0076

Warm and breezy, a gorgeous autumn-like day, so I take to the strawberry patch to do some weeding, down on all fours. This is a very slow task, and I let my thoughts drift where they will.

I remember the John-Denver-like character we met in Kentucky a few years ago, and his story of turning from a career as an investment broker to become a plain Mennonite farmer. As neither he nor his family had been raised to the plain life, his deliberate aim was to retain a modicum of comfort via creative but humble means. With this in mind, he tapped into a natural spring on the opposite side of the holler, piped the water down to the bottom, where a ram pump pushed a percentage of it up to a tank uphill from his house, spilling the excess into the creek at the bottom. From the tank, he ran more pipes back down to his house, thus achieving water pressure in his house without running an electric pump. Then he ran a pipe through his wood-burning stove, and stored this hot water in an insulated tank in his attic. So, without burning gas or oil or electricity, he had hot & cold running water. I was quite impressed, both with the ingenuity of his system and with the reasonable principle from which he proceeded.

I can still picture him, sandy hair, wire-rim glasses, as he showed us the stove with the built-in water plenum. He had learned to be careful to temper the hot water with cold, laughing as he exclaimed, "Hot? Lemme tell you, son, that water'll blister yer hide!". He even sounded like Johnny Denver.

Newly inspired, I take a piece of scratch paper and start mapping out a fairly simple way to run some pipes to heat water with my wood stove in the winter, and with an attic (solar) tank in the summer.

Back to the garden. I pick green beans, chard, broccoli, and sweet corn, most of which I freeze. I plant a few apple seeds in the back yard and in the meadow across the driveway.

0075

Have been busy picking green beans, sweet corn, and other fresh veggies, sharing with neighbors, and freezing for winter. Also working on the house plumbing when I can fit that in. There are so many holes in the walls and ceilings that I rarely have to break more sheetrock to gain access.

Today it's cloudy and threatening more rain, so I'm making good progress. I finish roughing in the cold water lines (all soldered copper) and connect to my rigged-up pressure tank downstairs. I set up the large garbage can to draw water from, and turn the pump on, pressurizing the whole system. All the soldered joints appear sound -- except the least accessible one: an elbow or coupling near the floor leading to the bathroom sink. Try to re-solder, but that doesn't work, and I don't have enough fittings on hand to do it over. Aaaargghhh!

So I start to question myself. Why am I even putting plumbing in? Maybe I should just be humble and live plainly like the Amish, do it all the simple way. Wasn't that the ideal to begin with? Well, I'm not going to burn gas driving into town for a couple little plumbing fittings, so this project will have to be postponed (and maybe never resumed?)

The rain has stopped, so I go outside, and dig a nice mess of new potatoes for supper.

0074

The fog lifts mid-morning for a warm sunny day. I gather cucumbers, squash, and apples, and drive to the 4-Corners store. But now Tracy says he guesses he's not ready to sell vegetables. So I come back home, load the folding table and a few other things, and drive to the Duluth farmers' market once more. Apples sell well, other stuff so-so. I guess marketing this stuff won't be quite as easy as I may have supposed.

Back to Superior, distribute the remaining veggies free to Lenore, her neighbors, and Keith & Dave. Supper with Lenore, exchange books at the library, then back home after dark.

0073

Rained hard Sunday night, and kept it up most of the day yesterday and through the night again. I worked indoors, routing more electrical wiring.

Finally it stops raining this afternoon, the sun showing his face. I pick some green beans, and dig potatoes and carrots for sale at the corner convenience store tomorrow, and take some chard and broccoli for my own table.

Now it's foggy and misty again. Such a wet year!

0072

Have enjoyed sweet corn at its peak the past couple days. In addition to garden work, I've started to route new upstairs wiring through the bathroom floor while that's ripped up.

Awake this morning while it was still dark; Morning Prayer at dawn. Even though the sky is overcast, I ride the bicycle 18 miles to town. No rain, and it's a pleasant ride. I even have time to partially mow Lenore's lawn before attending 9:30 Mass with her at Cathedral parish.

Brenda, another new friend of Lenore's, joins us for breakfast. We have a leisurely visit, I finish the lawn, then Lenore feeds me lunch. I throw the bike into the back of the Tercel and drive back home, so now I have both vehicles here.

0071

I pull some more onions and do other garden chores, but it's threatening rain again. After some indecision (I'm certainly not the decisive executive type), I drive to town, buy some plumbing and electrical supplies, and buy the '82 Toyota. I leave the Tercel at Lenore's house, and drive the truck back home, without plates.

0070

Spent yesterday in town with Jack and Lenore, and, among other things, I looked at that '82 Toyota pickup, and am pondering whether or not to buy it. It won't get the same gas mileage as the Tercel, and that's an important consideration. But I've been hauling all kinds of stuff with the Tercel as if it were a truck, and I think its days are numbered. And if I need a truck to do what I'm doing, better a Toyota or Datsun than a big Chevy or Dodge.

Today is another chilly, dreary day, raining off & on all day. I bring some veggies to the corner store, they meet Tracy's approval, and he buys them.

The tomatoes are very thick and verdant, but are way behind schedule in producing ripe fruit. Oats growing nicely, but my methods for hand harvesting are very inefficient. Potatoes now ready to be dug en masse, sweet corn is almost ready to pick, green beans continue to produce well, several little watermelons getting big, and lots of pie pumpkins, including a few that appear to be almost ripe. Apples are ripening nicely, I should pull the onions and beets soon, and carrots any time... So the garden is entering the heavy harvest stage, with some successes and some disappointments.