Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
2 Awards 2008 ADGA National Competition
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
3 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
(available seasonally)
2 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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Click here to read the online version of Kathryn's booklet
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This site last updated:
August 27, 2010
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Arizona Grown!
Scene of the Ranch in winter
12/2/00
Today we decided to top off the new water tank so we could more accurately track our water usage. As a working plan we thought we’d get in the habit of filling it on the 1st and 15th of the month and see how that goes. I had to do a 10-hour maintenance on the tractor and K wanted to take a little walk so we headed over to the Well and started up the generator and pump on our ways. We figured that we’d run it until it overflowed so we’d know for sure it was full. After about 45 minutes or an hour, with our tasks done we checked but the tank wasn’t full yet. We hung around and hiked a bit for another 30 minutes or so but it still didn’t overflow so we headed back to the house, planning to check on it about every half hour.
The day was completely cloudy and cool so we decided to work on installing some of the ductwork for the furnace in the South House. We looked over the hand drawn rough sketch the guy at Farr’s had done up from which he made the materials list for the supplies we’d purchased. It was kind-of hard to figure out but we eventually got the hang of his abbreviations and notations. We started out deciding exactly where we wanted the heating registers in each of the rooms. The Storeroom and freezer room will not be heated so that leaves 9 registers, one in each remaining room.
K went up to check the well while I marked out the register locations. The tank was still not full and we began to wonder what the problem is.
There will be three main duct runs from the furnace. A 12” duct will cover the Living room, Master bedroom, Library, and unfinished room. A 10” run will circle half of the house and supply the two bathrooms and another 12” run will do the remaining rooms. We started in the Library and got it and the Master Bedroom registers and ducting in before taking a break. K went to check the tank again and found it not full but noticed that there is standing water at the base of the tank and the ground in one area is getting very soggy. We suspect there is a leak at the fitting where the fill pipe enters the tank so she turned off the pump. We’ll have to see what we can get Matt to do about it if he ever comes to finish all the projects here.
We finished the first duct run except for the last 12’ section which will connect into the furnace plenum and set the other two registers then began on the bathroom run and got the two registers set there and ducting run about half way to the furnace. We also did some exploratory demolition to see how we are going to run the third duct set before quitting for the day.
The ducting has the upper hand for the moment
12/3/00
We all took a nice walk this morning around the squared-off perimeter of the property. It was nice and sunny and by the time we returned home it was warming up pretty well outside.
We worked on the furnace ducting all day and got a good ways along. We were unable to find one of the reducing connectors we were supposed to have bought from Farr’s and later we found that we needed another 25’ package of 10” flex and had an extra 12” package to return. One of us will go into town tomorrow and hopefully get the parts we need to be able to finish up.
12/4/00
Totally goofed off today and didn’t do a thing on the place. We slept in then took a nice long walk around on the property. The weather was just great.
Tried to get a hold of somebody at Farr’s to make sure they could pull the ducting parts we needed before running all the way in but were unable to. Called the Solar guy to find out if he was ever planning on finishing up our project. He said he thought his assistant was here already working. I said no he wasn’t and that there wasn’t really anything left the assistant could do was there? I also mentioned that the new water tank was leaking. He called back in a little while and said that the kid had called in sick to his wife today and he didn’t know about it. He said he was teaching some class at the Reservation for the next few days and would be back out here first thing Thursday to finish everything up. Sure. We’ll believe it when we see it.
K decided to open her Christmas present from me, which I had presented for her poking and prodding pleasure several days ago. It was a new Henry .22 rifle, case and some ammo so, of course, we had to go out shooting this afternoon. We went to the Construction Dump and shot a couple of hundred rounds at some bottles and other debris. I also shot my .177 pellet gun and we both had a good time. We spent the early evening cleaning our concealed-carry firearms (it’s amazing how dusty everything gets here) and K cleaned her new present.
12/5/00
Another very nice day. Took a hike South along the mesa base in the morning.
John from Farr’s called and said the furnace parts we needed were ready to pick up anytime so we got our lists together and took off for town. We picked up the parts then went to a gun store to look for a deer rifle for me but didn’t find anything.
