Plumbing and Paw Prints

I didn’t think plumbing would be interesting.  But actually, when you think about it, it is.  My parent’s generation had galvanized plumbing pipes.  They corroded and probably caused all kinds of problems that I am not educated about.  When Don and I built our first home 30 years ago, it was copper pipes.  PVC existed, but it was used in the ground outside, not in the house.  We had copper and you had to know what you were doing to install it.

Our first plumbing experience (hired plumber) in Nevada left us with hot water in our upstairs toilet!  It was a great concept at first (warm seat), but proved to be ineffective and we of course fixed it.  We had a LOT of learning experiences with our first house.  The most important being that log homes while relatively easy to erect, they are nearly impossible to finish.   The second most important thing (in those days) was to get the job done and done correct, you needed to do it yourself.

Today again things have changed.  First of all, there are very competent folks out there willing to do a job for you and do it well.  It isn’t all about the fast buck anymore.  So few people are able to learn a craft (in this day of mechanization) and take pride in that craft, that it is becoming an art to perform a service and have happy customers.

Plumbing has also changed.  Today, we no longer use copper pipes.  First of all copper is too expensive.  You read stories about people stealing copper wires and whatever they can get their hands on to sell for scrap and make money.  The new plumbing lines are called Pex tubing.  Pex looks like a cross between PVC and a garden hose.  It is strong and flexible and I am told will expanded for temperature changes, thus able to freeze and not break.  However, you would not want your pipes to freeze because then you would not have any  water!

The other advantage to Pex tubing is that you get red pex for hot water and blue pex for cold water.  No more warm toilets! 

Don has been watering the the ground around the house that was exposed during building.  The dirt is very fine and causes a lot of dust so the water helps keep the dust down.  We also plan to start adding some grass seed in hopes that it will take over and replace the variety of scrub bushes and weeds and mullein that will come back in those locations.  

Two mornings ago he called me out to look at some tracks in the mud.  The foot prints were big enough to wonder if a cougar or bear had passed right next to the house!  But after taking a picture of the tracks and checking online, it seems that the coyotes I’ve mentioned before are relatively large.  I placed a quarter in the picture.  These dog prints are twice the size of our dog Bear’s and he weighs 75 lbs.