February 5 - 12 --- Changing The Well House Water Filter In 13 "Easy" Steps, Popped Canopy Screws, More Faranuf Birds And Sky Views

Though I'm jumping ahead of myself, we had a great view of the full moon during a partial lunar eclipse; you can just make out the shadow on the left. I timed it so that it was sitting right above the ridgeline of the Peloncillos. From February 11 --

I love having the house all to myself. I can get up at any time during the night and do whatever I want -- read, listen to my classical German internet radio station REAL loud as there are no neighbors within a quarter of a mile, practice my guitar (alas, I haven't been doing that even during the day -- but soon!), even dance the watusi if I had a mind to. But living alone also means having to do maintenance work inside and outside the house, the well house, and on my 4 acres of land. Sure, I could hire a local handyman to do it, but where's the feeling  of accomplishment in THAT? So I try to do as much as I can by myself, and the only limit is that I don't suffer grievous bodily injury.  Because then I WOULD have to hire someone... So here are 2 projects that have come up since I've been back at Faranuf, and it's only going on the 5th day. 

You remember my RV canopy, right? I've had it for about a year now. It's well worth the money I shelled out to have it installed as it's saved my trailer from the unforgiving Arizona weather, especially the intense sunlight and wind gusts of 40mph and more. (The canopy is built to withstand winds of up to 90mph; it's an Arizona law.)  The screws holding things together with 2 washers were drilled into the holes at points of high stress, and there are quite a few of those points, as you can see in this photo -- 

When I came back from southern California I noticed some screws on the ground. I'd never given it much thought because the installers seemed to litter the ground with screws, and I'm always coming across a few even a year later. But hmmmm....I looked up to the struts. 

Uh-oh. The installers didn't say anything about this!  And other screws were working themselves loose -- 

And most of the screws that were missing or loose were WAY up there, even higher than the roof of my trailer. Serendipitously (once again) I had purchased an 8-foot stepladder at a Lowe's in southern California, and it was high enough to reach these screws. I have a bad right shoulder so it would have been nice to use a power drill, but I don't. So I used a wrench to screw them back while trying to use my left hand. I put all of them back in, but was left with 4 extra. Or were they? I hate it when there are  leftover parts after you've put something together. 


Here's a problem that I've had since I moved to Faranuf. Those 3 blue tanks in the photo below are for a water softening system that was installed by the previous owners. I was thinking of take it out, but decided to keep it as soft water is easier on the pipes and applicances. It's a somewhat complicated system, but I have someone from the company that makes and installs it come out once a year. As the company is in Tucson, about 180 miles one-way from here, you have to schedule a visit at least a week in advance. The problem I mentioned is that the hoses seen in the photo running from the blue soft water tanks drain via a pipe to the outside underground, and if the pipe gets clogged, then the waste water backs up into the well house.  It scared me at first until I realized what was causing it. 

So now I have someone coming out from Tucson on Tuesday to do the one-year checkup on the soft water system, and he's going to suggest more efficient ways to get rid of the waste water like, say, a "French drain" (guess a Frenchman thought up the idea) or some sort of irrigation method which I can use to water the plants. 

Since we're on the subject of water...By now most of you know we have our own well water. We sit on top of the "San Simon sub-basin of the Safford groundwater basin. We here in Portal are in the "alluvial water" section of the sub-basin, alluvial referring to the loose, unlayered nature of the material washed down by creeks and streams. That "nature of the material" is most likely silt, clay, sand and gravel, meaning it's important that we have water filters to keep that stuff from getting into the water lines and making clear water turn brown -- and sometimes smelly. I have two filters, one that traps the sediment after which the cleaner water goes through the water filter. If I'm gone for a long period of time and my water supply doesn't get used, then the sludge builds up in the filters and when I come back and start using it, the water comes out brown. It's (allegedly) still useable and drinkable, but that means it's time to check the filters and probably end up cleaning and changing them.  When I came back from southern Calfornia, I noticed that the toilet water was brown. "They" say to change the water filter every 3 months, and this was a reminder for me to do it.  When it comes to remembering the steps of how to do something, my memory is like a sieve. (Even as I'm typing this I'm cleaning out my coffee maker and have to Google the instructions, though I've done it at least a dozen times since moving here.)  So I write down the procedure and in most cases take photos so I have "before and after" looks; at the end you'll see the photos came in very handy. So without further ado, here are the 13 steps I use to clean and change the filters. 


