Now What?

Saturday night, I'm sound asleep.

Nelson Surveying His Domain

Nelson, our boy cat, frequently wakes me up about this time, about eleven o'clock, when I've developed a really good snooze.

In his mind, his food is not correct. Not necessarily that he's out of food. The level of food could be low. Or, in the case of his wet canned food, it might just need my 'fluffing' it up to make it more appealing to him. Or, as it often is, he's just looking for reassurance that there is adequate food in the bowl.

He seems to rely heavily on my judgment in these matters, especially late at night. Just sort of a casual consultation, you might say. And, it wasn't like I was doing anything anyway.

That was the situation Saturday night. He comes into bed and sits beside my head, meowing softly until I wake up. Sometimes, he just wants to say hi. My waking up and scratching his head is enough to make him happy and he goes off somewhere to sleep.

Other nights, he's awakened me and lets me know that it requires my attention by gently putting his paw on my forehead, cheek, or nose until I tell him that I'm awake and actually begin throwing off the covers and getting out of bed.

Such was the case Saturday. I had to get up and go check the food. So, off we went to the kitchen. Me in my starkers and he in his extremely soft fur coat. He was right. The wet food supply was low and could definitely use topping up. So that's what I did. I added about a half can to his bowl and got some on my fingers in the process.

Nelson, of course, disappeared sometime while I was topping up his bowl. He went off to find a comfy place to sleep, his mission being completed.

I turned to the kitchen sink to rinse off my fingers so that I could head back to bed. Only one thing. When I turned on the faucet, no water. Not even a sigh of receding water in the pipes. Nothing. Uh oh.

We've had things like this happen before. Once, I went out to our parking area and the hose faucet there had snapped off, PVC piping being PVC, it had degraded because of constant exposure to UV light. Fifty-some pounds of water pressure became too much and it just snapped apart, shooting water straight up about eight feet into the air. That was an easy fix and resulted in my new policy of trying to paint every piece of exposed PVC piping we have, and there's a lot of PVC piping around here.

The other time, very similar scenario with no apparent cause, and after an hour or so, the well-pump decided to start working again. We never found anything that pointed to a cause or even an effect.

Back to Saturday night. I woke Dianna and told her what was going on and that I was going to go and check it out. I put on my cargo shorts and Crocs, and grabbed my flashlight, and went out to survey all our outside piping, expecting the worst. I looked around the pool, checked inside the pool pump house, all around our house, followed the main line along and into the raised planting bed, all around the Mennonite house, over to the new storage shed, which has a utility deep sink, and finally over to the well pump house beside the main gate. Nothing.

I listened at the door of the well-house. No sound. By now, I'm accompanied by all three dogs (they're sensing an adventure beginning), and by Nelson and Noel, two of the three cats, who, by the way, frequently accompany me when I head up to the gate. Whether its to take trash to the bin, which is just on the other side of the well-house, or to greet whoever might be at the gate. So they thought something entertaining might be happening too. I had forgotten to bring my keys with me, so I headed back to the house to retrieve them, accompanied by my retinue. 

After grabbing the keys and opening the well-house door, I looked inside, always being careful not to step on the odd gecko, frog, toad, or snake that might be hiding inside. No such visitors tonight. But, no activity in the well-house either. Not a sound. I tapped the pump a couple of times with my flashlight. I hadn't realized how much it looked just like my pool pump. I also tapped the pressure switch. Nothing. I flipped the two circuit breakers that control the gate motor and lights, the well-pump, and the lighting inside the well-house. The gate motor and lighting all worked as normal.

Nothing for it at this time of night. I headed back to the house and got back to sleep. I thought about calling the plumber, but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait until morning.

In the morning, I used some bottled water from the fridge to make coffee, and I retrieved a bucket of water from the pool to use for flushing toilets.

At about 7:30 AM, I called Eddie the Plumber. He's the most knowledgeable plumber I've found down here. He's definitely the go-to guy for anything plumbing emergency related. He said he could reach our place about 9:00 AM. I thought that was outstanding, and for a Sunday too.

Meanwhile, Vivien had come down to say good morning. She and her husband, Denis are visiting, staying in the Mennonite house. They too are affected by the water problem. In fact, they actually noticed it about 7:00 PM, Saturday evening when Denis went to take a shower before going to bed. They figured we'd notice it too and so didn't panic and went to bed. Denis helped me supervise Eddie during the repairs.

When Eddie showed up I showed him the well-house. He looked over the pump and zeroed in on the pressure switch. Eddie took the cover off of it and immediately found the problem. Half of the switch contacts had disintegrated.

Pressure Switch Broken Contact

You can see, from the photo at left, that all is not quite symmetrical inside the pressure switch. The contacts on the right side, where the pointer is pointing, are missing. They weren't missing when Eddie first removed the switch cover, but they had separated into about four or five tiny pieces and when he removed the switch, they fell out and disappeared in the driveway gravel.

The broken contact brought the whole water operation to a complete and total standstill. I didn't think to check the pressure switch, as I wrongly assumed that there couldn't be anything wrong in there. I had assumed the problem had to be with the water piping, or the pump itself, probably because of just recently having rebuilt the pool pump. Well, live and learn.

Corrosion on Contacts

This is something to keep in mind that will more than likely occur every few years, because of corrosion, like at left with the contact points, but more likely, material degradation due to plastic becoming fragile and brittle in this environment.

Everything breaks down here. Metal, wood, plastic. It doesn't matter what the material is. It all breaks and breaks down eventually. This switch lasted about seven years. I'll know what to look for next time.

