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Is Your Water Bill Higher than Normal?

This is a guest post.

If your water bills are costing more than usual, you need to read this.

A bill that is much higher than what you have been paying then the first indication is that you might be having some leaking pipes. The sound of running sound is audible even when you turn off all the fixtures but you are still to able to find it, this is when you actually need to call a professional and get it fixed right away. Besides your water bill, the leaking water might damage your house flooring and the furniture. It is important that you check the faucets after use and make sure that they are properly closed. Then check the water meter, if it is still moving then surely there is a leakage which needs to be repaired.

Plumbing in CA under-the-sink
Photo compliments of Peter Griffin. Used with permission.

• Finding the exact point

Try the following tips to locate the exact leaking spot. If the sound helps then you can easily locate the source. Else you will have to find an amplifier devices that will give you the exact location when help close to the pipeline. Check for the satins in the ceiling, and then it might be the water tank that is leaking.

• Get professional help to locate the problem

At times, water travels along a line and gets accumulated on the roof top so the exact location might be somewhere else than the staining. If there are no stains and signs but the water meter seems to be moving, then locating the hidden leakage can be little trouble. Make use of a flashlight to get the pipeline in the basement or in case you have a crawl space.

• Fixing the problem

If the leaking is too an extent then you needs to turn off the water supply first in order to fix it. Make use of the main shut off valve to deal with it. The leaky section might need to be replaced or can be stopped with the help of a sealant. However, if you are not able to reach the pipe that needs to be repaired, calling a plumber has to be the ideal choice.

• Clamps can help

Make use of a clamp that will stop the leakage for few months if you don’t wish to replace the pipe immediately. A solid rubber blanket keeps the clamp in position and will hold it for several months to come. Get to the nearest store to buy a rubber sheet and some clamps exactly the size of the pipe that needs to be repaired.

• Measure the diameter of the sleeve clamp

Sleeve clamp of the pipe’s diameter will work the best. Protect the leakage by wrapping the rubber blanket and then carefully screw the clamp. A pinhole leaking can be fixed with a hose adjustable clamp. You are not able to find anything else, and then you can always go for a C-clamp.

• Apply epoxy putty

To make it even more secure, you can apply epoxy putty around the fixture where you are not able to apply the clamp. Make sure that the pipe is thoroughly cleaned and dry before the application. No matter, what you are doing, turn of the water supply and let the solution to stay for a while and get solid. All the above measures can be taken care as a DIY program but in case of any trouble, if you’re currently
residing at Simi Valley, CA. Find plumber in Simi Valley who spent years in plumbing industry.


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New Swiffer Sweep and Trap #NewFromSwiffer

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Swiffer.

Swiffer Sweep and Trap

Our family of ten creates a lot of dirt. I mean a lot of dirt. It is extremely hard to keep the house clean. Add living on a farm, forget it! We’ve tried many different cleaning products, but ever since we had laminate flooring at our townhouse we’ve used and gone through a lot of Swiffers over the years. When you let children help clean…ah…things happen…lots of things…especially breakage. Now, here at the house we are renting we have a combination of laminate, ceramic tile (cold in winter!) hardwood floors in the bathrooms, kitchen, front entry way and our main farm entrance at the side of the house, which is the reason I was interested in trying the new Swiffer Sweep and Trap.

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_1

I like the new Swiffer Sweep and Trap for light traffic areas and quick mop ups. It is perfect for the bathrooms and our front entry way. It does not get the corners very well without some maneuvering.

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_2

Even though we were using the dry Swiffer sheets for cleaning, my sheet was damp when I took our photos as I had just rinsed it out to reuse for the purpose of this review. As you can see the sheet was picking up dirt…

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_3

And the trap was picking up dirt…the sheets are very easy to put on the Swiffer via the two little hole at the top and two on the bottom of the trap flap. The sheets can be reused too if you wash them but do not put them in the dryer, just hang them to dry and they last longer.

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_4

The trap easily comes off to discard the dirt…

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_5

By the squeeze of the two grey buttons.

FFR Swiffer Sweep and Trap_6

The Swiffer Sweep and Trap is light weight and easy to use and just hit the shelves at Walmart today!

For more information about the New Swiffer Sweep and Trap visit:

Website: http://www.swiffer.com/products/swiffer-sweep-trap
Program Hashtag: #NewFromSwiffer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swiffer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Swiffer

Do you have a favorite Swiffer product? If so, what do you like about it?


