Friday the 13th holds little fear for me, I am a bit superstitious and wouldn’t deliberately walk under a ladder, but that is about the extent of it. So Friday the 13th was just another day, in fact, I woke up full of energy and raring to go. The great outdoors was not tempting me and the dogs were definitely not going out there thankyou.

I do not often get these energy bursts except in spring so thought I would make the most of if, before the feeling passed, and I decided today was the day for a whole house clean! I have mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for cleaning in prior columns so you will understand that this feeling had to be taken advantage of immediately.

After my daily porridge, made so well by my dear spouse, I spread a huge bath towel on the dining table and unloaded all the stuff out of the china cabinet. I have a collection of angels in all sorts of glass or ceramic plus my good dishes. The dishes only come out on special occasions, as the man of the house says, we are ready for if Queen Elizabeth drops in, so sometimes the only time they hit the table is on cleaning day.

I brought two bowls of hot water, one with suds and one with some vinegar added, for extra sparkle. Each little angel got a bath, a rinse and stood on the towel to dry, ditto the china, then shelves and glass doors polished till they shone. Such was my enthusiasm that I then went right through kitchen and living room, emptying every shelf and putting all ornaments on various tables and counters ready for their turn in the bath. Then I took a well earned coffee break!

After coffee I went to refill the two bowls and discovered I had no water. A call to Dave who was, supposedly doing some tidying up of his own, in his play room cum office. A check of downstairs, in the crawl space seemed all was OK but he turned on the heater down there to make sure things were warmer.

The house was a complete mess with ornaments all over each counter so I heated some bottled water and filled the two bowls so I could carry on with the clean-up. It took about four hours of cleaning and polishing but all my shelves were clean and the clutter was returned to its place. Inside windows were sparkling all window sills were wiped down and I had a big box of glassware for the thrift store, plus a garbage bag of useless bits and pieces like expired coupons for all sorts of stuff that I don’t buy. Why do we accumulate all this stuff?

I was tired and dirty but happy with my labours, now all I wanted was a shower, but no water. A cup of warm water, poured on a wash cloth and rubbed around various bits of my body was just not equal to a shower, but it was all I could manage. I cleaned my teeth in a thimbleful of water and went to bed.

Saturday morning, still no water. I requested Dave call the town to look at the problem. He didn’t want to do this and get a huge bill if the problem was in the house, so he left the heater going in the crawl space. He then filled three large buckets with snow and placed them round the fireplace to thaw. Needless to say, it looked very rustic and did little to lighten the mood of the lady of the house. By then I had continued the cleaning spree right round the house with the exception of washing the floors. This I decided to leave until we had water to fill my mop bucket.

Sunday morning, still no water. My requests to the man of the house to phone the water guys had now changed into demands and threats, so he caved in and made the call. The guy from the town was there in less than an hour and told us that the town pipes were probably not frozen as they were four feet deep. However, he took apart our water meter and there was nothing in there. Oh, the pipe must be frozen. Give that man a prize! We were promised a backhoe first thing Monday morning and we waved him goodbye.

Sure enough, seven am on Monday we had several city trucks and four men looking down the hole at the frozen water meter. Apparently, looking and wishing did not solve the problem and, even though the supervisor thought it unlikely for the problem to be in the back lane, a back how was sent for.

The ground was so frozen that a jack hammer was needed, in addition to the backhoe but it still took four hours to get down to the pipe. A hot water pipe was rigged up and the hot water was forced down through the frozen pipe, it took all day but they managed to work down the pipe as far as our property, but wasn’t strong enough to melt the additional 10 feet from lane to our water service. The end of the day had arrived but promises to be back tomorrow.

Tuesday morning, our fifth day without water and they were back bright and early to begin work again. Three town trucks, a backhoe and a dump truck and four hours later we have water, yeah!!! However, because pipes are still partly frozen we have to leave the tap running so the water isn’t sitting in the pipe, where it may refreeze. We can now flush to our heart’s content and even luxuriate in a long hot shower. My worry is now that the constantly running water may overload the septic tank and cause problems of a different kind. Oh the joys of a rural lifestyle.

My sincere thanks to the several great guys who worked in the freezing wind to give us back our comfortable lifestyle, you are truly appreciated