My friend, M, who was a cook on my friend's schooner, shall be cooking there once again. The cook who started this sailing season can't complete it, so M will be taking over.
She asked me if she and her grandson Jack, he of spicy ketchup potato chip/crisp fame, could stay chez moi for two days whilst she gets things organised in the galley and sets things up. Everything had to be removed after my friend's schoonre ran aground, and she lives just far enough away that the ride would be a very long one home and back.
I readily agreed.
When she and Jack had helped out a bit earlier last week, they stopped by the house here to say hi. They both had a to meet Jim, and like me, both loved him instantly. Jim liked both of them, although squirmed a bit when Jack tried to hold him, indicating his desire to jump about and play. Jack was loathe to leave and in subsequent conversations with his grandmother, when my name was mentioned, he'd say, "You mean where Jim is?" Prior to meeting Jim, he referred to me as "that lady with the bear in the back yard."
Himself noticed the hot water tank leaking, so we called the plumber. We need to add a bit of wiring to change this indirect heated one (heated via an oil-burning furnace) to an electric one, unless we wanted to pay nearly double for a new indirect heated one, so it took a day to get an electrician to do the work. Himself is away, and the old water heater died. Okay, not entirely unexpected, but i had hoped it would hang in there until the new one is installed (happening tomorrow).
As it turns out, M and Jack will not be spending the night here tonight, which is just as well. Since i'm already known as "the lady with the bear in the back yard" and "that place where Jim is" i can forego "the lady with the bear in the back yard, where Jim lives, and there's no hot water."
I've been heating water on the stove top for dishwashing and i've broken out the solar showers for bathing. They're okay in a pinch, but i shall be glad to return to hot water on tap!
we are all a product of a tie when everything is "on tap" x
ReplyDeleteWe are on a spring and have "run out" of water due to several parts breaking down. Never fails that it is a weekend and we can't get water or someone out to fix the problem. 2 houses sharing water or "no water" really puts a damper on life. I can empathize with not having hot water for sure....
ReplyDeleteOoh, Patti, we were on a well at our last house. Water there tasted great, but if we lost power, we had no water. We lost power every third storm for the first 10 years or so we lived there. I routinely filled one of our two bathtubs with water so we could get by, and was always grateful to have the second tub!
ReplyDeleteI would have no problem heating water on our wood fired cooker, but not enough for a whole bath-full. I can foresee a time when we'll need to conserve rain water; it's becoming a rare commodity.
ReplyDeleteThe two solar showers work well, actually, and i used both when a friend and i went to Alaska. The larger one is 5 gallons (tad under 19L), and the smaller one is a 3L model. I find the 3L a bit too small--4L or 1 gallon (US) would be fine for me. If there's no sun, as happened the first night, i heated up some water on the stove and mixed it with cold tap water. I filled the 3L one and partially filled the 5 gallon one (about a third full).
ReplyDeleteI must admit, longish, hot showers are a guilty pleasure of mine!