Septic system failure & repair June 2016

Sometime back last summer I noticed there was a sinkhole behind the shrubbery under our bedroom window up against the foundation of the house. I called Michael's attention to this and kind of left it to him to decide how urgently it needed to be dealt with. Honestly I was probably too busy with the garden and riding the horses to think too much about it.

Winter came and went and we got some snowfall then a lot of rain. The first time I went behind the shrubbery to install the hoses for spring I was shocked at how big the hole had gotten and showed Michael. It was actually big enough that I started thinking it might be a hazard - as in someone might fall into it!

Finally weeks later the much awaited day of Michael & Kane's departure for fishing in Canada for a week had come. Interestingly, all of the toilets in the house and both bathtubs started behaving strangely that morning: burping, making bubbly noises and then all of the drains stopped working. We plunged and things seemed to clear up but that didn't last long ... Luckily I had made a Monday 8am appointment w the plumber for him to come by and give us a hand.

Michael's new Pool Table - May 2014

Michael shopped and visited people's pool tables for maybe a year or more before deciding on this one, which had been sitting in someone's basement unassembled and unused for a long period of time.

The person who owned it was moving and didn't want to move the table. Michael was offered a great deal on the table if he was able to bring some friends and haul it away. Michael didn't realize how good of a deal until we had a professional come to set it up in our basement yesterday.

Warlock the black cat found us November 2013

The story of the stray cat who adopted us just before one of the worst winters in Chicagoland on record. Below zero temps almost daily, feet of snow, ice storms, sleet, hail. It was an ugly winter for cats living outside. But not this stray cat. This stray cat, who started out sleeping on hay piles and eating mice, now four months later sleeps on satin pillows and delicately nibbles wet cat food from crystal bowls. This is the story of Warlock.


Warlock's story, in photos. 

Prowicz / udonet network backup plan, March 2014

Prowicz / udonet network backup plan, March 2014

We have had backups in place for a while, using the main Windows 2003 server and an external WD 1.5TB USB connected disk and DirSync which runs nightly and sends any new files in our main directories to the USB disk.

This is an ok, better-than-nothing but not shockproof system.

I have decided to integrate two projects into one:
1. Create a backup system for our local network
2. De-commission and remove our single remaining Windows server (W2003)

What do we need to backup?
\\kentucky\Photos:

• Digital photos and scanned photos going back to 1996
• 150GB
• Slow growing

\\kentucky\Music

• Hours of person time to rip and catalog
• 22GB
• Fast growing

 \\kentucky\(username)

• email Local folders, personal documents, household finances
• 150GB 
• Medium growing

 \\kentucky\Downloads

• Local copies of OS archives, applications, etc. 
• 60GB
• Does not grow; new replace old retaining 2-3 versions

Throwback Thursday ... back in time to May 14, 2005

Throwback Thursday ... back in time to May 14, 2005

In May 2005, Kane was five years and six months old and our garden had been in full swing in our backyard in Des Plaines IL for about 4-5 years. I have posted elsewhere on our web site about our native garden which is comprised of mainly Cook County indigenous plants. We started with those because Laura was a bit of a black thumb (i.e. she killed pretty much every plant she had touched up till now) and figured the natives would be hard to kill. Mission accomplished! as you can see from the photos.

In May 2005, our pond (shown) was about three years old and was pretty mature. Pond building story and more photos are available for those who'd like to find out all about building a backyard pond. This pond was rather small, as it needed to fit nicely into our city-sized standard lot, fully surrounded by our 6' privacy fence (the neighbors on both side were slobs/hoarders of inanimate junk; we also backed into a highly trafficked alley.) We loved the privacy fence.

Kane loved spending time near the pond and so we spent a considerable amount of time making sure he knew how to swim and tread water in a local pool in case he ever accidentally fell in. We did try to keep him under surveillance at all times but he is a typical boy!

