Stop and smell the flowers

It's been raining for two days here, but we are happy for the rest. Of course, rest is not all we do on rainy days...we shop! Larry replaced the shower curtain in our renovated bathroom with one of those curved hotel rods. What a difference it makes. And he installed a new Waterpik handshower. Next he'll replace the rusty spout. Our long-term plan for this bathroom is to expand it by about two feet and replace everything in it. The tub will also become a large shower. But, this won't happen until next year, so whatever we can do to make this room more user-friendly and pleasant to be in is "a good thing".

Today, we will buy a gas grill (we only have a huge charcoal grill, and that just takes way too long) and an umbrella to sit over our new glider on the dock. I bought a two-seater glider from the arts & crafts fair at the State Fairgrounds last weekend. It's made from recycled plastic and is really comfortable. Now it just needs some shade. And, I need more grass seed (Centipede seed is really expensive) and fertilizer. We bought pelletized lime last night.

This weekend, Larry will get the sprinkler system primed and working again, so I don't have to depend on the rain to water the yard and new seed. The system is fed from the lake. A couple of years ago, he replaced the motor and some of the heads. Now it works great. He'll also get his brother's boat trailer tires inflated, so Bill can launch the pontoon boat soon. I want to go touring and check out the island across the way: up close and personal-like. Can't wait to get out on the water again.

The Forsythia are beginning to bloom, and I suspect by the end of the week, they should be full and gorgeous. Camillias bloom all year. We have double and single-bloom red, pink and white Camillias. I just love them. We have not been here enough, so I have never planted blooming bulbs. Next fall, those daffodils will go in by the dozens. They are in bloom around town now, and I just love them. I'm told tulips don't do well down here, but daffodils love this climate and soil. Next spring will be amazing.

Every tree and shrub is in "bud" right now. I hope we get to see everything fill out with greenery before we leave at the end of the month. The Oak-Leaf Hydrangea's leaves are starting to hydrate and look healthy again. They have that lovely deep maroon and olive coloring now. It seems more and more leaves are being born on it too. It is a huge bush, and is just beautiful in full bloom.

Spring is my favorite time of year. I just love being here to begin this season of renewal, only to witness another new beginning when we land up north in a month. We are very blessed, and today, I am the happiest woman in the world.

More on the fauna of Lake Murray

Larry and I took a break from our respective projects yesterday to sit on the swing and drink some water. We heard a high-pitched cheeping and I saw a huge bird carrying something in its talons land on a pine tree limb above us. It was a Red-Tailed Hawk calling its mate for lunch. I didn't realize such a large bird could have such a little voice. It sounded like a chicky. But lo' and behold, along came its mate and they flew off together around the point to snack on the little bird or mouse (we couldn't tell exactly what it was) the first hawk caught. They were beautiful. The symphony of bird song is so relaxing. Working outside each day, I listen to it instead of my iPOD.

"Lord love a duck!" Right now, there are three ducks sitting high in another pine tree we can see from our living room window. They are in sillouette, so we can't tell what kind of ducks they are. I've never seen ducks sitting in a tree twenty-five feet off the ground. Who knew? They are flying from tree to tree. There must be a ducky mating ritual afoot. It is spring now, and we've seen lots of mating going on around here.

We've seen pairs of several kinds of ducks: Mallard and Bufflehead mostly. We've also seen Loons, Coots, Cormorants and lots of geese. They swim in groups mostly, but we have seen some lone birds calling for a mate. They swim along and dive for fish. Then they pop up again and dive some more. It's very entertaining. Blue Heron and Kingfisher perch on our dock, sometimes eating their catch of fish. They are beautiful birds.

Larry wants to make a Wood Duck box for our shore so we can attract them. We haven't seen any lately but the year after we bought this place is the only time we think we saw them. If it was Wood Ducks, they did something amazing we wish we could see again. A flock of hundreds of little ducks were swimming together. They hung out around our cove all season. The most amazing thing we saw was that when a predator bird flew overhead, the little ducks quickly swam together in a very large, tight circle and all flapped their wings simultaneously. We believe it was to fool the hawk or eagle into thinking they were one very large creature. It worked! We witnessed them doing this several times that season. It was great, but they have not returned. This is a huge lake, so maybe they are visiting each cove in turn. We hope they come back to ours. It was very cool.

There was a large, dinner-plate-size turtle, Larry calls a Cooter sunning on a fallen tree near the shore yesterday. I've seen them on that tree before. Sometimes several Cooters hang out on it. It is a fun site. As the weather gets warmer, we see little Cooter heads pop up in the water, only to disappear underwater and pop up elsewhere. We have fun counting the heads and keeping track of their numbers. The most we've seen in the water at a single sitting on the dock is eighteen. One spring when we had floating wood in the lake, we saw three Cooters getting friendly with one another. This is one horny place!

Once my brother-in-law gets his boat in the water, I want to pay a visit to Purple Martin Island. The Purple Martins nest there and return each year. People around here install gourd trees to attract them to their yards. The Martins eat mosquitoes, and are very handy to have around. This will be another project someday.

Spring is here, and the lake is alive with "randy" critters of all shapes and sizes. Love is all we need!

Nature at its most basic

A Jeff Foxworthy-esk saying of what's happening to me would be, "I might be a red neck if I sit and watch sparrows having sex and get excited about it." It's true!

I took the pups outside while I finished my cup of coffee and meandered towards our glider on the other side of Larry's brother's pontoon boat. Low and behold, I saw a rumble of flapping wings and rolling little bodies in the sand and dirt. I knew they were little birds, and I think they were Black-cap Chickadees or small sparrows. I couldn't tell if they were two males fighting to the death over territory or having sex. I ran into the house to get my zoom lens and asked Larry. He confirmed the latter. I've never seen birds having sex before, and got very excited (just in a general interest way, of course). Boy, how do I "backstroke" out of this one.

Anyway, I got my camera just knowing I'd miss it by the time I got back out there, but they had just moved to the other side of the boat. I snuck up on them and got a few shots off, but couldn't get close enough for details. Mattie Grace happened to see them at this point and ran over to check out the commotion. The birds didn't even notice her head just four inches above them; just staring. Within seconds, though, Mattie bumped their union. They both looked up startled, instantly separated and flew away. I missed getting this on camera, but I let out the loudest belly laugh. It was great entertainment. Does this make me a Red Neck or just a perv?

Oh, P.S.: Woody Woodpecker (a Pileated Woodpecker) came to visit. It's the first one we've seen in several years. He landed on a pine tree in the water, so the picture I got is in sillouette. His beautiful red crest doesn't show up very well. But he was a handsome guy.

A different water issue

An addendum to the septic project is that the concrete pad that once was in the outdoor shower surrounded the hot and cold water pipes that feed the house. Larry used his brother's "cutter" saw to free the pipes. Unfortunately, the saw jerked and he cut the cold-water pipe. No water in the house for a day.

But, he replaced the pipe with lovely copper and it's in better condition than he found it. Of course it is. Larry can do anything. Today he is unsoldering the hot-water pipe and replacing the pipe with more copper in addition to adding joints. He'll add a mixing hose to both "boiler drains", so I can connect the hose to it and get warm water to rinse the puppies outside. Jackson is turning into a country dawg and is getting filthy every day.

Compared to the projects Larry is taking on during this trip, redoing these pipes is minor and an easy fix. Thank goodness. His poor body needs a rest.

The Water Situation

Our lakehouse has the hardest water I have ever lived with. When we first bought this place, I took a shower and could not get the shampoo to soap up. When it dried, my hair still felt dirty. There is a jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom. This tub was one of the main selling points of the house for me. The first time I used it, I was very excited. I had never owned a jacuzzi tub before, and after a hard day of raking, I couldn't wait to soak in the hot water and feel those jets loosen my tight muscles. Of course, no jet tub experience is complete without a glass of wine and a candle burning.

I let the clean-running hot water fill the tub. After lowering myself down into it and turning on the jets, I sat back with my wine and breathed a huge sigh of satisfaction as my muscle soreness melted away. But, after a few minutes of sitting there, I looked down to realize I was sitting in what looked like oily pee. It was disgusting. I couldn't get out fast enough and, consequently, I never took a bath again. It's been eight years.

