If it ain't one thing, it's another....AGAIN

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C

cheddar85

0
Feb 18, 2010
271
Houston, TX
Things have been going pretty good lately, got the area ready for the pool, just waiting on the guy to come over and level the area. Gonna order the liner in a week! Well, maybe not now.

Went to the kitchen, and guess what? No water! BTW, we're on well water here. Went out, tried to re-prime the well, no luck. I got tired of messing with it tonight, so tomorrow morning I'll be out there again. I'll try to re-prime again then, hope it works! Because if not, I get to start tearing stuff apart. Yea. :roll:

Depending on what's wrong, I may be pool-less for a while yet. I mean, I can do all the work myself (Dad taught me a lot about water wells and pumps, and I've picked up the rest myself over the past 15 years) but parts can get expensive in a hurry.

Anyways, wish me luck tomorrow! Like I always say, if it ain't one thing, it's another! :rant:
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

It all works out in the wash eventually...
Last week my AC (5 years old) froze up. My guy fixed it by noon the next day. Got the house cooled down from 82 to 76...and the power went out for 12 hours from a storm.

Some days you're the bug, other days, the windshield, ya know?
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

poolgirl22 said:
It all works out in the wash eventually...
Last week my AC (5 years old) froze up. My guy fixed it by noon the next day. Got the house cooled down from 82 to 76...and the power went out for 12 hours from a storm.

Some days you're the bug, other days, the windshield, ya know?
Click to expand...

Were you just a few weeks out of warranty? That seems to happen too often. :cry:

Bummer. I cool most of my house to 85 in summer. DH's command center cooler when he is here. Most of the time my AC, one or the other, have gone out was Texas Summers. Around these parts AC is Spring, Summer, and Fall. And we have enough general power outages out here too. At least we have one up and one down so setting up fans to divert some cool air has always been an option that keeps us from going to a motel but DH hasn't been as comfortable as desired. And he grew up in Texas without AC. :shock:

Years ago I purchased a real, 12 volt AC that uses ice and water pumped through the system to cool the air (not a swamp cooler but real cold air) and it has been a blessing. I've run it for hours on a big battery. At least it keeps DH's corner cool and I can jump in the pool. I keep a bunch of 2 liter bottles always frozen in big freezer. A few weeks ago we were without power for 9 hours. I put the 2 liter bottles in the two fridges and their freezer areas and everything kept cold or frozen, even the ice (well, not too much melting). DH was out of town so the house was plenty cool for me.

This winter, when we were without power for 4 days, some of my neighbors were running generators just for their freezers. We got record snow but it wasn't all that cold. Once again, frozen 2 liter bottles to the rescue. (I have an old commercial, non self defrosting freezer, in the garage, that is big enough to store bunches of frozen 2 liter bottles if I would defrost it every couple of years :roll: )


gg=alice
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

Wow GG--
I swear you have the most creative ideas for 'stuff'...I'm going to start freezing those bottles ASAP..we have a similar freezer and when we get the dreaded outages we move things over to it and it keeps a good long while that way. We always have extra room in it so it's a good plan. Our outages are fewer since last year we got bad strait line winds and the power company did a real number on the affected grids' trees. But we are always the last ones in the vicinity to get our power back on. I have a couple regular battery operated fans I take on trips with us so the bottles will just make it better cooling!

I don't know about the warranty..I imagine I was several months out of it. The same guy services as installed so it was all good. I told him my 87 year old gramma was coming for the weekend and he was on it lickety split...

Thankfully, the house had already gotten down to my 76 target (still too warm, but I'm trying to conserve) when the storm blew in and we're all brick with double thick exterior walls. By the time it got really stuffy I'd already had a few glasses of wine...(save the beer and wine from the failing refrigeration!) so it wasn't too painful. We opened up the windows and it cooled off to decent 'sleepin' weather' as gramma always said.
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

A few years back when Hurricane Rita came through we were without power for 3 weeks. I'd actually done the same thing, using 2 liter bottles and milk jugs. I just filled them up, then packed them around everything in our deep freezer. Of course, we still lost everything in that freezer, but 3 weeks is a long time for that method to really work well.

