fixing things up

Victory, fixing an angel, wind damage, and finally done!

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I’d say I did have a productive day today, though not quite how I originally planned.

Being a warmer day, I was going to head outside to work in the garden earlier, but with my telephone appointment from the sports injury clinic in the afternoon, I decided I didn’t want to be working in the dirt before handling the phone.

So I worked with epoxy, instead.

My mother had an angel statue in her apartment for many years. It’s meant to be outdoors in a yard or garden, but she kept it in her living room. It’s about three and a half feet tall and, I’ve determined today, made of fiberglass.

My mother has been trying to get us to take things or claim things of hers for when she “goes up up”, and she decided the angel should go here to the farm. My brother and I decided that it will be set up by the gate, for our vandal to see the next time he gets all creepy for the cameras again. My mother loved that idea!

As we were taking it from her place, though, my brother discovered one of the wings was cracked. We didn’t want water to get in, so we wanted to use some epoxy on it to seal it up, first.

I decided I would do this today, so that we could get it outside by the weekend. We already have a spot for it, with a chunk of old side walk block for it to stand on. I just have to figure out how to secure it, or the angel will go flying in the wind!

I had picked up some clear epoxy for it. When my brother came out this past weekend, he brought me some clear epoxy for it, too – the exact same stuff that I’d picked up! So we have extra now. 😁

The type I got has a plunger that squeezes out both the resin and hardener in equal amounts at the same time, which made things easy. I mixed a bit up and applied it to the crack. There’s no way to clamp such an odd shape, though, so I had to try and press the edges of the crack together with my hands while the epoxy set.

Which is when the entire wing broke off.

!!!

So now I had to figure out how to set the angel so I could use gravity to help me hold the wing in place, so I could epoxy the whole thing together. At least we could see that no water would get into the body of the angel.

As I tried setting the angel flat on the floor, I heard another cracking noise.

The angel is holding a bird in its hands. I just broke a wing tip off.

*sigh*

I was able to lean the angel against a shelf, applied the epoxy to the wing and had to stand there and hold it in place for at least 5 minutes, which is what the packaging says is the set time. It was probably closer to 10 minutes before I felt I could let it be and could go do something else for awhile.

While I was standing there, holding the wing in place, I could see on the other wing why it broke off so easily. The wings were added onto the angel separately, and I could see a seam where the wing joined the body.

You can see on the second picture, how it looked before I finally dared straighten the angel back up again. Then I mixed up a bit more epoxy, and attached the broken wing tip onto the bird. I had to sit there and hold it in place, too. This time, I remembered to use the timer on my phone. After 5 minutes, I moved away to start putting away the epoxy syringe into its packaging when I heard a clunk. The wing tip fell off! So I held it for another 10 minutes. It seems to be holding fine, now.

When it gets set out, I’ll probably just find a way to tie it down to the concrete base to keep it from blowing away, for now. Eventually, I will make a little flower garden around it. Since that area is lower and tends to flood in the spring, I am thinking to dig out some of the sod in the lower area, where I can see someone started to make a ditch at some point, and use that as the base to build up soil around the agnel. I am thinking of bringing rocks to frame the flower bed. Digging up sod from nearby will create a deeper, mini-pond like area for the spring run off to collect in, and maybe I won’t be slogging through water when switching out the trail came for a change!

That is for the future, though. The important thing is so make sure the wind won’t carry the angel away!

Like it tried to do with this tree I noticed while doing my evening rounds today.

We never heard it go down, but it clearly came down during the recent high winds. You can see the difference in the wood from the freshly fallen tree and one that fell many years ago.

This tree is one of the ones I wanted to harvest for raised bed walls. It’s hung up on other trees, but pretty low to the ground, so I should be able to harvest it to use in the garden, still.

Anyhow…

After I got the angel done, I basically just stayed indoors until I got my call. The doctor was right on time, too! It was a very quick call. When the doctor asked how I was doing, I was able to give him a glowing report on what a huge difference the injection made for my hip. From the sound of his voice, I don’t think he gets such an enthusiastic response very often! 😄 In the end, all he had to do was tell me to get back to them should I have issues again in the future, and we were done.

When it was time to head outside, my daughter came out with me to help put away the things I organized last night. I fed the cats first, and she took advantage of that to try and pet as many kittens as possible. There are a few that are starting to allow touches, if not outright pets.

There was, however, a major victory.

She was able to pick up and cuddle Smokey!

Smokey was purring and snuggling and enjoying every minute of it!

Oh, she is going to make someone very happy when she gets adopted out!

Just a few more days, and she’ll be off to the rescue with her brother, along with four others, for fostering as they get prepped for adoption. She and her brother, plus one other cat, are large enough for spays and neuters. The three littles we’ll be snagging will need to grow bigger before they are ready.

Once my daughter sadly put Smokey down, she went ahead of me to the old garden shed to make some space in it, and get the rolling seat in, first. From there, I started bring stuff over for her to put away in an organized fashion. She’s very good and Tetrising things!

Once everything was put away, I wanted to finally finish off the garden bed I’ve been working on for way too long now! Between being pulled away to other things, and the weather, it’s been very slow going even without the issues with roots.

It is, however, now finished!

I had so little left to do, but there were so many tree roots in there! I can’t believe how bad it was! No wonder the peas and carrots didn’t do as well as they could have. It wasn’t just drought conditions! I’m amazed they survived at all, with so many roots choking them out.

Once the bed was leveled out some more – the back of a fan rack is great for that – I brought out the plastic that was used to cover the winter squash, folded in half, so the big hole was not an issue, and set that over the bed, to protect it from cats until I can winter sow into it. Even while I was working on it, not only was I finding “presents” the cats had left, but when I stepped away to do things, like get the loppers to cut the larger roots, I came back to find fresh presents in the soil! Grommet (you can see him in the second photo) was particularly interested in what I was doing and, at one point, was about to use the spot I was working on, like I’d dug it out just for him to use as a litter box, while I was right there, picking out roots, weeds and rocks!

What a cheeky bugger!

That done, it was time to head inside for sustenance and hydration that my daughter prepared for me. I didn’t head out again as, by the time I was done, it was getting too dark.

Meanwhile, I’ve heard back from the company about our main entry door replacement. The door was delayed during the pre-painting process, but it will arrive tomorrow afternoon (Thursday). The guy was working on booking the installers, but it’s expected to rain on Friday, so he’s hoping they can come in on Saturday.

*sigh*

I’m looking at the forecast now. It has changed, of course. We are now expecting to get rain starting tomorrow afternoon, continuing off and on through Friday.

Which means that if I’m going to get more beds cleaned up and ready for winter sowing, I’d better be getting out there much earlier tomorrow!

Hopefully, the remaining beds won’t be as ridiculously full of roots like this one was, and they will go faster! There are four beds left to do in the main garden area – these are the 18′ long ones, so I want to get them done, first. There is a 9’x3′ bed, plus a 4′ square bed to do in the east garden area, and then the old kitchen garden needs to be done. Once the main garden beds are done, the others should go a lot faster. Aside from being smaller beds, they shouldn’t have as many tree roots growing up into them!

Looking at the long range forecast, it does look like we’ll have the weather to get this done. Amazingly, it has changed from the possibility of snow in the last week of October (I can’t believe the month is half gone already!), to warmer temperatures, and even a day that’s forecast to hit a high of 20C/68F! Then it’s supposed to rain during the last 5 days of October. That’s when we’ll be doing our city stock up trips, so that actually works out for me.

Of course, the forecast will change when I look at it again, tomorrow. I’ll take what I can get for pleasant weather, though. It’s not as pleasant as the one fall where we got our first frost in November, but still better than getting snow storms, like some have gotten up north already, but I’ll take what I can get!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Catch up time, and garden progress

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I am finally able to settle in to start this – though I’m also waiting for a phone call and might be making a trip into town, still, so we’ll see if things get interrupted!

My plan had originally been to drop the truck off this morning, then use the courtesy vehicle to do the stock up shopping in the city. CPP Disability came in yesterday, though, so I figured I may as well do that right away, and not have to worry about driving a strange vehicle in the city. I’ll do another post about the stocking up.

Once home and everything was put away, I grabbed a quick supper, then headed outside. I really wanted to get that bed cleaned up and finished.

Of course, it took longer than expected.

I started working my way down the unfinished side from the North end, closer to the trees. Almost immediately, I could feel I was hitting something not rock with the garden fork. I kept working my way down and around it, but it was a while before I could actually uncover it and start moving it around with my hands.

Yeah, it was a big ol’ tree root.

In the first photo, I’d worked maybe 8 ft down the side before I could uncover it and not have the soil immediately fall and cover it again. The further down I went, the more I could get under it and loosen things up around it.

In the next two photos in the slide show, I’d finally reached a point where the root veered off to the side and out of the bed.

Yes, Sir Robin was helping me the entire time. He was really, really interested in where I was digging!

One I cleared a bit more of the root into the path, I went and got the loppers to cut it. With all the digging I’d already done, it was pretty easy to pull the rest up. It didn’t all some out, though. About a foot or so from the end, it broke free. I think this was actually a piece that branched off an even bigger root, further down!

Before we planted potatoes in this bed, I trenched it. That root was not there in the spring!

Given how far I got before it veered into the path, I can certainly see why I was finding so many tree capillary roots at the south end of the bed.

I got the bed done, though – with another bumper crop of rocks – and used the landscape rake to level the soil and make it all niche and even, as much as I could.

