Another Staycation
The holiday season is upon us. Holidays are a time to visit with family, extended family, and friends who are like family. Holidays are that one time a year when differences are put aside and you are grateful to have family and friends to share in the festivities. In the words of the Doubter, “sheeeet”. Yeah right, holidays are about spending money. Money spent on gifts for them, gifts for you. Money spent on food, travel, clothes, decorations, and all the other crap that goes with the holidays. Yeah, the crazy season is upon us.
The good thing about the holidays, are the days off. Most businesses are closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holidays. Many people use the long weekend as a mini vacation. A vacation to spend time with extended families in other cities, states, or countries. Of course, many people use the long weekend for shopping. Whichever is more important. Then there are the people who have to work during the holidays. The nurses at the hospitals, the convenience store clerks, the cashiers and stockers at the retail stores in preparation of the Black Friday craziness, and me at Boxes in Fields. Okay, that is not necessarily the truth. Monday and Tuesday were at the seven to four job. Wednesday through Sunday from daylight to dark was at the Boxes in Fields job. Not that I consider Boxes in Fields a job or work. The Thanksgiving holiday weekend was another staycation. This time, there was a deadline. Boxes in Fields had to be ready for the Airstream move over from the RV park by Friday. There needed to be water, electricity, and sewer ready and working. Oooh, wheee boy howdy. It will be a busy, busy, week.
Have you ever seen electrical conduit cemented together? Cemented as in joined, kinda like glue. Let me say right now, it is not “glued” together. Glue, according to dictionary.com, is “an adhesive substance used for sticking objects or materials together.” Cements are not glue. Apparently, this is one of those trade specific OCD things. Glad that was clarified. Wouldn’t want to call a chicken a bird. Anyhoo, or dare I say, anyglue…. Cementing electrical conduit together is a fascinating experience. Electrical conduit cement does exactly what the name states. It cements the two pieces together. Here’s how it works: solvent is spread on both ends of the electrical conduit and then the two pieces are pushed together where they chemically bond together. That’s right, chemically bonded. E-Z Weld best describes the technical process. “Solvents attack the surfaces of the pipe and fitting, causing them to soften and swell. The swelling of the pipe and fitting continues until the gaps between the two are closed. Resin fills any gaps that may remain open. Solvents are liquid and they evaporate. As the solvents evaporate, the pipe and fitting cure into a single piece of plastic.” If done right, the electrician can see the pipe melting together. Ha! I didn’t say gluing.
What is even more fascinating, like you can’t turn away from a bad car wreck fascinating, is the fact that the everyday Joe electrician can purchase this cement over the counter, legal to use without instructions, no safety requirements needed, at any store where conduit is sold. At that my friend, is a very scary thing. If you don’t believe me, just read the warning labels on the front of the can.
Holy Beegeezeer! Don’t worry, electrical cement is eco-friendly! It says so directly under the name and in a box to the left. Solvent cement is “low VOC”. Low VOC, as defined by the EPA, simply means the volatile organic compound gasses emitted over the course of months and years are low therefore reducing the short and long term health effects. Uh huh. So this solvent that is so powerful it melts plastic is safe for long term usage. What a load of bullarky. Fret not, only two small cans were used while installing the electrical conduit.
One final thing. This same process of chemical bonding is used to join PVC piping as well. With PVC, the process is the same but requires two steps, a primer (softening the pipe) and a cement. The application of these two steps must be done quickly. The primer is to remain wet before applying the cement and meshing of the two pipes resulting in a newly forged bond. Electrical conduit cement was scary. PVC primer and cement left me speechless. Not literally, physically. Application of these solvents made the nose hairs singe, the lungs burn, and the eyes water when first opened. As the cans are exposed to the elements, the strong odor dissipates, leaving you to wonder how well the chemicals are working at bonding pipes.
And yes, in case you are wondering; this made in America; found in any hardware store, can be bought over the counter and is eco-friendly. That’s right, as in low-VOC. Ain’t American made products just great.
Boxes in Fields and few others friends in the construction business have a running joke. Not a joke really, more like a statement, a mantra. “The one-inch mark”. Never heard of it? Well, let me just say it is almost as good as the general rule of thumb that anyone who is anyone who works in measurements (seamstress, construction, electrician, plumber, hairdresser, etc..) follows: measure twice, cut once. One could even say the two mantras go hand in hand. The one-inch mark is as you guessed applies when materials are cut one inch too short. Oh yes, it is always too short. There is no such thing as one-inch too long. Good grief, everyone knows that.
