Pencil Sharpener

[Kellemora]

Sounds like a really nice place you had there. Black topsoil is supposed to be the best for most things. And it sounds like it had really great drainage also.

Missouri is brown clay, with very little sand in it, so drainage is super poor, at least in the areas I was familiar with.

Down here is red clay and sand, and that red clay permanently stains anything you wear while working in it. Once you are below the hard-cap, about 4 inches down, then it is rock solid brownish red clay, also stains but not as bad.

I dug out about 1/2 of the crawl space under the house. Lots of work, but it gave me a place to start plants in the winter.
And a way to piddle to stay away from the gals. But after Debi's mom passed away, it has been nothing but work work work, even after my first heart attack. But now, I just can't do anything anymore.

Last night was a really bad night for me, very hi CO2 levels, rapid heartbeat over 105 all night and this morning, which of course also burns up my O2 really fast. So I was up almost all night doing pursed lip breathing. Debi got dressed a couple times during the night so she would be ready to run me to the hospital, but I struggled through it.
The morning was hard, but by around 11 am my heart finally dropped down into the 70s where it belonged.

I will sit back some days and look at some of the bushes in our yard that I so painstakingly trimmed, and although now overgrown, they look nice and full and not ratty like if they were not trimmed the way I did them.
But the yard front and back looks like heck compared to the way I used to keep it. And my neighbor who is doing my mowing for me cuts everything way too short, so I have a lot of areas now with no grass at all because it died cutting it that short.

I carry a little Snap-Cut in my pocket when I go out to feed the birds in the morning, and will clip a couple of bush weeds down each day. But they are growing faster than I can keep up with them. Be nice if I had a rich cousin die and leave me some money to take care of this place with, not that I wish any of my cousins should die, hi hi.

I agree with having to be happy with the memories, it's about all we can do at this stage of the game.
In my case, I think the game has run into overtime, and one more point and the game is over.

[yogi]

It seems a bit morbid to talk about the end of life, but the reality of it all is that you and I are both there. I know you feel your days are numbered, but I believe the universe runs on random events. I may check out of this plane well before you do. Regardless, we both did what we were designed to do and should have no regrets about how we played the game. I know the difficulties associated with the uncertainty of whether you will make it through the night or not. I've had a few close encounters with the hooded guy and his scythe, myself and while caring for others. It's very scary to say the least and it doesn't get easier as you get older. I have a lot of empathy for you not being able to do things you once enjoyed freely. I look out the window toward the treetops of O'Fallon and admire their beauty most every day. Beautiful, yes. My plot of woods out back ... no.

I've seen red clay out in Colorado, or more like red rocks. It's so different than what we have here that it takes on a beauty of it's own. I didn't realize red clay would leave stains, but I suppose something is in it to produce the color. I have a buddy who lives in Franklin, TN. He claims there is no dirt at all where he lives. It's all rock. His home is built on top of rocks because they can't make basements in that kind of landscape. I've never been to his house to see what it all looks like, but what kind of crazy developer would want to build homes on top of rocks? Apparently Franklin is a big place too. Needless to say he doesn't do any traditional gardening. Couldn't if he wanted to.

[Kellemora]

I have tons of memories I think about. I've lived a very full and exciting life. Did many things I'm proud of, and worked at some really unique places as well. I've made some mistakes I've learned from, and trusted some folks I never should have trusted.
But in the whole scheme of things, overall, I've had a most wonderful life with many experiences most folks never have.
So my life was full, and still churning along. At least until the tonearm reaches the center of the record.

Despite the hardships I had to endure, and the odd way things turned out in the end, it is actually much more than I could have hoped for or dreamed about. I may be flat broke, just SS or what's left of it, but I'm a very happy fellow!
I have the most wonderful wife, and a nice old home on an acre of land, and a few pets to take care of.
Plus my own little office where nobody bothers me. What more could I ask for, except a little more money to cover my meds.

Tennessee is almost like three totally different states. And yes, a lot of it is rocks, especially close to the great Rocky Mountains. But then too, like where I live, it is sandy red clay (not as red as Colorado red clay), but no rocks here unless you get down about 10 feet or lower. Many of the houses in my area do have a full basement. But if you get closer to the mountains, forget it, solid rock like you said.
East Tennessee is considerably different then Central Tennessee (Nashville and Cumbland Plateau) or West Tennessee, Memphis, where my mom is from, not Memphis but north of Memphis a good ways. Her home town was Trimble.
East Tennessee has a LOT of wonderful farming land, especially in Grainger County which is noted countrywide for its tomatoes.

