Turtles need love too LOL
Yep ... this may be a long, hot summer since we skipped spring and went straight to summer. That new well may come in handy.
Homesteading - "The stormy March has come at last..."
I should think it has been pressed into service already. We are way too dry here considering it is springtime.
It has been. Running it off a water hose till I get it hooked up to the nursery plumbing permanent but the plants are already starting to look better with it. It is still a little cloudy but is clearing a little more each day and tastes great.
Once I get the nursery working off of it I will pipe it up to the house and kill that water bill also. I figure the well will pay for its self in about 4 1/2 years. Not too bad a return.
Good going... Far better to have your own well than community water that is treated with who knows what. Better for you and your green stuff.
Quote from podster :
Good going... Far better to have your own well than community water that is treated with who knows what. Better for you and your green stuff.
Water is going to be expensive shortly. Heard that T. Boon Pickens, think that's right, is buying up water rights all over Texas. Doesn't sound good for the home team if you ask me.
There is a move afoot for the state to take over the tricounty area where we live. There is no local water control board and there is a large amount of gas well drilling which consumes an unbelievable amount of water. As I understand it, the state claims surface rights on lakes and tributaries and wants a toehold on all water as there are some really dry portions of TX. There has been talk of the state placing meters on ones' private water well and charging or controlling the amount used. Hopefully only talk...
On a similar note, TSN news said when the Japanese earthquake struck the water level in the Edwards Aquifer raised and lowered frequently during the earthquake. Never to think what happens on one side of the world doesn't affect the other. Amazing! Wonder if this gas drilling triggered the earthquake.
The guy that drilled my well said that he didn't think we would ever see the meters in our life times. The water board here is using all the new red tape to regulate the big consumers of water to keep the water levels up. His example was a saw mill buying a 5 acre tract of land and drilling 5 or 6 30 inch wells and piping it to the mills. Sucking up that much water would probably run smaller local wells dry. This is what the state is trying to prevent with all the permits and things. Said it was the only way they can keep up with who is doing what. Might be BS ... I sure don't know.
Ohio has both property taxes and income taxes. Although they are trying to phase out the income tax. My property is already taxed as Ag, so the greenhouse wouldn't affect that.
Can you get a second well drilled and covered with a plate or something before they meter them? Then you could use that water to water your gardens and such? Don't tell the State about it.
Those multiple wells to supply a large holding pond to deliver water to the drilling sites is what we are seeing here and it is currently unregulated. Yes, it is affecting the more shallow wells.
I don't know how closely the state monitors the well drillers. We have a second well that is capped on our property. All it would take is a pump and plumbing to run it to where it is needed.
The man that works on wells said there will be no more shallow wells. The state outlawed them as there is too much surface water contamination. Said he could lose his license if caught drilling a shallow well. That would be what I'd like so I could dip with a bucket when the power goes out (as it frequently does). Guess I dip from the rain barrels and pray for rain.
NikB ~ hope Ohio can abolish the income tax. Any tax recinded is a good thing!
We have a hand dug well in our front yard with a bucket. But it is also plumbed under into the cellar to a pump and is hooked to 2 outside spigots. The water tastes great.
Good! You are still in a good area then. Here they are afraid the livestock and those that don't dispose of sewage correctly have contaminated the surface water. And, you have a cellar ~ how handy it that!
I'm excited to hear about the hummers. I've noticed the red honeysuckle blooming on the pasture fences. Won't see them up in the yard till things get blooming. They can't resist the early salvias.
First snake bite of the year. On our youngest dog. Poor guy his leg is swollen all the way to his shoulder :0(
Ouch. Poor puppy.
Where's the Birthday Girl? Happy Birthday, Hineni!
The cellar is really just a big place dug out of the bedrock under the house and floored with gravel. It is plumbed to the creek in the front yard. The water that comes off the hill beside the house will flow through the cellar if it rains hard and fast so you can hardly store anything in it but I overwinter a few plants in it. I also have a few things that can be wiped down when they get muddy, dusty or moldy from the elements. I lost quite a bit of stuff down there before I realized the flooding problem.
Quote from NikB :
Can you get a second well drilled and covered with a plate or something before they meter them? Then you could use that water to water your gardens and such? Don't tell the State about it.
Nope ... all new wells have to be GPS located and logged with the State.
Howdy, thanks for the birthday wishes :)
Just got off the phone with MsRobin DH - thought she would be moved today but that's changed. Everyone is hanging in there though and I tell her ya'll are thinking about her whenever I get to speak with her.
No cake, but I did have some evil 'boxed' muffins - ya make do sometimes...LOL!