While Eddie was disconnecting and removing the defective pressure switch, I headed up to Lano's Hardware and got a new switch. I was glad they open for half-days on Sundays. Being without running water definitely changes your lifestyle.

You might think it would be prudent to have a spare pressure switch on hand just for such a contingency. What you can't forget about is the environment here. Even though something is in storage, even if it's protected from exposure by boxes, wrappings, etc., it's still going to be affected by the environment. The high humidity and high summertime heat will conspire to destroy even the most well-protected piece of equipment.

Right after Eddie finished hooking up the switch, he turned the circuit breaker back on and immediately we were treated to the familiar humming of the well-pump. Life was quickly returning to normal.

Finally! A Heater For the Pool

You know there's times when it's just too cold to get into your pool. I'm talking wintertime, folks. Frigid temperatures, like when the pool goes down below 80℉, like down to the mid-seventies.

Such was our case. A pool heater seemed like a mighty fine idea. One problem, though, was that I didn't want to spend a fortune on a heater, nor did I want to make it any more complex that necessary.

I did quite a bit of research over the past three years or so. Not continuously, but every now and then. Kind of a casual, laid-back sort of research. Anyway, it seems that most of the heating systems out there, at least for in-ground pools, want several things.

One, spend lots of money. Two, use your main pump so you can move massive amounts of water. Three, it needs to be complex. Adding a system to the pool after it's up and running is hard.

Those three caused me pause. That's why research went on for so long. Well, one of the reasons anyway.

I began to think about the cost. Was there a way that I could install a pool heater without breaking the bank, and that wasn't overly complex and didn't require me to modify the existing plumbing unnecessarily?

I noticed in my research, that there was a wide difference in heater system prices for above-ground pools, compared to in-ground systems.

Little by little, I began to wonder why I couldn't adapt elements of an above-ground pool to my in-ground pool. I realized that there was no reason I couldn't do just that. The pool doesn't know if it's above-ground or not.

I was taken with the idea of using an above-ground heater, especially the long strip types, with narrow little tubes for the water to run through. I had the roof space available, so why not?

I had thought of using large vinyl tubing to heat the water, but putting it into coils, for some reason, seemed like a lot of work to me. I have a roll of about 200-feet of 3/4" black tubing, so that wasn't the problem. For some reason, I just couldn't get motivated to do my heater that way.

The more I thought about the issue, the more the strip appealed to me. The one that captivated my attention was twenty foot long by about two or three feet, and it only cost around $150.00 US.

Some time ago, David Wright and I went together on an order for a solar system. This consisted of a two-foot by four-foot solar panel, metal support frame, to attach it to a pole, and a small, low-volume 12-V d.c. pump. That was a good setup to order. The boxes containing the ordered bits sat in my workshop for several months.

The other thing I had done to get ready was a bit of pool modification. I didn't do it, but I had asked our contractor, Mario, to include two ports in the pool for a heater system, They did just that and ran it to the pump house. That was all. You can see in the photo below, the little holes I'm talking about.

Little Holes

Not those on the left. That's some troubleshooting that was going on to track down an internal leak connected with the waterfall. The ones I'm talking about are on the right side just left of the black power panel box. See those two little holes? That's it. That was the extent of the prebuilt for the heater.

So, when I finally did get serious about the pool heater, I bit the bullet and ordered a twenty-foot heater strip. I was concerned because a couple of the reviews of it had stated that the 'non-standard' fittings created major problems, and the people couldn't understand why they used such oddball fittings. I figured that I could cobble something together that would work. Half of what we work on down here is cobbled together.

Shift forward a couple of weeks and Easy Shipping to Belize shows up at our gate with the rolled-up heater and some other stuff. Wow. Time to get serious. Especially since I had the help of Denis Patterson, our neighbor from across the street.

Denis and Vivien, his wife, were staying in our Mennonite house since their house was rented long-term and they didn't want to disturb their tenants. Denis and Vivien are from Alberta, Canada, and are nice people (aren't all Canadians?).

The Repair Shop

Denis and I took a break from the project to take care of a project of Denis'. His on-demand heater at his house had stopped working. We needed to get it running in short order so his tenants didn't rebel.

It may not look like it, but this is the best TV, stereo, and water heater repair place in town. When Denis first took his heater there, they said, "No. We don't fix them things no more." Ok. So, Denis and I went on an adventure to find who could.

We tried Nairobi Rancharan's place. Nope, He doesn't do heaters, only refrigerators and auto A/C units. I've taken my Isuzu there. He thought there was a guy down the street by a vacant lot, and to the left, who did that. On we went.

Turns out after a couple wrong turns, that you had to go through the vacant lot to find this guy. Nope. This heater has electronics in it. He only repairs the kind with a pilot light. He thought there was another shop down by the little park near Memo's Auto Repair (who I've never used). Memo's looks more like a bar than an auto shop, but what do I know? A couple of guys sitting on a bench out front thought that this guy was a little past the park and to the left.

Turns out he was. He was upset that we got there early. He didn't open till 9:00 AM. But, to our benefit, (he was talking to us through his bedroom window), he put on some shorts and came out to talk with us. From the way he talked, he seemed more educated than some. He repaired all sorts of electronics and computers, but not heaters. He even had a website (E & L Electronics) and has a small e-store for parts. Who knew?

When he turned us down, we were at a loss. Denis decided to go back to the first place, with hat in hand and beg them to look at it. So, that's what we did.