Here's the water filtration system. The well pump is outside, the water brought up is stored in the large container to the left, then flows through the pipes where it encounters first the sediment filter -- the skinny one -- then the water filter. The new water filter is in the bucket. The first thing you have to do is turn off the water supply that goes through the filters, and just as a precaution (for what, I don't remember -- memory like a sieve again) I turn off the main water supply to the house. 

This has absolutely nothing to do with changing the filter, but it needs to be constantly checked, too. The long box is a "mouse zapper", which electrocutes any mice that get inside it in a "safe and sane" manner, and the odor of the Irish Spring bar inside its box helps  keep the mice outside. Dove, Dial, etc don't work; it has to be Irish Spring. And there's a Zip-loc of mothballs next to it, which also has a odor that mice don't like. Those tiny black "dots" are mice droppings so yes, in spite of all these precautions they still go get inside. 

The first thing you do is press the red button that you see in the photo below, which depressurizes the filter container.  The you unscrew the container. The "Off" with an arrow written with a felt pen was done by the original owner, but if he didn't put it there, I would have, because you have to turn the container CLOCKWISE to unscrew it, not counterclockwise. And I'd bought the large closed spanner wrench specifically for loosening and tightening the filter container because it's next to impossible to do it with just your hands. (Believe me, I tried before I bought the wrench.) And don't forget to put the bucket underneath it, otherwise whatever gunky water is left will get all over the floor. (This time I almost forgot.)

So now the container with the old filter in it is off.

You now take the old filter out, wash out the container, and put the new filter in. 

Don't forget to put the O-ring back in place before you screw the container back in! It usually falls into the bucket when you're washing out the container, and you have to feel through the sludgy water to find it, all the while thinking that you lost it. 

Here's the old water filter. Needless to say, the original color wasn't brown. 

Now that you've cleaned the water filter container and put the new filter inside it, it's time to deal with the sediment filter. Once again, the "Off With the Arrow" reminds you which direction to unscrew the filter. But before you do that, you depressurize it by turning the red valve so that it's pointing downward, meaning it's open and that's the direction of the flow. Depressurizing is usually enough to clean it out so you don't have to unscrew it, but the water filter was pretty dirty, so it's time to actually clean the sediment filter, too. 

So now the container holding the filter is off...

and you soak the actual filter in a bucket of bleach and clean the inside of the filter with a bottle brush. The bottle brush I use is the one I also use to clean out the bird tube feeders. 

OK, so now you screw the container with the sediment filter back in --

Then the water filter using the spanner wrench --

And -- voila! -- you now have clean water again. You turn the valve handles on the pipe so water once again goes through the filtration system, hear the water gushing through, check the water pressure gauge, try to remember the highs and lows of the pressure, realize you don't, and it's about at that time you think the whole thing is going to blow up. And isn't that red valve handle on the sediment filter supposed to be horizontal instead of vertical? I had opened it to depressurize the filter, and forgot to close it.  I checked the first photo in this series on my camera playback, and I did leave it open. Oops. Well, it wasn't as if I re-assembled something and had a screw or two left over. So I closed it. 

So there you have it. And what do you know -- my box of 3 dinners I'd ordered from Blue Apron was sitting on the porch. I'd like to think it was a reward for a job well done. 

OK, on to the obligatory birds and such... This Verdin is in my back yard and loves to nibble on the grape jelly that I put out for any Orioles that might happen to drop by -- 

Here's a portrait of my resident Green-tailed Towhee -- 

You can see here why he's called Green-tailed -- 

A Say's Phoebe is also a longtime Faranuf Resident. And lately I've been noticing TWO Say's . Can love be in the air? 

I missed our spectacular sunsets -- 

and sunrises.