Go With The Flow

Since I get a number of people questioning me about the water system for my house and since somebody gave me the word 'water' for the old word posts, I thought I'd kill a number of birds with one stone and do a big post on my whole system.  I may have shown all this before but it was not totally completed and would have been a long time ago, so here is the final, completed system.  I also wanted to address one other thing.  Several people (not here) have inquired or hinted that maybe my recent health problems were due to the fact that I do not use city water.
Well, 1.  I've had my water tested 3 times, once before ever even starting to build, and the results always come back fine.  I always kinda laugh when I remember taking the first batch down to the county to have them test it and all the people in the office were passing the bottle around, marveling over the cold, clear spring water.  They were very curious about where I got such fine looking water.  And yes, I know how it looks doesn't matter, I just thought it was kinda funny.  They were also amazed to know it was a spring rather than a well, although this county is eat up with natural, artesian springs.  Anyway, my water filters down through the mountain behind my house and bubbles up through some cracks in the rock about 150 yards from the house.  In the photo above you can see the overflow from the cistern we built.  It has always overflowed like that and in fact, it and yet another spring not far away form a small creek that eventually connects with my bigger creek along the driveway.  You can also see the copious amounts of watercress that grow in the little pool below the spring.  It's very good in salads and stuff.

 This is the cistern and the cover for it to keep out leaves and ....critters.  Anyway.  2.  I've had the same health issues on and off for years before I ever moved here.  The second worse bout I had, just like what happened last year, was about 14 years ago and I was living in another town and on city water.  3.  Just in case, I've been tested for all kinds of bacteria and crud such as toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal infection etc etc.  and it all comes back negative.

The water is fairly clear, although we do filter it extensively, and maintains a good level of 4 or 5 feet all the time.  If you look carefully behind the pipe you can see the huge rock a couple of feet down that I had to form the shelf over to lay block on.  Now, I know most people would think that is not near deep enough but we have never been able to overcome the flow no matter how much water we run.  In the beginning I actually tried to outrun it by watering the garden, washing my truck and various things all at the same time but it always recovered quickly.  I think I estimated one time long ago that it produces something like 5 gallons a minute.  And again, that may not sound like much but it works; we always have water.  There is one thing that can overrun it though and that is the big, gas powered trash pump but that's okay.  Sometimes that comes in handy. 

This is the cute little pump house, that still isn't finished, and that sits about halfway between the house and the spring.  It is also partially underground with concrete walls so that helps insulate it.  We first tried installing the pump in the basement of the house but then determined that the pump just was not strong enough to pull the water uphill that distance and also over the hill that is between the spring and the house.  So, we shot some grade and determined the best place was right at the apex of the hill.  Once it tops the hill, the pressure tank is basically pushing the water towards the house at that point. Just as well.  The pump is not noisy but it does make a little racket and I'd rather have that away from the house. 

Here is the pressure tank and the pump in the lower right corner.  The pump is a Goulds and I highly recommend them.  This thing is a workhorse.  Knock on wood.  You long time readers may remember way back I had some issues with the water system for awhile there.  A pipe busted and I don't remember what all.  I do remember being terrified after finding these things that the pump had burnt up.  Nope.  Hooked everything back up and that thing just keeps on chugging.  The pressure tank is a WellSaver and I'm very pleased with it also.  I bought one of the largest they make so that the pump would not need to actually run that much.  I think this is the 86 gallon version although it could be over 100.  At any rate, with this size, and the way we use water, the pump might only come on 2 or 3 times a day and it takes it about 5-7 minutes to fill it back up.  With the way the pump house is separate and all it would be very possible to have all this run off solar power, which I would really, really like to do.  But...that takes some money.  Maybe one day.

Once the water enters the house it splits and one line goes towards the garden.  The other line runs through this point of entry filter that uses zeolite as the filtering medium.  Most water treatment plants also use zeolite.  Someone was once aghast that I had to use such a filter and it must be because the water was so bad.  No.  This county is full of natural springs but it's also full of sandstone, which is easily degraded by flowing water.  To keep the sand out of my water supply, and thus out of my washing machine and other parts that it would wreak havoc on, I use this filter.  Also, as I have shown before, most of the top 3/4 of Alabama is heavily laden with iron ore and all that water running through red sandstone can give the water a reddish tinge, mostly after a very heavy rainfall.

Which leads us to the final filter.  This is one of those fancy-smancy carbon/ something filters and basically it filters the water crystal clear.  It currently resides down in the basement and we fill up large containers to use for drinking and cooking water.  And yes, I know....why not just install this on the kitchen sink??  Well, I can't stand crap on my kitchen counters, finished or not, and I especially can't stand that stupid rubber line that has to go to the faucet head so I'm not looking at that mess in my kitchen or mucking up my nice, new kitchen faucet.  When I finally finish the kitchen counter tops and permanently install the sink and all we will install an under-the-counter version of this.  Yes, I know I'm kinda weird but ya'll should know that too by now.

Now, that may seem like a lot of trouble to some folks.  Or, they just don't feel right about not having city water.  You know, water that comes out of the ground is ...nasty.  (like it all doesn't at some point) Well, I look at it like this.  With all the prescription drugs, chemicals, pesticides and God only knows what else that people wash down their drains, that have been proven to show up in other people's drinking water, I think I'll take my chances.  Plus, there have been numerous times when everybody around me has had their water cut off for long periods, due to the county working on repairs etc., and I still had water.  I had just rather be able to control my water rather than someone else.  And yes, if my power goes out so does the pump but that is one thing Big Red is for and he has done a fine job.
So, there you have it.  Yes, it was a major pain in the ass at times and probably the only thing on this house that actually caused me to shed tears but it works great now and I'm happy with it.

