Sunday, May 20, 2012

Weekend Chores

Karen and I replaced the pump in our field well today.  We had tried to fix the old pump setup twice before in the last three months but were unsuccessful. 
The pump is a SHURflo, 9300 series, $700.  The pump runs off 24 volt direct current, 120 watts, 4.0 maximum amps.  It will pump water up from a depth of 250 feet at full power.  We use a solar panel to provide the electricity for this pump.  
Our well is 126 feet deep.  The water level in the well is at 46 feet.  I keep the pump at about 90 feet.  
This pump, running on solar power, will deliver 1.4285 gallons per minute outflow.  This steady flow of water will add about 1,027 gallons of water each 12 sunny hour day into our small ponds. 
The water we pump up is used to fill our two ponds and for drip irrigation on trees and shrubs all around our property.  





Check out some of my previous blog posts for some information about the history of this well.  

We also worked on our front yard.  Mowing the lawn.  Pruning and weeding.  Improving the rock borders.  Setting some pavers in place.  Setting in some new drip irrigation lines.  The small yard looks very nice now.  



Yesterday, I attend a workshop in Sacramento from 9-6 pm.  It was the Group Exercise Instructor Certification course from the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America.  The instructor, Jessica De'Haven, provided a very engaging and highly informative workshop, and was an impressive athlete.  I got lots of exercise and I am a little tired and a bit sore today.  The typical attendees at these workshops are nearly all young, slender and fit women.  I'm a rarity at these events: 66 years old, a man, and a very BIG man.  It was an enjoyable experience!  Fitness instructors, like myself, have to keep various certifications current to stay employed in this industry.  Hopefully, I passed the battery of written and practical tests at this workshop.  

Karen works 30 hours a week as an instructional aide in an special education classroom run by the Tehama County Department of Education.  I work 24 hours a week as a technology and media services supervisor and grants coordinator for the Corning Union Elementary School District.  We have both worked at these jobs for the last 13 years.  Consequently, like most folks, weekends keep us quite busy with chores. 

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-  Thomas A. Edison

"Man was not made to rust out in idleness.  A degree of exercise is as necessary for the preservation of health, both of body and mind, as his daily food.  And what exercise is more fitting, or more appropriate of one who is in the decline of life, than that of superintending a well-ordered garden?   What more enlivens the sinking mind?   What is more conducive to a long life?"
-  Joseph Breck

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
-  Thomas Jefferson 


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