My city farm

Unfortunately, the boiler started leaking. Before winter, I flushed my secondary hot water heat exchanger and decided to buy a second one to replace it in case of contamination or breakdown. I was offered a more powerful used one. When it arrived, the lower pipe was bent, and I couldn't install it. They replaced it with a new one. I don't know how I installed it back then, but unfortunately, it started leaking from that lower pipe. Today, I couldn't install it until the retaining clip engaged, so I had to replace the old one. After I installed everything, water leaked from the pump valve when I started it. GPT chat advised me to tap on it to activate the valve and stop the water flow)))))). Thank goodness this happened when I was home and there was no frost. The large heat exchanger worked, but unfortunately, not for long. It was probably misaligned.

The weather is changing again, frosts are expected, which means there will be more shelling. It's snowing, and I still love this beauty. It will snow until morning, and I need to clear the snow from the panels and clear the ditch to prevent flooding again. I need to figure out how to organize it properly; maybe I'll lay down some plastic and some large stones on top.

It's snowing again, so I'm prepared to clear the snow away from the house. The brush and handle passed the test of heavy snow. Conclusions: the handle should be strong and flexible, and the brush at the end should be relatively heavy, as it also acts as a support point. It's a good thing I didn't experiment with different handles for the pool; I think they would have withstood the load.

Hi Bogdan and family (incl. dog).
I found you here through the Daily-ish. It was an interesting read, to read all your posts. I understand you are in a difficult situation there in Ukraine. Good to see how resilient you are.
Hope and pray for the best.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hi Bogdan and family (incl. dog).
I found you here through the Daily-ish. It was an interesting read, to read all your posts. I understand you are in a difficult situation there in Ukraine. Good to see how resilient you are.
Hope and pray for the best.

Thanks Inge, everything is fine, the severe frosts have passed, the snow is starting to melt and soon it will smell like spring.

It's such a strange feeling, a few calm days. No frost, no floods, no critical situations, and for some reason this calm is very depressing. It happens, you have to go light a fire in the stove and know that this state will end and everything will be okay.

bogdan smith wrote:It's such a strange feeling, a few calm days. No frost, no floods, no critical situations, and for some reason this calm is very depressing. It happens, you have to go light a fire in the stove and know that this state will end and everything will be okay.

My hunch was right, it was really loud last night. It means there will be a few quiet days, I need to get myself together and get to work.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. I sorted through the remaining firewood, and I'm happy with the remaining supply. This year I burned more gas than usual, but thanks to the stove being connected to the main heating system, the house was very warm, despite the severe frosts compared to previous years. The most dangerous time is over, and now, thanks to the remaining firewood, I'll be saving gas. I have an old Vaillant turbocharged boiler, and I tried to turn it on more often during cold weather, since turbocharged boilers often suffer from burst heat exchangers. I used a thermostat, and the boiler turned on at temperatures below 18°C. The thermostat was located in the coldest place in the house, in the hallway, but after I installed the stove there, this place became the warmest. Now I'll turn off the boiler at night, turn it on for two hours in the morning, and then I'll use the stove and air conditioners for heating.  Incidentally, in the summer and fall, when I had excess solar energy, I placed an infrared heater near the firewood and dried the wood as well. It was certainly very hot on the veranda, but because I insulated that wall, it didn't affect the temperature in the house, and at night, with the veranda door open, it cooled down. This has yielded results, as I can see from the wood burning, and I've also reduced the amount of time I spend cleaning the chimney. I'll continue this experiment this year.

I'm glad you are a good problem solver and that spring has arrived for you.

Young apricots are planted on hills, the roots are bare at the top, I don't prune the apricots, but bend them down. Now I've decided to do the same with small apricots and see what the result will be. This year there was a lot of snow, and thanks to the hills, the tree is not flooded.

I couldn't figure out what was bothering me. I went to the electric meter and heard the circuit breaker sparking. I was without power for several days in the winter because of this problem, and again. The electrician probably didn't tighten the contacts properly when he replaced it, or it failed because of blackouts. It's good that there's plenty of sun, so I can wait for a replacement.

There's a lot of sun now, the snow has started to melt heavily, and the reeds have helped my chickens again; now they have a dry place outside.

Riona Abhainn wrote:I'm glad you are a good problem solver and that spring has arrived for you.

Thanks for the kind words. It may sound strange, but all these everyday problems actually help you stay sane. Rockets and drones are flying, and you're sitting there wondering how to insulate a battery or repair a gas boiler. In any case, it's cheaper than antidepressants. Spring has already arrived, and it's time to get ready for winter.

I continue to tie up trees, apricots, and cherries. The last photo shows a fully formed apricot tree that doesn't need pruning or tying—just cut the ropes that were used to tie the branches last year. Last year, it survived the spring frosts well, didn't get any rot, and produced a good harvest. We'll see how it overwinters.

These two photos show the difference: in the first one, the trees are planted on hills and are not flooded, while in the second photo, it's a traditional planting and the tree is in a puddle of water.

My dog is sick, and today I cried for the first time in a long time. The dog has trouble walking and keeps falling, but it's good that there's a place where she can go for a walk.

I'm so sorry your dog is not feeling good.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:I'm so sorry your dog is not feeling good.

Thank you for the kind words, Joylin. The vets gave a bad prognosis because the dog is already 12 years old, but today I found a good vet who has already saved my animals. We did tests and he said that it was a viral disease that affected coordination, and not problems with the spine and brain, as other doctors said, and there is a good chance that my friend will recover. I really want this and believe that she will recover.

It was a hard day and I didn't want to do anything, but I had to! While the dog was sleeping, I was making seedlings in snails made from insulation. I liked this method last year.

This year there were severe frosts and bright sunshine at the same time, and my bamboo turned from bright green to yellow. This is a good test of its strength, and it already experienced such frosts in 2020, but then there were no such prolonged frosts.

bogdan smith wrote:My dog is sick, and today I cried for the first time in a long time. The dog has trouble walking and keeps falling, but it's good that there's a place where she can go for a walk.

Thank God, my dog is starting to recover and is already walking well. The vet prescribed the right medication and she is doing much better.

I'm so glad your dog is feeling better and recovering.  I think she is a good friend to you.  A dog can be like a combination of a best friend and a small child to take care of and they bring a lot of companionship in hard times to so many people.  Glad things are going well with your trees.