The well is in the pump house: a concrete-block little building whose roof needs replacing. Replacing this roof will be our next big project after filling in the trench from replacing the septic pipe. The well water was never filtered. Fred, the late previous owner, told us to add two gallons of bleach to the well each spring, but never told us why, so we never did. He also had a huge, funky drinking water filter that sat on the kitchen sink. Larry replaced this with a proper under-sink filter with a sleek little faucet just for drinking water. The water from the main kitchen faucet came out looking clear in the dishpan, but within a few minutes turned back into that oily-looking pee water again. The dishes couldn't get clean. In fact they got stained with oily orange stuff. Forget about removing cooking grease from pans, dish detergent didn't soap up enough to cut it.

Another thing I noticed was that divots in my fingernails and crusty benign keratoses on my skin turn orange from bathing and washing dishes in our well water. The toilets, sinks, tubs and tile surrounds all become stained a rusty orange color. The stains can be scrubbed off to an acceptable level with a lot of elbow grease, but never come completely clean. And, we just don't look in the toilet tank. That water in there is really disgusting looking.

So, Larry put in a preliminary filtration system in the pump house on the well. The first filter the water passes through is a fine filter with carbon. The second filter is a pleated-paper filter. We noticed that the first filter is always full and covered with orange sediment, and the second remains fairly clean after several weeks. I can always tell when it's time to replace the filter(s) from the dishwater and from how easily I can wash my hair. There is also a smell to the water that is unmistakable. So, now that we understand why Fred suggested adding bleach to the well, we add the two gallons. The water clears up within a very short time, but the bleach smell remains for a few days afterward. It's tolerable at best.

One day while we were in our home in Tiverton, RI, Larry was searching the web for information about well water and happened upon an article about iron-ore bacteria. Apparently, well water has some iron in it. When oxygen is introduced into that water, iron-ore bacteria can grow to cause the water to turn an orange color and be oily. He had his first "ah ha" moment, as Oprah would say, about the situation in the lakehouse well. He discovered that this bacteria is not harmful to humans or animals if ingested, but is a nuisance nonetheless.

Our plan is to have the well water tested by the state to find out it's chemical content. We just found out the building to which we bring the water is close by. We thought it was across town about thirty miles. What a relief. With the water analysis information, we can determine the type of new water conditioning system we should install in the cleaned-out pump house once the roof is replaced. As Larry said, why add softener if the water is already soft. I suspect it is not, but this chemical composition data will certainly clarify how to proceed. I certainly cannot have a clothes washer in this house until the orange water is eliminated. I'll buy orange panties if I want to were that color. So, for the time being, I trek to the laundromat. Not my favorite way to spend half a day, but so be it for now.

We bought a gallon, screw-top plastic container, and now we just have to collect the water and drop it off. It takes a week or two to analyze, but we won't replace the filtration system until our next trip down here in late June. What's another few months of minor inconvenience. We've adapted pretty well so far.

Almost done.

Larry made a box around the entrance to the septic tank and filled it with concrete to seal the hole. He is very thorough. It's working great and will be finally done when we fill the trench back up. My brother, Jimmy, suggested we get bags of rock salt to cover the pipe. He says the salt will discourage root infiltration in the future. One problem I didn't consider is that Larry said rock salt is only used to make ice cream down here. I wonder if we will even find enough to do the job. We haven't looked yet, but we will before finishing up. Who knew?

We have septic!

My husband is a genius. He really can fix anything! By 6pm last night, I flushed the toilet in our "bathroom of fear", and was flushed with relief and release as I watched the most perfect swirling motion head down the bowl. The sound of running water, unobstructed down the new PVC pipe outside was music to both our ears. I cleaned the room and we have now reclaimed it. No longer does "fear of flushing" live there. Larry has vanquished the monster with his wielding power saw, wrenches and brawn. What a man!

As he removed the old pipe, we could not believe the amount of roots in there and in the entrance to the tank. The surrounding trees were living well off that area. They will be dead next year anyway, as we will have to remove them to make room for an expanding kitchen and a new laundry room. I documented the entire event with my digital camera for posterity.

Today, he will seal the tank entrance with concrete and that will be that! We may wait a day or two to fill the trench back in, just to make sure there are no leaks. So far, so good. I choose that bathroom first now, just to do it. I avoided it for so long out of fear of overflow. No more, Baby!

We also have to get the area cleaned up fast today. It's hard to keep the pups from licking the old dirty pipes. Dawgs.