Horsing Around

It may be remembered that in the past The Fuzz and His Sweetie have kept an eye on a friend's horses (and cat) while she was out of town.

Actually this is a mutually beneficial araingement.  This friend was the one who took care of The Fuzz and His Sweetie's critters whilst they were down on the coast for a month!

  Well, it was her turn to take off for a few days, and The Fuzz was happy to return the favor.

However, His Sweetie would be out of town herself at an other event.  So Our Fuzz would be without transportation, other than his 2 feets.

But, not really a problem.

Her place was only perhaps a mile away- and a pleasant walk at that.

The 1st morning turned out to be a bit wet with a good bit of rain during the night.  But it did slack off in time for the morning walk.

There were still a lot of heavy clouds a bit of drizzle and a good chance of more rain.

A bit of fog was hanging in the low places as he walked over.

This place seems kinda picturesque at first sight, but can be a little creepy on a closer examination.  But this is not the place to go into that today.

Here's another off across a field.

It never did fain hard enough to wet Our Fuzz up.  He had a rather pleasant walk.  By the time he got there it looked like the rain might even quit.

Once in the barn, he got shed of his raincoat.

He had brought his morning cup-o-joe with him.  The stick is mostly a dog repellent- at least this time.

The "Boys" as she calls them were glad to see The Fuzz.

This big guy is Samson.

The Fuzz doesn't know all that much about these guys, but he's some kind of draft horse and huge.

Everything went fine.  Everybody (including the cat) had their breakfast, and it was time to cut a trail for home- and The Fuzz's own breakfast.

By now the neighbor's goats were out and frisking around.

As were a few other critters.

This kitty...

...a mocking bird...

...who posed for The Fuzz in a pine tree.

The rain had quit for the moment...

But there were still some drops hanging onto the needles.

The Fuzz took a closer look.

If you look even closer, you can see the image of the tree in the drop.

Pretty cool.

Then it was time to head back into the woods, and home.

Island Sunrise #5

Chestnut Knob

Sunrise.

While at Sawtooth Camp at South Mountain, The Fuzz decided to go over to the Chestnut Knob "overlook" and check it out.

It was a mile hike.  But unlike the hike into camp, there was not much change in elevation since he was already up on the top.

It was a pretty walk over there.

The "overlook" is a matter of climbing out onto these rocks...

And not falling off!

But the view is impressive.

On a clear day one may be able to see the Big City.

After a bit of a pause up here to enjoy the view...

The Fuzz headed back to camp, and a bit of lunch.

After that it was pretty much just hanging out.

Island Sunrise #4

The Fuzz just likes to pop one up here from time to time.

Pumps Pipes and All That Kind of Stuff 2

To continue this story:

When we left Our Fuzz he was a bit frustrated with how this job was going.  It had been a long time in the works and was still not working out.

The problem didn't seem to be in the brand new pump.  But why wouldn't it prime and pump?

The problem had to be in the well.  Perhaps the foot valve was messed up somehow.

This would mean pulling the pipe out of the well.  And this was easier said than done.

Some years ago The Fuzz had ran a new pipe from the pump under the house to the well, and of course buried it.  It should not have to be completely dug up for this.  But it was glued together and out of reach in the well.

So The Fuzz dug beside the well and exposed the pipe.

Since it was all PCV pipe glued together he cut the pipe as close as he could to the well.

Then he used a rod with a hook bent on it to loop a rope around the pipe, and then hooked it with the rod.  Everything went okay until he tried to pull the now disconnected pipe up and out of the well.  The "L" shaped piece at the top was too long to fit up through the casing.

(The Fuzz had actually been hanging inside the well when he put it together originally- which he had no desire to repeat.)

But he persisted hoping that 1¼ inch pipe would bend just enough so he could pull it up.

Then it snapped off. 

Fortunately he was pulling on the side piece, and the rope was still tied to the long piece so he lost neither one.

At this point he and His Sweetie lowered a weight down there to check the depth and find out how long to cut the new pipe.  And it was found that there was quite a bit of silt/sediment in the bottom.  So much that the old foot valve had been covered with it.

So at least they had found that problem.

Since the new pipe would have to have a little shorter side piece (to fit through the casing) this metal pipe it passes through would have to be shortened- or replaced.

The Fuzz was able to find a shorter one in his scrap pile.

With His Sweetie's help they managed to lower the new pipe into the well and get it through the hole on the side.  It was connected, and now it was time to try the pump again.

And this time it worked...

Briefly!

Everything was going fine with pressure building up and all, but then suddenly all was lost.

On investigation, The Fuzz found that the fitting he had used to connect the 2 pieces of pipe in the hole had given way and the hole was full of water!

He had had some question about that thing but figured it was worth a try.  But apparently that was all it was worth.

So he bailed out the hole and went back to the Home Improvement Store (again) for some couplings to just glue it all together again.  Sometimes it's best to just keep things simple.

And so he had this.

 And this.

Another job well done.

 

Pumps Pipes and All That Kind of Stuff

It has been mentioned that there was a plumbing situation over at the Old Place.  And it had been that way for a long time.

It was not completely a P-Factor thing, but it must be admitted that the P-Factor did figure into it.

Just a brief refresher here.

Way back in February, it was discovered that the well pump had failed.  But of course with the Topsail Trip coming up there was no point in worrying about it then.  After all, the place is only used occasionally, and has a good back-up system-

A bucket and rope!

But the problem needed to be addressed.

So the Fuzz began planning.  It really shouldn't be difficult.  He would just order a new pump and fix a couple of other small issues while he was at it.