Back in the late 1940's, Debi's mom and dad farmed in their backyard, almost all of the backyard, but not the hill that makes up the rest of the backyard. It was all woods when I moved in, but took out a good part of the woods. Mainly because I wanted to be near the top of the ridge to get my radio antennas back up, which never happened either. Oh well, such is life.

[yogi]

I've read a lot about a philosophy called humanism. It boils down to simply being the best human being you are capable of being. Your primary responsibility in life simply is to be. It would be immoral of you to be less than you are capable. From what I can tell you have lead an exemplary humanistic life.

I drove through Tennessee on our way to South Carolina to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. There was one very remarkable stretch through some mountains. The mountains were impressive, not Colorado mountains impressive, but still quite a sight to see. We probably traveled less than a hundred miles through these mountains but I saw something I never saw anywhere else. Certain stretches of road seem to be cut into the mountain because the walls on either side of the road were nearly vertical. It seemed to be all rock, or at least I didn't see much greenery, but a few people actually lived on the vertical side of those mountains. I could see a road going up the mountain and where it ended as a plateau about half way up. A very narrow plateau, but a plateau nonetheless. On that narrow strip of rock was a house. The view from that house had to be glorious for at least the first five minutes. Then you come to the realization that the back of your house is several hundred feet of vertical rock and across the road is the opposite face of the mountain. The sun must rise about 11:45AM and set about 12:15PM for those folks. But the shadows created by the valley must be spectacular. I still wonder who would want to live like that. I saw three maybe four mountain houses during that long stretch of road so that' it's not just one crazy person with a lot of money. It was truly an amazing sight and the only outstanding feature of the whole state.

[Kellemora]

I've always been accused of being too much of a perfectionist, which slows me down a whole lot more than necessary.
I wish I had some pictures of some of the electric boxes I wired up in new home and office construction. Picture perfect!
It only took a few minutes longer to make it look perfect, but the boss wanted speed not perfection, hi hi.
They made up for me being slower than the other guys by tacking on another thousand bucks to the price of the house, and they always got it if the buyer saw the inside of the electrical panel. So he didn't complain too much, and actually bragged on the boxes I did. Especially in the commercial office buildings.
I wasn't near of a perfectionist when I was doing plumbing work, but the most of what I did was laterals, in the mud, hi hi.
But after a couple of years, I did manage to get indoor waste plumbing, cast iron and lead in those days. And my last year I got to do supply plumbing indoor, and by then my perfectionism began to show at that job.

You wouldn't believe how many multi-millionaires live up in the restricted government owned forest areas of the mountains.
Most of them you could never see from a roadway, unless like you pointed out, they built on top of a bluff.
There are whole small towns in some of the hills that you can't see from anywhere, unless you take the single road that leads back into that town. One thing about the roads in Tennessee, 90% of them go from nothing to nowhere, and are dead ends.

[yogi]

One thing about the roads in Tennessee, 90% of them go from nothing to nowhere, and are dead ends.

That reminds me of something else I never saw before outside those Tennessee mountains. That same stretch of road with the cliff houses was hilly. The grading was not very steep, but you could literally accelerate going down hill with your foot off the gas pedal. The only similar situation I've seen was the Mississippi valley along the Illinois/Iowa border. At some points going down hill in Tennessee was what appeared to be another roadway on the right side. Those roads were dead ends and going up hill. We passed several of them and I was amazed because I could not see the purpose of such a deliberate effort on the part of the Tennessee Highway Department. When we got home and I related this story to my son-in-law: he knew exactly what that was all about. Apparently they are for semis to slow down. I guess the brakes on a trailer don't do a lot of good when going downhill with a full load. Thus the convenient upgrades to side track any out of control truck. I thought that was a fantastic idea but apparently it's only used during the winter when the snow falls.

