Paradise ponders: missing parts, hospice, and unexpected rain edition...

Paradise ponders: missing parts, hospice, and unexpected rain edition...  I spent most of yesterday working, again, on the plumbing for my new irrigation pump.  The biggest piece of progress was building a mount (of wood) for the four pressure gauges the system needs, and running some of the tubing for those gauges.  Further progress was blocked because of some missing parts.  These are things I ordered from Amazon, but which are taking longer to get here than expected.  Some are due in today, the rest tomorrow.  I hope.

John H. wrote, asking why on earth I needed four pressure gauges when everyone one else makes do with just one.  Fair question. :)  The four gauges, in order of the direction of water flow, are as follows:

1. Supply pressure.  This measures the pressure of the water on the input side of the pump.  Ordinarily this should be at around 60psi, in which case the pump will be off and the water will flow around it.  When the supply pressure drops below 60psi (as it does with alarming regularity), then the pump will kick on and all the irrigation water will flow through the pump.
2. After-pump pressure.  This measures the pressure of the water on the output side of the pump.  If the supply pressure is over 60psi, this will be the same (or nearly so) as the supply pressure.  However, when the supply pressure drops below 60psi, the pump will kick on and the pressure should be regulated at between 60 and 70psi.
3. Between-filters pressure.  This measures the pressure of the water on the output of the coarse filter, which is also the input to the fine filter.  The difference between this and the after-pump pressure increases as the filter gets more clogged.  When this difference gets over about 8psi, then it's time to clean the filter.
4. After-filters pressure.  This measures the pressure of the water in the line that goes directly to sprinklers, which is also the pressure of the water just after the fine filter.  The difference between this and the between-filters pressure increases as the filter gets more clogged.  When this difference gets over about 8psi, then it's time to clean the filter.

More than you ever wanted to know about pressure gauges!

I got a letter yesterday from the hospice that took care of my mom just before she died last year.  Like the six or seven other letters I've received from them, it was a particularly warm and friendly message from the nurse who took such great care of mom.  This is the last letter I'll be getting from them, I discovered as I read it – they stay in touch for a year, offering any help we might need.  I've talked with the nurse several times over the past year, just friendly conversations and catching up with each other.  I called her again this morning, to say thanks one last time for all her care.  I discovered that she's leaving the local hospice, to go to a much more remote part of Utah to open up a new hospice – where she will be the head of the nursing staff.  She's very excited about this – just 29 years old and taking on quite a responsibility.  Her husband is a diesel mechanic, and found a great job at a big-rig service facility.  It was a lot of fun to hear her so excited about this new adventure for the two of them...

My friend and neighbor Tim D. cut his alfalfa a few days ago, and yesterday morning he turned it all over with his tractor rake.  Not 15 minutes after he finished, we got rain – on a day forecast to be hot and clear!  We ended up getting two tenths of an inch over a couple hours, enough to thoroughly wet his hay.  But then just three hours later, it had been actually hot and clear, and you'd never know that hay had ever been wet.  This afternoon they'll be baling those fields, and hopefully today is hot and clear to get that hay thoroughly dried out...