Some Stuff, Some Confusing, Some Not So Much

I'm struggling. I've battled the hawks for so many years and the ravens for all of this year. I fought the hawks for what they do to the songbirds that visit the lodge every day singing their butts off for a mate. I've despised the ravens for attacking the nests of songbirds and torturing the young in front of the parents so much so that having learned the lesson of the Sharp Shinned hawk winter battle years ago I've found you don't really get their attention until you go to their house. I've mapped the three pair of raven nests closest to the lodge should that day of battle come. While studying them I recently read they don't nest in the same place twice so it may be a long effort that requires finding the new location of their nests every year so I'm prepared should there be an incident. Now one of my enemies has killed another enemy. Are they my frienemy as the Sharp-shinned became years ago before they killed him too?

For the last few months the water pressure at the lodge has been dropping and if two people anywhere in the lodge try to take a shower at the same time, they can't. We've ruled out one thing after another and when all is said and done it appears the well is going dry. The guy that drilled it found water at 44 feet and he drilled all the way to 88 feet where he hit bedrock. During the seven or eight years of Camelot Lodge and now the 11 plus years of Base Camp the 44 feet in the middle however wide it is has been used up.

So, the temporary answer is to put in a 1750 gallon cistern. The well pump will be active during the night at it's slow rate of pulling water up and fill the cistern. The cistern will have it's own pump and push water into the lodge on the day and times when it's busiest so there will be sufficient water pressure. But, barring a whole bunch of rain that finds it's way 44 feet down, the lodge will run out of water at some point.

 I have considerable water rights with a mile of river frontage but because the water level and the beach move around a lot there's no consistent place to put a pump anywhere close to the lodge. So I'm about to become a short haul trucker from the pond or boat ramp to the cistern. I'd prefer the pond where it can sit for a couple days and settle making the water much cleaner as it goes into the cistern.

Business is way up. Sometime this week Base Camp will pass the revenue of all of last year between cash collected and booked. Last year almost doubled the year before and that will increase the water usage at the lodge and with a pump going all the time may put strain on the nearly new power grid of solar panels and batteries.

Sandra called and wanted to stay in the female hogan at Last Hurrah. I told her she needed a vehicle with some clearance to get here. She said her friends told her that the big truck she has wouldn't make it. Me, figuring she had a Ford 350 or similar I told her the propane truck makes it here every year, the septic truck does, a school bus with non retractable stairs and two 30 foot toy trailers showed up so unless she had a cement mixer on the back of her truck she'd be ok.

On Monday Sandra showed up in her truck. I misunderstood when Sandra said she had a big truck. It turns out she had a BIG TRUCK. No problem she said.

Wednesday evening.

I've never stayed at Last Hurrah, anywhere, not even one night. I'm pumping water at both places though tonight and I'm concerned about an overflow in the Last Hurrah tanks so I'm mostly staying over at Last Hurrah tonight though driving over to the lodge every few hours.

It's nice.