Went to lunch and while there Bea, our Show Low realtor called and said that she had finally heard back from the guy who owns one of the adjacent 40-acre properties we are interested in buying. We arranged to meet her down at her office. When we got there she showed us that she had gotten the listing for the property but it was at $20,000, much higher than we had hoped for (but not higher than we had set for our top price). We had her write up an offer at $15,000 based on her descriptions of her conversations with him and she will get it off to him ASAP. We gave him until the end of the year to accept but said we could close 2 weeks from his acceptance if he wanted.
We then went to a hardware store and got some supplies for the house, then to Sears to buy a water softener and then to the Wal-Mart Superstore where we did a bunch of shopping including K buying me a nice little Winchester 30-30 rifle and some ammo for Christmas. By the time we got it all done and got back to the ranch it was too dark to try out my new present so I’ll have to see if I can get all my work done early tomorrow and maybe go shooting then.
12/6/00
Took a walk in the morning. It started out as a quick one because we had a bunch of work we wanted to get done today but we ended up taking several hours walking the fence perimeter along the road sides and picking up trash. We ended up making numerous piles of stuff we’ll have to go back for with the truck. Wayne Hammer, about our closest neighbor, saw us out and stopped to say “Hey.” We’d met him while we were still in the process of trying to buy the place and he remembered us from then. We discussed a few things like the dealing with the phone company, coyotes, porcupines, ranchers cutting fences and running herds through people’s front yards, how to string a fence across a wash, and other issues of local import for a while.
Didn’t get started on work until after lunch but tore into getting the furnace ducting project finished up and almost made it by working late. Turns out we’re going to need to get a little more 12” duct and a coupler to be all done (not counting the soffit work and putting back a bunch of sheetrock we had to remove). Tomorrow I’ll probably be able to get the gas orifices changed out and make the conversion to LP gas and get it fired up for the first time. K did some trash burning and got a couple of little other projects knocked off when she wasn’t assisting me with setting the plenum etc.
The UPS guy delivered a satellite TV system K had made arrangements to get as a Christmas present for the both of us. She is trying to get a hold of the guy who will be coming out to do the free installation now. After looking through the literature that came with it K says she thinks they sent the wrong receiver but we’ll see.
The FedEx guy did not show up today. We were expecting him with the closing documents for the sale of our Tucson house. FedEx has not actually been out here since we’ve moved up and we don’t really know how their routes and drivers go. We’ll call Tucson tomorrow and let them start a trace on it.
12/7/00 we have heat!
There was a message on the phone from the solar guy. He had to finish something else up today so he wouldn’t be out. Surprise surprise. He said he’d be here at 8:30 tomorrow AM.
Took a walk out to the gate then up the mesa a bit and back and got a bunch of phone calls while out there. The FedEx guy (who turned out to be a woman) called. She couldn’t find the place yesterday and ended up getting stuck in a ditch on some other San Carlos Lane. She got directions and said she would be out about 2:30 today.
Got a call from Bea the realtor, who said that the guy in New Mexico with the adjacent property here that we want to buy had verbally accepted our offer of $15,000 for the 40 acres if we would pay all the escrow costs and closed between 1/1/01 and 2/28/01. We said that was fine so she is sending him a new contract to sign, which should be back in a week hopefully.
We are trying to get set up to do a limited run of toffee candy to sell this holiday season. We have been making the candy, along with chocolate truffles, on a small commercial scale for several years in Tucson and doing a decent corporate, wholesale, and mail-order business of it. This year we didn’t think we’d be set up enough here to even try, but things are going well and we have had several inquiries. The boxes and shipping materials were ordered and today I got a call that the 100# of chocolate I’d ordered had been shipped. It is definitely going to be more expensive to produce the product up here but I’m going to try hard not to raise the prices this year. We’ve got orders for about 60, 2# boxes of toffee so far and tomorrow I’ll try to get a hold of our previous years’ best customers and see if I can’t drum up a little more work for this season.
I worked on re-installing some sheetrock and cleaning up our major mess from the furnace duct installation project while K ran into town for the last couple of parts we needed to finish up the job. After lunch we ran the last little section of duct, wired the thermostat, turned on the LP and electric to the furnace and fired it up. It seems to work great, though today was really too nice out to judge it well. The couple of registers we were concerned about, because we really had to squeeze the flex ducting past an obstacle or two, have good airflow. A couple of registers are a little noisy but not bad overall. The furnace, which sits just off the office, is pretty loud when running and we were surprised that it seems to make a little noise even when not running. There seems to be some kind of small hum or buzz that started as soon as we gave it power, probably something in the controls.