I then hosed it down before I got my second package of painters plastic drop sheet. It’s 10′ wide and 25′ long. It was really calm at the time, so I was able to open it up, then fold it in half, lengthwise, so it was only 5′ wide. Then I covered the bed and made sure to get everything as tight and snug as possible, with the excess length folded over at the south end. I took boards that were around the carrot bed to weight down the ends, rolling the boards in the excess plastic and pulling it tight again, before using the remaining boards I had to weight down the sides. The plastic has good contact with the soil surface, which means it should solarize properly, unlike when I’ve tried to do it over less level beds, or over areas with grass stubble on it. Well. Maybe not “properly, but at least better!

As you can see in the next picture, taken with flash, it was dark by the time I was done.

I stayed out longer to cover the winter squash, summer squash, peppers and remaining eggplants. The overnight low they were predicting had changed again, and we were to expect 5C/41F.

I am so glad I covered all the beds.

We dropped to 3C/37F last night.

The last picture in the series was taken this morning, while I was doing my rounds. It was still too cold to uncover them, though, so it got left until later.

I then headed out to town to drop the truck off at the autobody place for the insurance repairs. Before taking the courtesy vehicle – a 2020 Caravan – we did the necessary paperwork, and I signed an insurance waiver. If I were to get into some sort of accident or damage the vehicle, I’d be responsible for a $750 deductible. Or, I can sign the waiver and pay a little under $8 a day to cover that.

I’ve got the van for four days, or one day. Looking at the time as I write this, I’d say, four days. There was the possibility that they’d get the frame repaired and painted today, to a point that I could bring the truck home while it cured. I would then bring it back on Monday and they’d install the new cover. I would get a phone call before they’re done for the day to find out. I’m pretty sure they close at 5, and it’s past 5 as I write this, but maybe they close at 6. I can’t remember.

I was warned about some unusual things on the van. The first, I misunderstood. She was telling me where the shifter was, and I thought she meant it was behind the steering wheel on the column, like our truck, instead of in the front of the console between the seats, like my mother’s car.

It was neither. It’s behind the steering wheel, on the dash.

It also has a “square” key, which I’d never heard of before. Instead of a metal key, it has a plastic square that gets inserted, just like an ordinary key. The disorienting part of that isn’t just the shape of it. On one side of the square is the bright red panic button!

After spending a bit of time figuring out where things were and adjusting my seat, I headed off to the town to the north of us to pick up more 40 pound bags of kibble. I had just parked when I got a call from the autobody place.

The tech working on my truck, on seeing the condition of the rails that would be painted (only the rails, not the sides and fenders, as that would not be covered by insurance because of the rust), he wanted to know if I preferred to have it done with flatbed paint, instead. There would be no extra cost, and he felt it would give more protection to the rails. After talking about it for a bit, I agreed. It should be interesting to see how it turns out!

I then went into the feed store and paid for four 40 pound bags of kibble. The woman who processed my sale then came and helped me grab the bags. I’d mentioned it was the first time I’d driven this vehicle and, as we came out with the first two bags, I realized I didn’t even know how to open the back of the van. Was there a handle, or would I have to use the key fob, which I would not be able to reach without putting down the bag of kibble?

There was a handle. 😄

Once the bags were loaded, I tried to close it manually, but it didn’t want to close until it got past a certain point. I looked around later, and could see no buttons or anything to make that easier.

When I parked in the garage and took the key out of the ignition, though, I accidentally opened the back of the van! I did figure out how to close it using the fob, at least.

I couldn’t bring the bags in right away, though. It’s been a while since we had to store that many bags of kibble, so I had to organize and make space in the old kitchen, first. Which I did, after finally having breakfast.

Much of what I had to deal with was cardboard. Some was meant for the garden. Others had glossy coatings on them, so they needed to be sorted out. Normally, they would have gone to the burn pile, but we haven’t been able to do a burn in over a year. Between things like the weather, or fire bans, I already had quite a mess to clean up recently. I plan to take it all to the dump, but I won’t be doing a dump run until we get the truck back.

After sorting that out, it was back to doing clean up in the yard and garden. The garden beds got uncovered, though high winds made that a challenge! Then I started working on things like taking down the wire that was used to trellis the peas, and to protect the Arikara squash from critters.

For now, I’ve been putting all the garden stakes, poles, ties, netting, etc. in one spot, before they get a final organizing and bundling and putting away for the winter. I’d put the bent up wire supports that failed to hold up netting under the weight of playing kittens. One of the things I’d done as we emptied the sun room was hose down a cat cave that kept collapsing. I ended up rolling down the sides to try and make it into a sort of nest, but it keeps getting bend out of shape. The “cave” itself is basically around, thick bag with a drawstring cord to close up the top.

Those bent up wires might not be useful for holding up the netting, but I decided to try something with several of them. It’s a heavy gauge wire, but still flexible enough to bend into shape, and keep the shape.

I ended up using three of them to make a wire support for inside the cat cave. Two were formed into rings, with the top ring slightly smaller than the bottom, and a third was wound and bent and wound some more, to hole the top and bottom rinds apart. Then I stuffed it into the cat cave and closed up the drawstring top.

With the top ring where it is, the to can’t close completely anymore, but that’s okay. The sides are now being held up.

The ultimate test will be what happens when the kittens decide to climb all over it. So far, it’s holding!

I’d used three of the wire supports to make that, but had brought four, just in case.

I found a use for that one, too.

Yesterday, I’d picked up replacement sump pump hoses to replace our broken one.

The hose runs along the base of the house to drain into the old kitchen garden. That bend to go to the side instead of straight out (which is how it used to be, before I replaced the old one) was enough to finally break the hose.

Taking off the broken bit and replacing it was easy and fast enough, but I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. If only I had something strong, yet flexible, to brace the hose at the bed…

Enter that fourth wire support, some wire cutters and electric tape.

In the last picture, you can see that I set two lengths of the wire on either side of the hose. I taped it to the piece coming out of the wall, first, just to secure it while I worked. The lengths of wire were give a gentle bend, then got taped into place. Only then did I give the hose, which was already stretched along the base of the house, I final straightening out and setting it in place. The new hose is slightly longer than the old hose (which I’d bought from a different company). Which will come in handy in the spring, if it’s wet enough to trigger the sump pump. It reached the rectangular garden bed in the old kitchen better. I’ll want to make a larger, longer, opening under the logs at the end of the bed, and it can then be set right into the opening to drain under the bed, instead of running down the paths, and water whatever gets planted in there from below.

Aside from that, there was just a lot of small things that got done around the yard. It was so incredibly windy, it limited some of the things I could work on. Thankfully, the winds seem to have died down a bit since then.

My daughter, meanwhile, has been going all out on cleaning the sun room – way more than I would have done, I’ll be honest! She even got a household step ladder and a small hand brush to get into less accessible areas. When it comes time to bring things back in, she plans to scrub, then oil, anything with wood. Since we can’t take the cat cage out without dismantling it, she floor can only be washed one side at a time. With the cat cage going on top of interlocking mats, to protect from the cold concrete floor, it has to be thoroughly dry before things can be moved over and the other side can be done.

While she was working on that, I took the hose to pressure was the larger plastic shelves that supported the platform above the cat cage. The bottom shelves, in particular needed a thorough cleaning.

We need to figure out some way to keep critters from using the corners of the room. There’s no room for litter pans there.

Oh, I just got the phone call I was waiting for – and it came after they closed!

We’ve got the van for the weekend.

I also got a final tally on what it will cost. There’s the $500 deductible, of course, but the “betterment” will cost $193.92 after taxes. Add in the waiver I signed, as extra insurance should I get into an accident with the van, there’s another roughly $35 on top.

That’s a solid Costco shopping trip right there. 🫤

It will be so good to have that fixed and a cover on the truck box again. I hate having things in there without a cover, when driving at highway seeds – even though I know that there’s nothing I put back there that might blow away! It’s more that things can be seen and walked off with. Granted, it would take some effort for someone to walk off with a 40 pound bag of litter pellets, but not so much for a 9kg bag of kibble.

So there’s all that caught up with!

Next, we’ll take a look and what my stock up shopping trip looked like for the money.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: herbs are in

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It’s hard to be having a heat wave like we are now, and have to think about last frost dates before planting things! Our average last frost date was June 2, but this year it’s listed as a range from May 28-31.

On the one hand, I’ve been eyeballing the long range forecasts. They tend to change often, sometimes multiple times in a day, but we are no longer having predictions of overnight temperatures below freezing. So far, nothing lower than 5C/41F in the overnight lows expected in early June.

On the other hand, I’ve been eyeballing the dandelions. If you’ve been following Maritime Gardening, you may have heard his way of using the stages of dandelions to judge when to plant things. When the greens emerge, the soil is warm enough to plant cold hardy seeds like peas and spinach. When the flowers are blooming, the soil is warm enough to plant things that need a bit more warmth, but can still handle a night of frost, like brassicas. When the dandelions go to seed, the soil is warm enough to plant everything else.

Our dandelions have been blooming for a while, and lots are starting to go to seed.

So I should be able to direct sow or transplant pretty much everything right now, but I still want to be able to cover things if we do get a frost.

Since I didn’t want to render myself immobile again, today I decided to work on the tiny raised bed garden and transplant the herbs I bought a few weeks back.

This bed got prepped in the fall, so there wasn’t much it needed – other than finally reinforcing the cover that cats keep lying on!