The TV Technician

Back at the shop, we went inside to find the TV technician busy modifying his hoodie to hold some small speakers. I can't imagine wearing a hoodie in this environment, but whatever. He hollered for the water heater technician, "Hey, Water Heater!" The water heater technician just happened to be coming through the door with a cup of coffee. "Yup, we can fix it," he said.

Now, keep in mind, this was the same guy who, the day before, had told Denis, that they no longer worked on heaters. It was like that conversation had never occurred.

Here's the Stereo Lab

Just before we left, I snapped a shot of the Stereo technician's workspace or lab. Ain't it wonderful?

The great end of the story is that the water heater guy called Denis the very next day and told him the heater was ready to go. Turns out the Solenoid had gone bad. Miracles do happen.


Now, on with the main story. Denis and I went up to Lano's Hardware and picked up several lengths of PVC tubing, fittings, glue, brackets and all that sort of stuff. I had also brought along one of the key fittings from the heater, expecting to spend some quality time figuring out how to cobble together something that would join the heater to my ½" PVC tubing.

I showed Vien (Mr. Lan's nephew, who runs the sales counter at the store) the fitting. He took one look at it after I briefly described what I wanted to do, and said, "I know what will work," and quickly disappeared into the back of the store. He returned with two fittings. One, a coupling, slid snugly over the fitting of the heater, and the other, a ¾" to ½" reducer. That was it. A perfect solution. A little epoxy, to ensure that it doesn't separate and we'd be good to go.

I had expected to spend at least an hour rummaging around trying to find something that would solve our problem. Sometimes, things just work out right, you know? Denis and I took our purchases and headed back to Casa Winjama and our project.

Where the Heater is Going

Here's the area of the roof where I thought of placing the heater. It's on the order of being 30-feet long so there should be no problem placing the heater there.

Proposed Track for the Tubing

I thought that with the heater strip laid out on the roof, that I'd be able to run the tubing over the roof parapet and along the top of the frame for the pool shade enclosure, over to the pump house and in through a hole somewhere to the inside of the pump house.

Over the parapet

In fact, the parapet is where we started the tubing work. You can see we're getting it assembled in good fashion. We have three tubes, one for incoming cold water, one for outgoing hot water, and one to hold the wires from the solar panel to the pump motor that we're locating in the pump house.

Running Down the Roof

The PVC tubing is now running down the length of the roof of the pool enclosure. Good progress.

The Heater Laid Down

Here's the heater in it's position on the roof. It works fine right there. I might add a framework to support the heater and the solar panel at the proper 15° for our latitude, but I'm not sure that it's really going to be necessary.

Looking the Other Direction

You can see we also have the solar panel more or less in place. Nothing is crowded and everything is in place with plenty of unimpeded sunlight for most of the day.

The solar panel is in shade in the morning till about 8:00 AM. So, the pump doesn't start till then, but that delay allows the water remaining in the tubes to heat up so that when the pump does start, it's moving hot water to the pool.

Add caption

Here you can see everything in more or less it's final places. You can also see the join between the PVC tubing and the heater fitting. There's also a union fitting on each leg to make separation of the heater from the PVC tubing easier, because when the pool warms up enough that the heater is no longer needed, it will be rolled up and both it and the solar panel will be lowered off the roof and put in storage in the pool utility room till the succeeding winter when it's needed again.

The Pump In Place

This is a view inside the pump house again. It's showing the pump on a shelf I installed, all hooked up. The black line has the wires coming from the solar panel through the roof and through the power panel to the motor.

Pump Detail

There's also a controller circuit in the little black box,since removed. It didn't work right and proved to not be necessary. The tube sticking up from the pump with a blue-handled valve on it, allows us, as needed, to prime the pump (brings to mind an old Kingston Trio song - Desert Pete). We even have a funnel on hand just for that purpose.

I also installed a switch (the old-school looking round thing), in case we need to shut the pump off during the day. I also will be adding a 15-amp fuse to protect the pump motor, just in case.

Final words on the project. Yesterday was its first full day of work. For a couple of weeks now, the pool temperature has been hovering around 79℉, barely able to make it 80℉ during the day. Well, yesterday, the temp was up to 81℉. Not bad for one day's work. We think it will take two to three days to get the temp from 79℉ all the way up to 84℉. Perfect till summer kicks in.

Pardon me. I've got my trunks on, a cold beer, and I'm headed to the warm pool. life is grand!

Sunny Saturday

Saturday, 03 December, 2016. A softly sunlit day. I guess that means, partially cloudy. Better than yesterday morning. Two of the workers showed up, hung around for a few minutes, then Dianna saw them strolling toward the gate. I hollered and asked if they were leaving. Yes, was the response. So I asked if they would lock up the gate as they left.

At the time it was drizzly and gray. Just as well, no work was going to happen yesterday. It had started Thursday afternoon. Everyone left early. There you have it in case you're tracking days by blog title.

By yesterday afternoon, of course, it was sunny. Dianna and I joked that workers would be streaming back for the afternoon. So, today's another day. and work is progressing.

Fence Walls Going Up

Work is proceeding right along today. Already two rows up on the fence. I'll bet by the end of the day, they have most of it up.

Everyone Bending to the Task

Another view of the corner work. It'll be nice to have that back looking like it should instead of something that was ready to fall into the canal.

Bani Finalizing an Outlet

Bani is uncovering an electrical outlet hole. He'll also be switching over the water, so that the pool and house will both have ¾" pipes feeding. The theory is that we'll have flow in the house even when the pool is filling. Something we haven't seen for years.

