October 15 -- Explaining the Rural Wellhouse -- And The Patchnose Snake Is Back

But first,  the ubiquitous beautiful pre-dawn and sunrise here --

The pre-dawn and sunrise colors were just glorious today. It was one of those times when you look to the east, it's spectacular -- then look to the west, and it's just as good. So I ended up rushing back and forth from the front to the back yard, not wanting to miss the peak moments. I'd say it's nearly impossible to live here and NOT be into landscape photography, if only for the sunrises and sunsets. 

I had to drop off something at the Myrtle Kraft Library in "downtown" Portal, so I hopped onto my hybrid bike "Diamondback" -- it's a mile at most one-way, and paved and pretty much flat, so why not bike ride it? -- and 15 minutes later I was at the "town square" where the post office and library are, along with some houses -- downtown Portal. I say hello to Joan, the postmistress, and her husband Chuck, who is sitting on a bench counting Acorn Woodpeckers as they fly in to a neighboring tree ("There goes one -- and another one.. and ---") Joan is waiting for Bea the mail lady to deliver the mail -- Bea drives all the way from San Simon, 25 miles to the north along Interstate 10, on the mostly dirt Foothills Road -- so I chat with her and Chuck, then ask if I could take their photo with them sitting outside the post office. Here it is,  and here they are --

It's what you'd imagine a rural post office would look like. Joan said she's been the postmistress for 35 years; her daughter Debbie, who also owns the Rodeo Tavern and Grill in the nearby town of Rodeo, New Mexico, helps out on occasion. The library is in the door underneath the U.S. Post Office sign; you can order any book that's in the Cochise County library system, and have it delivered to the library. So once again, we're not "back of the beyond" as most people think...and small is beautiful, anyway. After the library I head back down the road and turn off onto Foothills Road, that fronts Faranuf. It's paved for the first mile or so, then turns to dirt, only to be paved again for about the last 7 miles before San Simon and Interstate 10. It crosses Cave Creek -- literally, as the creek crosses over the road during the rainy season -- then goes past Sky Village, where you can buy a house along with an observatory for your telescope -- 

That's just in case you thought I was making it up...Astronomers live and work here, as evidenced by the mailbox at the intersection -- 

And you can see one of the observatory domes in the distance behind the mailbox . The views up Cave Creek Canyon from Foothills Road are spectacular, especially when set against the desert flora, such as this towering agave --

Then after a little more than a mile, the pavement ends -- 

I've gone on the unpaved section before with my bike, and I'd just fixed a flat and wasn't too keen on getting another one, so I head back to Faranuf, have lunch, take a short nap, and check the burrow of the Patchnose snake. I hadn't seen him in awhile and his burrow looked like it had been abandoned, with dirt piled up at the front -- but what do you know, he's still there! Or returned, or whatever. I see his head in the shadow of the burrow entrance, so I don't want to disturb him by getting any closer. It's just enough  to know he's still there!  

One of the biggest concerns when you're living in a rural area and aren't hooked up to a city water system is how to get your water. In the city, all you do is turn on the tap and -- presto! -- water. And you don't have to worry much about where it comes from, the way it gets to your house.  Here, as in most areas far from the cities and towns, you have your own well, and it behooves (nice word) you to know how water gets at least from the pump house to your house.  There's an underground acquifer here in the San Simon Valley, but it looks as if it's pretty far down -- my "well registry report" reads that the well depth is 290 feet. The well pump is electric, meaning that it goes out whenever there's a power outage, so I must have a supply of bottled/jugs of water on hand for drinking, bathing, etc just in case. Even when the power goes out, there is still some water in the holding tank, so if you're smart you'll use that water to fill, say, your bathtub for use during the power outage. When it last happened, for about 6 hours a few weeks ago, I blithely watered Desert Willow and used the remaining water for other silly things, instead of conserving it for possible use later on. (The water just stopped running after awhile, then the light bulb went on in my brain and I realized it was an electric pump -- DOH! ) So -- here's the well house -- 

