'cause we're not plumbers

It doesn't take a plumber to recognize that there is a lot going on here.   One of the farm's foremen mentioned there were some plumbing problems in his home.  We checked it out & discovered that there were indeed several problems.  Not the least of which was some leaking pipes.  We removed the drywall from this area and found the sources of the problems.  The sources turned out to be the tub/shower, toilet and sink on one side of the wall and the washing machine and a large double sink on the other side of the wall.  After a lot of head scratching and parts fetching we removed the sink and some pipes and replaced pipes, valves and faucet sets.  We were aided in this by the adult son of the tenant.  He is a young man of about 30 who was having trouble finding permanent work so he was helping his parents by working on projects around their home.  

 

 

 

 After doing all we could, we still had one problem to solve and no amount of head scratching was going to help us.  It hurt my pride some, but I looked at the young man and said, "I think we better call a plumber to take care of this last problem because we're not plumbers and we don't have all the necessary tools and knowledge."  April was overheard muttering, "it's about time."  The plumbers came & took care of the last problem.  When they told me they had to crawl under the house to do it, I of course was relieved it was them doing it and not April.

The next time we went to the home, we were told the young man had found a permanent job.  When we next saw him, he was very excited to be working and said, "Elder Dever, I got the job 'cause we're not plumbers."  He went on to explain that the plumbers we hired were looking for additional employees and they hired him on the spot.

Was it all coincidence?  Some people don't believe in coincidence.  I am beginning to think they may be right.

Honey Run Covered Bridge

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, we drove a few miles away from Chico to visit the Honey Run Bridge.  One of the few covered bridges still existing in the United States.

An impressive structure, it can be rented for special events like birthdays, weddings, parties, etc.

It has been beautifully restored but leads nowhere.  The road on the other end has been deserted and is now only a trail.  The bridge was originally built to facilitate miners going to & from the gold mines.

Turkey buzzards

Old buzzard

The farm is teeming with wildlife and we take pictures whenever we see the animals.  We don't always see them however.  For instance last night, we fell asleep to the sound of an owl in a tree outside our bedroom and this morning when we awoke it was still hooting and was being answered by another owl a little further away.  They left before daylight.

We see deer nearly every day and they are smaller than the deer we have in our backyard on the island.

This is the only coyote we have seen.  Like all farms, there are a lot of rodents so this guy should eat well.

There are many gangs of wild turkeys.  We're thinking we will invite one of these guys to our Thanksgiving Day dinner.

 This is a turkey vulture.  In flight, it resembles a raven but is much larger and sports a red head.  It can smell carrion from quite a distance.  For some reason, they seem to follow Mike around.

We found three really cute little kittens near the front door of a house we will begin working on soon.  The mother is a feral cat and evidently will be our neighbor. 

Our first visitor

We have been here in California for 5 days and we got our first visitor from home. Tracy Bentley stopped by to visit and we got to tour the nut processing plant because she was here. We impressed her with our 5 days worth of knowledge including seeing the orchards, picking pomegranates, seeing the handcarts that stakes use for trek (30 handcarts on our property) and going to lunch at a local favorite BBQ place where she ate a meatless salad. We enjoyed her visit.