The quirks of country living are being revealed to us week by week and lately the quirks are linked to alarms that go off or alarms that don't go off. Last week it was the septic alarm this week the cistern low water alarm failed to activate. Wednesday evening, the water flow from the taps was suddenly reduced to a very slow thin stream. That was our first warning that things were not normal. Greg called the fellow who installed the cistern and pump as a first line of defense and his response was "you are probably out of water". I am sure that some of these wonderful country dwellers cringe when newbies move to the country! But, why didn't the alarm work?
One quick trip into the mechanical room revealed the offending breaker switch had been moved to the off position. No electricity to power the alarm, voila, no alarm. Not rocket science but kind of inconvenient. Never mind the question of how the switch ended up in the off position, it was most likely us. The bigger questions were how would we make coffee in the morning, was Joy going to have to wear a ball cap to teach class, and how quickly could the great guy from the water hauling company fill that cistern. My immediate concern was the ball cap scenario, I truly didn't want to frighten any students on Thursday morning at 8 a.m., it is traumatic enough for them to have an 8 a.m. class.
We ran through the list of neighbors who might rescue us by providing five gallons of water, and decided that Mark was the best to approach. Any one of them would have gladly shared water, but we were pretty sure that the fastest most fun approach would be to call Mark and offer a trade. A six pack of beer for five gallons of water, not quite a biblical miracle but almost felt like one to me when Greg returned home with the water after having helped to drink some of said beer.
The house progressed a bit more this week, with the completion of the master closet and painting of the main floor. They have a bit of painting to finish up on Monday but that will put them two days ahead of schedule. Yippee.
One of the side benefits of our builder is that he and/or his workers break into song periodically. We told you about the Fiddler on the Roof rendition while they were roofing. This week, I wandered upstairs to check on the master closet progress and ran smack into one of the crew who was belting out Sharing the Night Together, or Let's Spend the Night Together. Not being that good at song titles combined with the element of surprise, leaves me not entirely sure which it was! But suffice to say, we both had a laugh.
Kanti is adjusting to being an upstairs dog, adamantly refusing to venture to the basement. We have now been trained to go upstairs in the morning, to sit amidst the construction debris and sawdust so she isn't lonely. If we do that she behaves quite well, gnawing on her bone for a while and resting at our feet. If we don't, she discovers the painting rags, the sandpaper, the painter tape....basically pulling anything she can reach from its box and hiding her bone in odd places like an air return instead of enjoying it.
It was a good week by the swake.
One quick trip into the mechanical room revealed the offending breaker switch had been moved to the off position. No electricity to power the alarm, voila, no alarm. Not rocket science but kind of inconvenient. Never mind the question of how the switch ended up in the off position, it was most likely us. The bigger questions were how would we make coffee in the morning, was Joy going to have to wear a ball cap to teach class, and how quickly could the great guy from the water hauling company fill that cistern. My immediate concern was the ball cap scenario, I truly didn't want to frighten any students on Thursday morning at 8 a.m., it is traumatic enough for them to have an 8 a.m. class.
We ran through the list of neighbors who might rescue us by providing five gallons of water, and decided that Mark was the best to approach. Any one of them would have gladly shared water, but we were pretty sure that the fastest most fun approach would be to call Mark and offer a trade. A six pack of beer for five gallons of water, not quite a biblical miracle but almost felt like one to me when Greg returned home with the water after having helped to drink some of said beer.
The house progressed a bit more this week, with the completion of the master closet and painting of the main floor. They have a bit of painting to finish up on Monday but that will put them two days ahead of schedule. Yippee.
One of the side benefits of our builder is that he and/or his workers break into song periodically. We told you about the Fiddler on the Roof rendition while they were roofing. This week, I wandered upstairs to check on the master closet progress and ran smack into one of the crew who was belting out Sharing the Night Together, or Let's Spend the Night Together. Not being that good at song titles combined with the element of surprise, leaves me not entirely sure which it was! But suffice to say, we both had a laugh.
Kanti is adjusting to being an upstairs dog, adamantly refusing to venture to the basement. We have now been trained to go upstairs in the morning, to sit amidst the construction debris and sawdust so she isn't lonely. If we do that she behaves quite well, gnawing on her bone for a while and resting at our feet. If we don't, she discovers the painting rags, the sandpaper, the painter tape....basically pulling anything she can reach from its box and hiding her bone in odd places like an air return instead of enjoying it.
It was a good week by the swake.
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