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OK, here goes
Posted on August 2, 2017 8:00 AM by Gerry Trout
I've never written a blog before, but it IS 2017, and it's time to move forward into the world of technology.
 
Not much to do in the garden in August, so I'll ramble a bit.  That's what you do in a blog, right?
 
My earliest experience in horticulture was a part time job in Mr. McGee's greenhouses.  I learned a lot about planting, watering, and weeding.  But mostly I dead headed geraniums.  I love them!  To this day, 47 years later, the smell of geraniums takes me back to that little place on Tidewater Drive in Norfolk, Virginia.
 
Mr. McGee was a bit crusty, dirt everywhere of course, but he taught me many valuable things.
 
He said, In the world of Horticulture, if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward, because there's no such thing as standing still.
 
I guess that applies to many areas of life.  So here I go:  moving forward!!
Coliforms in your well water? The UV solution!
Posted on July 23, 2017 7:53 AM by Mark Conde
Categories: Home Technology
Well water naturally has bacteria and other microscopic organisms in it. We monitor it to make sure there are acceptable levels and occasionally the levels can rise and fall due to a number of conditions.  Variance in contamination from septics, run off from farms, and well efficiency changes can introduce these bacteria in the water from time to time. Our well services vendors will do things to make sure the wells are working correctly and shocking the water occasionally when numbers are up solves the problem as well.
 
How can you significantly reduce the bacteria in your water to get through these “bloom” periods?  We have installed an in-line Ultra Violet (UV) filter and use finer micron filter cartridges in our house to  kill anything that does get to our water supply. Combining this with finer micron water filters you can reduce most if not all live bacteria from entering your plumbing.
 
We first asked the question was bacteria getting through the system and showing up in the plumbing in our house? We found this test kit that I have used to test for all contaminants from Amazon. We have used it in two homes we have lived in here at Murphy and it seems to work well and its quick with no need to send water anywhere.

Watersafe WS425W Well Water Test Kit .......
 
 
In another neighborhood we had a home here in murphy, that had wells that went in around the early 80s. The water test did show some bacteria coming through. So we put in a UV filter and it eliminated the problem and gave us peace of mind that when a bloom did occur we remained protected. I did not write this article to sell UV filters nor do I have stock in the company :) but we have found that is worked for us and wanted to share our experience. We did not have bacteria in our water here in Five Forks but added  an UV filter inline anyway.
 
Here is what our systems looks like here in Five Forks. We had it installed by Christian Plumbing
You may not see how the lines run but it in installed after the filter. Which make sure that no turbid water goes through the UV filter reducing it impact to the bacteria.  Notice the numbers on the control box it is connected to. That tells me how many more days of UV bulb life I have left.
 
The UV bulb does need to be replaced after running for a years number of hours because it drops in efficiency over time. I find replacements on Amazon for my model and can do it myself.
 
This is an addition you can do yourself with a little plumbing skill but, in my case, I appreciated the help from a local plumber. The two critical things for me were that the plumbing was run correctly and the right size filter was chosen to allow for the proper flow of water. Costs to purchase and install one of these runs around $600. The cost for a replacement bulb ranges from $30-$80 depending on the unit you install.
 
We can talk more about bacteria in another blog but there is a great deal of information out on the web on this and well water.
Places you can contribute to the web site….
Posted on July 21, 2017 8:15 AM by Mark Conde
The web site is designed to provide as much useful information that we can provide flowing through the web master and from the board. The other, and even more significant, value of the web site is to connect all of you! That means opening up “channels” to share great things between us, providing a neighborhood private way to talk about our business together, and find each other for fun or to just discover how wonderful our neighbors really are.
 
Here is a list of the many areas you can add to the web site and contribute. Never be afraid to put things in there. Nothing will break and you have control to remove or edit your additions if you wish. I tend to have to do that at times because my typing is so bad that many things end up misspelled :).
 
