Monday, December 14, 2009
Parties, Pipes and a Mouse
Sit back with a cup of coffee, or your favorite beverage, because this weeks blog is sure to be long.
As I reported in last weeks blog, we had a very busy week. This week is starting out to be just a busy. Friday night, was Mark's work Christmas party. Both girls ended up at friends houses to spend the night, so I figured Mark and I would be able to stay out somewhat late into the night. As it turned out, we were home at 8:30 p.m. We are such light weights. The next night was my work Christmas party. The girls stayed home with pizza and TV, and we headed out. We had a great time laughing and dancing, and headed home about 10:45 p.m. after getting a call from the kids that we had stayed out too late. After getting home, and finding the girls asleep downstairs, we started doing the getting ready for bed thing, and realized that we did not have any water. Not a problem, sometimes the pressure switch on the pump at the well sticks. Mark headed down on the 4 wheeler, and called me "we are up to 40#, do you have water?" NO. "Ok, now we are up to 70# of pressure, do you have water now?" NO. "Crap!" So what do you do, when you realize that your pipes are frozen in the middle of the night. Go to bed, and hope you have water the next day. What false hopes!
The next day (Sunday) we wake up to cool temperatures. Mark ran garden hoses from the neighbors hydrant to our house, so we could fill water buckets and such. It was 29 degrees, and we had water for about 1 hour before the garden hoses froze. For those of you that don't know, we are on a community well. There are 3 houses that one well provides water. Since our neighbors had water, that meant that the frozen pipe was between their house and our house. Mark and a neighbor started digging at 7:30 a.m. We were hoping that the shut off valve to our house was where it was frozen. Of course if you know Mark and My luck, you know that it could never be that easy. No the shut off valve was not frozen, the 3" pipe that runs under the county road was frozen solid! So what does that mean? It means that we have to dig up the entire road! Several things happened this year and day to make the pipe freeze. One, we had a very wet fall, which caused there to be more moisture deeper into the soil than in years past. We had a very warm day on Saturday, and warm days will cause the frost to go deeper into the ground. Of course all of this would not have affected the pipe, but for the fact that it was only 12" to 18' underground. Our road has been blowing the top layer of soil for the last several years, and has been getting lower, plus one of the "professionals" that was out yesterday, said that driving over a pipe, actually makes it rise to the surface. Anyway the pipe froze, and we had a mess. With a lot of help from friends, we were reconnected and had water by 6:00p.m. The 29 degrees that I mentioned above, was the high of the day. By the time work got in full swing, it was 23.
In the midst of all the water problems, the girls had their Sunday school Christmas program. I took them to the neighbors for showers and got them all fixed up. I went without a shower or makeup, but did manage to get deodorant on so I didn't offend. All the kids did such a nice job, and looked so good in their costumes. Mark was unable to go due to the water work going on at home.
Let's see, I have mentioned the parties the pipes... oh yeah, the mouse. We have had a problem with mice this year. Probably because it has been so cold, they want to come into our nice warm house. I have killed 6 so far, and have traps set all over the place. My daily ritual is to check traps when I get up every morning. Any way, I was talking to my Mom on Saturday morning, and was sitting in the stair well. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement. I look and there is a mouse running toward me. I yell, Mouse, and he turns and runs behind the refrigerator. Mark pulls out the refrigerator, and gets the dog over and tries to get the mouse to run out so the dog can get it. Of course the dog does not know his job, and keeps running over to me. Plan B- get the cat. We lock the dog up in the bedroom (since the cat hates the dog) and get the cat out of the garage. The cat is scared to death that the dog is going to get her any minute, so when the mouse runs out she runs to the garage door. OK, Plan C- get a mouse trap. Mark gets a trap and sets it between the refrigerator and the cabinet. He then starts vacuuming under the frig since it is pulled out anyway. When he is done, he pulls the trap out and low and behold we have a mouse! I take the trap out the garage and show the "stupid" cat the mouse and explain to her that that was her job. I then open the trap over the trash can and the mouse falls in and starts running around. I can't believe it! After all that, the mouse is still alive. Mark took the trash can out to the dumpster and dumped it, so maybe the mouse will not make it back into my house!
