Life in America - I made the move.

[Mrs. Zog]

Why don't they close for easter?

Because capitalism is more of a religion than Christianity. 

But most shops, malls, grocery stores, etc. will be closed tomorrow, Easter Sunday.
 

[Captain Zef]

Wow Mr Zog - I thought Easter was celebrated around the world in christian countries - which the USA is - not so?

Why don't they close for easter?

the USA is a strange mix of Christian extremists and non Christian, their constitution is notably not Christian based. 😎 their constitution and symbolism on the dollar bill etc is very non Christian.

Most of the people i work with are non Christians. Its only the more Southern states where they take it pretty serious. In the North nobody cares. Its too fucking cold.

[Mr Zog]

It's Sunday evening.

The weekend was busy, although it doesn't look like I got a whole lot done.

Saturday morning I went off to the bank to deposit my salary cheque, then I came back home and hauled the old water softener out of the garden shed. I took the head off, and the condition of the filtration media was pretty disgusting, so I drained it out and discarded it. I'll have to buy a couple of bags of the Cation resin from work this week.

I stripped the head completely and soaked all the different components in white vinegar to get the buildup and gunk off. The piston and the seals and spacers and the brine valve were really shot to shit, so I got a new set of all of them from my spares bin in my van. I'll give the boss a list of everything I used so he can bill me for it.

I got a call-out early afternoon, but it wasn't a big job so I got done in about two hours. Then later in the afternoon Mrs Zog and I took a drive down to the house of a work colleague who wants me to help her fix the side of her house. I took a long look and told her that it would be at least a two day job, so we decided that we would do it in 3 weeks time when we are both off the weekend. Then we came back home and fed the dogs. I was pretty tired after a long week and busy day, so it was a really early night for me.

Today I was awake again as usual just before the sun came up. I let the dogs out for a pee and made some coffee, then sat outside in the early morning cool and watched the sunrise. It really is the best part of the day. After Mrs Zog got up I fed the dogs and made more coffee. Then I got busy re-assembling the softener head after the big clean. I had also plugged the timer mechanism in overnight to make sure that it was working properly, and I was really happy to see it was working perfectly. I put the softener head together, but didn't attach the timer mechanism yet. I'll do that when I put the head back on the tank after I put the new filtration media in.

About two years ago I found a whole bunch of irrigation pop-ups at a clean-out that I did as a handyman. I kept them in a box until today. I used the hose to test them, and found that ten of the eighteen were able to be salvaged. So I headed off to the Home Depot and bought 200 feet of irrigation pipe and a bunch of Tees and elbows etc. Back home I set up a section of 6 pop-ups on a line behind the palms and hibiscus plants in the back corner, then I connected them to a hose to test them.

The result was not what I was hoping for. The amount of water that the pump is able to deliver just wasn't enough to even pop up all the pop-ups     6 pop-ups that each have a flow rating of 15 gallons per hour is 90 gallons per hour. My pump should be able to deliver a whole lot more than that... so I did some investigating. The well pipe is a 2 inch pipe inside the ground. Above ground it drops to a 1.5 inch pipe, then down to a 1 inch pipe all the way to the pump. The pump is designed to accept a 1.25 inch pipe and discharge into a 1 inch pipe. So I guessed that the pump just wasn't able to suck up enough water from the well...

So I went off to the Home Depot again, and bought 50 feet of 1.5 inch PVC pipe. Back home I dug a new trench from the well head all the way to the pump in the back yard, probably about 15 meters long and 30 cm deep. That was quite a job in the hot sun... then I cut away the old 1 inch pipe and plumbed in the new 1.5 inch pipe. I used my home-made pneumatic vacuum pump to prime the well again, and tested the pump. Success! The pump is now able to deliver enough water to pop up all the pop-ups, and when using the sprinkler I can now put it in the middle of the lawn and it reaches all the way from the workshop to the fence   

I made a second line of pop-ups for the side of the house to water the plants and lawn on that side. I will make a third one for the front of the house, but I first need to get a couple more fittings and stuff. Maybe later in the week or next weekend...

That took up the whole of my Sunday. I just had a shower and supper, and after I have finished updating y'all I'll watch a couple of the fishing programs that I recorded on the DVR, then off to bed. This coming week is gonna be a rough one... 

Have a lekker day off tomorrow y'all, and thanks for reading 

[Fudmucker]

As a child, were you ever diagnosed as hyperactive , Zog?
You are like a friend of mine who just cannot sit still without doing some chore of other with his hands.
One cannot accuse you of the sin of sloth.
Mooi so maat!

