November 30 -- Well House Worries, A Replacement For The Dryer, And A Fall Color Progression

It was cold during the predawn time of the morning -- 23 degrees, and "feels like 18". But this is the high desert, and it's not unusual to have a wide temperature range between day and night (it reached about 60 for the high). When I went out to refill the bird feeders and put out the hummingbird "saucer" feeders -- I bring the hummer feeders in at night so the nectar doesn't freeze, and it's not good for them to drink ice-cold nectar when they're trying to warm up in the early morning -- the birds were already out. They must've burned off a lot of energy trying to stay warm...I also make sure the water features are topped off, too as critters use it during the night. (When I first went out in the morning the other day, a coyote ran off from my back yard into the mesquite; it's the first one I've seen here.) I'd left the back hose out, hoping that the water still inside the hose wouldn't have frozen it; it didn't. And that's another concern city people in, say, Los Angeles don't have to think about -- frozen pipes. The pipes in the well house are PVC; copper piping would be better during freezing temperatures. And the well house has a circulating fan that spins depending on the wind; it's meant to keep the humidity out during the summer and monsoon season, but the cold air comes in during the winter, which increases the possibility of the pipes cracking. My friend Helen says the way folks here keep the air from coming in is to put, say, a trash bag over the fan on the roof, so I may try that if it gets any colder. I may also put a temperature gauge inside the well house to see how cold it actually gets in there. Again, these are concerns that city folks who are hooked up to a municipal water system don't have to mess with. And there have been 2 times since I've been here when I've found water on the floor of the well house -- the first time about a month ago, and the second on the 29th. I took a photo as I wanted to show Helen what I was talking about when I mentioned it to her --

Now WHERE is that coming from? A leaky pipe? A pipe connection? The seal around the electric water pump on the left? The water softeners on the right? I checked everything and there was no evidence of a leak or dripping water, and everything seemed dry except for the floor. When I checked again today, the damp floor had pretty much dried out, so there is no continuous leak. There is duct tape keeping the insulation around the PVP piping that is coming off, so I wrap those areas with new tape to protect the pipes from the cold. Then I accidentally step on that blue hose in the center -- and water comes out. The hose is attached to the pipe coming out of the water pump, and its on-off knob isn't closed all the way, so I fix that, and put the end of the water hose on a drain used for excess water from the main pipes and water softeners; you can see the small clear tubing in the photo. They actually "snake" into the drain. So hopefully that solves it; if not, I'll have to call the local plumber who lives down the street from me as it will be beyond this former city guy to figure out, much less fix. 

I put up a clothesline in the garage. I've mentioned that I'm trying to cut back on energy costs as Faranuf is all-electric. (Most homes here have propane tanks.)  One of the biggest energy suckers is the clothes dryer, so I was considering putting up a clothesline. But I was going to wait until the weather got warmer as I didn't want to go out and find my clothes stiff as a board (though that would have made a good blog photo). Then my friend Helen (she's really been indispensable during my transition from city to rural guy) said "why don't you put the clothesline inside your garage?" DOH! So I got some eyelets that are used to hang feeders off the back deck, screwed them into the garage's thick wood paneling, got some strong line that I use for backpacking -- and voila!  --

It ain't pretty, and is far from perfect (and I have friends who will give me plenty of advice how to fix it) -- but I don't care. The clothes are off the floor, the eyelets won't be pulled out, I've knotted the line to the bolts so they don't slip -- and I have a working clothesline. These are the heaviest of my clothes -- my flannel shirts and tees -- so the line shouldn't sag any more than this. And if by chance it does, then I'll just unknot the line and make the line a little shorter. And BTW, I use the hangers as I don't have clothespins. And to be honest, do I really need them, since the clothesline is in the garage and I don't have to worry about, say, the wind perhaps knocking them off the line? So -- DOH!  Thanks for making me see the bleeding obvious, Helen!  

An interesting fact; I'll be putting up a canopy for protecting Discovery II, my travel trailer, when I bring "her" down from Overton, Nevada at the beginning of February. All the brochures and websites for companies that build canopies say they require a building permit. So I call up the Cochise County Building Safety Division in Bisbee and ask how I can get a permit to build. The woman asked "What's the square footage of your new building?" Well, I don't know, but it can't be more than 100 square feet, so I say that. She replies "you only need a building permit if it's over 200 square feet". So I don't need one to put up the canopy, at least in Arizona. Just an FYI for those readers who are thinking of adding on to their house.. 

But it wasn't all household improvements and well house worries. I've taken photos over the past few weeks of a scene from "downtown" Portal, showing our post office and a beautiful, venerable (it may be 100 years old or more), HUGE Arizona Sycamore. I thought it would be neat to show the progression of that sycamore's fall foliage colors ---

November 12

November 20

November 30

As one who has come from the LaLaLand, where there is pretty much only one season -- this is a revelation. And I'm loving it...