Pioneer Living....

 This has been a challenging several days or so and I have not have enough mojo to post before now.

I thought I would start this journal entry with some happy photos from two of my children.

Amber is THE ultimate hockey mom and spent some of these Arctic winter days cleaning and sanitizing four sets of hockey gear for her four teenage hockey players!

Jesse and his bride along with Levi left this morning for a weekend trip to Seattle and the coast to La Push. They are such a beautiful couple!

They offered us their home while they were away - and more about that later.

I love how they can get away and see so many beautiful places and experience the joys of travel.

Our handsome Levi!!

He is a jewel in my heart.....

The temps have been seriously COLD here - as they seem to have been everywhere!

We hunkered down and kept our fireplace burning, watched programs, read books, cooked good meals and was loving these winter days.

UNTIL the weather warmed up on Tuesday and the pipe at the corner of the sewing room broke.

Louis Dean was Johnny-on-the spot and got out there and turned the water off and started repairing the faucet.

He said he would cut the pipe off and cap it....

He tried twice to repair the faucet - and each day meant we had NO water.

On the third day he did cut the pipe and capped it off.

Water back on!

Alas, when he turned it on THIS faucet had a broken pipe.

We had covered and protected it but it still broke.

Water back off!

We had tried to protect all NINE of our outdoor faucets so just two out of nine isn't too bad.

This was Thursday and the roads were safe to drive so I took us to Home Depot.

I went to get some cleaning supplies and found LD in the plumbing isle with an empty basket.

He had no idea what we were here for.

We bought ten times the amount of supplies he needed - but no matter.

We came home and watched a program while we ate dinner together.

We had water but now the toilets weren't flushing.

And water was flooding my bathroom.

LD turned the water off at the toilets.

I thought the sewer had frozen up.

Friday morning I called our plumbers at RWD services and within an hour Antonio was here to check things out.

We assumed it would be a normal problem with a normal fix....

But NO! They found that there's a break in the sewer line due to tree roots.

This is a serious problem but fixable. At a price, of course.

We could not find the clean out pipe so they had to go up on the roof.

The solution is to tunnel under the house and find the break.

At this point I was numb and felt like a zombie.

I had to make some descisions - financial and many other ways.

I reached out to Mike and he came over and took our cats home with him.

It was like I could not handle taking care of anything else.

I dearly love Samantha and Tabitha but I just have to eliminate anything that is possible.

Coming in and out the doors and watching for them to escape....plus feeding and taking care of them...

all of a sudden it was too much!

Thank you, Mike, for taking them home with you. I'm sure they will love being there with Bandit, Bauer and Ginger! I hope my cats behave themselves. Keep in mind - they are scratchers. Beware.

I called my super handyman, Hector, and he came that very afternoon and took the fence down and the deck up so the crew would have roon to dig.

Hector is one of God's best blessings to me.

Whatever I need - he can do it!

And look what was under the deck!

The clean out pipe!

Not sure what difference if any this will make but it does save us hundreds of dollars not to have one put in.

So here we are - the kitchen has water - hot and cold - and I can run the dishwasher and washing machine and I am so grateful.

No bathroom facilities but we have Home Depot buckets, plastic liners and kitty litter!

It could be worse.

We have the best neighbors!

Stephanie and Mark pick up something for us every time they go out on errands.

Burgers, fries, onion rings and chicken salad and sloppy joes, and more.

It's weird that preparing meals in times of stress is really hard.

I never knew this before but now it makes sense why people bring food to those who are facing hard times.

Stephanie and Mark have been there for us through many many years.

She brought snacks and a newspaper to the hospital when Louis Dean had a heart attack.

I can't tell you the number of meals she has brought to my door.

I am counting my blessings as in wearing these super warm socks sent to me from my friend, Jutta, in Finland. She is a comfort to me and we talk every day or so.

How amazing that I can hold the phone in my hand and talk to Jutta who is in Helsinki or Hanko Finland.

So here I am again... in survive and cope mode...

but this is so much better than what I have gone through before.

No matter what is going on - Louis Dean needs a project.

I gave hime one today and it served its purpose.

He was challenged and creative and he felt good about the results.

I'll show the results tomorrow.

We are waiting for Monday when the plumbing office opens to see what the plans are.....