Building Fiascos, part 4 - Defective Brass PEX Fittings

We had a flood in our crawl space last weekend - not a major flood, but it certainly could have been.  Fortunately, it didn’t damage anything major.  We just had to keep a fan running down there for several days to help dry things out after my husband used his shop vac to suck up the worst of the water. 

What happened?  Our second (of many, many we have in this house) brass fitting (a “T” this time) for our PEX flexible plumbing degraded through.  It was leaking about 5 gallons an hour by the time the plumber came to fix it.  The first one that went bad happened almost simultaneously.  That one was a 90 degree fitting in our utility closet in the garage (where the tankless water heater, water softener, pressure vessel, and water filters are housed).  The one in the utility closet was easy to find - the second one wasn’t. 

How did we find out they were leaking?  That was the relatively easy part, due to a serendipitous (in hind sight) construction mistake.  When our house was being built we were supposed to have a little pump house outside, where the water booster pump and water pressure vessel would be housed.  Somehow, during the hectic last two months of “hurry and finish,” and between “too many cooks spoiling the stew” of the contractors (the general, the plumber, and the well driller), we didn’t get that external pump house.  The booster pump ended up in the utility closet with the heater, softener, etc., directly adjacent to our master bedroom.  Due to leaks and malfunctioning check valves causing water in the line (which we wouldn’t “diagnose” for almost two years) the booster pump was extremely noisy – every time it came on it sounded like a jet engine was taking off right next to our bedroom.  Needless to say, we hated it.  We finally had the money to replace it with a different pump last summer (which will be a building fiasco posting all of its own).  The new pump, which was quieter, faster was placed in the crawl space below our master bathroom, easily accessible (if you are limber) via a crawlspace access hole in our master closet.  You can still hear it come on, but it is a low-pitched machine hum, probably one third the decibels of the old pump. 

Because the water pressure booster pump is in the house we can tell if we are using water, or if we have any leaks.  A slow leak will be slow to determine – throughout the day water is used, the pressure goes down and the pump comes on.  At night, however, we don’t use the water, no toilets are flushed (a pet peeve of mine from apartment living decades ago – DON’T flush at night!!!).  If the pump comes on during the night, something is wrong!  Over the summer, the pump would come on periodically at night, not often, just enough to be irritating.  Since we had a new pump, and we still had a check valve that had to be removed from the system, we figured it was just a quirk of the pump.  Well that was fixed in late September.  And still, every one in a while, the pump would come on at night.  We looked around, checked the toilets (the most frequent culprit of leaks), and all seemed ok.  But it got worse.  The pump was coming on every night, sometimes twice.  That is a significant leak.  When we looked in the utility closet, we found what we thought was the problem – the leaking 90◦ fitting.  We called the plumber, he came out and looked, said he would be there the next day to fix it, and didn’t show.  That’s how they do it down here….  The leak progressed to the point where we would turn off the breaker to the pump before we went to bed – at least we wouldn’t lose sleep when the pump came on.  It got worse and the pump was coming on, obviously, during the day when water wasn’t being used.  I called the plumber again, said I was worried that it would “blow” and he showed up late that afternoon.  Here was our major mistake – he asked about looking in the crawl space, but it was so late in the day, the dogs were going nuts, it was time for dinner, and I felt awful thanks to the prednisone, that we said no, that we would check it later.  That night, the pump came on again.  What was leaking now?  My husband forgot to check the crawl space that day (we were thinking that maybe the pressure vessel was leaking and were drying out the utility closet with a fan to check that), and the next night we flipped off the breaker.  In the morning, before we flipped the breaker back on, there was zero pressure in the system.  Something was really wrong.  He lifted the crawlspace access in our coat closet (yes we have two access holes), and there was the flood – a fitting was leaking like a sieve a few feet to the south.  We put a bucket under it, depressurized our system, and waited for the plumber to show up.  He replaced the fitting a few hours later, checked out the rest of the crawl space for other leaks (none!), and we are dry, at least for now.   