The FedEx driver did show up with our closing documents for the sale of our Tucson house. We’ll have to go into Showlow tomorrow to return FedEx the signed and notarized papers to the title company.
Once we had run several tests on the furnace I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the water softener installation and making a list of the parts I’ll need to put it in. K continued to organize and clean the house after the big furnace project and while unpacking a box in the library even found some of her office stuff we’d been looking for since the move.
12/8/00 pressure pump problems
Matt was supposed to be here between 8 and 8:30 AM. By 9:30 we had to go into Show Low to deal with signing and sending some papers to sell our Tucson house and some shopping so we left him a note asking him to do all the outside stuff to finish up then come back another time to do the Trimetric.
Got lots of run-around done including having our water tested for hardness (25 grains) and iron (very low content) as a precursor to installing the softener, maybe tomorrow. We also picked up a list-full of plumbing parts for it.
We got home mid-afternoon-ish and saw that Matt had been here, done a couple of little things (but not near done yet). One of us went to the bathroom and when we flushed the pressure pump kicked on (not unusual). After a couple of minutes I went to check on it because it seemed to be running a little too long and saw that it was not pressurizing. I unplugged it and we decided to go see if the tank was OK on our way out to the Construction dump to do some shooting. The tank was empty. Matt was supposed to look at the leak in the tank and we didn’t know if he had drained it or if it was a total coincidence. He later said he didn’t drain it. Anyway we started up the generator and fired up the pump to start filling the tank again and went off for a while to shoot. I finally got to play with my new 30-30 and while it is a bit feisty and expensive to shoot regularly for target practice I really enjoyed it and look forward to doing some hunting with it.
We brought up a ladder to the tank and peeked in the manhole cover on the top. It was about 2/3 full. Good enough for today. The only problem was that when we returned to the house and plugged the pump back in it still wouldn’t pressurize the tank. We thought it might be an air block so we fussed with it, trying to bleed off air, which did no good, and about a dozen other things that didn’t help either. I went back up to the well to make sure the tank hadn’t developed a major leak, and to check that the valve was open to the house which it was. We checked the air pressure in the pressure tank and it was OK. We removed the filter assembly and confirmed that water was getting down from the well. We even pulled out the over-pressure relief valve and (after getting completely soaked and partially flooding the storeroom) confirmed that the pipe to the tank was getting fed water. Nothing we did helped or seemed to explain what was wrong. Finally I called Matt and described the problem but he didn’t recognize the symptoms. He said he would come out in the morning (“though not at the crack of dawn”) to look at the pump and to, at last, finish the rest of the project, except for the tank leak, which he said he was trying to get the tank-builder out again with his boom truck to lift it up and check the welds or something. We still had a little water pressure from the gravity feed from the tank, but not much and the pump seemed able to hold the line pressure up to about 30 psi (the system minimum setting) if we kept it running, but that was not a practical possibility.
The UPS driver arrived with 100# of chocolate this evening for our holiday candy making. We now have about 150# of toffee ordered from us. It is a very pleasant surprise that it has arrived already as we had very low expectations from the company we bought it from.
12/9/00
We worked on cleaning and setting up the kitchen for commercial production and did some preliminary mise-en-place and prep work including toasting and chopping up about 40 lbs of almonds and chopping 80 lbs. of chocolate. I got the candy stove installed and new gas line run for it and made some adjustments to the gas orifice to adapt it for LP gas.
We had to run a load of dishes and also a load of clothes and had to keep running down to plug and unplug the pressure pump to give us enough water to do it with.
Matt showed up around 3 PM and we spent about 10 minutes looking at the pressure pump. I described all the tests we had done and we repeated a couple of them again. At the end he decided that there must be a problem with the pump itself because there was no other explanation even though he’d never seen anything like this happen before. He said he would go to the valley Monday and get the new pump and be here first thing Tuesday to install it and finish up everything else too. We’ve heard that too many times before to believe, but maybe we will at least get the pump. He said that since there was plenty of water coming in there was no problem running the pump as much as we needed to to keep the pressure up when we needed it.