I know you have an appreciation for perfection and it's not hard to accomplish in an average house. The breaker boxes I've seen almost force you to route the wires properly, but dressing them to look nice is indeed an extra step. Most houses I've looked at, however, have all that wiring behind a panel so that it cannot be seen by a casual inspection. Plumbing is a whole lot different and is always exposed, particularly if the building has a basement. There is no way to be neat about plumbing. It's a Rube Goldberg occupation that cannot be performed to perfection. That is unless you call hodge·podge perfection. There is nothing neat, clean, and simple about plumbing. I have seen some buildings where the pipes were painted. That looked good if the walls were painted too. The paint hides all the ugly joints and adds a bit of creativity to them. But normal plumbing cannot be anywhere close to perfect. I'm surprised you followed that profession given your attention to detail.

I guess billionaires tend to be security conscious and love seclusion. It makes sense. But, those house on the side of a mountain are built upon solid rock. There is no possible way to get water from them unless you collect rain water. Then there is the sanitary system. No septic tanks would work in solid rock. TV and Radio reception has to be via cable, assuming you are willing to pay to have several miles of cable laid down to your house from the main trunk located on flat land somewhere. Electricity has the same problem if it's delivered from the grid, but I suppose it's not that difficult to have your own generator or passive solar panels. But even then, as I mentioned, they don't get a lot of direct sunlight in those places. The greatest advantage is that they are isolated and can see anybody or anything approaching their home from several miles away. It sure looked beautiful, but I'm not sure it would be worth living like that.

[Kellemora]

You wanna have some phun, come down here and take a drive down the Tail of the Dragon. Something like 180 turns in only a few short miles. You'll get whiplash, hi hi. I've driven it about 8 to 10 times since I moved down here, usually taking a visitor for the thrill ride.

Truck brakes can overheat fast, and/or run out of air. But overheating the brakes is the big problem. One reason a stick-shift is much better than the automatics they put in some trucks these days. You can downshift an automatic, but if you are going too fast, it won't drop down the gears. Whereas a stick, you can drop down a gear and ride the clutch to slow the truck down.

I don't know Yogi, you should see the apartment building I did all the inside plumbing in, waste and supply. And it was a two story building too boot. All of the bathrooms were on the east wall, and as you know, waste plumbing has to have a slope to it.
And every toilet needs a Vent that leads to above the roof. Now rather than having 4 or 8 vents up through the roof, I only had one single 6 inch vent dead center of the length of the apartment building. So, up above the top floor ceiling in the attic, the vent pipes ran at a slight tilt upward, with the farthest upstairs apartment to the left, at the top of the vertical vent stack, the farthest upstairs apartment to the right directly under that, then the farthest left downstairs apartment under that, and the farthest downstairs apartment under that, and so on and so forth doing the closer in upstairs and downstairs apartments.
I handle the waste lines the same way in the basement, only they sloped downward, so the closest downstairs apartments were at the top of the basement stack, and the farthest were at the bottom of the stack. I should also not that in the basement, the waste/vent stack was 8 inches, and all the vents from the toilets were 3 inch, and the waste from the toilets were 4 inch.
And they were all tight against the exterior walls. Except in the attic where the very top of the vent turned inward and upward so it was closer to the ridge. The plumbing inspector said the job was exceptional! No wasted space either.
He also liked the way I handled the sink drains and vents for both the bathrooms and the kitchens. Which due to code there the kitchen sinks had to have their own vent through the roof, but I did them the same way, to a central stack and waste went into the main waste stack. I called it double-kill to meet a code ruling, when those kitchen sinks could have tied to the main stack easily. That is how it is usually done in apartment buildings, but not in that town of Sunset Hills.

My plumbing license was my first license, then the electricians license. Had I got the electricians license first, I probably would have not completed my apprenticeship for plumbing. It was really a dirty and muddy job. But I knew I was working toward my goal. You have to remember also, back then it was all cast iron with poured lead seals. Hard and Heavy work.

Actually, plumbing, water, and electrical services are handled no differently in the mountains as it is elsewhere with only one exception. Each house just might have more than 3 or 4 tumbling basins associated with the waste plumbing. The waste plumbing from the house itself has to be at code grade, but between tumbling basins, you can go 4 times normal waste line grade, sometimes more in rare cases. But after the last tumbling basin and into the mainline sewer, the grade has to be at code grade. Also, each tumbling basin has to be vented to prevent vacuum on the waste lines.
Depending on how close the houses are, sometimes 4 to 6 houses share the same tumbling basins going down the mountainside. Plus there are a few places where they have vertical drop from one tumbling basin down to the next, like for those cliff side houses, hi hi. FWIW: It costs a fortune to install plumbing in solid rock. Which is why the waste line is laid down and the supply line a foot above it in the same cutout in the rock. Sometimes they bring the electric in the same way, but way up only a foot below the ground, still in the same slot cut into the rock.