I took the cover over to the garage, along with some leftover pieces of hula hoop, which is what is already being used in the cover, to add to it. I got one installed, but when I tried to set up the other, it kept snapping on me. Thankfully, I had a piece of pipe of some kind my brother had passed on to me, along with lumber, shelving and numerous other small items he knew I would find uses for. It was perfect for the job, and I still have some left over. There was also a short bamboo garden stake that I wove through the chicken wire across the top. That will both support the wire (and the weight of cats) and make it easier to carry the cover.

Then it was time to ready the soil. It had a grass clipping mulch that was set aside, then I used my little hand cultivator to loosen the soil so I could better remove the rhizomes. Unfortunately, I was also finding tree roots; this time, from the nearby ornamental crab apple. I think there’s actually a large root running under the bed, but if there is, it’s deep enough it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s the little capillary roots that can become an issue!

After a few years of amending this bed, the soil was really nice and fluffy, already. I did amend it more with the rehydrated coconut coir, plus some manure. The soil was insanely dry, so I made sure to give it a very thorough watering once the amendments were mixed in.

I then set the pots in and moved them around until I figured out where the herbs would go. I’ve got English Thyme and Golden Yellow Thyme that are kitty corner from each other. The other corners have oregano and Greek oregano. In the middle, closer to the walking onions, is lemon balm, with the basil across from it. Once transplanted, they got another watering.

After they were transplanted, I carefully scattered the mulch around them, making sure it was under their leaves and stems.

Then it got another watering.

Last of all, the cover was set in place. No kitties will be rolling around on or digging these up!

The next area I plan to work on is the wattle weave bed. The tiny strawberries in there are blooming up a store right now, so I’m not going to transplant them until the fall. They don’t take up a lot of space. I think there is enough room to plant both the eggplants and peppers in this bed. We’ve grown both in there before, and they did surprisingly well, so that should work out.

We’re going into the city for our first stock up shopping trip tomorrow, though, so that won’t happen for a couple of days. The transplants are all looking really strong and healthy this year – even the ones that got dumped upside down when the wind knocked the greenhouse half over! If things work out, we should be able to get all the transplanting and direct sowing done over the next week or two. I’ll be quite happy when that is all finally done!

I have to keep telling myself. It’s still only May. With the weather we’ve been having, it feels like I’m behind on things, but I’m actually ahead!

Hopefully, this will be a good growing year.

The Re-Farmer

Almost there!

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Today was my day to get the truck to the garage, but not until 10am, so I had plenty of time to do my morning rounds.

Where I found these…

I just had to include my hand for perspective, though the kitty prints help, too. That is one big raccoon was had visiting us!

It’s doing a good job of cleaning up the old kibble that cats won’t eat anymore, so I can’t complain. I haven’t checked today’s trail cam files yet, so I don’t know it it was caught, but a few days ago I saw him going in and out through our gate, and he is a big’un!

While putting kibble into the isolation shelter, I got tackled.

That little tabby has been after attention pretty much every morning, now.

Colin wanted attention so much, he forced himself into my hand while I was trying to get pictures! Lately, I’ve typically had about 5 or 6 friendly males, pushing for attention, in the mornings. Plus Magda. I have to be careful trying to pet her. She’s so small, the big boys push her around without even noticing!

As usual, I left for my appointment early, remembering to leave the gate open for today’s prescription delivery. My husband would get his meds faster that way, than if I went to the pharmacy to get them myself.

While dropping off the keys, I asked for a general idea of how long it would take. The best he could tell me was “a few hours”. Thankfully, it’s warmer now (we are still at our high of -6C/21F), so it was a fine day to walk around town.

The first thing to do was find somewhere to get breakfast. I was still early enough that not a lot of places were open yet, but also, I needed to find somewhere were I could adjust my order to fit my Lenten fast from sugars and starches. I ended up walking across town, almost to the lake, to a hotel cafe where I knew they would be open for breakfast. I don’t often go there, partly because they are not accessible, and I don’t do well with stairs. But, it’s got reliably good home cooking type meals, and they open early in the day. I also knew that I would be able to take my time while there, and not feel like I’m taking up a table they needed for any sort of rush.

All their breakfast meals include home cut hash browns and toast in your bread of choice – both things I wanted to skip. I told the waitress what I was needing to cut out, and asked if they could just add an extra egg or something, instead. She said she would talk to the kitchen staff, and that’s what they ended up doing. I got their “Farmer’s Breakfast) of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage. The hash browns and toast would have made it a really huge meal! It was very good.

My tea without sugar, however, was … tea without sugar. 😄

When I was done there, I went to several nearby shops to look around. One of them was a dollar type store, and I did find a few things, including a long pipe cleaner style brush for our bathroom sink. When we had to take stuff out of the bathroom while replacing the taps, faucet, some pipes, and the old tub surround, we had to take pretty much everything out of the bathroom. That included one of these pipe cleaner type brushes. It’s the only thing that can clean out the bathroom sink properly.

Unfortunately, it disappeared at some point. We figure a cat had to have dragged it off, but to where? It’s been months, and we still haven’t found it!

I was happy to see they had some in stock and made sure to grab one!

I spent enough time looking at things and checking out other stores that when I got closer to another restaurant, a fried chicken place, it was actually a good time to stop for lunch.

They had a new sign out front. They are now open for breakfast, too! Until recently, they didn’t open until 11am. Something to remember, should I need to in the future.

It took a while, but I finally settled on one of their “snack” meals, that came with only one side and no bun. Instead of the usual fries, I chose their coleslaw. I like their coleslaw better than their fries, anyhow! So that worked out.

Again, I was able to take my time about it, as much to make it easier on my hips and knees as anything else! I knew I would have a lot more walking ahead of me.

Once I was done there, I made my way to another shop where I found a few more small things to pick up. The pharmacy was across the street, and I remembered to go there to get the printouts for our taxes.

We paid over $1400 in co-pay for my husband’s meds last year. His private insurance covers 90% and, once the $3000+ deductible is covered, some of his medications switch to the provincial prescription insurance, which then covers 100%. Most of his meds aren’t covered by the provincial insurance at all.

Thank God for private insurance!

My prescription co-pay amount is miniscule compared to his.

From there, it was more walking – and finding a clean bench to sit on for a while. Last of all, I stopped at a hardware store, where I finally found a metal dish rack to replace the plastic coated one we’ve been using since moving here. It was here before us, and pieces of the plastic coating was already starting to break off. After 7 more years, it was definitely time to replace it! It was surprisingly hard to find a non-plastic dish rack in the size we needed.

I mightily resisted picking up grow light kits today. One would have done will for our plants in the living room. The other would be great for starting seeds. I have decided I do want to use the new part basement for seed starting, but we have to do some re-arranging, first. I do have a nice, bright shop light down there now, but it’s not the kind where a timer could be set. I can still use one of the big aquarium lights, though, and it does have a timer, so that could work. We shall see.

At that point, I was just a couple of blocks from the garage. I hadn’t heard from them yet, but I was done with walking, so I headed over. I knew I could stay in their office waiting area, at least for a while.

When I got there, the truck was up on the lift.

There were 3 mechanics under it, the owner/mechanic had something in his hand, and they were all looking slightly perplexed.

Hmmm.

Once I was in the office, one of the first things I noticed was a bag of take out food on the desk, still all closed up.

The owner soon came in and told me they would have to change the oil plate gasket another day. He had the wrong one! He ordered a new one immediately.

He went out and was back again. The only thing left to do was the wheel alignment, and he suggested doing it at the same time as the gasket, rather than today. The bay with the equipment to do the wheel alignment had another vehicle on it still. They’d have to finish that vehicle first, then move the truck, which would make it another 2 1/2 hours! They were so busy, they had all three bays full, plus smaller vehicles/equipment tucked in spaces in between that, even with three mechanics, they hadn’t been able to stop for lunch, yet! It was well past 1pm by the time I got there.

By stopping at this point, though, it would only be a few more minutes.

So I paid for the work they did today. When he mentioned that the gasket he’d ordered would be in tomorrow, I asked if I could come back tomorrow, and he fit me in for the afternoon.

Just one more day, and the list of small(ish) fixes will be done!

It was just a bit longer as they lowered the truck and tested it out before it was ready.

Today’s work was replacing a front left axle seal, the new oil pressure sensor, a new cv boot and new front links. The parts totaled $216.35. Shop supplies cost $36.99. Three hours of labour cost $299.97 After taxes, the final bill was $619.71

I’m expecting tomorrow’s work to be in the $200-$250 range, after taxes.

That done, I still had a couple more stops to make, now that I could use the truck to do them. First, a quick trip to the grocery store across the street to refill two of our big water jugs. We didn’t need anything else, but I looked around anyhow, and did get a few things that were on sale – specifically, cheese and lactose free cheese, plus some salad kits that I can eat. The ones I got at Costco have dressings that are just over my tolerance level for spicy heat.

Before leaving town, I got some gas at the one gas station where the prices have started to go down. $1.519/L instead of $1.569/L

My husband had let me know a parcel had come in, so I stopped at the post office on the way home. The 250 watt ceramic bulbs I ordered were in. However, the pair of clamp lamps I ordered that can handle 250 watt bulbs are not in yet. Once that package reached the Canadian side of the border, it switched to CanPar for delivery. I think we might actually get delivery to our physical address with them! Tracking information says March 14 for delivery, but I do know it’s in our province now, so it shouldn’t take that long.

Once it’s in, I want to replace the fixture in the isolation shelter. The new fixture has a wire guard around the bulb, so no cats can burn themselves. The current fixture has no such protection. Granted, it would take a lot for a cat to end up that close to the heat bult, but still, I’d rather not take the chance! Plus, the current heat bulb is incandescent, so there is light in there, day and night, which can disrupt sleep patterns. Considering they cluster together right in front of the bulb to stay warm, that can potentially be an issue.

