The day from heck

[Boondox]

A couple of days ago Tamara injured her back while shoveling sheep poop and hay out of their shelter. The shelter is actually a low shed attached to the back of the garage, and there is no easy way to clean it out; it's a squat, lift, twist and dump sort of thing. Ergonomic nightmare as I pointed out in my request for a more human friendly arrangement. She vetoed me and is paying the price...but I can't say "I told you so" without appearing to be unloving and uncaring. So I finally managed to convince her to see a doctor. The doctor gave her some pills and some exercises which helped, but he warned her the injury would persist for weeks and to ease back into things.

So she went in on her day off to put in a marathon shift...and came home last night in agony. The pills can't touch it, and she's essentially bedridden this morning. Strike one.

The center diff and the catalytic on the Subaru need replacing. It will probably cost us $1500. Strike two.

And this morning the shower only gurgled. I ran into the basement and discovered our cistern was nearly empty and there is no water coming into the system. Obviously frozen or broken somewhere. 2 degrees outside in a blowing wind with a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Not nice conditions to search for the problem. Strike three.

I wish I could just call it quits and take the day off...but that's where all the issues are! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Pete

 

[Moon]

Man, tough day Boondox! Back injuries are the worst. Best wishes to your wife for a speedy recovery!
...at least it can only get better from this point (i hope). The water sounds like the worst of it. 2 degrees out with no water makes me shudder. Thats gotta be some tough working coditions.
Good luck with everything!

Moon of Ohio

 

[alan40]

Boy Pete that's a tough day. Give Tamara our best and wishing her a speedy recovery! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Backs are a real pain. No pun intended.
Car problems always crop up when you don't need them. It's like the manufactuer puts in a extra sensor to let the care know the worst time to break down.
Don't envy you the water problem either. If you need help call me and I'll see about changing my schedule around.
Take care

 

[ronjhall]

After many years of suffering with some back pain. I have finally gotten to a point where I don't wake up with a backache of some type. What cured it. Retirement. I was able to take the time that doctor recommended to cure the pain.
Hope Tamara gets well soon.
No water, may require you to take the day off and address the problem. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[MossRoad]

Sorry to hear of your day. Hopfully things will get better from here, right? Best wishes for a speedy recovery to your wife.

 

[ByronBob]

Your wife will hopefully recover with a little rest. Not to worry.

The car........painful but it beats walking right.

Now the water.....That's an issue. You think life stinks now wait a few days. How do you get water now from a well? Is there a creek nearby to get water in the house in the interm?
Best wishes

 

[EastTexFrank]

Those kind of days do come along all to often it seems. Hope Tamara gets better soon. Don't let her take any more chances with her back. It's probably the worst thing you can hurt and it's so easy to think it is getting better, overextend yourself and end up back at square one.

Just think of it this way ... tomorrow will be a better day.

 

[Boondox]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Your wife will hopefully recover with a little rest. Not to worry.

The car........painful but it beats walking right.

Now the water.....That's an issue. You think life stinks now wait a few days. How do you get water now from a well? Is there a creek nearby to get water in the house in the interm?
Best wishes )</font>

Yeah, that's the big problem. I snowshoed up to the springhouse 1/4 mile up the hill. It had plenty of water inside which tells me the pipe is probably frozen, not ruptured. And with about 2.5 feet of snow on the ground there's plenty of insulation...so my bet is the blockage is right near the house where I plowed the snow back and removed all that wonderful insulation.

We have a small creek across the meadow, but last fall's microburst (7.5" of rain in two hours) washed away all the hose and assorted infrastructure we used for our emergency backup. So the plan now is to get a plumber over with one of those steam snake things to rid the first 50' of intake pipe of ice. If that wasn't where the blockage is plan B is to put my 300 gallon sap tank in the truck and fill it at work, then drain it into the basement cistern via a garden hose run through the basement window.

In the days BT (Before Truck) I used to do that with a pair of mud buckets and the ATV, filling the buckets by hand from an abandoned springhouse on another nearby hill. But that was a LOT of work and resulted in me resenting every single flush! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Tam is gimping around and eating chicken soup, so it's looking better. Thanks for all the get well wishes. Pete

 

[ByronBob]

How about a hot water heater hose going from the tank into the pipe. Can you run a snake into the pipe and see it you have an obstruction?

 

[JerryG]

Pete,
I can go one worse than you had. Well, in a 24 hour time span anyway. Last Friday night my starter went out on the Explorer, Saturday someone broke into one of my poultry houses and turned off my main ventilation fans breaker, killing over 17000 chickens. Then to top it off, my daughter fell Friday night cracking her wrist. Monday, they broke into another poultry house and turned off a vent machine. I caught that one before any damage. I have been working all week, putting in different locks etc.