He then started to do the installation of the Trimetric but couldn’t find the instructions for programming it. He said he would download the manual from the company’s Internet site and bring it back next time.
After Matt left we took a hike up the mesa to find the top corner for the piece of the 40-acre adjacent property we are working on buying. It was a lovely climb with fantastic views amid some very interesting topographical and geological features. We used the GPS and successfully found the corner point survey mark right at the edge of the mesa, then quick-hiked back home to beat the failing daylight.
Today was mostly cloudy and our biggest problem now is that running the pressure pump so much eats a lot of energy. We went into the evening with just about 48.8 volts on the batteries, the lowest we’ve seen it at dusk. No extra electric usage tonight and maybe we’ll be OK ‘til morning.
12/10/00 soft water today!
The morning was very gray and cloudy and it didn’t look like we were going to get any sun today. The batteries were at 47.8 amps when I first looked at around 8AM and we knew we had to be running some electric. I got the tractor from the Barn and went up to the well to get the generator while K went for a walk with the dogs. I checked the water level in the tank and it was still more than half full despite the leak(s). I brought the generator to the Power House and got it up and running to charge the batteries.
Next I worked in the Storeroom on installing the water softener. The project went well and I was done by noon (or so I thought). One truly strange thing happened… when I turned on the pump after re-doing all the plumbing it worked fine with no problem. What ever was wrong with it for the last few days was now fixed, at least temporarily. We set the softener to recharge right away and at certain points in the cycle we noticed the pump going crazy. It would cut in and out, in and out, in and out as fast as you can say it. We checked out several possibilities for the cycling but couldn’t figure it out until I tried engaging the water softener by-pass. The pump then seemed to work normally again. It then occurred to us that the pump just wasn’t able to push water through the softener fast enough, pressure was briefly building to the cut-out point, the pump would shut off, the pressure would almost instantly drop again and the pump would then kick on. We looked at the installation diagram and sure enough we were supposed to have the pressure tank before the softener, but there really isn’t a way to do that because there is only one pipe to-and-from the tank. The solution was to give the pump an bypass route to the tank, not through the softener. That completely solved the pump problem, but K pointed out that some un-softened water could, in theory, get to house outlets without going through the softener. In order to avoid this possibility we will need to install a check valve in the bypass route to the tank so that goes on a list now.
K got a ton of office work done today, getting caught up on mucho computer accounting entry.
I returned the tractor to the Barn at around 5 PM. It was cold and windy with some pretty serious snow storm clouds far to the south. I turned off the generator (the batteries were at float) then did a little office work myself, making labels for the candy we are prepping for, before quitting for the day.
12/11/00
A beautiful clear and sunny morning so the solar panels will certainly do their thing well today.
Called in an order for some food supplies for candy making. It will be delivered tomorrow AM and we will have to go into Showlow at about 8AM to pick it up from the warehouse.
We all took a nice walk out and about, mostly out in “Woop-Woop” (the name, an Australian term for "the far side of the outback", we've given the big section of our property on the other side of Hay Hollow Draw - the big wash) and found a couple of real nice Indian pottery shard areas. We also came across some pretty fresh tracks of two people hiking across the property who apparently came in through the open gateway on the West property side. As we approached home we were surprised to find the same tracks along our driveway not 100 ft. from the house. We had not seen anybody around.
After our walk we discussed the situation with the water softener plumbing and decided that our idea about using a check valve wouldn’t work just right so we sat down and re-thought through the whole piping mess down there and came up with an elegant way to run the lines so everything would work properly at last. I then went to see if we had enough parts to do it. We did so before lunch I re-piped the water softener (for the third time). Everything tested good so I think we’re done with it. Called Matt to let him know that for whatever reason the pressure pump seemed to be behaving now but he said he’d just as soon replace it and not try to deal with and “on-again-off-again” problem with it. He said he would be out tomorrow afternoon to finish everything. Personally I give him a 1-in-6 chance, probably less.
I spent the rest of the day making about 20 dozen chocolate truffles in 6 flavors for presents etc. K tried to goof off but got bored and ended up going over to the North house and putting up plastic sheeting in all the broken windows to keep out some of the weather and varmints.
