First Bear of the Year

-JC-

Maine Trip

My 68th birthday was on April 13th so we decided to spend it up in Bar Harbor, Maine (with stops at Freeport on the way up and Kennebunkport on the way back down).

We spent our first night in Freeport which seems to be completely focused on L.L. Bean.

Our main objective was Bar Harbor. We had checked ahead of time to see when some specific businesses opened for the season but we were early. Many of the restaurants were open but most of the businesses were closed and almost all of the roads in Arcada National Park were closed.

This cover was on the fountain in the waterfront park.

Out in front of our hotel (The Bar Harbor Inn and Spa).

From in front of our hotel: Sheep Porcupine, Burnt Porcupine and Bald Porcupine Islands.

The restaurant at the hotel with the park and downtown in the background.

The park and downtown from the pier in front of the restaurant.

The restaurant from the end of the pier. Our room was around to the left.

From our lanai (can you call a porch a lanai if it's not in Hawaii?).

One of the Porcupine Islands from our lanai. The tides were impressive. At low tide, we had rocks way out. At high tide, we had no rocks.

Porcupine Islands from our lanai. Lots of rocks.

On the way home, we stopped in Kennebunkport. Unlike Bar Harbor, the town was open for business. Our hotel room overlooked the marina (which was still a little shy of boats.

From our porch.

From our porch.

This sailboat was across from us an is, apparently, a restaurant in the summertime.

-JC-

Late Snow

We thought that we were finished with snow for the year (except for the stuff that's still piled up). The forecast shows no snow and we've had a number of days that reached 50° and a number of nights that didn't get down to freezing. So, of course, it's been snowing all day. It's above freezing and there's enough residual heat in the paved areas that nothing is sticking.

We had a half hour of some of the largest flakes that we've seen. Some seemed to be a couple of inches across. Kristen and I both had the same idea so we have 2 videos of the snow falling.

First we have Kristen's off the farmer's porch:

Then mine out the upstairs front window:

An update on our water situation: We finally have crystal clear water. Even when it was clear before, we only drank water that had gone through the charcoal filter in the refrigerator. Our tap water is now sweet and delicious and much better that the charcoal filter water.

-JC-

Oh Well (Updated)

The TV weathermen have started using an expression that I kind of like. We've all heard them talk about the "Arctic Vortex" (for us that means that the jet stream that normally crosses Canada up by Hudson Bay has shifted to the South of us, bringing the sub-zero temperatures with it).  I've mentioned our flash thaws. The new name for that is "Thermal Whiplash".

Last year, just after the big January "Thermal Whiplash", our well water suddenly turned murky and gritty (easily visible in the toilet). The primary means of filtering well water seems to be via water softener. We contacted the guy who had installed the softener and he had us run the back-flush/recharge cycle several time a day for a few days (it normally runs weekly). That cleared things up but we had him come out anyway. He mentioned that he had originally recommended that a second filter be installed to remove sulfur and iron from the water and get rid of the rotten egg smell. We went ahead and have him do that..

That worked fine until this January's "Thermal Whiplash" when we had the murky/gritty water all over again. We got the filter guy out again. Our intention was to have him repack the filter and water softener After looking at the bad quality of the unfiltered water, he said that repacking would be a very temporary fix so long as the well was unaddressed.  As a stopgap, he had us up the back washing frequency to daily and recommended that we have a well company put a camera down the well to see if they could spot a problem.

Fortunately, we were able find the company that originally drilled the well back in 2006. They we able to tell us an awful lot about the well.

Thing we never knew about the well:

• They hit bedrock at 50' and kept drilling to 365'
• The water started coming in at 350' (the water level is currently at 35')
• The pump is 300' down
• The steel casing (pipe) goes down 73' which means that it extends 23' into the bedrock
• The well originally produced 5 gallons/minute. It is much more now. It ran like a fire hose for 2 hours and the well's 35' surface level (its draw down)never budged.

All good information but they really didn't find anything conclusively wrong with the well. They did suggest an extremely expensive fix that might work (a Jasewell seal between the end of the casing and the bedrock to keep water from entering the well from the outside of the casing). Other suggestions that might work were a new well or additional filtering.

We've decided to go with additional filtering and had our filter guy return to install a pre-filter to filter out the murk and grit. Our past experience is that this only happens a few days a year so we're hoping that this will take care of it. If this was a constant problem, the filter might clog and maintenance might get expensive.

3/16/16 Update:

It looks like our problem is more than just a few days a year.

We've continued to back flush the 2 filters and the water softener nightly and our water has been less murky (most of the time) but still murky.

