More Work on the Homestead

I wrote this article two weeks ago and got busy/distracted and never got around to posting it. So, here it is now.

When my friend M and I were up at Moody Girl Farm a couple weeks ago, we got a lot accomplished.

Monday afternoon M was able to get running water to the tub.  All of the water lines in the house are PVC piping, some just 1/2 inch, and the kitchen pipes (shown below) were busted. 

The day I closed on the property M hooked up the commode to the water line we previously found so it would work.  Getting water to the tub next meant being able to take some kind of a bath.  As it turned out, the rubber washers inside the tub fixtures were pretty dried out and the faucet dripped pretty badly at first, plus when I switched it to 'shower' mode, it leaked from the connection.  After using the faucet to fill up a bucket a bunch of times to help flush the commode, the faucet dripped much less.  I guess the washer absorbed enough moisture to work again.  The hot water heater isn't hooked up so I've decided to get rid of it and put a new one in later on.  I don't think it's been used for 5-6 years, so who knows what's been growing inside it!  It's safer to start off with a new one.

This means that showers would be cold water only, something I am not inclined to do.  Instead, I've been heating a pan full of water on the hot plate and adding it to the cold water in a 5-gallon bucket and using that to wash off.  Of course the tub drains out into the yard right now (see below).  I'm not sure if it ever was connected to the sewer line.  The commode is the only thing that drains to the sewer line at this time.  (Here's another view of the junk that has since been removed.)

Tuesday morning M got started on the electrical - he installed a new electric service loop and ran wires to the kitchen and bedroom, each having their own 15 amp breaker.  The electricity was already 'on' when I bought the house, most of the overhead light fixtures worked, but very few of the outlets did.  Electrical service here is different than in San Antonio.  In S.A. we have City Public Service who provides everything.  At Moody Girl Farm, because it's in a small town, the power lines belong to one company, and you pay for electricity to another.  I have no idea what name the electric service was in before I bought the property.  Once M had the service loop installed, I called one of the providers and set up an account.  For a $6 fee, they expedited my service request and the electrician was there by 4:30 to read the meter.  I found out the electrician lives about 4 blocks away and I was his last stop for the day!

I was so much in love with the kitchen when I first saw the property, but every time I came up to see it, my love for the kitchen diminished.  The roof/ceiling slopes down to about 7 feet along the back wall which is where the kitchen cabinets are.  This is a 'before' photo, I've since cleared off the counters, but I didn't get an 'after' photo.  The wall cabinets are barely 12 inches off the counter because the ceiling is so low.  I love the dual drain board double sink, but it has several worn places and I have no idea how much it would cost to refinish it.  I think a brand new sink would be better anyway, health-wise.  I may be able to use the lower cabinets; I'd want to put a new countertop on it though, with the new sink.

I pulled up some of the carpet in the living room and pried up one of the floor boards to see under the house.  It sags 3-4 inches in the middle section and I wanted to see what caused it to do that.  I was afraid the wooden posts (foundation) had rotted, but what I found was that the large stones the beams actually sit on have shifted.  I imagine over time the dirt/ground under them has eroded and now some of the stones are 3-4 inches below the beams.  That's good news actually.  It means the leveling process shouldn't be too difficult since they're not having to replace rotted wood.

UPDATE:  I have gotten two quotes over the last couple weeks for leveling the house including raising the whole thing an additional 12 inches.  The front half of the house is barely 15 inches off the ground and really hard to work under.  Fortunately, the little bit of plumbing I've had done has all been around the periphery and only to the bathroom.  There's no plumbing to the kitchen.  I am now seriously considering removing the back half of the house which would include the current kitchen.  This section is maybe 5-6 inches off the ground and will be the most difficult to raise and level.  After opening up some of the floor I saw that the 2x4 2x6 floor joists for this back section were toe-nailed to the main house.  They've held up so far, but I've been concerned about how that part of the house could be raised without the joists pulling loose.  Plus, it has seven-foot ceilings that I would eventually want raised to eight feet.  If I remove it, I can rebuild it later and do it right.  In the meantime, I can still visit/live in the front half.
(before the sheds were removed)

That's it for now. I'm planning another trip to Moody Girl Farm next week, maybe an overnighter if my kitty is doing better.  I'll have more photos and comments after that.

Town Garden May 11, 2018

I've gotten started on my veggie garden here in town.  I began my seeds around the 21st of March, and started more on April 3rd and April 11th.  I was able to get the seedlings in the beds over the last two weeks, working a few hours every 4-5 days.  I planted the last of them today.

This is the sketch of my proposed garden I included in my "2018 Town Garden" post on January 27.  The actual beds are slightly different.  And I've already harvested the radishes, all five of them. 

Bed #1 has two cucumber plants as planned.  However, one of last year's cotton plants began to leaf out before I could pull them all out, so I left it in place.  Plus, the onions I put in here last year have multiplied, and there are several vines growing that I thought was a volunteer sweet potato, but it's not.

 

Bed #2 has three rows of corn, a couple bell peppers, carrots and more onions, plus lots of nasturtiums and marigolds.  The bell peppers are in the lower right corner, where I already harvested the radishes.

Bed #3 has three lima bean plants beginning to trail up the trellises, plus basil, parsley, oregano, and dill, and nasturtiums and California poppies.  And catnip in the pot.  I didn't do any beans and I probably won't do rutabagas.  This is the bed where the luffahs grew out of control last  year, and the Bermuda grass got its foot in the door, and wouldn't leave!  I've mounded dirt/mulch around each plant so I can just water it, rather than use the sprinkler and water the whole bed which would include the Bermuda grass.

Bed #4 in the back yard has four tomato plants plus marigolds, and one humongous giant sunflower.  A bird must have dropped the seed there, I certainly didn't.  The two tomatoes at the bottom of the photo are cherry tomatoes, and . . . . . they're indeterminates.  I'll have to built a much studier cage for them to grow on, those round ones will never contain them! 

 



That's it for the Town Garden for now. 





More Before and After Photos

My visit to Moody Girl Farm this week was shorter than originally planned.  I have a sick cat at home and didn't want to leave her for the longer trip.  Mostly what I wanted to see was if my Junkman had removed the attached sheds on the north side of the building.  Here are some before and after photo.
There's a tree that fell and is leaning on the sheds.  My Junkman had to remove it before he could get to the sheds. Just below the windows on the shed you can see a TV laying on those rocks.  Those rocks are stacked around the opening to the cistern.  I measured it and it's 12 feet deep and about 8 feet in diameter at the bottom.  There's about a foot of trash on the bottom, so I'll have to get/hire someone to go down there and clean it out.  If it's still usable, I'll try to divert rain runoff from the roof down to it and use that to water my gardens. 





























This was the view out the Kitchen door.

The sheds were attached to the north side of the house and stuck out further back than the house.

Here is what I saw when I arrived Monday.

That piece of plywood on the ground near the house is covering the opening to the cistern.  That pile of stuff in the back yard is the 'burn pile'.  There's a burn ban right now so it's just going to sit there for a while.  There is no City Dump in my small town so people just pile it up and burn it.  That's country living for you!

This is my new view from the kitchen.  Much nicer!

Although my trip was just for the day, I met with another house leveler.  The first one I talked to last week gave me an estimate of $8,400, but only gives a one year warranty.  The man I talked to Monday quoted $12,800 but allows a 15-year warranty.  Not a hard choice to make. 

I will try to add a post tomorrow or Friday with photos from the trip last week.