Thursday, December 9, 2010

Electricity and a Sprained Ankle!

We got an early start last Saturday to meet the guys we hired to help install the utility pole. The pole had already been delivered and everything was ready to go. It was our turn to go pick up milk, eggs, cheese, meat, etc. from the farm for our church's co-op, so since we had a very busy day, I volunteered to drive out there. It is always a pleasant visit at the farm: a sweet Menonnite family with 10 (or is it 12?) children, most of whom are already grown and moved out of the house, but those who are still at home are always so helpful. One of the daughters is very good at organizing the milk into coolers, making everything fit. This time we went home with a cooler on loan, since we had about 20 gallons of milk, 10 dozen eggs, and other meat, cheese, and dairy products. That was one full van!

Upon returning, I learned that our hired help did not show, would not return calls, and had disappeared with our copper piping from our metal pile. We had discussed him taking metal, but the WHOLE thing, not just the copper. The copper is, of course, most valuable, and the main reason why someone would even come to pick up the load. Later on in the week they came back for the rest of the metal, but still never called to talk about not showing. So disappointing! Fortunately, a good friend, who is an electrician, spent the WHOLE day out there, working out of the kindness of his heart, helping Jeremy hook everything up, rent an auger, hoisting that 16 foot pole (along with our neighbor) into the hole, and working through all the kinks with us. We finally got it all done. We just needed to get have the electric company come out and hook it up, and they did on Monday.

The plan on Monday was to come out and see how everything was working. The children and I prepared a nice meal ahead of time (just in case there was a problem, we didn't want to depend on the stove working!), and brought it out there to meet Jeremy. When we arrived we saw lights in the house - a good sign! Then we could hear the heater going! We had nice hot water - stinky and black at first, but eventually usable. It feels more like home now....well, all except for the nasty particle board subfloors with no flooring! And the rooms that still need painting....oh, and the gutted bathroom...but you get the picture. We're getting there.

Wednesday our front door arrived at our current house (for our mobile home, that's just how the delivery worked). You see, up until this point, we had a busted door that didn't close right, and that had to be WIRED shut! Yes, you read that right. The door didn't actually LOCK, we just had a piece of wire wrapped around it to keep the thing from flying open. And our light switches required the use of a screwdriver to operate, so the mobile home dealer delivered new switches, too. Jeremy came home early and helped strap the door onto the top of the van, and we took dinner out there once again.

The little ones were fussy and kept stepping on and/or losing small but vital pieces to the door, so I decided, after dinner dishes were washed, to take Seth to Wal-Mart (not too many choices out there) to get a few things we needed, and put Faith to bed in the playpen in the trailer. While we were gone, Jeremy fell from the latter and sprained his ankle. He was in a lot of pain this morning, so we took him to Care Now to verify that it was, indeed, NOT broken, but just a bad sprain. So, no work for us this weekend! We will take a much needed break. But our new utilities mean that we can stay for the weekend whenever we want now. We are going to try to finish the boys' room and put the carpet squares down so that we can bring an inflatable mattress and "camp out" in there. Much better than the dirty particle board. You just can't clean that stuff!

1 comment:

  1. I don't remember falling from a "latter". I wonder if that's similar to falling from a former :)

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