farm kids

Farm kids and their barn.

Fall is here and they are enjoying the weather. Out-of-doors is the place to be. Much later after these photos they moved a bunch of soft hay to the drop-zone and started jumping.

It seemed like a good way to help increase bone density but I stopped them anyway since rome needed to be involved and I was terrified of broken limbs.


The kids are really excited that my parents are coming to visit soon. I am finally plumbing the outdoor shower this evening. Our set-up isn't really visitor conducive but when you really want visitors you make-due.

I worked all yesterday on the alternative energy company's website. Morning to night, I need to take more breaks today. I had many braincells that thought they were in retirement. I recalled them to action. Tabitha said there were probably many new recruits. I'm not sure that was a nice thing to say;)

Happy Fall everyone. We are really enjoying the weather I hope you are too.

New Job

Yesterday I accepted a new job. Tabitha wrote about it here

This is the company The Alternative Energy Company. Check them out and let me know what you all think?

I am excited.

Me and the kids are off to the creek to celebrate.

your faithful servant,
karl

figuring stuff out

where i work is a state operated girls school. mostly troubled teens and drug addicted girls live and study there trying to turn their lives around. the closest comparison i can think of is a corporate retreat camp. they have a huge rock climbing wall--six stories. it has a zip line from the top that careens across the forest. there are three cabins, two class rooms, a vocational building and several support ancillary buildings. it is located ten miles from nowhere on a winding road surrounded by mark twain national forest.

there is a huge well that supplies the entire complex. no one claims that they know how the well and pressure tank works--even the local pump/well company. it is not a standard system since the pressure tank is huge and doesn't have a bladder. any way i have been trying to wrap my brain around the thing since it has been causing problems for quite some time. i think that i have figured it out. the tank has to be filled with air and water at some ratio that i don't know. the water is there for obvious reasons--to flush toilets and wash hands. the air is there to compress and expand maintaining a reasonable pressure for the system so that the pump doesn't have the run continuously--it would wear out quickly otherwise. since there is no bladder, a rubber barrier separating the water and compressible air pocket, the air slowly integrates under the higher pressure into the water and the tank ends up filled with just water. there is a compressor attached to the system to add more air in the event the water level gets too high in the tank--causing the pump to cycle. the part that isn't obvious is that there seems to be a float with a mercury switch that decides if the compressor or the pump should come on to add to the tank when there is water usage. the other issue is that the ozarks have incredibly hard water--off the charts. lime build-up causes water heaters to fail early and shower heads to clog. i am assuming that (if this float exists) the float is exposed to the same hard water that causes all the other problems. if so, the float might need some cleaning and mechanical encouragement to preform its task.

anyway, i giggled that switch until it worked loosely and things seem to be working fine now. i could take the float and switch apart but i am afraid that there would be a million little springy parts that would fly into my face as i took the cover plate off the unit. so for now, i'll just giggle the switch making sure that it moves freely occasionally and wait until that no longer solves the problem.

new job

yes i now have a real job. i work for the state of missouri doing maintenance. i started monday. it seems fine. things move kinda slow. people submit to a regimen of waste and bureaucracy. a few people really care and have managed to stick around for many years--which is a good sign. things are still revealing themselves. i generally like the idea. there really isn't enough physical work to keep three maintenance people busy but deluge of paperwork that envelopes every task means that three people aren't near enough.
my position is part time and allegedly will include benefits after a few months. yes you heard right (part time and benefits) the entire reason that the job seems perfect. i can still work for bob and at home for the lions share of the week and get the kids and tabitha health insurance.
flue, colds and general bad health have plagued us for the past month. tristan just got over rosiolia a week and half ago and now has a fever again. kassi has had a runny nose and general restlessness for as long as recent memory. tabitha has been ill and making the antibodies for toly. we are a sorry troupe. amidst all this the world carries on. our neighbor has a nice perspective on getting ill. it forces you to stop. it forces you to appreciate normal life. it forces you to purge your system. it forces you to look at how you take care of your health and look more closely at what you eat. we have great diets and are continually concerned with what we eat. the kids are the reason we are getting sick. their inability to keep from touching every filthy grimy thing in the grocery store is only second to the their compulsion to stick anything that appears like it might fit into their mouth. no amount of monitoring is enough to keep this from occurring. sometimes i just don't want to ever leave the house with the kids.