Monday, October 7, 2024

Living in the Country

 Well, Good Monday Morning campers.  Hope all you Sarge-like commuters made it safely to your place of employment today.  Hope all you juvat-like retirees rolled over and went back to sleep for a bit.

Ain't Life Grand?

Speaking of sleep, I'm a bit cranky this morning as there's been a significant impact on my sleeping routine.  As most of you know, we inherited my sister's dogs when she passed away a little of a year ago.  One Golden Retriever (dumber than a box of rocks), my sister was the fifth person to adopt him, we're #6.  Suffice it to say he's a bit nervous and wants a lot of attention.  We’ve also got two Great Pyrenees.  One's 5 and an excellent dog.  The other just turned 1, is full grown and has one bad habit.  He barks at anything/everything.

This makes it difficult to sleep.  We put them outside at night which reduces the noise somewhat, but he's discovered which end of the house we sleep at and decided to set up his sentry station there.  Mrs. J purchased some earplugs which help but I can still hear him.

Last night the barking got to the Golden Retriever.  He started whining and barking.  I had to get up three times at about 1, 2:30, and 4, to put him outside.  Then  just about each time I started to fall back to sleep corresponded with when he wanted me to retrieve him so he could to return to his bed.  

This is the young GP.  He will sleep during the day though sometimes.  Just not at night.

 

What's causing all this issue, juvat?

Well this....


So, our next "door" neighbor just sold his property (~200 acres) and the new owner wants to raise cattle.  We share a fence line.  The cattle were curious and checked out the horses.  I'm pretty sure, the horses told them to "sod off or we'll herd you till you drop" or something.  The young GP however, wanted to bark at them.  Didn't seem to faze the cattle which made Gryndll (the dog's name) bark at them more.  

Haven't figured out a solution to that problem yet.  No, inside is NOT the answer.  One can only hope he gets bored or laryngitis. 

Or both.

Did have a little bit of fun this past week though.  A few months ago, we helped The Rev and MBD renovate their house.  I had left a few tools and clamps that I don't use regularly with them.  Now Mrs Juvat has plans for Christmas gifts and woodworking, with those tools, is a big part of that project.  

So, we scheduled a day trip to College Station.  Left early to beat the Austin traffic, go there, loaded up the tools and stuff, and hung out with MBD and the Grands.

Managed to install a tree swing and have it checked out by an "Expert".





Had a great time, found a new burger place right across the street from A&M.  Yes, Beans, without a doubt, I was, at a minimum, twice as old as the next oldest, not member of my family, guest.  

Probably closer to three times.

It was a great time, but unfortunately, we had to get back to the 'Burg.  Horses and Dogs to be fed don'cha know?

Also, unfortunately, we managed to begin the Austin transit right about rush hour.  I did manage to demonstrate that my patience level has not changed for the better since the last time I was stuck in traffic.

Woke up the next morning and let the dogs out.  A bit later, Mrs J made them breakfast while I tried to round them up.  Went to get the youngest dog (AKA the least likely to come when called) and discovered one of the joys of living on property outside of city limits.

Your water supply is called a "Well".  Which means if the Well ain't working, you ain't got water.  Water is pretty high on the "Critical things" you need to have to live in the country.




The well is leaking water at a fairly high rate. There are very few places to stand without sinking into the mud to your ankles.  

Now, not having the faintest bit of knowledge about well functionality, I got on the phone with the folks that had installed it.

About an hour later, they arrived, figured out where the Well Circuit Breaker's are located.  (I didn't know we had two CB boxes and Well CB's were on both.). Popped them, found the PVC pipe from the well head to the pressure tank had cracked and water was pouring from it.  They replaced the pipe, reset the CB's and voila'.

Learned a few lessons.  First, that there are more than one set of CB's for the Well.  And, they're in different breaker boxes on the property. We had just the day before had the Water Softener guys come out and drain that (the Hard Water heater).  I only knew about the first set of CB's so they popped only them. The second set was still pumping water into the pressure tank and weakened the PVC.  

Haven't got the bill yet, so not exactly sure how much that lesson learned will cost me.

Ahh well, life is about learning.  I'm a tad smarter this week than I was last, but I'm sure the Big Guy upstairs has more lessons in store to further my education.  

Peace Out Y'all!





54 comments:

  1. Why not lend the Hoarse Hellhound to the cattle guy for a few nights....preferably cold nights. Perhaps his herding instincts will kick in, perhaps self-preservation will motivate him to shut up and cuddle up, or perhaps Mr and Mrs Moocow will learn him some respect, or even friendship.

