Author: fourfarmdogs

Arrowhead Freeze-Free Faucet Frustration

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

faucetleakI have been struggling with a leaky faucet problem for maybe the last two or three months. This is an outdoor hose bib faucet, the kind with a long internal stem. These help prevent problems with freezing weather and broken pipes; as the stem closes off the water supply deep inside the house’s walls where it’s warmer, and the rest of the water drains out of the faucet when you shut it off.

The faucet was leaking where the arrow is pointing in the picture: right out of the tip of the stem, by the handle. This is a key piece of information, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I was annoyed with this whole situation, because the plumbing in this house is nearly brand new, only two years old! I didn’t expect to have plumbing repairs so soon!

I first tried tightening the two connections: the packing nut, and where the stem piece threads into the faucet unit. This didn’t  help. Next, I went to the store looking for replacement packing for the packing nut. But, I didn’t realize how many different designs there were, so I ended up coming home with the wrong size. I took the nut back to the store, and got a different packing. When I tried that at home, I realized that the packing nut’s threads were stripped. Back to the store, but they didn’t have that sized packing nut!

So, I tried a different local  hardware store. The “plumbing expert” there listened to my description of the problem, took a look at my stem, and at the packing nut, and concluded that my situation was hopeless. I bought a packing nut anyway, since they had one that fit. At home, I cleaned the threads out carefully, and got it to go back together nice and snug. But, the leak was still there.

Next I took it to Home Depot. I actually found a real expert there (this is rare for me), a by-trade plumber. I described my problem to him, too. He shook his head. He did mention a tidbit that would come in handy later, he said, “that there is an Arrowhead brand stem.” But, he also told me that they change the designs on these so frequently, that it’s usually impossible to get replacement parts. He asserted that I’d need to buy an entire new faucet assembly. And cautioned to replace it on a weekday, as people often break their copper pipe when trying to replace these, and then I’d want to call a plumber for backup.

Grumble. By this time, I had probably shut off the water to the house, and taken this thing apart, about a dozen times. I took it back home, put it together again, and sat there and watched the water drip… Then, I started to wonder: why is it coming out of the tip of the stem? And only when the water is turned on. How can that be? Though the stem is hollow (the handle screw threads into the hollow tip), it’s supposed to be sealed. The plug end of the stem is obviously working fine, because when the valve is shut off, no water is getting by.

faucetI took it apart again. I’m visualizing pressurized water flowing all around this stem on the way out of the faucet. And sure enough, tipping it on one end made water drain out of the inside of the stem. And, then, I see it. A tiny flaw in the solder joint on the stem. Very tiny. But, enough for pressurized water to want to get in there and leak out the other end. It must have taken two years for the water to slowly erode that flaw big enough to create a leak. I tried to solder it closed, but I’m no good at soldering, and I think fixing a tiny hole like that can be difficult, as there is not enough surface for the flux to bind to. It didn’t work. But now at least I knew what the real problem was: something that all three hardware store plumbing experts missed, despite my clearly explaining to all of them that the water was coming out of the tip!

I almost believed the Home Depot guy’s advice that I wouldn’t be able to find a replacement stem. But, I decided to give the Web a chance. And lucky for me that  Home Depot guy knew the brand name: thank you Home Depot guy! Lo and behold, McClendons Hardware had the fix, for $12: they carry a whole line of these Arrowhead stems! Wow! I was a little confused about the sizing, when I measured my stem, I concluded that it was a 6″ one. But, when the 6″ replacement arrived by mail, it was too long, so I had to return it. What I actually have, apparently, is a 4″ stem (I’m not sure how they measure these to get those numbers, but ok, whatever). So, last week, I finally got the right sized stem, and replaced it yesterday. And choirs of angels sang: no leak. Thank goodness!