He's also going to hook up the motion detector light, speaker, and porch light. Be nice to have all that finished.

One of our 11 or 12 Motion Detectors

One of our old motion detection lights has been reinstalled just on the patio side of the house. Next to it is an electrical outlet that might come in handy for Christmas lights or something. Probably better to have too many outlets than not enough.

I just mentally counted up. We have about eleven motion detection lights around the joint. It's not that we're that paranoid (well, maybe we are), but as we built new stuff, we added one here and one there, even under the parking palapa, so there's light getting in or out of the SportTrac. Before you know it, we've got a bunch of the things all over the place.

Great Progress With the Fence

Work is moving right along with the fence. The guys are just finishing forms for the column.

New Electrical Panel Arrives

 Bani's been working on separating the electrical circuits so that the Mennonite house upstairs and the laundry room downstairs are all on one circuit and meter. The rest of the downstairs (the basement), the gate, well pump, pool and other house are all on the other circuit and meter. Progress.

The lower 16 slot panel was a story in itself. Vien, at Lano's sold me the panel and the cover. Unfortunately, it was the wrong cover.

I went back to Lano's to get the correct one. After Vien dragged out every cover they had (none were correct), the place looked like a shoe store with someone who isn't satisfied with the fit.

I went back to the house, got Bani and the panel, and headed back to Lano's to see if we could either get the correct cover or replace it (this is a Square D panel. We would be replacing it with a GE panel. Of course, the breakers used on one aren't compatible with the other. To replace it with the GE panel would mean having to purchase seven GE breakers for around ten bucks BZD each, so it was important to find a cover that fit.

After looking and trying most of the covers, Bani kept trying to tell Vien the part number of the covers they had was wrong. Finally, Vien called the downtown Lano's and they had one cover, that they would send 'right now' to the Ranchito store.

After about a half-hour, it arrived. Believe it or not, it was the correct one. We were happy. By the time we got back to Casa Winjama, it was time to knock off for the weekend. I told Bani, who had just rehung the panel, to leave it as is, and take up the work on Monday.

Fence Project Almost Finished

After the workers left, I snapped a shot showing the progress they made. It's damn near done, and really is looking good.

Pool House Expansion Project, Day Thirty-Seven, 17/11/15

Rotoplas septic tank arrives.

Day Thirty-Seven, 17 November, 2015

Man, the better part of a week since there's been any activity around the joint. A good part of that delay was due to rain. Not as much as with the last episode, still, it was often enough and enough coming down at times, that work would have been uncomfortable to say the least.

And then there's a thing called timing. We were hoping to be able to get the zinc to put on the roof right away. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. For one thing, the right color blue, (to match the roof on the Mennonite house) wasn't immediately available. Capital Factory didn't have it available period. Also, they didn't have it in the gauge that we wanted. Lano's Hardware, didn't have it either, but could get it in both color and gauge, but we wouldn't be able to get it till Wednesday, the 18th. We were about two or three hours late in ordering it to have it on the truck from Spanish Lookout that would have arrived last Friday.

And then there's family medical emergencies. Omar's father, was thought to be having a heart attack late last week, so Omar needed to go deal with that. Which is still ongoing over in Chetumal. Communications between Corozal and Chetumal are sketchy to say the least. You'd think that for two communities separated by a river and nine miles, that that wouldn't be an issue. You'd be wrong. It's a big issue. Different phone systems, time differences, etc. Anyway, we're all hoping for the best for Omar's father, but we have very little information about that situation.

So, there have been a multitude of issues, all seemingly conspiring to bring the project to a halt for a few days. Carl wanted to bring the guys over here to have them start on the septic tank. He had had them working a little on his house up in Consejo, but the road between there and Corozal is anything but good.

He wanted to have them work at our place starting at 7:00 AM. That didn't happen. He texted me that they would make it about noon. That didn't happen. Finally, about 2:30 PM, Carl and three of the guys arrived. George started working on the piping for the drains going to the septic system. The other two workers, Errol and (I've forgotten his name) promptly started dewatering the hole for the Rotoplas septic tank as you can see below.

Emptying the Rotoplas Hole

Carl and I took off to Gomez Cemento Maya, in town, to pick up the Rotoplas tank.

Picking Up Our Rotplas Septic Tank

It was light enough they were able to get it into Carl's Sport Trac, and with a bit of twine to stabilize it, we headed back to our place.

On Board Carl's Sport Trac

Carl Undoing the Twine Securing the Load

After getting it untied, the guys moved it over against the lumber that had been covering the hole. We're planning to begin installing it in the morning.

Hauling It From the Truck to the Hole

Carl and I are investigating the finer points of how to properly connect the Rotoplas tank. I've found some information on the Intertubes at the Rotoplas website. There's some stuff in along with some fittings for the Rotoplas in a plastic bag that we haven't yet perused. I also emailed our neighbor, Brian, who lives with his wife Tracey, over in the nearby gated development. They have the same type of septic system installed, so he might be more familiar with it.

Below, George is beginning the trenching to run the pipes underground to the Rotoplas.

George Prepping Trenches For Pipes To Tank

There's still a bit of water in the hole. They'll be able to get the rest of that out in the morning. Then, they'll need to construct a concret donut for the cone end of the Rotoplas to sit in. and then we have to fill the tank with water before packing marl all around it to fill the hole back up. There's also the drain field piping to do, so there's plenty to keep the guys busy tomorrow.

