weeks made it seem like we were swimming upstream again a hard current.

Luckily, Gaia guided hubby to stop my hand from dialing a plumber in the heat of the moment and instead allowed us to step back and survey the problem calmly. Technically, we have water, it's just that we're wasting some as long as it's on. So, since we're leaving in a couple days for a camping trip and don't really want to think about this right now, we're only turning on our water when we need to take showers, wash the dishes, or refill our water purifier. Otherwise, we turn off the water at the main. Problem solved (for now). When we're ready to call the plumber, we'll have already excavated the pipe the make it easy (and quick) for the plumber to fix it. Good plan.

Finding cash growing out of the dirt is just Gaia's way of reminding me that there will always be enough. No need to fret. Just plant the seeds, be grateful, and Gaia will provide.

p.s. The butterfly has been found! She's under tight security tonight and will bunk with us overnight for her release party tomorrow morning. Yeah!

No One Likes a Crusty Mound

We're now on the second year with this garden and yet with all the compost we've added to the soil, we still end up with an unpenetrable clay crust over all the beds after any rain. True, we haven't gotten much rain this year since we are in the middle of an "exceptional" drought, but still, this crust is making it very difficult for some of the seedlings to break through and survive. It's twice as difficult to water the melons which were planted in little mounds since the water runs downhill to water the weeds rather than the parched seeds.

My mother has been talking for years about the ease of burying water bottles, milk jugs, even five-gallon buckets with soaker hoses attached to make watering easier for the gardener and more productive for the plants by getting water to their roots where, of course, they need it most. I figured my crusty mound dilema and the necessity to reseed my melon beds was my chance to play around with this idea. And, in the interest of science, I decided to try three different container styles (along with a bed with no containers as our control) to rate their relative effectiveness.

First I gorilla-taped the cap to a one-gallon milk jug and cut around three sides of the bottom to create a type of flap. I figured this may help in reducing the amount of evaporation or keep dirt out of the bottle, but now I'm not sure how much good it's doing. I drilled holes manually with a threaded hook every couple inches around the entire bottle. This was buried so the dirt on the top of the mound was level with the top of the bottle.

My second container choice was a desperate attempt at finding some use, any use for a large styrofoam cup. (Of course, I've been stockpiling all our other styrofoam garbage for a future trip to Cycled Plastics.) I fully expect it to be the first one to get brittle and collapse, but I thought it would be useful to at least try. As they say, you never know what may spark another, better idea. I used the same manual method of making holes, which was easy enough, but I really didn't like all the itty bitty pieces of styrofoam this created. Next time (if there is a next time), I think I might try to heat the screw tip to see if melted holes create less of a mess.

Thirdly, I used a two-liter bottle which I cut in half for two reasons. One, because I wanted to test a container that wasn't so deep in the ground to see if it made any difference, and two, this way (if it worked) I could use each bottle for two mounds. Waste not, want not, right? Similar set up as the other ones, but the plastic was too hard to make holes manually, so I brought the drill out for this one. Much easier that way.

So here's the finished bed with the control bed on the left, which I reseeded at the same time. When the containers were watered from the inside, there was a lot of dirt settling around the edges, but I reformed the mounds and everything seems to be okay.

I'll still water the seeds manually until their roots grow, but I'm looking forward to seeing if these different watering containers make any difference as the season progresses. I'll keep you updated.

Auntie J's Rant of the Day

I was going to lay off the water topic for a while, honest, I was, BUT . . .

I just received our water bill, which in itself is not blog worthy, but once I started reading the lead story in this month's city newsletter, I felt a rant coming on.

Here's the article's title:

New Water Rates Encourage Conservation

Now, I don't know about you, but when I read that, I got excited. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the specifics. To encourage conservation, our city's water department is going to increase the rates of higher usage customers. This seems like a good plan and I commend them solely on the basis of their good intentions.

However, I don't believe the plan is going to encourage anything except complacency. For the 20% of their customers who consume approximately 50% of the water, they are going to increase the rate for each 1,000 gallons of water used over 18,000 gallons by 56 cents. For 1,000 gallons. That's 17.85 gallons per penny!

In the city's own example, a high user consuming 20,000 gallons a month, would be charged an extra $1.12. Somehow, I'm not sure $1.12 is that much of an incentive to use less water. Even a really high user like Lance Armstrong would be charged only $174.72 more (that is, if Mr. Armstrong lived in my city). I don't think he'd notice an extra $100 on his water bill when he's already paying more than two grand.

