rachels.haven's Journal

[SageHill]

I know everyone is saying what you can do with the current system and ways to hopefully get things better. I didn’t have BYH for a couple of days so you may have said this, but just in case ….
A LOT of people out this way have water delivered, the company here is Sparkletts. Most people have 5 gal bottles of water delivered. Think like office water cooler style. I don’t think it’s all that expensive. At least you could have drinking water you can trust that way until the well situation is resolved.
Sparkletts isn’t out your way, but there has to be something similar.

 

[rachels.haven]

We're working on the real estate lawyer. I'm SURE the sellers did just enough that we can't touch them. They disclosed that they had a contaminated well and a filtration system that they put in place to make it safe and they sent a test where it tested clear. Not a recent test even though we asked. What they didn't disclose is that it is a crappy system that "fails open" if you will, and lets you draw dirty water out of your tap to use without warning and that it had not been properly maintained in an intelligent way. I'm dealing with affluent, spoiled people who write reality and enough money to enforce their fantasies.

We've realized that this may all end with us having all the robust filtration and then having to dig another well somewhere else on the property. The well is most likely failing with the casing rotted/rusted through leading to that red color and the sediment and bacteria in the water. Our water pressure is currently piddly. I have concerns about aquifer we're on are definitely there as well. Everyone is on a septic (and everyone has a well) and I feel like the area is over crowded for all those septics and wells. (Also, there's a road less than 5 minutes away called "Chrome mine road" I discovered after we moved here...so we test.) Since we just moved in and bought a house I'm willing to take it one step at a time with this well and treatment company for a little while and wind up with the RO system my dad has been telling us is the only way to have clean water all along even if we wind up with a new well and an RO system.

10 minutes from here has city water and we would not be having this discussion.

Giant water bottles/dispensers are something I've done before in my life. I think we can trade them out at walmart still. My goal is still to get the water safe to drink at least for the animals and the food they produce and make sure the water is safe enough to shower in without this last week happening again. If we can't or don't want to drink it we will do the water cooler thing. I'm sure not drinking that tap water now though.

Hey, the water being less dirty and hopefully temporarily bacteria free for now is a good thing for us. Another good thing is that we had two showings in two weeks on our big log cabin Tennessee home and it appears we have two people preparing offers. There's also a newly wed couple from church who are living in a retired couple from church's big house basement and helping them take care of their retirement beef and dairy cattle and chickens (and high tunnels and expansive fruit and veg gardens), so I can go over some time and learn how they milk a cow and I can bring the younger couple over here so the wife can learn dairy goats coming from little dairy cattle. (I'm holding off for now until I know they won't be washing their hands in something that will make them sick to put in their mouths.)

 

[rachels.haven]

I did not get the bucks out today but I did put away the stuff from my goat shelf and milk room in the feed room and get the rest of the house stuff out of the barn. And I did more boxes in the house. Dh is putting up book shelves and wire shelves and doing his nesting routine making things disappear. I'm starting to believe him when he says we really don't have that much stuff. I need to let him to house stuff and decorating more often. He's so good at it.

We spoke today together about drilling a new well. Yes, that's probably going to happen and we will plan accordingly.

 

[SageHill]

I did not get the bucks out today but I did put away the stuff from my goat shelf and milk room in the feed room and get the rest of the house stuff out of the barn. And I did more boxes in the house. Dh is putting up book shelves and wire shelves and doing his nesting routine making things disappear. I'm starting to believe him when he says we really don't have that much stuff. I need to let him to house stuff and decorating more often. He's so good at it.

We spoke today together about drilling a new well. Yes, that's probably going to happen and we will plan accordingly.

You’re making headway! There’s so much to be done once you get to the new place. Took me weeks just to get unpacked - and there are still some boxes that I’ve only pilfered through and it’s eeek 4 yrs later.

 

[Ridgetop]

A new well is probably the safest way to go. What a hassle for you guys. Hopefully the real estate attorney can find some way to make them pay at least a little. What about the title company report?

 

[Baymule]

I’ve been here 2 years, still have boxes of stuff. But in my defense, I got the house livable and went outside to play……..er uh WORK!

 

[Ridgetop]

Hope to hear some good news about water issue soon.

 

[rachels.haven]

The three year old and I are still sick, but I got the junior and senior bucks out in their respective electric net pens. I did the senior bucks this morning while I still had energy so I could get their big ole hooves trimmed so now I stink but hey! Now it's time to find energy to shovel out all the stalls we used while the goats where inside and then string up another pasture. I'm new here, but the grass at our place is looking a little droughty. The soil is poor and doesn't hold water and we haven't been getting it.
As soon as I can I will seed with red and arrow (leaf?) clover, lespedeza, and cultivated crabgrass so we can have nitrogen fixers and drought tolerant warm season grass. I'll probably do it as I pull goats off the pasture.
I need to look into the laws here and see if I can round up the plantains first. Not having to squelch them out by seeding super thick would be nice.

 

[Mini Horses]

My goats eat the plantains here! Don't yours? Yeah, I have an area fenced off to even grow some -- good feed & a medicinal plant. Clover everywhere here, too. Different climes, for sure. My pasture Bermuda does well with the heat here -- coastal VA & beach freak paradise not far away. But, I sure tossed a lot of seed over the years!! You're starting over . I use vetch, too. Messy but reseeds & prolific legume.

Hope you guys get feeling better soon!

 

[rachels.haven]

Goodbye Bailey.
You were raised to guard sheep from coy wolves but were gifted to us like an angel and you guarded my children from the coy wolves as well. You had quite a brain in your head and always knew what to do with me to keep me safe when things got dangerous. Thank you for your service.

So...i lost my partner today. This morning I found her in the lean to dead.
It has been hot and very humid but yesterday evening she was out walking the pasture so this was a surprise. Perhaps her heart finally gave out in the heat, but her face was swollen up like a basketball, blood coming from her mouth and nose so I suspect snake bite. It could have also just been bloat either post mortem or gastric tortion. Or just age.

My long suffering husband came out and loaded her 140 lbs self into the truck because I was too much of a wreck to do it and is taking her to get cremated now.

Wow.

I'm so sorry Bailey. Just thank you.