The clamp lamp in the sun room has a 150 watt ceramic bulb in it right now, and I’m thinking of still using that, but setting up a second 250 watt heat bulb nearby, somewhere.

I’ll figure that out, once the lamps come in.

Meanwhile…

Look! No check engine light! And the oil pressure gauge is working again!

The tire light is for the three remaining tire sensors with dead 14 yr old batteries that need to be replaced. Those can be done, little by little. We’ve had that light on for over a year, now. I think we can last a few more months! We need to focus on paying off the credit card for the work we’re getting done right now, first.

The trip meter shows how many kilometers I’ve driven since filling the tank at Costco. Which is about twice what it normally would be, this early in the month!

Oh, I just realized. I need to go read the meter for our electricity, while it’s still light out enough to see it!

My last task on today’s “to do list”.

It’s been a pretty darn productive day.

I’m going to feel much, much better once the final work is done, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer

Here we go again, again!… again

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Okay, first things first.

Yes!!! We can use our plumbing again!

But no, the problem has not been fixed. In fact, it hasn’t even been identified.

When my brother got here, the first thing we did was see if the problem was with the pump itself.

I have learned a lot about this pump today!

The back valve was removed, and it was fine. Just a bit of gunk that would not have affected how it worked.

Since it was off anyhow, I gave it a thorough cleaning, along with the length of pipe and elbow that would be reattached to it.

From what we could see inside the back valve’s opening, the disc-type thing that would spin was also clear.

The pump has clean out valves, though. I had no idea what they were and couldn’t even see one of them without having to look around the outflow pipe from the filter. That was the next thing to check. Those have probably never been opened before, but my brother managed it. He took the bottom one out first, which was the drain, which is when we got a real hands on idea of just how much water is in that pump’s cannister section!

Trying to see into those openings was not easy. My brother got me to turn the pump’s switch on and off quickly, just so he could see things turning inside, using his phone as a flashlight. Everything looked fine. He did some cleaning around the thread and even poked around with a wire, but it was not all that gunky, either.

With everything checked and cleared, we tried again.

The pump ran, but no change. No water would flow.

Okay, maybe we just needed to prime the pump.

I had no idea there was a valve for that. As with the cleanout valves, it took a lot to get it open. Once it was, we used the hose I keep hooked up to the old laundry’s cold water tap all the time, because it’s just so handy. Once it was full, he closed it up again (making sure to Teflon tape everything, along the way), and we tested it again.

Nothing. No flow at all. The only change I could tell was that, with everything all nice and clean, the motor was running a bit quieter.

Okay, the pump seemed to be working. Could it be that something was blocking the tank’s outflow pipe?

There was only one thing left to do.

Put the emergency diverter back on.

If it worked after that, then we knew the problem was not at the house end.

Thankfully, when we switched it out before, I told my brother to just leave it aside. I would put it away in the spring, and then reseal the hole in the wall that it runs through. Which meant it was just a matter of switching pipes.

The outflow pipe from the pump to the ejector, however, always has water in it. It’s just a gravity thing. So we got a bucket handy before starting to take it off. As soon as my brother wrestled it loose, I got the bucket under it, so we did manage to catch most of it, but not all!

Yeah. I got splashed.

That out and set aside, the diverter was put back on. After double and triple checking that every thing was tight, we tried again.

Yes!!! It worked! Finally, the septic tank was draining!

My brother and I headed outside to check the other end, while my daughter stayed to monitor the pump. It emptied the tank and shut itself off before my brother and I could get to where it drains into!

Which means that the problem is somewhere from the house to the ejector.

We went to check the ejector.

The heat tape was not warm, but it has a regulator and will shut itself off based on temperature. Today has been a warm day, and is still warming up (as I write this, I see we just reached 0C/32F), so that makes sense. The extension cord’s plug has an indicator light on it, so we could see that it had power. Everything looked fine.

That doesn’t mean it’s not the ejector, though. It just means, we know it’s not frozen.

What it could be is that there is gunk in the venturi valve that finally just blocked the whole thing. The only way to know for sure is to pull it out. Which would require removing the heat tape, unscrewing the elbow at the top, unscrewing the cap, and removing both, then very carefully pulling the venturi pipe out of the stand pipe, so we can see the valve at the bottom.

Which we will NOT do until spring.

Yup. We’re on the emergency diverter for the rest of the winter, at least.

If it’s not the venturi valve being blocked, then it’s the pipe itself. A build up of crud inside the pipe could have come loose or something and blocked it entirely. Based on how well the water flowed out of the ejector after we got it thawed out and hooked up again, the pipe was running pretty clear. The only real hint that there was a problem was that it took longer for the pump to empty the tank than it did before.

There is nothing we can do about it until the ground thaws out.

Once the diverter was set up and working, my brother was prepared for another job.

Installing the power diverter switch.

The pump could be turned on and off using what is basically a light switch on the wall. Under normal circumstances this is in the “on” position at all times. The pump itself is triggered by the float and pill switch, inside the tank.

Sometimes, however, there is a need to check the pump, when the tank is not full enough to trigger it on. With all the septic problems we’ve been having, we needed to be able to turn it on manually, from inside the basement. The alternative would be to open up the septic can and use something long enough to catch the cable and raise the float. That’s something we want to avoid doing even in the summer. Not a chance, in the winter!

My brother set up a couple of wires set up outside the switch box that would allow us to turn it on manually. The pump’s switch would be turned off, the wires outside the box would be attached to each other, the switched turned on again, and the pump would run. When we were done testing it, we’d turn off the switch, undo the wires, cover and tuck them away again, then turn the switch back on so the pump could be triggered by the float again.

Well, not anymore.

This is how it was set up before.

You can see the black covered wires from the pill switch coming up from below and into the box. The two wires sticking out the side from the same opening were the ones that could be joined to turn the pump on manually.

There was no schematic, so my brother had to be particularly careful in figuring out what was what. There were the wires from the breaker box (which was off, of course), the wires from the pill switch, the wires from the motor, the ground wires, and the manual diverter wires that all had to be kept track of!

He installed a new box, got all the wired sort out and attached to new switched, and put it all together, with one special feature, which you can see by clicking through to the next image (which Instagram, once again, messed with, so it’s off to once side instead of centred. *sigh*).

The manual switch has a safety cover on it, so that there is on way it can be turned on by accident!

Then he left the blue protective film on more me, because I commented on how I liked the blue colour. 😄

Of course, once everything was together – and before it was all closed up – the breaker was turned on and it was tested. I even made sure to get video of him explaining the which wires were which, so we can refer to it in the future, if need be.

My brother is so awesome. I don’t know what we would do without him! It even came up in our conversation today; my brother is the last living person who really knows this place. Another reason why I try to document everything, and learn as much as I can from him!!!

Once he was done with all this and his tools were safely put away and to the side, I did the floor pipe maintenance thing with the hose, showing him where I was hitting bottlenecks – except the second bottleneck wasn’t there! Or, at least, the hose passed through the opening just right, because he was there. 😄

Once that was done, I helped him haul all his tool boxes, bins and bags up and to his vehicle while my daughter, sweetheart that she is, took care of washing and disinfecting the floor. Mostly with one arm, since her ganglion is just not going away this time.

My brother may have finished up in the basement, but not with here! After loading up his car again, he went on to do things in their various storage areas for a couple more hours! Hopefully, the roads will be gone. We have just reached our high of the day; 2C/36F and are starting to get a bit of mixed rain and snow. We’re supposed to stay at this temperature through to tomorrow, even overnight.

Meanwhile, one of the first things I did was call dibs on the shower, after having been splashed while switching out that pipe. The honeypot has been put away, and we no longer have to use basins and buckets to keep water from draining into the full septic tank.

It feels so good to be able to shower again!

And use a flushing toilet instead of the honeypot.

Ah, the things we put up with to live here! 😄😄😄

The Re-Farmer

We were wrong

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

We were all wrong.

We also had no way of knowing how or why we were wrong!

My brother, saint that he is, came out today to work on both the frozen ejector and the septic pump problem.

My SIL dropped him off, as he would be taking their car that they loaned us, back. The first thing he did was head to the ejector – he was here for an hour before we even saw him! He set up a low power heater around the ejector and covered the whole thing with a tarp to hold what little heat there was.

When I came out to join him, I was surprised by how much is was snowing. There had been no snow at all when I did the morning rounds and opened the gate for them. We ended up having what felt like a light snow, though it was actually heavier than it seamed, it was so calm out, the whole time.

He had spent yesterday evening running around all over the city, looking for the parts and pieces he needed for the septic pump. With the water leaking out of the filter, he concluded that the back valve was leaking. The pictures he asked me to take and sent to him helped a lot, as he couldn’t quite remember the details on the pump.

Once he did as much as he could around the frozen ejector, I helped him bring in his tools and supplies into the basement.

He came well prepared. A habit he got into when he would come here to fix things for our late father, because all Dad’s tools were scattered all over, or “borrowed” by our vandal.

First, I need to explain what we were wrong about.

When we first started having issues, I was thinking the pump itself was the problem. I thought it was about 20 years old and, which all the plumbing issues we had and with it running dry for way too long at times, I was thinking it was wearing out. It was even starting to sound worse.

I was wrong.

My brother replaced the pump only about 10 years ago, got the best pump available at the time, and he had full confidence in it.

The company that installed the ejector also thought it was the pump, with not enough pressure going through the venturi valve, causing the ejector to freeze.

He was… partially right. There was low flow, so low pressure, but it wasn’t because of the pump.