Almost Easy

I believe we have topped out. We ran out of concrete before we filled absolutely every cell in the blocks but we are real close and will only take a few more bags. I am very pleased with the state of the spring and water system now. I think it all went well and turned out great; despite being extremely hard, physically, to do. I feel, and I think Jack would agree, that I have been beaten with a 2 x 4.

I was not pleased with how that shelf came out over the rock ledge so we bought 2 more bags of the quick setting concrete and I went back down to shore it up. Basically, I just mixed it up down in the hole and jammed it in the cavities while Jack kept the water pumped down. You can see one of the main inlets right in front of my right hand.

This set up very quickly and I was pleased with the result. By doing this I also confirmed that the hole is also big enough to actually do some work down there. I mean, it's not terribly comfortable, but it is workable.

I am still astounded at how fast the water cleared up and how clear it is now. The only murkiness is from the concrete residue and when this clears I suspect the water will be almost crystal clear.

This is standing at the spring looking up towards the pump house. Of course you know, all could not go well. As sure as Murphy's Law exists, no good deed goes unpunished and if everything is coming your way you must be in the wrong lane, we did have some problems. After the spring was done and we were trying to clean up, we hooked everything back up in order to use the water to clean up. In my exhaustion I forgot to reopen the valve above the spring. I have a very good pump and it tried very hard to do it's job and in doing so cracked the connections both going in and coming out of it's housing. It didn't take long for me to realize what I had done but by then water was running everywhere out of the pump. So, Jack spent most of the day finding parts to fix those connections. Finally, about 5 p.m. today he finished the connections and we had water again. Hopefully,it will go a looooong time now with no problems. Anybody that has been following this blog for sometime knows I have had problems with those connections before, so Jack used some different type this time and redid the whole setup. It certainly looks better.

This is my cute little pump house during the renovation. I still need to put siding on this thing.


An inside shot of the pressure tank and pump. This is a Gould pump and I would highly recommend these things. This one has been through pump hell and still going strong. Hopefully, it's life will be much easier now.


This is looking from the pump house, up through the woods to the house. The spring is about 200 feet from the house and at a lower elevation than the house. The pump pulls the water up a hill to the pressure tank and then the water is pushed further up the hill and over the crest, where it beings to fall back down at about 70 feet towards the house.

So, while Jack was finding parts I was getting my own stuff together. My company worked out their crap and now I am back on again for the out of town job. I told them I was not leaving until I got this put back together though. They threw the wrench in the works so they can wait on me now. Everything seems to be going well though and if the pump does not blow up overnight it looks like I'll be heading out sometime tomorrow. I am exhausted and grumpy but maybe I can make it through the rest of the week. It should be an interesting time anyway. I'll catch up with ya'll when I can!

One Step Closer

Well, first off, I appreciate all the kind words and compliments from you folks in the last post. Ya'll are sweet. Although, I did have to giggle a little at Island Rider's comparison to a Amazon warrior. I felt like something from the Amazon alright; maybe a giant leech or slug after being in that water for 3 days but not a warrior.! I look at those photos and think I look like hammered cat shit. I certainly feel like hammered cat shit; especially after today.



It was somewhat frustrating at the start today but we got it worked out and once the footprint was down it was just stack, stack, stack. It did take me a little while to get that first run situated correctly and level but my elevations were very close and it all tied in well with the shelf I poured yesterday. I was somewhat disappointed to see that some of that shelf did not set well and was crumbly. This was probably my fault for mixing it too dry. I know that's hard to imagine, it being submerged in water but High/ Early sets FAST. Fortunately, it was on the side where I could actually set block on the floor of the spring, so I just chipped out that crumbly and ran block. I then filled that blocked completely and filled up flush with the top of the shelf. I wish I had photos but you know....
Anyway, you can see how far we got. And, the first 5 runs are filled 100% and have rebar doweled through them. I know some of you may notice that I did not actually mortar the blocks together but with them being in water that's kinda not going to work well. The grout filling them, with the rebar will be plenty sufficient to hold them in place. It's almost like just pouring solid concrete.
Now, some of you may ask, why didn't I just pour concrete walls? Well, if I had used Sonatube, for a round form, the cost would have been much higher. If I had square formed it with plywood the cost might have been about the same but the aggravation of getting a concrete truck back there, the labor of forming and wrecking that form etc. made the block just seem like the easier way to go.


Now, the top 3 runs in this photo have not been poured. We ran out of Sackrete after pouring over half of it but it will be good to let that set up tonight and then pour the remainder tomorrow. You can see here how much clearer the water is already. It's kinda amazing to me. I knew it would clear up but didn't really expect that. As soon as all the concrete sets and such it should become very clear. Oh, the big pipe there and the block will be taken out later. The pipe stubbed up is just to keep me from dropping concrete or kicking gravel into the inlet when I'm working. I'll try to get some better pictures as it clears and we finish up.
Well, today was really exhausting for me. Jack made material runs while I wrecked the form and started stacking block. I stacked and poured while he kept me supplied with material. It worked well. Except for when I fell in first thing this morning (that will wake you up!) and then later when I sat down in the water and forgot my cell phone was in my back pocket. Oh well. I only buy the cheap kind anyway!
So, we hope to finish with the structure tomorrow and I can even do a little cut drawing for ya'll to better show what I did. For now, I have mixed me a good whiskey sour and I am going to relax.

Down In A Hole

Well, we are making progress. Still a ways to go but things are going fairly well and we've not been sucked down into a quagmire yet. To look on the bright side, the water is at least so cold that it keeps us cool while we are working. It is so cool, in fact, that a light fog is almost always present when we are in the hole; a mist formed from the heat of our bodies meeting the cold air rising off the water. I keep meaning to take a thermometer down there and check the actual water temp.

