Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Another week has passed. And still no great epic saga of the year 2020—the year that was to be the Milestone Year—that quickly devolved onto the Last Good Year and then a dark and depressing and fearful time of crisis, followed by a lousy spring that I ended up calling the Coronavirus Winter. That was slow to abate and then came a an abrupt shift to summer warmth and a loosening of restrictions as my state reopened and then the surge of virus cases across the Southland and western states.

I put much of that down in writing with an eye toward creating a really good Diary that would embrace the more uplifting events of Life and personal achievements of which there have been many. To be embodied in a story about Survival With Style that has become the overriding theme of the season—inspired by the late Jerry Pournelle.

And I’m living up to that ideal as I continue to move ahead with my projects in leaps and bounds—overcoming obstacles and an occasional crisis along the way. It literally is survival with style and I’m getting very close now to being finished with a project now closing on two years. A frankly exciting time, yet frustrating because I’m so damned busy getting it done that I always run out of time at the end of a week to write about it.

As I am once again on a Saturday evening after a rather productive week. So the best I’ll be able to do again is another supplemental.

I should begin with my water problem that started a couple weekends ago.

Ended up digging a second hole uphill from the first and connected them unearthing the old splice done in the 1970s in the process.

It’s a foot long section of pipe put in to replace a leaking section. And it held up for many years until time and the elements took its toll. And probably the weight of a logging truck or the skid loader that put pressure on an aging plastic coupling—actually two couplings—which cracked and were undoubtedly the source of the wet spot that appeared recently above my greenhouse. Since the exceptionally wet summer and fall of 2018 and it was the obvious place to start digging when I lost my spring flow.

It got a bit dramatic when I reached the second coupling which was the major source of the leaking. Yet the situation was very perplexing because I did not encounter water until I got down close to the pipe and the spring vault was starting to refill again even while the water was seeping out. And it filled up the dig like a small pond overnight after I took the pipes apart!

To make a long story short I managed to pump it out again and get a new section of pipe spliced in after having to saw off both ends of the line to get rid of the brittle ends of the couplings that broke off inside them!

Luckily I have something like a 50 foot roll of the same sized poly pipe and spare couplings on hand and the clamps were still good. I put it back together promptly and I discovered that the section I cut for the splice was slightly shorter than desired.

Well being lazy and in no mood to fool around with this thing any longer I just put the clamps back on and filled it in a few days ago. I figure there is enough coupling in the pipe to hold and if that wet spot reappears I know where to dig. Furthermore I used a bucket of sand leftover from another project to cushion around those joints and covered that with a scrap of AstroTurf so there’ll be less pressure on it than if it were in contact with the heavy native clay and whoever has to dig it up again will know they are getting close before they hit the pipe with a pick or shovel!

So now it’s all shoveled in and smoothed over and I even pushed the old rotted cedar stump over and worked it out of the ground. And on to other things.

It was a busy week on other fronts as well.

I did the long awaited drawdown and breakdown of the 40 B duo for removal from the Florida Room to make way for the 29 / 20 Long duo that will take their place and with a smaller footprint will free up space for an additional 20 High stand and some more cages above those in the fashion of the two tall tanks placed above the big metal frame vivarium.

This was a great leap of faith getting started as I loathed the idea of ripping apart a well established planted aquarium with thriving populations of fish and shrimp but it was a necessary evil of creative destruction and happily it came out well as I managed to get the whole ecosystem and hardscaping transferred to the 29 which sits temporarily on the pad I poured for the monster tank. With that out of the way and the ypunf catfish in the lower tank moved to the other duo outside the room—the way was open to get the tanks and stand out of the Room to their new place in front of the backstop I built to screen the oil tanks across the way. 

It was quite an ordeal but I got it done Thursday afternoon before work and replaced the upper tank that formerly made a good turtle barrier with a temporary wall of plywood.

I also have a removable barrier for the doorway to stop anyone who might find a way to escape the Table setup from leaving the room. If only I had done that sooner but better late than never.

Happiness is a new set of level tanks!

It’s also a less cluttered and better organized basement which I’m slowly getting back into order along with the area outside the cellar door where I did a mini project this past afternoon.

A new retaining wall to replace I’ve made of crumbling landscape ties on one side.

Will get the opposite side Monday when the brickyard opens again. But already it’s looking far better than it has in ages.

The pursuit of happiness and excellence must go on. Especially in troubled times like these. It’s the only way to get through and beyond them.

And also the explanation why I’m too busy to write as much as I would about it. I’m getting close to finished with the renovation and the ultimate configuration of the Florida Room and my indoor fish setups and when I’m there I should be more free to write about those and other things. And there will be plenty to write about because times just keep getting more and more interesting. Hope President Trump and his wife will be ok and he will go on to win the election. But if he doesn’t I’ll still keep on keeping on.

We must continue to survive. With style!