    Best of luck,

    Stefan v.

    p.s. Yoo rite gud. Wen yu start agin?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stefan,
      Some good, and tempting, suggestions there. Might give a few of them a try.
      juvat
      p.s. Tanks!

      Delete
  2. Funny how those lessons learned often come at the cost of the wallet eh? Any vital parts of the well and CBs need to be duplicated and kept on hand for "just in case"? Good luck with the young pup juvat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nylon,
      I'm sure there are, but...I don't know what they are nor how to install them. I suppose I could learn, but watching the guys fixing it, they knew what they were doing and why. I didn't. And, not having water is a big deal, so I think reaching into my back pocket is the more reliable course of action in water related problems.
      Thanks
      juvat

      Delete
  3. I'll assume you've tried bark collars. You may need contact a trainer.

    Pretty fancy tree swing. Before getting the photo in view my mental picture was of two lenghts of half inch line passing through holes in the ends of a chu k of 2x6 and a Figure 8 knot to secure it. Irvthe single hole variant, with a central hole and one piece of line. Either sir astride or stand on it and pretend to be Tarzan

    Times have sure changed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joe,
      No, haven't tried the collar. Will ponder that one for a bit. As is mentioned below, guard dogging is bred into them, so I'm not so sure about the outcome of a collar and the impact on the dog.
      Thanks, Didn't get a vote on the swing. MBD had already bought it and I just hung it up. I do remember your recommended type of swing from when I was a kid. Lots of fun and could be used to whack the dinosaur on the nose if he got too close.
      Yes, they have and not always for the better.
      juvat

      Delete
  4. Great Pyrenees operating software, hard coded is to bark at threats. Real or imagined. Can’t be changed. Since he’s new kid there he’s doing what a GP thinks best and the cattle are a novelty. He will settle down but ‘yotes, (if you have them there), other dogs, anything novel that pops up on radar, gonna get barked at. The joys of a protective breed. He has another there so he will learn some. I have a seven year old shelter dog and he’s loving, cuddly and sometimes infuriating.
    Alan E.

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    Replies
    1. Alan,
      I suspected that was the case. Of course, the problem is false alarms. So I hope the older dog is having an impact on the younger one.
      You're right, both of them are very affectionate with us and the extended family, so I guess there's hope.
      Thanks
      juvat

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  5. Ah, the joys of home ownership. Something's broken, do I know someone who can fix this? Can I fix it myself? Will the wife notice it's broken?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarge,
      You're right. I can fix some things (i.e. replace a burned out light bulb). But, as the movie says, "a man's gotta know his limitations!"
      I'm pretty good at assessing where the break point is and I know where the phone is and I'm not afraid to use it.
      Mrs. J appreciates that also.
      ;-)
      juvat

      Delete
    2. Sometimes roles are reversed. I got Culligan to replace out replaceable water softener tanks with a regenerating system (also rented from them, so any malfunctions are their problem). Two innocents arrived expecting to unscrew the old flexible hoses from the PVC pipe, screw on new ones to the new softener, set it up and be gone. It was 1/2" copper pipe and the hose connections at that end had not been unscrewed for forty years as far as I knew. They spend a blasphemous couple hours punctuated with we don't have a channel locks/wrench/pipe wrench/another pipe wrench/hammer/torch & solder/etc. We'll have to go back to the shop". (Oh no you don't). "I've got one right here". The copper tubing looked like it had been in a fight, but they left with the new one installed and working.

      Delete
    3. Don,
      Interesting, although I'm not sure what actually happened to the system in the handover. Could you 'splain a bit more, please? Looking for a more reliable handover.
      Thanks
      juvat

      Delete
    4. Juvat, The old system was a (heavy) ion ion-exchange resin cylinder (thing 3/4 size O2 tank) to soften the water that every month had to be lugged up a steep set of basement stairs and the replacement lugged back down. The new one senses when the resin is no longer softening and automatically flushes it with salt water to drain until it is recharged (the same as they do with the cylinders).

      Delete
    5. Don,
      You’re a braver man than me. Think I’ll stick wit the “Call a plumber” option should the need arise.
      juvat

      Delete
  6. I have fond memories of the swing chair in my grandmother's carriage shed in her house in Porterville, CA. That was back from 66 to 70. By the time we returned from dead-center Pacific three years later the aforementioned swing was too old and too small. Sigh. Sometimes growing up sucks.

    And water issues. Woke up at around 4am to do the old man thing (going to the pisser every 2 hours or so) and the floor by the bathroom went squish and was very wet-cold. Thinking I knew what I was doing, that being the a/c drain line was clogged, I opened the utility closet, hot water heater on bottom, a/c air handler on top and used the ever handy-dandy wet/dry vac and sucked the a/c drain line clean, then blew, then sucked some more and got some serious chunks out, cleaned up the vac and went back to bed fully expecting to go out today and get a carpet shampooer/carpet wet vac to suck up the wetness in said carpet.

