I remembered to get the mail before the post office closed at noon (but only on Wednesdays). A dear friend sent me a package that arrived today.
Sweetheart that she is, she included treats for the cats.
I loooooove my piece of wood!
Mama loves her honeysuckle wood! Lol Continue reading
After our failure to get Internet, we decided to head into the next town for some WiFi. Which, for the time of day, meant going to a chicken place for dinner for an hour or so.
Which also just happens to be next to a Pokestop. So after we got all our updates, emails and various other internet stuff done, I threw on a lure and my younger daughter and I had our games up while we ate.
We finally lured my husband over to the Instinct side. He ended up downloading the game and has started playing. Enough that he could choose a team and he could throw into a couple of gyms.
So that was fun.
Back at home, this is all we get.
Emptiness. Nothing but emptiness. *sniff*
I should probably charge my phone now.
The Re-farmer
So the guy came out and did a site survey.
He couldn’t get a signal.
That spruce grove that protects our home from severe winds and snow build up, also prevents us from getting any signal at all. We would need to get at least a 60 ft tower.
Since all our money is going to pay for the movers, we don’t have the $1000 or so that it would cost.
My husband is on the phone now with a satellite based company. It will be more limited, but my daughter will be able to work again. That’s the most important thing right now.
Oh, and that breaker is still giving us issues. So we have sporadic hot water.
Of all the problems we expected to have, trees blocking internet options and lack of hot water were not among them.
The Re-farmer
Today’s big job; we were able to clear half the living room and start shampooing the green shag carpet.
When I was a teen, after several hot hours throwing bales, I would come into the cool of the house and lie on the rug. It was like lying on grass. Except not in the sun and no bugs.
Only the sun part applies now.
While taking down the mirrors, we had to vacuum the back of one to remove a spider and years of webs. Then we had to vacuum the webs and dust off the walls.
Then most of the nails were removed.
The new tool kit is already much appreciated.
Once things are dry, we will move most of the furniture and tv to the other half and finish shampooing the carpet tomorrow.
Which is when the company is coming in to set up our internet. Let’s see if our second attempt at getting internet will work.
Then we won’t have to worry about finding that sweet spot with enough cell phone signal to post things.
On the window sill.
With the phone upright.
Not being touched by human hands.
The Re-farmer
Traditionally, today is our first day of the Christmas season. We would start decorating the house and put up the tree.
All of which are in storage right now.
Theoretically, we could harvest a live tree from around the property, but there are enough fire hazards here, already. Continue reading
My brother has once again saved the day for us.
It’s been a day full of activity. The younger of my brothers, who lives by us, came by this morning and took his freezer out of the Old Kitchen (the original kitchen; where the old wood cook stove still sits) to his place. This means, once we clear and clean things out a bit, we can move the freezer we are using out of the corner it’s in, and into the spot his was in. Then we can actually access the thing.
Shortly after, the girls and I hit The City to pick up some things. Along with more supplies for cleaning up the upstairs, they’ve picked up paint chips. This is the one area that will get painted, and soon.
At the same time, they caught a whole bunch of Farfetched in Pokemon Go. Yay!
We pretty much just got home when u got a call from my sister. Her husband was coming out to help my younget brother, so she wanted to know if it was a good time to drop by with some boxes I asked for, and she could visit. So that was our afternoon. She was generous enough to bring over some frozen venison for us, too. Mmm.
Meanwhile, the girls got a truckload of packed stuff into the shed and managed to drag a giant frankenshelf down the stairs and into the Old Kitchen. Sure glad the freezer is gone! Then they got more stuff cleaned and packed from upstairs. There are a few more odd, heavy things that need to come down. I am so happy I have such strong, burly daughter’s. Lol
Then, my brother the meister fixer came by, even though he had to go to work early in the morning. He was perplexed by our lack of hot water again. All he could think of was that the thermostat needed to be replaced. Clearly, the tank could heat the water, but just wasn’t managing it all the time. It made no sense. He was going to get some replacements and they came over in the evening.
So while the rest of us visited over a pot of tea (even my husband was able to visit for a bit before he had to lie down), my brother got to work.
In the end, it turned out there was nothing wrong with out hot water tank at all.
It was the breaker.
For some reason, it was working only intermittently. So while it was in the on position, there wasn’t necessarily any power getting through. There was enough getting through to heat the tank overnight, but once it was being used, there wasn’t enough to maintain the temperature. Plus, once we turned that second thermostat back up, the extra power demand likely was too much for it.
He didn’t have a spare breaker, so he switched the breaker from one for a wall heater we will likely never use.
I would never have thought of the breaker as the problem.
We have hot water again.
I love my brother.
The Re-farmer
Well, the hot water saga continues.
It’s gone again. And I don’t know why.
We had plenty of hot water this morning, as usual, but by this afternoon, it was gone. It’s almost 6pm as I write this, and all I’ve been getting is barely tepid water from the hot water tap.
Today was a non-productive day. I fell asleep on the bed the girls are using and ended up napping for hours. My entire body is aching, and I was really looking forward to trying for a bath. We even found a drain stopper for the tub.
We needed the break, but I don’t know that it benefited us anything.
The Re-farmer
We had a wonderful visit tonight with my oldest brother and his wife, whom we have not seen yet since our arrival. They were the ones who had managed to do so much before we arrived. Looking at what the state of things are now, we readily acknowledge how much worse it was before, and really appreciate their hard work.
This brother is a real meister fixer, just like our dad was. He can put his hand to just about anything and be able to do it, build it or fix it.
Well.
During the visit, the problem of our hot water came up. It’s a perplexing one, since the tank is obviously working enough for us to have hot water in the morning, but once it was gone, it was gone for the rest of the day.
So he and I checked it out Continue reading
The mystery eighth cat made an appearance this morning.
And that bugger is BIG! He’s about twice the size of all the other cats. (She?) Except maybe Rolando Moon.
We are deciding on a name. Should we call him Mokele Mbembe or Mothman?
Another day of packing and cleaning.
I was working on the main floor, packing away fragile things. I have packed up two small boxes, and the table is completely covered in stuff I need to wrap and pack. And that’s after my younger daughter took away some if the stuff she wanted to keep out of storage.
My daughter kept the tea set.
She is a brave and mighty girl.
While working upstairs, they took down one of the black velvet paintings and vacuumed years of cobwebs from behind it. She is arachnophobic.
As they put it back, something fell with a clatter loud enough that we heard it downstairs. I thought it was glass breaking. Nope.
It was a butter knife.
It fell from the back of the painting.
I suspect that one will remain a mystery. As will some other items they found. Like these, found in the far reaches of a shelf.
My daughter, sporting the latest fashion in cleaning while displaying their latest finds.
I have no idea why we have an unstrung… lute? The bayonet is something I recognize from my childhood, though I cannot remember where it came from.
They did not take photos of the skeletal remains of a mouse found behind a shelf. I’m told they found little skull eyes, staring back at them.
I think I’m good with just packing dusty fragile things and potentially moldy books.
The Re-farmer