A new pump was ordered.  But whilst researching this online, he came across something interesting.

"There are certain types of bacteria called “anaerobic bacteria” that can grow where air does not touch the water. If your well has this kind of bacteria in it, the bacteria can start to grow once it gets inside the bladder since that water is not touching air. This bacteria is usually harmless..."

"... There are only two real solutions here: 1) Install a “contact tank” with a chlorine dosing system. This type of system injects a small amount of chlorine into the water as it comes into the house. The chlorine kills off the bacteria so it can’t grow in your tank.  2) Switch back to the older technology of an air-over-water standard tank. In that kind of tank the air touches the water and this anaerobic bacteria cannot grow."

Well, there had been "stinky" water over there for some years.  In fact, The Fuzz and His Sweetie had been bringing good well water from the woods for drinking.

Solution 1 was definitely out.

Solution 2 looked good.  That had been the original type tank, and there was no stinky water then.

And it had been replaced with the new type!

But it seems that the Home Improvement Store no longer sells the old school tanks - even though they carry pumps from the same manufacturer.

(like the one purchased by The Fuzz!)

However The Fuzz was able to order the tank from someone out here in the country.

Of course this meant a bit more delay.

Which turned into even more when the company sent the wrong stuff!

But it finally came, and all the stuff made it over to the house.

The old pump and tank were cut loose.

And the new ones were moved in...

And put together.

All the pipes and wiring were hooked back up.

Then it was time to fire the thing up.

Alas.

The Fuzz wasted a lot of time trying to get that thing primed and pumping.  Finally, he gave up.

To be continued...

Sawtooth Water

Getting back to The Fuzz's recent camping experiences...

When we left Our Fuzz, all were settled in for the night.  And that was fine.  But in the previous post, you might have noticed a footnote (*) regarding the source of water for this camp...

The Little River.

The Fuzz had been told that campsite #1 was the "closest" to the water.  It turned out that while this was technically true, it was insignificant.

At that end of the campground, there was a trail noted by a sign indicating "Water".

So The thirsty Fuzz strapped on his canteen and headed down the trail.

It seems that in this case, the proverb about "leading a horse to water- but not making him drink" didn't apply.

Here you couldn't even lead him to it!

The Fuzz followed the trail down for a good ways...

Until he came to this.

Ok

So let's follow this one for a while.

Next was...

This!

Down and down...

On we go.

This time no sign was needed, as one could finally hear the water.

Really, it was a nice little water hole.

The water ran over a vein of bedrock...

Clear and cold.

The Fuzz filled up his gallon canteen and water/wine skin.

And since it was a hot day and he was tired and quite alone...

Got in himself.

Then it was back up the hill again to camp.

One thing he could say was, at this camp you sure won't waste any water!

Island Sunrise #3

But while we're in the mountains, let's not forget the coast!

Another Island Sunrise.

Sawtooth Camping

The other morning The Fuzz's Sweetie was sleeping in - especially for her since she is normally an early riser.  Then when she did get up she had a great idea for The Fuzz-

Go Camping!

Now it needs to be noted that this was not completely out of the blue as they say.  He had been talking about doing a little back packing for a while.  But other things had been coming up.  Like that little problem with the water at the Old Place.

(Which unfortunately has turned out to be a bit more complicated than first thought!)

Now it should be noted that Our Fuzz is not particularly good at spontaneity.  And he did have some reservations- one being that as it was a weekend the campsites would be filled.  But after a bit of discussion, in which she even offered to help pack his grub up there, he came around and decided to give it a shot.

So they went to town and hopefully gathered what gear he thought he would need, and a few groceries.

Then it was off to the South Mountain State Park.

 The Fuzz had been hoping to be able to get a pack-in site either at the Upper Falls camp, or Shinny Creek.

But as he had feared, these places were filled.

It seemed that the only opening was at the Sawtooth Camp, up on top of the ridge, which can be quite a climb- especially with a pack!

At this point The Fuzz almost chickened out.  But His Sweetie said she was still willing to go up with him.  And they had been told of an alternate route, 1½ miles longer, but much less "strenuous"

Here's a look at the map.

They would start at the picnic area and take the Little River Trail up to the Sawtooth Trail, and then on into the campground (almost 4mi).

So it was time for "One foot up, and one foot down".

It turned out that this route was much less
"strenuous" than the Chestnut Knob trail that they had used in the past.  And it was a rather pleasant hike-

even if long.

Most of the climbing was not too steep.

There was one little incident (at the point marked with the X) where The Fuzz busted his ass crossing the Little River.

But he landed on his pack, and nothing was hurt but his dignity.

Eventually they made it up the mountain and into the camp.

After a brief rest, His Sweetie took her leave, and started back down-

Remember, this was his camping trip!

With her gone The Fuzz got about unpacking and setting up camp.  That blue pad was what he landed on in the creek, now it's drying out on the table.

There were 3 sites here, and a couple of guys were already in #1*.

(The Fuzz had #3)

The Fuzz gathered up a bit of firewood and got ready to cook up some dinner.

Turned out that there was plenty of firewood around- which The Fuzz had not expected.  But he had been planning on going to the more heavily used sites.  And those tend to be pretty picked over.

Here there had been a fire in the past, and the woods were filled with dead-dried-out trees.  It was easy to get nice stuff with his folding camp saw.

Then before dark, more folks came to the last site, and everyone settled in for the night.

*This was the "closest to the water" site, which turned out to be insignificant- but more on this later.

 

Island Sunrise #2

Well, here's the 2nd in this wonderful new series... "Sunrise at Topsail"

Enjoy!