I am always fascinated at how one of the leading technological countries in the world still uses so many old school business practices...
CHEQUES?
Around five years ago I needed to provide a cancelled blank cheque to a new service provider to set up a debit order.
I didn't have any in my old cheque book and the counterfoil on the last cheque I had written out was over four years before that!

Perhaps it is because of our non-functional postal service that the financial transactions in ZA have gone digital electronic.
A postal service's bread and butter is the carrying of regular monthly business mail - statements and correspondence.
When the delivery of such essential business documents became erratic, business suffered cash flow problems and all went electronic.
Going back to snail mail is never going to happen.
Even my utility bills from Tshwane Metro come electronically
SA Revenue Service stopped sending letters years ago.
National and Provincial Government departments all pay by EFT directly.

The Postnet service is still reliable for packages, but SA Post office...?
Mind you, I did get a parcel last week through them - a bike helmet from Alibaba.com.
The delivery notice took over a week to get from the PO Branch to my postal address - a distance of a little over one kilometre.
When I went to fetch it, the PO Branch was closed - no notice, just locked doors, dark and nobody home.
I went back two days later and found more staff behind the counter than customers in front.
I asked why they had been closed.
"Eish...no transport!"

But I am still waiting for my parcel that was posted to me from Cape Town in December 2017.
According to the tracking number it is still being sorted in the Cape Mail hub... 

[tok-tokkie]

Pumps are best at pushing and poor at sucking.  The closer to the well the better.  A perfect pump could lift water 33 feet (your quaint & archaic units); any higher and there is just a vacuum in the pipe above the water.  Hence wind pumps had a rod all the way down to a pump at the bottom & submersible pumps are so common.

[Mr Zog]

Pumps are best at pushing and poor at sucking.  The closer to the well the better.  A perfect pump could lift water 33 feet (your quaint & archaic units); any higher and there is just a vacuum in the pipe above the water.  Hence wind pumps had a rod all the way down to a pump at the bottom & submersible pumps are so common.

My well is drilled down to at least 57 feet, but the water sits at around 18 feet. So the pump only has to pull a head of about 20 feet (height of my pump above the well head is around 2 feet) and it can do that just fine. The pump is around 50 feet (of piping) from the well head, but that rise is only 2 feet, and my check valve is at the well head.

I must say that the pump is delivering a whole lot more pressure and a whole lot more flow now that it can get the water from the ground more easily   

When we have deep wells we either use a submersible pump, or we use a deep-well pump that has two pipes into the well, with the jet valve at the bottom of the well. They also work very well.

[Mr Zog]

As a child, were you ever diagnosed as hyperactive , Zog?
You are like a friend of mine who just cannot sit still without doing some chore of other with his hands.
One cannot accuse you of the sin of sloth.
Mooi so maat!

I was just a normal kid of the 60's and very early 70's, played outside until dark, then was back outside when the sun came up 

Stuff needs to be done, and if I don't do it then nobody will. So it's just a case of do it and do it now. Or as finances permit... 

One day I will be able to sit under a tree and relax and enjoy the quiet...    NOT 


I love keeping busy, doing stuff, making stuff, fixing stuff. And if I am doing it for myself all the better 

[TeeJay]

As it should be - nice man 

The "disease" is called "ants in the pants" - I know cos I have it too 

[TeeJay]

Mr Zog.......could I ask a huge favour please? Could you please have a lookout for these (see pic) when you go to the shops sometime. You used to get them in SA but that stopped last year - don't get them here anymore. Must be honey roasted. How would I get them here though  - and how would I pay you - if you could even get them. I guess what I'm asking is - do you guys get this in your shops over there? If so then we can chat some more.

Thanks man!

[Mrs. Zog]

@TeeJay, I buy them all the time at the local supermarket, I love them. No problem getting them. I'll leave the logistics to Mr. Zog. 

[TeeJay]

@TeeJay, I buy them all the time at the local supermarket, I love them. No problem getting them. I'll leave the logistics to Mr. Zog. 

Thanks Mrs Z - great to hear you do get them there. They are just the best hey! I think it will probably be too much of a problem to get them here. I'm reading all sorts of things about import licences and duties etc. Not to worry then but thanks anyway - very kind of you.

Keep well.

TJ

[Mrs. Zog]

@TeeJay if we know of someone traveling your way, we'll send a couple of jars 

[Mr Zog]

I got off work a bit earlier than usual this afternoon.

So because I had the work van at home (my last job was near home) this evening I decided to finish off the water softener and install it.