Over all, we had a very exciting weekend and this next week will also be busy. I am hoping to start my Christmas shopping this week. I figure why wait till the last minute!
One final word. I would like to send a big THANK YOU too all the friends that spent their entire Sunday helping us get water.
As I reported in last weeks blog, we had a very busy week. This week is starting out to be just a busy. Friday night, was Mark's work Christmas party. Both girls ended up at friends houses to spend the night, so I figured Mark and I would be able to stay out somewhat late into the night. As it turned out, we were home at 8:30 p.m. We are such light weights. The next night was my work Christmas party. The girls stayed home with pizza and TV, and we headed out. We had a great time laughing and dancing, and headed home about 10:45 p.m. after getting a call from the kids that we had stayed out too late. After getting home, and finding the girls asleep downstairs, we started doing the getting ready for bed thing, and realized that we did not have any water. Not a problem, sometimes the pressure switch on the pump at the well sticks. Mark headed down on the 4 wheeler, and called me "we are up to 40#, do you have water?" NO. "Ok, now we are up to 70# of pressure, do you have water now?" NO. "Crap!" So what do you do, when you realize that your pipes are frozen in the middle of the night. Go to bed, and hope you have water the next day. What false hopes!
The next day (Sunday) we wake up to cool temperatures. Mark ran garden hoses from the neighbors hydrant to our house, so we could fill water buckets and such. It was 29 degrees, and we had water for about 1 hour before the garden hoses froze. For those of you that don't know, we are on a community well. There are 3 houses that one well provides water. Since our neighbors had water, that meant that the frozen pipe was between their house and our house. Mark and a neighbor started digging at 7:30 a.m. We were hoping that the shut off valve to our house was where it was frozen. Of course if you know Mark and My luck, you know that it could never be that easy. No the shut off valve was not frozen, the 3" pipe that runs under the county road was frozen solid! So what does that mean? It means that we have to dig up the entire road! Several things happened this year and day to make the pipe freeze. One, we had a very wet fall, which caused there to be more moisture deeper into the soil than in years past. We had a very warm day on Saturday, and warm days will cause the frost to go deeper into the ground. Of course all of this would not have affected the pipe, but for the fact that it was only 12" to 18' underground. Our road has been blowing the top layer of soil for the last several years, and has been getting lower, plus one of the "professionals" that was out yesterday, said that driving over a pipe, actually makes it rise to the surface. Anyway the pipe froze, and we had a mess. With a lot of help from friends, we were reconnected and had water by 6:00p.m. The 29 degrees that I mentioned above, was the high of the day. By the time work got in full swing, it was 23.
In the midst of all the water problems, the girls had their Sunday school Christmas program. I took them to the neighbors for showers and got them all fixed up. I went without a shower or makeup, but did manage to get deodorant on so I didn't offend. All the kids did such a nice job, and looked so good in their costumes. Mark was unable to go due to the water work going on at home.
Let's see, I have mentioned the parties the pipes... oh yeah, the mouse. We have had a problem with mice this year. Probably because it has been so cold, they want to come into our nice warm house. I have killed 6 so far, and have traps set all over the place. My daily ritual is to check traps when I get up every morning. Any way, I was talking to my Mom on Saturday morning, and was sitting in the stair well. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement. I look and there is a mouse running toward me. I yell, Mouse, and he turns and runs behind the refrigerator. Mark pulls out the refrigerator, and gets the dog over and tries to get the mouse to run out so the dog can get it. Of course the dog does not know his job, and keeps running over to me. Plan B- get the cat. We lock the dog up in the bedroom (since the cat hates the dog) and get the cat out of the garage. The cat is scared to death that the dog is going to get her any minute, so when the mouse runs out she runs to the garage door. OK, Plan C- get a mouse trap. Mark gets a trap and sets it between the refrigerator and the cabinet. He then starts vacuuming under the frig since it is pulled out anyway. When he is done, he pulls the trap out and low and behold we have a mouse! I take the trap out the garage and show the "stupid" cat the mouse and explain to her that that was her job. I then open the trap over the trash can and the mouse falls in and starts running around. I can't believe it! After all that, the mouse is still alive. Mark took the trash can out to the dumpster and dumped it, so maybe the mouse will not make it back into my house!