Purchase of Lady Luxury, Lucy, LuLu Bean

Elaine and Dax, Grace and Sugar, early 2004

The story of the purchase of Lucy starts way back in mid-2005 when we first moved into our current home, Prairie Corner Farm. Laura (me) had decided that it was now time for Elaine and Grace to join Pony Club since we finally had a horse property and enough room for everyone to keep a mount affordably.

Elaine was 12 years old and had been taking lessons and showing our Appaloosa, Dax, for about two years or so already and was content. Grace was almost 11 years old and had been using a friend's older quarter horse mare, Sugar, for two years and had lots of success, but we were unable to bring her with us to our new home. So Grace would need a new mount.

Elaine and Dax, Grace and Sugar, early 2005 with Egon

We started shopping early on for Grace and were having trouble finding something appropriate. The problem seemed to be that all of the horse sellers that we called were blatant liars who didn't care at all if my child got killed riding their rank animals. Week after week, I would call the listings and ask the same questions: This will be a horse for a 10 year old child who is just an advanced-beginner rider, a very petite rider. Would your sale horse be safe for her to ride? "Oh yeah, fine sure come and check him out!"

We'd arrive to find either a crazy Western horse that had no idea how to trot or canter, was used to having his head tied to his chest or a 16hh+ Thoroughbred straight off the track who still had his racing plates on. Suffice it to say, it was a long stretch weekend after weekend being disappointed at not finding a nice child-safe mount.

Dax's left hock ... and right suspensory/deep digital flexor tendon ... and negative palmar angle (Part I)

Dax, my Appaloosa, was a little bit of an impulsive "adoption" (aka "purchase") in November of 1997. My good friend Barry Fript, a well known area horse professional and dressage trainer said to me at the time: "Absolutely do not buy that horse!"

Regardless, and probably stupidly, I went ahead anyway and even the transaction itself was not without its own obstacles and intrigue - much like our life together since. For details on how it all came about and some of our fun history, see my blog entry from Nov 1997: http://www.udonet.com/laura/info/1997spotted_fever.html and follow the links.

Dax: 4.5 Elaine 5.0 Me 34.0

Dax was 4.5 years old going on five in Nov 1997. In September of 2013 that makes him twenty years old and he and I have been together for 15.5 years. A lot has happened in that time and a lot of the early days are captured in my web site. I fell off updating our web site in early 2001 ("life got in the way") and since then several kids have Pony Clubbed him, including my older daughter, Elaine, who was actually the last child to use him seriously for eventing, fox hunting, pony clubbing and just general riding and schooling.

Grace, my younger daughter, also rode and used Dax with a lot of success after her pony mare, Lucy, passed of stomach cancer. That was a long two years of recovery for both Gracie and I and Dax filled in nicely for Grace on a lot of things she liked doing at the time. We always used to say to Grace before going out on cross country: "Just imagine that Lucy is jumping along with you guys, just in front of Dax's nose and leading the way!" Funny that Grace was one of Dax's only riders who was ever able to propel him all the way through a course without trouble ... 

Chicken coop project, September 2013

We have recently purchased a chicken coop, which is "on order" and currently being built. One of our best friends, Jeff, is an incredibly handy guy with tools and meticulous to the nth degree.

Being a currently out of work engineer and looking full time for job, he volunteered to be our vendor for the coop and set off to learn everything he needed to know about backyard chicken keeping in order to bring himself fully up to speed as an expert chicken coop builder.

Once the chicken coop is completely finished it will be painted barn red to match our newly painted barn with a dark brown roof and white trim. Jeff will dis-assemble it at his location, then re-assemble at our location and we will install it to the prepared site which will be leveled, underlaid with predator mesh and outlined with secured railroad ties (we haven't worked out all of the precise details on this yet; Laura is still working on that.)

Hopefully we'll have the footings and predator mesh installed this week or this coming weekend in preparation.We have a spot in the yard for it quite near the horse barn and close to a set of three large evergreens. It's a high and dry spot.

