Episode #29 An OCC Update

Our Country Cottage a Narrative

In this episode I will get you more up to date with the goings on at OCC and there are changes at the web site.

On with the OCC update.

When last we talked I had basically shut OCC down by draining the water, putting RV antifreeze in sink and tub traps.

The toilets were drained of water but then filled with RV antifreeze and then flushed. This ensured no water was left in the mechanism and the bowel had only antifreeze in it. The toilet shut offs were the only taps I closed. If I left them open the antifreeze in the tank would siphon out. Any liquids that might freeze if the generator failed were collected and removed. I was running an experiment leaving the boiler on and only having the thermostats for the two bathrooms operating.

My first day trip of the year had me almost going off the driveway, gad.

I noticed when I entered OCC I could smell a sickly sweet, maybe, odour. It was the RV antifreeze in the toilet bowels that would evaporate over time and require adding some more to keep the trap full. I took a chance and floated some plastic wrap on the liquid in the bowel, not knowing if it would dissolve or leave a nasty mess. Time would tell.

Both bathrooms were at their set temperature of 9.5 C. So that was working, but the hours on the generator had not shown the reduction I was hoping for so I turned off the boiler till I got a chance to run the numbers.

The batteries got topped up and all data logs and system control logs along with the generator log was collected.

I have been using my phone as my camera on these short trips but have come to realize it doesn’t like the cold. The battery dies very quickly. This is a bit unnerving as it is my only source of communication with the outside world while I am at OCC. Once inside and on the charger the battery springs back to life going from the red, dead indicator, to close to 50% charged within minutes …

I cleared the driveway with the snow thrower and when I left, the sun was shining and the batteries were fully charged.

Ten days pass the batts were at 99% and the gen hadn’t run since before my last visit. That sickly sweet odour of RV antifreeze no longer hung in the air. The plastic wrap was doing its job with no signs of dissolving.

Both bathroom thermostats were calling for heat but the boiler was off. Understandable. I put them in standby mode.

The trail cam by OCC was dead again. Looks like the unit was starting to act up.

Took the system and gen logs. Noted that the tracks in the driveway, from last visit, still looked fresh. So no snow and very little wind.

It was a full month till my next visit to Our Country Cottage. It had been very cold but it was time to top up the batteries. They were very thirsty.

My phone died again while trying to take pics of the propane gauge.

I noticed that the generator had not run since the beginning of the year so I fired it up from inside OCC and it started right away. The batteries were now at 100% when I put the gen back into Auto and it shut itself off after the programmed cool down period.

Like I said it had been very cold. The battery room was down to +5C ( first time I had seen it below 10C) and the utility room was at +1C (and the first time I had seen it below 7C). I had heard a report that a local town measured frost down to 18 feet below ground. Water pipes were freezing all over the place.

I was starting to get concerned about the state of OCC. The pipe to the well, runs under the driveway and is, I think, at least 10 feet down. Also I had left the hot water tanks full in the utility room. As noted the temp down there was just +1 degree. Lots to think about.

That trail cam was dead again, recording only 1 file. Some of the trail cam batteries were below .1 of a volt. Maybe a short circuit in the camera. The tie wrap even snapped when I went to secure its door.

I ordered a new cam a couple of days later in the city.

Armed with a new trail cam I was back at OCC a couple of weeks later.

The driveway was blocked with a berm of snow that someone pushed into the entrance. I dug a path just wide enough for my vehicle to get through and had one of the sketchiest drives to OCC, but I made it. I had to plow and snow throw the driveway, it was deep.

The snow thrower decided to throw its chain while I was moving snow in front of the garage, luckily. It just took time to put it back and retention it.

Then onto something easy. Change the trail cam. Well not so fast. All my trail cams are secured with those cable locks. When I went to take this one off I found that several years of tree sap had been running into the key hole etc. I could get the key in but it would not turn. Yes, I had the right key.

So after about 45 minutes and a fair amount of WD40, I got it open, replacing the camera with the new one.

I was pretty fed up by this point and just wanted to go home. I texted my partner from the gate, as I normally do, to say I am on my way, glad to get going.

Well the gate is round a corner from the driveway exit to the road and as I rounded the corner I saw a horse trailer parked in the driveway blocking my exit. No truck, just the trailer. I honked my horn for a while with no response.

Did I tell you I was fed up already. With little option I started digging on the most promising side of the trailer to see if I could squeeze, and it would be a squeeze, by. Not sure it would have worked at all. But after about ten minutes of digging a pickup truck came out of my neighbours drive with three horses in tow.

My neighbour hadn’t been staying at his place this winter so I was surprised to see anyone. It wasn’t my neighbour but a friend who had been keeping some horses there.

He told me he put his trailer there because he never saw anyone use it. I pointed out that it was my driveway access to my property. I also pointed out that I had just cleared the snow and that should have been a clue…

Oh well I asked him not to do it again and all was OK. Funny thing is, that if I hadn’t had snow thrower problems and problems with the trail cam I would have been gone a couple of hours ago and never would have seen him or his horse trailer.

It was a two beer night at the bar, that night.

Just over two weeks pass and I am trying not to slide off our kilometre of fun, again. Had to do one of those stop and back up slowly things.

With the well weighing heavily on my mind I fired up the well pump to see if all was ok. And it was. There is a valve where I can turn the water off to the house but fill the pressure tank. I let the tank fill to the operating pressure then turned the pump off and drained it into the sump. I know that if the pump draws about 2K watts, as shown on the solar control panel, it was working normally.