According to numerous postings on the web, our house is a ticking time bomb, with fittings just degrading away, getting ready to blow.  One web site says that the degradation is due to zinc being leached out of the fittings due to hard water.  We have very hard well water, but we also have a whole house GAC-KDF filter that puts zinc back into the water….   Will that help?  Who knows?

So what to do?  We can’t afford to replace every fitting until some of these law suits are settled and we find out what financial help we would get.  We watch, and we listen.  And….I purchased a fancy moisture detector that can accommodate up to 4 wireless water sensors.  We’ll put them in the low spots below where clusters of the fittings are and hope for the best.  We will also be more aggressive about checking the crawl space.  And, luckily, we have our water pump, that can wake me up at night, and will let us know when we have leaks of significance - as I said, a serendipitous mistake that it ended up where we could hear it.  And, we will hope for the best. 

Prednisone Day 18 - Getting Better

Tomorrow I taper my dose to 30mg.  YEA!!  If all goes well I’ll be on my maintenance dose in a little over a week.  I am now thinking I might survive this….

Last weekend was awful.  The vertigo was not necessarily unexpected, but nonetheless a surprise.  I had experienced vestibulitis (inner ear inflammation) about 10 years ago after a sinus infection, and this was an unpleasant reminder of how awful it is to have the spins and be nauseated – and I didn’t even have any fun getting that way!  At least my prior experience taught me about how I need to use meclazine (small doses, sparingly, and not at night unless I want some really strange dreams).  I have slowly regained my “head” throughout the week, although it will still spin with sudden moves.  I don’t dare ride in a car, because motion sickness might set it off again (and we live several miles back a dirt road), even though I have been able to drive short distances without any problems.  My profound weakness has also slowly abated (whew!).  I don’t feel strong and I don’t feel well, but I don’t feel like I will collapse walking to the bathroom anymore.  

My blood pressure has remained under control.  I tweaked my BP meds a bit and that seems to have resolved that problem, at least for now.  As I taper I will probably need to continue to fine tune my meds.  My blood sugar has also been ok.  Not “normal” according to pre-prednisone levels, but well below what my doctor told me were my target levels.  However, I found out that eating brown rice and oatmeal within several hours of each other isn’t a good idea – too many carbs at once!  I’m still learning this carb counting thing.  Because I’m being careful, and eating healthier, I’m dropping some weight.  That is a very good thing overall because I am packing at least 30 too many pounds (and enjoyed putting on every one of them).  That could also be why my BP has been low. 

As far as the expected edema, I have started to notice some swelling in my face, mostly right at the jaw line and then another patch parallel to my ears.  So far it doesn’t fit the textbook “cushnoid” appearance, but I know I’m retaining fluids.  The other clue to fluid retention is the change in my vision - not the dangerous changes that could be related to the temporal arteritis or glaucoma, but fluid retention affecting the corneas.  I had lasik correction 11 years ago, and chose monovision (which I love!) so my left eye is my reading eye and my right eye is my distance eye.  When I had it done I still had menstrual hormonal cycles (although no bleeding without my uterus).  Once a month or so, for the first few years after my lasik I would notice that my distance vision would get better and my reading eye would get worse (in other words, the focus more distant than “normal”).  As I entered menopause, that routine vision change stopped, completely stabilizing ~3 years ago when I was placed on a diuretic for BP.  That vision change is what is happening now.  So small print is not easy to read, and distance vision is great.  I dug out some of my vast array of cheap, over-the-counter “readers” and have tried using them.  I can read fine with them on, but my brain is used to seeing at a distance with my right eye and that isn’t easy wearing readers (even +1.0).  So I’ll see how that all develops, and hope that my brain will be able to adjust to the changes, and/or that the vision changes will decrease with decreased doses. 

That’s all for now.

