A GIRL DID THIS!!!

I really did go buy some cement yesterday after I did my blog post, and I really did make a new stoop for the back door. It was very difficult! The smallest bags of concrete weigh forty pounds. Then you pour them into a tub, add water (which also weighs a ton) and mix it. We're talking serious hard labour. I have great respect for cement mixers! Then you have to shovel or pour it out again and spread it out. Then on to the next bag! I went through eight bags. Smooth it over. Good god. The worst part, really, was that once I started, I couldn't stop, or there'd be this horrible massive lump in concrete forevermore sitting behind my back door, eternally reminding me and all visitors of my failings. (At the store, they told me that you can't just do it in parts, letting some dry and then doing more overtop of it, or the whole thing just cracks to pieces.)

The result is much nicer than the little drop they left in the ground behind the back door when they filled in the trench after installing geothermal heat. (In the middle picture of the geothermal heat post, you can see our former back stoop, cast off to the side.) Also, I think I plugged up the mouse hole nicely.

I had a childish urge to carve into the concrete, "A GIRL DID THIS!!!!" But then I thought about it. Writing in concrete on your house is like a tattoo. It's going to be there forever. I had a coworker in Colorado who had been in the military, abroad, and had "Colorful Colorado" over a Colorado flag tattooed on his arm, one night when he was homesick. It was a really dumb tattoo- heartfelt at the moment, but it didn't seem as cool later on. So, I'll pass on writing, "A GIRL DID THIS!!!" in my concrete stoop, although it is tempting.

The other reason is that I'm afraid some guy will see it and say, "Oh! So that's why it tilts to the right!" A have a few friends who would say that.

Friday Farm Functionals: Geothermal Heat, Part II

Yay! We have heat! As of last night. Yep. Last night.

Original estimated time to get geothermal up and running: 2-3 days, total.
Actual time: 15 days.

In addition to hitting massive amounts of rock (they actually thought there might have been the foundation of an old house right where they decided to drill) and getting a giant drill stuck in our yard, the geothermal tubes then sprung a leak when they filled them with water. Here's a picture of them going around the yard, trying to find the leak (Note that this part of the yard was not drilled up like the rest until then!):



They actually found the leak pretty quickly. What really held things up with the well company was that they just left us for a week and went and drilled other people's wells. This I never heard of. How do you start something and not finish it?

What the?

Meanwhile, we had thirty-seven gallons of heating oil left, and one can, they say, burn up to a gallon an hour when the heater is on. The smallest quantity of heating oil you can order is 150 gallons. So, we conserved. If we hadn't have conserved, and we had bought 150 gallons, we would possibly have had to dispose of 147 gallons the next day. All of this would have been extremely expensive. So, we made fires (in the fireplace). We bundled up the toddler and piled blankets on her at night. Luckily, the weather was on our side this year. When they finally did take the old heater out, we still had thirty gallons left- although we did not know that, because this old furnace had no monitor. In order to figure out how much oil you had, you had to call the coop. Crazy!

Anyway, where was I?

They found the leak, and the heating guy came two days after that, with his team. They were really swell. I liked them. But still- the new furnace they tried to install did not work! So, a night without any heater at all for us, and then the next day, another heater installed and- wow! It works! They couldn't get the old oil tank out, either. It's laying on its side in the basement right now. The heater guy, Tracy, asked if the ground here were cursed in some way,

"You sure this isn't an indian burial ground or somethin'?"

Well, who knows. I've always felt lucky.

I do know one thing: Central heating is wonderful! I've never appreciated it so much in all my life!

Geothermal Heat: A Landscaper's Nightmare

Our back stoop, cast aside!

This is the view from our back door today. Don't step out!

Friday Farm Functionals: Geothermal Heat

Long time readers know that I am a big fan of geothermal heat. It's cheap, efficient heat from the center of the Earth- bah ha ha ha ha! (I don't know what just happened...)

Anyway, we've already pretty much decided to get it. In fact, we've already got them drilling outside. I don't want to bore you with the details, but it has been so complicated. We ended up working with two different companies: one that drills wells, for the drilling, and one that does heating, for the inside of the house stuff. Oh, my. Anywho, after a month of us calling around and getting estimates and figuring things out, they're doing it. Now.

Tuesday: 6 AM, some dude with a fancy truck is putting out flags where power lines are underground and spraying and all sorts of stuff. I can't help wonder, why so early?

Wednesday: At a decent hour, the drillers come to drill. (I keep thinking of that crazy dumb movie with Bruce Willis and Ben the Afflicted, about the drillers who have to drill to the center of the comet. What the heck is that?) Yay! They come to drill, and drill all morning. Then, around nap time, as I am walking back from the Organic Machine House, one of the guys asks me if I have any more hose on hand because it's such a bitch to open one of those giant spools and things are NOT going well and... no, I don't have any more hose to lend. Sorry. A few minutes later, from way across the field, I hear the "F" word used in ways I have never dreamed possible. It is a verb. It is an adjective, it is a noun, it is a preposition... it's South Park out there. Apparently, they've hit ROCK!

Thursday: Drilling again, all morning. After nap time, Little Z and I wander down to the swing set (acquired via the yahoo group "freecycle"- highly recommended) and, on the way, one of the guys informs us, once again, that things are NOT GOING WELL! The drill (which is the size of a tractor) is STUCK! So, as Z and I pretend to be playing- but really we're just gawking- they hook up this giant truck- (think dump truck size truck-) to the giant drill, completely blocking the road, and they turn on the truck and they pull. And four of the trucks wheels go off the ground and the drill doesn't budge. And they do it again. And again. And again. And it comes out, finally, and the wheels go down one by one- it's sort of like how we got the mattress up the stairs-- with a lot of effort and very slow progress. Luckily, our road has very little traffic, and no one gets miffed by the road being blocked for fifteen minutes.

Friday: Oh, my.