[yogi]

Should I ever be in the neighborhood, rest assured that I will attempt a drive down the Tail of the Dragon. My wife, on the other hand, will wait in the Starbucks (you DO have Starbucks down there, don't you?) until I return.

You will have to pardon my bias about plumbing. I've never had a positive experience with it and from an aesthetic point of view it hurts my eyes to look at it. I'm accustomed to long smooth lengths of copper wiring which has no couplings, joints, elbows, adapters, flanges, and whatnot just to make a bend in a toilet installation. Copper wires come in eye appealing colors too, although I must admit copper pipe with lead/tin sealing at the joints does have some interest in it's appearance. White PVC, gray steel, and that flexible pipe that looks like it's made from snake skin all make my eyes sore. Your description of the venting system in the apartment building certainly depicts a masterpiece of engineering. It looked beautiful to the inspector. But who else (that is not in a coma) would appreciate such a construction?

Whether you intend them to be or not, your stories are often educational. What on earth, or in rocks, is a tumble basin? I'm guessing it's something like a catch basin. We had one of those at the house I grew up in in the city of Chicago. Once in a while somebody came by to clean it out and billions of "water bugs" came running out of the trap. I guess that basin was supposed to catch large chunks of material before it went into the city sanitary sewer system. That is understandable. Using that kind of thing, or a series of them, to drain waste down a mountain side does not compute. Is it supposed to slow down the flow of water, or does it have some other useful purpose? I guess it's like a septic tank, but really? Does household waste decompose in those tumbler basins? That would be one way to do it in a rocky mountain, but it has to stink to high heaven. Literally.

[Kellemora]

I'm sure she would enjoy the ride, and the scenery. Yes we have Starbucks, the overpriced Speed Drug supplier to the neighborhood, hi hi.

Nobody would appreciate it because once the drywall is up, you never see it again, hi hi.

If you scroll down to the bottom of page four of this newsletter, you will see the supply plumbing header I made and installed in my basement. The bottom valve is the main shut-off, but the rest are so you can shut off individual rooms or devices.
https://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimi ... l2008b.pdf

Water picks up speed as it flows downhill, and if a pipe is full of water, like when you flush the commode, it can create a vacuum and suck all the traps dry, which in turn would let sewer gas onto the house.
A Manhole is sorta like a Tumbling Basin in a way. 4 or more laterals from houses may empty into the Manhole, some houses may enter the Manhole near the top, and others closer to the bottom.
A Tumbling Basin doesn't hold water like a Septic Tank is designed to do, albeit, the smaller sized ones do look like a Septic Tank.
Water normally enters in the side near the top, and exits out the very bottom, so it does not hold water or trap debris. It would be most unusual for a Tumbling Basin to get clogged up. But when you do use Tumbling Basins, you can have one near your house so your lateral is at the proper pitch, but then after the Tumbling Basin, the waste pipe from it can go nearly straight down to the next Tumbling Basin, but in such a set-up, the lower Tumbling Basin after a long steep drop would have several baffles in it.

In a tall building, like an office building, there is a Tumbling Basin on each floor at the stack, and vented back into the same stack. If they don't use these smaller Tumbling Basins, then they have a separate vent for each waste pipe before it dumps into the main stack. If the building is really tall, there will be several Tumbling Basins in them! I just remembered, in high-rise buildings they are normally called Tumbling Rings, instead of Tumbling Basins.

Most recently they have come with a design similar to the Geberit Super Tube system which saves all the extra vent lines.
But it still requires a horizontal tube every 4 floors to keep the same old vacuum problem and high speed flow of water from happening.

FWIW: There is usually little to no odor coming from Tumbling Basin vents. Actually less than escapes a Manhole!
Mainly because fresh air is continually flowing through sewer venting systems.

