Water

This may well be the most boring post I will ever write, but I am writing it anyway.

When we returned from New Hampshire, our water stopped working. We have had trouble with our well, on and off, since we went to London in January 2002. I could tell you a long, involved, boring story about my theory on what happened, but I will abstain. Anyhow, Kevin replaced a switch on our well troll and all was good. For a month.

One night in early July (maybe the 5th?), Nora went to brush her teeth. She turned the bathroom faucet on and nothing happened. And so Kevin replaced the pressure switch again, but there was still no water. And so he replaced another part, but there was still no water. And so he replaced the breaker switch, as a last resort, but there was still no water. Which only left one thing: the pump.

I called the well pump guy, who answered his phone at 7:30pm (I intended to leave a message), and said he would come over in the morning. Which he did. I have never been happier for immediate service in my life. Remember, we had already been without water for a couple of days in early June. I was not interested in more water-free time.

So Jim came over, along with his dog Inga. He drove his boom truck through our yard to get to the well, and then he pulled up all 180 feet of well pipe and, finally, the pump. Turns out our galvanized piping had corroded, and the resulting leak burned out the pump. He replaced the piping with some type of plastic piping and replaced the pump. He also adjusted the flow to slow it down. And you know what? THERE IS NO MORE SEDIMENT IN OUR WATER! After more than 8 years, our water is just regular old water. Apparently the flow was set too high and the well couldn't replenish fast enough.

The one and only problem (other than the $1,300 bill):

The boom truck is really heavy. We have maybe 4 of these awesome ruts in the yard.

If you live in Northern MN and need a well guy, email me. Jim is fantastic! He was nice to my kids, he called the next day and again a week later to make sure things were working smoothly, and he took the time to explain everything to me and Kevin so we understood what he was doing and why. We had 5 days of unusable water while we purged the well of any bacteria that may have entered with the new piping or pump, but now we have clear, clean water that doesn't make me look like the world's worst housekeeper. And we should be good for the next decade or two.

Camping

In June, right after school let out for the summer, we went camping. We rented a camper cabin at Wild River State Park and it was fantastic!

The girls were absolutely thrilled to sleep in bunk beds, and even more thrilled that there were TWO top bunks!

There was a beautiful trail leading down a very long stairway to the river. It was infested with more mosquitoes than we had ever seen in one place, but the view was worth it.

Some of us were disappointed that there was nowhere to swim. The current was pretty strong, but there were people boating and fishing.

Dana honed her marshmallow-roasting skills. She still likes to light them on fire and then blow them out rather than gently browning them. Something about being 5 and impatient I guess.

Campfire coffee is pretty awesome, too.

We're hoping to get out again before summer ends. We'll see. As you can probably guess from my lack of posting, we've been really busy.

I also have some really sad news. After ten days with our puppy, we could no longer ignore the fact that Kevin is allergic to dogs. He had never lived with one before, so he had no idea. His eyes were fire-engine red and swollen nearly shut by day 9. We had a very sad family meeting and, on day 10, my lovely sister agreed to take her. They had been looking for a small dog for Keenan, my nephew, for about 18 months, but never had any luck at the local shelter. She is doing great, is still the cutest little monster ever, and is now named Charlotte. And we still see her often.