We take turns going down in the hole to dig. One goes down and the other hoists the buckets of mud up and empties them. Works pretty good. After having it firmly implanted in my brain that we were just going to widen a round hole and somehow stack block, I realized that nothing said the hole had to be round...It's funny how you get stuff stuck in your head and don't see alternatives. So, we squared the hole up, which will make setting block in a square much easier. DUH! Note how muddy the water is in this photo. We had stirred up quite a bit of silt and such by this point. Also, note the large rock behind Jack. You can't tell here but under that rock is where the inlet is.


Jack rigged up a cable with a pulley and such for the bucket, which helps greatly, but it is still pretty rough work. Last night my left shoulder was so sore I could barely move it. I either worked it out or something because today it is better.


Here you can see the water flowing in, somewhat. It has been hard for me to get many good pictures because we are usually both either in water or covered in mud. Not really when I want to have a camera in my hand. This crack between the rocks is about 8 inches at the widest point. I would guess this spring puts out about 5 gallons a minute, maybe. In the winter it flows heavier. This large rock threw a little kink in my block laying plans so I had to form a shelf over it.



As you can see here. At this point we have basically finished excavating the walls (it's about a 5 x 5 foot hole). We scooped out all the loose stuff on the bottom until we were below the elevation at which the water comes in. I crammed a 6 inch diameter piece of PVC into the inlet and ran it out to about the middle of the hole and turned it up with a 90. That's what you see with the bucket over it. This will protect the opening of the spring. We then filled the bottom with about a 6 inch layer of crushed stone. This hardened up the bottom remarkably well. Before we would sink several inches into the muck while we were working but now you can walk around just fine. I was very surprised that little bit of stone worked so well. You can even see how much that stone layer helped clear up the water. I mean, it's not clear yet but it's better than it was. So, I then threw this form up so that it was tight against the face of that rock, squared it up best I could, staked it in place and kicked it off. We used stone rubble to fill up most of the space behind the form and over the PVC inlet but used big enough chunks that the water can flow freely. I am not trying to force the water to come in through the PVC pipe only but rather to simply block out a space were it always could if the areas around the pipe become clogged. I then used smaller stones to kinda seal the top on the rubble so that the concrete would not seep down into the inlet and seal it off. As an added insurance, we mixed the concrete fairly stiff so it would not ooze much. I used a High/ Early mix so that it would set quickly. We kept the water pumped down for a while but then let the spring fill back up. Keep in mind, concrete does not dry; it sets by a chemical reaction so water being on it does not hurt it. I also threw a few pieces of rebar in the shelf to help it and had stacked 3 layers of block on the outside to get a grade by, which I marked in the inside of the form. This, hopefully, will work out so that the blocks laid on this shelf will lay in with the other walls with nothing needing to be cut down. Since I can manipulate the gravel on the floor of the spring I can adjust the blocks to meet correctly but this should make it very close as it is now.
One other note about this photo: we take the foot valve and all out of the spring every morning as we begin work so nothing is in the way. This was taken towards the end of the day, after we had replaced the foot valve and reconnected the water. Fortunately, the spring cleans itself well enough that we can use the water by the time it refills. Now, we don't use it for drinking or cooking yet but it is fine for bathing etc. and it is filtered before it comes in the house. We do keep buckets of water on the deck though, to dump over ourselves at the end of the day in order to get clean enough to come in the house in order to take a shower. Heh.


If you look close enough you can see the little peepers that were staring at me most of the day. He is not happy that we have invaded his spring. I tossed him out twice and he is right back in there as soon as I turn my back. I was hoping that he would hop down to the creek, which is not 20 feet away, but he likes this hole.

In the afternoon the chickens come down to inspect things. Big 'Un, on the right, gave us his approval. Chigger thinks it's all great fun because it gives her an excuse to go play in the creek and mud while we are working. She won't go down there unless we are nearby.

This was taken at the end of the first day. Today was not much better. I suspect my clothes are ruined so we have been wearing the same ones over and over! Yeck! What a mess! Hopefully, I will start stacking block tomorrow and will be finished by the end of the weekend.

Hole In The Ground

Yep. That about describes it. A hole in the ground. So, this is what has occupied my thoughts and time the past couple of days and will continue to for the next several. Wish me luck for the time has finally come. The weather, the money, the time has all lined up and there is no more putting it off. I know I should have done this waaaay back before I ever even built the house but I was anxious to get moved in and the spring was working fine. And it still is now technically but the walls of the hole have continued to slowly erode and so it is time to permanently fix this. The large concrete pipe you see there was originally going to be part of the fix, a major part but it boiled down tot he fact that that pipe was going to cost me between $700.00- $900.00, even though I got it for free. See, it's not really possible to move something like that ( in any controlled manner anyway) without heavy equipment. So, after ruminating over about every other options possible, we are going to bite the bullet and do this by hand. I shall post about it later if I survive.

I suppose most people would gag to know this is where I get my water. The spring is actually quite clean and clear though. It has a little debris in it here because I had been mucking around the hole and knocked some leaves in. The orange paint marks is where it must be dug out to. You can see I have already started on that some. So, I shall return about this later but it may be a couple of days.

Thanks for all the opinions ya'll gave on the gable end thing. One thing I didn't mention that might make a difference is that the area I was questioning about is right over the front door; so it is rather noticeable. I know I didn't show this is the photo and it just looked like a random gable on the end somewhere.

I know also many of you may be thinking, why am I still here? I, being me not you. Wasn't I supposed to go out of town to work? Well, funny you should mention that. I got all ready to go, down to being packed and then no one called. A day went by, then 5 and no one called. They basically drug up on me. No, I was not really pleased. However, they assure me that I will go back to work at least for long enough to make it worth my while for doing all that paperwork etc. So, what do you do? I was looking forward to maybe having the cash to finish the house completely but now at least, I don't have to be away from home. Oh well.

