Unscheduled Plumbing Repair

Today we were going to post about starting to plant the fall garden. We started some of our seeds last week on the porch and it is time to start planting.  The weather is really hot. It is supposed to be about 95 degrees with the heat index around 105. Thinking about a fall garden should make us feel cooler while we work, right? It didn't work. It is really, really hot.

First we tilled in the area where the corn was.....

then, where we grew the potatoes.......



 

 
But on one of the last swaths we "found" the grey water line with the tiller on the tractor. Arrrggghhh! It goes right across the garden where this hoe is laying.

We have some beautiful pine trees that were planted here about 35 years ago. We always thought they were so pretty, until we moved to a place that had old ones. The roots play havoc with water and drain lines.

The plumbing in our house is all connected to this grey water line, except for the toilet. This line has to be cleaned out about once a year because it doesn't drain quite right. When we got here every time the washing machine drained the sinks would gurgle. It took a while to locate all of the lines and figure out how the system was put together. The tree roots have been a nuisance for the water and drain lines off and on since we arrived. Today is no different. 

So, with some spare parts we have around and a piece of rubber gasket from some friends of ours (thank you!), we finangled a fix. It always pays to stock up on spare parts. Think in terms of what you might need if you have no store to go to.

Otherwise, it would mean a 60 mile round trip to town for parts. Not something we were planning this morning. We were already hot, sweaty and stinky and not in the mood for shopping. 

After we had put everything together, we realized it would leak more than we wanted. We thought we might put some black plastic around it with duct tape, but Frank came up with a better idea.

 

 
Duct tape the joints together, then add the rubber gasket and hose clamps. Isn't duct tape wonderful? It is one thing we will really miss if we ever run out of it and can't get any more.


This is not a long-term fix, but it will get us through the gardening season and into cooler weather. It is one of those projects we just keep putting off. We need to dig up the whole line and replace it since we have had to work on it off and on for several years. It's another thing on our long to-do list.

By the time we finished this repair it was 1:00pm, 97 degrees, with an even higher heat index, and time for lunch. The winter squash will have to wait until tomorrow. It is definitely ready to be put in the ground. So we came in, cooled down and had lunch. Now Frank is going to rest and recover from over-heating. On afternoons like this, we hibernate under the air conditioning.

Until next time - Fern

Fixing a Baby Goat's Ear

We raise Nubian milk goats and they have long floppy ears and they are beautiful, of course. Just ask Ivory.

When the kids are born their ears are folded shut. They usually open out flat in a short period of time, but not always.

One Stripe had a single doe kid (from an accidental breeding i.e. the billy goat got the gate open in July for a few hours) in January. 
 

One of her ears stayed folded over like this. This is Copper. Frank named her. See the copper colored rings around her eyes? 



The fix for this ear called for scissors, a piece of cardboard from a cereal box and some duct tape. We cut a piece of cardboard about the same width as the tape and long enough to fold over and cover both sides of her ear. The tape will only have to stick to some of the hair on the outside of her ear. She is only a few days old and we don't want the tape to irritate the flesh on the under side of her ear or tear the flesh when we take it off. So we are very careful. If we can get her to leave it on for 24 hours, the ear should be flat.

Here she is, all taped up.

The next day, when we took the cardboard off, she looked great. Two nice flat ears.

Since Copper was born about a month before any other kids, she got to do things a little different. When I started milking One Stripe, I would bring Copper in and let her play on the milk stand

as long as she didn't mess with my milk bucket. Then she graduated to running around under my chair and playing with Pearl, our Great Pyrenees. They became good friends. Copper is one of my favorites, next to her mom.

Copper is ready to breed now and will have her own kids in December, or so we plan. Obviously, our efforts to control the breeding of our does doesn't always go according to plan. 

 

I have high hopes for Copper as a milk goat since her mom and sister, Velvet, are great milkers. It's always fun to see how things turn out. This is Velvet. She had her first kid this March and is a promising milk goat.


Every year is another learning experience when it comes to breeding and birthing goats. It is a very satisfying way of life. Not always easy or smooth or enjoyable, but very satisfying. We will keep you updated on how all of the goats progress. They are an everyday part of our lives.

Until next time - Fern