life has kept me busy as of late so let me try to catch up a bit.

The rains in the spring did not abate till late, consequently the
planting was a bit delayed.  This summer has been on the cool
side so our tomato yield has been spartan although some of the white
cherry tomatoes seem to be producing better than the others.  Most
of the vegetables went into black containers to absorb more of the
daytime warmth.  This year, instead of relying on various fertilizer
mixtures (both diy and commercial), we chose to go with good old
fashioned composted cow manure.  I have to say, it's cheap and it
seems to have worked better than anything else we have tried in the
past.  For container planting, we simply used a mixture of manure
and soil from the lower side of the property where water tends to
gather in the winter.  Results have been promising especially with
the early girl tomatoes we have put on the deck (more sun there).
Hopefully the fall will be a bit warmer to goad the eggplants into
fruiting.

We did manage to get the solar panel moved to a more permanent
location.  Already I am noticing better performance from the panel
as it receives more sunlight through out the day.  I have room on
the framework for three more panels which should be plenty
sufficient for our satellite internet and backup power

Firewood is almost stacked.  Experience from previous years has
shown that 1 cord would be sufficient (that's about all the shed
will hold anyway).  The splitting, like last year, will be
accomplished with a sliding hammer splitter.  This year's wood is
well seasoned, should split easily and burn hot.  The house still
has single pane windows which has little if any insulating value,
but the wood burning stove has kept the house toasty in the winter
so I am not in much of a hurry to replace the windows.  The small
stack of remaining wood will get stacked as and when the rains start
approaching...Hopefully soon.

* Water woes *

The sight gauge is slowly creeping up on the water tank which means
the well is not keeping up with the water demand.  Retro fitting the
toilets with more efficient flushing mechanisms probably has helped
a bit, but what is probably sucking up most of the water is the
garden and laundry.  Going forward, only the plants that are
producing anything are going to get the water. Dishes get hand washed
while recapturing the rinse water for the next load.  Got it down to
~ 1 gal. of water for a load of dishes (wash and rinse).  The
automatic dishwasher makes a great drying rack as that's about all
it's good for right now.  Clothes washer use will have to be
restricted, but we might be able to capture water while showering
and use that to at least wash our underwear and small items.  This
is the time of year where the well's recovery rate begins to slow
and we have to take extra conservation measures.  One lesson learned
is that we planted too much this year and I also need to rework the
irrigation system to reduce water waste to a bare minimum.  I don't
want to have water trucked in if I can avoid it.  I have a request
in to our well guy to test the deep well that had previously
supplied the household water, but later stopped producing.  If it
has started producing again, even if it is just a little, it would
be cheaper to get it running than trying to build out infrastructure
to the back side of the property where the third well is located.
The other option would be to install a second water tank to store
water during the rainy season to cover our needs during the summer
and fall dry time.  As I may have mentioned in previous posts, water
scarcity is going to be a growing issue world wide, and like fossil
fuels, determining what is sufficient water for a household is going
to become a policy challenge for the governing authorities in the
future.  Bottom line, we are going to have to make do with less
whether it be energy or water.

* Do I smell a rat? *

Although I have not personally seen one, I suspect we have rat
hiding somewhere.  The size of the droppings were the first clue.
The second clue was a hole nibbled into the bottom of a shopping bag
that was sitting on one of our dining chairs.  Interestingly, in a
ziploc bag that was inside the shopping bag, was several packets of
powdered fizzy vitamin c (fruity flavored) that was apparently
irresistible to said rodent.  The chewed packets were discovered on
the dining chair and the floor below one fine morning.  Our
perpetrator obviously enjoyed the contents, went back to his/her
hiding place then proceeded to barf and shit the contents of his/her
most likely bloated digestive tract leaving a sickly sweet stench
wafting through a good portion of the house.  Until we can plug the
holes from which he/she came, we are going to have to be more
vigilant with cleaning and keeping food items out of reach.
Sniff...sniff...ah country living at it's finest. :-D

Watching the senate supreme court nominee hearings has left me with
the conclusion that the country is in for some serious political
upheaval as time wears on.  This schism is growing... *sigh*