March 2023 Island Visit – Day 5

Today was productive and fun. We finally, after working on its creation for more than a year, fired off the burn pile! It’s still smoldering away, and we all (us and tenants) happily smell like a campfire. Our inner caveman pyro needs have been satisfied. Our AN brought his super long propane torch as an ignition device. The pile was dry enough that we were able to turn off the propane in less than a minute. Of course we added to the pile during the day. Fir and alder branches, and the ubiquitous pieces of wood that are just too rotten to bother salvaging.

Our AN and I got under the house and agreed on what needed to happen to separate the water systems:

• Deep well turned off.
• Drain pipes in house.
• Go under house.
• Cut gap in 3/4” water line. Maybe removing 12-18” of the pipe. Solder caps on each end of the cut.
• Done.

Well, wait until the solders cool, turn the deep well back on, watch for any drips at new cap on the deep well end etc. The point is that it’s not rocket science. Additionally we may have to replace the pump controller on the ground well side of things, but that kind of becomes its own project. The controller for the ground well is likely very old and was behaving erratically last time our AN took a look at it. The finale will be going back under the house to make sure the ground cap doesn’t leak, and the garden will have its own water supply!

We spent some time up in the aforementioned firs. My DH cleared the limbs I had pruned, while I removed more dead wood using the orchard ladder (he brought up for me). More light and airflow will keep these trees healthy, good looking, and magical.

Our knife guru return our knives and accused us of being sharp blade snobs. Evidently they didn’t need a lot of sharpening, just a little tip repair. We told him this state of affairs was entirely his fault, and he agreed 😂. It was nice to visit for a bit before he headed off to deliver chainsaw chains to a client.

My DH loaded the truck with firewood with my minimal involvement. I placed small pieces, he handed me, into the load and slid some bigger pieces into place. He handled all the large ones. Hopefully the weather will be such that by the time this load runs out we’ll be beyond needing (wanting) evening fires. Between the two properties we have more than a year of wood. Time to start looking for more…