The one-inch mark, oh how it rears its ugly little head at the most inconvenient times. Like when there is a limited amount of supplies, when materials being cut cost more than you make in a day, or when mistakes cannot be covered. Yup, always at the most inconvenient times. Some may say the mistakes are made because of time restraints or from not paying attention. But that is not true, not always anyways. The one-inch mark, it gets me every time. Would it help to say I measured twice, cut once, and it was still one inch too short.
During the installation of PVC lines, the well water was used to wash out the IBC totes and freshen up the water before attaching it to the PVC for shower water. You read right, shower water. Just because there is no fresh water does not mean the well water cannot be used to shower. For Boxes in Fields, showering consumes the majority of our daily water usage. And since at this point, we are collecting our drinking and cooking water from other sources, we decided to shower with the well water. Since the ground has finally dried out and we do not want to make a mess again below the well and in front of the conex boxes, the water and totes were dragged away from the work areas to in among the trees. To do this, the brand new, still in the binding, industrial strength garden hose was busted out. Oooh, how I do love a new garden hose. It doesn’t pinch or bind, it re-rolls up easily, and it still smells of rubber. Yup, new garden hoses are great.
UNLESS, of course, you have purchased this garden hose. Oh sure, it rolled out great, there was no pinching or twisting or binding, and once used, it re-rolled up great too. So what was so wrong you ask? GLITTER! Freaking glitter. Yes, I said GLITTER. GLITTER on a garden hose. It is a garden hose, not a girly, girly, swirly tutu. A garden hose! And oh, this glitter, this glitter was the super fine glitter that sticks to your skin and can clog a pore. This glitter is the glitter that will not be rubbed off, washed off, or pinched off. This glitter is the glitter that eventually just disappears. Disappears to who knows where. It is probably absorbed into the skin. Ugh, GLITTER on a brand new garden hose. A GARDEN HOSE!
Argh. It ruined my whole new garden hose experience. Don’t know what freaking genius decided glitter should be placed on the shell of garden hose but they should be dragged into the yard and beaten with a piece of this garden hose. I wanted to be like the little old lady from the Discount Tire commercial from the 90’s. I wanted to throw my garden hose straight through somebody’s corporate office for a full refund. No, wait, a full refund and compensation for my mental anguish. IT IS A GARDEN HOSE! For the love of peter, paul, and mary.
You’ve heard me complain several times about the crappy level of our well water. But nothing, I mean NOTHING, prepared me for what happened today. Standing over the IBC tote watching the water, one was assaulted by the smell being emitted. Guess not having the water moving allowed the sewer smell to strengthen, to gain intensity, to reach a whole new level of crap-aroma. It was awful, just awful. Words fail me. Then, when I think nothing could be worse than smelling sewer water filled with rotten eggs being emitted from our well debating if it will the smell would clear out, a whole new level of crappiness was reached.
Do not by any means add bleach to mineral-laden well water. Chlorine reacts with iron minerals resulting in poo colored water. And not just slightly, off colored water. I am talking about the results when poo in a cup is blended with a little water. Dee-sgust-ing. When the water finally filled the top, the color was still off. Now it was more like strong black tea, but disgusting all the same.
To the horror, it did not end there. Once the water was drained, the tote did not smell of sewer or bleach or any other funkn the remains were disturbing. Sand. Yes, yes, I know. We live in sand-clay land. The lab results did not show sand sediments in their reports. Trying to wash out sand from a tote with water that contains sand is a never ending process. At some point, a truce is called and the sand wins. Besides, there are other more important things to be working on while on this staycation.
Like acquiring drinking and cooking water from other sources. This was the first of two totes, each 275 gallons, Boxes in Fields will be using for the next month. At least. Hopefully. Like I said, showering in salt water will help conserve the fresh water.
With septic installed and working, water and electrical lines trenched and covered, IBC totes filled with water, the only thing for Thursday’s agenda is the installation of the RV power pole and the running and connecting of the electrical wiring to the well and RV power pole. If all goes according to plan, the Airstream will be moving over on Friday. Hot dog, woo hoo, Boxes in Fields is going to be home, not just owning the property. Here’s hoping….