    Got up at 9 (we have weird hours here due to wife's messed up sleep schedule thanks to too many hits inside her noggin) and put my feet down to, yes, waddle back to the bathroom and the floor next to the bed, which is in the front room (wheel-chair accessible, the actual designated 'bedroom' is right next to the bathroom and is at the back of the apartment) and the floor next to the side of my bed went 'squish' and was wet/cold to my feet.

    Ah, Copulate!!! Said aforementioned water heater has now defecated in it's sleeping spot and is now leaking everywhere. Turn off the circuit breaker for it, go to shut off the valve on top and it wouldn't budge. Ah, Defecate! Call management, they send the maintenance guy over and he says, "Forsooth, yon heater of aqua has suffered a misshap and is now morte, pushing up daisies, less functional than our current administration, yada yada..." (Actually he said, "Yep, it's dead.") And he just reached in and shut it off.

    I tried for 4 minutes to get that devil-be-damned valve shut. He got it done in less than 20 seconds.

    Bonus round of suckage - here in Alachua County, FL our county administrators are freaking out about the storm named after someone who had his stapler taken, that being Milton, and so since the county admins are freaking so are everyone under them is freaking. So we may not get the hot water heater fixed soon nor have the copious amount of water in the carpet removed any time soon.

    To top it off, Mrs. Andrew had a critical doc appointment scheduled for the day the last hurricane passed through, Thursday the 24th, so we rescheduled for the following Wednesday, where in the wee hours she got sicker than a dog, so we rescheduled to this coming Wednesday, you know, the day Milton is supposed to be spanking our behinds with at least lots of water if not some really high winds.

    Yay. Go me!

    "Sulu, set suckage factor to 9!" "Aye, Captain, Suckage Factor set to 9." "Engage!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beans, Don't know what I did, but my response is a page scroll or so, below. Sorry.
      juvat

      Delete
    2. Blogspot has been posting a lot of my comments as "anonymous," so... Blogspot.

      Delete
    3. Beans, we went with a tankless water heater when ours blew it's load all over our garage. It's a wait for hot water, but my gas bill is less.

      Delete
    4. Beans,
      I had problems logging in yesterday when I was writing the post. I had to go through some Google maze (I use Firefox as my browser. I could read my post in Firefox, but trying to fix a problem required I go through Google.). Finally, had to copy my work at that point. Delete the post and start over. Not sure what that was all about, but it was definitely a PITA for about an hour.
      juvat

      Delete
    5. Tuna, we've got a tankless water heater in our attic over the master bath. The regular water heater is on the opposite side of the house in the garage. We were getting tepid water in the shower at best. The tankless one is great. Hot water is coming out of the shower head in less than a minute.
      juvat

      Delete
    6. Since it's an apartment with no gas, they went with a high-efficiency

      Delete
    7. regular water heater. Eh, it didn't come out of my pocket.

      Delete
  7. Juvat - My sister and brother in law have a GP around 2 years of age now. They ended up have to get a bark collar because the neighbors were complaining. Maybe not an ideal solution, but it works.

    Re: Well. Got a call from my tenant/friend about a loss of water pressure at The Cabin at my parents place. Fortunately the fix sounded simple, but the bill has yet to arrive. Sigh. Country living indeed. Best of luck to having the situation resolved quickly (and yes, knowing where everything is can be a bit of project).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THBB,
      I'm gonna have to talk over bark collar with Mrs J. Maybe just at night?
      Once we got the water shut off, it was just a matter of draining the pressure tank and replacing the PVC pipe between the well and it. Turn it back on and Voila'. That having been said, if it happens again, I think it'll still be 1-800-Hello Pump Guy again.
      juvat

      Delete
    2. Juvat, they only use it when the dog is out in the yard and they are not home. It seems to be a reasonable compromise.

      Delete
    3. THBB,
      Might have to think that through. Thanks for the advise.
      juvat

      Delete
  8. Bark collars. I've never used them but know some folks that have had success with them. Perhaps you might check with a veterinarian?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WSF,
      Veternarian? Absolutely! I don't know what I don't know.
      juvat

      Delete
  9. Think that GP dash 2 would either mature or get used to them if he's up close and personal with them for a bit? One of the joys of retirement is plenty of sleep, but not if he keep that up (and disturbs the Goldie).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tuna,
      Yeah, much like WSF mentioned above, next time we're at the Vet, I'm gonna talk to them about it. Lord knows I need my Beauty Rest. (Even on a good day)
      juvat

      Delete
  10. Beans,
    Well....Good to see your sense of humor and command of the English Language (Cussing edition) is still in fine shape. May things start to go right in your neck of the woods with little to no hurricane damage. I think the last one did enough of that to last a while.
    juvat

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    Replies
    1. Helene thrashed a lot of trees in the area and saturated the ground, so Milton may just push a lot more trees over. Ah, well, gonna be fun. Yehaw. Love this stuff. Whooo!!!