The Hole Almost Empty

I'll be ready to document the progress and will keep you informed about that and what we find out about the tank.

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.  

Ever Play With a Blivet?

A while back, I noticed the water pressure from our well had begun to fluctuate every few seconds. A sure sign that something was wrong with the system was what came to mind immediately. Turns out, I was right. The pressure tank was supposed to even out those fluctuations, helping ensure that the well pump, located fifty-five feet down the well, didn't shorten its life and  burn out from overwork.

I knew from the experience of having replaced the tank for our reverse osmosis system, that replacing a tank is a fairly pricey endeavor down here in Belize. I also had a pretty good idea that getting a bladder down here was next to impossible - or so I thought.

I went up to Lano's new warehouse/store up on the Northern Highway in Ranchito, just a mile or so from our house, to price what a new 35-gallon tank was going to cost. After climbing the language barrier with a couple of the new staff (some of Mr. Lan's relatives, who are new to Belize), I managed to talk to Mr. Lan.

He popped up from behind the bicycle counter at his new store, to greet me. His store is a huge affair, as far as Belize stores go. Not only is it a hardware store, but they sell a complete line of motor scooters and cycles, bicycles and parts. There's a Car wash (being set up), auto tire changing station, and a huge showroom upstairs like at the downtown store, but larger.

Anyway, I described to Mr. Lan what I was looking for and asked, on the off-chance, if he had a replacement bladder for the tank. To my utter amazement, he did. Only because he had just replaced the bladder in his pressure tank. In fact, he took me up to the third floor of his new building, where his new home will be, to show me the tank and his jet pump setup - which is what I want to go to after my submersible pump finally dies. A jet pump sits on the surface, in this case, on the top of his tank, not 55- or 60-feet down the well. An arrangement much more suitable for repairs. But, that's another story for another time.

On with the current story. I purchased the bladder, as you can see below. The bladder is made of vinyl, although it feels just like the latex surgical rubber tubing used in slingshots and I suppose, in some surgical applications as well. Anyway, it's quite thick, probably on the order of 1/8" with the lip of the bladder being close to 1/4" thick.

New Water Pressure Tank Bladder

The bladder is not cheap eather. On the order of $335.00 BZD. Of course, if I had the luxury of shopping leisurely on-line, I could have possibly found one for less. Yesterday evening I did just that. But, to my surprise, i couldn't find any bladders for sale. Granted, I didn't look overly long, but I figured I would have no problem finding them in the first place. So, maybe purchasing the one I did was the right thing. It was from a timeliness perspective. Possibly from a cost perspective as well, once you figure in shipping, 12.5% GST, and duty, which can vary depending on various factors.
In my search on-line, I had no trouble finding tanks and bladders and the cost for those items stateside was around $200 - $250 US. So, if you double that to BZD and add in the costs above, it's close to being a wash. Since I already had a good tank, I didn't even consider that option.

Here's the tank that needs the bladder changed. It sits in my well house which is located right next to the front gate of our place. The tank is known by several names - “pre-charged” tanks, “bladder” tanks, “captive air” tanks, etc. After working on it to remove the old bladder and replacing it with the new one, I have a couple other names for the thing. I'll leave those to your imagination.

Water Pressure Tank at Start

Here's a brief description on how one of these things work. By the by, it's called, among other things, a 'pre-charged' bladder tank. As such, it has a bladder inside that is surrounded by pressurized air. The well pump pushes water under pressure into the bladder. When a faucet, shower, etc. is opened, the air pressure inside the tank squeezes the bladder forcing the water out. That's how it keeps the pump from working overtime. Trust me, it's really magic, but I won't go into that here.

Incidentally, I also found out that you shouldn't use the same type of bladder tank for reverse osmosis (RO) systems as for your regular water supply pressure tank. RO tanks have bladders made of butyl rubber, much different than the vinyl we're going to use here. RO water is so pure that it wants to pull contaminants into it. If stored in the vinyl bladder of a pre-charged tank, the “elastomers” in the bladder will be pulled out of the bladder into the water leaving the bladder very brittle. What it pulls into the water can also be considered to be toxic.

Back to the story. Since this isn't the average run-of-the-mill project that one does everyday, I asked David if he'd like to come over and observe and maybe help. It's a good thing that he did, too. I was seriously deluded by some of the videos I watched on YouTube about changing your own tank bladders as to just how challenging this project was. It is NOT a one man project. At least the way that we did it.

The first thing we had to do was get the tank out where we could work on it. As I suspected, the tank was definitely "water-logged" as they say. That is, the whole tank was filled with water. We initially shut off current to the pump and then opened up a near-by hose faucet to drain off any water pressure in the system.

Draining Waterlogged Tank

Next, we disconnected the tank from the system by opening the union (You can see that above) and let the tank drain. This took about half an hour. It's a 35-gallon tank, so it was necessary to drain off at least some of the water before we moved it very far. Fresh water weighs about  8.3 pounds per gallon or 290.5 pounds for the whole 35 gallons. It felt that heavy too.

David Moving Heavy Tank

After we drained probably a third of the water, we managed to get it onto the hand cart and manhandle it outside to finish draining.

Waiting for Tank to Finish Draining

Of course we did all this under the adequate supervision of Nelson, our male kitty who is convinced that he's as much a dog as the three girl dogs who hang around here.

Nelson Supervising Draining

After the tank completed draining, we then were able to flip it upside down to begin removing the 1/2" bolts (8), cover plate, and plastic stand, that supports the tank in it's upright stance.

