As is so often the case, my carefully laid plans for last weekend went south with speed. It was supposed to be a quiet, but productive two days of weaving, a little house cleaning, German practice, schoolwork (that's a given on any weekend), walking and reading. Instead, the water pipes froze Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday and we had no water. Bruce was able to get things intermittently fixed so that I got a short shower on Saturday and a longer one on Sunday, but then the pipes froze again and the pipes either burst or split at the seams. We just aren't set up for nighttime temperatures in the low 20's. Last night we had water and I had a lovely, hot shower, but by this morning we were back to dry faucets when we turned on the tap. The toilets had enough water in their tanks for one good flush apiece. This was greatly appreciated. I've gotten good at heating water in a kettle for a mini-bath in the kitchen, which is what I did before getting dressed for school, but the charms of pioneer life fade fast on a Monday morning when one's trying to get ready for work.
We hoped that once the day had progressed and temperatures had risen, that our water would be flowing again (this is what happened yesterday). But when I got home and hopefully turned on the faucet, there was nothing but a small hiss of air. I took the long walk with three happy dogs and a horse down to the well and there discovered that the pipe joint had split once again and water was merrily gushing and squirting all over. A steady stream of our precious well water was running down the hillside and joining the creek.
I called Bruce on the cell phone and he told me to shut off the power to the well at the breaker box in the garage and he would be home as soon as he could. I took the long walk back to the house and did this. Now, later in the evening, he's reglued all the pipes and now we just must wait a few hours for the pipes to set. It looks like I'll be taking another "pot and kettle" bath in the kitchen, as I'm sleepy and want to go to bed.
One wonderful, totally unexpected thing that did happen on Saturday was that Mary (my friend and horse trainer) called to say that she wanted to get Corny and I riding together again. She and her husband have been so busy getting a new business going that she'd all but completely stopped working with other people's horses. She's ready to get back into it (at least a little), and Corny and I get to have her back for lessons!
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| The new bridle has stainless steel, engraved buckles. Woo woo! |
We decided that it's time for Corny to become a Western horse for riding down the trail -- the whole arena/dressage thing wasn't fun for either of us anymore. I'd stopped riding when Mary wasn't coming anymore and was feeling badly about this. Now she's going to start with him and get him geared to his new life as a trail buddy. In honor of this new stage of his life, I bought a beautiful new Western bridle for him yesterday. It still has the tags on it in case it doesn't fit -- Mary will come to the house tomorrow while I'm at school to try out the bridle and give Corny his first lesson. I'm so happy and excited that I'm just about hugging myself with joy. I never expected for Mary to call and announce that I was going to start riding again.
Sometimes when plans don't work out, something wonderful still comes along. Happy day!
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