That Jaswell seal is still a last resort. It's much too expensive and risky and it can't be done until the ground thaws. I talked with the well guy again and asked about raising the pump (thinking that it might be pulling in sediment fr the bottom). He suggested that we raise it from its current 300' level to somewhere up inside the 72' casing and below the 35' draw down level. If there was a way to be sure that that draw down wasn't subject to seasonal changes we might have gone with his proposal. Instead, we agreed to raise the pump to the 200' level and, hopefully, get it above the murk infiltration.

The well guy called back with an upgrade to the plan. He suggested that we put a Lacos separator on the pump. The separator is about 8' long and goes over the pump. The pump pulls the water through a series of baffles that create a centrifugal force that removes the sediment from the water.

We had them out last week to pull the pump all the way up, install the Lacos separator and reinstall at the 200' level. It became obvious to me as I watched them that, since they were scraping the entire length of the well twice as they raised and lowered the pump, the water was going to be dirtier than ever until things could settle. Even the Lacos separator couldn't keep up with that amount of crud. The water was pretty bad for a few days but, this past weekend, it suddenly cleared. It's even clear when we pull from the tap before all of the filters.

So now we have clear water but we are still back flushing the filters and softeners nightly and we never did repack the cruddy filter and water softener. Our softener guy is coming back tomorrow to repack them both and get everything back to normal. We've become such good customers that  even giving us a 2 for 1 deal.

-JC-

Disco Inferno (Burn Baby Burn)

I didn't mention in the previous posting that, when the streams froze, we were going through a period where we hardly saw temperatures above the single digits. One day, the low was -6° F and the high was 1° F (the windchill got down in the -30°s). We've managed to get in our morning walks most mornings but we draw the line at windchills below zero (just too painful).

Although, it's been cold, we've only had 3 instances of measurable snowfall. One was a week before Thanksgiving and 2 have been in the last couple of weeks.

As usual, I've spent the warmer (at or above freezing) fall and early winter days cutting back brush and dead trees. We're allowed to burn here from January 15 until May 1 and I managed to get 7 huge burn piles together this year. I've already managed to burn 5 of them. Even standing next to a big fire, 20° is my threshold for committing myself to being outside all day tending the flames.

Later that same day (our third measurable snowfall):

-JC-

Flash Thaw

I last showed all of our streams filled and frozen solid. What comes next is interesting.

We finally got some snow. We probably had 8-10" but it was windy so there we had areas with no buildup and deeper drifts. The forecast was for ice after the storm so we cleared the driveway before the ice and then again before it froze solid.

That was a success and it was followed by another day of very cold temperatures.

Next was what I call a flash thaw. We had a day of heavy rain and temperatures in the high 50's. It's interesting to see where the water goes when the streams are frozen solid and everything suddenly melts. This has undoubtedly happened before but we had a trailer and brush (now cut) blocking our view.

Our basement has windows that are surrounded by stoned lined wells. We had a flash thaw last year where those wells filled with water which then poured into the basement (glad we have sump pumps). Last year, we solved the problem by plowing a ditch through the snow to redirect that water out to the road. That worked until this thaw. Rodents have, apparently, found those wells to be very attractive. There were holes that allowed the water to pour into the wells. Kristen noticed it almost immediately and I spent yesterday afternoon filling holes and redirecting water.

Looks like I'll be replacing those stacked stone wells with galvanized steel rings next summer.

-JC-

Our Own Glacier

Oakham is one of the Worcester County hill towns which means that the Town Center is at the top of a hill (and we're just a few houses from the Town Center). It seems strange that springs would be abundant at the the top of a hill but, historically, Oakham Town Center was known for its healthful sulphur springs.

Most of our property is uphill from the house and surrounding lawn. There are springs all over the hillside and, if we didn't have a ditch around the lawn, we'd have a very soggy lawn. Even as it is, we have some very good sump pumps deep under the garage to keep the basement dry.

We've noticed a phenomenon this winter that may be an every year occurrence but, this year's lack of snow is letting us see it. We would normally have quite a bit of snow by now but our only measurable snow so far was a week before Thanksgiving (that's due to change in the next few days).

Our ditch is normally very low flow except when it rains heavily. Right now, it's only being fed by the springs but it's freezing as it flows. With the continuous flow, it's getting deeper and deeper. Waterfalls have frozen and become dams. There are frozen pools where there didn't used to be pools (some on the lawn).

Here are some pictures before the snow buries it all.

The water normally falls through the rocks in this picture. That passage has frozen causing the water
 to find alternate routes (which have also frozen). One of those routes is the lawn on the top right.

Looking across the lawn toward the former fall.

The former waterfall.

Below the former waterfall. Fall is at the left.

Waterfall is at lower right. Ditch bordering lawn comes in from lower left. The rest of
this ice comes from springs that we've only been marginally aware of.

-JC-