Ladybug Invasion

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ladybugsLast winter, the ladybugs decided that our house is a very nice winter vacation spot. I’m not sure how they select such sites, since this house is new to the area, it’s not like they’ve been doing it for ages. They’ve returned en force this year. They get in, definitely. And they don’t totally hibernate, they move about the house all winter, albeit lazily. So, they’re kind of everywhere: on my toothbrush, in my coffee, on my clothes. Sometimes one will fall off me at work!

But, I guess there are worse things that could infest a house. They’re not dirty, destructive, or harmful. And they are pretty. Ladybugs are sought-after pest preventatives, as they eat aphids and other things. Some people buy them for their yards and gardens. Imagine! Maybe I can start packaging them in my household and sell them to somebody else’s household!

I find it interesting how unique each one is. They are all a different shade of red or orange, and all have a unique number and positioning of their spots. For now, I’m not terribly annoyed with them, I feel we can co-exist in the house during the winter, since they do benevolent work during the summer. This photo is a grouping of them I found clustered on the side of the house, under the crawlspace cover.

Little Opossum, More Flood Prep, and Selling Stuff…

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opossumI enjoyed spotting this little opossum in the duck pen one early morning a while back. He looked half-grown, maybe this year’s baby. I wonder if he (and maybe his kin) are partly responsible for the extraordinary amount of duck food I’ve been buying lately? I’ll have to remember to shut the door on that pen at night (the ducks are sleeping in the other pen, just because they are in that habit now).

Opossums are such funny behaving animals. I only noticed him because the dogs did, and yet, he just ignored their poking and prodding. And he wasn’t too disturbed by me either. It’s no wonder they get hit by cars all the time, they seem to be rather oblivious to big things moving around them.

We had to move the sheep again midweek, more flooding forecasted. This time, it was different. The ewes marched up the hill calmly and smartly, and penned easily. The ram decided he didn’t want to. I ended up having to halter him and drag him the whole way. Uff da, he is heavy when he doesn’t want to walk!  I imagine a few drivers-by found amusement to see me tugging him inch by inch, in the pouring-down rain.

And, the llama didn’t cooperate this time, she refused to come with. I ended up leaving her down there, during part of the danger time with the gate open so she could save herself if she needed to. I do believe llamas have retained enough wiliness that she’d probably be fine finding her own way up the hill if water started coming across the valley. I’m pretty sure sheep are not capable of that, however. I think if I work the dogs on her a little more, I can have her ready to move next time. She is just so new to the place, and very unsure of her safety.

I wrongly decided it would be ok to move the sheep back down after dark on Thursday night. It’s hard for me to be at home during daylight hours to do this, due to my work schedule and the short daylight we have right now. I think it would have worked fine, had Maggie not made a critical error. I retired her from working once the sheep were headed down the hill, as I figured they’d run down, and stop at the gate and wait. But, Maggie ignored my command and tried to cover them. I didn’t see her doing this in the dark. By herself, she caught up with them, split them, sent a couple sprinting down the driveway, and the rest into the drainage ditch!! By the time we arrived down there, the sheep had crawled out, but were stressed and wet. And it took us a few minutes to find the other two. The ram decided to be stubborn again, and was tangled in the blackberries, so we had to heave him out. But, in the end, we got them put away. And I know next time to bring a leash for my dog when I don’t want her to cover! 🙂

I’ve been trying to sell some things on craigslist and eBay, we have too much stuff from combining households. It feels good to clean out, somethings I’m just selling for the cost of shipping them, just to avoid throwing them away. So far, I’ve found takers for: some computer RAM, a PCMCIA LAN card, an old-fashioned 35mm film camera, a printer, a Dogloo, and a dog crate. There is much more to list, but I’m just doing a few at a time.

We’ve gotten three inquiries on the house sale, so that’s not too bad! Hopefully someone will fall in love with it.