Just before sundown we all headed out to the Construction Dump and did a little shooting with K’s new .22 and my pellet gun.
12/20/00
First entry for a while. Phew, we’ve been busy. Instead of trying to give a minute-by-minute account of what’s been going on here’s a brief overview…
December 12, 13, & 14 we mostly worked in the kitchen making candies for a few corporate orders for BestToffee plus got in a little house cleaning and organizing in preparation for a visit from some friends from Tucson. We even got doors hung on the guest room and bathroom downstairs and got the plumbing working.
Matt did show up and replaced the pump, though as it turned out it probably just needed to have the venturi cleaned out. He also installed the TriMetric and finished the wiring to the North house. He didn’t have the paperwork for the TriMetric so he fudged the installation a bit and he was unable to correct the problems we’ve been having with the generator not working correctly with the inverter (it keeps tripping its breaker when any significant load starts). He is interested in buying our old well pump jack for $500 though he doesn’t want the gas engine part.
Our friends Martha and Glenda arrived from Tucson on the 15th. We met them in town, went out to lunch then had them follow us back to the ranch. We had arranged for them to bring up a full carload of stuff from the big city and they had done really well getting almost everything on our lengthy list. We played with them on the ranch for 4 days having a good time and putting them to work on occasion. They got to put in some time on the tractor as we buried the back end of a truck along with a whole big bunch of junk that was sitting out by the chicken coop, dug a large hole by the well and set up a 8’ diameter metal water tank and did various other projects. It wasn’t all work though, we took numerous walks around the area finding a good deal of pottery and petrified wood, did some star-gazing and even got them out to the Dump to do a little shooting with K’s .22.
Friends visit and we put them right to work!
Also on the 15th, Michael, the engineer from Citizen’s Communications, with whom we had been most recently discussing our phone line situation showed up. He had with him a letter stating how and where they would be running our line. As it turns out we will have to trench the last ½ mile from a new green box they will be setting at the end of the road along the West side of our property. The cost to us will be just over $200 and we can expect it to be done, probably in a month, possibly sooner. Somebody from the Snowflake office should call soon when the wire is on hand for us to pickup.
On the morning of the 16th the guy showed up here to install our new satellite TV equipment. It seems to work fine. 150 channels of nothing to watch at least until we take the time to figure it all out.
The 17th was G’s birthday so we did up a nice dinner complete with cake and ice cream, of course. We went in to town with them and had lunch on the 18th before they left the area. They were nice enough to take about 75, 2# boxes of toffee back with them to deliver to a couple of BestToffee customers in Tucson.
On the 19th, yesterday, I did a little work on organizing the Barn, getting ready to maybe start some woodworking projects. I’ve been making some drawings and plans for a work bench, a bedroom dresser and an Arts and Crafts display case for some of the pottery and neat rocks we’ve been collecting around here.
I filled the water tank to over-flowing from about 1/3 full.
Matt showed up to pick up the pump jack he wanted. While he was here we worked on changing some of the inverter settings and now the generator seems to work correctly with the inverter and doesn’t keep tripping the breaker. He checked everything over and pronounced the job done, presented us with a final bill for about $2200 minus the pump jack and my labor in helping him. I told him that the last couple of times I had filled the tank it had not leaked like it had been doing before, nor were the several small pinholes in the side of the tank leaking anymore. He said to just call him if there were any further problems.
This morning I worked again in the Barn cleaning and organizing. After lunch I called Citizen’s about the phone cable and arranged to pick up 2700 feet (2 spools and a “hand roll”) at their yard in town “by the graveyard” tomorrow morning. Bea, our realtor called and said she had just gotten something forwarded to her from the previous owners about the permit for building the stock pond on the property was expiring in a couple of weeks. We made arrangements to meet her in town tomorrow morning as well to pick it up. This afternoon K and I went out and started to do our part of the trenching for the phone. We worked 3 hours and trenched the first 330 feet from where they are supposed to set their box.
12/21/00 Shortest day of the year.