[yogi]

I've seen that picture of your plumbing header before. It stuck in my mind because it solves a common problem related to shutting off branches of the water supply. Every house I have lived in, including this one, has one shut off valve at the source. That's it with the exception of the toilet which has a shut off valve of it's own. It's a totally useless valve that apparently is designed to only be used once. I don't know what is inside but it's nothing like those ball type shut offs on your header. The toilet valves almost always need to be replaced each time they are used. The not so brilliant solution is for the plumber to supply an extra length of piping coming out of the wall so that there is some that can be cut off in the future to accommodate the replacement. If there were shut offs at the header, such as in your picture, the toilet feed pipe could be shorter and no valves would have to be replaced.

I do have a question about that menorah type header. It appears that the diameter of all the pipes is the same. I would expect the main feed pipe to be larger just in case all those branches happen to be running at the same time. I guess the pressure would be the same, but the volume of water is limited to what the main pipe can supply.

Thank you for the elaboration regarding tumbler basins. Apparently their sole purpose in life is to slow down the flow of water. I never thought of fast water creating a vacuum, but that must be the same thing as a venturi in a carburetor. I also never thought of the problems a high rise building might have disposing of waste. Some of those downtown buildings in Chicago approach 100 stories tall. Yep, I can see why you might want to slow down that falling of water. I'm still thinking of those homes in the Tennessee mountains. It must cost a fortune and a half to build a place like that. I guess it's the next best thing to owning a castle. LOL

[Kellemora]

Under my kitchen sink is a shut-off for both the hot and cold to the faucet, a shut-off for the hot to the dishwasher, a shut-off for the cold to the ice maker and water dispenser in the fridge, Plus a Fast Fill braided hose with a shut-off under the sink, and a shut-off at the 6 foot end, hot water for filling buckets when I was doing my orders for AZ-NO3.
That's a lot of valves under one sink, hi hi. But the bathroom also has a shut-off for both hot and cold for the sink, and a shut-off for cold to the toilet.

My headers input is 3/4 inch, and has a far right 3/4 inch pipe going to outdoor faucets, a far left 3/4 inch to the water heater, and the other four are 1/2 inch to the kitchen, 1/2 inch bathroom, and a 1/2 inch to the working area in the crawl space where I did plants, and one spare 1/2 inch intended for the mud room washer and dryer, but instead goes to the kitchen also for the washing machine. Plans changed when Debi figured out how big the kitchen would be with the exterior concrete block wall gone, and the former patio not be a mud room but a part of the kitchen.

Actually, the type of Tumbling Basin I'm talking about, for residential use on steep grades they only cost between 50 and 100 bucks complete at today's prices. Back when I needed to install them, they only cost like 15 to 25 bucks each, unless I went with concrete then they were like 25 to 50 bucks each.

[yogi]

I think it might be possible that you went overboard with the shut off valves under your sink. LOL Some of those would be sensible but I'm thinking a few of them could have been combined. I can see why builders and contractors would skimp on valve usage. Those guys usually are not concerned about convenience as much as they are about costs. When you do the work yourself, cost is not the primary consideration.

OK on clarifying what you were doing with that fancy water distribution header. I suppose 3/4 inch feed is sufficient for just about any residential installation, but my neighbor, they guy I bought the land from in my last house, used one inch for the main feed and broke it down from there. He was obsessed with having enough water when he showers and somebody else flushes the toilet. I've run into a problem with that in previous homes, but this one has some kind of pressure equalization system built into the water system. The water pressure is always the same in the hot and the cold branches no matter what O'Fallon is supplying at the moment. About the only improvement I'd make in the system here would be to install a temperature regulator in the shower. I've seen some that can be adjusted like a thermostat on the furnace.

[Kellemora]

I built that header for convenience. The main reason being, when a faucet goes bad, you often have to wait for the parts to fix it, because there are just so many brands out there now. You don't want to shut off the whole bathroom. Which reminded me, I failed to mention I also have stops to the shower and toilet. I have a full-flow shower and a spout you can fill a bucket up in seconds, not minutes like it takes at a kitchen sink. Sometimes folks would ask why I have a tub spout in a shower, because they could tell it came after the shower and too low for a tub. So I said I put it in to fill the dog watering jug and mop buckets.

My shower actually uses way more water than it should be using, since I have no restrictors on it. It does have a scald protection device which I don't trust, hi hi. I also don't like them either, but they are required by code nearly everywhere.

