While the power was out, my husband was able to get a weak data signal from the living room on his tablet, so he was able to report our outage to the electric company and check the status of things. The power went out at about 8:30am, and we were expected to get it back around 11:30am.
With no electricity for that length of time, we considered firing up the BBQ or getting the fire pit going to make breakfast. After checking the budget, however, we decided to be lazy. We had a couple of water jugs that needed refilling (we have 4 of these 18.9L jugs, and try to make sure they get refilled when 2 are empty and dry), which meant a trip into town. If they had power, of course. We decided we could afford to get some take out, rather than opening the fridge with no power and losing the cold.
One of my daughters came along with me, with their own shopping list. I knew we had lost power during the night, which must have been a problem for my older daughter! She would have been working on commissions on her computer. The power only flickered, however. Enough to have the garage cam reset itself and be resting in its default position – which is how I knew the power had gone out during the night – but not enough to shut down her computer. My husband didn’t mention having problems with his CPAP, either, so that was good.
As we were leaving and stopped on the driveway while my daughter closed the gate behind us, one of our neighbours was driving by and stopped to talk. He told us the power outage was quite extensive, ranging from the town my mother lives in, to the next large town to the north of us. He had heard the power was expected to return by 11am, though, which was a bit sooner than what my husband had found.
While driving to town, my daughter and I considered our options, should they be without power, too. Happily, they were completely unaffected. Which makes sense. The transformer system runs north and south along the main highways, not east and west, so what affected us would be a different branch of the system than any towns to the east of us.
We hit the grocery store first and I did our refills while my daughter did her shopping. Since we were there, I picked up a couple other things, too – like more paper towels! Leyendecker may not be eating, but clearly he’s drinking, and still doesn’t seem to have much bladder control. We’re going through a lot of paper towels cleaning up, then sanitizing, after him. Yes, we should be using rags, but somehow, they’ve all disappeared! We didn’t have a lot, anyhow.
We then decided to go to a Greek place for take out. My husband and I went there once, shortly after we moved here and he was still more mobile. They have gyros, which none of us have had in years. Personally, I’d love to have a good Donair, but the best place we’ve ever had them was in Victoria, BC, before we had children, and I don’t even know if the place exists anymore. Still, the gyros here are quite good.
Since we had stuff for the refrigerator in the car, my daughter stayed in it with the engine running and the AC going, as it was so hot and muggy already. While waiting for the gyros to be made, I realized they also had deep fried pickles – something else we haven’t had in years! So I got an order of those, too. 😊
While I was there, my daughter got a message from my husband that the power was back. It was out for only 2 hours! That’s the longest we’ve been without power since moving out here, but I’m not complaining at all. That was a very fast return.
So we had a treat for the day. Except my older daughter, who’s in bed for the day. It’ll be “breakfast” for her, when she gets up for the night.
One the way home, I remembered to stop to get the mail, and picked up these.
The couplings are in! We can finally try and fix that water pipe to the garden tap. I really hope this works, because I’d hate to have to dig up the entire line.
It’s going to be a challenge just to dig around where the crack is, there are so many roots around the pipe. From what I can tell, the roots are small enough I should be able to cut through them with a spade or loppers.
My other thought is, what to use to cut the pipe itself. All our cutting tools are designed to cut wood, not PVC pipe. I’m sure I’ve got something I can use, though. The main thing is digging enough space around it to have room for a cutting tool to work without biting into the soil. We do have a pipe cutter, but it’s for cutting much smaller copper pipe, not something like this.
Yesterday, my daughter juiced the cherries we picked, and the pulp has been hanging to drain in the cat free zone overnight. We’ve got a total of 5 cups of juice. A basic jelly recipe is for 3 1/2 cups. The remaining juice isn’t worth doing a second batch, so I’ll make a syrup with that. We plan to actually water bath can the jelly, so it will be shelf stable. With cooking the jelly, preparing the jars, then using the water bath canner, plus making the syrup, we’re looking at a lot of time over a hot stove, on a hot and muggy day. My daughter and I decided to wait until things start to cool down.
All the more reason to have an outdoor kitchen!
Hot and muggy though it may be, I think I’ll go out and see if I can fix the water pipe! I’m really eager to see if it’ll work. I’m already thinking ahead to fixing the support post the tap it attached to, which is rotting at its base, and bringing over the double laundry sink we found in the shed, to set up a vegetable washing station.
I never thought I’d ever get so excited about fixing a pipe. 😄
I will, however, have to pry Question off my shoulder. She’s been napping on me since I sat down at the computer!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 