I added the cation resin and the granular activated carbon to the tank, screwed the head on, and plumbed it into the house water line. Sounds simple, but the whole job took me almost 3 hours.

After I had it all installed and flushed through and done I did a quick hardness check. Before the softener the hardness of the water was 4 grains per gallon. After the softener it was zero. Before the filter there was a trace of chlorine (the city adds chlorine to kill bacteria) but after the filter I could not get a reading for chlorine. 

So now the cold water side of the house has great water, and in just a few days the hot water will also be great, just as soon as the geyser flushes through. This weekend I want to drain and flush the geyser anyway to get rid of any sediment. I'm happy now that we have as good water quality as possible in the house    And even more happy that it cost me very little money to achieve this 

[TeeJay]

Great job Mr Zog - you're getting there a whole lot faster huh! Soon you'll be bored at home with little to do - NOT 

[Slingervel]

Mr Zog.......could I ask a huge favour please? Could you please have a lookout for these (see pic) when you go to the shops sometime. You used to get them in SA but that stopped last year - don't get them here anymore. Must be honey roasted. How would I get them here though  - and how would I pay you - if you could even get them. I guess what I'm asking is - do you guys get this in your shops over there? If so then we can chat some more.

Thanks man!

Last year we bought about 2 cans at Food Lovers. If my memory serves, I think it was like R20 each. We went back and bought another 30. Our trolley was full! 
We bought the mixed nuts and you would expect a lot of peanuts in it, but it was quite the opposite. Got a lot of of the more expensive types.
The quality is awesome!! Loved it!

[TeeJay]

Mr Zog.......could I ask a huge favour please? Could you please have a lookout for these (see pic) when you go to the shops sometime. You used to get them in SA but that stopped last year - don't get them here anymore. Must be honey roasted. How would I get them here though  - and how would I pay you - if you could even get them. I guess what I'm asking is - do you guys get this in your shops over there? If so then we can chat some more.

Thanks man!

Last year we bought about 2 cans at Food Lovers. If my memory serves, I think it was like R20 each. We went back and bought another 30. Our trolley was full! 
We bought the mixed nuts and you would expect a lot of peanuts in it, but it was quite the opposite. Got a lot of of the more expensive types.
The quality is awesome!! Loved it!

You lucky bugger 

I also bought at Food Lovers (last year) and when I went back they were sold out. I enquired with them every month since then - stories ranged from ....."we're waiting for stock"....to "it was a once-off and we won't be getting it again". Checkers had some once (last year) - same story there - not going to be getting it again. Oh well - it was the best nuts I ever had (to eat of course) 

[Blikkies1]

Found them for you @TeeJay   https://www.ubuy.za.com/search/?ref_p=ser_tp&q=planters+honey+roasted+nuts

[TeeJay]

Found them for you @TeeJay   https://www.ubuy.za.com/search/?ref_p=ser_tp&q=planters+honey+roasted+nuts

Thanks - the prices are crazy though.

Hey - I think I've stuffed up Mr Zog's thread enough now - sorry Mr Zog 

[Mr Zog]

Found them for you @TeeJay   https://www.ubuy.za.com/search/?ref_p=ser_tp&q=planters+honey+roasted+nuts

Thanks - the prices are crazy though.

Hey - I think I've stuffed up Mr Zog's thread enough now - sorry Mr Zog 

No worries TeeJay, all good 

Just another day at work today. Replaced a pump in a fountain at a County Park, did a quote for a geyser (quote accepted, will install Tuesday), serviced two very big Reverse Osmosis water systems for County Departments, and replaced a household water pump and fixed the fuckups in their pump plumbing (who the fuck installs a filter with the INLET water coming in the DRAIN outlet??? 

Finally got home after 6, and poured a rum & coke. Set the new irrigation system to water the garden (it's so lekker easy now  ).

This weekend I am on call again, hopefully I get some overtime. A friend of mine went deep sea fishing today and caught a massive Dorado, he'll be eating well tonight     Damn him for going out during the week when the rest of us have to work... bastard. 

I watched the International Space Station do a fly over this morning, came over at 06:28 and was visible for about 3 minutes. How amazing is it that man can put man into orbit like that?

I hope to make a start on the east side fence repairs this weekend.

My mom is in the hospital with Bronchitis and pneumonia, my sister was there this evening and she says Mom looks bad... I hope she does ok.

Time for another rum I think. 

[TeeJay]

Ai Mr Zog - sorry to hear about your Mom - hope she recovers soon.