I made a special trip over here to wish our friend a very Happy Birthday...My youngest DD had one yesterday and GrannyLois celebrated her's Saturday...by going to Myrtle Beach with her best friend....I called her ...not knowing it was her B D, so I got to wish her a Happy too...
Age is just a number...but my numbers are climbing fast.
Hi Darius...I'll be in TN the last of May, first of June...Maybe I'll get to see you. Jo
Hope so, Jo!
Belated happy birthday greetings Hineni! I am so glad you are in touch with MsRobin and with us. I am sure her frustration is growing, knowing she needs to be at home getting the CSA garden ready, needs her honey off working, needs... if I were only closer, I would go plant where she pointed. I also hope a neighbor or friend is tending to her dog (and any livestock she has). My heart goes out to her. Even just one day in the hospital is too long to be away from home.
Cajun ~ too bad it is not a spring running thru the cellar. That would be the best of both worlds.
Quoting:
Uunh! I did not know that!all new wells have to be GPS located and logged with the State
Cocoa_lulu ~ hope your dog is doing o.k. Does that happen often? I figured it was snake season, all the cats are coming in long necking at electrical cords, etc. We have a "now vintage" tomcat that must have actively sought out snakes, he has been bit so many times. One on the back of his neck has fang scars that are 3/4" apart ~ pretty big snake. One time he got bit on the butt. DH said at least he was going the right direction. All the fur fell out around his tail. Looked pretty goofy. Anyway, the vet just lets me buy dried antibiotics and I dose him when he gets bit. He takes his medicine and sleeps it off. I think at 16 YO, he is now paying the price with arthritis and other ailments but he is a tough guy and wouldn't have it any other way.
Too dry, too windy and too many idiots burning off their garden spots tooday! Too scarey. Have a good day all!
Another rainy freakin' morning!! I swear as soon as we get just a LITTLE bit of drying, we get more rain. Oh well, spring in the Glorious Buckeye State. I got my Guam Boonie pepper seeds in the mail and got them planted in a flat in the window-not that they'll get much sun today!! So, today I am baking bread, setting some more eggs in the incubator, and working on my kites. Darn rain, I wanted to plant onions today.
Nik, I'm planting onions today, or at least intend to plant them. It's a good moon sign for planting, and I put in some Swiss chard, broccoli and cabbage that grow to only 2-2½ pounds last evening. Too early for anything else, although I need to start the seeds I haven't even ordered yet...
Goodness, I would love some of that rain. The weatherman keep promising with each front, the when it moves in he says...just kidding folks it's only wind. I really don't like that guy.
Pod, I had to laugh at vintage cat. Not funny he's been bitten, but those older, wiser cats are such a story book of tales, just on their looks alone :0)
Unfortunately yes, snake bites are getting more frequent each year with the dogs. This pup is a year old and already his second bite. I've lost count on the older dogs. It's the copperheads, last year I was cutting some grass out of the beds with 12" garden shears. I cut the head off a small copperhead and didn't even see it till after the beheading. Too close for me! I had a severe case of the heebie-jeebies after that.
Our vet lets us keep on hand a mild pain killer and sedative. We use a topical antibiotic on the bites, but often we can't find them. Pups just have to rest it off, but they look so puffy and miserable. It's impossible not to feel bad for them.
We are going to try guinea fowl again this year, but the dogs hate them almost as much as they hate snakes.lol
My swiss chard I planted last week when I did the mangelbeets. Since chard is basicly a rootless beet, I plant it the same time each year. I have my seed potatoes cut and dusted with DE; they'll go into the ground (actually onto the straw) by this time next week. I have the onion sets, but it's pretty muddy up where I want to plant them. I may have to get up there and do it anyway, though. If I want to get them in this early, at any rate. For big sweet onions you want them into the ground early. Still in all, the kites are coming along fine and I'll have them all hanging from the ceiling in another hour or so.
Kites, you know? Kites? You make them out of paper and whine and cry when they wind up in the trees or the power lines? Kites! I started making them when my grandkids came to stay with me a few summers a go. Now I make them for me. Usually make them out of paper, but I have a couple really neat ones that I made from ripstop nylon. I usually make the classic diamond shaped Kite-the Edo, or the hex shaped kites-the rokuku. I have a couple box kites, and a cool looking biplane that I made. I have made the fighting type of kites, and the 2 and 4 string kites, but for the most part I just like to fly the simple one string kites.
I do lots of things like that. I don't even own a TV set, although I will occaisionally watch a DVD movie on the computer. I always have a few projects going at once. I'm also making a compost tumbler out of a barrel, some 2x4s and a couple lawnmower wheels, a potter's wheel, and I am thinking of laying up a stone hut to use as a potting shed for plants and such. I started a quilt this past winter, but it'll be a couple years before it's down.