What if the city were to charge a penny more for each gallon over 10,000 gallons? That would get these high end users' attention. Then, this hypothetical high user consuming 20,000 gallons a month would pay an extra $100. That would be much more noticeable on Mr. John Q. Public's monthly bill and a higher incentive for Mr. Public to decide that continuing to overwater the fescue in the middle of the worst drought Texas has seen since 1917 is not the smartest thing he's every done. Even Mr. Armstrong couldn't fail to notice the extra $3,200 on his water bill.

I also suggest that instead of focusing on the higher usage 20% with slap-on-the-wrist rate increases, the city should be working on incentivizing the lower usage 80%. An 18,000 gallon monthly threshold seems outrageously high. What if the monthly base fee was raised to $15.00 and included the first couple thousand gallons? What if . . . I don't know, we did anything that would shake us up and help us realize our current pace of consumption is not sustainable.

Our city gets 75% of its water from Lake Georgetown which is currently over 17 feet below normal. Isn't NOW the right time to start thinking a little bit smarter? Nine years ago (the latest census available), our city had over 61,000 residents in over 21,000 households. 21,000 households multiplied by 18,000 gallons a month equals 378 million gallons of water a month. That's 378,000,000 gallons which is a daily average per person of over 200 gallons. That's DOUBLE the estimated national average of daily water usage in this, the highest consuming country ever known on this planet. Have I mentioned we're in an exceptional drought?

Oh, but wait . . . there's more. You want to know the best part of my city's feeble attempt at Encouraging Conservation? These increased rates (I guess a 1.9% increase is still technically an increase) are only in effect for five months. What about the other seven???

Okay, I'm done ranting. I think I need some chocolate.

That'll teach me to check my mail.

Here Comes the Rain Again (fingers crossed)

Since our area of Texas is experiencing an Exceptional Drought, water is obviously at a premium. So with the threat of another stormfront possibly dropping precipitation, we scrambled earlier this week to install another rainbarrel near the garden. I'd wanted rainbarrels for years, but I've finally come to realize that "good enough" is better than doing without while we wait and save for the perfect solution. Since this is now our second rainbarrel successfully installed (oooh, I feel a habit coming on), we're feeling expertish enough to provide this quick tutorial on rainwater collection.

First, collect the necessary parts. An inexpensive hose bibb (otherwise known as a spigot), a pvc adapter for the inside, and two O-rings are all it takes - plus the rainbarrel, of course. Our first barrel was actually a holeless trashcan my husband salvaged from a nearby river. A perfect example of the second R of waste management - REUSE. This second "barrel" is also a trashcan, but unfortunately, one purchased from the Evil Empire. My apologies, Gaia.

Drill a 1/2" hole a couple inches up from the bottom of the trashcan. I'm sure there's some fancy drill bit available that will do this job perfectly and professionally, but I like using what we have, even if it means making a series of smaller holes which, when connected, make a shape roughly estimating a circle.

Put one of the O-rings on the spigot and twist the spigot into the lovely hole you just made.

One of the reasons you don't want your spigot too close to the bottom of the barrel is to allow for the sediment from your roof to settle without clogging up your plumbing. Every couple years, when you don't have anything better to do, you can always empty out the sludge from your rainbarrels and take pictures to show your grandchildren how much of a neat freak you were.

From the inside, place the other O-ring on the spigot, then the pvc adapter piece, and tighten until you can't tighten no more. This is a picture of the inside of our barrel just before we tightened, so you could see how it all goes together. (Have you ever realized how difficult it is to take a good picture from the inside of a black trashcan?)

This would then be a good time to fill up the can until there's water a couple inches over the newly installed spigot in order to check for leaks.

Now to attack the gutter's downspout. If you're lucky enough to have them already installed, your battle will be pretty easy. Simply remove the bracket(s) that are currently keeping the downspout from wiggling all over your wall.

Am I the only one shocked by the previous exterior color scheme of my house?!?!

Then, estimating the general length you'll need to reach past the lid of your barrel, vent your frustrations on the downspout with a hacksaw or other suitably destructive tool. You can make a more exact cut later, but right now, you just need to shorten it so that you can get your trashcan up under it.