Flood Plain Fire Drill

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Our house is on a bench on a hillside, and it overlooks all of our pasture. The pasture itself is in the 100-year floodplain (the house is not). Though many people think that term means that the area floods once in one hundred years; the actual definition is that any given year, it has a 1% chance of flooding. That’s a little different! 🙂

The valley where our pasture lies is very rich and fertile bottom land that holds water all summer, thus it’s highly desirable for farming and grazing. This area was homesteaded in the 1880’s, and at that time, neighboring farmers collaborated to clear and drain what was, then, a marshland. So, this entire valley is cut with a network of very deep drainage ditches. These carry excess water to the nearby river, and lower the water table in the fields so they are suitable for agriculture.

Since that time, these cooperating farmers also build a network of river dikes, in an attempt to tame nature and minimize semiannual flooding in the valley. In the early years of these tries, the diking sometimes made flooding affects worse. If the dikes are not of an even height across the entire valley, when the river does exceed one dike section’s height, the concentrated force of all that water flow will do severe damage to the dike in that section and anything close by.

So, over time, these farmers and dike owners created cooperative, government-overseen organizations to manage the dikes. The chief goal is to make the dikes a consistent height, and to keep them under vigilant maintenence. We pay special taxes to the local flood control district, and they provide us with the service of managing the floodway. This also includes regular dredging of the drainage ditches in ours and our neighbors’ fields.

In recent history, our pasture was under water once in the ’70s, twice in the ’90s, and again two years ago. The last flood was an “overtopping” where the dikes all held, and the water simply exceeded their height and gently flowed over the top. That year, our pasture was under about five feet of water for several days. These are the most desirable types of flood, very calm and following the engineering designs laid out for them. If any portion of a dike ever breaches, then the force of the water will destroy a section of the dike, and general damage is much worse. This was true in the three earlier floods, with the one in the ’70s being probably the most devastating to the region.

We are especially lucky because we have a pump station nearby. So, when it does flood, as soon as the river receeds, the pumps can be turned on, and all the water sent back where it came from. This reduces the wait time for the fields to dry out, from weeks or months down to a few days. So, it’s not a bad deal– we work around a few floods, and in turn, we have some very rich agricultural land and much natural beauty that will never be filled with  housing developments.

hydrographThese days, working around the floods is actually not too inconvenient. Now we have water height and flow guages in many places along all rivers, and this data is automatically published to the Internet via various monitoring websites, most of it real-time. The graph to the left is the guage for the pump station near us. The National Weather Service monitors all of these guages and uses sophisticated computer modeling systems to predict and warn of potential flooding. Obviously, when major rains or snow melt are predicted, we know to start watching these guages!

Friday was one of those days: we’d had several days of rain already, and more predicted to be on the way. I started checking the guages a few times a day earlier in the week, and when the graph starts going up, I started checking them once an hour.

This is the first year where it really mattered, since we now have livestock down there. And, of course, I’d procrastinated a little bit on being truly ready. I had enough hog panels to make a pen “up top”, but they were still down in the pasture with the sheep, where I had fashioned a temporary pen for the ram. It was on my to-do list to bring those up to the house and get the pen ready, but we’d just been so busy with other things! And, I knew I’d have some time to react if it started raining.

I went to work Friday, but by noon, I could see the guage shooting upward at a pretty steep slope. If it kept on at that rate, it would flood around midnight that night. So, I headed home early. It took a couple of hours to dismantle the pen, bring it up, and rebuild it. I kept watching the graph, but by 2pm, it was not cresting. So, it was clear, the animals had to come up before dark. My dad and Kirk stayed up top near the pen, to help if needed. I took Maggie down the the field to round up the sheep.

The path the sheep needed to take was on the vacant neighboring property, across a culvert, and up a steep embankment. None of this is fenced, so it is essential to have a fast dog to help, or I could lose the sheep and not be able to run fast enough to stop them. I already knew the sheep would go ok, they are pretty calm and have been worked a little by the dogs. But, the llama was another story, I really didn’t know what to expect, and knew we might have to get creative!

