Deck progress and the mystery of the missing water

The rear deck progress continued last weekend with Derek coming over from Gunnison to help the old man.

We were able to get the deck framed out and Trex hauled from the driveway to the rear.



We had to adjust the joist spacing as you can see in two spots to accommodate the power service entry and of course one of the anchor bolts I put in a couple of weeks ago.



You are probably wondering about the the height of the posts. I am going to put a border pergola along the outside edge of the deck. I left 9' above the deck level, at this point, but I suspect I will cut down later. Of course three of the posts were straight, but the second from the north end has a curve I will need to deal with. Although this picture makes it look like all of the posts are leaning to the outside, they are plumb on. I think is is keystoning from the camera lens (cellphone).



My plan is to finish the deck the week of June 30.



Now to the mystery of the disappearing water -


Our well, recovers at about 260 gallons a day, so it pumps into a 1700 gallon storage cistern, which in turn pumps into the pressure tank located in the furnace room for use in the house. I always turn off the water into the house when we leave, because I am always concerned about a leak that would pump the entire 1700 gallons in the house somewhere.


Over the last year I have periodically opened the manhole into the cistern to check the level and it always seems full, as you would expect given that we are only here on weekends.


Twice in May the cistern was empty on Sunday. We of course assumed the worst and figured the well had gone dry. So we had Rick's Pump service come out and check and had Dan Ainsworth fill the cistern. I also installed a float gauge so that I could check the water level easier and more accurately.

Since that time the cistern has always been full when we arrived on Friday night and over the course of the weekend the level would move down a couple of inches.

So imagine our surprise when on Sunday morning last weekend the cistern was empty again.

It was full Friday night.
It was only down a little on Saturday morning
And down about 6 inches late Saturday afternoon.

So Sunday morning I am looking for about 1600 gallons of water.

The ground wasn't wet where the water line goes from the cistern to the house.

It wasn't wet in the lower level.

It wasn't wet downhill from the house.

I went in to the cistern and there weren't any visible cracks.

The lower level concrete floor wasn't wet from below slab seepage.

There was no water dripping out a ceiling or wall.

Where did it go?

This is a mystery.

A possible clue.
- This only happens when we are there and the water valve is turned on.

So where did the water go?

If I couldn't find it, in the house or on the ground, did it go down the drain? How could it do that since there is no place where fresh water actually hooks up to the drain system. Ah but was a faucet or toilet running.

I went around and checked each one. All seemed good.

Another possible clue.
- All afternoon while working on the deck, Derek kept commenting on the sewage smell. To be clear, with our type of drain field and the soil it is in, we have been told that this can happen during certain weather changes and we have smelled it before.

So Monday morning, I called Rick's back and the first thing they asked was if I had a toilet running. I said no. I had run around and checked them all. They said they were going to ask their folks and call me back.

I couldn't wait so Monday afternoon, I called back and talked to Jack the tech who had been out in May to check the system. the first thing he asked was if I had a running toilet. I said no I had check them, but could a toilet empty a cistern in a day I asked. Jack said you bet he had seen it happen a number of times.

So Monday evening I am wondering where or how did I have a leak somewhere in the house that I couldn't find?

I had discounted that the leak was outside, as it only happens when we are there and the water is turned on.

But I was flummoxed, as I had checked everything inside.

Where did the water go?

Another clue: Derek was visiting us this weekend.

Monday evening Marlys and I walked to the downtown YMCA to lift weights. During the walk I recapped everything to her and what did I hear...the lower level toilet had been running on Saturday and she had had to go in and jiggle the handle to stop it.

Ahh... a suspect!

Why didn't I see it running on Sunday morning?

Because there was no water in the system so there was nothing to see running...duh! Explains why no leaks were found!

So I have a theory and that is that the lower level toilet has been running. That Marlys fixed it Saturday afternoon, but that Derek used it again afterwards and it opened up again.