We have high water pressure here, so I only ran 3/4 inch soft copper from the meter into the house. And the input side of the Header is 3/4 inch, and two of the outflows are 3/4 inch, the other 4 are only 1/2 inch. Don't need larger than 1/2 inch going to sinks or toilets. FWIW: If you run a separate line from the feed pipe across the basement to the toilet, it won't cause the shower to get hot when somebody flushes.
They do make shower valves that have adjustable temperature settings, but they are expensive.

[yogi]

At the old house the water system was funky. There was no requirement for scald protection, although I did have that installed when we remodeled the bathroom. I wanted one of those temperature control valves, but the plumber said they would have to rip out part of the wall to install it. The added cost wasn't worth it to me. When showering, the hot water would drop pressure at times and I would get a cold dose of water in a steamy shower. That is much better than 140 ℉, but still a shock when it's unexpected. I don't know what they did to fix that problem in this house, but I can see it in the supply line next to the hot water heater. It doesn't seem to have any moving parts, and most important it does not hum.

We stayed at the Kohler resort in Wisconsin one winter. Their shower was unbelievable. There were several ways to get splashed with water which all ran at full force - typical of Kohler products. I actually had all of them going at once, which is not the intended way to use it. My favorite was the water fall effect. It was similar to your tub spout idea but it had a fanned out plate under the spout to create a sheet of falling water. I don't think it did anything special, but it was an interesting way to wash my hair.

I agree with you about being able to shut off individual water appliances instead of the entire system when there is a problem. That's a brilliant idea but I only ran into a need for it a few times in all my home repair experience. Most of the times the problem is a leak and a pan or bucket under the leaky faucet usually takes care of it until the new part arrives. Then you find out the new part doesn't fit the old plumbing ... don't get me started.

[Kellemora]

Many areas, like St. Louis County, we all have a high-pressure regulator on the water line, AFTER the fittings to the outdoor faucets, and BEFORE anything inside the house. This is to protect all the automatic valves, like washing machine, ice maker, dishwasher, etc. which is only a spring holding a plunger down to shut-off those appliances.

There is also a Max-Flo regulator that is placed in many homes on the hot-water line either as it leaves the water heater, or on the line that feeds the bathroom, so you never get an overflow of hot water. Some of these devices are pretty fancy and have both the cold and hot water lines feeding through them. Basically, the speed of the cold water flowing limits the speed of the hot water flowing. It doesn't matter if you turn the cold water tap down a bit, like half way after you had the temp set to what you wanted, this device also slowed down the hot water so it maintained a fairly close temperature to what it was when the cold water valve was on full.

I've seen some shower faucets with absolute temperature control, and yes they are a big box that goes inside the wall, if you have room. They have a handle on them that points to the temp you want, or some lower cost models have a screwdriver slot for you to set it to a maximum hot temperature.

When my brother lived in his house, he had like 6 shower heads lined up across the ceiling of a showering room he built in the basement. Two of the shower heads were like a slot that sprayed a band of water, which he used to rinse his hair after washing. Now that I think of it, he had 7 shower heads, forgot about the one on the wall in front of you that only hit the center of your chest, or lower if you backed up away from it. He called it his butt polisher, hi hi.

Believe me, I've worked in many old houses with galvanized steel plumbing that had long since rusted away. You try to turn off a stop-valve and the whole thing breaks off at the wall. And besides that, most stop-valves are loaded with calcium deposits and nearly impossible to shut all the way off, which is why I use ball-valves as the main shut-offs.
The only problem with my set-up is, I had the first heart attack while doing the kitchen, so never got back to making a similar header for the water heater output line. So I did the next best thing and installed a ball-valve on each individual hot water line. At least all the old steel plumbing is gone and redone with all new copper pipes, and all the old waste lines are now PVC pipes, and done to code, not like the mess that was there, hi hi. I did leave the cast iron vent and waste out to the lateral in the yard because it was all fairly new, installed in 1968. Prior to 1966 they had an outhouse, but did have a septic tank and system for the new bathroom sink and kitchen sink, but they used a steel pipe for the vents at each sink.
I took out the steel kitchen vent pipe because it was old and rusty, but reused the steel bathroom sink vent pipe because it was installed around 1966 and still looked new. In 1967 the city had a mainline sewer installed down the street and all houses were required to connect to it, while at the same time, taking out the septic tank, and or plumbing through it.
This is when they started on the cast iron vent and waste bend for the toilet in the bathroom.