The sheep were very reluctant to go through the gate, they are always fearful of new places. I got them through once, and left the llama behind, but I didn’t latch it properly, and they ended up spooking and pushing their way back through it. The second attempt left two sheep behind– #33 and  her lamb, along with the llama (#33 seems to really like the llama…). So, fine, I brought the five of them up, it was a little bumpy, but we did it, and with only a small amount of messing around, got them into the pen. It did help to have my dad and Kirk there, though I think now that I’ve done it once, I’d be confident enough to do it alone with the dog. When I went back for the other two, that was easy too. #33 comes to me when a dog is present, so I just put a lead rope on her, knowing  her lamb would follow. But, the llama… I got to the gate, took the sheep through, and tried to open it a crack to tempt the llama so I could grab her halter. Not happening. She would not come close enough.

But, by this time, I could see she was distressed. She did NOT want to be left behind from those sheep! She was making her funny llama sound, a sort of quiet, buzzing cry. She sounded very pathetic and she looked very concerned and torn. It is amazing how much she has bonded to them in such a short time. It became obvious that she would stay with those sheep no matter what. So, I figured, what the heck, even if I can’t catch her or get her in the pen, fine, I know she’ll stand right outside it all night. So, I just opened up the gate and had a loose llama free to roam the valley! 🙂

It felt a little risky, but I was right, she stuck to those sheep like glue. Once up top, I shoved the two sheep in the pen, had the dog hold them all to the back of the pen, and then opened the gate back up for the llama. She was very cautious, but it was easy to slowly edge her in. And that was that! They were penned in a small, 10×20 area for the night.

I figured the river wouldn’t actually flood, so I decided to wait and see. In the morning, I’d either have to buy some hay and set them up with water to wait out a real flood, or the river would have crested and they could go back down. The latter was true. As  you can see by the graph, the river crested late at night and was well on its way back down by morning. So, I had Gene help me take them back down. Same thing this time, I just concentrated on moving the sheep where I wanted them, and the llama went right along. They were happy to be back in their graze and comfort zone. And, we’re done with the flood plain fire drill until next time!

House is ON the Market!

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Wow, we have been busy lately. Last weekend was the third full weekend we spent working on getting Kirk’s house ready to (try to) sell. Our goal was to get it on the market the first week of November. And we did it. I wasn’t so sure a week ago, there were so many messes, tools, cleaning stuff, paint stuff, boxes. And Kirk still has SO many things he wishes to improve or fix on this house.

We painted a bedroom, the bathroom, hall/staircase and the back porch area. We cleaned the carpets and replaced the algae-growing kitchen faucet. We weeded the backyard, re-seeded the lawn, mowed, cleaned up a firewood pile, put down bark, new rock on the pathways, and a brick border. We took down the ugly front storm door. We carried off a lot of stuff (which is now cluttering up the farmhouse instead!). And then we photographed, with my dad’s wide-angle lens, every angle of every room.

So, it’s ready, I faxed the final listing paperwork today to the flat listing agent we’re using. Now, here’s hoping we have three good weeks before people flake off the housing market for the holidays and the rest of the year. Now is, arguably, a terrible time to sell. But, it’s also a terrible time to hold– we’re betting this house won’t gain in value in the next five years if there is a serious recession, so why keep dumping money into it? It’s an historic home, so not a great rental investment choice, we’d probably spend more money maintaining it than it would bring in. And we’d rather spend that money on a barn/shop building at the farm.

So, we’re just going to hope there are still a few people out there needing or wanting to buy a different house; people who aren’t worried about a recession or falling housing prices and are going about business as usual. If just one of them likes this house, and can find a bank to lend them money, it’ll be out of our hair! Here’s to incredible good luck, we’ll need it! 🙂

Rearranging my “Dog Van”

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I have had a nagging chore waiting for a long time- rearranging my dog show van. This van exists mostly to drive the dogs around to shows and training, but I also use it a lot to haul other things-lumber, furniture, and now this last weekend, the llama. I anticipate I’ll be hauling sheep in it now too.