Dare To Be Stupid

Some bloggers write only about the happy, successful events of their lives, choosing to present a Pollyanna view of their world to their readers. Other bloggers seem to use their writings as a vent-all for everything wrong in their lives and others still just avoid all personal references all together by simply posting photographs. I don't criticize any of these; it's every person's right to blog how they want to! But I do, on the other hand, try to present an even flow, a happy medium between senseless joy and head-banging dismality. Even so, I thought seriously about not presenting this post. Just wipe it out and none of you would be the wiser. However, it does have a good lesson in it; one that is best learned by you observing someone else's stupidity, rather than risk yourself. And lest any of you think that I am truly, always Queen of the Universe, I do present this story to remind you that even I don't always know what the hell I'm doing. There is much to be said for sheer determination in the face of adversity but there should also be much said for not being impatient and getting aggravated easily.
So, you know of the problems that occurred last week with the water pump and my struggle to correct this malfunction, which I did. Well, not one day after my 'success', I was thwarted again when I got up that morning and realized I had no water again. I resigned myself to the situation and walked down to the spring and pump house to see what the problem was. Upon arriving at the spring, I saw that an old, rubber coupling had let go (I failed to check if it was still tight) and the water line was just laying open. Now, here is where I made my first mistake. I forgot that this end of the line had a backflow preventer installed, so the water in the line would not run out in such a situation. It also has a regular shut-off valve below the preventer, and knowing this was open, I assumed all the water below the pump had run out. This meant, in my mind, that the pump and all lines below, would need to be reprimed. So, I put the line back together, actually moving the footvalve back to the original spring (more about this later) and then going up to the pump house to see what was going on there.
When I got to the pump house, the pressure tank was registering about 40 lbs, but knowing that just air was coming out of the lines at the house, I was skeptical that was water in the tank. I opened the drain cock on the pressure tank, and sure enough, just air came out. So, I thought I bled the pressure off the tank. Second mistake here. I was tired and aggravated and I guess I just didn't wait long enough to see that all the pressure was off. Now, some of you who are knowledgeable of such things may be grimacing and squirming in your seats right about now. You can guess what I did. I got my other tools and checked the fittings on the pump. Everything seemed okay there. All the new iron fittings had held, no apparent leaks etc. So, thinking that the line coming into the pump was dry and the pressure tank was empty, I knew I needed to prime the pump and lines so that it could start to draw water again. So, I unscrewed the plug on the top of the pump. Now, if you have never been busted in the face with a one inch, steel plug going oh, about 40 mph, it is a difficult sensation to describe to you. The odd thing is, I can't really say that it hurt. I think pain of that magnitude just goes over to shock. I knew right away something was wrong but couldn't really say what. Then I saw blood dripping on my shirt sleeve. At this point I just sat down and called Allen. He was the closest person that I knew would know what to do. After a few moments, I regained some sense (not much) and saw that the bleeding had stopped, so I went back to work trying to get the pump going. It would run but didn't seem to be drawing water. Allen arrived after a while and when he walked up I could tell from the look on his face that something more was wrong with my face. I thought the force of pressure had just bloodied my nose a little. Not so. The plug had cut a line from my nose down to my lip and it was swelling now. Real pretty. I am extremely fortunate that it had not hit me in the eye or forehead though. In the end, Allen got the pump running again. I had just not let it run long enough and while it took a considerable amount of time to get the air out of the lines, everything cleared out and all is functioning well now.
So, the moral of this little story is this: not much is so bad that it can't be fixed, so don't go to work on something with a crappy attitude and get in a hurry. You are the one that is going to suffer if something goes wrong. Check out the whole situation and if you are not sure about something, ASK somebody who would know.

*Weird Al Yankovic

The Fixer

The water is clear and flowing freely once again. The hornets are dead. The pump appears to be functioning without defect. I have taken a shower.

I discussed a few options with Allen and decided to abandon the spring all together. It had collapsed to the point it is only 4 or 5 feet deep now. I am using the other spring now but it is a temporary measure. A permanent solution is going to require some further planning, concrete and a trackhoe. What I should have done to begin with.
My earlier attempts to kill the hornets had apparently been effective so I did not have to deal much with them. They did give one dying gasp as I was working though, when the queen flopped out of the nest onto the ground next to me. Freaking thing must be 2" inches long.
I replaced the fittings and plumbing leading to and from the pump, extended the pipes to the other spring and hooked all that back up and reprimed everything. Then I discovered that the fitting going into the pump had busted also. About this time Allen drove up and offered to repair it. I accepted and with one final trip to the hardware store and 40 minutes later, the pump fired up and water flowed. It then proceeded to spit mud and gunk out of every faucet and opening in and around the house.
We flushed out the whole system and I ran some bleach through the lines for good measure, back washed the filter and all seems to be fine.
Thanks for all your comments and I will answer some of them further in another post. I would like to say that I do realize and accept that I have to do this work myself because I did opt to walk away from the relationship I had. That was my choice and I still stand by it, so I have to suck it up and do these things when they come up and I accept that. It's not that hard usually, once you get going. But yes, when stuff like this happens it is nice to have someone there and I hope you women out there appreciate your man, IF you have a good one, that takes care of these things. I know women have plenty to do around the house (I do both after all) but most of it still rates higher on the comfort scale than wallowing around in cold mud, in the rain, repairing 2" plumbing lines.
I also had at least 3 guys guiding me through written and spoken means, as what to do next (tho I decided ultimately what was best) so I was not totally alone and I am grateful for that.


