Saturday, April 15, 2017

Streaming Easter

Good heavens it's already almost 11:30 pm! Time flies when you're dying eggs. Good thing the Easter bunny no longer has to hide the eggs before the crack of dawn anymore. There's no way our teenager will get up before 10:00 so the bunny can sleep in a bit. Tonight we had Dan and Zaga over for dinner--lobster ceviche with mango and avocado, rotisserie duck with the Charlie Trotter Moroccan BBQ sauce, and orzo with mint and mango. Zaga brought a fantastic lemon tart to finish up and we all waddled away from the table. Zaga is my partner in bees, and tonight she proposed getting some chickens together so it looks like we're going to have girls again! As with the bees, she will take care of them in the summer while we are in Montana, and the coop and run will cross over a bit of both of our backyards. Who knows, goats next?

Today Jay also came over and got the stream going, and after watching it for awhile we determined that the original owners of the house probably had a system that ran at least 100 gallons of water a minute down the stream. We were pushing 30-35 today, and the stream never really filled up and flowed. It trickled. So next week, a new catch basin to hold the extra water that will be in the system when it's fully powered so we can turn it off and it won't overflow at the bottom, a bigger pump, bigger pipe through which to push the water up the hill, and a bigger gravity drain from the bottom pool into the pump housing basin. We've also got some mortar leaks to seal--might even pressure wash and seal the entire thing and then it will run as good as new. Jig walked out and inspected the next to the bottom pool, and I got this picture of him just as he turned around which makes it look like he's only half a dog. But the stream looks nice!

Final big news for the day is that I not only got another couple of glass orders, but I also had a really cool idea for some cast sculpture that will require several different techniques to get all the pieces the way I want them. I don't think I will ever do this work commercially because I can't see being able to get the price I would need for the pieces, but it will be fun work, and I have a garden where I can put it. Pics when it's all done--don't want to tip my hand till I've worked out all the details.

5 comments:

Bill said...

Just for the sake of argument, is the stream not full because the original planner left leeway in case of heavy rains swelling it?

Brenda Griffith said...

I don't think so. When there were heavy rains, it would just overflow. Looking at the patterns from the former water flow, the only way it would reach those levels regularly enough to leave a mark would be if it normally had a higher flow rate.

Bill said...

What do you plan to do if it floods, then?

Brenda Griffith said...

It runs over and runs down the hill with the rest of the rainwater. Though we will have a 250 gallon tank under the deck to catch the overflow which we can use as a backup water.

Bill said...

That's sensible.