Probably a year before Chessie died, he stopped being willing to ride in his crate, so I’ve long owed the van a good cleanout and the removal of one dog crate. Hauling the llama was the final reason I needed, as I had to remove a lot of stuff to make room for her.

 To the left is the configuration I’d had for a very long time, to fit four dogs, a lot of show gear. Behind the lefthand crates, I had excercise pens and a dolly. I realliy liked this setup, and it was important to have it efficient in the days when I was competing every other weekend. I have been struggling with how to change it now that I’m down to three dogs, and also not showing very much. It is obviously a mess, too, I hadn’t cleaned it in a LONG time, even after hauling bales of straw and hay in it!

Tonight I took almost everything out, swept it, and came up with a way to fit three crates along the side wall. This will be nice, leaving me more room for lumber. But, I have yet to figure out what to do with all the rest of the gear. Some of it is piled back into the back of the van, and the rest is in the usual place for dumping projects-the living room!

In my van, safety for the dogs and me is aprimary concern. All of my crates are held down by cargo straps that hook to eye bolts, attached to 1x4s in the floor. If I got in a catastrophic accident, I wouldn’t want things flying around hitting me,  nor the dogs getting injured. On each crate, there is a laminated info tag on a clip, and an extra leash. So, heaven forbid I ever get in an accident and am incapacitated, a good samaritan could leash all my dogs, and take them, with instructions, to the nearest vet for care. The cards have guarantees that I’ll pay for care, the dogs’ tattoo and microchip info, and emergency contacts.

I came up with this after hearing accounts of several dog show friends who were in car accidents. I’ve heard of loose-in-the-car dogs flying through the windshield, other dogs running loose on the highway in a panic, and one person’s dogs got stuck in an out-of-town shelter in limbo for 48 hours until they were “put up for adoption” and her friend could go buy them back! Everyone I know who’s gotten in an accident with crated dogs reported that the dogs were unscathed. So, I’m pretty religious about dogs riding in crates. They prefer it too, they feel much safer when they are not sliding around in an open vehicle.

Here are the three remaining crates along the side wall, behind the driver’s seat. And  clean floor!

 

Welcome Dolly Llama

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I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a llama to use as a livestock guardian for the sheep. I found this one nearby, from a man who had her to keep his horse company, but his horse had passed away.

Her name is “Maggie” but since we already have a dog named Maggie, we think we’ll call her the Dolly Llama. The name isn’t so important, since I don’t expect we’ll interact with her enough that she’ll learn it. But I guess it’s convention to name the permanent residents of the farm, anyway.

She is around 13 years old. I was able to speak with her breeder, who offered to breed her in the future for me, so I can have a replacement for her (since she’s “getting up there” in age).

I think she’s a reasonable quality llama, she’s a little cow-hocked in the rear, and her teeth are a little crooked. But her fiber looks really nice. She is pretty well behaved, we were able to catch and lead her without much difficulty. I transported her in my cargo van, and she rode calmly.

Here is a photo of her meeting the sheep. They pondered each other from a distance for an hour or two. But she seemed anxious to be close to a herd, and kept tailing the sheep. By the end of the day, it looked like they had mostly joined up. Hopefully she’ll be well-bonded to them by spring, such that she is motivated to defend the lambs.

Another llama seller I corresponded with on craigslist told me an interesting tale- she had a llama injure some of her lambs. She learned, in retrospect, that it’s not good to introduce a few sheep to multiple llamas in the llamas’ pasture, as they may perceive the sheep as intruders and drive them out. Instead, it works better to leverage a single llama’s lonliness in a pasture that’s new to them– they’ll be more likely to behave in a solicitous manner to the sheep herd in hopes of joining up.