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Week #10 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I took some time off over Christmas so I broke my straight run of posts for the Saturday Top Laughs but I enjoyed the time off! And now it’s time to laugh with the Goulds again! Once more we have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #10 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

6. My husband was messing with the garbage cans at the end of the driveway on garbage day, when our three year old saw him from our front window he started calling, “Daddy!” Then it changed to, “Robert!” which came out more like “obert”. I proceeded to ask him what my name was and he goes, “eesa”. It was cute and now he hasn’t called us by our names since. Recently I taught him our real names but it was like one time so I was surprised that he remembered our real names, then again he does hear us calling each other by our real names.

5. Robert celebrated his birthday recently and the girls made him two birthday desserts but only one was ready to eat in time. He said the next morning he had a bad dream (I call it a birthday nightmare) that mice came and ate his chocolate chip cheesecake during the night. He woke up with relief to find out the cheesecakes were just fine. ;)

4. Kittens climbing across Miss Moo’s back.

3. Kittens sitting under Miss Moo’s udder to catch the drips of milk in the morning.

2. Padfoot, our goofy Newfie, jumping to catch snowflakes!

FFR Robert's Vader Tweedie Squares

1. Our children started calling my husband “Vader” after watching Star Wars over the Christmas break. Our 14 year old daughter, B, discovered “Vader” is the alternate spelling of the Dutch word “Vater” meaning father. Darth Vader means “dark father”. B and O even decorated their dad’s birthday dessert accordingly. B’s been calling me “Mater”, latin for mother.

That’s as good as it gets this week. How about you, what laughs have you started 2014 with? Or what nicknames do your children come up with for you and your husband?


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2014 is Here! Happy New Year!

FFR HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another year has come and gone….and I am not sure how I feel about it. I cannot say I am excited about the new year. Excited for spring and summer. Guess I am quietly contemplating what is going to happen when my husband’s unemployment runs out in 2-3 months. It kind of puts a damper on the new year cheer to say the least.

Looking back on 2013, I can honestly say it wasn’t all bad. The good list certainly outweighs the bad.

The Good:
Finally sold our townhouse.
Increased my income….somewhat.
New work at home job as hostess on Moms.com
Saw growth and potential in our wee organic farm venture.
Added a cow to our farm family.
Healthy family.
Not one but TWO visits from my mom.
Birth of my first niece on my side of the family.
Signed a two year lease with our landlords. Hard to believe one year is gone already. Only a year left.

The Bad:
Sixth miscarriage in June 2013.
Husband’s second job loss in five years.
Loss of poultry.
Bad break with a client.

Looking forward to 2014, I really only have one goal in mind and several others stirring. I don’t like to make new year’s resolutions because past experience tells me I won’t succeed. I prefer setting short-term and long-term goals.

What about you did you make any new year’s resolutions?


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The Way My Three Year Old Decorates a Christmas Tree – Wordless Wednesday

In Saturday’s post, I mentioned the way my three year old decorates a Christmas tree, well here are the photos to show just how he does it!

FFR Jr.'s idea of decorating the Christmas Tree

FFR The way a three year old decorates a Christmas Tree

Don’t be too shocked at the almost wordless Wednesday post! I am cheating to watch a TV show with hubby and because I am going out to lunch with fellow farmer friends today. ;)


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Week #8 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I was not good at writing down the funnies this week. But regardless, join us as we participate in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs – Week #8 for us – I think we are on a roll with eight weeks in a row!

5. My husband was filling waterers and carrying our dog’s 5 gallon water pail to him and our horse, Blaze, comes right up behind him to steal a drink. My husband was completely unaware until Blaze drank. Blaze didn’t have a care about the dog barking at him or the fact it was not his waterer. He simply knew it was closer than the pasture and barn water! It was funny to watch. Too bad we couldn’t get a photo.

4. Listening to my children’s laughter as they watched the movie “The Croods” was hilarious.

3. Listening to my children’s laughter as they watched the movie “Denise the Menace”….I actually fell asleep. Nothing like laughter to lull a tired mama to sleep, eh?

2. I smile every time I look at the side of the tree our three year old decorated because many of the ornaments are just laid on the branches or are in clusters. ;)

FFR 2013 Christmas Tree buying

1. We got our Christmas tree last Sunday and it brought back memories of getting last year’s tree, which was so huge it would not fit in the van. We had to shove it in and the children had to sit ducking underneath it’s branches! Getting our tree this year was pretty uneventful.


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Babydoll Sheep

FFR Babydoll sheep

Our farm is going to grow yet again! I’m kind of nervous thinking about it but excited at the same time. When we bought the wool dryer balls from the sheep farmer we also put down a deposit on a breeding pair of sheep for our oldest son! We will get these lambs in the spring so there’s lots of time. It’s just fencing, shelter etc. We do not want to put much money into permanent infrastructure like stalls in the barn because we cannot take it with us. We will probably do temporary housing outside. I know the sheep farm uses calf huts, but I think those can be pricey so we’ll do something like our little hoop house over our raised bed.

