Never A Dull Moment!

We discovered a BIG problem yesterday! We have been having problems with the drain in the shower for the last year, but it wasn't tooooo big of a problem! The fix was the biggest problem because whoever did the building on this house, made a mess of it! The drain from the shower is encased in the concrete that is the floor of our small second bedroom. It was carpeted so we never had a reason to mess with the floor, until the shower developed a problem. We did know that there was concrete under the carpet, though. Yesterday, New Years Day, since we were both home, we decided to tackle it. Carried most everything out and piled it in the only place left to put it, in the living room. E cut the carpet and found a tile floor underneath the carpet. He pulled them up and underneath was a layer of particle board that was sopping wet and had been for a long time! We had no idea because the carpet was never even damp! I walked around in there in my socks often. After the shock, he started to shovel it out the window into the wheelbarrow. Then, he thought maybe we should check with our homeowners insurance. So we stopped where we were and closed the door in it! So where is the water coming from? We have no idea! As far as we know there are no leaks in the bathroom. As the drain is set into the concrete under this back bedroom, we can't get to it yet. There is no way to gain access to this drain without breaking up the floor in this bedroom! Until we hear from the insurance adjuster, we are stuck! and that won't be until next week at the earliest! What a trip! We havent' been able to reach the guy that usually delivers our sawdust for bedding the horses' stalls. We have tried for 3 weeks, left messages with no results. We were down to two wheel barrow loads and finally had to find someone else. We contacted him by email on Tuesday and today he brought a trailer with 12 yards of sawdust and dumped it on a tarp, right at the barn door. E has adapted an old grain elevator that takes the sawdust up into our sawdust stall and fills it. We just fill the hopper at the bottom! Woo hoo! It is so much easier and faster too! Love it! Dumping the load on the tarp. This was nice clean sawdust. I'm sure the horses will enjoy their beds.

E had to get up in the trailer and start shoveling as the trailer wouldn't go high enough to dump it all out.

Half way done, but we had to meet my in-laws for lunch at the Chambers Smorgasbord Restaurant in town. Good excuse to stop shoveling, right?

We had a nice lunch, and we came home and finished putting it in the barn. It should last us for a long time. Maybe months. It feels so nice to have dry bedding in the sawdust stall, and plenty of baled hay in the hayloft.

I don't make New Year resolutions as I think they are just made to be broken. But I am going to attempt to ride my horses this summer. It isn't much fun to have to ride alone all the time. Maddie will be 6 years old in May 2009 and I have just managed to get her under saddle last summer. She only had 3 or 4 rides under saddle for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. I am not comfortable taking her out alone and there is no one to ride with around here. Do I hear any volunteers? She needs to be ridden and given a job!

This is our 'mole' dog! She heard something underground, and she tip toed around here, under the bird feeder, for quite a long time. It was comical to watch her as she was literally 'tip toeing' back and forth! She stood in this position, listening, for a while. She eventually gave up and walked away. But sometimes she does dig one up. Last summer she unearthed several of them!

So anyway, this is what we have been up to lately.