Surprises

July 21, 2006 (12:06pm)
66º F, Wonderful cool, NNW wind 10 mph.

Good afternoon,

Oh is this nice weather or what. The temperature at noon was 66º F with a really nice breeze blowing. I know this is short lived, but we really enjoy it while it lasts. All of the windows in the house are open and have been for several days, other than during the rain. It really is nice to wake up in the morning, listening to the birds and critters wake up too. The last rain we got was officially measured at less than .1", but looking at things here, we had closer to 1.5-2" of rain. The driveway tracks were filled with water, looking just like it did this spring! It will drain off much more rapidly this time of year.

We went to Birchwood for cheap chicken last night. We go early to avoid the farmer’s rush, but instead they were very busy with a couple of groups of Czech dancers from the County Fair. I think they had a special program yesterday. We had to wait for a time until a table cleared. The bar area was also pretty filled with folks waiting to eat also. Talking to the gal seating us, she said that last week a group of 270 people came in, unannounced, for the cheap chicken. Needless to say, they were swamped and we were happy we weren’t there. I know they aren’t set up for that many, so bet the folks ate in shifts! I asked our waitress if when she went home at night, after a busy night, if she was any shorter than when she woke up. She said she had not thought about that but maybe it would be a good idea to check. Anywho, the food was excellent as always.

We just had a weird experience. Margriet started to make some toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch and the range would not light! Since we were in a bit of a hurry (my belly-button was chewing on my backbone) I lit the burner with a match to check out the situation after lunch. Just did that. In the process of clearing off the stove so I could move it with out messing up the place, I noticed that one of the cutting boards was missing that normally takes up residence next to the stove. It had fallen down behind the stove, knocking the electrical plug wacky just enough to not make a connection. I tipped the range forward and re-plugged it. That was an easy fix, but a goofy cause. Sandwiches were good and gone!

Margriet was on one of the forums she participates in and found a picture of a Goggomobile (small, old, German car) one member had on one of his replies. That started some curiosity in her, so looked up the website ( http://www.goggomobil.com/ehome/ehome.html ). Of course she had to send it to me, and I HAD to look at it too. It turns out to be one of great interest to me and really good. There are lots of things to look at. I spent way too much time, but it is all Margriet’s fault! ;-) Some of the pages are in German, but there is an English section for most of the site. Found out we call turn signals by the incorrect name - they really are winkers! They also had an accessory you can add to the car in the form of flower vases! About a dozen different styles too. Maybe that was the forerunner of air-fresheners. I will go back to the site to look more. She also found another car, Wartburg, I had never heard of, but she knew and had in her family years past.

7:47 pm.
66º F, Cloudy, NNW wind 1 mph.

So after a lot of wiggling, grunting, squirming, crawling, and getting plumb grubby, but no naughty words, I think I have found the leak in the plumbing this afternoon. Totally not where I expected though and I found an additional surprise too. The leak apparently is in the incoming line from the well head, "underground" to the connection with the house. Actually, a piece of copper tubing was wrapped with a little fiberglass insulation, laid on the ground, then covered with the ground cover in the crawl space. I have a feeling the pipe also froze the first winter we were here when the LP provider turned off the gas when the tanks were changed, causing the heat to be off for several days. It has not been getting better since then and I didn’t notice it until a few days ago.

The task of replacing the main line will indeed not be fun. Of course it runs to the opposite side of the house from the well. I know the well end is about four feet down and rises to the surface under the house. I will have to dig it up in order to replace it. Actually the outside end will be the easy end as I don’t need to do it on my belly in a crawl space. Not too sure how I will accomplish the task yet. I am thinking fo using Pex tubing instead of copper. It should be able to take freezing better than copper. The copper is connected to the house with a flange fitting, but I don’t know how it is connected on the other end - yet.

The surprise I found was the shower drain leaks while checking the plumbing. All the new piping I put in still doesn’t leak and appears to be in good shape. I found the drain leak before the main line leak and thought maybe it was the cause of the water under the vapor barrier., but it really didn’t really make sense as there was too much water showing to be from 2-4 showers a day. Should be an interesting bit it exercise for me in the near future.

I was using a piece of used Masonite to keep be out of the wet under the house. The piece I had was too short, so went to get some ¼" OSB that came with the house to extend my slide way. When I pulled the piece out, I was almost covered with small ants in a few seconds. Apparently they used the space between the sheets as their home. I also found out that they bite too! The OSB turned black almost at once. I really was surprised as the OSB is stored on the rafter ties in the shed. Got out the insect spray and I think I took care of a bunch of them, but will have to follow it up another day.

The shower will also need some attention fairly soon. The real problem is the shower was put in just before we bought the place, but was never really totally installed. I didn’t notice that until after we had used it for a couple of weeks, then did the finally sealing on the walls and the base. Apparently the drain flange was not tightened sufficiently when it was installed. The problem mainly is that there is no way to get at it without tearing out the shower totally and it is glued in place. When I take it out, it probably will be destroyed. It really is not the world’s greatest shower in the first place, even if it were installed completely and correctly.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><