Wednesday morning, July 9, around 1:30am, we were awakened by a loud thunderclap and a bright slash of lightning. The power went out momentarily, then came back on. When it came back on, the UPS unit that we have some of our computer equipment hooked up to began sounding an alarm. I tried turning it off, but the alarm kept sounding. I tried unplugging it, but the alarm kept sounding. The only way I could get the alarm to stop was by opening it up and disconnecting the battery.
We finally went back to bed and slept until 6am.
I found other places to plug in the equipment - albeit not all of it surge-supressed and battery-backedup. It was then I discovered the horrible fact that the modem for our satellite internet had been fried.
This led to a long conversation with a help-desk Indian named Kevin, and his supervisor named David Smith. Names notwithstanding, I knew where they were by their accents and the Indian music that played while I was on hold.
The conversation boiled down to me trying to figure out why they would not let me pay actual money to expedite the shipping of a new modem. Money did not mean anything to Kevin or his supervisor David Smith. There was no way I could get the modem before five to seven days later.... unless....
Unless I was willing to sign up for the two-day repair service for only $5.95 more per month, plus a $99 co-pay since I was having to use the service before the thirty-day pre-existing period expired.
Okay, they were working from a script and nothing I said would convince them otherwise. Added to the fact I NEEDED the modem TODAY and not a week later, I signed up.
I asked, "So the modem will arrive at my house by Friday, right?"
Things do not work that way. If I had not signed up, they could have sent the modem directly to me. Since I signed up, they could send the modem only to a contracted technician in my area, who would then have to bring it to me and set it up.
It is Thursday as I write this, and I have yet to hear from the technician as to what time tomorrow he will be out here. (PS - When the tech came out, it took him from 9am until 4pm to get the modem working and a good signal)
After that, I fired up my laptop and it would not boot up. It went into a cycle of having to check the integrity of the disk drive, then the BOSD (Blue Screen of Death), followed by another check disk, followed by another BSOD. Some times I was able to boot into the safe mode, some times not. Some times I could see some kind of error message that seemed to indicate trouble with the ethernet card.
So, that taken care of, I went to take my shower. Turned the faucet on - NO WATER! What the heck happened?
The song from Oklahoma ran through my brain... Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a horrible feeling...
We are on a well. I checked the switch box for the house and all the circuit breakers were okay. I turned the one for the pump on and off just to make sure.
There are two other boxes in the utility room next to the pressure tank. I opened the first one and saw two blown fuses. "No trouble," I thought. I turned off the power, replaced the fuses, turned the power back on and THE TWO FUSES BLEW IMMEDIATELY!
My knowledge about wells and pumps being totally exhausted, I called the company that installed the well. They did not promise they would be out the same day, but would make a call to their guys out in the field and let me know.
Oh "well"... pun intended
I don't feel human in the mornings until I have had a nice long hot shower. Hot showers wake me up better than cold showers. So, I went to our daughter's house down the road and took a nice long hot shower and came home feeling like a human.
The well company came out late morning or early afternoon. They duplicated my experiment with new fuses and checked the other electrical box (someday I need to figure out what those two boxes are actually for).
They then pulled their truck around to the well, opened it up, and began pulling the pipe out of the well. It was around fifteen 21-foot pieces attached to each other - over three-hundred feet of metal pipe in a six-hundred foot well.
They finally came to the pump and told me, based on some number on it, that it was 30 years old.
It turned out that the well pump was blown out by the lightning and the wiring was charred.
A replacement pump, plus labor could be had for the mere cost of a low-end used car. Time to call the insurance company. We have a $1000 deductible and the insurance would kick in for the rest of the cost of the pump. While they were at it, I had them replace the rusted pipes with PVC for only a few hundred more.
They installed the new pump, wiring, and pipes, then "shocked" the well with a huge dose of chlorine in some form.
As of late afternoon Thursday, the water was still horribly dirty. We were not supposed to drink it for a couple of days because of all the chlorine they added to the well to "shock" it. The water was so dirty we had to bypass the water filters for the house so as not to clog them up.
We finally were able to turn the switch to let the water go through the filters on the weekend. It stained the basins and tubs and showers. We did not use the dishwasher or washing machine until we hooked back up the filters. We showered at our daughter's house until we turned the filters back on. We turned off the ice-maker and water in the refrigerator. We drank bottled water and soda, and used bottled water for brushing our teeth.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Fourth of July
For the fourth this year, we had a delicious meal - corn on the cob, potato salad, pinto beans, bread, grilled tofu for the vegetarians, and pot roast (a la Alton Brown) for the carnivores. Colleen baked a red, white, and blue pie (strawberries for the red, blackberries for the blue, and pie crust on the top for the white, with some pie-crust stars).
That evening, we all took a drive to the Carroll County Fairgrounds to watch the Berryville fireworks show. The fireworks were set off on the top of a hill that is high enough for people to see from several different places. Some people even had chairs set up in their yards so they could see the fireworks. There was a huge turnout at the fairgrounds. Earlier, an Elvis impersonator was singing songs. During the fireworks, several songs were played - patriotic and country.