Long before the septic tank was installed, they had no bathroom at all. Most washing up was done at the kitchen sink. The drain for the kitchen sink went out of the house, under the driveway, and emptied into a huge 50 gallon metal GI can that had large holes punched in the bottom, then filled with 3/4 inch and larger gravel, then a marble slab was laid over where a lid would go. When I dug out and widened the driveway, I hit that marble slab, but there was no metal left, all rusted away, but the large gravel was still there, mostly filled with dirt by this time.
Whoever installed the cast iron, only cut off the sink drain and tied to it to the new vent stack, leaving the old kitchen vent there. Why a steel pipe was used for the vent to the bathroom sink is anybodies guess. But the drain pipe was new and was cast iron to the new soil stack. After all that, they couldn't afford to buy a toilet yet, so it was spring of 1968 when the toilet and bathtub finally got installed.

[yogi]

I don't know what it is, but it's a passive device in my water line. The builder's foreman told me we had it when we did the house walk-through, but it's significance didn't register with me at the time. Since then I've noticed the water pressure to be good in all outlets and no wild swings in temperature as we had in the last house. It seems to be about the size of a metal cantaloupe, and the only other thing I can say about it is that it does not hum or vibrate.

I recall the galvanized steel plumbing of the house I was raised in. Dad was mechanically inclined much the same as you are, but not quite as creative. He did all the home maintenance. When plumbing needed fixing he would get piping, cut and thread it himself. He had all the tools you could imagine. I recall one experience when I was very small. The kitchen sink faucet needed replacement but in spite of his best efforts dad could not unscrew it from the feed pipe. So he went next door to my uncle's house and got a bigger pipe wrench and they both tried to break it loose. It finally did twist off, but not the way you would imagine. It so happened that the water pipes were LEAD. The lead pipe just twisted until it broke. The water tap was still on the pipe when they finished. Even back then, 70 years ago, they knew lead pipes were not a good thing. Dad and uncle Gene spent a lot of time replacing the kitchen plumbing all because of a leaking faucet. That's one memory I have warning me to never do any plumbing work on my own. LOL

My childhood house was very old but we did have indoor plumbing. There was only a toilet and a tub in the bathroom. All face and hair washing, shaving, and tooth brushing was done in the kitchen sink. As I mentioned elsewhere the waste water ended up in a catch basin, which apparently is not the same as a septic tank. It just seems like it might have been because I know people came out once in a while to clean out that catch basin. I was too young to know what was going on. That old plumbing system is one reason why I suspect the "good old days" were not really as good as they are made out to be now.

[ocelotl]

I remember having read you Gary mentioning the Tail of the Dragon before, and that I replied that it looked quite attention requiring to drive through, yet with awesome sights.

https://roadtrippers.com/tail-of-the-dragon/

Regarding your home maintaining comments, ¿What can I say? I live in a concrete box designed and built more than 60 years ago... Most issues with it have been cracks, humidity, aging pipes and paint.

[Kellemora]

That's your regulator Yogi, some look like a pineapple, some like a big ball, and like mine back home, like Y connector.
My house in Creve Coeur had an outdoor water pressure of 65 to 80 psi, and the regulator brought it down to 35 psi for inside the house. The regulator was in the basement, after the connections to the outdoor faucets.
All the supply plumbing was copper, and the waste plumbing was cast iron, and the natural gas lines were black iron.

Grandpa's old house I lived in, the big 18 room monster, was FED by Lead Pipes, and the large meter was in the basement.
It was a large meter, because it also fed our first few greenhouses. But all the supply plumbing from that meter and throughout the house was galvanized steel pipes, except for any which was replaced with copper in later years.
At the time grandpa built that house, he had several lighting fixtures that used natural gas, but the majority of the house was wired for electric. He used extra large gas lines, because he had planned on installing electric to the gas lit fixtures at some point in the future, but never got around to it before he passed away.
The living room had gas lights on the wall above the mantle, three of them, and every hallway that had stairs, there was a gaslight every 4 feet on stairs, and every 6 feet down each hallway. These types of gaslights did not use mantles so were not very bright, but were much brighter than a candle flame would be. Natural gas normally burns blue, but not if you have a burner that pulls air into the flame, like a kerosene lamp does.
Even though they burned with a brighter than normal candle like flame, there was no soot, so the glass globes stayed clean. I lived there 5 years and never had to clean the globes once.
It is sort of ironic he had an oil fed boiler for heat, with radiators throughout, but had gas to these lights, and to his water heaters. I'm under the impression that they did not have gas at the time he built the house, but installed the gaslights in the assumption they would have gas before long. But why after getting gas, he didn't convert the boiler from oil to gas.
The answer to that is sorta simple. He replaced the old coal fired boiler with the oil fired boiler only a year before gas was run down Manchester Road. Even our flower shop was heated with oil, but it was an oil furnace, not a boiler.
And of course all of our greenhouses were heated with large coal boilers when I was growing up. I was married before they converted from coal to oil, and remarried once again the year they converted the new boilers over to natural gas.