*Pearl Jam

Sick And Tired

Okay, I can tell you now this isn't going to be a happy, sunshiny post, so if that's what you need today just go look elsewhere. Sorry, maybe later. It's not the seemingly, constant rain that continually impedes my progress on the house that I am referring to with this title. No, rather I think it is the never-ending struggle to keep my head above water, only to have it shoved back under every time I think I might be making a little progress.
See, I got laid off, which is not bad because it will give me time to work on the house, finally. But it rains constantly, so I can't do the outside work I need to. A friend gives me a lot of free material, which I am grateful for, but because I am laid off, I don't have any income. Which means I need to be frugal with hour-long trips into Birmingham, which is where the material is. So, that and the fact that I do have a minuscule life has delayed me from getting absolutely all the material to date. Friend calls me today and chews me out for not getting it all yet, so I haul off to town to gather up as much as I can.
While I am gone the water system decides to explode. It blew the pipe out of the top of the pump and this ran for God-only-knows-how long before I discovered it after returning home and seeing that I had no water. Now, on further investigation of the spring and such, I believe that these heavy rains over the past months has caused the walls of the spring to collapse and eventually closed off the flow off water to the foot valve down in the spring. This is not good. It's one thing to repair the pipe coming out of the pump but now I have to dig out and shore up the spring, re-insert the pipe and valve and get all pipes back together. Oh, and hope like hell that my pump did not burn up.
And did I mention that, to add to the excitement and drama of it all, there is a European hornet's nest IN the pump house, about 3 feet from where I'm working. I actually discovered this last week and have been slowly and carefully trying to kill them but I think there is still some activity there. As I got somewhat started with repair work this afternoon it also started raining again and it's coming down pretty hard now. Looks like it will be raining all day tomorrow too so maybe I can dig up a raincoat. I usually keep one of the good ones from work.

So, ladies, I can't say it enough. If you have a good man, husband, partner or whatever that helps you with these things, be grateful. Cook him something special or take time for some other treat. It's easier on two than one. I can and will do this but I can't help but wish that I had some help. I guess that is weak and I can't help but think if I weren't such a bitch (or whatever) that there might actually be someone here to help but none of that matters now, really. So, I may not post for next day or two until I get stuff fixed.

*Eric Clapton

Dark Hole Again

Last weekend we pumped out the spring repeatedly in an effort to remove as much of the sludge that I allowed to wash down into it. The recent heavy rains had the underground springs moving swiftly which helped tremendously. The spring would recover quickly each time we pumped it down, in fact, the pump could never quite overtake it, so it kept all that muck stirred up good and allowed it to get sucked up and out. I was quite fascinated to see the bottom of the spring. The photo is not very clear but maybe you can make out something about it. The spring consists of a vertical shaft that goes down about 10 feet. There it meets a horizontal shaft of about the same diameter that flows into and out of this vertical shaft. They both appear to be lined with big boulders of sandstone. There are 2 other separate horizontal shafts up closer to the surface that allow water to flow out a little bit down the hill. This is partially where my little spring creek comes from.
You can kind of see how muddy the water was as it came out. In this photo, the rate of flow had slowed down somewhat due to the line clogging some. At times it spewed water 2-3 feet in the air as it left this hose. We emptied the spring many, many times over the course of the day, sometimes letting it recover for an hour or 2. We removed a lot of sand and muck and also leaves and roots. During one of the sessions I saw an enormous crawfish running around in the bottom! He was probably wondering what the hell was going on... there had been water here a minute ago!!
I was ecstatic to see how fast the water flowed into the spring at the bottom. It would refill in just a matter of minutes. Of course, I know it slows down at times, depending on how dry it has been but I think this is a very good source of water. Anyway, I think it did a lot of good. I have been checking the spring on and off this week and it is getting clearer and clearer. In fact, you can see clearly 16" or so down into the water. I think I may do one more good cleaning session maybe next weekend, before we reconnect the supply lines. The alternative spring is working fine; the water is very clear and the filter has been able to clean itself properly with this clear water. I set it to purge itself once a day for about a week to get all that sediment out from when the water was bad and it seems to have cleared up. So, things are looking up. Knock on wood.
This 3 day weekend has been great and we have just about finished with the deck handrails. Tomorrow I need to finish up the rebar at the entrance and apply a coat of linseed oil to the whole deck and it will be done! Time to start bringing out the potted plants and such. I will post some photos of the finished product a little later.
Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend if you celebrate Easter and even if you don't! The weather here lately has been a beautiful celebration of spring itself. Lots of things budding and blooming and sprouting. My tomato seeds that karl sent me have sprouted and I am very excited about that. I shared a couple of the varieties with the Switchman, as he is an avid gardener also, and he reported to me the other day that all of his had come up. He seemed quite happy about it. I can't wait to taste these new varieties.

*Cowboy Junkies/from album "Open"

What's The Matter Here?

