It snowed!

It started late one afternoon and finished the following morning.  We had three wet inches.

In the afternoon, it cleared a little. (Most of the ground in the following picture had been bare.)

I walked to the bottom of the North Bluff.

Badger posed beautifully with Finger peak in the back ground.

The mix of mild hazy sun and gloom that we have had now for most of a month continues….

The day before it snowed, Bill the plumber finally installed the reverse osmosis filter. (We have left the tubes long for now in case there is a problem.)

When I bought the filter last November, I told the seller I had excess manganese, iron and sodium chloride in the water.  He said a reverse osmosis filter was the only thing that would get rid of the salt.  It cost $450 (and the plumbing is another$175)  So not cheap.  This filter takes care of the salt (and it would take out arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals if I had them.)  Upon reading the small print, I see it doesn’t like excess iron and doesn’t like excess hard water: the manganese makes a lot of scale.  So I don’t know how long the filter will last.  The system provides four processed 4 litres a day, using 16 litres of well water.  Fine for me alone, but it would not be great for more than two people so when I have volunteers, I may still have to haul drinking water from the post office.  I use the untreated well water for cooking (the sulphur smell and salt do not taint the food) but it is so wonderful to have water in a pot that looks clear and does not immediately build a scale.  There is no sulphur odour either.  The post office water is also very hard.  I can scrub a wide pot free of scale with steel wool every few days, but many kettles and thermoses have been ruined: once the scale builds up enough, any water put into it develops an unpleasant taste.  Using the filtered water for all food would not be wise as it is so pure it is lacking in minerals.

It is so wonderful to have any water, though.  A sink and a drain is pure luxury.  No more spitting toothpaste into the slop bucket and having to carry the dishwater into the outhouse.  I can do laundry without having to save it all up and drag it to friends when I visit.

You will notice a pipe with nothing connected to it at the left of the sink drain.  This will be for the hot water when I can figure out how I am going to get that.

You can just see the colours of the American flag stuck onto part of the filter.  On it are the words: “Proudly Assembled in the USA.”  Talk about propaganda.  Any idiot could put it together: the actual parts were made in China.

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