Naturally I do not remember much when I was born to age 2 when we moved into dad and mom's new house. But do know since the old house was still there, it had an outhouse and a well for water. Our new house had all the normal plumbing of a modern house of that 1949 era.

Ah yes Oceloti, most of the folks driving on it treat it like a race track too. Lots of motorcycles as well. It is very tiring to drive, but so much fun you don't mind the aches and pains in your shoulders and arms afterward.
Imagine driving it before they had power steering, hi hi.
My grandfathers house was built around 1870, added on again in 1880, and once again in 1890, but you couldn't tell there were any add-ons, because he built all the exterior walls from the git go in 1870. All of the exterior walls were 18 inch thick, and four of the interior walls were 16 inches thick, that more or less divided the house up into three sections. Grandpa was terrified of fire, so the house was built such that fire could not spread from one end to the other. Those main interior walls went all the way up through the roof, so a fire could not spread.
Something interesting he did though was he laid chimney flue pipes horizontally at three different levels in the exterior walls of the house, and each corner of the house was a pair of steel I-beams installed vertically about 10 inches away from the corners of the house, and where the 16 inch walls were. Discovered all of this when it was torn down to build the shopping center. It's said the demolition company severely damaged two of their bulldozers tearing it down. Plus they damaged a crane when they were tearing down our 100 foot tall Weiderholt Chimney for the boilers. They hit it about 40 feet up in the air with a wrecking ball, expecting it to then collapse, only with all the steel and concrete in that thing, it only folded over where they hit it, then began to turn until it hit the boom of the crane, hi hi We all watched the day they took it down.

[yogi]

Your grandpa built houses like medieval folks built castles. 18" walls would be my kind of wall especially if it was made of stone. His idea of fire prevention was excellent, and those super thick walls probably could also take a direct hit from a tornado too. In all the years that I cooked with gas I don't think we ever had soot accumulate anywhere on the stove or vents. There are fumes you don't want to inhale directly but apparently natural gas is very clean burning. I would think the demolition people would know better and use dynamite to tear down the house and chimney. It must have been quite amusing watching them destroy their equipment instead of the building.

The water regulator here is doing a fine job compared to previous houses I owned and did not have one. I don't know what the pressure is in the house pipes but I doubt it's anywhere near 60 psi. That is fine with me because whatever it is, it is consistent throughout.

[ocelotl]

Thanks to Youtube, I found videos of the descent through two interesting roads over here. Hope they are open to see from your home.

- Cumbres de Acultzingo. This is the stretch over Mexican Federal Road 150, namely between the town of "Puerto del Aire", at 2355 meters above sea level to "Acultzingo", at 1700 meters above sea level. The stretch is around 8 kilometers, or five miles, yet as a federal road is just a lane each direction and no shoulders. Video seems to be taken by a biker and shows some damages to safety barriers due to previous accidents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CoSaIU6KBQ

- Cumbres de Maltrata. As a passenger, I have traveled through this several times. It is part of the Tolll Highway 150, the main toll highway between Mexico City and the Port of Veracruz. The point where the highway splits outside Esperanza, Puebla (around minute 5 of the video), is at 2463 meters above sea level and the point where it meets again, before reaching Ciudad Mendoza, Veracruz (around minute 20) is at 1538 meters above sea level... Google marks it as a 23.3 kilometers or 14.5 miles distance. Always, bus drivers take a 5-10 minute break either just passing the Esperanza toll both or the gas station just ahead. I'm sure it is to clear their minds for the drive ahead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnEoaFCNGNg

I've checked some of the videos of the channel where I took the second video from. Many road stretches of Mexico, all commented in Spanish...

https://www.youtube.com/c/AugustoJose/videos