This is the creek that runs from my spring; it is supposed to run clear. I think my efforts to prevent more mud from washing into the spring have been successful, however, so much is already in there that the recent rains just keep it stirred up as the water eventually makes it way through it's underground crevices and into the spring. Last Sunday it got so bad that I have just had to temporarily abandon the spring and jump over to another one. There are 2 springs on my land. The other one is very clear but it is a surface spring; the water just bubbles out from beneath a tree. It is a large volume of water but it is more exposed to the environment. Any deer or possum walking by can just poop right in it or whatever so I don't want to stay on this water long. It is my plan to help the spring purge itself by pumping the water out and as the spring fills back up, pump it out over and over until it is clean. I don't know if this will work but I have to try.
Last weekend also had me fighting it out with the wasps. It warmed up some and I came home to find about 20 wasps in the house. I had had it with those damn things so it was war for about 2 hours. I think I got most of them and stopped up the bottom of the clerestory wall so any more can't come down that way.
I still have to fix the spring and I may have to redo the media in my water filter but things are improving. It is kind of two steps forward and one step back all the time. This weekend I got the posts for the deck handrails and have them cut etc. They are almost ready to start installing. Tomorrow I must attend my brother and his wife's 25th wedding anniversary party so I will not get anything done on the house but I don't see them much as it is.
It is gradually getting warmer here so I planted a row of lettuce and 2 rows of brussel sprouts the other day after I came home from work. I plan on starting my tomato seeds soon. I am very much ready for warm weather and longer days.
Another carpenter left the job to go to another one so I am one of 2 left. Not sure how much longer I will be there or where I will go afterward. The Switchman must have noticed that I was looking kind of down at work Monday (after the wasp fight, etc.) and he yelled for me to smile as he went by on a train. I guess I didn't do a good job of it because he frowned and asked did I not have anything to smile about? I just shook my head as he was out of earshot at this point. About an hour later he came out and found me to ask what was wrong and so I told him some of my frustrations. I tried not to rant, lest he think that I am more of a nut than he already believes. He did offer a sympathetic ear though and cheered me up some.
Hey, speaking of switchmen and trains... did you know that locomotives are full of sand? I know you know, Woody, so you don't get to say! We installed a huge sand silo at work and we heard that it was somehow used for the trains but I did not understand until the other day that the locomotives actually have big compartments up front and carry it with them!

*10,000 Maniacs/ In My Tribe album

High Hopes

These photos are a little out of sequence so just bear with me here. I don't have the patience to try to fix them. This is my attempt to fix the problem I am having with rain runoff clouding my spring. Basically, I am trying to build a dirt cricket. A cricket is a small roof that diverts water behind a chimney for those of you who may not be familiar. I discovered 2 holes in the ground on the uphill side of the spring and I believe the muddy water flowing down the hill was then entering the spring underground before it actually reached the mouth of the spring. At least, that is what I am hoping. I hope by backfilling the uphill side it will cause the water to run around the spring and not down these holes or into the mouth of the spring. I put that meter box over the shutoff valve so that it is still accessible, plus the pipe needed to be covered anyway to keep it from freezing.
Here I have backfilled a good bit of the area after putting down a layer of poly as extra protection. I need to lay up another course or two of the stone on the uphill side so that there is a curb of sorts for the water running downhill to be diverted around the spring.

This is the beginning of the project. I got some Sonotube from the job (leftovers) and it was the perfect size! It is 2 feet diameter. Sonotube is great stuff if you need to pour something round. It comes in many different sizes and you can get it at Lowe's or some other similar devil store. Now, in this instance, I poured on the outside of the form where you would normally use Sonotube to pour the inside. Don't laugh at my formwork; it was difficult to get that stuff down in that crevice! And I had to cut the Sonotube open to get it around the water line. Anyway, a few nail pins (also invaluable) and we are ready. I didn't get any photos of the footing but I'm sure you can imagine.

I thought the tube was going to be too big but turns out it was just right to go around the mouth of the spring.
Here I am in my Superwoman pose! I had to haul the concrete and mortar down in a wheelbarrow but the stones I did bring down in my truck. Still, it was a pretty good workout. I kept the Sonotube in place to help me keep a good circle going with the block. When you are through, you just peel the Sonotube off or out of the concrete.
Here you can see the footing and the stone work. Most of the block is some old stuff that I busted up out of the BFA's driveway. I thought it was kind of cool looking because it is so old it was poured back when they used slag from steel mills as the aggregate, so you get these bright, glassy bits in the block. They are pretty much all a uniform thickness too so they lay well. I pointed the outside of the wall on the uphill side to help seal it up and put the poly against the block before backfilling too. So, we'll see. As I said, I need to go a little higher with the wall and build a little berm uphill to help divert more water.

Thank you all for your kind words recently. I am not going to give up on my house. It is just like any construction project; you always run into problems that you did not forsee but you fix them. Everything is just one thing at a time and you keep going. I think I may have not explained my work situation clearly though. I may have to go out of state but we do get to come home about twice a month. Sometimes you can come home every weekend; depends on how far away you are. Anyway, I could make a lot of money if I go and afford to build the other side of the house (much faster) when I come home for good, so it has it's advantages. And if I go with mostly the crew that I have worked with on this last job it will be a hell of a good time. We have already decided that we are going to get up a bowling team and join a league down there and I told the guys we are all going to learn to dance to the Zydeco music too! It will be an adventure for sure.

Nobody Knows You (When You're Down And Out)