Collected the usual logs and the SD card from the new trail cam. All looked good. Ran the gen for ten mins or so and put it back to auto. Except for the exercise I have been giving the generator, it hadn’t run at all.

Much less stress this trip.

Nine days pass and I am back with three containers of distilled water. Took awhile to clear the snow off of the battery room hatch, just to get in.

Topped up the batteries…

Cleared snow in front of garage and turned on the heat tape, under the grate, to help any water drain. There were large pools of standing water here and there.

The driveway was cleared of heavy wet snow.

In the utility room I noticed that the water in the sump was a couple of inches over the top of the weeping tile outlet. Hadn’t seen it that high before. I tested the sump pump and it ran perfectly giving me a bit of assurance that all would be OK.

Did the usual data log collections. Some data loggers needed new batteries, so they got changed. I always try to keep spares on hand. Special batteries that I order online.

Turned off the heat tape and left somewhat later than I usually do. I have now developed anxiety when I turn that corner after the gate. Pheww, no horse trailer.

Forty days and forty nights later I return to OCC. Enough time had past that most of the snow on the driveway had gone. What was an iffy drive along with time spent clearing snow had turned into nothing. As it does every spring.

Our turning circle was clear and for the first time I was able to take a stroll around it, finding two deer grazing just to the south. They didn’t stay long once they saw me, even though I waved.

The batteries were almost fully charged but very thirsty. Didn’t even have to clear any snow off of the hatch, just went right in and topped em up.

Swapped the SD card on the new trail cam but found it dead. Hmm it had new batteries last time. The only other thing it had in common was the SD card and the tree it was mounted to. I ruled out the tree. Could the SD card be the problem all along. Something else to think about. I put a question mark on the card.

This trip I brought our smaller vehicle to change the tires from winter to summer. And that got done, and left at about 2.

Two weeks go by and I return for my first overnight stay of the year. The snow was all gone with the grass greening up nicely. On my way up I picked up a couple of water test kits. Something that I had been putting off far too long. In fact I then put them in a bag wrote the year on it and put it under the counter, removing a bag with a couple of water test kits which was marked two years ago. This year for sure.

Got to get water back into OCC. I turned the well pump on and let the pressure tank fill to pressure ( the pump shuts off) I then empty the tank into the sump till the pump turns on again. I do this four times, should be enough.

Then I partially open the valve to the rest of OCC. As water fills the pipes and pushes the air out I start at the lowest tap (the outside tap) and watch it till the water runs clear then turn it off. Next downstairs bathroom, sink, shower.

I take the plastic wrap out of the toilet. It was in good shape, not a sign of it failing. So that seemed to work OK. No nasty RV antifreeze smell and the level was kept well above the trap without having to top it up. Good stuff.

Turned the shutoff valve to the toilet on, let it fill and flush. All looked good. Onto the kitchen sink then the upstairs bathroom. Same deal with the plastic wrap there too. All was looking good and OCC was back. Water wise anyway.

It was still a bit cool so I built a fire. I lit the kindling, then quickly opened the chimney flu then opened the fresh air inlet. Well I tried to open the fresh air inlet. It was solid, not letting me turn the control at all. The fire was lit but without fresh air, it smoked and went out.

Now the fresh air flap is below the grate at the back of the fire box. To get to it I had to remove all the wood, some charred, all the kindling, some burnt some charred, and remove the grate. Great!

I almost had to crawl inside the firebox to see down to the fresh air inlet. I was not obvious what was holding it closed so I started poking at it with a fire poker while trying to turn the control handle.

Now a point of interest. The fresh air inlet control is a rod that comes out of the hearth in the middle of the bricks with a right angle bend in it, making the control lever. The rod goes way to the back of the fire box to the flap. It was installed during construction. If it ever broke or the flap came off I have no clue how it would get fixed. My efforts to free it kept all this in mind.

It took 30 to 45 minutes to get it free. First a little bit then a bit more and a bit more till it was operating like nothing had happened. The fire wood was all replaced with some fresh kindling and the fire was started without any other problems.

Meanwhile, back with the water recommission, I noticed it was not holding pressure. There was a leak somewhere. Gad.

A mad run around to the obvious places revealed the downstairs shower was running. Hmm, the tap was in the off position but it was still running. I took the handle off and a couple of plastic pieces and I could rotate the control 360 degrees and sometimes the water would stop, but not always in the same place. Very strange. I played with it for a while, confirming its inconsistent behaviour and took several pictures.

I was planning to go to a local town for supper anyway and they had a couple of very good hardware stores. So maybe I could find some answers there.

After explaining my problem to the gentleman behind the counter and showing him the pics he presented me with a new cartridge. I asked how much and he told me that the brand I have is guaranteed for life and there is no charge. Best news I had all day.

Returning to OCC, after a less than spectacular supper, I installed the new cartridge, like I knew what I was doing. It worked right away, well after installing the handle in the wrong position and having to redo it that is.

With all these fun and games during the day I hadn’t got round to cleaning up the bedroom and changing the linens. I slept on the couch, well love seat, in front of the fireplace. It was only a couple of feet too short. Not a good sleep.

I think I will leave it there with two nights left for this visit. Tune in next time to find out, is the water situation fixed, why did I cut two big holes in the wall, do bear bangers scare off bears, and will I get the sheets changed on the bed.

As promised last time (not that that means much in some cases) the web site has changed, the layout, sort of, and new pix. Year two of construction pix are now ready for viewing.

So check it out at

https://www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com

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Till next time….