We are planning to purchase 8-12 Dominique chickens (hens only!) which are a heritage breed. We haven 't decided whether to get started right away (this fall) with adult hens or wait until spring and get started with baby chicks. Laura likes the idea of raising the hens from chicks but of course everyone else in the family is just ready to start gathering eggs ... right now! Hens don't start laying until they are several months old. The other option is to purchase six hens now and then six chicks in the spring, which would probably be a good compromise.

not our chickens! this is a stock photo.

From Wikipedia: "The Dominique, also known as Dominicker or Pilgrim Fowl, is a breed of chicken (Gallus gallus) originating in the United States during the Colonial. It is considered America's oldest breed of chicken, probably descending from chickens brought to New England from southern England during colonial times. By the 19th century, they were widely popular and were raised in many parts of the country. Dominiques are a dual purpose breed, being valued for their meat as well as for their brown eggs. They weigh 6 to 8 pounds (2.7 to 3.6 kg) at maturity. In earlier times, their feathers were much sought after as stuffing for pillows and mattresses." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_%28chicken%29)

The finished chicken coop will resemble the coop pictured here, which is the coop as built by the plan designer. It is about 6'x6' in footprint for the coop only, has a 14'x6' enclosed, attached chicken run, is elevated and has six nest boxes with a perch in the front and a rear-access door from the outside (for collecting eggs.)

what the finished coop will look like, just add paint.

the finished coop per plan, showing the nest boxes.

Onto the progress photos! Naturally the coop started out as a big pile of lumber, which was delivered to our chicken coop factory. Here is the coop on Sept 3rd

chicken coop, Sept 3rd

Two weeks later the coop was partially assembled and taking a bit of shape. September 12th.

chicken coop, Sept 12th

chicken coop, Sept 12th

the chicken coop factory owner, Jeff

A few days later I got another update, showing the assembly thus far. September 15th.

chicken coop, Sept 15th

chicken coop, Sept 15th

More updates and the final reveal to come next month. Watch this space.

For more about us, come to udonet.com. Click on "Pets" to visit our family's small hobby farm.

Prairie Corner Farm - Horse Stall Signs

The horses at Prairie Corner Farm all have their own, custom-made, stall signs. Not that they spend much time in stalls, but we couldn't let that stop us from making sure everyone had a stall sign.

For more about our horses and farm, visit our family web site. 

Clyde's stall sign is one of the cutest; made from a photo of Clyde

Dax's stall sign from when Elaine was using him for Pony Club, she was into the "punk plaid" back then.

Junior's stall sign; although I provided a photo and advised the painter that he was something of a  homely pony, this is the sign we got back.

Sugar's games pony stall sign. Very cute, by a local person.

Noble's "anime" stall sign, with dragon wing behind. By the same person who did Sugar's sign.

I love Lucy stall sign. Lady Luxury, LuLu, Lucy. Our most favorite pony of all time. Sadly no longer with us.

Lovag's stall sign. The children all seem to be completely unable to see the jump as a wide oxer.

Troika's stall sign. Super cool, by the same local person who did Sugar and Noble's stall signs.

Little garden by the pool, and the pool - end June 2013

The little garden by the pool is not very exciting but it has certainly improved our enjoyment of this area of the yard so far this summer vs. previous summers.

We find ourselves taking most of our meals out here and Laura enjoys doing blog posts and Facebook sitting on the patio closest to the wireless router in the evenings after dousing herself in Off! and pouring a nice glass of wine.

(click on the continue link to view the photos)

Prairie Corner Farm - the barn, the cats, the mutt

Last week I published our main page for Prairie Corner Farm from our family website to the blog (did you miss the link? here it is --> http://www.udonet.com/prowicz/ Click on "pets" and "prairie corner farm" to meet our horses.)

This week I was pawing through the photos I had already uploaded to Google from last July's "barn cleaning" during our epic Midwestern drought and thought it might be fun to publish them.

