It has been raining all morning and that is just fine with me.Our rain barrels and everything else are filling to the brim and that too is wonderful.The sheep are enjoying being wet and they and the chickens are running around the yard happily.The ducks, well wow they are happy happy happy.
Our gardens are doing well but I must confess I am watering them and not relying on rainfall to keep them going. We have plenty of water in our barrels so this is not a problem.I am sure in period they would not have waited but watered.Their lives depended on their crops doing well.If our grapes survive we will have plenty to dry and put away .They are growing nicely.
I will be back later I just wanted to tell everyone how lovely the rain is today. With the drought conditions all over we are lucky, The USA is having terrible heat and drought and they will have increased food prices .It will be very hard for many people to make ends meet . See you soon.
M
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Glad to hear you are getting rain. It's been a very dry summer so far. The Victorians did water their gardens but since they did not have pressure water systems they could not use hoses. They had to carry water in pails or use water carts to take water to the garden - or so I believed until I picked up a pressure hand water pump at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago. At first glance I thought it was a typical kitchen hand pump but then I noticed the air chamber on the threaded spigot had one of those "Ooo, what do we have here?" moments. I've since done a bit of research and apparently these began to be produced in the mid 1800's. They aren't very common but they could be used to pump water through a hose or up into an elevated holding tank from which it could be gravity-fed to remote locations. This particular pump is rusted solid and has been painted green for use as a lawn ornament. What I love about these old items is that they were designed to be repaired, are built to last, and were designed so that any competent blacksmith or machinist could make replacement parts if parts were not available from the manufacturer. I've freed up all the linkages but the piston is stuck in the cylinder beyond the capabilities of the BFH. Given that the cylinder is solid brass and it's been soaking in penetrating oil for two weeks, I have no doubt that my 12 ton shop press will extract the piston. I'll have to machine a new base plate to replace the broken cast iron one and machine and fit a new connecting rod but then the pump should be good for another 100 years of operation. I wonder if 150 years from now someone will go to a yard sale and say "Oh, look - an iPhone. It's corroded solid and painted green, but I think I'll take it home and rebuild it". It's a shame we are using the earth's resources and our energy to build so much stuff with a limited useful life.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the gardens. Hope you get more rain!
FCM