Water, Second Edition

We were blessed last week with some rainfall.  Unfortunately, we got short, hard deluges of rain, which dropped anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch in a few short minutes instead of a long, misting shower over the course of a day.  While this meant there was TONS of water, it was not able to do much because the ground is so hard that the rain was quickly running off the ground and away from the areas that needed it most.  

Thursday afternoon was one such storm day here.  The storm clouds rolled in just as we finished a mid-afternoon swim.  I had hustled the kids in the house in anticipation and was just getting all of the towels off the deck railing as the rain began.  I was quickly soaked in just a few seconds, glad to still have on my bathing suit.  As I came in the house, I realized we had moved the buckets we were keeping under the downspouts and they needed put back, so I ran back outside to do that.  Well, we don't actually have downspouts everywhere yet.  We re-roofed a few years ago and while we partially put up the gutters, we haven't finished the project, so most of our gutters are open ended, which causes water to gush out the ends and alongside the house, which in turn, despite our french drains, causes some leaking in the basement.  You would think that since the problem could be easily solved, we'd actually do something to fix it, but we haven't yet.  We are good project starters, but not so good at the finishing details.

I knew the water coming out of the downspout would be a problem, so I rushed to gather the five gallon buckets we were using to catch the run off.  I knew there was a problem when I put the bucket under this gutter and it literally filled in less than 20 seconds.

On a side note, I want to give a huge SHOUT OUT to the Tyvek people.  Our sunroom has been wrapped in Tyvek for years and other than some fading and dirt on it, the Tyvek is still in place, protecting the interior of the house from the elements.  If Tyvek was offered in colors, I would buy it and just put it around my whole house and say "DONE."  Yes, of course, I want siding and proper mill work around my windows, but until the day comes when we can finally do it right, yellow Tyvek would really do the trick!

I filled every other bucket and container I could find 

I even put our giant cooler under a gutter and we still had water gushing out of the gutter and pooling around the house.

I quickly called Erik because every available container I had was filled with water and I needed something else. Something bigger.  Earlier in the week, Erik had picked up his huge, I-don't-know-how-many-gallon-water tank from a friend who had borrowed it.  Since it requires the skid steer to load and unload it, he just automatically took it to the barnyard and unloaded it there.  I suppose this was partly because we were not anticipating any rainfall, but also we didn't really think twice about it.  That is until we had rain on Thursday and he wasn't here to load the tank with his skid steer and move it under the above mentioned downspout.  

The final words of the call were, "You can drive it, honey.  You've done it before."   Mind you, the only times I've used the skid steer before is when we have been working on a project and Erik has been right beside me shouting explicit instructions on what I was supposed to do every single step.  The one time I did use it by myself it was just to move some dirt that was already in the bucket up to where I wanted it and even then, I just shoveled the dirt out of the bucket.  This was big.  HUGE.  So, I slipped on my Mary Jane crocs, (you know, typical footwear for the seasoned farmer) yelled to Walker, "Come on buddy, you're going to have to help me!" and headed out to the barn to get the skid steer.

We get out there and the bucket is attached to the front of the skid steer, so we have to unlock it and get it off.  The process for starting the skid steer is pretty simple, you climb in, sit down, pull the safety bar down (it has an automatic safety that if this bar is not down, you cannot drive it) and push an overdrive button, then use the handles to move the machine forward or backward.  I put Walker in the drivers seat and he did all of that and it would not move.  He shut it down, and started it back up to try again and just as he was going to back up, I noticed our Banty hen had her three tiny baby chicks under the skid steer.  Luckily one of the kids had left his or her butterfly net out in the barn, so I was able to reach under and scoop up the baby chicks one at a time and put them on top of the lawn mower and safety.  This, however, put the mama in a tailspin, and she was NOT coming out from under the skid steer until she found her babies.  I finally got her caught in the butterfly net, scooped her and her babies up and put them inside one of the feeding troughs so they would be safe.  Walker tried to back up again and it didn't work so I told him we had to switch places.  I don't know what we ended up doing, but finally we got it to go in reverse.  Walker climbed in with me and we backed out of the barn and headed toward the hoop house shed where Erik typically keeps the fork attachment for the skid steer.  We meandered through the obstacle course that is typical for this time of year to the back shed and it wasn't there.  So, thinking that after all that, we have to give up, we start back towards the barn to put the skid steer away when we see the forks on the other side of the barn.  We spent a good 10 minutes in pouring rain trying to get the forks on the skid steer.  

Just so you know, driving a skid steer is easy.  Operating the bucket/fork attachments is very difficult.  Our particular skid steer has pedals on the floor boards that operate the arm function.  The toe and heel area of each foot controls a certain operation of that arm.  The right toe and heel raises and lowers the bucket/forks and the left toe and heel lifts the arms up and down.  If you do not have  firm grasp of this, you look like I did trying to get the forks set on the arms, jerking up and down, raising the arm up above the top of the skid steer.  It is a really delicate process, and if you ever have the opportunity to see an operator in action and see how smoothly they are able to do their job, it is a thing of wonder.  Walker understood that each toe and heel movement performed a specific function of the skid steer, but due to the loudness of the machine itself, plus the pounding of the rain on the steel roof of the skid steer, it was hard to hear him giving me directions as he helped me line up the arms to put the attachment on.  Finally, he climbed back into the skid steer with me, would lean down and push the toe or heel that was to do the work.  He was like my Annie Sullivan for the skid steer world.  Once we got the forks on, he jumped back out, locked them, and we were able to easily put the tank on the forks, drive it up to the house and put it under the gutter.  

