Fabulous Friday...And We're Back!

Digging for Gold? Nope! Just New Water Lines!

Woo hoo! I am back after a rather unplanned and very long absence! My contract has ended and I am back to making my jewelry full time again, woot! It is so good to see you all again, I have missed you more than you can possibly know.If you remember, waaayyyy back in April I mentioned we had a problem with our well. Actually, it stopped working. Not becuase there wasn't enough water (if you look down in it, about 8-10 feet down you can see our water!), but because the valve in the well had rusted and broken, the pump inside was burning out, and the tank to hold our water was completely waterlogged. Of course, we didn't know all of those things had gone wrong simultaneously, no, we kept discovering surprise after surprise when we thought we had finally found "the problem". Fun. 3 days without water was even better. Yes, that meant no showers and having to go to neighbors' houses to get hose water to flush our toilets. *shudder*

Here are some photos of the glorious job the guys had to do. What was supposed to be a 2 hour job turned into a day and a half of excavators, new lines, new tank, new pump, new valve and a dirt-filled back yard! We got a delivery of topsoil to back fill further and level it all out, but it has been rainy here, so it is still in piles in the yard, but with shiny new weeds sprouting on it. Gotta laugh! And at least we'll never have to worry about it again - it will last for longer than we own the house now. For those wondering, this kind of thing doesn't happen often, but it DOES happen. There really isn't any preparing ahead of time, but it was way cheaper than a sewer or water mains line going on our property if we lived in the city :)
And even better? we didn't have to dig a new well, now THAT would have made me seriously displeased!

This was what the front of the house looked like...deceptive isn't it?

More trench, geez, will it ever stop? You can see old water pipes sticking up

Pulling up the old lines - the new pump required heavier-duty water lines

Starting to run new electrical and water lines

New electricalChaos from the sideNew lines running into the house so we have water - YAY!!

I'll get photos of our dirt yard later, I figured these were enough to be getting along with initially!

Awen's Wednesdays

Hello everyone, it me, Arwen the Wonder Dog and I'm back for my Arwen's Wednesdays, or "Arwednesdays" as some call it! When we were at the cottage, each night when the sun started to go down, mommy would take me walking along the shoreline to sniff the mail from the dog next door and to try and chase frogs. I wasn't too sure about the lilypads so I didn't go into the water.
When the sun really started to go down, mommy and daddy would sit me in the cottage so that they could take out their little boat on the river and fish or take pictures. I couldn't come because I'm too squirmy and they knew I would try to jump out! Here is a photo of a Blue Heron that mommy took. Sorry it is a bit blurry, but it was taken from the boat! It was a very big heron, with at least 3 feet of wingspan and it had a mate with it as well.
Here is one of the gorgeous sunsets. I really liked this time because it meant that mommy and daddy would be coming back from the water to sit and watch a movie.
I really liked these beautiful sunsets - everything was so calm and I love movie time because mommy and daddy let me sit in between them for a bit so they can cuddle me.
It's a very good life, but all this vacationing has certainly tired me out. I'm going for a nap, see you soon!!

Mommy says to tune in tomorrow for a very special announcement!

and Arwen

Tuesday's Treasures: Another Great Day at the Cottage

~Misty Morning from Our Neighbor's Dock~

I awoke one morning to find Arwen eager to do her business and when I went out to our dock I found a beautiful misty morning! After running inside to grab the camera (and make myself decent!) I found this photo waiting to be taken - it is a view from the neighbor's dock. They were truly delightful people and after I gave them a few of my birthday cupcakes, they reciprocated by giving us a HUGE jar of delicious homemade maple syrup! They have some massive maple trees on their property and each year they tap them to make the most amazing maple syrup I've ever tasted. (Thank you again if you are reading this!).

~BOO!~

I heard a noise while taking photos (sort of a screech followed by a splash) and looked down to find this big guy staring at me. I had no idea bullfrogs can scream, but then again, if they get that big, I suppose anything is possible!

~Our Boat~

This was the view from the boat that we got with the cottage. You can really see all of the beautiful lily pads and a bit of the fog. By this time the fog had started to burn away as the sun was really rising.

~Waterlily~

When I went back onto the deck to enjoy the view, I looked down and found this beautiful little lady waiting for her own closeup. I love these waterlilies and was so very fortunate to capture one open - they close completely as soon as there is too much shade, which happens fairly often as there are many beautiful, mature trees on the shore, waiting to be admired.

~Brennan and a Friend Fishing~

Later on in the day, Brennan had a friend over for fishing and steaks. I also gave him some of my birthday cupcakes and I was delighted to see that he loved them as much as Brennan and I do. He even asked for the recipe - score one for Meghann and my gluten free, Vegan chocolate cupcakes!

I'll have more photos tomorrow....here is another happy one of Arwen - I actually got her with her ears up!!
and Arwen

Sweet Saturday: In My Yard

~Bouquet of Red Tulips~

Here are some photos from my gardens! I really needed to get out of the house and take some pictures, it's been a stressful few days: in the middle of the spring thaw, with a stream and pond in our backyard and goodness only knows how many gallons per hour of water floating under our house, our sump pump quit. Thankfully I noticed it just before it started to leak into our basement - the water was at the rim of the sump hole!
Hubby went outside and fixed a weird blockage in the discharge pipe, which seemed to be the problem initially (later on, I went outside in the pitch black, now mosquito infested rain to re-dig the hole that the water drains into, after the pump seemed to be struggling to empty the water). Then, after taking the pump out and putting it back in the sump hole, the pump turned on and stayed on, pumping water out of the sump hole (and from underneath our house) for 20 minutes STRAIGHT. After that it was switching on about every 30 seconds to deal with the water rushing in....Problem was, it wasn't switching on by itself....apparently our sump pump is a little temperamental and needs to be in 'just the right spot' for the float to activate the switch to turn the pump on and off. I, being the only member of our house who is able to stay awake (read: not able to sleep anyway), I was the one who went down into the chilly (but thankfully still dry) basement and pulled the stupid thing, every 30 seconds for about an hour. Then, it slowed down to about once every 6 minutes and remained that way for another 6 hours (I made myself a nest from a bean bag chair, quilt and yoga mat on the chilly basement floor and watched almost the entire extended trilogy of the Lord of the Rings to stay awake and switch on the sump pump every 6 minutes for 6 whole hours). Yes, you heard me, 6 hours, until at about 4AM, after pulling the pump on, jiggling it into another spot, and waiting for the next time it had to go on, praying it would switch on all by itself....it finally did! WA-Hoo!

~Little Sparrow (I think it's a sparrow anyway)~

Hubby then went into town the next day and got a new sump pump to replace the now (mostly) working old one. We took out the old pump, took off the discharge pipe (which created a wonderful puddle on the concrete floor, despite the towels thoughtfully laid down prior), and set to work replacing the sump pump....only to find out that the adaptor we had was the wrong size to fit into the new sump pump! Great. So we then had to reattach the old sump pump and place it back into the sump hole, where it (again) had to be placed into it's 'just right spot' - though this time it only took about 2 hours before I had it right.

~Closeup of Red Tulip~

Thus, today we will be getting (hopefully) the correct adaptor for the new sump pump so that I can sleep again, and not worry that our basement will flood.
I hope you like my stress-relieving photos!
I am also working on designing a new jewellry collection, so stay tuned!
Have a great day!