Find your friends….
The Resident Directory is the place to find each other, but it is so much more..
In the Resident Directory you have complete control over your personal profile. We encourage you to add things about yourself so others can find you based on what you like to do, interests, where you live and others parameters. Again, this is only seen by neighbors in Five Forks. No one on the outside can access this information. One of the really cool features is your ability to create your own set of photo albums! 
 
To find each other there is a search function built in at the top of the directory. Consider you might want to go find all of those folks who like to get together to jam. Many of those folks may have selected being part of the “Music” group. You can search for all of them! Maybe you want to know who has interests in wood working. You can search the “Interests” field to find “wood” for example. Also note that at the top right of the residents directory page you can print out a copy of the entire directory so you can read it later offline! Since you folks keep this updated its as new as it possibly can be. There will be another posing later to go further on how to use this “Search” feature.
 
The Calendar….
The calendar wil have all the board meetings, annual meetings, and picnics in it and anything else the board wants to make sure you know about. You can add events to this as well. If we forget to remind everyone when the Folks School” annual event is coming up put an entry in.
 
Homes for sale….
This is a nice feature to add promotion to the properties we are selling that is tied to all the great things external folks can see on our web site. If you are selling a lot or a house put an entry in here. This can be seen by outsiders.
 
Classifieds….
Only neighbors can see these classifieds. You want to sell that great chain saw you just dont use anymore? I bet you can find a neighbor who can put it to good use. Let everyone know what you have for sale or might even want to donate something to a good cause. For now we have this internal only. The board was not sure we wanted this to be a way to encourage external folks to come into the neighborhood but do give feedback on how you want to use this service.
 
Vendors and Services area...
Only neighbors can see this and contribute to this. We all need to find that great handyman at times and its often hard to know which one to trust. This will allow you to let al the rest of us know of a compnay or someone you have gotten services from and really liked them. It works in two parts. The section you enter the name and information about the peson and the company which you do once. Then ther is an area where anyone who have used them can comment on their experience and even give them a rating! This is an internal only list so we can be honest but respectful on our reviews :)
 
The Message Board…
Now this is a fun place to hang out. This is an neighbors only area so we can “talk” to each other. There are categories in place for various topics but you can open up a discussion in any one of them and then others can comment. You can share attachments like a document you found to share as well. Of course we have some basic rules of respect that we dont flame or offer feedback that is not constructive in nature :)  Thisis also a great place to “alert” everyone with a message. If you saw a questionable animal out acting odd in the daylight for example, I would want to know about it. You can “subscribe” to the message board so it will automatically email you if a new posting is made too.    This has changed.  It didn't work as well as we thought.  Hoping to have it working again in the future.
 
Reviews…
I am always wondering if I should go to that new movie thats out down in Blairsville or at the Hen. This is where we can tell each other what we liked so I dont waste my money on that 3000th remake of a Christmas story :)
 
Recipies...
Ok who does not want to brag about their culinary skill and share Grandmothers secret ingredients???
 
Blog..
You can be an author for the Blog. Just request access from the webmaster (Sam). But you can comment and add information to articles in the Blog. This is an area for us to tell stories and teach each other. Do become a contributor.    Sam has moved, and the new webmaster is Lee Rogers.
 
Voting online and Surveys..
From time to time we will be able to take surveys on topics concerning the neighborhood. The broad plans on using this to do online voting for thise who can take advantage of this. Some times we may be surveying everyone to see what the prevailing though is on a proposed business action.
 
And really anywhere you can strike up a conversation with the web master if you want to contribute to a section.
 
Jump in and play with all of this.. 
How do I make an App out of our Five Forks NC web site?
Posted on July 19, 2017 9:26 AM by Mark Conde
Categories: Computers
This is actually very easy. Here are the various ways to do it depending upon what computer operating system, tablet, or smart phone you are using.
 
Windows (PC) 
Move your cursor over to the Windows desktop and right click the screen to see a popup window. Find the “New” link and the “Short cut” submenu.
 
Click the “Short cut” entry and then enter the name of the web site.
 
Now click “Next” and It will ask for the name of the short cut. Enter FiveForksNC and hit “Finish”.
There you go! You now have an icon that goes directly to the site!
 