Thankfully, it was still raining by the time we got it under the downspout and while we didn't manage to catch as much water as we could have, you can see we have about five inches at the bottom of the tank.   A good start for sure and an adventure with my oldest boy that he will hopefully remember and laugh about and cherish when he is older.  

Water

When we first bought our house, taped onto and inside almost half of the cabinet doors of the kitchen were notes on what to do if there was no water.  Since we completely renovated the house and replaced the holding tank for the well, we never were particularly concerned.  Our only apprehension was that the well itself was drilled adjacent to the house and incorporated into the basement structure of our house.  Along the driveway, there is a large concrete surface about 18 inches above the ground and in the basement (which is actually a cellar) you skirt through the parts that would be behind the house and in the back is where all the gear for our well is.  It's a damp, dark, desolate room that I try to avoid as much as possible.  In fact, I think I've managed to only visit that area two or three times in the eight years we've lived here.

Most places we've been or looked at tend to have the well drilled away from the house.   In the "old" days, people used to put those sweet little rounded stone walls with a roof on their wells so that they could draw water from it with a bucket.  In fact, there's a farm near us that has a beautiful field stone well wall in their yard from days of yore.

We were not so lucky.  All we got was a white and green, aluminum clad, falling down, double seater, faux outhouse.

(this is not a picture of our faux outhouse but is quite close except our roof was dark green)

Yes, that's right, I referred to an outhouse as faux.  Why might I do this? Because although the outhouse was equipped with everything from the half moon door to the double seats inside,

 there was no ditch for the "function" portion of the outhouse.  We attempted to move the outhouse several years ago to use it as a shed near our now non-existent garden, but as soon as Erik lifted it with the skid loader bucket, it fell apart.

Anyway, the well is located basically beneath our house.  In the almost eight years we've lived here, it's never given us a lick of trouble other than our holding tank at times not being able to keep up with our demand  and that is usually only when an animal has knocked the automatic waterer off the base and caused the trough to overflow or if the kids have decided to crack open one of the frost free's

and make mud puddles, mud pies, or cover each other in mud.

That is, until now.  

The last few months have been abnormally dry around here.  About three weeks ago, we started having problems with water.  Our first fear was that our well was running dry.  We'd have periodic spells where we'd be running water and then all of a sudden, the water would stop.  Not good.  We immediately implemented our best conservation practices; doing a few loads of laundry at the laundry mat, restricting showers (the kids take a nightly bath in the pool except Saturday when we wash them in the shower and wash their hair), unplugging our commercial icemaker (I'm sure this seems frivolous to many people, but having a limitless supply of ice for Erik to take to work daily, especially during this recent heat, is almost essential), not running the dishwasher, etc.  When you think about what is required of our well daily, just on the human population alone, you can see the well is really put to the test. I am so grateful we have a well and don't have to pay for water!  Add in our barnyard critters, which the goats, alpacas, and donkey alone drink at least a gallon a day draining about 75 gallons of water daily!

Erik would hustle down to the well-room and wiggle the pressure gauge on the tank and he would hear water start trickling in the holding tank again.   After about a week of this stop and go water, Erik finally had the time to run to the plumbing supply company that we frequent and was able to buy the replacement parts and fix the gauge.  So far, the water has not run out like it was doing before, but there are times, on days when I really push the well to its limits, that we have very low pressure for a few minutes.

All of this background story is to tell you about the adventure Walker and I had on Thursday afternoon during a BIG storm!

But that story is for another day.

For now, please whether you have city water or a well, please conserve your water.  When you are running your water while brushing your teeth, or waiting for the hot water to come through the pipe,  think about the portion of the USA that is in a severe heat and drought crisis and pray for them.  I've read in farming publications that portions of the Southwest haven't seen a drop of rain since September 2010!  Many farmers/ranchers are selling their cattle at a HUGE loss because they no longer can feed or water them.  The heat is especially bad for our crops too.  Many of you know sweet corn was behind schedule (and supplies are limited as evidenced by Ambrose's selling out of corn by 11 am most days) because the heat and lack of rain is horribly detrimental to our crops.  While you may think this only affects the farmers and ranchers, it does not.  If corn harvests are bad, prices will rise yet again.  If you think the oil industry caused trouble because of the prices rising, imagine what the impact will be if food AND fuel cannot meet demand!  If you're not really a praying person, now would be the time to pray not just for rain, but for those folks depending on the rain, not just for relief, but for their lives.

Showing goats

This week is the Big Butler Fair!  We entered some of our goats in the Fair and Erik and the kids showed them this past Monday.