Over all, we had a very exciting weekend and this next week will also be busy. I am hoping to start my Christmas shopping this week. I figure why wait till the last minute!
One final word. I would like to send a big THANK YOU too all the friends that spent their entire Sunday helping us get water.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Now it feels like Christmas
It is now feeling more like Christmas. I still don't have any shopping done, but thanks to the girls selling magazines for school, I have most of the nieces and nephews done. Now I just have to get our families shopping done, and some baking, oh yeh, the Christmas letter sent out, the programs to go to, the Christmas parties... I think we need to postpone Christmas for a week or two.
We had our annual LWML Christmas supper and silent auction on Monday. We had a very nice skit about taking time during the Christmas season to remember Christ and to spend time with him in his word and praising him. I am trying to keep that in mind as the calendar fills up.
This week we have 1-2 and sometimes 3 things a night. Today is Wednesday, so Lexi has her pre-confirmation class, then it is Advent supper (good, I don't have to cook) then Advent services. Tomorrow is Kyra's school Christmas program, and I also have choir practice. Friday is Mark's work Christmas party, then Saturday is my work Christmas party. The church's Sunday school Christmas program is Sunday afternoon, then we start a new week.
We had a snow storm come through yesterday. They did not call off school, which in my opinion they should have (of course they didn't ask me), but they did let the kids out early, about the time the snow stopped. We were suppose to have high winds, and we did have some wind, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part of the storm was the low temp. We woke up to -11 this morning. I started the oven and got the fire place going, and the house warmed up nicely. The girls had 10:00 late start today, so we put up the fancy Christmas tree upstairs. I baked some weight watchers pumpkin muffins, and may get a batch of fudge done before going to work. I am trying to not make too many Christmas treats, as I like to eat them. The girls and I made sugar cookies that we put through the cookie press. They will have less calories since they don't have the icing on them. I plan to make a couple more things, so I can make plates for friends, and hopefully get most of it out of my house before temptation takes hold.
Mark has been busy with this snow storm keeping the hard surfaces bladed. He has been doing the church, as the gal that has shoveled the snow the last couple of years resigned this year, and nobody else volunteered to do it. I just love being married to a trustee! Mark is able to use his 4 wheeler with the blade, for most of the cement, but that does cause where and tear on his equipment. He has been getting up extra early so he can get his job done, before going to work.
It is now almost 9:15, and the bus should be coming after the girls soon, so better go get them motivated. Have a good week.
We had our annual LWML Christmas supper and silent auction on Monday. We had a very nice skit about taking time during the Christmas season to remember Christ and to spend time with him in his word and praising him. I am trying to keep that in mind as the calendar fills up.
This week we have 1-2 and sometimes 3 things a night. Today is Wednesday, so Lexi has her pre-confirmation class, then it is Advent supper (good, I don't have to cook) then Advent services. Tomorrow is Kyra's school Christmas program, and I also have choir practice. Friday is Mark's work Christmas party, then Saturday is my work Christmas party. The church's Sunday school Christmas program is Sunday afternoon, then we start a new week.
We had a snow storm come through yesterday. They did not call off school, which in my opinion they should have (of course they didn't ask me), but they did let the kids out early, about the time the snow stopped. We were suppose to have high winds, and we did have some wind, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part of the storm was the low temp. We woke up to -11 this morning. I started the oven and got the fire place going, and the house warmed up nicely. The girls had 10:00 late start today, so we put up the fancy Christmas tree upstairs. I baked some weight watchers pumpkin muffins, and may get a batch of fudge done before going to work. I am trying to not make too many Christmas treats, as I like to eat them. The girls and I made sugar cookies that we put through the cookie press. They will have less calories since they don't have the icing on them. I plan to make a couple more things, so I can make plates for friends, and hopefully get most of it out of my house before temptation takes hold.
Mark has been busy with this snow storm keeping the hard surfaces bladed. He has been doing the church, as the gal that has shoveled the snow the last couple of years resigned this year, and nobody else volunteered to do it. I just love being married to a trustee! Mark is able to use his 4 wheeler with the blade, for most of the cement, but that does cause where and tear on his equipment. He has been getting up extra early so he can get his job done, before going to work.
It is now almost 9:15, and the bus should be coming after the girls soon, so better go get them motivated. Have a good week.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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