I'll probably have to replace the "house" eventually, as the wood is beginning to warp, and come off, in places. See those bits of green down on the ground near the house? Well, they're boxes of Irish Spring. I had mice -- and a Clark's Spiny Lizard, which kinda scared me when it skittered in front of me while I was inside -- and droppings were all over the inside. A friend of mine who lives on a remote ranch in Montana said she used Irish Spring soap bars to keep the mice out of her well house, and house. There's something about that particular brand of soap that mice and other critters don't like. A friend of mine here gave me 6 bars ( she uses it also to keep mice out) and, keeping the bars in the boxes and punching holes in them, I placed them around the well house. Well, what do you know -- 2 weeks have passed and there is no trace of mice inside. I'd swept up the droppings before putting the bars outside, so I could tell if any mice had gotten inside since I put the bars out -- and nothing. A big problem solved with 6 bars of cheap soap. 

To get inside, there's a padlock, and deadbolt on the top -- and one that doesn't work on the bottom. But if I lift the door while closing it, the space between the door and frame down at the bottom goes down to nothing, so critters (the ones that could care less about Irish Spring odor) can't come in that way. Once you open the door -- 

The water comes up from the well at a rate of 7 gallons per minute and is stored in a water pressure tank, which is the cream-colored tank on the right. Then -- and here's the part that is important you understand, and you have to maintain it -- the water goes through filters before going into a pipe going into the house. My system has 2 filters -- the one on the left is a sand filter, which traps sediment and such -- the water here has a high iron content, so I'm told -- and then the standard water filter. The sediment filter should be cleaned every 6 months, and the water filter replaced after the same time period. So -- to replace and clean the filters, seen on the pipes in the next photo, you first have to shut off the water to the filters by turning the black handles 90 degrees. Now that the water is shut off to the assembly, you push a red button on top of the container holding the water filter which depressurizes it, then unscrew it in the direction of the arrow. It was cranked on there TIGHT -- in fact too tight. I needed 4 hands to unscrew it -- a semi-retired plumber living down the road helped me. Once the container if off, you wash out the container, replace the old filter with a new one, and make sure the O-ring gasket is lightly greased with Vaseline so it (hopefully) will be easier to take off next time. Now the sediment filter -- and most houses don't have that, only the water filter. You also depressurize the filter by turning the red knob at the bottom, and the excess water will go from the clear hose into a hole out of sight in the floor. You then unscrew the filter also in the direction of the arrow, clean out the filter with water (supplied by the blue hose) and paper towels, then soak the in a bucket of Clorox to further clean and disinfect it. Usually a bottle brush is needed to get to the inside of the filter. You then place Vaseline on the O-ring that goes into the threaded part, and screw the container with the clean filter back into the threaded holder. Then screw the contained with the new water filter back on to its threaded holder. Then turn the water to the system back on by turning the black handles to the down position (the water is already on in this photo, and the sediment filter hasn't been cleaned yet; you can tell by the brown color that it's trapped a good deal of "stuff"). The water is now back on to the house, and you're (hopefully) good to go for another 6 months. Sounds like a lot to remember, doesn't it? It does, and is, so I've written all of this down, and also the date the filters were changed as I KNOW I won't remember any of it the next time I change the filters. 

Now the next photo shows 3 containers that I know what it's for -- but have no idea how they work, and no-one else I asked does, either. They're a water softening system installed by the original owners. Bob the semi-retired plumber said the one on the left softens the water to the house -- but hasn't a clue what the others are used for. I think since I don't really care if the water is soft or hard -- and nobody else has this system -- I'm going to have them removed the next time the company who installed them comes out to service them (once a year at about $600, since Portal is so far away from Tucson where the company is located -- one of the minor inconveniences of living in a somewhat "isolated" area) . Or at least the two who nobody knows what water they're supposed to soften...

So -- it's quite a chore to check and maintain the water that goes from the well into your house, not to mention the mice -- and lizards -- and spiders -- that may get in, except for the Irish Spring bars...

In closing for the day's events, here's a probably juvenile Anna's hummingbird taken with my newly reconditioned 500 f/4 lens -- 

It started to rain shortly after, though not much, just enough to create a pinkish glow as the sun was setting behind Silver Peak -- 

Whew!  Another full day at Portal and Faranuf...