Just thought I would let you know about a birthday giveaway celebration at http://catpatches.blogspot.com/ She is giving away some beautiful Ty Pennington fat quarters. She is brave by even telling her age, but you must know spanish or irish to read the numbers. So a sense of humor abounds with cats in hats, a cake on fire etc.
By the way, we still don't have running water, but making progress I think. We decided it is a short in the pump or in the wires going to the pump. We are still trying to get connected to the local water district. Always something.
Happy Sunday and it is now time to watch the race from Talladega...Go Jr. It is his race.
Peggy
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
LIVING WITHOUT RUNNING WATER! Not Fun!
Living Without Running Water
I think it was back about April 5th our neighborhood was hit somewhere by lightening. It hit so close the adapter or battery or more on my lap top is not functioning, I saw a blue flame like image come out of the electric outlet, our coffee pot stays on all the time unless it is unplugged etc, etc, etc. The item that bothers us the most is our well pump was somehow affected. Well being raised to do-it-yourself type person we first checked the things we can see. The pump is submerged about 100 ft into the ground. So we opened the control box and the capacitor had exploded. We really were not too happy about this, because we had just replaced the control box about 2 months prior due to age. So I took the side of the controller that was damaged into town and had the part that was destroyed replaced. We put things back together and everything was working fine. Then on the following Sunday we again had no water. After close examination the same part had a leak. So we were without water the rest of that day, because the store with replacement parts was closed. On Monday we went back to town and replace the capacitor and the relay. We also this time increased the pressure in the holding tank.....I don't understand all of this, but I listen closely when the plumbers we know take about common problems with wells. And again everything was put back together and it all worked, that is until last Saturday. Again no water. I checked the capacitor and it was still OK, but a little warm. That should have been my first Clue to let it cool down. I put it back in, the pump worked....for about 2 minutes \#$??@. So now we have accepted the fact this problem is beyond us and need to find someone else to work on the problem.
First I did some checking about cost of a new pump. The size we need would be at least $500.00. That doesn't include the labor to pull the old pump. If the tank is bad also I don't know how much that will be at this point. Hopefully we will get a call soon to let us know someone is coming to our house to look at the problem.
On top of all of this we are trying to get a mortgage so we can do some updates to the house and make it so it can be sold in the future. The loan requires us to be on a public water system if it is available. We have one available and had contacted them prior to out water problem. The wife stopped by the day we contacted them and said that we are not on the water system and she would talk to her husband when he got home that night. We tried to explain to her that we were on the system prior to 1984 when our well was put in. All the pipes are already in place, we just need to be connected to the system. We even went as far as finding their turn on valve, but we can not find our pipe close to the connector due to it's depth and the hardness of the soil. (By the way there has been at least two owners of the water system prior to the couple who own it now. Records from the first owners were more in their head as far as where things are located.) I guess the man never came home, so we are not connected to that system either.
A few things I have learned over the years is to always be prepared for the electric to go off. Always have water for drinking and flushing the toilet and washing our bodies. The things that have not been done is the dishes!!! We have been cooking and eating at home, but it is almost to the point that we are going to run out of plates and silverware. Fortunately we have another well supplied kitchen and will need to start using things from that kitchen tonight. I just hate to use the water we do have to wash the dishes. We use disposable things when we can, but I like real plates, knives and forks.
Yesterday we were invited to our "Adopted" families house for dinner, shower and clothes washing party. It was so nice of them to allow us to so that at their house.
I can say one thing about this experience. I prefer to be without Running Water then No Electric. We can survive by carrying in water, but no electric means no computer, TV, stove, lights and again NO RUNNING WATER!
Surviving just fine with out water, but want it fixed!
Peggy
I think it was back about April 5th our neighborhood was hit somewhere by lightening. It hit so close the adapter or battery or more on my lap top is not functioning, I saw a blue flame like image come out of the electric outlet, our coffee pot stays on all the time unless it is unplugged etc, etc, etc. The item that bothers us the most is our well pump was somehow affected. Well being raised to do-it-yourself type person we first checked the things we can see. The pump is submerged about 100 ft into the ground. So we opened the control box and the capacitor had exploded. We really were not too happy about this, because we had just replaced the control box about 2 months prior due to age. So I took the side of the controller that was damaged into town and had the part that was destroyed replaced. We put things back together and everything was working fine. Then on the following Sunday we again had no water. After close examination the same part had a leak. So we were without water the rest of that day, because the store with replacement parts was closed. On Monday we went back to town and replace the capacitor and the relay. We also this time increased the pressure in the holding tank.....I don't understand all of this, but I listen closely when the plumbers we know take about common problems with wells. And again everything was put back together and it all worked, that is until last Saturday. Again no water. I checked the capacitor and it was still OK, but a little warm. That should have been my first Clue to let it cool down. I put it back in, the pump worked....for about 2 minutes \#$??@. So now we have accepted the fact this problem is beyond us and need to find someone else to work on the problem.
First I did some checking about cost of a new pump. The size we need would be at least $500.00. That doesn't include the labor to pull the old pump. If the tank is bad also I don't know how much that will be at this point. Hopefully we will get a call soon to let us know someone is coming to our house to look at the problem.
On top of all of this we are trying to get a mortgage so we can do some updates to the house and make it so it can be sold in the future. The loan requires us to be on a public water system if it is available. We have one available and had contacted them prior to out water problem. The wife stopped by the day we contacted them and said that we are not on the water system and she would talk to her husband when he got home that night. We tried to explain to her that we were on the system prior to 1984 when our well was put in. All the pipes are already in place, we just need to be connected to the system. We even went as far as finding their turn on valve, but we can not find our pipe close to the connector due to it's depth and the hardness of the soil. (By the way there has been at least two owners of the water system prior to the couple who own it now. Records from the first owners were more in their head as far as where things are located.) I guess the man never came home, so we are not connected to that system either.
A few things I have learned over the years is to always be prepared for the electric to go off. Always have water for drinking and flushing the toilet and washing our bodies. The things that have not been done is the dishes!!! We have been cooking and eating at home, but it is almost to the point that we are going to run out of plates and silverware. Fortunately we have another well supplied kitchen and will need to start using things from that kitchen tonight. I just hate to use the water we do have to wash the dishes. We use disposable things when we can, but I like real plates, knives and forks.
Yesterday we were invited to our "Adopted" families house for dinner, shower and clothes washing party. It was so nice of them to allow us to so that at their house.
I can say one thing about this experience. I prefer to be without Running Water then No Electric. We can survive by carrying in water, but no electric means no computer, TV, stove, lights and again NO RUNNING WATER!
Surviving just fine with out water, but want it fixed!
Peggy
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