Has anyone else noticed that things seem to run in threes?  Especially mishaps?  Or broken things?  This has been the week of water trials.

About 2:30 Saturday morning, Bill was awakened by the sound of rushing water coming from the cabin bathroom.  Since I'm not known for getting out of bed to take a mid night shower, and our dog is even less likely to be willing to bathe, he was pretty sure that there was a problem.  There was.  The feeder pipe leading to the toilet tank had broken (darn plastic fitting) and water was SPEWING out at full volume.  There was over an inch of water all over the floor, and it was pouring out the back door.  

He hollered for me, and the two of us took turns trying to turn the shut-off valve off.  The darn thing was stuck, so we went outside to the shut-off outside.  It was stuck too.  We finally had to go up to the main storage tank and shut off ALL the water.  

I went in and warned Les and Debbie that they wouldn't have any water in the morning;  at least until we could get to the hardware store for parts.  Poor guys...sleeping soundly, and then being awakened by a screaming maniac hollering something about water...

After being at the store when they opened that morning, getting all the parts (including a flex tube with a METAL fitting), stopping for some muffins for the plumber (Bill) and his helper (me), we had everything fixed.  (Mishap #1)

The floor may have to be replaced, because even now (Tuesday) it's still feeling squishy when we walk on it.  We have the fans blowing on it and are hoping for the best.

On Sunday, Bill was walking past the back of the house where the water heater is located and noticed that the stucco looked wet and then he saw the dripping.  Upon further inspection, it was decided that we indeed needed to replace a leaking hot water heater.  (Mishap #2)

Luckily, the leak wasn't so bad that we had to shut everything down again.  

Today we did the water heater.  I turned the water off right outside the house so that Les and Debbie wouldn't be disrupted while we worked on it.  While Bill was doing the heater, I hand watered the potted plants on the front porch.  I was talking on the phone with Maggie while doing this, and noticed that I was losing water pressure.  DANG!!!  The pressure pump up at the tanks had quit. (Mishap #3)

Our pump guy, who is also a good friend came by tonight and changed out a capaciter  (sp?), and we now have a pressurized water system and hot water again. 

Lets hope that our water woes are over now.  Threes are the charm, right?   
  

I don't get it. Why do we keep having the same old debate, nothing gets done, and innocent people keep dying.  On one side are the people who feel that ANY laws restricting the manufacture, sale, or possession of firearms is the beginning of the end of our freedom.  Lose your guns, and the government is going to be knocking down your door and hauling you off to a concentration camp.

On the other side is the group who sees a gun and automatically places the possessor into the same category as Al Capone and Bonnie & Clyde.

WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG???

We own several hunting rifles, shotguns, and a handgun.  We enjoy target shooting and hunting.  Bill keeps them under lock and key.  After all, we have a 4 year old granddaughter who visits quite regularly.  I am not at all opposed to the proper ownership and use of guns.  I do, however, feel that people should have to go through a screening process to weed out the mentally unbalanced and unfit.  I can't understand anyone needing an arsenal of dozens of high powered assault weapons with 30 or 50 round clips. When one gets to that level, it presents the appearance of an obsession or paranoia.  (There are even some exceptions to this thought, too.  If you shoot competition, you need 20 round clips.)

I think that maybe we need to go back to when the Constitution was written, and think of what was available to folks at that time.  I propose that anybody be allowed to have all the muskets, flintlocks, and blunderbusses that their little hearts desire.  After all I seriously doubt that the framers of our constitution could begin to envision AK47s or automatic machine guns like we have today...AND I seriously doubt that they would have written the second amendment quite as obscurely as they did had they known..

May 15, 2014

I wanted to wait until we heard for sure that we would not be going to Nome this summer before planting a garden.  While waiting, I built some planter boxes with the old decking that we got from Gary's house.

They are redwood 2x6's that I cut to make a 2'x3' box.  with screening in the bottom, we should be able to hold the gophers at bay for a couple of years.

In the two boxes by the mulberry bush I have tomatoes and basil in one and squash seeds in the other.

The three boxes on the right side of the cabin have
 peppers, onions & garlic, and green bean seeds.  The big pots contain sun chokes, swiss chard, and day lillies.

I made sure to make the spaces between the boxes wide enough so that I can keep the grass down with a weed whacker.

I guess the summers of going to Nome are over. This summer would have probably been our last
anyway.  I really feel bad for the people who didn't get to spend as many times there as we did.  I made

 scrapbooks of every summer there, and got lots of great pictures.

I guess it's going to be time for Bill and me to decide what kind of summer adventure we will be doing from now on.  Maybe an Alaskan Cruise is on the horizon...

'Til later...