Headed into town and met with Bea, the realtor, who gave us copies of a letter from the AZ Dept of Water Resources which had been sent to the previous owners of the property. The letter basically said that the outstanding permit for the construction of a dirt livestock tank on the property was about to expire and if they didn’t get something from the property owners within 30 days of the letter (which was dated 12/8/00) it would expire. The permit was originally pulled in 1979 and has been extended several times. We’re not sure of where the tank is supposed to be constructed. There is a large excavation behind the orchard which may be related to this tank or not. The descriptions of the location are very vague and we had been planning on contacting the Water Resources dept to get more information so I guess now would be the appropriate time. Bea had no news from the person who is supposed to be selling us the adjacent 40-acre property to the east. She thinks he may be away.
We went by the phone company yard and picked up 3 spools of wire for the ½ mile run from the new box they will be putting in on the corner of the property to the house. We also did some banking, made some 1-800 phone calls, picked up some supplies at the hardware store and had lunch before heading home.
I called the number on the letter about the tank permit but the woman to whom I was supposed to speak was on vacation this week so I left a message with a receptionist who said she would find someone to call me back.
I greased up the backhoe on the tractor then we went out and continued the phone line trenching. We worked out there about 2 hours, 45 minutes (for a total of 5 hours, 45 minutes) and figure that we are now about 1/3 done (around 900 feet) with making the whole ½-mile trench. Tomorrow we will begin laying cable and doing some back filling as well as doing more trenching.
When we got back to the house, around 5:30 PM there had been a call to the mobile phone from the AZ Water person. She said that she would be there until 5 PM and then wouldn’t be back in the office until next Wednesday. Gotta love the Holidays when you’re trying to get things done.
12/22/00
I did a 10-hour (130 hours) maintenance on the tractor this morning then we headed out to work on the phone line trench. We took one of the 3, 1000-foot rolls of 5-pair direct burial cable to the beginning of the trench where the phone company engineer told us that their green junction box would be located once they ran their part of the line. K worked in the trench smoothing and checking the depth (it had to be 18” but we were running 20-24” most of the way) while I rolled out a couple hundred feet of wire. She then hand back filled a couple of inches of dirt onto the wire. Once she was a ways ahead I got on the tractor and began the bulk filling and smoothing. We worked like this until we had laid the wire and filled the entire trench we had dug so far then took lunch.
Trenching the last 1/2 mile for for cable
After lunch I started trenching with the backhoe again while K kept running between laying and hand filling more cable as we went and driving the tractor ahead when it was necessary. Eventually she ran the spool of cable out but we kept trenching until sundown and got past the halfway mark (1/4 mile) for the project. We put about 5.2 hours on the tractor and are totally done with about 1/3 of the cable-laying and have a good start for making more progress tomorrow.
12/23/00
We worked on trenching for the phone line, laying cable and filling the trench all day and made good progress. The trench is done within 300 feet or so of the house and we have 2000 feet of cable in the trench with much of it filled. We put about 6 hours on the tractor today and figure we are more than ¾ of the way done with the whole project. Tomorrow we’ll be working a short day, quitting after lunch but depending on when we get started we could possibly finish.
12/24/00
We finished trenching and laying the phone cable today and got all but maybe 500 feet of trench filled in.
Almost done trenching for the phone line
We had been noticing a small spot of moist earth on the East side of the house for a while. We noticed today that there was a pretty nasty odor as well and thought that we might be having a sewer problem but we have also just started a compost pit nearby and we just a couple of days ago noticed a leak at the propane tank which all could have contributed to the smells. Today the wet spot was quite a bit bigger so K worked with a shovel digging it up. It turned out to be a joint in a 2” PVC water line leaking pretty steadily. She got it all uncovered and we decided not to try to make the repair until the hardware stores were open in town again just in case. She checked the water level in the tank at the well and it was ½ full or better, enough to get us through tomorrow anyway.
12/25/00 Christmas
No projects planned for today and good thing too. Got a marvelous snowstorm through in the morning that kept up all day. Still flurrying at midnight with probably 4-5” accumulation. Very beautiful.
Snow for our first ranch Christmas
At one point this afternoon we noticed that the leak from the water line had worsened to the point that the 2’ deep by 3’ around hole was filled with water and overflowing all over the back yard against the house. I went out and dug a channel to route the water around the side of the house and down the hill. At 11:30 Pm we checked and found the hole empty so either the pipe fixed itself, it froze, or we ran the tank out of water. We turned off the pressure pump in case we were out it didn’t try to run dry and will deal with it tomorrow.
