Day: June 27, 2015

I’m soaked from head to toe with a mixture of sweat, water, and tears. At least the chickens are fed and watered.
I treated the rain barrels yesterday, which we water the chickens from with chlorine. This morning, I had to top off those barrels from the garden hose connected to the faucets through the window in the basement. I had to top the up because I didn’t want to poison the water barrels, but I did want to kill to mosquito larvae.
Now here is the fun part. We do have 3 water barrels for livestock. One is down by the garden pen, two are up by the house. A fourth water barrel is for washing up with when you come up from the garden or what have you. That barrel is on the deck.
We had garden hose scattered all the way to hell and gone. I had to round up the hose, connect it to each other and the faucet in the basement. So far, so good. Here is the fun part. I got two barrels filled with the short hose, and the upper chicken coop watered. The lower coop barrel needed 3 more hoses attached. Okay fine, while I was filling the 2nd upper barrel, I made sure everything was working otherwise. I connected the hoses together, went down to make sure the barrel was getting filled, and whoosh! One of the hoses split. Crap!
On investigation, I saw that there was a slice in it possibly from a mower. Okay, so I went to the house, grabbed the duct tape, and got moving. I pinched the hose off, because by this point not much water was getting through. In wrapping the duct tape (temporary fix) and releasing it, I proceeded to get covered in water from ear to ankle. Joyful. The mosquitoes were laughing at me, I could tell. At least they weren’t biting. Re pinching the hose, wrapping more and more, and finally I got the water running again.
The patch isn’t elegant, but I’ve got water dripping down my back, neck, ears, and look like I’ve been in a monsoon at this point.
All was well, and then I looked in the lower barrel. I used language that one shouldn’t use around 1 month old chicks, and had to dump the barrel completely out. I wasted probably 20 gallons of water. I then fed the chickens, after scrubbing the barrel, and starting the fill. After the long walk back to the house, downstairs into the basement to shut off the water, I need a shower.
I really need a shower, and a cigarette, and to use some words that I don’t normally post in here.
Have a good afternoon,
Louise Ann Benjamin

More computer bugs
Good Morning,
I’ve been busy so far trying to get my laptop up to date. The machine is my 8+ Windows machine. What’s going on you ask? Well, Blogger, my host wants Chrome. Chrome downloaded a bug yesterday to two laptops…
You see my problem. I’m working on a solution, but if you don’t see much of me, then you know that in the background I’m swearing at an evil hunk of metal and plastic.
There are times when I ask, “Why in the hell did I become a Geek?” Why did I spend thousands of hard-earned dollars on internet, computers, smart phones and the like? Today, I can’t imagine life without a computer. However, there are days, like today, when my frustration level makes the stomach problems that much worse.
We won’t speak of the stomach problems in this morning edition.
The house is down to 72* right now on average. We just have everything closed up, and before long, I will start the box fans on the main level. Today I wanted to get this and this and that done, but things are on a hold for now.
Meanwhile, while it’s cool enough, no matter how crummy I feel, the chickens and the rabbits need food and water. It’s not their fault what is going on, and they can’t water or feed themselves. I’m thinking of getting a bug zapper though. Putting it over the chicken pen and letting it run all night every night.
Who knows, it might help.
Working on computers for others, I’m supposed to be confident and reassuring. When my computer catches a bug, well, I cuss and get very frustrated. The computer is a lovely device, but at this point, all the electronics in the house seem to take more time and money than I’m willing to deal with.
In other news, I did get a wee bit of work done yesterday. I’m going to be trying to get a wee bit more done today. It’s time to move the kitchen out to the deck. Every bit of cooking I can do out there saves me work and effort on keeping the house cool during the day. Even the microwave puts too much heat into the house.
On the deck, we cook with electricity, and or maybe charcoal/wood. We use a natural homemade coal, the Dad produces every winter from the wood stove. We get it when we have to smother a fire in the stove due to carbon monoxide readings.
In the winter, the carbon monoxide detector is our best friend. It keeps witness to what is happening in the house, and makes sure that everything is running correctly. The one in the dining room also detects gas, which is a major boon when our gas stove acts up. I wouldn’t want to have a candle running when the stove starts leaking.
That little gadget, the detector, is the one thing we buy special batteries for, and are more vigilant with it than I am with my car, or even my blood sugar monitor.
So, I suppose I had better get back to work. Dad is outside already, and I want to get the chickens fed and watered before the heat makes going outside a nasty proposition.
That’s all for now, take care,
Louise Ann Benjamin