Our House -- May 2000

The following pictures show some of the work we've been doing around our house this winter and spring. All photos were taken in late May 2000. If you'd like to see some more photos, this page has some photos from January 2000, this page has some photos from December 1999, and this page has some older shots from May 1999 before we moved in. All photographs on this page are Copyright © 2000, Chris Swingley, except those with me in them, taken by Jamie Barger.

Each of the photographs are between 15 - 35 K, so the page will load slowly over a modem link.

Index of pages About Me:

New Dog Yard (fall 2007)	Moving (fall 2008)
Dog Yard Tree (summer 2005)	Living Room (winter 2004)	New Water Tank (summer 2004)	Siding (Aug 2001)
Windows (Apr 2001)	Water tank (May 2000)	January 2000	December 1999
May 1999	Darwin	Alexi	Ivan
Moose 2002

Our new truck! Earlier in May the transmission on my 1977 Volare finally quit, so we decided to buy a new truck. We wound up with a 2000 Dodge Dakota Extended Cab with a V8 engine and the SLT accessory package.

The truck has a lot of amenities, and the cab is detailed more like a car compartment than you might expect. Full shoulder belts and a narrow seat are behind the driver and passenger seats in the extended cab.

The back Because of the extended cab, it's a short bed (six and a half feet), but the extended cab is well worth it. The truck is build to carry more than half a ton in the bed, and can tow several tons.

Access to the tank This spring we had more water from melting snow and rainfall than in past years and water and silt leaked into our inground water tank. This photo, and most of those that follow show me cleaning out the tank.

Getting lower Our water tank has an access hatch 17 inches in diameter that is accessible through the 22 inch by 22 inch tunnel shown in the picture above. The top of the tank is about six and a half down from the ground.

The first thing I did was rent a pump and pump all of the water out of the tank. About 6 inches of water remained in the very bottom of the tank when I was done. After the water was removed, I went down into the tank, and cleaned it with a bucket, mop and a dilute bleach solution.

Entering the tank Now I'm descending into the tank using a half ladder I made. The tank itself is cylindrical, 54 inches in diameter and nine feet from end to end.

Now I'm completely inside the tank looking at the end where our water pump draws water. The pipe running down the back leads to the pump. You can see how brown the water is from the silt that went into the tank during breakup. The back of the tank is a little rusted, but shows no signs of leaking.

Looking out from the tank That's Jamie at the top of the tunnel leading to the tank, where I'm standing in the photograph. Not a job for someone who gets nervous in tight spaces!