The sheep in the photo above are from the sheep farm but owned by our neighbor. When I went there with my friend to look at their Dutch Belted cow, I snapped a photo of the Babydoll sheep. Our neighbor knows the sheep farmers, which is what prompted me to get in touch with them, remembering I had their business card from the Green Expo. I had inquired earlier in the year but never got around to calling them back because we were not at a place of being ready for more animals with all our delays in fencing and waiting for pasture to grow. But our son has been asking so we took the leap of faith and put a deposit down knowing we have to plan ahead for things like this, especially if we want unrelated lambs to breed. Thankfully, we do not have to worry about shearing wool until spring of 2015 and the ewe won’t be bred until she is a year or two old.

Our son’s sheep will be registered Babydoll sheep. He has his names picked out already – Atlas for the ram and Juno for the ewe. It’s always interesting to see what names they come up with. I questioned him gently making sure those were names he wanted before I sent them to the breeder. I just wanted him to be sure. I also asked him if he was going to be able to sell his lambs. He said yes, but we’ll see.

Babydoll sheep are a recovering sheep breed on the Livestock Conservancy priority list. We chose them because they are smaller, plus they are cute!


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Week #6 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

Ha! Getting into the habit of keeping track of our family’s funnies! These are not all necessarily from this past week though. Can’t believe I made it to six weeks of participating in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs! I think I’ve made it a habit or at least I hope so!

5. My husband was doing laundry and came out of the laundry room holding a skirt saying, “Really, we are keeping this?” It was “B’s” black skirt. It has a rip down the side. See the photo below. B said, “Yes, I need it” laughing. Then he proceeded to go on a tirade about how I throw out his holey clothes (I don’t throw them all out), but he’s right that I have literally ripped one of his old, holey t-shirts off of him in order to prove my point that it needed to be thrown out. Let’s just say B and I were more humored about the skirt than he was! He thinks it’s ridiculous that B wants to keep the ripped skirt.

4. I forgot this one on one of the other Saturday Top Five Laughs post. Padfoot, our dog, was barking so my husband went to the window of our room to see what he was going on about. Turns out Padfoot was barking at a caterpillar! The caterpillar was just out of his reach and he wanted to get it. Silly dog.

FFR Jr. raising eyebrows

3. My husband has this particular way of raising and wiggling his eyebrows when he’s being goofy. Our youngest has started doing it. It’s very cute, though because his eyebrows are not as dark as his daddy’s it doesn’t have quite the same affect.

FFR How to take over the world -B's note on door

2. Our daughter “B” posted the above notice on a couple of our bedroom doors.

FFR Bear in the house

1. Bear in the house! We have a couple of those adorable animal hats with the mittens attached and my little guy kept coming up to us with it completely over his eyes growling at us. ;)


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Silly Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

FFR Kittens climbing wall_

In light of Saturday’s Top Five Laughs post, thought I’d share this photo of Freckles at the beginning of her climb and Selene as she looks on because I think they look adorable!

Today the kittens were out in the snow for the first time and they batted at it! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it.

The kittens climbing all over the garage and my husband says they think it’s their own jungle gym and I tend to agree.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday is almost….wordless!


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Waiting Again….Miss Moo

Last Monday we had Miss Moo AI’d (artificially inseminated) again. We are hoping it sticks this time. Our vet told us if we see any signs of heat to call him to come back not rather than wait the 60 days, so we’ll do that. “B” is usually pretty good at telling when Miss Moo is in heat, thankfully.

FFR Miss Moo 10-18-2013

For example, last weekend we had those huge storms with about 70 tornadoes being reported across Illinois. On Sunday, Robert had taken the four older ones to the Chicago Field Museum for the day. That left me with four children 10 an under. Robert had left our son in charge of chickens but we also had to get Blaze in because he does not like to be out in the elements. Remember he’s old. However, when I called Robert to get him to ask about “B” about Miss Moo, “B” told me she’d be fine. And she was. She just stood there chewing her cud in the wind and rain, not bothered at all. However, she did run around a bit kicking up her heals. Something she does when she’s in heat. There were other signs “B” said Miss Moo was exhibiting before they all left for the day too.

So we are anxiously waiting again to see if Miss Moo will be with calf. That means a 2014 late summer or early fall calf. As long as she calves before winter, I’ll be happy.

As a side note, our horse and cow have bonded. It’s been so sweet to watch Blaze follow Miss Moo in the pasture or hear the children tell me one or the other won’t go out or come in without the other one.


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