      Delete
    2. Beans, over here on the other side, we are awaiting what you don't use of the storm.
      Our condo has a rule that all water heaters must be replaced at ten years of age. It has worked out to be a good thing, even though some say, "Well it's working fine and I won't replace it!" As you know, there is nothing worse than water leakage in a condo (except in Texas, where it seems to be worse, somehow).

      Delete
    3. Lt Fuzz,
      On the bright side, the area of lawn that the water flooded, is significantly greener than the rest of the property. So….I got that going for me.
      :-)
      juvat

      Delete
    4. The aforementioned water heater has now been replaced with a bright shiny new one. Which required 2a guys to use ancient Chinese acrobat moves to disconnect, remove, move in and hook up. Aforementioned water heater was installed in 1995. It was a rust bomb waiting to happen.

      So now we have a dehumidifier and a fan attempting to dry the apartment. And the carpet suckers are coming to suck the carpet tomorrow and treat said carpet to not harbor bad growy things.

      Delete
    5. Beans,
      Glad things are looking better within the apartment. Hope things stay well outside.
      juvat

      Delete
  11. Looked up some stuff on GP's and bark collars were listed. It suggested a walk at night and their own soft toy that goes out with them so he has "his" own toy to cuddle with. He's not had a stable first year and at 1 he's is still just a Big puppy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anon,
      Thanks, those sound like good suggestions, thanks.
      juvat

      Delete
  12. Juvat, some days I envy your workshop, acreage, dogs, fences and the like. Not today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LtFuzz,
      Just a tad tired and cranky. In general, things are good. Fixin to head out to the workshop and make some sawdust. That should reduce the blood pressure.
      juvat

      Delete
  13. Perhaps I have mentioned that one of our granddogs is a GP.
    His best feature, which he seems to enjoy using, is his bark, and he’s a pretty good watchdog.
    Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to being a guard dog.
    The other things he does well are, eat, steal food, hunt for food, sleep, and he has become a replacement for the doorbell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Skip,
      I like the dog a lot. He’s very affectionate with Mrs J and I. I just wish his sleep cycle and mine were synchronized.
      juvat

      Delete
  14. My sister-in-law's discharge pipe from her well broke about three weeks ago. Of course, it was late in the evening, and the initial survey revealed what looked like a fitting that came loose. We eventually had it repaired, and working, but it involved raising the tank, with new PVC piping, and most of the next day.

    After years of not having the money to fix my water system, I had to learn how to fix everything, including replacing a well-head seal. It's saved me a lot of money, and led to a tremendous amount of mosquito whelps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jess,
      While I don't have a lot of skills, I'm perfectly willing to learn. Any pointers to where to look for clues?
      juvat

      Delete
    2. Juvat-
      U-toob.
      Look for how a home water well works.

      It's really pretty basic, the well pump (in the shaft), the pipe going to the pressure tank and a pressure switch.

      Delete
    3. KurtP,
      Will do, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
      juvat

      Delete
  15. We also have two GPs, Jupiter, and his daughter, Lilyana. When I get home in the morning, Lilly joyfully leaps all over me. I quite often wind up bleeding, as her front toenails have a chisel edge.

    She also likes barking. I will grab my .45, and Stream light, when I investigate, as one time last February, it was a cougar, in the field across the road.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. StB,
      Any clues on when it's a real threat or just dogs barking in the night? I believe they're on the home team, but not seeing what they're barking at.
      juvat

      Delete
    2. They barking seems more urgent, when it's the real thing, rather than barking at a passing deer, or coon, or possum.

      Delete
    3. StB,
      Good to know, thanks.
      juvat

      Delete
  16. Just to give you something to look forward to (eyeroll emoji) Austin is going to be working on lowering I-35 in the next couple years.
    Something about lowering it around Cezar Chaves to like sixth street so they can "top" it and make a park, or something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kurt,
      oh boy! Won’t THAT be fun!
      juvat

      Delete
  17. Oh yes, life 'lessons'...we never stop learning...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OldNFO,
      And relearn and re-relearn etc. etc. etc….
      juvat

      Delete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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