For a small town, Berryville put on a great show - rivaled some we had seen in the big city of Atlanta.
Afterwards, we came back and the kids roasted marshmallows in our new firepit on our new flagstone patio.
That evening, we all took a drive to the Carroll County Fairgrounds to watch the Berryville fireworks show. The fireworks were set off on the top of a hill that is high enough for people to see from several different places. Some people even had chairs set up in their yards so they could see the fireworks. There was a huge turnout at the fairgrounds. Earlier, an Elvis impersonator was singing songs. During the fireworks, several songs were played - patriotic and country.
For a small town, Berryville put on a great show - rivaled some we had seen in the big city of Atlanta.
Afterwards, we came back and the kids roasted marshmallows in our new firepit on our new flagstone patio.
Our Second Swarm
We had another swarm this past week. However, it was not as exciting as the first. This swarm split off one of our own hives, and there were less than one-fourth the number of bees that were in the earlier swarm.
I was sitting in my office, glanced out the window, and saw a small tornado of bees gathering in an oak tree in the front yard.
Unfortunately, we had no more spare beehive parts. We had to borrow a super from our daughter and son-in-law. I emailed a couple of the members of our beekeeping club, and one of them had a top and bottom board I could borrow for the super.
This one was more complicated, as the bees had swarmed around a limb too high for us to reach, even with our ladder. This necessitated me climbing the ladder, climbing up on a lower limb, and using the electric alligator loppers to detach two limbs from the tree - the first limb I cut down was between the limb the trees were on and the ground.
Trying to saw off the limb the bees were on, I managed to get the alligator loppers stuck. After much twisting, pushing, pulling, and shoving, I finally freed the loppers. However, the limb was not completely severed.
Back down on the ground, we tried using a rope to pull the limb from the trunk of the tree - to no avail. We then tried twisting the branch for a while - again, no luck. Finally, I climbed back up the ladder with the loppers, and cut further from the trunk and the limb finally fell on top of the super.
We gently grabbed handfuls of bees off the limb and dropped them into the super. We finally got the queen into the super and the rest of the bees followed her in.
Early that same evening, we rearranged the two existing hives so we had a hive body on which to place the super. We then placed the top and bottom boards on the super, and carried it to our "apiary".
Knowing that the bees needed some quick energy so they could begin drawing out comb on the frames inside the hive body and super, we made some sugar water, placed it in the quart jar and placed it in the feeder.
That turned out to be a mistake.
Over the next few days, the bees from the "new" hive and the old hive next to it became very agitated. It finally became apparent that the old bees were flying from their hive to the new hive and robbing the feeder of sugar water. We did not see the bees actually fighting the first couple of days, but we stopped filling the feeder with the sugar water. Yesterday, I took a look, and saw two bees from the new hive dragging one of the old bees down the side of the hive, making all kinds of racket as they duked it out.
When we get the new pieces we ordered, we will take a closer look and see what is left. Buzzing can be heard from all three hives, so it may turn out okay in spite of our mistake.
I was sitting in my office, glanced out the window, and saw a small tornado of bees gathering in an oak tree in the front yard.
Unfortunately, we had no more spare beehive parts. We had to borrow a super from our daughter and son-in-law. I emailed a couple of the members of our beekeeping club, and one of them had a top and bottom board I could borrow for the super.
This one was more complicated, as the bees had swarmed around a limb too high for us to reach, even with our ladder. This necessitated me climbing the ladder, climbing up on a lower limb, and using the electric alligator loppers to detach two limbs from the tree - the first limb I cut down was between the limb the trees were on and the ground.
Trying to saw off the limb the bees were on, I managed to get the alligator loppers stuck. After much twisting, pushing, pulling, and shoving, I finally freed the loppers. However, the limb was not completely severed.
Back down on the ground, we tried using a rope to pull the limb from the trunk of the tree - to no avail. We then tried twisting the branch for a while - again, no luck. Finally, I climbed back up the ladder with the loppers, and cut further from the trunk and the limb finally fell on top of the super.
We gently grabbed handfuls of bees off the limb and dropped them into the super. We finally got the queen into the super and the rest of the bees followed her in.
Early that same evening, we rearranged the two existing hives so we had a hive body on which to place the super. We then placed the top and bottom boards on the super, and carried it to our "apiary".
Knowing that the bees needed some quick energy so they could begin drawing out comb on the frames inside the hive body and super, we made some sugar water, placed it in the quart jar and placed it in the feeder.
That turned out to be a mistake.
Over the next few days, the bees from the "new" hive and the old hive next to it became very agitated. It finally became apparent that the old bees were flying from their hive to the new hive and robbing the feeder of sugar water. We did not see the bees actually fighting the first couple of days, but we stopped filling the feeder with the sugar water. Yesterday, I took a look, and saw two bees from the new hive dragging one of the old bees down the side of the hive, making all kinds of racket as they duked it out.
When we get the new pieces we ordered, we will take a closer look and see what is left. Buzzing can be heard from all three hives, so it may turn out okay in spite of our mistake.
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