Water garden (pond) end June 2013

prowicz family water garden (pond) progress
end june 2013

our pond is really looking great. I am amazed how things have progressed since may with relatively little work or effort on our part.

enjoy the photos!

July 4th Celebration at Prairie Corner Farm, Clyde rules

This July 4th, Clyde got the nod when it was time for the teen girls to ride.

Catching

Grooming

Jasmine and Clyde

Jasmine and Nicole

Building our original pond, c. 2003 Des Plaines IL

(we are re-blogging this from our web site; article 

was written in 2003 but recently updated for 2013.)

In the spring of 2002, we had purchased our first home in Des Plaines, IL and quickly discovered some problems with the yard.

The first problem was that it was an overgrown mess that neither of us had any clue how to deal with.

The second problem was that we had a sump outlet that was very busy, due to our close proximity to the Des Plaines River (approximately 300 yards) and thus our property was in a flood plain and "low".

Because of storm water regulations with regard to the city sewers we were required to shut off the house's valve and piping system that had been set up in the 50's to send the sump water from our house into the city sewer. Once that was complete, we did what everyone else did, and just sumped the ground water from under our house out into the back yard.

Soon it became obvious that we had an indentation in the middle of our back yard, as water started to collect there. Michael had optimistically built a fire pit in that very spot and I think we used it once or twice, but meanwhile we had some landscapers come in to clear out the jungle in the yard (old overgrown shrubs, half dead trees, etc.) and he had directed the sump pipe into the fire pit in order to keep the yard dry while the clearing work was ongoing.

When the water started to pool in the fire pit we joked about it being a tiny pond and wasn't that a cute idea. The more we worked in the yard the more interested we got, finally deciding to type "backyard pond" into a search engine on the Internet and finding a whole new world we didn't even know existed.

Introducing Prairie Corner Farm and its horses

 (this post has been re-blogged from our family web site, which you

are welcome to view in context at prairie corner farm on udonet.com)

Our small acreage family horse property is affectionately known as "Prairie Corner Farm".

We have just about eight acres: six of it is pasture/paddocks for the horses and the rest of it is riding area and living area (pool, pond, garden, front yard, etc.)

We live across the street from a 270 acre forest preserve which has four miles of nice single track trail for horses. Our neighborhood is all 5-10 acre horse properties (or larger) for several miles in every direction.

We are very fortunate to have a friendly relationship with our closest commercial barn owner neighbor, who allows us to use their indoor and outdoor arenas. We are also members of our local saddle club, Fox Valley Saddle Association (Laura manages their web site and Facebook presence as well) which has a 60-acre facility with a much larger indoor arena, two outdoor arenas with footing and an outdoor cross country course, as well as an extensive set of stadium jumps for practicing and schooling.

We have barn cats (most of whom live in the house), two dogs (who definitely live in the house) and six horses (who definitely do not live in the house.)

our horse herd in June 2011

... on riding across country and having a lovely place to sit to reflect upon it afterwards ...

Michelle and I with our "D Rally" team 1978

When I was a child of about 14 years old, I was already a C1 in the local Pony Club in Bennington VT. By that time me and most of the other girls my age had been riding for about eight years and had spent oodles of time jumping all kinds of horses in all types of situations without stirrups, without reins, with eyes closed and whatever other combination of impossible factors that our instructors (Henry and Janet Schurink of Doornhof Farm in Shaftsbury VT) could dream up.


When we kids were about twelve most of us had started acquiring our own personal horses. Some of us shared horses 1/2, 1/2 with other people, some of us were fortunate to have our own horse full-time and I think even in our humble club we had a couple of members with multiple mounts for the various disciplines.

We evented, we went to hunt shows, Pony Club shows (now generally morphed into "English Open Horse Shows" like the one I organize at Fox Valley Saddle Association here near Elgin IL), Rallies, hunter paces and more.

Native plant gardening - how to purchase plants and start seeds

Today's post is re-blogged from our family web site.

