The Tales of a Hot Water Heater...

Once upon a time, there was a hot water heater in a milk house.  It was used hard for several years, and then it began to leak.  It's water was still pretty hot, but the floor in it's corner of the milk house was constantly wet.  This alerted the farmer to a problem, and a new hot water heater was ordered.

When the new water heater arrived, the old one was removed, stripped of it's heating elements and thermostats (because they were still in good working order and you never know if they might be needed sometime!) and delegated to the hot water heater graveyard...

The new one was installed into it's corner, and it began doing it's duty like a champ...

The hot water temperature in the milk house needs to be steadily between 170 - 180 degrees F to properly sanitize the milking equipment and pipeline.  The proper temperature was confirmed, and the new hot water was deemed to be in good working order...

But as we warn people who aren't familiar...be careful when you wash your hands!

Sunday Afternoon Stroll...v 2.28.16...

We haven't taken many Sunday afternoon strolls lately, but yesterday was so beautiful that we just couldn't stay at home!  Neither could a lot of other people!

We met my sister and brother in law at the Pinnacle Overlook in Holtwood. It's a nice place to get a great view of the Susquehanna River, between the Safe Harbor Dam and the Holtwood Dam...just about thirty minutes from our house.

The mighty Susquehanna was quite muddy yesterday!  I guess there has been a lot of rain and melting snow lately.  But it's still beautiful...

Binoculars come in handy...

...as do cameras...

We also did a short, easy hike...

After we had seen what we wanted to see at the Pinnacle, we headed across the Norman Wood Bridge to Lock 12.  We drove north along the river until we reached a parking area close to the west side of the Holtwood Dam.  I had been there before, but never when all of the gates were open the whole way across the dam to let water over.  What a powerful force water is! Here's a short video to give you the full sound effects of the rushing water...

If you click on the links at the top of the post, you can read about the Hydro-electric plant that you see here across the dam...

We walked a little farther north, and got a different view from the lake above the dam.  From where I was standing to take this picture, I could feel the spray from the water!

My Dad used to run with the local fire company, and they were often called to assist with river rescues.  People would wade out to the rocks below the dam and get stranded when the water levels would suddenly rise.  There are warning sirens before water is let over and levels rise, but some folks don't listen!  There have also been times when boaters have been in this lake above the dam and either lost power and went over the edge, or weren't paying attention to how close they were to the dam and didn't get stopped. Some lucky ones have survived, but others have not been so fortunate. The fall is about fifty feet, and there are a lot of rocks in the water below...

Before we left, we spotted this in a tree in the woods behind us...

It appears to be a bald eagle's nest!  We didn't see any eagles flying around...only buzzards...but they are known to be in this area...

It was a nice afternoon be to outside, and hopefully there will be many more days like this to come!

Making Use of the Cistern...

Do you know what a cistern is?

It's a tank for storing water.  In our case, it's an underground tank made of concrete, which is fed by the rain spouts on two sides of the house.

Our house was built a little over 100 years ago, and I have no idea when the cistern was put in...but it's a handy thing to have.  We've been regularly putting it to use ever since we moved to the farm in 1994.  We try to use it about every 4 - 6 weeks, depending on how much rain we have.  The water is not suitable for drinking, so when we plan to use it, we fill up enough water jugs to last a few days.  If we run out, our neighbors are glad to let us fill a few jugs from their faucets. (We all have wells, so no one is paying a water bill!)

You'd never know it's there if you don't know where to look.  See the spout coming down the side of the house, angling down to the left under the window?

That spout collects rain water and runs it directly into the cistern, which is under what we call the "shop".  That corner has become a bit of a catchall for some garden tools, but you can see where the spout goes down into the concrete.  There's another spout on the north side of the house as well...

The heavy !! metal grate covers the cistern...

The lid is heavy for an adult to lift, so we had no worries about the kids removing it and falling in...

The cistern is made of concrete and is probably around 7' deep.  To be honest, I don't know the other measurements.  A few years ago it was leaking, and we had it pumped out, cleaned, and the concrete repaired and sealed.  At that time, Jim was down inside, and I looked in to get an idea of the size, but I'll suffice it to say that it's big...probably at least as big as our farmhouse bathroom, which is pretty big...

Why do we use it?

With all the water that we use on the farm, our well pump gets used hard, so using the cistern occasionally gives it a break.  It also keeps the cistern pump in good working order in case of an emergency.  I remember one very hot summer, our well pump gave out, and we had trouble with the new one not working properly.  We had a load of water brought in and dumped into the cistern, and the thirsty cows were very happy!

The water is also great for doing laundry, as it's naturally soft, so when we run the cistern I do as much laundry as I can find!

I guess the rain barrels that folks are getting these days are a similar thing, except for the size and the manner in which the water is accessed.

Do any of you still have a working cistern on your property?

When Things Go Wrong...

We all have things go wrong sometimes...

...but why does it always seem to happen on a weekend?

Do you know what this is...and why it's in our yard?

Yesterday morning after milking, we noticed that we didn't have any water.

Ugh...

