my morning schedule is to put on the kettle for my tea, choose my Advent treat for the day, feed the fish, and prepare my breakfast…
when I get to the calendar, which is on top of the fish tank, the fish are running back and forth to make sure I know they are there… and starving...
I can practically hear them, lol… later in the day, they will rush over as I enter their space to see if they can convince me that they haven’t been fed…
it has been below zero for a number of days and I had not remembered to empty the rain barrel… a lot of water had frozen in it and it was too heavy for me to flip it…
today, the temperature went to double digits and I just went out and opened the tap… and the water is running freely…
tomorrow, when it is empty I will turn it over for the winter;-)…
this afternoon I spent three hours outside with the hot tub technicians while they emptied, moved, opened all eight panels, filled, found two small leaks, repaired them, emptied, replaced the panels, moved back, refilled and turned the tub on… it was cold and windy…
now waiting for the two days it will take to heat the water and hoping that this has fixed the problem…
since then I’ve been trying to warm up… finally, about half an hour ago – after five hours – I don’t need any additional blankets and have taken off my sweater…
have been having some problems with the hot tub leaking for quite some time, but wasn’t certain that the water wasn’t just evaporating with the hot weather we’d been having…
finally it was clear that there was a problem so I called up the company I deal with and made an appointment…
a fellow came out on Monday morning and discovered water dripping from a portion of the pump… he thought it would be about forty dollars for the part which needed to be replaced… he worked for well over an hour and then advised that the entire pump needed to be replaced because the new piece wouldn’t fit in properly as they are now made slightly differently…
we contacted a supplier and my son-in-law went and picked up the new one so that the repair person could return the next morning to hook it up…
sadly, that didn’t happen… I made numerous calls to the store and was advised that they would pass along the message, but no one came… finally I called and asked for an actual appointment so that someone would turn up…
two fellows turned up the next morning and set about installing the new pump… they also fixed the loose jets (with silicone) so they don’t keep shooting the water out of the tub when the water level goes down a bit…
they advised the silicone needed twenty-four hours to cure and that the tub should work fine after that….
cleaned it out and partially filled it to just below the jets and waited for the point where I could finish filling it and turn it on to heat up…
after I filled it up and turned it back on, the pump made noise but the water did not move… I called again and a few hours later the guys came back and fixed an airlock in the pump… then it started to heat up…
spent a good portion of the afternoon in the garden… I was particularly watching the birds as I thought I’d spotted a rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder from inside the house…
it was a lovely time… lots of bird and fish watching…
one of the things I’ve noticed is that the waterfall sounds different depending on how clear the line is…
when there is no debris in it it is quiet…
when there is algae and the odd stick in it, the sound is much louder…
I usually have a large skewer behind it that I use to clean the waterfall mechanism, but it appears to be gone… wondering if a crow came by and took it, lol… today I used a twig that had come down from the elm tree next door…
happy to check out the garden after being gone for a short time… enjoyed walking through and seeing what was about to bloom, what had just about finished and checking for caterpillars… unfortunately I haven’t found any more monarch or swallowtail babies…
I had asked my grandson to come by and water it while I was away and was very happy that he did…
the front flowers were a bit sad, as he hadn’t remembered to water them. but a quick dose of water and they all revived…
the ability of most plants to recover from thirst is quite amazing, lol…
we had wonderful times at the beach and in the water… the area is quiet so that means the beach is too the majority of the time…
I did watch kids from a few cottages over as they kneeboarded and that was fun…
we went in the water often and it was refreshing… we floated on pool noodles and had deep conversations and lots of laughter…
we also found tons of zebra mussels… only a couple the first few days, but after a really windy evening that blew into shore there were many clusters under our feet… one day we spent at least an hour or so feeling them with our toes and then having someone lift them up with their feet so we could collect them and bring them to shore to be disposed of… it was great exercise…
they are very sharp and all three of my companions ended up with cuts on their feet that had to be taken care of to be sure that no infections occurred… I nearly always wore my water shoes so happily was able to feel the clumps or sticks or rocks with them on and not get injured…
sitting by the pond after my visitors have left and enjoying the last bit of sunlight…
my water shoes are on the deck because I went into the pond once again and dredged up another pailful of leaves… the fish are still not coming out, but I did see the frog hop by earlier in the day…
all three of my grandsons came by just after noon… I made them grilled cheese sandwiches with the wonderful La Belle Baguette whole wheat sourdough that was delivered yesterday…
the oldest left, the middle one mowed the grass, front and back, while the youngest watered plants and pulled weeds…
some days it is hard to realize he is eleven and can reach and do more things…
after the work was done, relaxing happened and visiting took place…
this was the first time I’ve had people in the house and the system was they had access to the basement for cooling down and using the washroom and I had the main floor… worked perfectly…
we ordered Chinese food for supper and it arrived just before the daddy, who had been at work all day… afterwards my downspout got fixed, a stair board tightened and then off they went…
it was a treat to see them and I enjoyed every minute… I missed my nap, but plan on making it an early night;-)…
