Hello Everyone!
Cooped up, The steady heal, Itching to get back to work, Algae in the water & Hot water daydreams!
Alright, I have been putting off starting this entry for the better part of three hours now... and better dive in here before I get too much further off schedule. Not that adhering to my routines matters a whole lot at the moment... as I continue to 'stay off my feet' so that I can let my foot heal up as rapidly as possible.
By and large all that I have been doing is sitting around, reading/watching stuff and sleeping for one day after another now... going all the way back to that day that the dogs got loose. At least my 'doctoring' tactics seem to be working... because my foot is starting to limber up, it is slightly easier to hobble around... and walking on my toes or the heel of the injured foot is not quite as 'jolting' when it comes to pain and/or discomfort.
Basically, the wound is still looking good (as far as being free from signs of infection) and a lot of the redness has receded which are good signs. The overall 'scab' that has formed (over most of the wound) is still mostly soft... but it at least is no longer 'weeping' the way that it was the first two days.
Needless to say, being cooped up for all these long hours in the tent was not in my plans... and I keep itching to go pickup where I left off on any (or all) of the numerous projects that I have had to put on hold. Sure, it has all given me some good thinking time... but what concerns me is that I will lose the momentum that I have been building for months... or get pressed for time as fall and winter approach.
I am going to have to just 'grin and bear it' for the time being... and stay focused on healing up... and not jump right back into 'doing stuff' just because I can tolerate the discomfort. In other words, I really need to let it heal properly... and not overdo it just as it is entering the final phases of healing where all (or enough) skin has grown back that it will not easily tear.
Anyways, there are supposed to be more storms in the area today late in the afternoon... but the forecast looks identical to yesterday and it never rained at all. Not that I am excited over navigating the potential slippery muck... but I do want to get enough rain to fill up some of my rainwater containers because a few are running low or are empty altogether.
At some point, I also need to empty the water that has collected in both the wagon and the overflow barrel for the gravity-fed system. The water in them has way too much algae in it... and aside from watering plants or putting out fires with it... I cannot think of anything else to use that water for as it is.
The wagon filling up with rainwater is just a byproduct of me leaving it outside with the mindset of 'if it collects water awesome... if not meh' but the water in overflow barrel... is more important and needs to stay cleaner. Since I do not have the same problem with the nearly identical white fifty gallon barrel that has my drinking water in it... I think that after cleaning out the overflow one... I am going to cover its top with a black heavy mil polyethylene bag as well.
In the not-so-grand scheme of things, that overflow barrel having 'perfectly' clean water in it is not really necessary... but it would be nice to use as a place to dunk myself in on the super hot days. Or even more ideally, setup my sump pump and on-demand water heater... because the barrel can hold enough water to take several showers with.
The only snag with that is that it might actually be better to use a gravity-fed system to supply the water heater with water... because although the pump makes for some nice water pressure and a solid 'gallons per minute' I do not have a way to regulate the pressure. In short, the pump is just overkill and as handy as it is... I would get more showers per barrel of water, not stress the water heater's components as much... and not need electricity for the pump to boot.
Once I get my propane tanks filled this summer (while it is hopefully cheap) my number one priority is going to be setting up the shower system not only for showers... but because I want some on-demand hot water. I might even attempt to filter that water that has the algae in it... and see if I can get it 'clean enough' to work for showering with or at the bare minimum for utility water purposes.
Well, I best wrap this entry up. I am way off schedule again... and do not want to drag things out any longer than I have to! I hope that folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.
