Too bad I’m not anemic

When I got up this morning, the first thing I noticed was that I had a huge rusty stain in my toilet bowl.  Since it wasn’t there when I went to bed, it really woke me up.  What’s up with that?  There are two water hookups at each of the volunteer sites here at Tamarac.  One is for soft water for the rig, and the other is hard water for outdoor use.  It seemed like someone had switched my hose over during the middle of the night.

                 Scarlet tanager.  Tonight’s pics are from a drive on the refuge a couple of nights ago.

I drink a lot of ice water during the day, and my first mugful tasted just awful.  I know the water here is high in iron, but the soft water spigot has never been a problem before.  If a person were anemic, they might be cured by just drinking this water (if they could stand the taste), 

                                                                       Blackpoll warbler.

There wasn’t much I could do about it since I had to work all day in the Visitors Center, but I did turn off my ice maker before I left.  As soon as I got to work, I reported the problem.  That didn’t do a whole lot of good since it is a weekend.  The only brown shirt around was the young administrative person who knows less than I do about the water softener system.  I thought perhaps they had run out of softener salt or something.

                                                                   Golden-winged warbler.

She said she’d try to look into it, but it’s not only a weekend, but the Memorial Day Weekend.  You know what that means.  It turned out there was salt in the softener machine, so it was suggested that I let the water run out of the spigot when I got back to the rig for several hours to see if that would help.  Nothing further can be done until after the holiday.  I was also told to use the residence building to get water or take showers and such until next week.

                                                                       Cape May warbler.

Normally, I would just operate off of my fresh water tank for a couple of days, but I’ve got a little problem with that.  When I arrived here, that tank was half full.  Certainly enough for three days.  However, I also noticed water dripping under the rig the second night I was here.  It seems I have a leak of some sort in the tank, and it is totally empty now. 

                                                 Proud goose parents and their seven goslings.

John and Bridget Hatch (FD5, retired) arrived to volunteer here for the summer yesterday, so I went over to ask them how their water was when I got home from work.  Seems their water was just fine, but they have an onboard reverse osmosis system.  John and I went outside to check their water source, and it tasted just as awful as mine.  That was at least a little reassuring to me. 

John suggested I tap into his water system until the issue can be resolved after the holiday.  So, we’ve got about 100’ of hoses connecting our two sites, and I’ve got drinkable water again tonight.  Thanks, John! 

The refuge vehicle I drive also crapped out on me just as I was pulling into my driveway for the night.  It was just one of those days today.

                                                                       Sh?t happens, I guess…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy