Back to square one

16 May 2008 Last night ended early and I was able to publish the blog early. Later that evening I went into to Letham to hire a man to build steel security bars to protect one room of the bunkhouse so that we can store supplies, tools and the solar panels if the site is uninhabited for a while. That meeting was followed by having dinner with a woman from the Peace Corps. Dinner and conversation were fine. I had an opportunity to de-stress from all that is going on and then I returned back to Manari. RAM has recently provided us with a 4WD truck while working here. It is a right side drive system and I have to use my left hand to change gears. That has been challenging. The drive to Manari is rough; and driving a 4WD, at night and in a thunderstorm in a torrential downpour is certainly a challenge. When I did arrive back at Manari, I was surprised to find the site completely dark. It was not late in the evening, so something must be wrong. When I pulled in, I was told that our third, and last, inverter was broken. I was not pleased. While asking questions, Ricki suggested I might want to know some other bad news. That news was that the pump was continuing to burn circuit breakers, we were down to two circuit breakers and at this time, the well was out of service for an unknown reason. I could not believe what I was hearing. Tom was concerned that some of his new wireing might have damaged the inverter. Dave was not certain what happened to the pump so he pulled it out of the well to check it, then installed again. The darkness seemed even darker and the thunderstorms rumbled in the distance. I know in the morning we would all be busy. I did not sleep well last night. I spent the whole night considering what was wrong and how it could be fixed. A few times I found myself sitting upright in bed and staring out the window waiting for the sunrise. At the first hint of light, I was out of bed and problem solving. The rest of the team was quick to follow. It seemed to me that everything was working find until we connected the solenoid in the system and the rains started. As for the inverter, It was old and since we did not have a wire brush to clean the terminals with, I just scratched it with a knife before installing it. I decided to start with the inverter and see if I could fix it first. The multi-meter showed that the batteries were good. However, when I connected the meter to the electrical connectors to the battery there was voltage drop. I disconnected the inverter and took a file from my letherman tool and filed to a shiny copper finish and reconnected. That was all it took. The inverter powered up and all was well again. For the well, I figured that the pump was new and not likely to fail. So I concentrated on all the various electrical connections. But before I could run the pump, I needed to pull and reinstall the well pump. Dave placed it the well, but did not push it down with a 60-foot length of PVC pipe. To get the pump to the bottom, it has to be pushed. Once that was completed we went to work on the electrical connectors. The solenoid was already disconnected, but we also disconnected the float switch and powered up the pump. It worked well and I left the pump on to fill the water tank. After a couple of hours, we hooked up the float switch and we still were without problems. Finally, I finished the connections with wire nuts and put a sealant in them to protect them from water. That was followed up by numerous wraps of electrical tape. Since completing this, we have had numerous downpours and we have had no problems. As for the chlorination system, I have simply let the chlorine drip slowly into the main tank via the IV dripper. We are finally starting to have some residual in the water supply, but we are still filtering the water. What was really amazing was that all of this was completed before we ate breakfast. The rest of the day has been used to finish various projects. Tom and Jim and now installing one light bulb and one power outlet in each of the 10 rooms. Some more repairs have been made on the roof. Some piping was leaking and was cut away and replaced. Ricki repaired a table with a chess pattern painted on it and then went to making chess pieces. A number of games were played and Paul Maresca seems to be best chess player of the group. The evening ended with a DVD played on my laptop. Terrance also arrived and invited the team to a birthday party at the Dadanowa Ranch. For RAM volunteers this is Mecca. This is the famous ranch where Stan Brock learned to be a cowboy. Most of the team will go to the ranch. I will stay back. Tom also wants to say back to complete a few things before he leaves. He leave on Monday.