It was a HOT HOT HOT day.  Unbearably hot.  The kind of hot where you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, "Who moved our house onto the surface of the sun while we were sleeping?"  Miserably hot and humid at 7 am and it just continued to get more hot and humid as the day progressed.  The show didn't start until 12:30 pm which meant that the kids & Erik had to go to the fair wearing one outfit and had to get dressed in their show clothes (white shirt, black pants & boots) at the fair.  I stayed up late the previous night (July 4) creating and ironing on decals displaying our farm logo so I didn't get up and leave as early as Erik did the morning of the show.  I'm glad because it was torture walking from the car to the goat barn and then sitting in the dairy cow barn watching the goat show.  Imagine a huge steel barn, a few hundred dairy cattle, stifling heat, and all of us holding onto a goat (or two).  I can't remember being so hot!

So, to sum it up, in case you haven't figured it out yet, it was hot.

The children did a great job showing their goats.  I took some pictures to document the event, and unfortunately, they didn't all turn out so great.  The "show ring" was in the center of the dairy barn, which was also in the center of the barn where people walked through to see the dairy cows.  This created a lot of motion and caused my camera to not focus too well.  I was shooting on Auto mode because I knew there would be times when I wouldn't be behind the lens, so I wanted to be able to get everything.  I also was running late that morning and forgot to switch lenses which also affected my photos.  Anyway, the pictures still tell a great story so here it is:

This is the pee wee showmanship class.  The lady on the left is the judge.  She's talking to each child, asking them the name and age of their goat, the breed of the goat and a few other general questions.  The point of this class is to get young children used to showing an animal, listening to the judge and answering questions with ease.  Notice my Maggie May in the center, hand on her hip.  Her goat is not lined up as it should be and she doesn't care.  Walker is earnestly trying to keep his goat "set up" (keeping the legs positioned in such a way as to show off the goats muscle & bone structure) and is very eager to please the judge.

Maggie continues to wait for the judge to get to her.  

Here's the entire class lined up allowing the judge to examine the front ends of the goats.  Walker is showing Carmella Cream.  Carmella has two babies that she is desperate to nurse.  We had to milk Carmella last night and not allow her babies to have access to her because the judge needed to see her bag and udder structure on the day of the show.  I desperately felt Carmella's pain of not being able to feed her babies for over 12 hours.  She called out to her babies and they returned the call, which created some difficulty for Maggie & Will who were showing the babies.

Here is the judge examining Will's little goat, Veronica.  He man-handled her something fierce.  Veronica is only 4 weeks old and all she wanted to do is get to her mom and nurse.

Maggie & Will are having some trouble keeping their baby goats in line because they can hear their mother a few feet away and all they want to do is eat.

Now the children have to lead their goats in a short walk in a circle around the ring.  They do this to demonstrate how the goat stands on her feet.  They also do it to show that they work with their animals and have control over them.  Walker did a very good job of leading Carmella, but Maggie and Will had no such luck.  Their goats were jumping and bucking and a little out of control.  

This is Will's attempt to get his goat, Veronica, set up and under control.  He is such a bull he just uses brute force to get things to do what he wants.  He was determined to get Veronica to stand if it killed him!

The judge was very sweet and gave all of the pee-wee competitors a blue ribbon.  She said they all did a great job of knowing their goats name, breed and age.  All of the children were so excited to get a blue ribbon.

Will shows off his ribbon.

"Look Momma!  I got a bwue one!"

Maggie is now showing in a new class.  

She takes second place.

And Reserve Grand Champion.

And Will eats some lunch.

Maggie sets up her goat.  She's showing Veronica this time.

Maggie gets her ribbons from the Fair Queen.

And Maggie showing off her ribbons.

This is Walker showing Carmella Cream.  He is the only competitor in this class so he wins first place and the Grand Champion ribbons.

Here's a photo of a boy who is so excited he just won two awesome ribbons and doesn't have any clue that he won basically because there were no other competitors in his class.  As he would say, "SWEET!" (insert fist pump here)

Here is Walker showing one of our Boer goats - the goats we primarily intend to show at future events.  To be entirely truthful, we only entered Carmella and her babies because we (Erik) thought you got admission passes based on how many animals you had entered in the shows. We entered five goats so he assumed we'd get five passes.  Unfortunately, it's based on WHO registers them and since Erik registered all of our entries in his name, we only got one pass.  Ooops.

Anyway, Walker showed Miss Hulk up against a 21 year old girl.  He did a pretty great job winning the class.

We were very proud of him.  

The part of the story you won't see illustrated is that after the next class, Erik and Walker had to take one of the goats back to the pens because she was feeling sick.  While he was doing that, they called for Miss Hulk to be shown again for the best in show competition.  Maggie and Will were not strong enough to handle Miss Hulk, so guess who was left showing a goat?  ME!  I had no idea what I was doing or if I even showed Miss Hulk off to her best potential, but I was in that ring showing her off.  I did not win a ribbon.

The children all felt sorry for me so they said they would share their ribbons with me.

I've got such nice children.

Now we're gearing up for the Butler Farm Show in August.

Unless it's as miserably hot as it has been during Fair week.  Then I'm defecting.