On Monday June 30 we will check this out and see if I have sherlocked this correctly.

What do you think?

FIBArk

FIBArk is an annual festival that happens in Salida to celebrate everything rafting and kayaking. This was its 60th anniversary. I believe that FIBArk stands for First in Boating on the Arkansas River. The activities center around kayaking and rafting, but there is a festival and parade on Saturday.

Since this is about half way to Gunnison, we met Derek there to spend a day wandering around and eating the local fair(fare?).

And of course there were numerous beer gardens. We started in the New Belgium one on arriving.

Salida has gone through quite a bit of gentrification over the last 10 years, which means there are a lot of galleries and funky furniture stores.

A quick survey would say that we could become rich selling some of the items built for the house over the last couple of years based on the prices being gotten for some of the stuff being sold.

You should be able to see the Arkansas going by behind the stage in this picture.

Just to let you know the entertainment being provided here is by people singing karaoke to the thousands in attendance.

It is very entertaining if you can take the empathic embarrassment of the singers.

Although these pictures taken with my cellphone don't do it justice, Salida is at the southern exit of the valley and is surrounded by 14r's to the west and south. You can see the Collegiate's in the background at the end of the street.

We did get some work done last Sunday in that Marlys completed everything in the garage painting project and I got the deck alignment set with the rim joist and the versa-lam. Next weekend we set the posts and frame in the deck joists. the schedule is to compete it the week of 6/30 after a quick trip to Minnesota.

Last Weekend

We worked like dogs this weekend…well maybe not since Dusty didn’t do a damn thing except get in the way.

These clouds fooled us in that there was some virga dropping in the distance and we though some moisture was on the way, but alas it was not to pass.

We almost finished painting the garage, but we ran out of paint, again. And since I forgot to bring the paint sample when we ran into town, it is white. Marlys will finish it up next weekend.

Then it is on to the floor. I am thinking a gray trunk finish acrylic.

We also got the rear deck footing in, and even though I used the atv to cart the 16 - 80lbs sacks of sackcrete to the deck site it was still a bal…back breaker. We of course picked the hottest part of the day to set (& re-set) the batter boards, but it looks like the alignment turned out pretty good.

Don't make fun of the grass, growing anything other then cactus and yucca in this area takes a green thumb.

Along with buying paint, we got the deck materials ordered from Sonny’s and they should be delivered latter this week. Hopefully, it will get dropped close to the stick and tape. Since one of the items will be a 24’ versalam, getting it up the little hill to the back of the house is going to take help.

BTW: The platform laying on the ground in the background is going to be the floor of the ATV garage at some point in the future.

Tidal Effect Rock Watch:
It has moved up a little bit this week partially due to a snow and rain day on Thursday.

Let me end with a personal observation on dehydrating. On Saturday doing the morning work in the garage I didn’t drink water like I normally do, e.g. out of the Sun, cooler, etc. By the time we had moved outside and tackled the setting of the sonotubes and pouring the deck footing I was behind the hydration power curve. At this altitude, even if you are not sweating you are still respirating a lot of moisture. At day’s end I was really wiped out, more so then I should have been.

Remember if you aren’t going, then you aren’t drinking enough.

Memorial Day Week

The Memorial Day week at Pinon Rock has been packed with activities. It started with a visit by Kathy and Bill from Minnesota doing there shakedown cruise with their 5th wheel. This was literally a minute by minute voyage as they came through Wyoming during the tornado outbreak that hit Windsor Colorado.

By the time they reached our place the mountains were waiting to welcome them with….snow showers. That white in the background is an approaching wall of snow.

Bill had to replace the AC cover which blew off somewhere in route because of a water leakage.

We also took the opportunity to hike up West Antelope with Herb. Herb provided quite the nature narrative with his background in scatology and herbology (bit of a pun). We now know how to tell male from female Elk droppings. Has anyone ever heard of a Mountain Buttercup?