LOL, alright, got it. I don't why that thew me for such a loop. Just happy to hear you don't have anything against birds of prey and having them hanging from the rafters.
We have a few kites, they're all in trees too :0) You should post pics they sound interesting in all their shapes and purposes.
Nik, you have an amazing range of interests!
What can I say? I am highly evolved. heheheh
[quote="podster"
Uunh! I did not know that!
[/quote]
Take it to the bank Pod. First thing I had to do, or rather the driller, was locate where I wanted the well with GPS and get the location and well size approved by the water board. It's my understanding that if they didn't approve it .... it wouldn't get drilled. Didn't have any problems getting it approved are anything. The driller said that they may or may not come out and inspect the well at some point in time.
If you have casing in the ground no one knows about ... you might want to keep it that way.
I believe you. I'm guessing when it is that regulated, our well was marked when they recently moved our pump or when they had pulled and installed a new foot valve. Can't wait to see the well man and ask. He will definitely share his opinion! LOL
The well we use was drilled in 1978 and there is a second one capped off on a second piece of neighboring property we bought. That well was drilled prior to that. I suspect it would get tagged if we had it blown and a pump installed.
I wonder where I could track down a list of the marked wells. I was told today the gas/oil drilling use that info when working in an area.
Kites are so cool. We used to get out and fly them but never made them.
Cocoa_lulu ~ we had kite flying weather today. 35 mph winds. Have you ever taken your boys out to fly them?
Quote from podster :
I believe you. I'm guessing when it is that regulated, our well was marked when they recently moved our pump or when they had pulled and installed a new foot valve. Can't wait to see the well man and ask. He will definitely share his opinion! LOL
The well we use was drilled in 1978 and there is a second one capped off on a second piece of neighboring property we bought. That well was drilled prior to that. I suspect it would get tagged if we had it blown and a pump installed.
I wonder where I could track down a list of the marked wells. I was told today the gas/oil drilling use that info when working in an area.
Maybe not ... I think now he said that it only applied to new wells. But I would still keep that second one to myself. Just cause.
Ahhh but it will take more skill and electricity than I would be capable of and if two people know about something, it is no longer a secret! LOL
A big yes on the kite flying. I think the last time was new years day with the extended family and kids. The kites are usually gifts from the grands. A few have been too nice to risk loosing and are room decorations. One kite my youngest won at school, a kit of sorts, that required him to hand decorate and draw on, he spent hours working on it. It was in the air 10 minutes and hung up in a big tree above the garage. It's still there to this day, taunting us all:0)
I think they would get a kick out of seeing NIkB Kites.
Winds got up to the 40's yesterday, fine with me, the pollen needs to blow out of here!
I've got to get a rose that I had growing up a tree, back on to its support today.
Find some plastic for the tomatoes, we 'may' dip into the 30's later. Glad I waited on the beans and corn. :0)
I'm sending DH the post office today and will get the beet seed in the mail.
I've been up since 3am with an allergy headache, so a nap is on my 'to do' as well.lol
Quote from podster :
Ahhh but it will take more skill and electricity than I would be capable of and if two people know about something, it is no longer a secret! LOL
What well?
LOL Rainwater harvesting. The wave of the future.
Hineni ~ any word from our favorite CSA gardener? Is she out of CCU?
Podster-there is a list of known groundwater wells. :) I'm an enviro geologist and know all that sort of secret squirrel stuff. ;) I tracked down my water well records since the previous owner didn't have them. If you D-mail me, I can tell you how to access it.
I finally made 9 kites yesterday. I have 3 of them ganged together to fly as a train. These are all flat Eddy kites made of paper. Blue, yellow, orange, white, and a really sick shade of green. I have the blue, white and a yellow one ganged. I use plastic tape, like the road crews use on grade stakes, to make tails from. I'm going to try and get the train up tomorrow. It's supposed to rain today and the winds are strong and gusting. But tomorrow they are supposed to be about 10-15 mph and no rain in the forcast.
My favourite kite is a rokoku that I made out of ripstop nylon. It's Navy Blue with a yellow (couldn't find gold) bar sinister. I was in the Navy for over 28 years, so I use those colours alot. It measures 6 feet high along the spine and about 5'6" across. I sent away for some LEDs and plan to wire it along the edge with the lights so I can fly it at night. can you say UFO? I am sure some idiot will call it in.
Can you post pictures of you kite train in the air? It sounds so neat! We put foil on a kite and flew it at night and people did report it.
I have a nice camera, but I need a battery for it. SO far I haven't been able to find one. I may go down to Springfield next week and see if I can get one there. If I am successful I'll post pics.