Bottoms Up

This turned out to be a bit harder to do than we anticipated. Yes the tank was waterlogged, but I think differently than normal. The bladder was filled with water and it had stretched to fill the whole inside of the tank. This blocked the air valve, essentially creating a vacum around the bladder that just sucked the bladder against the tank. David managed to force a long thin screwdriver under the plate and nudged the lip of the bladder enough to allow air in to free the bladder from the tank sides. Without his doing that, we would not have been able to remove the cover plate.

Perhaps that scenario is where the advice on a couple of the videos I watched came into play. They said, for a water-logged tank, the only way to free things up was to poke a hole into the side of the tank. I suppose that would have done it, but then, I'm pretty sure that would have rendered the tank useless. I kind of wanted to reuse the existing tank so we didn't consider that as a viable method.

After we got the cover off, we were surprised to find this length of pipe connected to the underside of the cover. The blue end cap was loose and rolling around inside the bladder. I hadn't seen this in any of the videos I watched. I'm not sure what it does other than maybe it keeps the bladder from collapsing entirely.

Underside of Tank Cover

Then the task really began. We had to get the old bladder out of the tank. Hah! This is where the term 'blivet' comes in. You've got approximately a 4" hole to get this bladder through. Believe me, it took both of us to get it out. We even had to use Vice-Grip pliers and Channel-Loc pliers to gain enough of a grip on the vinyl to pull it out. The bladder was very slimy and very, very slick.

Dave Attempting Removal of Old Bladder

Here's the hole we had to work through - literally. The only way to get that damned bladder out is through there. We thought about cutting the bladder up. It might have worked, but I'm not sure the process would have been any easier (see NOTE below).

Tank Opening

Suffice to say, we ultimately were successful at removing the bladder. Here's the bugger after we threw it on the ground. I felt like stomping it. Can you sense I don't like it?

Old Bladder Finally Out

After we got the old bladder out, David had a great suggestion. There were a few paint blisters on the top of the tank. He suggested sanding and painting those areas to help preserve the tank. I thought it was a great idea too and trotted off to my workshop to get some sandpaper and Rustoleum spray paint. That's the brown you see on the top of the tank below.The color is actually a brown primer, but it was all I had at the time, and besides, it's not like the tank is in our living room.

Dave Filling Tank With Air

It wasn't till near the end of filling the tank with air that I realized that maybe filling it with compressed air while inside a relatively small closed compartment might not be the brightest thing to do. Note to self - Next time use the compressor and fill the tank with air while both you and the tank are outside.

You should have seen both David and me jump the first time the compressor kicked in while it sat inside the compartment. I thought we were goners for sure. After fixing the leak, we did at least move the compressor outside to protect what's left of my hearing.

Tank Pressurized and Watered

[NOTE: The day after all this transpired, I happened to stop in at Lano's new store on another repair and maintenance issue entirely and talked to Mr. Lan. I told him what a hard time we had getting the bladder out. He laughed and said he forgot to tell me he simply cut up the old bladder and fished it out easily, and that he had put a little bit of oil around the rim of the hole. "Oh, make it much easy to get out," he said. Well, at least I now know for next time, and you do too].

 It wasn't long after all this that we had the tank filled with both air and water and functioning the way that it should. No more sense of rapid fluctuations or anything like that. I cleaned up the area, putting the gas cans back in the pump house, all the tools back in the workshop and joined David and Elizabeth, and Dianna on the porch for a nice cold one - richly deserved, I might add.

As for the other matter. It's a leak on the outfall side of my main swimming pool pump. I just can't seem to get the damned thing to quit losing water. Even after twelve or more wraps of Teflon tape, it still leaked. Mr. Lan asked why I didn't use galvanized pipe? He said he is using galvanized pipe on his water jet pump because of the potential for heat and vibration to easily warp the PVC fittings.

What I didn't know is that Lano's now carries a fairly wide assortment of galvanized pipe and fittings, and even has a man on his staff who can cut it and can cut threads. So this next week I'm hauling the length of pipe up to Lano's so he can have his man gin up some pipe and fittings that will be heat and vibration-proof and should solve my leak problem at the main pump.

There might even be a posting about all of that. Stay tuned for developments.

Sight-seeing in Carmelita

Well, actually, just outside of Carmelita. This is what went down.

David Writing His Journal

But, first a small digression. The photo above is just before we departed on this epic journey. It shows David, Dianna's brother, working diligently on his journal of his trip from Colorado to Belize and back. Of course, like any good man, he waits till the waning minutes just before departure to return to the northern climes to begin work on the journal. Not a problem. He'll simply fill in the gaps after he gets back. Ok, now back to our story.

We were cruising along, Dianna and me, Vivien, our neighbor across the street, who was along for the ride, and David, Dianna's brother, who had been visiting us from Colorado, and who, we were taking down to Belize City to the airport as his vacation away from the cold and snow was coming to an end.

All was going very pleasantly till we had just passed through Carmelita and I noticed the A/C wasn't quite as cold as it had been. I looked at the temp gauge and it had gone up quite a ways but not to boiling over... yet.

I turned off the A/C and the temp went back down to a respectable level. I thought, hey, no problem. We were on our way to the Riverside Tavern for lunch before we sent David on his way. I'll just let the Isuzu cool down while we're there, and add some water to the cooling system when we come out and all will be well till we get back to Corozal.

A minute or two later, I glanced at the temp gauge again and this time, it was working it's way down to cold. That's not right", I thought and announced to the crew that I was pulling over and stopping right now.

