Journal of Progress--August 30-September 6, 2020

September 17, 2020

The late afternoon sun was just right to shine beautifully on this deer's coat.

It is interesting to notice the size of this deer and that it is just losing its spots.

This is a new visitor to the birdbath. It took some sleuthing to learn he (or she) is a green-tailed towhee. He has a redish cap and dark yellow, greenish wing feathers and tail. He is smaller than the spotted towhees but will fight with them for territory. He does the same hopping backwards on the ground when looking for seeds and he doesn't use the hanging bird feeder.

This sun was totally red to the eye.

Last Sunday our bishop stopped by just to check on us since we haven't been attending church due to covid. The last time we saw him was on Mother's Day when he brought a flower around. In the course of the conversation, Barbara mentioned that he could pray for us to find the help we need to get our water working in the house. All the plumbers we know (and trust) are too busy. All of those we know who have digging machines are too busy or have issues with their digger. The bishop said, "I can help you. We know he is a man of good heart but didn't think he necessarily had the knowledge, the skills, or the tools to attack our problem--not to mention the time.

The bishop actually has a digger but the old bishop who lives closer also has a digger so the bishop went and got his.

Look at the size of this rock that was dug up!

And there is the culprit--where the joint broke apart.

Barbara mentioned at about this point that she thought the bishop was a farmer, not a plumber. Her father was a farmer and would have had no idea how to tackle this problem, let alone have access to the equipment to do so. That is because her father farmed before modern irrigation techniques. All farmers must have to be quasi-plumbers in today's world.

Unfortunately, after the pipe was repaired, the system still wouldn't hold pressure. We finally discovered there was supposed to be a check valve between the pump and the water tank, to keep the water from draining back into the cistern. Our bishop and ex-bishop looked through their spare parts and found one, which they came and installed. Hooray! We now have water in the house, and a toilet that works. Lovely sight! A bathroom sink with water coming out! Now for the water heater, bath tub, kitchen sink, and dish washer...

Barbara added a decoration to the now functioning toilet since there will be no more tearing the tank lid off to fill the tank so the toilet can flush.

Returning to fire prevention, Don needs to put steel cladding on the outside basement door. Before he could do that, he had to finish the last part of the siding on that wall.

Then cut some left-over roofing metal to size.

Also, he had to patch the hole where the wind lifted the heavy door and slammed it against a 2x4 "backstop" hard enough to punch a hole clear through the door.

Cutting holes in the kitchen floor underneath the cabinets. The plumber put the pipes so close to the wall that there's no room for the back of the cabinet, so the pipes must be moved. The hot and cold water supply pipes can be moved by elongating their current holes into slots, because the water pipes are flexible.

The drain pipe was harder. Don had to remove a piece of floor, cut the drain pipe, cut out a two inch section, glue the pipe back together, then build a new section of floor to go around the pipes in their new location.