That's a crappy title, huh? I am in a bit of a bad frame of mind right now. Things are not going well. I have made an effort through this blog to try to show all of the joys and frustrations of building something as significant as a house and how it affects your life (or has affected mine anyway). I don't know if anyone out there who reads this blog is even remotely interested in building their own home or gets any worthwhile information out of this. It is very satisfying to build your own home but I have chosen one of the hardest ways to do this, as usual. Building out of your pocket is very hard and takes a long time. I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it as I will not have a mortgage but I want to finish this house so badly.
I am having trouble with the water again. I have begun enclosing the spring with masonry but this weekend we had some torrential rains that muddied the spring tremendously. The filter that I have is good but cannot handle that much silt and mud so the water is not fit to drink at the moment. It will take it 2-3 days to clear I am getting very frustrated with this. I am very grateful for the rain here but I cannot tolerate the water in this condition. I believe there is a hole on the uphill side of the spring that is the cause of this, combined with the disturbed soil from trenching. As I said, I am in the process of backfilling and moving soil to keep water from even running to the spring but I thought I had made some headway, not made it worse.
Another bizarre problem is that apparently, back during warm weather, wasps got in the house and built a nest (a big one) somewhere in a wall without being noticed. Now, whenever we get a warm spell, wasps start crawling out of the clerestory wall. I mean lots of them. One small section on the back of the clerestory is still open (on the inside) and they must be coming from there.
Another problem that I am having is purely my own fault for not doing enough research. I noticed after moving in that I was having a real problem with moisture in the house, as in condensation on the windows. Now, I paid good money for double insulated windows and knew that they should not be doing that. After a little investigation I learned that it is my propane heater. The nice, cozy fireplace. It puts off water!! Plus, it is just not adequate for heating the whole house. Also, I called today for a refill on my tank. I was disgusted to see that the first 200 gallons barely lasted 2 months and now propane is hitting near $4.00 a gallon. This is double what the first tank cost me. This is just not what I had in mind for affordable heating. I mean, I can technically afford it but I don't want to! I think I talked about this in a previous post and my decision to install a wood burning heater in the basement. All of this can be fixed but I am very aggravated at myself for not investigating all of this better before now.
And to top all of this off, work is slowing to a crawl in town for my company and I have been asked to go to Louisiana for the next 2 years. I just moved in my house and now I may have to leave it. I must keep working in my present occupation in order to finish my house and as quickly as possible because the work that I do is beginning to take it's toll on me physically. I cannot make the same amount of money doing my pottery or something similar and I don't believe I can make it in construction for more than 5 or 6 more years. Also, some of you may have noticed a revision in my profile. Allen is beginning to build his own house elsewhere. This is not a new development though. This was decided over a year ago but we do continue to help each other out when we can.
I know everything will work out fine eventually and this is all my own doing anyway as I always want to try something new and do something different. Everyone told me I was crazy to become a construction worker! I guess everyone wonders throughout their lives if the decisions that they have made have always been the right ones. Should I have done this or that differently? Should I have taken other people's advise or followed my own heart? I have always followed my own heart ( but taken other advise seriously too) and it's been a hard row to hoe sometimes but I guess it is for everybody.
I am still working on getting internet service at the house and a new computer but I think it will still be around the end of the month before all of that is completed. I hope to post more frequently then, if I don't give up on it all together.

Come Together

Sorry to have been absent for a while. I've been working a lot at night down at the house and just haven't felt much like blogging really. My stress level is pretty high right now. I want so bad to move into the house before Christmas and it is really coming down to the wire. All I lack to be able to stay there is heat. I finished the shower completely, I hung and finished the sheetrock in the back of the closet that I had open for the shower valves etc. I just need to paint that now. I took the humongous scaffolding down!! I have room in the living room now! All of the filter media etc. finally came and we got that running. That is what these photos show.
The filter is this giant thing that has a gravel-like medium in the bottom (about 10") and then on top of that is this "Micro Z" stuff. Which is a natural mineral that is mined and ground up to resemble coarse sand, fired in a kiln and sifted. It is supposed to filter down to 5 microns, which is pretty fine. It may have been overkill (regular sand will go down to 20 microns) but I'm not taking any chances any more. It took all day to run the filter through the stages and flush out all the dust in the media. I was surprised at that. You would think they would wash the stuff or something before they send it to you. It took about 3 hours of running water to flush everything and get it working but it is great now. The water is sooo clear! I have the filter set to backwash itself every 3 days I believe. This cycle takes about 50 minutes. It washes out through the septic system so it has to tied into a drain line somewhere. I am very pleased with the system so far and the company that I ordered from which was Excel Water Technologies. They were very fast to answer questions and call me back when the media stuff did not show up. I would really recommend these people if you are looking for a filter.

I bought a Christmas tree. It is sitting out in the yard. I am waiting until I can move in to put it up. I have always thought it was funny that a holiday could bring about a state of mind where it is considered normal to drag the biggest tree you can get into your house and stand it up. Any other time people would think you were mad. It would be the best Christmas I ever had if I were able to wake up in my house on Christmas morning this year. The gas lines are almost all run. I have to work all weekend but Allen is going to put in the last of the lines tomorrow. I couldn't do that anyway but I am going refrigerator shopping after I get off work tomorrow. I think I finally found what I want. The gas company said they would be at the house Monday morning to set the tank so I could have heat by Monday night. Not sure when I'll be back but I'll let ya'll know if it looks like I'll make it in before the 24th.

Anticipation

That title doesn't have anything to do with the photo here; I'll get around to the photo in a minute. I am in kind of a "hurry up and wait" situation now with the house. I am just waiting on the filter media to arrive. The shipping company called today and said it would be here tomorrow. I am just waiting on the propane company to come set the tank so I can then hook up to the house and have heat. Of course, I have plenty of other stuff to do. Those are just the last two things I need to move in. Well, technically I need handrails on the deck but I can do that right after moving in. The insurance company only needs to see them when they come out to inspect the house. I did receive the very last of my shower tile that I had to reorder so I can finish that completely. Turns out I was able to order only what I needed, not a whole new box so that was very good. Lots more painting to do this weekend and maybe put up a couple of small, temporary kitchen counters. I also really need to go ahead and purchase my refrigerator and get it in the house. I am having another panic attack over that one. I would really like to have a side by side but I am supposed to be building a "green" house. Living a more sustainable life, you know, and side by sides use a good bit more energy than a regular fridge. Now, having a side by side might allow me enough storage in the freezer that I would not need another, smaller freezer which I had thought about purchasing. I would like to be able to put up some veggies from my garden and stuff like that. Of course, I have looked at the Energy Star side by sides but I know you can get even more efficient fridges. The real kicker is that the one that I found that I really, really, really like is a side by side and not even a Energy Star! But it only uses $8 a year more energy than Energy Star of equal size. If I buy it I'll feel like a hypocrite. Allen just rolls his eyes at me. Am I being too.........nutso?
Well, on other subjects, the photo shows some of the many rafter tails that I have had to cut in around. I love that detail but it is a pain in the butt to do. I did learn one trick to painting close to something like that though. I have several areas in the house where drywall butts up to wood or steel and it never seems to finish nice right on the edge. It's always got a ragged little crack and you just can't make a straight paint line there, or I can't anyway. So, what I learned to do was, after I had sanded the sheetrock as best I could, I ran a small bead of clear, siliconized acrylic caulk down this joint, making it very smooth. After the caulk dries (clear, it will be white before dry) you can cut in a very smooth paint line against the wood and if any caulk gets on the wood or steel, you don't see it.

