Things Break, And You Must Replace Them
Living on an urban farm you learn three things real quick:
- If it can go wrong it will so have a backup plan
- The sun and the winter corrodes everything
- Things are not as important as ideas
I was out doing my morning chores and my Weather App was telling me it was 10C so it should be fine to use the nozzle on my trusty 1,000 L IBC (Intermediate Beverage Container) - I didn’t name these things - that also serves as my rain barrel in the livestock yard. I should have stopped when I felt resistance. But I kept pulling and SNAP! The Polypropylene handle for the nozzle just snapped clean off. Four years of steady reliability.[media-credit id=3 align="alignnone" width="300"]
I was of course disappointed but not annoyed. I have seen so much oxidation and entropy here at Mezzacello I was hardly surprised. Rule number 1 - I knew this was going to happen. So I keep a spare IBC cube. Rule number 2 - I take a moment to count my blessings and marvel at the power of entropy. Staying grateful for what you have is important. Rule number 3 - I am wise enough to remember that an IBC with 270 L of water in the bottom is going to weigh 270Kg (595 lbs) so I pull out my handy dandy backup water pump. See Rule number 1 - always have a plan. Also it was a lot of work to convert 270 L to it’s constituent pound weight. Whereas 270 L AUTOMATICALLY weighs 270 Kg. Why don’t we use metric in America?