Well water woes

Well, it finally happened. Fourteen years after we were told our well pump only had five years left, the pump finally died (right in the middle of Don's shower, of course).

We got years of use out of this well pump. We have no complaints whatever about its lifespan. It was just, well, inconvenient to suddenly be without water.

The last time we were left high and dry was during the windstorm and four-day power outage we experienced in November 2015. After the windstorm, we put some additional emergency water preps in place -- and this was the first opportunity to test them. As it turns out, we were much better prepared. The three things that were different this time around was the issue of livestock water, showering, and watering the garden.

After the windstorm, we changed our water-storage ways. We moved two 50-gallon food-grade barrels into the washroom, added a bit of bleach, and left them there.

It was kind of inconvenient having these two honkin' big barrels of water in the washroom -- until we needed them, of course, after which we considered them to be a God-send. The stored water allowed us to flush the toilet and wash dishes without a problem.

We also had ten gallons (in one-gallon jugs) of fresher water stored on the bottom shelf of this unit. We used this for drinking water and had plenty.

The livestock had already been moved down to the neighboring pond property which we lease for a few months every year. As the name implies, the property has a stock pond, so we didn't have to worry about watering the livestock.

We had purchased a bilge pump last year which worked so well we purchased several spares. Don cobbled together a temporary system to pump water out of the pond and through a hose for watering the garden.

It was laborious but do-able. As it turns out, we didn't have to water too much of the garden since the pump was replaced within two days, but it was satisfying to take a theory (rigging up a garden-watering system) and turn it into proof.

Also, during the windstorm power outage in 2015, we had no way of showering. Shortly afterward, I purchased three solar shower bags. We stored them away but never used them until now. Following the directions, we filled them with water and laid them out in the sun.

Within a few hours, the water was satisfactorily warm.

Don rigged a hook in the ceiling of the shower, and hung a bag.

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations about these bags, but my goodness they worked beautifully. The hose nozzle allowed us to wet ourselves down with a minimum of water. In fact, Don and I both took showers off the same bag, and still had water left over (though admittedly I didn't wash my hair, which would have taken more water).

Within a couple of days, the well guys were able to make it to our place.

In the span of four hours, they pulled up 480 feet of pipe...

...and wire...

...and swapped out the old pump for a shiny new one.

Then they re-inserted all the pipe and wire and buttoned everything up.

Some people like to think preparedness is just for the end-of-the-world zombie apocalypse. Nonsense. When the power goes out, when the well pump dies, when you lose your job -- then having preps to fall back on is awfully nice.

We were glad for the chance to test our preps. We still have more to do on the water frontier, but we sure were better off than last time without water.

Technical difficulties with Photobucket

Out of the blue, you'll notice the sidebar photos and ads on my blog are now gone. Instead, we see an ominous sign:

In the past, I believe we paid something like $9.99/year -- that's ten bucks per year -- to Photobucket (an image storage site) to maintain and store the photos used on this blog. But hey, maybe we missed an overdue notice and we owed them their $9.99....?

So Don hopped over to Photobucket and learned it would now cost us $399 per year -- that's FOUR HUNDRED BUCKS PER YEAR -- to store photos.

The amazing thing is this came literally out of the blue. All over the internet, people are furious that their photos have suddenly disappeared and are being held hostage by a company that now demands -- with no prior warning whatever -- a ransom of $400 to restore the photos.

PC Magazine noted:

Embedding images on a website or in a forum post is a very common practice, with those images usually living on one of the many well-known image hosting websites. One such host is Photobucket, but a recent change to its subscription tiers means many millions of images across the Internet are no longer going to load outside of Photobucket's own site.

The key feature of a Photobucket account we're talking about here is called "3rd Party Hosting." It allows you to embed images from Photobucket in another location on the Internet, e.g. in a forum post or on a website.

As Norvic Philatelics discovered, Photobucket changed its terms and conditions and removed the 3rd Party Hosting feature from the lower subscription tiers. If you want to continue using that feature then a Photobucket Plus 500 subscription is required. It costs $39.99 per month or $399 per year.

The worst part of this debacle, according to Ghacks.net, is the fact Photobucket users were apparently given no warning of the change. The subscription features simply changed, and images stopped loading without explanation.

I don't have the slightest problem with companies needing to raise their rates to earn a profit. But as far as a business model designed to create bitter anger among its customers, I don't think they could have done any better.

Fortunately every single photo on my website -- as well as ads and ancillary images -- are stored separately, so I won't lose anything. But I'm furious at Photobucket for pulling this low-handed trick with no warning and no negotiation and no options.

Um, here's a little head's up to the Photobucket folks: You aren't the only image-storage service available. Bloggers and websites have other options.

We'll be looking at other image hosting sites, of course, but I believe I can speak for many others in the Blogosphere when I say this: Even if Photobucket realizes the errors of its ways and restores their services to everyone tomorrow, their image is now trashed. No one will touch them with a ten-foot pole.

