26th January 2010

Today, I did not accomplish anything which I had intended to do, other than receive my new stove/oven. Got the pipes at the hot water heater fixed and turned the main back on and I heard 'the shower on' upstairs and ran up to turn it off. It was not the shower. The company who "winterized" the house while it was for sale and empty needs to have a stern lecture. The good news is that I was replacing that shower stall anyway. The other good news is that the toilet works up there. The bad news is that it was not just two broken pipes at the hot water heater, there is also a broken pipe in the wall behind the shower. Which sounds like a shower with excellent water pressure. The good news is that we got it shut off.. the other good news is that I am having a crash course in where and how my plumbing lines work.

SweetPea must be having a growth spurt as she is cluster feeding. So between her and water pipes, I only managed to belt sand one plaster wall to fix someone else's poor repair job of the cracks in the plaster.

I took a second and walked out to the garden to see if the asparagus was springing forth and instead discovered strawberries and some kind of bulbs like crocus, daffodil and perhaps tulips coming up. The daffodils in front of the house look like they will be blooming soon. It sure is nice having a long growing season again. Seven months sure beats 90 days.

While gardens and rototilling were on my mind, a neighbor was having his property marked for utilities so I asked the guy doing the locations if it was the same as when I used to have to call them alot for a company I used to work for down here long ago. I told him I was expanding my garden and needed to know what was there (if anything) before I started to break sod.

The Utility Notification Center is the one-call agency dedicated to safeguarding citizens and construction personnel who work around utilities, as well as safeguarding the underground infrastructure of pipes, mains and lines which bring utilities to your community.

Calling before beginning any excavation prevents damage to underground facilities, service interruptions, and bodily injury.

The Utility Notification Center is open 24 hours a day, every day, and accepts calls from contractors, homeowners, or anyone planning to dig in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Hawaii. Calling before you dig ensures that any publicly owned underground facilities will be marked according to the APWA color code so that you can dig safely.