Anyways, back to my original topic. Just got back in from working on the well, and luckily, we have water again! All this trouble because of a $10 part I replaced a couple months ago. I still have to go get a new one, but it's working for now. I'm just glad I didn't have to pull the well. I already have to do it this fall and I wasn't looking forward to doing it in this heat!

Poolgirl, looks like I'm back to being the windshield, at least for today!
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

Glad you got it fixed. :goodjob: Tonight I'll be able to see the TV. :lol: DH is always reminding me, when I come in from working outside, listening via wireless speakers or headphone, that TVs have moving pictures. :roll:

gg=alice
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

poolgirl22 said:
Wow GG--
I swear you have the most creative ideas for 'stuff'...I'm going to start freezing those bottles ASAP..we have a similar freezer and when we get the dreaded outages we move things over to it and it keeps a good long while that way. We always have extra room in it so it's a good plan. Our outages are fewer since last year we got bad strait line winds and the power company did a real number on the affected grids' trees. But we are always the last ones in the vicinity to get our power back on. I have a couple regular battery operated fans I take on trips with us so the bottles will just make it better cooling!
Click to expand...

Here's the concept: http://sportys.com/PilotShop/product/12 ... gle%20Base

Mine is a big orange, insulated cylinder, drinking water container, with the pump and fan sitting on top in a dome. It is set up so you don't need any external hoses and has vanes to direct the air, just like a 120 volt portable AC. There is a dial on the top to control the air speed.

I think I was a girl scout in my mother's womb and followed my father around learning all kinds of stuff. Our Y2K supplies and "tools" were impressive!!!!!!! I even had vacuum sealed garden seeds. We didn't have to purchase toilet paper for several years after. :lol: We had enough dog food and "biskey bones" for 10 large but mostly GIANT dogs, for a year. If we ran out then they would have eaten the soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, beans, and sprouts we would have been eating. Believe it or not I'm still using some of the sprouting seeds from Y2K stock. That's 10 year old seeds. Sprouts are a garden in a jar. We also had a mini drug store and surgical "center". We had a small Geiger counter and enough Potassium Iodate (keeps radiation out of the thyroid gland) for the whole neighborhood, especially the children, in case Glen Rose had a melt down.

I purchase a used Mercedes diesel station wagon on the Internet, in 1999, :roll: long before eBay started started listing them. The Merc was for DH, as I already had a diesel truck. We stored 750 gallons of diesel for years and a couple of hundred gallons of kerosene, kept fresh using Stabil. The kerosene really came in handy in my greenhouses afterwards.

We had a bunch of stuff to be used for bartering. Toilet Paper was one item, vacuum packed coffee beans, loose smoking tobacco, etc..., camping tools, etc.

We have plenty of woods for heating and cooking but I do keep 1 lb propane bottles and several catalytic burners handy (they can be used inside with a small amount of ventilation. Those came in handy for spot heating this winter, especially for pet snake.

After the last outage, a few weeks ago, only 9 hours, I ordered a small, 4 stroke, gas generator, that I can easily carry around, so we can continue to watch Satellite on our big TV. :lol: That's what we miss the most, especially DH, when power is out. During those times we resort to the big wind up radio. Actually I usually busy myself with chores and get some good reading in. Problem is that they don't have many "story hours" any more on radio. If Y2K events had happened, and there's even more possibility of that happening today, we were going to use only solar and wind for power.

Getting ready for Y2K was a girl scouts dream. I'm glad nothing "happened" and we are still prepared for most emergencies.

I didn't mention personal and property protection and best left unsaid but we had enough supplies to take a few people in. Having several people ups the security. Everyone from the cities would have swarmed the more rural areas.

Now most of our stuff is stored off site but pretty easily reached in case of an extreme emergency.

I don't have a good stock of TP though. :shock: :shock: :shock: Better take care of that.
gg=alice
 

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Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

I'm so glad the OP is feeling less creepy crawly and more shiny, clear and smooth..