The Owl in the Dog House

When we moved down here several years ago we ended up bringing an old, molded plastic dog house with us.  I’m not sure why since neither of our current dogs will get into it, but it was still in great shape and we thought that a future dog might use it.  So we hauled it down here, and my husband eventually stored it behind his shop building.  It isn’t snapped together, so the top sits on the dirt, facing towards the southeast, towards the south portion of his large garden, and the bottom is stored separately. 

Last summer, while my husband was working in his garden on a beautiful late August day, he felt like someone was staring at him.  We have 20 fairly un-obstructed acres, so he looked around, went back to work, looked around again, and went back to work.  The feeling kept growing.  He eventually looked up to the back of his shop, and finally saw the culprit.  A female barn owl was standing in the old dog house, looking out at him.  Needless to say, he called me on his cell phone and said to bring the camera, that I wouldn’t believe what was out there. 

A few minutes later I stood in awe, looking at that magnificent creature standing in the old dog house.  We took many pictures, slowly getting closer.  The owl didn’t seem to care – we didn’t know then that she was sick and/or poisoned, and had chosen the dog house as her last resting place. 

Throughout the day we checked on her.  She eventually settled onto her haunches and appeared to sleep.  The next morning I went out to see if she was still there and was saddened to find her dead, laying in front of the dog house.  Using gloves, we put her into a plastic bag and called animal control to see if they wanted to test her for West Nile Virus.  They said they weren’t interested, and didn’t want to take possession of her corpse.  So we buried her, next to the ashes of the dog who had loved the dog house.  It didn’t seem right that we should let the coyotes and ravens take her away in pieces when she had chosen to die here.  The worms and other subterranean creatures could have that privilege. 

I know many cultures have negative feelings about owls, but we didn’t feel anything negative about this experience at all – only awe and then sadness.  Her picture is below.

Prednisone Week 2: Dizzy, Antsy, Wiped Out – What a Combo

I’m not quite to two weeks into taking high dose prednisone, and am starting a slow taper.  It has been pretty awful so far, although a few days of “not too awful” were thrown in to tease me.  The power surges of the first week have essentially ended, the power drains have increased.  Then on Saturday I rode into town with my husband to go to the library, and got extremely motion sick, which lasted well into Sunday and today.  On hind sight, rather than just motion sickness, I think I have the prednisone dizzies, with nausea thrown in for good measure.  Meclazine helps a little, but I’m afraid to take much because it can wipe me out too. 

The “antsy” part of the side effects makes me want to do something, but if I do, I’m too tired, then dizzy, then nauseated to follow through.  Surfing the web is getting old - and I’m usually a big fan of “stream of consciousness” surfing where one thought leads to another search, then another (and you can learn so much).  And, my tight finances can only allow so much online shopping….

So what to do.  I’ve been learning Spanish via Rosetta Stone for the past few months and have really enjoyed the challenge.  It has been very enlightening to see how I can comprehend the spoken and written word, but seem relatively unable to easily form independent sentences or thoughts in another language.  I understand better why the kids of immigrants learn English very quickly, but the adults may be able understand fairly well, but not speak well.  Obviously those two activities of language learning involve different centers of the brain.  Right now my brain is so fuzzy I can’t even get the comprehension part working….so Rosetta Stone waits for a while.

Posting to my blog more frequently may be an answer to keeping me busy, at least a few more minutes each day.  I have more building fiascos, philosophical rants, and nonsensical posts hiding in this fuzzy brain.  If I can get them out of my brain to the screen sounding even remotely coherent, I will post them.  More later.

Building Fiascos, part 3 - cooler installation

I’ve written about how well evaporative coolers (aka swamp coolers) work where I live, and how to get the most out of them.  But getting our swamp cooler installed correctly onto our new house two years ago was a comedy of errors because fewer HVAC (heating, ventilation, air condition) installers are experienced in their installation.  It seems that most HVAC dealers and installers are strongly pushing more costly, and less energy efficient, methods for cooling in our dry southwest region, such as heat pumps and central air.  There are specialized dealers for swampers around here, who also are very knowledgeable in installations.  But when the general contractor has accepted a good HVAC bid from someone who is installing both the furnace and your cooler, you get what you get.  We got someone with a crew who had probably never installed a swamp cooler before.  I knew more about it than they did.  So here’s what happened.