We first thought that it was a minor problem, and that we had it fixed. However, we soon noticed that the well pump continued shutting off, which is definitely not a minor problem.

Thankfully, we have a cistern, which holds several thousand gallons of water. It collects water from the rain spouts on the house, and after a day or so of rain, it's full.  The cows can drink this water, and we can use it for washing dishes, laundry and showering.  The only thing we don't use it for is our drinking water.

We switched over from the well to the cistern, and called the plumber.

He went to the pressure tank in the basement, tested some things (I make no claims to understand all the electrical terms enough to explain them to you!) and determined that the problem was with our well pump.

He needed to pull the pump out of the well...which is 380 feet deep.  The first step was to take off the well cap...

To get started, he attached the tubing inside the well casing to his "wheel".  He grabbed a shiny metal can out of his truck, and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized he was using the sun's reflection on the metal can to act as a flashlight, so he could see down into the well...

His "wheel" is run by electricity, and it spins, pulling the tubing up out of the well...

In case you ever wondered what a well pump looks like, here it is...

The old pump is still under warranty, thankfully, so we should get some credit for it. He replaced the faulty pump with a new one, and lowered it back into the well.  Problem solved?

Not quite.

There was a problem with the new pump.

So...we had to go to plan B...staying on cistern for the rest of the weekend.

Because we used the cistern recently, and it hasn't yet been replenished by heavy rains, we had a load of water delivered to fill it to the top...

They emptied two thousand gallons of water from the truck into the cistern...

We should be good until the plumber comes back tomorrow...to pull the "new pump" and replace it with yet another one.

This wasn't exactly how we had planned to spend our afternoon yesterday...but we are glad we have the cistern to fall back on, and we're glad we have a plumber who was available to help when we needed him!

Could We Start Over Please...

You know it's going to be that kind of morning when...

...you're laying in bed, hitting the snooze repeatedly, trying to persuade yourself to climb out and face the day (can you tell I am NOT a morning person?)...and you hear heavy footsteps walking across the kitchen floor downstairs...the door to the steps opens and the light flicks on and off several times.  "Alica, could you please come out...a water bowl valve stuck and ran all night, and we have a major flood in the barn.  Plus, there's a broken stall, and there's a problem with the barn cleaner!"

So...you jump up and go downstairs and have to wait in line behind your daughter to get into the out-kitchen where the barn clothes are...she's already up getting ready for school.  (I really am NOT a morning person!) Say goodbye to the kids and head out to face the day.

Jim was right, there was a major flood.  One of the water bowl valves in the second row stuck all night, and there were about 3"-4" of water in this area you see here between the 2nd and 3rd rows.  Here it is all cleaned up...it's one way to deep clean the barn!

I swept, and swept, and swept some more.  All that water went into the gutters.

The gutters are probably 8"-10" inches deep, and soon after I started sweeping, they were completely full, almost running over.  This is after the water has all been swept up and Jim's been scooping for awhile...

He scoops the water out of the gutter and into the barnyard...

What a mess...

That took about 45 minutes, but is now finished.  The cows were mooing hollering because they were hungry, which only added to the chaos.  We had to wait to feed them though, until we could push the feed carts through.  Now we're running the cistern today, to give the well a break after the water ran all night long.



(the ironic thing is...last night I got home late after picking up Eric from an event, and I heard a water bowl running.  I thought about poking my head in the barn to check it out, but figured it was just a cow having a drink.  Had I looked, most of this mess could have been avoided!  Always trust your instincts!!)

Here's problem number two...

Luckily, this cow stood still and stayed in her stall, just as if it wasn't broken. This is a primary reason that the feed carts are locked away whenever we aren't in the barn and the gates are all shut.  Had she wandered around and gotten into some feed, it could have been very, very bad news for her health!

And here's problem number three...

The barn cleaner chain is supposed to go around the sprocket, but as the chain wears thin, it gets loose and sometimes slips off, out of place.  This wasn't too hard of a fix...although Jim had to be pretty careful that he didn't get his fingers pinched while I worked the switch as he got it put back into place.  He tightened the chain and it was good to go.

Looking back at the past five hours, it really wasn't as bad as it all looked at 6:00 this morning.  Two of the three problems are fixed, and the stall will soon be too, as soon as I get off the computer and go help.

Never a dull moment!

In Search of More Water...

Water.  We all need it, and when we don't have a sufficient supply, it causes many problems.

The well at the "other farm" has never been very strong.  There are three families living in the farm house, and  we house our dry cows and heifers there as well...anywhere from 20-25 animals at any given time, and that takes a lot of water!

Several years ago, a new well was drilled at the "other farm".  After drilling to somewhere around 500 feet, they got water...not very much, but enough that the second well could be used to supplement the old one.  However in dry weather, there just isn't enough of a water supply to meet the demand. What to do?

For the past few weeks, we tried this...

A local company that supplies water, parked one of their tankers in the meadow.  This tanker holds 4500 gallons of water.  There was a hose trickling water slowly into the well to supply water for the house, and Jim filled this stock tank with a hose directly from the tanker.  The cows quickly learned where to find their water...