You'll need to raise the barrel up off the ground somehow. In this instance, my husband found the cutest pallet imaginable (it's only about 1-1/2' square) at his work and immediately thought of me. Isn't he a sweetheart?! Other women get diamonds, I get a mini-pallet. I love it!

Our other rainbarrel is resting on a couple limestone blocks that we've ripped out of an undesireable "landscape feature" in our front yard. Whatever you end up using, it needs to be sturdy enough to handle the weight of a rainbarrel filled with water. Remember, a gallon of water weighs 8.35 pounds, so based on the size of your trashcan, it could weigh over 500 pounds when filled. Not exactly something you'd want to fall onto Fido or that bratty kid from next door that is always in your way. You don't need it up very high - you only need enough clearance to get your bucket (or whatever) under it. At the very least, you want room to easily attach a hose on the spigot without creating a nasty kink in the hose.

With the lid off, put the trashcan in place on its supports with the drainpipe inside the can. Now you can better estimate the exact length needed for the downspout (below the lid, but above the trashcan) and get a good idea on the placement for the hole in the lid. Once you have that, mark out the dimensions. I then drill corner holes which give me my guidelines to cut the hole sides with an electric handsaw. This worked perfectly on the plywood cover we used for the first rainbarrel (since stores don't sell trashcan lids separately - ugh), but having tried this on the plastic lid, I suggest you start with the tool I eventually ended up using - a pocketknife.

Here's the finished downspout fitting almost perfectly into the finished lid.

Once the threat of rain is removed, we'll probably run a bead of caulk or some of that expanding foam stuff around the joint in a feeble attempt to keep out mosquitos, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

And here's the final product - Chez Baril II.

Since I already had it out, I used the electric hand saw to shape around the bottom of the barrel to provide bucket access under the spigot while still keeping the barrel centered over the pallet.

And how much did these Gaia-approved barrels of liquid fun cost us? All told, we spent less than $22 and about two hours to setup both barrels.

Now, of course, we're just waiting for the rain.

Conundrum Solved

Here's our solution to the recent water bottle issue.

The three baby thermoses (thermi?) only hold 12 ounces, but as we were researching all the options, it became apparent that the kids would rather have smaller ones than the larger ones I was leaning towards. Where I was concerned about having enough capacity to last all day, the kids wanted ones that could fit in their bags or be lighter to carry. I should have asked them sooner.

The large thermos holds 40 ounces and comes with a carrying strap. The idea being that will be our refill thermos, since it holds enough to refill all three small bottles.

The best part about all of this?? All four totaled less than $26. Not perfect, but good enough for chickens.

Current Conundrum

My current "Issue of the Moment" is water. Not the wet stuff that comes out of the faucets and presumes to be called water (the same stuff that smells like a swimming pool and crusts up the inside of our tea kettle). I'm talking about the clear, soft stuff that comes down gently from above to water our beautiful garden. The glorious stuff that doesn't smell, doesn't leave scum rings when it dries, and tastes like wetness - just as it should be.

We've lately installed a rainwater filtration and purification system in our home (more about that later), so we're becoming very familiar with the good kind of water. This is my issue.

Now, you must understand - I rest easy knowing that I'm very handy when it comes to finding alternative uses for things and making do with what I have . . . usually. Unfortunately, when it comes to shiny new toys, I'm as weak as the next guy.

Everyone in our family has water bottles made out of the "good" plastic which is not supposed to leach all those yucky things for my beloveds to ingest. Perfectly serviceable bottles, but not new and definitely not shiny.

I want to replace them with glass or metal just for the sake of getting more plastic out of the house. But, as any of the Gaia Guided can attest, replace is NOT one of the 4 Rs. Glass bottles would really be out of the question as long as the kids live with us and we have slate tiles in the kitchen.

That leaves metal. Of course, the easily attainable and inexpensive models are aluminum. Unfortunately, these become less desirable once you make the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's. The last remaining option then is stainless steel. I love these. They're almost perfect. Spending $100 on water bottles for the family just doesn't seem something suitable for the Gaia Guided to do.

So where do you suggest we place this beautiful liquid we spend so much time and effort to purify? Do we keep the plastic bottles because they're still serviceable and the negative impact to the earth has already been done during their manufacturing process so the longer we keep them the better? Or do we upgrade to the better stainless steel model and hand off the plastics to a thrift store? Is there a third choice?