The first thing we noticed on one of our summer trips to visit the construction site was the crappy place that they cut the ceiling vent in the great room.  Unfortunately, once it was cut, it was too late - it would have involved too much time and expense to patch and relocate.  It is only a few feet east of our island cook top, so it blows right onto the stove when we are cooking – we usually end up having to turn it off while preparing meals.  The vent should have been placed at least 4-6 feet further south on the roof; that location would have actually been more centrally placed so air can more readily ventilate into the guest and master bedroom wings of our home.  But, we had to live with it, so we do.

The second thing, which I noticed while walking the dogs on our dirt road, was that the actual unit looked “off” level.  Swamp coolers have to be level or they leak, and they don’t retain enough water in the trough to wet the aspen pads, which means poor cooling.  Since the solar installers were working on the roof, I asked that they use their level on the swamper and tell me how far off it was – it was VERY off!  We told the contractor, who called the HVAC installer, who sent a few of his crew to fix it (this was a 90 mile one way trip).  They came and supposedly fixed it.  The next day I could see that it was still not level.  So, the HVAC installer himself (owner of the company) came out to look at it.  He was so embarrassed – he had made a vent extension that was specially cut to fit the slight backward slant of our mostly flat roof.  His installers had put that vent on backwards.  He flipped it around, and said it is now fixed.  Well, it still wasn’t level, so they came out again, and “fixed” it again – and it still wasn’t level the next day.  Meanwhile, I asked the owner “have you ever installed a swamp cooler before?”  He dodged my question somewhat, but it was pretty clear in his reluctance to give me a straight answer that his crew hadn’t, and that he also had little to no experience.  So out they came again, the owner and one of his best installers.  They “fixed” it, and then watched it for a half hour.  Over that half hour, the unit slowly moved out of level!  The problem – they hadn’t bolted it down (DUH!!!!).  The roof membrane that was slightly overlapped into the top of the vent would compress for a while, then slowly push up on the unit, making it unlevel.  Once the unit was bolted down, there were no further problems.  It also won’t blow off our roof in the wild winds we get here.  So, four 180 mile round trips, hours of wasted labor paid (out of our pocket), because they didn’t know how to install the cooler.  If we ever have to install another swamper, we will make sure the installer knows what they are doing.

Crazy on Prednisone

The mild cold and sinus infection I had a few weeks ago ended up being something much worse – temporal arteritis.  It’s an auto-immune disease where “giant” cells of the immune system attack, and can eventually destroy, the arteries of the face.  I was lucky because I caught it very early - I shouldn’t have any long term problems associated with the condition.  However, the treatment to ensure that I don’t develop any long term problems is AWFUL – high to moderate dose steroids for a long time. 

I will be on prednisone for at least a year, maybe as long as three years.  You are started on high doses to zap the attacking immune system as fast as possible - to save the arteries, and your vision, and your life.  Then the dose is slowly lowered to a more moderate dose over the following month.  This is an old, tried-and-true, medication, but certainly NOT a benign one.  I keep telling myself that the side effects are worth saving my vision, but when I feel so rotten that can be difficult to remember. 

I took my 7^th high dose this morning.  In addition to a positive clinical response, I started to feel the negative side effects within 12 hours of my first dose.  I’m on a roller coaster – antsy, with energy surges followed by crashing for hours, and hair-trigger reactions to things that usually wouldn’t bother me much.  My blood pressure, which has been a challenge to control over the past 5 years anyway, is now 40 points higher than last week.  My blood sugar (I’m not a diabetic but I’ve had a testing kit for years since my father and his mother were type II diabetics) is higher than I’ve ever seen it, and isn’t returning to normal within the required ~2 hours after eating, although it is ok in the morning.  And then last night I had a 9+ hour episode of atrial fibrillation (and for me that means no sleep).  My paroxysmal a-fib is usually very well controlled on anti-arrhythmia meds, but I can experience breakthroughs when my blood pressure isn’t being well controlled, such as times of stress.  Well, my blood pressure isn’t well controlled right now.  AAARGH!!!!