Well, I am afraid I made a butthole comment on Florida Cracker's site about his little talking Christmas tree and my wanting to smack it with a stick. I hope I did not offend him; I was really just joking. I wouldn't really hurt it but those things like that kind of give me the willies. Oh well, sorry.

Minute By Minute

Here is some of the stuff we worked on this weekend. I bought a vent free propane wall heater for the house and installed it on this wall between the kitchen and living room. This gives it a central location in the house. Sorry the photo is bad but I have trouble getting good detail at night. I framed out the middle section of that wall to give it some visual substance and the chase formed by that will accommodate the ductwork for the vent for the range hood on the opposite side, gas lines and some electrical. I sheathed the wall in Durock because I want to tile this wall. Being a ceramic artist, I must make some tile of my own for the house and thought that this would be a nice accent. Plus, I'm hoping that the tile will absorb heat from the heater and help warm the house. I have had a lot of questions about the heating and air system for the house and I'll tell you why I put this thing in. I am planning on installing a HVAC system but I would like for it to be a geothermal system which means it uses underground water to supply the heat and cooling. It is obviously more complicated than that but that is kinda basically it. They say the systems are like 400% more efficient than normal HVAC systems and use a lot less power. They are also more expensive to install. If I go this route I would prefer to put it in after all of the house is built, not to mention, I can't afford any kind of HVAC right now so temporary heat is it. Now, after finding a wall unit this attractive, I may keep it permanently installed because in the case of a power outage, any kind of HVAC is going to go out. And if I am old and/or sick I don't want to be chopping wood to keep warm. The looks are a little deceiving though. From this photo and the one on the box, it appears that the heater is recessed into the wall and that is not the case but after installing it I think it still looks OK.
This is just the backside of that same wall and you can see some of the wiring for the kitchen counter tops. Oh, there will be bookshelves on either side of the heater up to that bar height which is 4 feet. On top of this wall I can display some ceramics or sculpture.
And look! that is HOT water coming out of that shower head. Wooohooo!! No, I have not actually taken a shower yet. I can't find a #$%^&* shower curtain rod that I like. And I really need to install the new sediment filter, which came today, and get the water cleared up. The filters that I have on the lines now also greatly reduce the water pressure so I am anxious to get them off and this new filter on. It is supposed to only reduce pressure by 1 psi which should leave me plenty. I'll show lots of details about that as we install it.
And I painted this wall, almost. It needs another coat as I saw tonight that I have lots of holidays in it. I also need to get a taller ladder or shorter scaffold to do the rest on the right there. The color is a darker version of what I did the bedroom and clerestory walls in. I like earthy, vibrant colors as you can tell. Wait 'til you see the kitchen color! You can also see one of the ceiling fans here. I don't remember if I have shown them before. They are an industrial type fan in brushed nickel.
Well, the countdown is to be in before Christmas. I told the guys at work that I am going to go ahead and buy the biggest Christmas tree that I can afford and keep it outside until I move in so there is no backing down now! I might be decorating that tree on Christmas Day but it will be there!!

Back On The Inside

With a little money back in my pocket I was able to afford to buy some material for the house since I need to start concentrating more on completing items that will get me moved into the house. So, I opted to get this wall at least closed up and partially finished. This is insulation that, as you might recall, I salvaged off a job last summer. All of the space above that horizontal top plate (2x4) is next to my attic and needed insulating against heat and cold. All the space below that (the actual wall area) I thought I would insulate against sound since I had the leftover insulation. I don't like the idea of standing in the kitchen and hearing the shower run or the toilet flush so maybe this will help. Also, it insulates the bedroom wall which may help some if someone is in there trying to sleep and someone else is up moving around.
We then completely sheathed the wall in 1/2" CDX. Let me stress, this is not finish! This wall will be covered once more in a thin but very nice grade plywood and stained. This finish layer will be run in a very defined, 4'x4' grid pattern so it was either place studs within the wall everywhere the edges of the finish plywood would fall or just put this under layer of plywood up and I could fasten over it anywhere. I think this was less trouble. Also, due to expense, it may be a while before I can afford the finish plywood and this allows me to close the wall up now. There is lots of plywood now everywhere and I'm not liking that much but I just keep telling myself most all of it will eventually cover up.
We also installed the smoke detectors; this is one in the bedroom with it's little shower cap on. You keep those on until construction is completely finished because dust can set these things off and it is really irritating. On the commercial jobs I work on they NEVER have these little covers and the detectors are forever going off until they allow us to tape plastic over them. We also finished filling in all of the water line trench. YEA!
I am having some issues with the house now that it is getting closer to the point that I could actually move in. The recent rains have resulted in a lot of runoff into the spring and really fouled the water system. I think part of this was my own fault for not having the water line trench filled in; the water ran straight to the spring. So, I must put up a silt fence in the next day or two for an immediate fix and then start work on a masonry wall of some sort around the spring to protect against future runoff. The problems with the water system are really bothering me. I have running water but half of the time I can't drink it. I have got to get all of this sorted out soon. How I am going to heat this winter is an issue also and something that must be resolved in the not so distant future. If I can just get the shower functioning, the porch built and the scaffolding out of the living room, I would be happier and I could actually move in. Sometimes it all seems so monumental and I only seem to be making baby steps. Of course, that's better than none at all, I guess.