So my apologies for the ridiculous look of the blog's front page. Meanwhile, if any tech gurus out there can recommend an image hosting service, I'm all ears.

Don't worry, be happy

I receive daily emails from Lisa Bedford and Daisy Luther with Preppers University, offering tips and suggestions for preparedness.

Yesterday's tip was excellent. It went as follows:

---

If preparedness makes you stressed and anxious, you're not doing it right.

The reasons why we prep are many, but it boils down to one philosophy: We want our families to be safe and comfortable if something unexpected happens.

That should be a positive goal, though, not a negative one.

We don't prep because we're "afraid" of everything. We prep so we don't NEED to be afraid of anything.

If your preparedness endeavors are bringing you stress and anxiety you may need to do some thinking. The goal of preparedness is peace of mind, not worry.

Maybe you feel like you started too late. That's absolutely not true. Even if you start this afternoon, you will be further ahead than you were yesterday. You'll be further ahead than your clueless next door neighbor or your ditzy co-worker.

Begin by thinking about what you are preparing for as "the unexpected" instead of "something bad." That can do a whole lot to help you put a positive spin on things.

Then, focus on how far you've come instead of how far you have to go. All of us, Lisa and me (Daisy) included, have so much further we could go if we only had the time and the money.

No one will ever be as prepared as they'd like to be. Prepping for everything is impossible. But every step you take leads you just a little bit further down that path.

---

Personally, I found this to be an excellent Proverbs 31:25 example.

Baby killdeer

At long last, the killdeer nest which has been hindering any heavy work in the garden has hatched.

If you recall, we had a killdeer nest smack in the middle of the garden. Killdeer eggs are practically invisible, and I inadvertently crushed two of them by dragging hoses over the nest. Over the next two days, the mother laid two more eggs to make up the necessary four. After I knew where the nest was, I was able to avoid it.

As the weeks went by, the parent birds seem to realize I meant them no harm. In fact, the very day the eggs hatched, I slowly weeded my way toward the nest, moving carefully, and the mother (or father, I can't tell them apart) actually allowed me to get within two feet of her. I could have reached out and touched her.

A couple hours after this, Don came in and said two of the eggs had hatched. I snatched up the camera and went to see.

These were the original two eggs in the nest. The other two were a day or two behind developmentally.

The mother, fluffed up to accommodate the extra mass beneath her, stayed diligently on the nest. There was an extra note of concern in her voice and I stayed my distance (which is why some of the photos are blurry or cropped).

Here the parents are doing the "changing of the guard" over the newborn chicks.

You can see a baby (on the left) taking a peek from underneath the mother.

Here are both chicks.

Here's another "changing of the guard."

When I enlarged and cropped the nest, I saw another hatched chick (the third) and one unhatched egg.

In no time at all, the two older newborns were on their feet, while the third newly-hatched baby wobbled near the nest and one unhatched egg remained. Soon the two older chicks were running around everywhere...

...with one parent following behind, trying to keep them reigned in.

My goodness, if I thought the parents were busy before, it was nothing next to having hatchlings everywhere. While one parent chased after the mobile babies, the other stayed on the nest and supervised the newborn and the as-yet-unhatched egg.

Here's (presumably) the mama, with the third hatchling starting to push away from under her.

Here's a cropped closeup of the third chick.

Pretty soon it, too, was on its feet, stumbling and tripping and behaving remarkably like a newborn calf as it tries to stand and walk for the first time.

The chicks are astoundingly cryptic. See the chick in this photo? Yeah, it took awhile for me to see it too.

How about now?

Finally the fourth egg hatched.

Here's baby with a parent.

Once the last baby left the nest, I checked for eggshells. Nothing. I'm guessing the parents dispose of the shells after the babies hatch.

Soon the two older babies went outside the garden, with (presumably) the dad keeping an eye on them, while mom and the two younger kids remained in the garden. They were in constant vocal communication during this separation, a sort of killdeer version of the game "Marco Polo."

Once the two younger chicks were both strong enough, the mother left the garden with them and joined up with papa. It became apparent the adults were slowly herding their brood away from the garden and toward the woods, though to do that they had to cross the entire driveway area and the entire feedlot.

Here is one of the parents with three of the chicks, crossing the bumpy dirt in the feedlot.

It was hard to focus as well as hard to get all four chicks together (you can just see the beak of the fourth chick on the upper left). It was tough going for the babies, climbing up and down the ridges and tracks in the feedlot.

When they reached the shade of the gate post, the whole family stopped to rest for about ten minutes (yes, all four chicks are in the photo).

Here's a last glimpse of the family before they made their way into the tall grasses and then into the woods.

I sincerely hope the babies survive since, as Don pointed out, they're like little walking Chicken McNuggets at this stage.

Still, they were fun to watch. Bon voyage, little killdeer.