The dose tapering starts tomorrow.  I know I won’t have as many wild problems once I have tapered to the moderate dose, but that will take several weeks.  Then I can begin to adjust, I hope.  By the December holidays I should be more balanced, and by the time my grandson is born in February I should be much more balanced.  Again, I HOPE so. 

Meanwhile I am making it through.  I keep telling myself that this is nothing compared to chemotherapy for cancers, or other really nasty treatments, and that the long term benefit is worth it.  My one glimmer of light from this treatment, aside from the obvious benefits, should occur next spring, summer, and fall – I should have my mildest allergy symptoms ever.  Something positive to look forward to.

Tumbleweed

Ah, the iconic images of the old west – wind swept plains, rugged snow topped mountains, vast canyons, buttes, and ridges, and….the tumbleweed tumbling across the road. 

I first saw a tumbleweed in my early twenties, while driving in the rural west, what appeared to be a huge ball of sticks rolling and bouncing merrily across the road in front of my car.  It joined its brethren (hundred, thousands??) against the fence across the road.  Then there was another, then another.  Some were so big they looked like they had to weight many pounds, but it was obvious from their travels in the winds that they were very light indeed.  The old west, I was there, living in it, how fun. 

The noble tumbleweed has even been immortalized in song – “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” written by Bob Nolan (Sons of the Pioneers) in the early 1930’s and most famously sung (then) by Gene Autry.  

But now that I live in the middle of tumbleweed country, I know that all of that is a myth.  Tumbleweed is a NOXIOUS, highly allergenic, invasive weed, that isn’t even native to the Americas.   According to Wikipedia, it is thought to have been imported accidentally from Asia sometime in the 1870’s in shipments of flax seed.  It is called Russian thistle, or if you want to get scientific Salsola tragus.  Imported plants can do damage – think kudzu and tamarisk.  They compete for scarce water resources, and often win, crowding out the beneficial food-source grasses.

Russian thistle will grow in disturbed soils – at least that is what is said.  However, I know it can grow in solid clay, undisturbed for years except by driving rains and melting snows, if conditions are right.  The plant starts out looking quite attractive, with small, green shoots that look like a succulent grass.  When that size, they are apparently quite digestible by many animals.  We have seen chipmunks feasting on them.  But they don’t stay small for long.  Within what seems like days they get prickly, discouraging small animals, and scraping your ankles if you walk too close.  The new shoots keep on coming up until early fall, so you have huge plants and tiny plants, all prickly, all ready to bloom (at the same time) causing your nose to drown in snot.  The plant has a very long, sturdy tap root.  When they are still green, trying to pull up the plants is difficult because that tap root anchors it firmly in place.  After it blooms, after the first frost, the connection between the tap root and the plant essentially disintegrates, and the plant is free.  Sometimes that doesn’t happen until the second year for the dried plant.  Then it disperses all those prickly seeds everywhere it rolls.  Millions upon trillions of seeds deposited, just waiting for the right conditions in the spring, and then the cycle begins again. 

After having said all that, tumbleweed can still be interesting to watch.  Herds of tumbleweeds blow across the fields to our north in strong winds.  Tumbleweeds are thrown 30, 50, up to 100 feet into the air by the dust devils we have around here – a  tumbleweed tornado, fun to watch with little to no destruction compared to “real” tornadoes.  We’ll never get rid of them, so we might as well just accept them, as a symbol of the west, and the invaders who brought them.

Here is a video, set to music, of a herd blowing across our north field, for your viewing pleasure.