Other thoughts from various people, including me:

– that there was an air leak somewhere in the pipes from the tank to the pump.
– the O ring was failing
– the pipe from the house to the ejector was starting to get filled with gunk
– gunk from inside the pipe to the ejector was breaking loose and clogging the venturi valve
– the ground around the venturi valve was too saturated (which may still have been a contributing factor)

While it sounds like we’re talking about two problems – the frozen ejector and the septic pump problems – once we set up the emergency diverter, we got more of a sense that the problem around the pump lead to the ejector freezing. Thawing the ejector is its own problem.

With the water draining out of the filter, my brother conclude that the back valve was broken and wanted to replace it.

He was half right.

He was going to replace a whole section of connectors and a bit of pipe, removing the original back valve completely, and installing a new one, in line.

I’ve actually uploaded a bunch of short videos, because photos could not do it justice. Here is the first one. Here, the section of pipe and elbow connectors has been removed, but not the back valve.

No, you will not see the brass filter in another video. We never used it.

Instead, we found this.

W. T. F.

We were just flown away. HOW did a piece of cloth that big get into there! How many years was it there?

That is a BIG chunk of fabric! The fact that the pump worked at all with that in there is amazing!

With that filter installed after we moved here, we know it had to have happened before then. I don’t know when the other filter was finally removed, because it never worked. My guess is the fabric got into the pipes somewhere in that time between filters.

The only way I can think of how that got into the system is either by getting flushed down the toilet somehow, or it fell into the tank at some point when the lid was open.

It could well have taken years to get sucked into the pipe and work its way through all the elbow connectors. There are three on either side of the filter, and even when there was just a straight pipe before this filter was installed, the elbows were still there.

Then, once it got through the pipe, it got forced through the valve, where it could go no further.

Upon removing the fabric, my brother looked over the valve, and it was undamaged.

So he just put everything back together as it was, with fresh Teflon tape on the threads.

One of the other things he did was set up the switch by-pass. Right now, we have a switch on the wall to turn the pump on and off manually – but the pump won’t run unless the pill switch in the tank is high enough to trigger it. He’d set up the wiring before, but they were tucked behind the switch plate. He set the wires to they were now outside (after I turned the breaker off, of course) and connected them, so that when the switch was turned on, the pump would run immediately.

Before starting work on the pump, he ran it to drain the tank. It had run not that long before, so there wasn’t much in there, but he wanted to make sure it was empty before he started taking off pipes and draining what water was inside the pump itself. He was going to need to test it again later, so we had to run water for quite a while, just so he could have something in there to test the pump with, once everything was back together.

It takes a long time to fill that tank.

Eventually, though, we got it to the point where he could turn the pump on and test it out.

At the very end, you can see a sudden change in the flow. That’s when the tank was empty and the pump had to be shut off immediately.

What a thing of beauty. Everything was flowing well – just like when it was installed!

Which makes me think that piece of fabric was stuck flat against the inside of a section of pipe somewhere between the filter and the pump, because that filter and pump were working great at the start, and for quite some time after.

We’ve had other problems with the system that, in retrospect, were probably caused by that piece of fabric moving down the pipes a bit further, then a bit further, then a bit further.

There was absolutely no way anyone could have known.

Oh! I just heard the septic pump turn on as I write this. I’d checked the filter earlier, and it was completely full, and I know it’s pumping fine and faster than it has in probably years!

The only down side is the vibrate-y noises from where the emergency diverter makes contact with things.

Wow. The pump just turned off. That took less than two minutes, easily!

What an excellent pump.

I am so happy to be wrong about that pump!

Once that was done, my brother disengaged the bypass, so the pump would only turn on when triggered by the pill switch. My brother wanted to test it again, but it would take a while I left a tap running in the old laundry sink, next to the pump, but I made sure the rest of the family knew to use water, flush toilets, take showers, to fill that tank enough to test it again.

Then, it was time to head outside and work on the ejector.

In the first photo, you can see the fluid level is quite high, because my brother had poured in about half a jug of liquid ice melter – calcium chloride. This won’t damage the plastic pipes, but there is a brass fitting at the bottom that could potentially get corroded, but that would likely take a long time. Once things are thawed out, we can hook the pipe back on and anything down there will get flushed away when the pump sends fluid through.

In the next photo, my brother is using the heat gun on the copper pipe to try and get the ice inside the venturi pipe – the discharge pipe – thawed more. It had been frozen to the top before. When we got there and my brother started this, it was down about 2 inches. By the time we stopped, it was down about 4 or 5 inches.

We spent quite a bit of time out there in the falling snow, using the heat gun and the copper pipe and the calcium chloride to get more of it melted down. There was no way it was going to be thawed out completely, though.

For that, we used the heat tape that came in the mail yesterday. That’s the blue you can see in the third image. The glass tape that game with it wouldn’t stick, buy my brother brought electric tape that he kept in a pocket inside his jacket to keep it warm, and that worked. We ended up using the heat tape box to hold the sheet of metal roof out of the way, as it rests right against the pipe. Being frozen to the ground and covered in snow and ice, we can’t move it away. My brother dug through his tools in the barn and found something to bend it back.

The cap and elbow were put back on the ejector, but only loosely. We want to be able to pop them off easily to check on how it’s melting.

My brother did some scrounging and dug an old, rotten saw horse out of the snow to put over the ejector. This would keep the tarp from having contact with the ejector itself. The last thing we want is for it to snap off the elbow or something in the wind.

Last of all, the tarp was wrapped around the whole thing – black side out to absorb warmth from the sun (whenever we get sun next) and tied off a bit. If we get high winds from the south, it might still get blown off, but it can’t be tied down too tightly, or I’ll have trouble checking on it.

All of this took quite some time, with a few trips to the barn or the garage, etc. to find things we needed. At one point, I needed to go into the house. As I was leaving, I caught a light whiff of septic, so I went around to check on the outflow pipe.

The septic pump must have just shut itself off by the time I got there. I could immediately see a whole lot more snow had been washed away. In some areas, the flow goes under the snow, creating gaps in the snow above in places. While there was no water coming out of the outflow pipe, I could see through one of the gaps, water that was flowing fast. The pump was definitely working well!

Before he left, my brother checked the pump in the basement one more time – the filter was full to the top and the filter basket was floating, just like it should be – then checked the outflow pipe. He was surprised by the direction the water was flowing, but I wasn’t. There’s a reason I have a retaining wall at that end of the old kitchen garden!

Now that this is fixed, and we’ve had the clogged drained fixed, we need to use our water. Especially in the kitchen and laundry. We still need to set the washing machine drain hose back into the pipe – no one has needed to do laundry yet – and I plan to do a machine clean cycle. That uses straight hot water. We’re also going to keep up the drain maintenance routine we’ve already started, plus what the plumber recommended we do with the kitchen sinks every few days. Last night, I even flushed out the access pipe to the septic tank in the old basement floor with the hose, to make sure that second bottleneck was still clear. Having the laundry draining into the septic again should actually help keep that clear, too.

By the time my brother left, he’d been here about four hours, with a brief stop for lunch, working on all this!

My brother is allergic to cats, so I had lunch with him in his car.

Meanwhile, he can return all the parts and pieces he never needed to use, and get his money back!

We’re still blown away by finding that piece of fabric stuck in the valve. So utterly unexpected.

The fact that nothing was damaged by it is pretty amazing, too.

So we were all wrong about what was going on, and that’s just fine! With some of the possible causes, this is one of the easiest fixes there could have been.

As for the frozen ejector, it’s hard to say how long it will take for the calcium chloride to work its way down to the bottom. Then my brother will need to come back and switch the pipes so we can test it out and, hopefully, be able to leave it.

We might not be using the emergency diverter all winter, after all!

Wouldn’t THAT be nice!

Also.

My brother is the best.

The Re-Farmer

Not a wasted trip, plus isolation shelter repair

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Today was the day my husband and I were able to head into the nearer city to trade in his phone. With his contract expired, returning the phone would save getting hit with the balance of the after contract bill, and he could trade up to a newer version.

That was the plan, anyhow.

Since trading in the phone meant it needed to be checked as being in good working condition, that had to be done in person. It would be a painful trip for him, but it’s been a long time since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments, so we were going to make the most of the trip. The store location is right next to the Walmart I normally go to if I’m not going to the larger city, plus there is a restaurant right near by.

We could *gasp* go on a date! 😄😄

So we headed out about mid morning, with a quick stop at the post office (the mail I’m expecting that’s been delayed by the strike still isn’t in – and it’s coming on on 2 months since it was sent!), and got there in decent time. Some sections of roads running East-West were in rougher shape, but better than I expected.

When we got there, I dropped my husband off at the cell phone store with his walker, then found a parking spot in between the three places we needed to go to. We had several choices on where to go for lunch, but decided to go to a Boston Pizza. My husband already knew what he’d be ordering, and asked if I could pick up some lactase for him, so I made a quick run into the Walmart to get that, first.

When I got back to the cell phone store, he was still in line. It was very busy. He’s been there long enough to hear and see transactions ahead of him and realized he might have a problem. They required photo ID.

He doesn’t have one.

He has other ID, but no photo ID. This goes back to when we tried to transfer his driver’s license the province we moved from, to this one, back in 2017. Even though his old driver’s license from this province was still on file, the laws changed because of identity theft. None of his ID match his birth certificate. It’s tradition in his family from the area he grew up in (he’s from the East coast) for everyone to have four names – three “first names” plus a surname – and use the second name as the given name. This only ever came up as a issue while he was in the military, and all they did was reverse his first two names on his paperwork. His old military passport has that version of his name in it.