12/26/00
The hole we had dug to do work on the 2” pipe leak was still dry this morning (well, it was muddy as all heck, but no standing water). When we tried the pressure pump it was dry so we figured the main water tank was empty which was OK since the first order of business for fixing the leak was to cut the pipe and dry the fittings so we could get a good glue joint.
We used the tractor to enlarge the hole K had hand dug so we would have decent access for working. We had decided that this would be a good opportunity to add in an outdoor hose bib (actually a “freeze-free hydrant”) so we made sure we had room to do that as well. During the backhoe work I nicked an adjacent 2” PVC pipe and caused a fitting on it to open (it had not been primed before gluing typical of many of the joints we have noticed that the previous residents had done) so we had to repair it as well.
After we made all the repairs and added in the hydrant I went up to the well, turned off the valve for the houses (#4) and started filling the tank. We let the glue set up for an hour while we had lunch then pressurized the lines and checked for leaks (none). Later in the afternoon I used the tractor to fill in the hole. When I went up to turn off the well pump the tank was overflowing (and had been for a while making a couple of nice little streams).
12/27/00
A cold morning (19°F) but sunny and the house was comfortable. We took a walk first thing and took a bunch of pictures of the marvelous snow, ice and frost formations we found.
Ice crystals on wild grass
Called the AZ Dept of Water Resources about the stock tank project and finally spoke with a human being. She said that we 1) had to make a request to change the application into our name as new owners and, 2) had to make a request for an extension for the project. She said she would send the necessary paperwork off to us today.
After it warmed up a bit I went up the valve house and did some work insulating it with some kraft-faced batts we had previously purchased for that purpose. I also finished the piping of the main water tank overflow, and insulated the drain valve for the metal stock tank we had recently installed.
K spent most of the afternoon running phone line to the rooms in the house and installing phone jacks. She even installed all the telephones so it now looks like we can just pick them up and use them. No word from the phone company on when they will finish their part of the service install but our part is ready for them.
K noticed that the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom was wet so I ended up pulling off most of the sheetrock there to find the problem. It turned out to be a slow drip from the PVC cold water piping to the upstairs bath vanity. It was apparent that the leak had been going probably since the plumbing was installed from the amount of mold and water damage in the ceiling. We will have to pick up some more ¾ PVC fittings before fixing the leak.
The LP Gas Company did not show up today to fix the leaking fitting on the tank as they promised they would. Guess I’ll give them another call tomorrow.
12/28/00
Called the LP Gas Company. The lady said she didn’t know they hadn’t been out to fix the leak yet and would look into it and call us back. She never did.
K finished all the phone jack installations. We are really ready for phone now.
I did the outside trim on the two new exterior doors we put in a while ago. I also changed the oil in the big generator and took it to the Barn to work out an installation there for its exhaust system. I can now use it for powering the shop without asphyxiating. I tried out a few big tools and some lighting and it handled the load fine. Still need to get a proper cord and plug for tying it into the power panel there.
K did a good-sized burn pile of normal household stuff.
Got a phone call from Bea the realtor. She said that she had finally heard back from the seller of the adjacent property we are trying to buy. He said that he had signed the contract and it was on its way back to her office. Once it arrives she will open escrow. The seller will be out of the country from 1/17/01 to 2/18/01 and would be able to close either before he goes or after he gets back. I think we should do it ASAP but we’ll see how it all goes.
12/29/00
Another cold morning, about 18° when we got up. There’s still quite a bit of ground with some snow cover but much of it is melting during the nice sunny days making things very muddy in places. Even though temperature only got to about 38° for a high the sun was bright and warm.
Went into town this morning and went to the P.O., the hardware store, got gas, made some 1-800 phone calls, had lunch and did some grocery shopping. We also stopped at Farr’s to see if the return air grates we had ordered about a month ago had arrived yet. They had not.
The LP Gas guy still hasn’t been out to fix the leak in the tank. He said this morning that if he couldn’t get somebody out today he’d come out tomorrow himself.
I spent the afternoon at the Barn working on the shop set-up and running the planer on a bunch of boards. K did a little target shooting and took a walk.
