Correction by extraction, frosted

I spent over an hour and a half after work covering what I could in the landscape.  The strong winds that were leading the cold front made the task extra challenging and frustrating.  The garden was covered with fabric that is normally used to line the ground underneath a pond liner.  I then hold the fabric down with a combination of olympic weight plates, wood, tools, bricks, and anything else laying around that weighs a few pounds. The plants along the pool mostly were wrapped individually with standard frost cloth with more heavy objects and staples to keep it in place.

I had the chickens out the entire time I was working.  They are definitely getting more comfortable around me, not flinching when I am close by and even following me around at times.  Curly is the most inquisitive chicken right now, she will follow me almost anywhere, hoping I will drop a treat.

Getting the chickens back into the coop area when I was finished took some patience.  I got three of the four back in with a cracked corn bribe but Lola, the smallest and presumably youngest chicken was off doing her own thing.  I slowly herded her towards the coop but had to complete at least a half dozen circles until I was able to scoop her up and put her inside.  I try to make sure I don’t CHASE the chickens as I don’t want to make them scared of me.  When they go back in I always make sure they are rewarded, just like you do with a dog when it behaves well.

So after completing the outdoor cold prep it was time to work on the reverse osmosis leaking issue.  After a lot of futzing around I was able to get the head unit loose so I could take a look at it.  What I saw was a lot of nastiness and scuzz where the hoses go into the faucet.  I then started to weigh trying to clean/fix the leak versus just pulling the damn system out.  Although it has worked well for me over the years, the cartridges are very expensive and I don’t know that the water comes out tasting any better or being any cleaner than a Brita pitcher.  The reverse osmosois holding tank is enclosed, after 6-7 years of service I can only imagine what the inside of it looks like.

I hopped on Amazon and priced out a Brita pitcher which was less than $25.  I then conferred with Cindy, asking if she had any problem with me just ripping out the RO system and using a simple Brita pitcher for our water needs.  She didn’t care at all, in fact she used to have a Brita pitcher when she lived by herself and liked it.  So out came the scissors.  I cut the main feed and drain line and pulled the head unit out.  I then yanked the big holding tank and filter assembly out as well and lugged it all to the garage.  I plan to deposit it all by the curb for one of the local scavengers to snap up.

I had to do some reconfiguring of stuff under the sink, namely the water line that feeds the fridge which used to be tied into the RO system.  At first I was worried I did not have the right combination of fittings to make it all work but by repurposing some of the stuff I cut out I was able to make it work.   The RO removal opened up a lot of extra room under the sink as well as allowing us to clean up and throw out items in there that were no longer needed.

I hopped on Amazon and ordered the 10 cup Brita pitcher.  If that proves to be inadequate for our water needs they also have a large 18 cup reservoir that would get the job done.  Of course the level of filtration a carbon activated system like the Brita uses is not as extensive as RO but I really don’t think we will be able to tell the difference since even water straight out of the tap isn’t bad.

I am picking up the dogs on the way home tonight for an all weekend sleepover visit.  It will be the first time the dogs get to see the new chickens.  We will have to start the familiarization/trust process all over again.  I’d also like to start phase 2 of the 3 phase pool border project which would be recovering the area in weed block cloth so that it can then be later covered in rubber mulch.  Other than that, normal weekend guidelines are in place.