What they told him he had to do when he tried to get his new driver’s license was to legally change his name to… his legal name… It was bizarre. Also, expensive and a weeks long process.

Unfortunately, it took so long to finally get to that conclusion, he was in insane amounts of pain by the time we left. We made a number of calls and ended up talking to the ombudsman, only to be told he just needed to have two bills/official documents with his full legal name on them, and they could issue him the ID. My husband, however, was not physically up to going back and going through all that hassle again. For the most part, however, when he does go out, all he needs to show is his health care card as ID, since it’s typically for medical appointments.

My thought was, if he could get his phone online in the first place, without having to prove his identify, there must be some way to do it in real life.

As we were waiting, I messaged my younger daughter to update her on things.

She sent me a photo.

I’d brought the truck up to the house for my husband, and shoveled the walkway up to the truck. After we left, she went out to shovel the rest of the walkways. In doing so, she startled some of the more feral cats out of the isolation shelter.

One of them jumped out in totally the wrong spot, so she went to take a look.

When we still had the large heated water bowl in there, and the cats kept knocking it down into the gap between the floor and the front that the cats can climb through, it knocked a screw loose right at the corner of the plastic window. I’d bought longer screws to secure it again, but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing it yet.

*sigh*

Well, a cat forced its way through the loose corner and snapped off a section of the plastic window.

The broken off piece could be put back and the corner patched up, though.

We were out of the neoprene washers we’d used for securing the plastic to the frame. I’d found them at the Canadian Tire, which was across the street, so I walked over to get some, along with some clear Gorilla tape, while my husband stayed in line. Depending on how long things went, I could meet him at the Boston Pizza.

I knew exactly where to go to find the washers, though, and the tape section was nearby, so it didn’t take long at all. The only down side is that the smaller washers I’d used before were not in stock. They had the next two sizes, and I went with the smaller, half inch washers.

After getting those and dropping them off in the truck, it took such a short time, I figured my husband might finally be at the counter, so I went back to the cell phone store, first. I checked inside, but was pretty sure my husband was already gone, though, as I saw fresh tracks in the snow on the sidewalk that looked like they could be from a walker or wheelchair.

Sure enough, he was already gone, so I ended up following his tire tracks all the way to the front door of the restaurant. He had pretty much just been seated when I got there!

He didn’t get a new phone.

Sure enough, his lack of photo ID meant he couldn’t trade in his old phone and couldn’t use it to trade up to a new one.

Which means, we’re going to get almost $700 added to our next cell phone bill.

*sigh*

On the plus side, I always pay what’s in the budget, not the actual amount for new charges, so we’d been building up a credit. My own phone had ended its contract and I got a much smaller end-of-term bill added, so that credit came in handy already. We’ll also be able to change our plans to reduce the monthly billed amount, which my husband will look into. We’ll still be paying the budgeted amount, though, so between the two, it won’t take long to pay it off, but still… what a pain!

For my husband, literally a pain.

Still, he was very happy to be out and about.

As for our meal…

We started out with a shared plate of onion rings for an appetizer, and those were good. It came with a lovely creamy dill sauce for dipping.

My husband ordered their nachos for his meal – they are an appetizer meant to be shared, so it was huge, as well as loaded with all sorts of toppings. He really liked it, and ended up having almost half of it boxed up for home.

I decided to try their maple bacon burger (no tomatoes, no onions). For the side, I chose a coleslaw.

I had the coleslaw first and it was the blandest coleslaw I’ve ever had in my life. I tasted zero vinegar. There was a dressing on it, but I couldn’t taste anything I could even give a name to. Oddly, though, I started feeling the heat of spices in the crevices of my tongue (this is something that is hereditary, and is the reason I can’t handle the heat of spices; the chemicals get into the crevices and even mild spices burn painfully). I couldn’t taste any spices, but that heat was there. It was so strange, and disappointing.

Then I had my burger.

I may not have had tomatoes or onions, but it was still loaded with toppings. Cheese, pickles, bacon, cheese, lettuce, the maple flavoured sauce and condiments, all on a brioche bun. It should have been packed with flavour.

It was bland. How all those ingredients could be bland, I don’t know, but they managed it. Perhaps it was because of the second issue I found.

It was barely even warm. The slice of cheese had melted over the burger, but was no longer melted. It’s like the burger had sat in the kitchen, and not under heat, long before it came to our table.

It still tasted okay. It certainly wasn’t a bad burger. Just not a very good burger.

As I’m writing this, I realized it never even occurred to me to say anything about it. I just ate it anyway.

In the end, the food, plus our Pepsi’s, totaled just over $68 before tip.

Ah, well. We had our date, and enjoyed each other’s company, and that’s why we were there in the first place!

As we were talking, it occurred to me that the last time we’ve been to a Boston Pizza, it was before we moved out of the city, and my husband was still working. There was a BP not far from the office he was in, and he and his co-workers would go there for lunch. Sometimes, the girls and I were able to meet him there during his lunch break. Which means, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve been to a BP!

I don’t think we’ll go again for probably another 10 years, if at all. There are far better, and better priced, choices out there.

That done, my husband was actually up to going to the Walmart with me. He had something he wanted to pick up himself, so I told him where he could find what he was after, then headed to the pet section. I’m not sure when I’ll make it back to the feed store for 40 pound bags of cat food, so I wanted to get a few 9kg bags for the outside cats, just in case. Plus, I got more canned cat food for the inside cats. My daughter let me know she and her sister were out of oat milk, so I picked up a couple of cartons for them, plus a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale.

As I went into the winding lane to the self checkouts, I caught up with my husband, at the next till. After talking to him for a bit, I grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks for the road, then paid for my cart load. Much to my surprise, I went through the exit just as my husband was done loading his stuff up into the basket under the seat of his walker!

Then the cashier handed him a Ziplock baggie with stuff in it. He was confused by this. It took a while to figure it out, but he’d made a donation to the Children’s Hospital, and I guess they have some sort of promo for donations of a certain amount. In the past, I’ve received a reusable bag, a lanyard and a pen at different times.

The baggie he got, though, had baby food items in it. A box of baby cereal and some sort of squeeze container. I’m not sure what else was in there. We had asked the cashier about a donation bin, and she said something about giving it to the food bank.

We’d gone through the first set of doors out when my husband stopped to put on his jacket, so popped back in and looked around some more for a donation bin. I didn’t find one, so I went to the customer service counter and asked the woman there. She stopped to think for a moment, told me they did have one, but she didn’t know where it was! She did take the baggie, though (it had “paid for” written on it already) and said she would take care of it, and talk to her manager. As she was talking to the back room, she passed another employee and I could hear her saying “we need to put a donation bin by the doors!”

So… that worked out, I guess! I have no idea what else we would have done with a baggie of baby food. There are no food banks in our area, and we don’t know anyone out here with babies to give it to. There’s a food bank in the town nearest us, though I don’t know where their donation bin is. The grocery store has one they keep near the exit, so I suppose we could eventually have left it there.

That done, we loaded up the truck and headed home. My husband had bricked his phone last night, expecting to be coming home with a different phone, so he didn’t have any of the apps we normally use. He was at least able to text my younger daughter to let her know we were on the way home.

Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload, but had to quickly dash ahead in to use the washroom – going in and out from warm buildings or a warm truck, into the cold, does terrible things to my bladder! My husband caned it in, leaving the walker for me to bring into the house later.

The first thing I noticed when I went into the washroom, though, was the quiet hum of a pump. Not the louder sound of the well pump, right under the bathroom. The septic pump, barely audible.

My daughters were upstairs, and no water was running to turn trigger the pump.

As soon as I could, I dashed into the basement to check.

Sure enough, I could see through the filter lid that the pump was running dry. It had been running for so long, not only was the motor hot, but the exit pipe was also hot!

I shut it off, then popped open the lid on the filter to prime it. The lid came right off; it wasn’t sealed for some reason!

I think we need to replace the O ring!

After priming it, I turned the pump back on and watched carefully. Sure enough, water started flowing through. So the tank did fill and triggered the float, but nothing was flowing through. It could be that something had blocked the pipe, or it could be because the filter lid was too loose and there wasn’t enough of a vacuum. This has happened before, though, and I had to pry the filter lid off, because the O ring was sealed so well, so I can’t say for sure.

Thankfully, once water started flowing through, that actually cooled down the pipe, and even the pump itself. I still stayed and watched until it shut itself off.

Part of the problem is, there are few places in the house were the pumps can be heard. Especially the septic pump, which runs quieter than the well pump. So unless someone is in my bedroom/office, in the bathroom, or standing by the basement door, they can’t hear the pump – and even if they were, they wouldn’t necessarily be there long enough to know if there’s a problem.

I’ve been looking at indoor security cameras to replace the critter cam in the sunroom. I want something that allows us to keep the live feed going continuously, and save files to a micro disc, without having to pay for a subscription. The ones I have been looking at can also be directionally controlled through an app.

We might need to get one for the basement, so we can check on the pump from anywhere. Depending on where we set it up, we could also see if anything is backing up through the floor drain again, too.

We need to replace the pump itself, but a camera is something we can afford in the short term. I was thinking of getting one in the spring, but we might just pick one up sooner, rather than later!

That taken care of, I unloaded the back of the truck, then fed the outside cats so I could park it. Which is when I remembered my husband’s walker was still in the back! 😄 So were the things I picked up at Canadian Tire, and his box of nachos.

I was just a big distracted after dealing with the pump!

