We had tons of fun and stories to tell, but when I returned from the cruise, this is what we found!
Although beautiful, our water pipes didn't seem to care for it much and quit working. Well, technically, they busted all over the place!
We got on the phone with our handy, dandy, fix-it man and he repaired what he could. He at least got it working so we could take a shower. The following day he came back to finish up the work and upon fixing everything caught his foot on one of the pipes and ruptured it!
Now, we had our handy, dandy fix-it man here, but apparently, we weren't the only ones with busted pipes and all the area stores were out of stock on the piece we needed.
At least we did get a shower in! We kind of figured it wouldn't be worth it to look high and low for the part when the temperature was going to drop again into the teens. Yes, Virginia, we are in Texas! So, we waited a couple of days until it was a wee tad warmer before trying to fix the pipe again.
Day 4 of no water and Mr. Fix-It came back. Glory be, he got the water working again and wrapped some of the pipes so this would not happen again.
Around 4am, I heard something really weird happening. We had left the water running in our sinks, but now all we heard was sputtering and spewing. Noooooooo, it can't be happening again!!! At 4am, my wonderful husband put on warm gear and went out to the well house to turn the water off......again.
Day 5. After looking everywhere, we couldn't find the leak, but in looking inside the well house, the fan belt on the compressor was gone. Off to the store we went and got a new belt. This time, my husband took it upon himself to fix the compressor. He did such a good job, but the well tank still wasn't filling up! We looked all around the house and couldn't find where it was leaking. On a hunch, he went in the back to the barn.
Tadah!!! Water was going everywhere from a pipe that hasn't been used in I don't know how many years! Best thing about that was that it was an easy fix. The barn pipe was capped, the well restarted and guess what ladies and gentlemen?
We have water!!!!! At times it felt like we were back in the Hurricane Ike days with the exception that we had electricity.
Top things I have found out about not having running water.
1. It takes at least a gallon of water to flush a toilet.
2. If you microwave water for 2:00 minutes, it will be warm enough to wash your face.
3. Trying to take a sponge bath does not really work when it is freezing outside and you only have 2:00 minute warmed water.
4. Eat out.....a lot. That way you won't have dishes piling up in your sink.
5. Hope you have a lot of clean clothes as your washing machine doesn't do much!
I am now very appreciative of the pipes in our house and having water. So much for global warming!