Just as I moved over to the shoulder of the road, the engine died and we coasted to a quiet stop.

I jumped out and raised the hood. It was immediately obvious something bad had occurred. Rusty spots all over the engine and everything in that compartment. Not a good sign. But I was still hopeful that it was a simple thing of overheating from low cooling fluid.

Of course, we still needed to get David to the airport. Just in front of us about 50 yards or so was a bus stop, and of course, someone was waiting for the bus. Dianna and Vivien decided they were going to take David, jump on the bus and take a taxi to the airport. Vivien had gotten instructions from Julie a few days ago on how to do all that, so there was a deal of confidence in the air. I was going to stay and see if I could get it re-started. I was also going to contact Rick Magana, our mechanic, to see if by chance, he could come to our rescue (he couldn't. He was tied up for the day), and finally, I was going to contact Denis, Vivien's husband, to see if he was willing to subject himself and their Isuzu to more abuse by coming down and towing our Isuzu back to Corozal.

Carmelita to Corozal

According to Google, the distance is 36 miles from Carmelita (B) to Corozal (A). We were at least five or six miles south of Carmelita, so the tow job was in excess of 40 miles. Whew!

Thankfully, we had stopped beside a farm (Green Land Farm) and the head farmer drove his tractor over and chatted with us. He offered some good advice on adding more coolant to the engine so as not to crack the block or warp the head, etc. He also said that if we decided against towing, that we could put the Isuzu inside his fence, up near the buildings with his other vehicles till we could make arrangements to get it moved.

Bus Stop and the Farm

Dianna, Vivien, and David had gone to the bus stop, and in conversation with the young man waiting for a bus, found out that a bus was due any minute now. So, they retrieved David's suitcase and day pack and made it back to the bus stop shortly before the bus arrived.

In the mean time, I had contacted Denis and he was on his way. Nothing is easy. He had to make arrangement with Doug to pick up Eve, Denis and Vivien's new doggy from Dr. Sheila, the local Veterinarian. and get some petrol.

By then, the bus had come and gone, taking everyone who was at the stop with it. That left me alone on a wind-swept hill on a wide shoulder with a dead Isuzu. I had always thought that traffic on the Northern Highway (now renamed the Phillip S.W. Goldson Highway). That, at lease is the impression one gets as you cruise down the highway. Sitting stationary beside it, that is much different. It actually has quite a bit of traffic. Oh, sure, there's times when all you hear is the sound of wind gently wafting along, then there's at least a few cars and trucks moving along. Maybe not busy, but certainly steady.

I waited for about an hour and a half till Denis showed up. Thankfully, the breeze stayed constant, so waiting wasn't too bad. Plenty of sunlight, heat and breeze. I also had a bottle of water to swill and take the dust from my mouth.

I also put the time to good use. I tried cranking the engine. If I could get it to idle, then I could add water, a little at a time and see if it could hold the water, or if there was a definite leak. Well, as it turns out, I couldn't get it to idle. As soon as I took my foot off the accelerator, it would die. So, my option then was to add water a little at a time, crank, add some more, crank, etc. I managed to get a good gallon in the radiator. Things were looking up.

About then, I decided to put the radiator cap back on and see if it would finally allow me to start it up and keep it running and hold the coolant.

I fired it up and immediately had a horizontal geyser from about an inch below the radiator cap on the inside of the engine compartment. I quickly shut it down and knew we were not going to drive the Isuzu back to Corozal.

After Denis arrived, we debated whether to wait there for the girls or to tell them to take the return bus all the way to Corozal.

Official Name of the Farm

While we were waiting, we took the good farmer up on his offer of putting the Isuzu in his equipment yard. Denis had gotten a nylon tow rope from Rick and that was what we used to tow it, oh, about 500 feet or so. It was good that was a far as we were going with that, as I could see it stretching quite a bit as Denis towed me. We locked it up and I left my name, address, and phone number with the farm workers to give to the Farmer (he had gone to a meeting in Carmelita itself). The farm is about five or six miles south of Carmelita, itself.

After getting the vehicle secured, we decided to go into Carmelita and see what we could scare up in the way of lunch.

Right around this time, I got a call from Dianna that they had made it safely to the airport, and had gotten David all squared away.

Denis and I found a small restaurant about a hundred yards off the highway, but decided against that as we wanted to be able to keep an eye for buses so we could make contact with the girls again, so we went a bit further north and stopped at a little roadside shack, Bam Fast Food, where we had rice and beans and stew chicken, with cole slaw and some great homemade 'peppa' or hot sauce.

Denis Enjoying the Shade and Lunch

As I waited for the meals to be put together, Denis hoofed it over to the grocery store to get a couple litres of water so we could wash the dust out of our throats and wash the chow down the hatch.

Turns out the meals were excellent. Really tasty. In fact, Denis and I both highly recommend stopping and having a plate of rice and beans. After a hot day on the trail, it's hard to beat. We sat at a picnic bench beside the joint under the shade of a sea grape tree and had a nice relaxing meal. We kept watch for the girls too.

A bit later, we got a call from them, that they were still at the air terminal and were going to have lunch before coming back our way. Denis and I joked that the next call we got from them would be that they decided to go shopping after lunch.

It was  probably about an hour after we finished our lunch that we saw them getting off from the bus, but back by the first restaurant that we had looked at. So, we jumped into Denis' Trooper and headed to them.