Once I got everything to the house, I got the drill and driver to patch up the isolation shelter.

I don’t know why Instagram cut the pictures. I specifically set it to show full size when I uploaded them!

The first photo is the one my daughter sent me. The broken off corner was set on top of the entry shelter box. When I was going in and out of the house to unload the truck at point point, I was seeing Stinky watching me, through the hold in the corner!

Much to my surprise, several of the younglings actually stayed inside the shelter while I worked on it. The broken off piece has frost on it, and I held it in front of the heat bulb to get it melting, wiped it down, melted it some more, until I got it clean and dry.

The cats were quite confused by my actions!

I got the corner piece back in place and partially secured with new, longer screws. Then I covered the broken edges with clear Gorilla tape on the outside. I mean to do the inside, too, but that’s frost covered, so it will wait until that melts away and it can be cleaned and dried.

The very corner screw, however, wouldn’t secure. It stripped the pilot hole, and would need a wider screw. Since I was adding more screws to secure the plastic window in strategic places anyhow, I added a couple more on either side of the corner screw. The neoprene washers are too big for the screws, but as long as they are tight enough, they’ll keep the moisture out of the screw holes.

In the summer, what we might end up doing is cutting away the half of the window with the broken corner and putting in a new section over that side. My brother gave us a bunch of scrap wood and other materials, including a section of clear plastic (most likely Lexan) that might be big enough to cover the opening.

This patch will have to do for the rest of the winter, though.

By the time I was done, my daughter had put away the shopping and was helping my husband set his phone up again. He’s got it done enough that it can be used again, and he can log into his various accounts and apps.

The whole purpose of our trip to the nearer city was for him to trade in his phone, and that didn’t happen – but it wasn’t a wasted trip at all. My husband got to get out and about, which he hasn’t done in such a very long time. It was painful, but he was glad to have done it, and we even got a date out of it.

So all is good!

Tomorrow morning, though, I’m out again, this time to drop the truck off at the garage at 9am. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to replace the sensor and the block heater cord, or even if they’ll get to it right away, so I have no idea how long I’ll be in town. I don’t have any errands to run, though I will make a stop at the hardware store. In the summer, I would walk to the beach or something and enjoy the outdoors. There are no indoor places to just hang out in the winter, and the high for tomorrow is expected to be -20C/-4F. There are just stores, restaurants and gas stations, and I don’t like to linger if I’m not going to buy anything.

Ah, well. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to hang out in town during the winter.

After that, I should be able to stay home for the weekend and just enjoy not going anywhere! 😄

The Re-Farmer

We have a truck again – and hot water!

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Woohoo, what a day!!!

I hadn’t heard from the garage about the status of our truck, but today was my day to do our first stock up shopping trip (which will get its own post later). Once I was in the city, I texted our mechanic and let him know I had a reliable signal, so he could update me whenever he had the chance.

Long story short, it was fixed and getting its oil change, and would be ready soon.

Yay!

Now, to get the truck, I was thinking I would have to do it another day, as I would first be driving to the city to get my SIL, then we’d drive back to the garage, pay and get the keys, then my SIL would take their car to their home and I’d take the truck to ours.

Well, after much messaging between my brother and his wife, and the garage, it was worked out to get it done today! My brother was bringing one last load here to the farm, with my SIL coming along to help me get the truck, but they weren’t going to make it until well after the garage closed.

With a discount for paying in cash, the total was $320. On the way home from the city I still had to stop at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of cat food to tide us over until my husband’s main disability pay comes in. A branch of my bank is in the same town, so I got the cash, then drove to the garage to pay for the work and get the keys before they closed, leaving the truck until I could come back with me SIL.

I was able to briefly talk to the mechanic about the truck. It turned out to be probable the best of all possible scenarios.

The oil pump’s sensor needing replacing.

He said this is so common, he changes out about one of these every week – which is a lot for a town this size.

There is no damage to the engine at all, which is a HUGE relief.

From there, I finally went home to unload the shopping of the day, then had a quick supper. I took advantage of the daylight to work on a garden bed until my brother and his wife arrived. She and I then left pretty much immediately to get the truck.

Their car is a sweet ride, but it sure felt good to be driving our truck again!

After a quick stop to add a bit of gas, I headed home – absolutely paranoid about all the gauges and lights and warnings a long the way!

It was fine. Apparently, this is why the check engine light had been on, too.

Once we got back, we helped my brother unload. When things were mostly done, my SIL headed home ahead of him – it was already full dark by then. While this is the last load for the farm, they still have a few more things to take care of on their property before the new owners officially take possession of it.

I continued helping my brother until it was all done. The only down side was when I popped the tailgate back onto the trailer. It’s made to slide down channels on the sides, but if it doesn’t drop straight, one end tends to catch. That happened and when I got it loose, it dropped straight down.

Right onto the tips of two of my fingers!

One of them is now quite swollen, making typing rather difficult! 😄

Once everything was closed up and put away, my wonderful, awesome, amazing brother took the time to work on our hot water tank!

The first thing he did was use a different handle for the socket, and was able to get the old anode rod out, while I held the tank in place as best I could. Once those tanks are empty, they are really quite light!

The anode rod was longer than there’s space above the tank, so he had to bend it to get it out. It was quite covered in crud, of course. I honestly expected it to look worse.

Once that was done, it was a relatively simple matter to install the powered rod (not an affiliate link). This is how it looks now.

The rod itself is a lot shorter than what we pulled out, so that made it easier to install. It sticks out a lot further than I expected. There is a ground wire now attached to one of the screws around the top of the tank.

Then it was time to remove the elements.

When he tested it with his meter before, the top one was out. He didn’t have his meter with him this time, but I was sure the bottom one was also burnt out.

After removing the wires, it was quite easy to get the top element out. After making sure the threads were clean and clear, the new element was installed and wired up again.

Then it was time to take out the bottom element.

Wow. That was… something.

It wasn’t difficult to unscrew it, but once my brother starting trying to pull it out, it did NOT want to come out. It was completely covered in crud! He kept having to twist it back and forth to break off the crud and try to pull it out, little by little. It turned out to be longer than expected – and then there was a bend at the end!

Once he got it out completely, we could see that it was supposed to be bent back on itself, but it was so full of crud that, as my brother pulled it out, he actually straightened the element out in the process.

After he pulled it out, he bent it back like it was originally supposed to be – sort of.

Here is the old and new elements.

Yes, they are different elements; this part number for the new one is the number I was given by the company for the bottom element.

Here are all three parts. Instagram cuts off part of the photo, so you can’t see the tip of the anode rod, which has even more crud on it than the rest.

The straight element it from the top. That’s the one that was dead when my brother tested them. How the bottom one was still live at the time, I have no idea! That one was so encased in crud!

The new powered anode rod is supposed to keep that from happening again. Or, at least, not so quickly. This tank was installed only a year ago! The shorted life span of any of the tanks we had – though the previous ones started leaking from their bases somewhere inside, and this one hasn’t.

Once everything was installed, it was time to start filling the tank.

When there was enough water in it, we allowed it to drain out the bottom, to take some of the crud out with it. We didn’t see a lot, though.

As the tank filled, we ran the hot water at the old laundry sink in the basement, while my daughter ran all the hot water taps upstairs, to get the air out of the pipes and clear out more crud. Once the tank was full, we did it again, before finally asking my daughter to turn on the breaker. We also plugged in the powered anode rod.

My brother waited a while longer, checking the elements to make sure nothing was leaking, etc. He couldn’t stay until the entire tank heated up, though, and left soon after.

We do now have hot water, though! In fact, it’s now so hot, we might want to turn the thermostat down on the tank!

No more heating pots and kettles of water, for dishes and sponge bathing!

We’re all so paranoid of things breaking, though, no one has dared to take a shower, yet. 😄

Meanwhile, with this new powered anode rod, we should also no longer have that sulfur smell from the hot water. We’d been treating the tank with hydrogen peroxide to get rid of it, but it never lasted long. Eventually, we just stopped bothering, and put up with the smell.

I am so glad my brother was able to take the time to help us with this. Especially when they have so much going on with their move right now. In retrospect, while we might have been able to do it ourselves to a certain point, when it came to getting that bottom element out, we could not have done it. I’ve lost so much grip strength due to arthritis, I couldn’t have done it. My younger daughter injured her wrist while installing the tub surround, and both my daughters have all the joint issues that comes with PCOS. My husband, of course, is the most broken of all of us, and shouldn’t even be doing the stairs.

My brother is the best!

The Re-Farmer

Progress so far

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My plans to work outside today have been derailed by high winds.

Hopefully, all the leaves in the yard haven’t been blown away, because I was planning to use them as mulch!

Stuff did get done, though.

But first, the cuteness!

The kibble I picked up yesterday is a different brand from what I’d picked up at the beginning of the month. The pieces are quite a bit smaller. When I set them to soak, it was absolute mush by the time I headed out to feed the kitties.

They didn’t seem to care one whit! They are just loving their warm breakfasts!

Once back inside, my first priority was to see if the leftover pieces of wood lath could be used as spacers in the cutaway portion of the wall around the tub. I was afraid they would be too thick, but they turned out to be the same width as the fake tile paneling. They were too thick for some places that already had spacers of a sort in them. We’ll just have to work around that.

My main focus was around the pipes, and the outer edges. There were also a few nails that simply would not come out, nor could they be hammered in, along the back wall, and I wanted to make sure there were spacers in between them. The areas you can see in the photo above with no spacers added are where there are already spacers of various sizes.