OSX (Apple)
There are a number of ways to “save” a web address to an icon on your Apple PC but the quickest way is to simply go to the www.fiveforksnc.com web site in one of your browsers, like Safari, and click the web address bar until you see a little icon next to the web address on the left. Then click, holding down the mouse key, just to the left of the web address on that little icon and drag it over to your desktop. There you have it! An icon that will go directly to the web site!
 
Apple iPad Tablet and iPhone
This also easy to do but you do need to look for a special function to create the app icon for you. Go to the www.fiveforksnc.com web site in the Safari browser on your iPad or iPhone.
 
Then look for the icon at the top that looks like a square with an arrow through it. In the popup box click on the “Add to Home Screen”
 
Then accept the default name of the new App Icon or change it to what you want. I would make it FiveForksNC and then click “Add”.
There you go! Now you have an app on your screen that goes right to the web site. In the example it’s a web site for nasty snakes in NC :)
 
 
Android tablets and phones
The Android based phones have a similar feature in their browsers to save an icon to the desktop.
Go here to see a video how to do it..
 
What does the Fox say?
Posted on July 16, 2017 9:52 PM by Mark Conde
Have you head the foxes calling to each other? T
his will help you know what they are saying. 
 
So what peak am I looking at???
Posted on July 16, 2017 9:50 PM by Mark Conde
Ever wonder what peaks you are looking at?
Use the app Peakfinder Pro Earth!
or go to the website and use the Peakfinder web page.

Here is what my view sees.
Giant computing facility going in around Murphy
Posted on July 16, 2017 9:46 PM by Mark Conde
Categories: Computers
Interesting technology development. It appears that the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians plans on building a data center in Murphy next to the casino. Now will this bring jobs to Murphy? Yes, but there will be a question about how many with modern data center design these days being very "lights out". However, what is more interesting, is who they have hired to design this, RTECH Group and Todd Richards. This company specializes in network and telco systems. Certainly the data center is an advantage of the casino business but it could also bring major network trunks into the Murphy area and we might finally get access to significant internet systems! We will see :)
Reference article:  https://theonefeather.com/2016/10/tribe-to-secure-financing-for-100-million-data-center/
Water Table Information
Posted on July 16, 2017 9:44 PM by Mark Conde
OK, so the scientist in me needed to see where we are with this water issue. I fully support conservation at this time and I do want us to realize we are going to hit historical lows if this drought goes to Feb as predicted. Here is useful data and some rough math to see where we are. Guessing that we are being served by the Regolith aquifer (which is measured in Marble and in Morganton and we are in the middle) I used the charts from the USGS site to see that the ground water level is around 1696 ft/above sea level in Marble right now. (Marble well is at 1710ft and their water level is currently at 13.97 ft below that to thats how I guessed the level at 1696)
 
In FF the well servicing me is at 2264 ft and the highest point in FF is approx at 2530 ft so a little math foolin would suggest we run out of water access for wells drilled at 600 ft at 1664ft and those at 800 around 1464ft for the well I am using. The top level wells would be at 1916ft/600ft and 1730/800ft and 1530/1000ft. 
 
The numbers dont have to be accurate since we are really looking at how fast things change to see when we will have the most severe issues. The charts indicate we are dropping around 1.5-2ft per month right now. So what does that mean? If we continue the drought till feb we could see 8ft or more (it can accelerate) drop from the aquifer. So if its at 1696 now then the danger level would be around 1688ft. Does that mean we are OK? Probably right on the edge because there are so many other factors involved.
 
Now, all of this was an academic exercise for me because I am assuming our wells are all 800-1000 ft down but I wanted to know how close we were and since we are now nearing the lowest value since 2007 its worth paying attention to.
 
So go have some math fun yourself at the USGS web sites.
Education on Well water seminars
Posted on July 16, 2017 9:42 PM by Mark Conde
Categories: General
Have you ever wanted to learn more about wells, how safe they are, and how to take care of them? Here are a couple free online seminars to sign up for an learn more on the topic.
http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/
and here for other docs on well water.
http://privatewellclass.org/resources
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