We have updated the "Garden" section of our site and written a bit about prairie gardening, how to get a native garden started and the background and history why we decided in 2002 to use mainly native prairie plants for our family garden.

If you would prefer to read this post in context, come visit the Prowicz Family garden on our web site.

prowicz family garden

The Prowicz Family garden is made up of mostly perennials and almost 100% native plants, using seed cultured from our local area in Northern Illinois.

How we purchase and start our prairie plants

Some of the vendors we like, for prairie plants (both bare-root and potted) and seeds are listed below.

• Prairie Nursery
• Kane County Wild Ones
• Prairie Moon Nursery
• Citizens for Conservation
• Wasco Nursery in St. Charles (they sell native plants from Natural Garden Natives in St. Charles)

This is our first year gardening our current property (for various and sundry reasons); the garden in our previous home in Des Plaines was extensive.

Adoption of Junior, "feedlot" pony from Yakima WA Nov 2006

Goodbye Junior: May 9th, 2012

When one adopts a pony over the Internet, sight unseen, during the holidays, from 1,500+ miles away just after moving to her own horse property is it an "impulse" adoption or just divine destiny?

This is the question of the age when pondering how a small, 13.2hh POA came to live at Prairie Corner Farm in March of 2007, and have an awesome, fun-filled and well-cared for last five years of his life until finally succumbing to cancer on a beautiful, sun-filled spring morning in 2012.

Laura (me) had just found the Columbia Basin Equine Rescue in early 2006 and was often driven to tears at the stories of horses who had ended up in that rescue partner's feedlot, spent time getting fattened up until eventually, having not found a legitimate home, found themselves packed tightly into 18-wheeler shipping trucks bound for slaughter (and slaughtered) in Canada.

Blogging, we started doing it in 1996

Blogging. Such a great idea blogging is. After posting three blog entries in the past week I am struck by how easy it is to do these days! And that's a good thing.

Kane and me at Chicago Botanic Garden, August 2003

Believe it or not, back in the dark ages before Blogger, we used to have to create actual HTML (web programming for you neophytes) if we wanted to maintain a family web site and keep it updated with our current activities and goings-on. What a pain!

Back then, we called it a "web log" which of course became a "blog" as we refer to it today. I registered "udonet.com", our domain, using Michael's friend's "code word" name for fun. From there I set up our family web site sometime in the year 2000 when Michael and I moved with the girls to our first home in Des Plaines IL. Thereafter I lovingly updated it quite regularly late at night after the kids were in bed. 

The process was much more complicated then than it is now:

1. Locate the area of the web site to update. 
2. Create a new page from a saved page template, by loading the template, creating the new content in HTML and saving it locally. 
3. Uploading the new page to the server and checking it. 
4. Process repeat until the new page is done. 

The weedy berm, month #1 (May 2013)

Naturally, having a weedy berm is very embarrassing. Embarrassing enough that it has been sitting here behind my bedroom window being weedy for eight years with little to nothing done to beat it into submission. Sadly, I had given up enough in the past two years to simply insist on keeping the bedroom blinds firmly shut so that I didn't have to look at the thing.

What all of the preamble essentially means: I have no true "Before" photos of the weedy berm. The photos below cannot possible begin to capture the horror that was the weedy berm. What I have done, in order to give you the remotest possibility of picturing it, is to download a photo of someone else's weedy berm to post here, for your reference. Keep in mind that my berm, while much smaller in square area more likely than not had 200-300% the weed volume captured by the photo. Did I mention that it was weedy?

Someone else's weedy berm: for your reference

The biggest problem with having a weedy berm behind your bedroom window is knowing there is a pond up in there somewhere, with plants and fish in it that you took the time and trouble to transplant from your last home to this one and have totally neglected since.

The next biggest problem is that your husband has finally gotten so done with the entire situation that he has threatened to bulldoze it all if you don't do something with "your precious pond" really, really soon. Translation: "Now".