Comptonia

Sunday, January 4, 2026

report

Moxie watching the sun rise.

I'm back with the water report. The cold water line to my kitchen sink has been replaced. It was pouring rain that morning, and during the plumbing work I think I got more thoroughly soaked than AM did, because he was in the dry crawlspace and I was standing outside the little crawlspace window, yelling, "Do you need anything?" and "What?" and "Are you alright in there?"

Not raining today, though!

Before the work started I asked AM if, after the plumbing, he would mind taking a moment and just unscrewing the lightbulb in the crawlspace and replacing it with my socket adaptor that would hold both a bulb and an extension cord that might power my bucket de-icers. He very kindly agreed, and after checking that the new water line was functional, he headed for the fixture and that's where the wheels came off, so to speak.

First, the adapter broke while being screwed into the socket. Oh well, it was quite old, but worth a try, I said. For now let's just put the bulb back in the socket and I'll think of something else later.

But when AM put the original bulb back in the socket, it had stopped working. I borrowed a functioning bulb from a lamp, but when moved to the crawlspace, that one didn't work either. AM decided that the outlet in the crawlspace - a simple single bulb socket - should be replaced. Even though it would mean hardwiring - not the job he had signed up for - AM was ready to go to his house and get another fixture from his personal Collection of Useful Items, but - and this will surprise no one - I knew there was one in my own personal Collection of Useful Items, and mine included an outlet for a 3-prong plug, which you may recall was essential for the extension cord/de-icer experiment. I would not have asked AM to hardwire a fixture but, well, he offered and I've become a lot more comfortable with saying "Great, thanks," when people offer to do things I can no longer tackle myself but would if I could. (About a hundred years ago I wired half my house.)

But...

when AM went back into the crawlspace he realized the box the original socket was wired from was too small for the new ceramic socket-and-plug base, so he went home and got another box and a circuit tester - safety first! - and was back in about 10 minutes. I'll tell you what, it's pretty convenient to have a neighbor doing work here!

All in all, AM finished the water line in about 40 minutes but was here for two hours, thanks to my little request to plug in an extension cord. And he was also quite soaked by the end of it, after crawling in and out of the little window several times during the electronics episode. Fortunately for me, he's not thrown off by the unexpected quirks in projects, probably because his family has an old house too, and livestock. It's probably why he charges by the hour for most jobs. Very sensible.

AM turned an old tattered shelterlogic roundtop
into this permanent shelter after the barn disaster of 2024.
That's a perky Dara in the foreground.

Speaking of livestock...

The testing of the crawlspace circuit extension cord was stretched out over 3 days, as I wanted to add each de-icer cord individually, giving it plenty of time to deal with the ice accumulation in one trough before adding the next. It took over 12 hours just to melt the solid ice in the barn trough! The outdoor trough was added next, then it was time for the wildlife basin. First I had to find the de-icer plug, which was on the ground and had been buried in snow and then encased in ice. I plugged it in overnight and by morning was able to dump out the meltwater and replace it with fresh. I think the birds are happy to have plenty of water available all the time again, instead of a little pan of water replaced twice daily but freezing over quickly.

About thirty finches and juncos flew out of frame
the moment I tried to take this picture. Trust me.

Let's hope the plumbing and electrical projects are finished for a while and I can carry on with other things. There will be no trouble coming up with the next items to work on, but as I often say, everyone needs a hobby, right? Right??

Sculpture by Quinn

~~~~~

Thursday, January 1, 2026

early morning 2026

View from the barn when the wind blows:

Same view, between gusts:

And a lull:

See the light in the window to the far left? That's me, typing this. Right now there are two cardinals at the hanging feeder outside my window, silhouettes only identifiable by their size and crests. They are excavating the new inches of snow on the tray feeder, to see if it's worth the effort. (It is.)

I hope your first day of this new year is a very good one, and I hope all your excavations in 2026 yield your personal equivalent of hulled sunflower seeds and mealworms.

~~~~~

Sunday, December 28, 2025

weekend

Saturday morning:

Friday night we got many more inches of powder.

The annual challenge of keeping water available to everyone, everywhere, all the time, currently means carrying a lot of buckets, three times each day. While it's nice to have all these visits with the herd and the hens, it's a mystery why the (eventually) successful system of bucket de-icers and extension cords that worked last year is not working this year. I've got one more idea to try, but it involves a two-minute task in the crawlspace. It's genuinely quite spacious in there but even if I could still creep through a cellar window on my belly, working on the ground - and especially, getting back up off the ground - is not a simple matter these days, and it's possible I'd just have to do that two-minute task and then get used to living in the crawlspace.

But!

Yesterday my neighbor AM came by to take measurements for a plumbing line replacement that's been on the list for a few weeks, and we went to the hardware store for materials. He may be coming today to do the job, which will take place in the crawlspace. I already have my outlet adaptor and new extension cord ready for the crawlspace-based de-icer experiment. Fingers crossed!