My! Oh my! What a week! - And it goes on!

A week ago Thursday (Feb.2) when I walked into the grain room in our barn there was ice on the floor. Hmmm. Then I walked into the office - and there was water on the floor - lots and lots.

We called the plumber who came out that afternoon. It seems that a water line had broken under the concrete floor. While there is a shut-off valve for the water in the house, there wasn't one for the barn. Pep, the plumber (his name is Mark) and I discussed all of the options and came to the decision to lay new water lines from the road (the house is about 300 feet from the road) to the house and the barn. The old lines were put in many years ago, were thin plastic and we'd already had one break at the house.

And - of course - rain was due Friday. It came. So all weekend Pep would go down to the road in the rain twice a day and using the key Mark lent us, turn the water on. We'd take baths, do dishes and/or clothes, flush toilets and fill bottles with water. Then Pep would go back down and turn the water off. Any water that leaked under the concrete seemed to soak into the ground because we only got a little water in the office doing it that way.

Bright and early Monday morning Mark and his boss Max came out with a trencher and a bobcat. So did the man from DigRite who marked all of our other lines - phone, electricity, etc.

This is the view from our kitchen window last spring.

This is the view from the kitchen window Monday night.

The trencher laid the line from the road to the house but couldn't work behind the house. The soil was too wet and the clay and tree roots too slippery and tough. So they had to use the Bobcat. The blue pipe is our new water line. And when they went home Monday night we had water but this was my view from the kitchen window. Have I mentioned before that I am a visual person and just a little OCD about how my house looks? Stressed out isn't the word!

They came back with the Bobcat Tuesday morning and filled in the ditch before it started raining again. Then Dustin came out Wednesday and put all of my feeders and fence back in place.

You should have seen all of the birds Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. They aren't tame but they definitely show up at specific times and were somewhat in shock. They kept landing on the forsythia bushes and tree branches and looking around forlornly.

Now, the ground is lumpy and brown but the fences and food stations are all back in place so they're happy again.

BUT WAIT! It's not over yet. Friday afternoon Pep noticed that the temperature in the house was low. He went downstairs to check the heat pump (we have a ground source heat pump) and there was a red light blinking that said "water flow". The long and short of it is that they somehow nicked one of the coils. We turned off the heat pump. We're on emergency heat until Monday. That will keep the house at about 64 without the space heaters we've borrowed. They raise the temperature to around 68 which keeps the parrots, fish, lizard and guinea pigs (it's about my grandchildren- I have a dog and a parrot) somewhat comfy.

I did get something done last week though. I finally found a reliable, cost effective source for the wool I want for my Needleroll. And with some felting and dyeing work from me, I can get it the texture and color I like.

And using wool needle flannel from Moda by Lisa at Primitive Gathering for the lining and our prints and homespun for pockets and applique, it's finally done and we can offer it in kit form - at long last!

The buttons are all included in the kit - the small and medium ones by Melissa Becker and the outside button is one Pep found years ago. They are English buttons from bobby uniforms. They're really cool.

Well, it's Sunday and I'm going to eat lunch, put on dinner in the crock pot, pick up the grandchildren and sit and stitch before they dig things up tomorrow again to find the leak.

And of course, it's supposed to snow and ice tomorrow. It may be awhile before they can fix things.

Well - I do have a quilt or two to keep us warm :)