Farmer Tax Breaks

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This next tax return I’ll need to start writing off farm expenses. I have a lot to learn and read up on in this regard. I know there are many tax advantages to being a farmer (which still hardly offset all of the financial disadvantages… but hey, you take what you can get!).

 

We are already enjoying one advantage, and that is the “open space agriculture” tax break that is available in our state and county. The rule here is, if you show an agricultural gross income of $200/acre/year every three out of five years, the county will calculate your property’s taxable value based on its “current use” and not its “best use.”

 

This is intended to help offset the fact that (at least until now) property values were skyrocketing, such that farmers could not justify keeping the land in agricultural use and paying high property taxes when the land was worth so much for residential development purposes. Add to that the falling profitability of traditional family farms and farmers’ kids not wanting to carry on their family’s legacy, farmers were selling land like crazy to developers in the last two decades.

 

The state and county realized they had to stop this trend, or there would be no farmland left! So, this tax break was invented-no matter how much your land would appraise for as commercial or residential real estate, it is taxed as if it’s only value is as cropland or graze.

 

Now that the farm is up and running, I think we’ll be able to meet the $200/acre/year rule with little difficulty. We have 12 acres in open space, so we have to bring in $2400 a year—if we have a good lamb crop, that will do it right there. Note that this is gross profit, not net, so you don’t even have to show that you are making money on your farm. But I had been starting to feel some pressure, as it has taken two years just to get the place back into farming condition, so technically we must show this profit in the next three years. But I also don’t think anyone checks real often, as I’ve seen many farms in open space status where clearly no farming has been done recently. It’s probably one of those laws where unless someone turns you in, like a nasty neighbor, it does not get noticed….

 

So, anyway, back to income taxes. I believe that I can start writing off the tractor, tractor fuel, fencing expenses, feed for the ducks and sheep, and many other expenses. I’m also wondering whether I can write off the dog and cat food, since the dogs work on the farm, and the cat is a mouser. I’ve started keeping better categories in my Quicken records to break down all the various farm expenses, to make for easier reporting in the long run. But I feel as though I probably have a lot of reading to do, to master the subject of tax write-offs available to farmers.  

Farm Early

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Today, I got up early so I could feed animals before work. I think I’m going to have to shift to these “farm hours” for the winter. This will enable me to make sure the animals have thawed water in the morning, and that the sheep have all day to eat their grain. I’ve been getting by with feeding them after work, but now it’s getting dark, and the sheep won’t eat then.

It felt good to be up and about; knock on wood, hopefully I’ll keep thinking that. Normally I’m not a morning person, and get up at the last possible moment. This is turning over a new leaf for me.

On the subject of grain; I’ve sure been pondering how I want to feed the sheep. It’s working out well feeding them grain now, they are acclimating to my presence, and I can take a look at them up close while they’re eating. They are about at the end of their flushing phase, and the bag of grain is running out. So, I may let them go without for a little while. It seems the cost of grain can quickly add up to the cost of a lamb or two, so I feel that I want to be conservative on how much I utilize.

Some sources say to start adding grain in the last two months of pregnancy. That would be in the November time frame for the ewes that came already bred. Yet, the ones that were bred this month shouldn’t be allowed to get too fat during the early stages of their pregnancy. So, I don’t know what I’ll do.

I’d so far been feeding a bagged sheep ration, but I don’t like the idea of all those processed grains. I think I’ll switch to dry COB (corn, oats, barley) when I buy the next bag.

House Sale Prep Weekend

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Phew, we got a lot of work done this weekend! We spent the whole weekend working on Kirk’s house, getting it ready for sale. We are really hoping to have it on the market by the end of the month. This weekend, I painted the entry, stair, and upstairs hallway; those areas had really dirty yellow paint that HAD to be fixed. Kirk refinished the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom. Now we are both tired!

I did manage to squeeze in some baking tonight-snicker doodles! But, most of my other weekend chores were left undone-vacuuming, cleaning the dog’s fenced area, and the like. It’s just hard to fit everything in sometimes.