After collecting the girls, we started back to Corozal with an uneventful trip. After we arrived in Corozal and they dropped us off, Dianna and I realized just how pooped we were. I think we hit the sack around 6:30 PM, more or less.

Enough of an adventure for one day, for sure.

Well, one can't get too much of a good thing apparently. First thing Saturday morning, I remembered there was a sign on the highway north of Corozal advertising a towing service. But, naturally, I had never written down the number. I sent out an email to the Men's Group asking if anyone, by chance, had the number. Of course not. But, Alan, Wendy, and Maria all called back later on with the number, for which I thank each of them for taking the time to do that.

I called the number and talked to the guy who answered (I neglected to get his name). Turns out, indeed, he does have a tow truck - he has two of them. A flat-bed car carrier, a winch-type tow truck, and a car dolly. Plus, he has about 30-years of experience with towing vehicles and, as he told me, he will negotiate for competitive prices for towing.

I thanked him for the info and promised I would get the word out to everyone (note to self - don't forget to do that). By then, and as a result of some other emails, David (of David and Elizabeth - too many Davids around here) had offered to tow the beast back here to Rick's shop.

I also talked to Denis who had gone into town to take care of some business, and offered to pick up anything that I might need. I asked if he could see if he could find some sort of official tow rope sort of thing, other than the stretchy thing that Rick had loaned us.

In the meantime, David came over and we got ready to go. I gathered up some nuts and bolts and chain, so we had some stuff to work with to rig up a towing apparatus, a bottle of water, my shades, keys, and phone, and we were ready to go. Just needed Denis.

As luck would have it, Denis had checked at Lano's Hardware, but they didn't have a tow-rope. He then went on to 'Triple-C' Hardware, and low and behold, they had exactly the tow-rope I was visualizing. Yellow nylon strap, about three-inches wide by about fifteen-feet or so long, with two heavy-duty hooks at either end, perfect.

When Denis got back, we jumped in David's Isuzu (too many Isuzu's too) and headed for Carmelita.

About an hour later, we pulled up at the gate to the Green Land Farm. Of course, it was locked up tighter than a drum. And of course, there was no phone number on the sign or on the gate. So we just beeped the horn. I told David that his horn was just a 'tad' wimpy. However, the farmer did hear it and drove his tractor down to the gate to open it up for us.

I think I may have embarrassed him by giving him $20.00 BZD as payment for looking after my vehicle. Oh well. I told him to buy some beer with it. He provided us with a couple of metal bits and nuts and bolts, so eventually, we got the towing rig hooked up and we were ready to go.

David asked me what speed I would be comfortable with him going. I said, probably somewhere around 30 to 35 MPH. He thought that was pretty good. So, we started off and although it was rough at the first couple times to slow down, etc., we soon got the hang of towing and being towed. I'm pretty sure we managed after a bit to get the speed up to 50 to 55 MPH which helped get us back to Corozal in good time.

Took A Photo Underway

Speed bumps, cane trucks, taxis, and buses all did their best to impede us but we managed to out-drive them all and made it back to Rick's first in good shape. We dropped off the Isuzu. Rick is Seventh-Day-Adventist, so Saturdays are his Sabbath and he was nowhere around. I left the keys for him and we headed on down the road to our homes.

I invited David and Denis in for some cool Belikins and to cool off in the pool. David wanted to get back home, but Denis and Vivien came by a little later and joined Dianna and me in the pool. A good end to a good day.

 For a bit of a different take on part of the adventure, here's Dianna's brother, David. He sent an email after he got back to Colorado.

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Glad to hear that you made it home OK. I hope the Isuzu will be up and running in no time.

As for my little adventure of Rin Tin Tin, let me tell you the saga.

As last we met our heroes, they were stuck on the side of the road by the little town of Carmelita.

Dianna, Vivien, and David were able to take a bus ride with the kindly assistance of the Belize transportation system. The bus was filled to the brim by the time they got to their destination of Belize City (actually it was Ladyville, on the northern edge of Belize City), where they were able to take a nice taxi ride to the airport.

They enjoyed a nice lunch and did a little shopping. David spent too much and Dianna was kind enough to lend him a $20.00 US (important note to remember in this adventure).

David had some time to kill so he did not go through security right away.  Eventually, the crowds started growing so he decided to enter the security area. On the other side was about the same assortment of shops and a little cafe.

Then an announcement was made. The flight to Belize City was delayed.  His flight would not leave until 5:15 PM. This did not seem to be a problem as he thought he had 2-1/2 hour lay-over in Dallas/Ft Worth. The flight came and took off nicely, landing in Dallas at 8:05 PM. His connecting flight was to board at 8:50. Only forty-nine minutes to clear customs and make his connection. He ran his little legs of till they bled - at least it felt like that was what was happening. Customs did not care that he had a connecting flight. But American Airlines were so kind and gave him an orange envelope that was marked 'Express Connection'. It expressed nothing. He still had to run what seemed like a marathon. Just as they were closing the doors on his flight to Colorado Springs, He just made it.

The flight was uneventful, except for all the people sneezing and coughing.  Ahhhh! He arrived at 10:15 PM. He looked for an ATM and withdrew $40.00, found a taxi and proceeded to his apartment. The taxi ride cost him $45.00. So, thanks to Dianna who saved the day again.

I really did enjoy my stay at the Rider hacienda. I will write more as I get the pictures into my computer. All is well here. Nobody broke in and cleaned my house. Bummer.

Later,

David
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Can you imagine it? $45.00 US for a taxi ride for probably less than 20 miles. Wow!