12/30/00 Lost Dog
This morning we ran the water line for the refrigerator icemaker. We thought we’d be able to tap into a waterline almost directly below the fridge but the two that ran there were both dry. Heaven only knows where they run to or run from. We ended up bringing the line into the storeroom and tying in near the water softener.
I did some woodworking in the Barn in the afternoon and K went out in the truck to get the mail. Bosco followed K much of the way down San Carlos, as he often does, running like the dickens but unlike other times he had not returned by the time she got back from the mail box. She took the other dogs on a big walk down that way after she got back but there was no sign of him. We looked and called and whistled from the house to no avail. He has not yet returned. K said there were some people with vehicles along San Carlos when she drove by (with Bosco in hot pursuit) and we now wonder if one of them might not have picked him up. He was not wearing his collar or tags today and he’s such a personable little guy he’d probably get in a car with anybody who invited him in.
12/31/00
Bosco never did show up last night so we decided to go look for him this morning. I made a “Lost Dog” sign and we headed out to do something of a search. I dropped K and the remaining three dogs off at the top of “Calamity Hill” to begin walking back to the ranch from there and I went to post the sign out near the main road. We both stopped numerous cars heading in or out of the area, gave them a description of Bosco and left our phone number or calling cards with them. After returning from posting the sign I drove the truck, calling and whistling, down most of the small side roads off San Carlos between El Dorado and the ranch while K and the dogs continued walking and calling (and sniffing). We spoke with many people and got numerous suggestions of who might have taken a dog in or where we might want to look. We followed up on all the leads but after about 2 hours ran out of all reasonable possibilities and went home without finding him or anyone who had seen him.
After returning home I checked mobile phone messages and to our great surprise there was one from somebody who said they had our dog! The message was very garbled and while we could barely make out their phone number, the description of where they lived was completely unintelligible. We tried repeatedly calling the number, a cell phone, but were unable to get through. We decided to go out again and drive the area while continuing to try to call them. About half way down our drive road we met a small truck heading in. It was the people with Bosco!
As it turned out they saw Bosco chasing after a couple of cars on El Dorado the other side of Calamity Hill (by their description it sounded like the construction company trucks K had seen parked by the side of the road coming and going to the mail box yesterday). He then turned around and began chasing their car. He followed them for a while before pretty much collapsing by the side of the road almost exhausted. They took him home where they watered and fed him. He apparently had a fine time playing with their dogs and “helping” them with firewood. He slept in their kitchen last night. This morning they were on their way to the country store about a mile toward town on the main road to put up a “Found Dog” poster when they saw our sign. They called and left the message for us then went ahead and posted their sign at the store where they happened to run into one of the people K and I had waylaid on the road to tell them about our missing dog. We had given this person our calling card, which has a map of how to get to the ranch on the back side. He gave the people with Bosco the card and they drove right out here with him.
Bosco seemed kind-of in shock and a bit dazed from his ordeal. There was no jumping in joy to see us or other enthusiastic greeting. He walked over to K and just sort of sat there while we got the whole story from his rescuers. Physically he seemed in pretty good shape except for one really nasty cut on his left rear leg. It was a large tear down to the muscle with a flap of skin hanging off, likely a barbed-wire injury. If we had caught it fresh we probably would have considered going to get him some stitches, but the skin around cut had dried out and hardened too much to sew. We took him back to the house and shaved, cleaned and disinfected the cut area really well with a bleach-water solution and did the best we could to butterfly the wound closed and put a dressing on it. Bosco was a very good patient and let us do everything we needed to. He must have been really exhausted because he slept very soundly most of the rest of the day. As bad as it looks the wound does not seem to bother him. He is hardly limping and we’ve seen him trotting along with it like nothing had happened. We changed the dressing several times over the course of the afternoon and evening and will have him on some strong antibiotic pills for the next 5 days.
I did some woodworking in the Barn this afternoon and K took a couple of little walks with the guys. We even managed to stay awake until midnight to ring in the New Year. We expected to hear a barrage of gunfire at the stroke of twelve since everybody around here seems to own firearms and enjoys hunting and target shooting. We were pleasantly surprised to hear none. Apparently there is a lot more common sense about indiscriminate shooting here, where it would be legal to shoot than there is in Tucson where we often felt like hiding under the bed New Years Eve so many fools would be out discharging weapons illegally. Happy New Year!