Busy Week

Since I started with that title, I'll address things in the order that they've come up this week.

Monday:

I had five piles of brush cuttings that needed to be burned this winter (burning season in January 15 through May 15). Three of the piles were close together and were obvious candidates for burning at the same time. Neighbor Jim considers himself a pyromaniac and was eager to participate. Monday was the day. I got the necessary permit and gave Jim a call.

The three piles consisted of 20+ foot strands of wild roses. With the thorns, there was no untangling them. We got a good hot fire burning in the middle pile and Jim decided that it was time to bring in his Kubota backhoe. He pulled the one pile in on itself to get it all over the flame and then lifted the other 2 piles over onto the first. We were through burning by noon. Gotta get me a tractor but I'll need a barn first and that's not likely to happen (good thing that we have a couple of helpful friends with tractors).

I'll probably take on the other two piles myself (one at a time). The tractors wouldn't be able to get to the sites (streams/ditches would be collapsed).

Tuesday:

We put a pellet stove in when we moved in. Everything was fine the first year. The second year, the combustion motor jammed early in the year and then failed later in the year. This year, it overheated and burned out the igniter and then we started having problems with it refusing to start. All of these visits (plus the annual maintenance visits) were at least a couple of hundred dollars apiece. I called the company last week and told them that we were ready to have them yank the stove and that we would go back to burning firewood.

They sent their chief tech out today at no charge (so far - holding our breath). He was here for 3 hours and said that he hadn't felt this tested in 2 years. The combustion motor needed to be replaced again. That done, the igniter didn't work so he removed it, tested it and reinstalled it. The computer ended up being the problem. Repair techs don't usually have computers on board but he had suspected that from the start and put one in the truck. The stove is running better than when it was brand new.

Wednesday (tomorrow):

I mentioned in an earlier post that the heavy snow had melted very quickly and flooded the basement (warm days followed by heavy rain). A few but days after that, our well water turned murky. It's an artesian well and is several hundred feet deep but an occasional event can roil the aquifer. Apparently, this happened before and the previous owner had a water softener installed. We called the guy who had installed the softener and got him out. This murky water thing apparently last happened after the heavy snows of 2015. At the time, he repacked the softener (which took care of the problem) but also recommended an additional filtration system. The owner was about to sell the house so it's understandable that she didn't do it. In any case, tomorrow's the day. We're going to have him install a multilayer filtration system that will remove iron, hydrogen sulphide, manganese, etc.

-JC-