And GG--again, amazing. Some of the things you were saying remind me of my grandparents...my grandpa worked for a laboratory and they did stuff that was high security government type stuff. In those days of the big fear of nuclear attacks, bomb shelters, and the like, the laboratory had enough things in place similar to what you were saying, but underground. In the event of attack there was space and provisions for all the employees and their families on site.

To this day my grandma has shelves of can goods, etc in the basement because you just never know.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

Melt In The Sun said:
Y2K talk huh...

Aside from all the food and water, my parents had guns and ammo stockpiles. Ready to fight off all those unprepared moochers!
Click to expand...

We have non lethal, sound booby traps, razor wire (ready in case needed) and sand bags (and extra sand and bags) besides the "stuff" you mentioned. I've since used all the sand and bags to divert water away from the house, but "always ready" just in case.

Oh, and the metal warning/beware signs, we never used. It kind of became a joke so friends occasionally give me warning signs for presents. DH got a lot of razzing, at work, by those people who would have become those "moochers". Besides the stored water in 50 gallon drums, for drinking, we were going to use the pool water, with my elaborate, but "red neck" filtration system, except for the last phase, final filtering. I still have a bunch of filtering charcoal. After that we were going to hike, through the woods, to the lake for water, if we couldn't drive. We had a huge supply of personal wipes too.

DH got paranoid about the storing so much diesel, and EPA black helicopters swarming in to fine us, for improper storage (although we never had any leaking) so I gave a bunch away to a friend a few years ago.

gg=alice
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

poolgirl22 said:
I'm so glad the OP is feeling less creepy crawly and more shiny, clear and smooth..

And GG--again, amazing. Some of the things you were saying remind me of my grandparents...my grandpa worked for a laboratory and they did stuff that was high security government type stuff. In those days of the big fear of nuclear attacks, bomb shelters, and the like, the laboratory had enough things in place similar to what you were saying, but underground. In the event of attack there was space and provisions for all the employees and their families on site.

To this day my grandma has shelves of can goods, etc in the basement because you just never know.
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

I was in grade school during the 50's, "duck and cover" days and frequent "bomb" drills, at school, in addition to the "normal" tornado and fire drills. I had nightmares about nuclear attacks. Some of our more wealthy neighbors built elaborate "bomb shelters". My father worked at the Post Office. It was one of the official shelters in my town and Dad assured us we would be able to take shelter there. I made him show me the shelter and supplies but it didn't stop the nightmares.

It certainly made an "impression" on me. Knowing a whole lot more than most people know about our national and local dependence on computer systems and electricity, re., communications, security, movement of supplies and goods, including food, just added to the desire to be prepared for extreme emergencies. In many places, sewer and water systems don't work without electricity. Not many people know that. I think it is estimated that an average city will be without food in three days or less, in an extreme emergency, when ground transportation is limited or non existent. Katrina is evidence of that. And talk about disruptions of communications!!!!! That was certainly a major lesson.

I don't spend any time worrying about it; just prepared.

gg=alice
 
Re: If it ain't one thing, it's another....

You are so right GG--
Our county of roughly 40k...22K in the city in which I live...and several months ago a fiber optic line was cut by either the state or some contractor or what not.

It knocked out cell service across both AT&T and Verizon (the two main ones here), landline service, and several internets. Virtually all electronic transactions and communications were halted. Walmart would only approve standard checks for up to 100.00 because their verification process was electronic. For almost a whole day we were paralyzed financially. If you didn't have cash, you didn't eat, buy groceries, nothing. It was just a small taste of what COULD happen.
 
Okay now, gotta get this topic back on track. :lol: It happened...AGAIN! Woke up this morning, no water. Got out there and try to prime it, which normally would take 15-25 minutes. An hour and a half later, I had gotten nowhere. Pulled the pump off, tried to fill the pipe with water...and, it filled! Took the hose off and it just drained right back down. So tomorrow morning I'll be pulling the well. I'm glad I know what I'm doing though, parts and labor would be at least $500. I'll only spend ~$40 in parts.

Hopefully I'll still have everything done in order to get the pool up next Mon.-Tues. Still a lot of site prep to do, and I only have 3 days left to get it all done...by hand.
 
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