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Monday, April 12, 2010

O Pioneer!

I really should not go to bed earlier than the rest of my family.

Let me start by explaining that, when we moved to the sticks in 1991, this place was so far off the beaten track that the road was still gravel, there was no city water, most everyone had their own propane tank buried in the back yard, and you had to turn a crank on the outside of the house to get electricity. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but only about the electricity. When we were building the house, my folks gave down from Kentucky for a visit. They followed us from our apartment 45 minutes away to the building lot. The first thing my mom said when she got out of the car was "How in the world did you find this place?" (Not a positive comment from someone who, herself, lives in the wilds of Kentucky.)

Because there was no city water, we had a well dug and were delighted to find that we did not hit a sulphur spring, of which there are an abundance in these parts -- hence the name "Kingston Springs". Well water can be very good, and our was and is. However, we vowed that we would tap into city water if ever it was run to this area. The county did run water into the back country about 10 years ago, but we have since lacked the $40 gazillion it would take to tap in and run the line from the road to the house 0.25 trazillion feet from the road. Hence the problem of the day...

When you have a well, you have to be very careful about letting water run for long periods of time. If the water is allowed to run for too long, the water level gets too low in the well and you end up pumping muddy water into all the pipes. Once that happens, it usually takes about 24 hours for everything to clear up. That means no drinking water, no showers, no laundry, no dishwashing, and, most importantly to me this morning, NO COFFEE! You see, because I went to bed before the rest of the family, I was not awake to do a final check of the house to see that all was as it should be. It seems that one of the commodes was stuck in flush mode all night long, pumping gallon upon gallon of water up and out of the well. I awoke to mud. Isn't that a lovely way to begin a Monday morning?

Ah, but this story has a happy ending. I came up with the bright idea to melt the ice cubes in the fridge so I could make some coffee. My pioneering ancestors would be so proud.

Now I'm off to hitch the team up to the wagon so I can make by daily journey into downtown Nashville. Y'all have a great day.

3 comments:

stringsofpurls said...

I am so proud of you! I heard a story on the news about a woman who had a toilet in the basement that had been running for a while (days, weeks, who knows?) and her water bill for this month was $3200!!!! Ouch. I would rather melt ice cubes for coffee!

magnoliasntea said...

I love my coffee so was about to cry when you got to the no coffee part. I have to say you sure came through brilliantly. I'm doggone proud of you!

Elle said...

holy sh**!! smart woman, I don't know that I would've thought of melting ice cubes.