Home Ownership – Gizzo Bike Works

Water Wonderland

Our home has a nice well. It doesn’t have massive gallons per minute, but it tastes good, is soft enough, and doesn’t have any nasty chemical contamination. It began surging recently.

It was obvious filling the toilet bowl – water entering faster, slower, faster, slower. It became apparent in the shower and at the kitchen sink. The water source is in Gizzo’s Crucible, House of Horrors, or workshop (depending on your attitude toward a chaotic work space). There was a box on the wall, clicking with each surge, so every few seconds a click.

Yikes! What ever should Gizzo do? Gizzo called Pelch.

Pelch is the kind of guy who seems to know something about everything. He is a wondrous, giving font of information who does not hesitate to come running when called upon. Everyone should know a Pelch-type person – funny, joyful, inquisitive… This one was easy – he answered Gizzo’s email.

Pelch said that he had the same problem, called a friend in the water filtration business who told him that wells are not part of his part of the business, so call Spafford and Sons. ”They put in a new well pump for me and solved the problem.”

Gizzo called and soon BJ and Chase showed up with a new pressure tank.

“Pressure tank? You sure its the pressure tank?”

It seems the big blue bottle has a bladder in it. The bladder makes the water go up into the house from the basement. That compression keeps the well pump from running all the time. The old blue bottle had a hole in the bladder, so the pump was struggling to keep up. Good pump – bad tank.

Here is a picture of BJ & Chase contemplating installing the new pressure tank.

It looked as if the old tank was installed around the time of the Civil War. BJ would try to unscrew something and something would break, so try to unscrew that and the next thing failed. Broken pressure gauge, new capacitor, “T” fitting …. It took three hours for these intrepid young men to complete the task.

We have nice consistent pressure now, no mud in the water, maybe even a teeny tiny bit more pressure. Another positive – Gizzo had to move a pile of rubble in order for the new tank to be installed. Yay! More space in the Crucible. At least until the stuff moved out has to go back in…

There, all finished and back to abnormal.

Little Bits of Plastic

Environment, Home Ownership

Contemplating the abusive use of single use plastic, Gizzo says it must end. Gizzo supports legislation limiting its use. Gizzo is disgusted so many people thoughtlessly use and dispose of plastic. It is everywhere.

Seriously, plastic is made from petroleum, one of the major causes of war. People suffer and die so we may wrap our food in plastic. Money is diverted from use for the common good in order to keep the world safe for oil.

Plastic is a huge environmental catastrophe – harvestng the oil, transporting it, and then turning it to plastic for what – a convenient shopping experience? Plastic clogs our oceans, fills our landfills,and is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces entering, the food chain. We must stop this madness.

At home we reduce its use as much as possible. Just don’t use it, don’t take it, don’t buy it. We reuse the vegetable bags at the grocery until they are contaminated or wearing out, then they see final service as a “doggy bag” when the canine does her duty. Our garbage bags are the plastic bags that food comes packaged in. Recycle? Reuse? Hell, yes.

Gizzo has long been bothered by the little bits of plastic, the stuff under two inches in any two dimensions, which cannot be recycled. What to do with that?

My solution is to use a milk carton or some other useless container as a collection point for the little bits of plastic otherwise headed for the trash. Once the carton is filled, I’ll seal it up and trash it, sequestering the small bits so they cannot roam free in the environment. (Full disclosure: In Vermont we can avoid milk cartons by buying milk in returnable bottles, but sometimes revert to the carton out of expediency. No one is perfect)

It is a small thing, but if we all do the small things it will help – and we need all the help we can get. Gizzo does not care that masses of people are stupidly unconcerned about single-use plastic. Gizzo does not care that huge corporations like Amazon waste it shipping things in too-big boxes.

Gizzo does what Gizzo thinks is right.

Raindrops Falling on My Head

Home Ownership

A couple of years ago we had our ceiling caulked, sealed and insulated. It made a huge difference in the comfort of our home. Good thing – the odds that we live here long enough to pay for the work, even with a low-interest energy efficiency loan, is slim indeed. The good news it that we met Mike D from Sisler Builders who did the work.

Last year I contacted him about the ceiling in our living room. Not their responsibility and of course, with a busy lifestyle, I neglected taking further action. Besides, we installed a wood stove in the sunroom this fall and the only time I saw the living room was to turn out a light on the way to bed.

Today while toasting bagels a drop of water fell on my head. Sadly, I was standing in the kitchen.

I tremble at the thought of soaking the insulation which was installed just a few years ago. My gut feeling is we need a new roof. We have the receipt for our 40 years guarantee shingles installed 20 years ago, but that may only be good to start a fire.

I wrote to Mike. We shall see what is next in our grand adventure of home ownership.