The water tanker has been refilled several times, with no sign of the well making a strong recovery, even with the several inches of rain that we've had.

Next option...

Drilling a new well is very expensive, and with the history of trouble with finding water, the family decided to try something new...

Hydrofracking the well...

(you can read about the process if you click on this link.  I understand the basics of how it works, but it's explained very clearly on the website from the company we used.  Better than me trying to explain it!)

This morning, the plumber came and pulled the well pump.  The pump itself will at the least need to be repaired, and possible replaced...

The tank truck to the right is filled with 5000 gallons of water which will be used in the hydrofracking process...

Uncle Ray watching...

Here they have their equipment lowered into the well, after the pump and piping has been removed...

Adding pipes to lower into the well...

Hooked up to the water tanker and ready to go...

Watching the pressure gauges...

Almost immediately at the first level, the water pressure dropped from 500 psi to 0 psi.  That, in the words of the boss, was "a home run"!  A large fracture occurred, allowing the water to escape, opening up a channel for more water to flow into the well.

They flushed the fracture with 2500 gallons of water, added more pipe to descend to a lower level and repeated the process.

Now the pump just needs to be replaced, and we'll hope for a sufficient water supply.  That will make everyone happy!

Tiling...

A week or so ago, we started an excavating project.  Finally, this week we were able to finish it, as the ground at the bottom of the waterway has dried out become a little less saturated.

We've long had some drainage problems in this particular area of the farm, and a bunch of years ago, had the area "tiled" to help alleviate the problem.  In recent years, however, the problem has become worse.

The first thing the guys did was dig down to the original drainage pipes, to see if they were working properly...

They found the old pipe and checked it out.  Most of the pipe seemed to be okay.,but some sections of the pipe at the low end were partially clogged.  Dirt had filtered into the pipe and was preventing the water from draining properly.  So...they replaced some sections and added a lot more.  Lots of digging...they dug one main branch north to south, with several smaller ditches branching off to the southeast and southwest.   

We took lots of pictures and measurements, so that we know exactly where the tile was laid in case it ever needs to be dug up again!

Here they are digging the final ditch...

Next, they lined the bottom of the ditch with stone, and laid the pipe on top. They used this flexible pipe that has holes in it...

The idea is that the stone filters the water...but doesn't allow the dirt to enter the pipe...and dries the ground out enough to be suitable for farming...

  
There were several places where the pipes needed to be connected at a "Y"...

The pipe was then covered completely with stone before the ditch was filled in the rest of the way with dirt...

 It's hard to see from far away, but they're finished...hopefully by mid summer, the field will be green with corn...

Water is now flowing swiftly out of the drain pipe at the low end...

 
Hopefully it will continue to drain properly, and the field will be in better condition to farm!

A dry spring would help!

Bullies...

The past few years, we've been hearing alot about bully prevention in the school system.  I was reminded tonight about how we have bullies right here in our barn!

When the weather turns cold, we watch the temperatures closely.  When it gets very cold and windy, like last night and this morning, we shut off some of the water lines in the west side of the barn.  This means that we then have to fill water tubs with a hose, in order for the heifers to drink...

Tonight, as I was filling the heifers' water tub (wishing I was inside watching the Eagles game!), I got really angry!  We have six animals in what we call the "outside pen" right now...a springing cow, a steer and four heifers...

I expected that the cow would be the first one to drink...she drank the water as fast as it would run out of the hose!  I expected the steer to be next...and then the two biggest heifers, followed by the two slightly smaller ones. 

But what made me so angry, was that the cow, when she was finished drinking, stood there and pushed all the others away.  She didn't need any more water; she just wanted to be bossy!  I chased her away, and then had to do the same with the steer.  The two larger heifers wouldn't even let the two smaller ones inside!   

We are so much like animals!  Or...are they so much like us?!  God must get so frustrated with us when He sees us acting so mean to each other...throwing our weight around "just because we can!"
It all turned out fine for those heifers...Jim and I were able to pen the larger animals outside temporarily so that the smaller ones could eat and drink in peace!  I just wonder why they have to act like that?! 

(and we got to go watch the end of the Eagles game...but I should've just stayed in the barn!) 

Cold weather hazards...

You know the cold snap has really arrived when you carry around a bucket full of steaming hot water like this all morning, trying to thaw water lines and water bowl valves that have frozen overnight!

Yes, we knew it was coming, and we did what we could to prepare, but the west side of our barn is comprised mostly of windows, which makes it difficult to keep the water lines and water bowls open...especially with the high winds we had last night and all day today.

This morning I was able to get the cows' water bowls open by pouring hot water slowly over the valves, but one of the two remaining "old" water bowls in the fourth row had taken all of the cold winters it could handle.  Jim ended up replacing the entire water bowl this morning when it sprung a leak at a weak spot.  The heifer pens were another story...we'll be carrying water to the heifers for several days until this cold snap is over.

I find it interesting...Jim loses sleep over cows that are sick; I lose sleep over broken or frozen water lines!  Guess who might not be sleeping tonight?!