The week in retrospect, looking forward

It is difficult to step back thorough the past week and do a summary when I have trouble remembering what happened yesterday.; but I can try.

With OSHA training taking all my time Tuesday through Friday last week, I did not get a lot done at the farm; besides, I have not felt well all week. I missed work Monday because I was feeling so poorly. (I passed the exam at the end of the OSHA class, so that was a relief.) I did manage to get the well at the barn running properly. It quit on Mama Tuesday morning. I replaced the control box on Tuesday evening but it did not work as expected. It kept clicking because the relay in box, which sends power to the pump pressure switch, would not reset when the circuit was open. In other words, when the pressure switch shut off because it had met it’s set point the relay would keep trying to keep sending power over to the switch. It did not hurt the operation of the pump but I knew it would quickly fry the relay. So, I pulled the control box back off and got another one on Thursday. When I tried it, it did the same thing. At that point, I knew it was something I had done in the initial wiring – but I could not see a way to do it differently.

I took back some hours on Friday by taking the afternoon off. The first thing I did was pull the control box – which comes apart in two pieces – and wired in the relay from an old control box that had worked properly until the capacitor went out. When I put that relay into service, it worked perfectly. I am not sure what the difference is, but we are leaving it as is for now. It is a great convenience to have water at the locations that well supplies, especially since the garden has needed constant water through the past week. Even though the nights have been cool, the afternoons seem to bake the plants and by evening they are withered to the point of Mama and I thinking we have lost them. We have been watering every evening to keep them healthy. We are not alone in that, everyone we know is fighting the same battle.

Saturday was Trade Days. Mama was excited about it because Leslie Ling, Cheyenne, Yilin and Mr. Plumley were all going with her. She was excited that I might be going, but I backed out. I was still not feeling well and did not relish the chatter and questioning that goes along with such an excursion feeling the way I did. They all had a good time at Trade Days while I went to get the doors Mama had ordered. Since we needed to get the doors picked up on Saturday and it was in the opposite direction from Bowie, it made sense to me. Plus, it gave me something to do on my own.

Mama, et. al., had a good time looking at all the stuff Trade Days offers; so much so, that they came home with two rabbits – big rabbits. As I understand it, Leslie gave them the buck and they bought the cage and the doe from someone at Trade days. Now I have to build rabbit hutches and nesting boxes and buy feeders and waterers. Not something I was planning on doing with the very limited spare time I seem to have at the moment. Right now, we have the cages sitting on top of a set of shelves I threw out of the well house. Neither Mama nor Victoria were delighted with the set up but it is all I could do with the advance notice I got.

This week I will be traveling – starting this afternoon. I should be back in the office Friday. Next week I think I will be traveling again, but I am not sure as I write this note. The following week – the end of the month – I will be in Houston at a conference. This is a bit more than I bargained for but I accepted the assignment so Mama and I will endure hoping things slow down a little.

Friday when I am back home I hope to see a doctor to find out what I have been wrestling with for the past several months.