After that was done, my daughter grabbed the tube of mold and mildew resistant sealant. Unfortunately, when she started to apply it with the tip of the tube, the back end of the tub popped open! So she ended up squeezing the sealant out the back and using her finger to scoop it and spread it. If you click through to the second image, you can see part of where she used it. She sealed the cut edges of the openings around the pipes, and every corner and edge around the cut out portion.

She used most of the tub, but there was still a bit left. Since the tub was broken, it wouldn’t last and we didn’t want it to go to waste. I was able to use the last of it for what I’d bought it for in the first place; this stuff is both sealant and adhesive, and I used it along the edge of the overlapping roof panels on the cat isolation shelter.

Unfortunately, there is just no way to clamp it down. I put weights on, but some places still just did not want to stay together. We will just pick up another tube – this stuff is very inexpensive – and go over it again later. The catio roof needs to be seals, too.

Working on that roof was somewhat alarming, though. I’m glad the entire structure is as heavy as it is! It’s in a sheltered area, but not from the south winds we have today. The south facing edge of the roof panel was being rattled by the wind quite a lot.

Thankfully, we screwed the roof panels down quite securely. It could still potentially get blown off, but it’s not that bad, yet. We will need to keep an eye on it, though, because the wind could loosen, if not tear off, some of the screws.

Speaking of which, I was curious about what is officially considered “high winds” so I looked it up.

Did you know there is a wind scale, like there is an earthquake scale? It’s call the Beaufort wind scale.

According to the weather app, we’re getting 30kph winds. On the Beautfort scale, that is a “fresh breeze”, when “Small trees with leaves begin to sway.”

Yeah, I’m calling BS on that. Based on what I was seeing when I was outside, we are somewhere between a 6 and a 7 on their chart – a “strong breeze” or “near gale”, with the occasional “gale” gust strong enough to take down branches. I’m finding small branches all over the place, these days.

Anyhow… where was I?

Ah, yes. Sealant.

The sealant needs a full 36 hours to dure. After that, everything will get one last coat of paint.

Once that is dry, we can try and figure out exactly where we need to cut holes into the tub surround to fit over the plumbing.

So we’re looking at a couple more days before we can start installing the tub surround.

Since there is nothing more we can do in the bathroom for now, and it’s too windy to work in the garden outside, my daughter and I really pushed to get as many dishes done as we could. Without hot water, we’ve been mostly just using the kettle for hot water, which doesn’t go very far when it comes to doing dishes. This time, we filled up our stock pots (not the giant one; that would be too heavy for our glass top stove) to heat, then kept refilling and heating more. We were finally able to get those odd items that gets set to one side as we do loads of things we use the most often that somehow never get done.

My older daughter, who was working all night on commissions, sent me some funds for take out, so as the last of the dishes were being done, I headed into town to pick that up. We’ve had more take out in this month than we’ve had in years!

When I opened the garage door for the truck, I saw something curious on the tailgate.

Tiny little hand prints in the dust, from something that was climbing up to the box cover.

Those are not kitty paw prints, that’s for sure. Those are tiny little racoon hand prints!

What I don’t know is, why would racoons be climbing the truck? The box is empty, and there isn’t even food garbage anywhere in the truck or garage.

As long as they don’t damage anything…

Anyhow…

The sealant in the bathroom needs dry conditions as it cures, so no one is going to be heating up stock pots of water and use the tub for washing. Back to sponge bathing in the sink!

With getting as many dishes done as we were able to, though, I was able to set up the slow cooker with just water in it. That can be left without someone continually there to keep an eye on it, and we’ll have a larger amount of hot water handy for general washing and can just top it up as needed. Much better than our poor, over worked kettle! Our kettle is clear glass, and we can see just how quickly the rust and scale builds up! My older daughter gave it a good scrubbing last night.

Well, we might not be able to get more done in the bathroom until the sealant cures, not work done outside, so I guess this is a good day to collect the ripened tomatoes and peppers in the living room and see if there is enough to process for the winter!

Time to get back to it, then!

The Re-Farmer

Okay, we did know this was going to happen

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Did it have to happen now?

For those who have been following this blog for a shorter time, I’ll give a bit of a back story.

When we moved into this “perfect” house, at the request of my mother, we of course found all sorts of problems all over the place.

One of those was the hot water leaking in the bath tub. The rust stain below showed this was not a new problem.

When we had septic backing up into the basement (again) a few years ago, we had a plumber come in to auger the floor drains. While he was here, I asked him about the leaking tap. He asked me some questions I couldn’t answer, like whether or not the pipes could be access from the front, of if they had to be accessed from the bedroom on the other side of the wall.

There is no access panel, there.

When my father got running water and an indoor bathroom for the house, in the early 70’s, the bathroom walls were covered with waterproof paneling make to look like tiles.

The tub surround was installed on top of this paneling, with arm bars added later on.

The caulking for the tub surround was coming loose, and we had no idea what the state of the caulking on the fake tile paneling underneath was like.

The plumber gave us an estimate of $400 to replace the taps – he thought he could fix them, but we wanted to replace them – but he told us the tub surround would have to be removed, and that was not something he did, so we would need to be prepared to replace that.

With this information in hand, we got a replacement faucet set with level taps in stead of knob style – something better for arthritic hands.

We also picked up a new tub surround, adhesive and caulking.

Which has all just been sitting there all this time.

After the illegal lockdowns and various economic disasters, I eventually called the plumber to ask for a new estimate, but he never called back. Considering all the hits to our finances recently, from now having payments on the truck, replacing multiple desktop computers, etc., it really didn’t matter much.

Of course, over time, the leak just kept getting worse. The strangest thing was that, if only the cold water tap was turned on, the hot water tap would start leaking!

Well, today, it finally happened.

My daughter was just finishing her shower, went to turn off the hot water, and the tap just kept spinning and spinning!

Which bring us to another problem with the plumbing in this old house.

A severe lack of shut off valves.

To shut the water off for the tub, we had to shut off the water for the entire house.

Once she was able to get out of the shower, my daughter started working on taking off the taps and faucet.

Yikes.

The one with more rust on the inside was the hot water tap.

Click through to the next photo, and you’ll see the inside of the faucet.

The rust and scale I can understand, but cobwebs???

My daughter then had to start tearing off the tub surround, starting with the one behind the taps.

That was a messy and difficult job.

We then learned three things.

First, we would have had to access the taps from the other room to be able to replace them. We might still have to.

That will require almost emptying by husband’s bedroom. The only thing that wouldn’t need to move would be his hospital bed.

Then we’d either have to remove an entire sheet of paneling – which is what I think has been done over the years – or cut an access panel. Either way, it’s going to be a major issue for my husband.

Second, the rot in the fake tile paneling is really bad. I expected it to be bad, but… yuck.

No, I’m not going to post picture of it.

The water damage extends all around the tub, but the other two walls are not as bad as we feared.

Still, we’re going to have to cut off at least the bottom 16″ of the paneling (4 “tiles” high), then see how bad the damage is, behind it.

Third, this is going to take a long time to get fixed. We don’t even know what we’re going to need to do to get it all useable, yet, anyhow.

Meanwhile, the entire house is without water.

That meant a trip to the hardware store for a couple of Shark-bite style shut off valves.

My daughter then spent almost 3 hours installing them, with me as her flashlight holding assistant. It was incredibly awkward, and hard to get at.

Once they were finally installed, we added a sealing tape around each end of the valve, then went over that with electric tape, just to be on the safe side. We had to install a shut off valve in the hot water pipe to the laundry sink, and it now leaks every time we turn it on to use the tap. That on is an actual Shark-bite brand, and one end never gripped properly.

So we wanted to play it safe.

The first image above is the cold water pipe. That one had to be installed directly above the sump pump reservoir, which made reaching it a bit precarious. It was the easier one to install, though!

If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see the hot water pipe, which is just off where it branches to the kitchen and laundry, and next to the pipe that goes up to the toilet tank, and next to the furnace duct…

That pipe didn’t have as much play in it, either, and my daughter ended up having to cut off more pipe just to be able to get it into the valve end.

To top it off, there was all the water to deal with. My daughter did the hot water tap first, and after the first cut, the water just wouldn’t stop flowing! We ended up having to drain the hot water tank and open other taps, and still had to kept lifting the pipe at a bend to try and get more water out of the pipe. The cold water pipe did that, too, but not as much as the hot water pipe!

Needless to say, my daughter was feeling wet and gross by the time it was all done.

The important thing, though, is that they work. We could turn the water back on for the rest of the house!

While my daughter was finally able to leave, I stayed to monitor the refilling of the hot water tank. We couldn’t just turn the valve on all the way, as it would drain the pressure tank faster than the well pump could fill it again, which causes problems for the pump.

Yes, that still needs to be replaced, too.

Every now and then, I’d have to shut the valve off completely and let the pump finish filling the pressure tank before opening it up again, to stop the grinding noise it was making!

After the hot water tank had time to fill for a while, my daughter turned its breaker back on, so it could start heating up, too.

Then we had to run all the taps in the house to get the air out of the pipes.

That will be all we do about the tub for today!

While we figure things out there, we’ll all be sponge bathing for the next while – and I can’t even guess how long it will take for us to be able to use the tub and shower again! I supposed if we are at least able to install the faucet set, we could use the tub to wash in, and make sure not to splash. We just won’t be able to use the shower until this is all done.

*sigh*

It’s a pain, to be sure, but right now, I’m just thankful that the rest of the house has water, and it’s just the tub/shower that’s out of commission! We’ll just have to deal with things as they are.

It’s not like we have any choice in the matter!

The Re-Farmer