September Flew By

September has been beautiful.  Plenty of rain with crisp nights and warm days.  We have been working on our water supply.  We bought a Solar Slowpump by Dankoff, which can pump to a maximum of 240 feet straight up with a speed of a little over 2 gallons per minute.  The 550 gallon storage tank above our house is about 120 ft vertical from the creek (60 ft vertical above the house), and with a 175 watt (24 Volt) solar module, we should be able to fill the tank in about 4 hours of sunshine.  Below is a picture of the pump (black round thing) in its housing.  To the left are a sediment filter (the pump is very sensitive to debris - fortunately the creek is very clean) and a priming port, then in the water is a foot valve (check valve) and a screen.  To the right are a check valve, a faucet and a pressure gauge.  The pressure should read about 60 PSIG when the water reaches the storage tank.  The house pressure is 30 PSIG when gravity fed from the storage tank.

 This is the solar panel that runs the pump.  Today we tested the system and found 2 leaks.  One was a joint I forgot to glue (old age sucks).  We have cleared out the path for the water pipe and laid out the pipe.  Next we will rent a trencher and a couple of the neighborhood high school boys to run it!!

On the home front, we cleaned out the screened porch and set up a new chop saw in preparation for installing the ceiling (tongue and groove poplar) and the window and door trim.

Also, the kitchen sink has been refinished and looks beautiful.  This was the sink in the old church that we were working on before the flood.  It is enamel over steel.  I love the two drainboards.  It is sitting on cardboard and is not installed yet.

The bathroom cabinets have been installed.  They are black walnut.  On the right is the cabinet for the composting toilet. All of the kinds of wood we have used in building the house (poplar, hickory, walnut, pine, red cedar) grow in abundance on our property.  We are preserving the forest to replenish what we use and much more.  

 

Finally, Randy painted the basement walls.  He put on two coats of Drylok (white), then one coat of green that matches the rest of the house exterior.

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of our buying the property and the first anniversary since moving into the basement.  We were hoping to be moving "upstairs" by now, but it still will be a few months at least.