The trees are starting to turn yellow, but the river remains high. We've only had one good fishing month this summer, so our income for the summer is down by a couple thousand dollars. I suppose the fish are enjoying the vacation, and the absence of people on the river has probably encouraged the wildlife - the mink, the osprey, and so on. So on second thought the fish are getting eaten instead of being caught and released.



It has been an unusually mild fall, and we have not had a hard or even a soft frost yet. One chore that has to be done before it gets that cold is to drain the sprinkler system including the pump that draws water out of the Big Thompson River.

This was taken last year when the river was much lower.


We need to connect an air compressor to the sprinkler system and blow all the water out of the pipes and the pump so they don't freeze over the winter. There is about an acre of land under irrigation, so lots of pipes and sprinkler heads criss cross over the property.

Connecting to the air compressor requires several pieces that screw together to increase the diameter and then attach to the female end of a garden hose. For some reason this year there is a part missing that is needed to make the connection.

I emailed photos of the parts to Mr. Troutbend in Las Vegas in case he would recognize the solution to my problem.


This is everything that was left on the shelf after I removed the likely candidates in case he would identify the key piece.


But he was no help. This afternoon I spent a lot of time looking at every single connector and sprinkler in our extensive collection, thinking maybe the missing piece was accidentally left attached to something the last time we used it.

Finally, clear on the other side of the garage, behind the tractor I found a shelf with some more air compressor stuff on it, and there was a piece that came closer to what we needed, but still wasn't quite it. I was able to assemble something that at least blew enough air into the system to drain the pump, but it still left something to be desired, so I will keep working on it tomorrow.

I know exactly what I need (or I think I do): a female/female fitting like the brass one in the photo that is attached to the gray plastic thing (next to that little orange handle upper right). It happens to be frozen on there, and if I can get it off, my troubles are over, but first I'm going to go to the hardware store and see if I can get one. The plastic already has marks on it where someone has tried to get it off, so it's probably more than I can get done by myself.