We were also wondering about all of the rocks that looked like they had been flipped over and learned that that would be bears looking for insects.

Herb in a real naturalist.

On the way back down the hill to our place, Kathy spotted a large black dog at Cliff’s pond. When it turned to run as we drove down the road it magically turned in to a small black bear, which high tailed it down toward Brown’s.

Good eye Cathy.

Monday we went rafting on the Arkansas. Marlys and I have been here 10 years and never done what is probably the biggest tourist activity in the area. We didn’t do the Gorge, but Big Horn Canyon was plenty. The snow from last winter is resulting is a heavy/dangerous run off that is expected to increase over the next few weeks. A number of rivers in the state have already had a deadly start to the season.

Tuesday, Marlys and I spent close to 8 hours at the Fremont County Commissioner Public Hearing on the Conditional Use Permit for Black Range Minerals Uranium Exploration. This is something that we have become quite involved in over the last 9 months, once we discovered what the nighttime lights were for on the SE flank of East Waugh last fall. Even though it is a few mile away we are concerned about water quality and property values.

My statement to the commission is available at: http://autumncreekranch.com/acportal/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=35&func=view&id=80&catid=24

I also seem to have been quoted a little out of context in the Canon City Daily Record: http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Article/96201.page

The issue is dividing the community along old/new residents lines and I hope that some type of compromise can be reached by the Commissioners. It has taken us 10 year to get this far in the Tallahassee Creek area to have it destroyed by an Australian mining company. I don’t envy Mike, Larry and Ed in trying to sort this out.

They should deliver their decision on June 9, stay tuned.

The Tiger moths are also out in abundance this year. Bill found 1 outside and after a little research I found out that they are a product of all of the “woolly bear” caterpillars that seem to be everywhere this spring.

We are also back in building mode as I attack the last major outdoor project in the house construction, namely the rear deck.

After consultation with my independent expert (Bill), it was decided that the attachment of the ledger for the deck to the house should be into the concrete of the basement instead of the rim joist of the upper floor. This keeps the house shell intact and puts the deck at an easy level to access with out a stairs to the ground, I will make a platfrom step from the rear door fo the house to the deck level.

I had initially started the work with the idea of drilling anchor holes into the concrete then inserting, a lag sleeve to secure a lag screw into, but this proved problematic as the sleeve would either spin or the lag screw would break.

After re-grouping, Redhead concrete studs were used as they could be inserted into the 5/8” holes I had drilled and provided for a larger load. The only problem is that the nice pattern I had laid out for the holes was hosed due to the broken off screws, so the result was not very symmetric, but it will be covered by decking.

The post foundation holes will be dug this week, and next week is reserved for concrete work.

After being sun burnt again and again and again... I have now decided to follow the example of “Herb the Naturalist” in that I put on sunscreen each morning before going out side.

Marlys began the project of painting the garage. We are attempting to use up some of the paint we found unsuitable for inside the house. We didn’t have enough. We cut the yellow glare of this stuff by mixing in the white ceiling paint also leftover. This will be a bright garage.

I have also been doing a very unscientific study of tidal effect in the area. This has been done mainly by picking up rocks as they appear around the patio and thorwing them downhill. The one in this photo was not even visible three weeks ago.

We will follow the progression of the rock in the second photo as it continues to emerge over the next few weeks.

For those of you unaware of tidal effect away from any large body of water, it is something that farmers have experienced forever in there fields, in that no matter how many rocks they remove, more will appear as they are drawn to the surface due to there higher mass.

In ending, this is a photo of a wire sculpture that Derek did last winter. The picture doesn’t due it justice.

I may be his dad, and not very objective, but his instructor said this was a “sell able” piece when critiqing it.

He is going to but a nicer wood base on it possibly using some of the remaining curly redwood we have.

Some folks have asked for a better picture of the Cowboy Sideboard, so here you go. You can clearly see in this picture the difference in tone between the heart and sap wood poplar used.
Until next time.