Residual Current Blues (by alaric)

Bah. Yesterday the RCD tripped, shutting off the electricity supply to the house, while I was standing in the kitchen.

This means that, somewhere, something's leaking electricity. An RCD measures the current that goes out to appliances on the Live wire, and measures the current that comes back via the Neutral wire, and if they differ by more than about 100mA (in the case of our unit), then it knows that coulombs of charge are going awry somewhere - which is usually a dangerous situation, since it means either a short to ground of some kind (which can start fires due to electricity flowing through things it shouldn't and making them hot) or a short to ground via a human being, which is usually rather unhealthy.

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The Curse is Back >:( (by sarah)

SIGH

Yes you guessed it - everything is going wronge again 🙁

First of all the dishwasher broke - bang in the middle of the Foot Path inquiry - meaning there were loads of people to feed - I had volunteered to do the washing up as we have the dishwasher - but it keeps tripping the RCD (Residual Current Dectector) meaning that the not only is it not able to work but as we didnt initially realise - the power was down for a while including fridge and freezers.

We thought this was the bottom of the cursed machine filling up with water again - but two weeks on and its still tripping the RCD and is therefore dangerous 🙁 So this means we've been doing all the washing up by hand - so I hear you all say - I dont have a dishwasher grumble grumble grumble - except that it is harvest time and we have a glut - every time I turn around someone turns up with more windfalls to turn into something so sticky pots and pans and millions of extra bowls and choppign boards need to be washed.

Then we discovered on the third bowl of hot water that our 'boost' on the water heater has packed up meaning that we only have one tank of hot water to run on a day 🙁 So therefore washing up involves boiling kettles and the such like.

The day after the dishwasher broke I changed the water out of the tumble dryer and lo! The red light that tells me the water needs emptying now refuses to go out even though it is now empty 🙁 This has happened before to and was just down to some water pooling near the sensor which I mop up with a tea towl and then it may take 2 or 3 days to dry - not this time - oh no! Just as we start using the new washable nappies for Jean - the tumble dryer brakes - still not working - so thats washing hanging every where in the house making it even damper than it normally is - you know its bad when the condensation runs down the windows.

Then the left indicator on the van has started cutting out when its too wet - so looks like thats wonky cabling that needs fixing. Blower is also dead - and the most awkard one was the rear lights - not good for reversing in our parking space where there is the drop into the stream!

The kittens messed in the stable - we cleaned it up but hadnt realised there was a kitten egg just outside the door which we trod in and then walked all round downstairs before I started accusing all of smelling - this has ment a huge carpet shampoo so the furniture is all in much disaray.

Then poor Als laptop has become tempramental - going to sleep and not waking up with basically no warning. Not to mention the CPW thing and the bank having stuffed up direct debits into my account for my creadit card as my post keeps going walkys - so fines galour - I might have to strangly the next person that tells me that it may affect my creadit rating - when its there flipping fualt!!!!

The creme on the top - is that we may have found a leak in the roof - not sure yet though as its were there is staining from an old leak.

Of Wasp Nests and Mould (by sarah)

Today has been a strange day - I had to trundle off on a hunt for a socket set with Dad to try and fix the car - this took about three hours! But we have found the leak - there was a metal pipe with lots of rust holes in it. I suppose the steam that built up due to there not being enough water for cooling, would have caused the rust thinned metal to fail and voila, holes galore!

Bits crumbled of this pipe as it was removed 🙁 Dad spent ages a) locating said leak, b) extracting the part - we dont know the name for it as the Haynes manual wasnt in the car! and c) cleaning it with meths so that we could see exactly how many holes there were!

Once it was cleaned up, it was a question of aralditing the holes (Al says Araldities is the goddess of stickyness) - so off I went to find a sutable plugging material - in the end we settled for the outer containers of tee lights - many of which I have due to a load of partially burnt ones some camper once left at Thirftwood Campsite! These cases where then cut to size - the glue mixed (its a two part epoxy), Dad spent ages 'filling' the gaps with glue - then to the tricky bit of placing the metal 'plaster' over the wounds! Gaffer tape strips were then used to try and keep everything in place untill the glue dried. We are currently waiting for the glue to cure and just hoping really.

Another job that was essential yesturday was the Raising of the Bridge over the stream - there was a wasps' nest underneath the bridge which had to be got rid of - Barbara didnt want to pay the £50 fee for an expert so asked Al if he would lift the bridge - this is a scary thing to do, so we waited for night and fortunately last night was raining too, so it was optimum time to go poking at wasps' nests as the wasps would be less active and less inclined to chase us!

Me, Dad and Al kitted ourselves up in jeans, thick coats of various types (I had a leather one on), welding gloves and bricky gloves and nasty chemical handling gloves were donned, add to this various safety goggles and masks and we were set! We had Al's Nightsearcher torch which is really really powerful and lit things up nicely. Al was also wearing the nice LED head torch Rob gave me for my Birthday. Feeling like an astronaut or deep sea explorer we set out with ropes in hand - the plan? To tie the rope onto the bridge either side of the stream and heave. Me and Dad went to the far side via the steps to avoid prematurely angering the wasps. I tied a loop in the rope same as Al and we hooked them onto some planks - then Dad and Al heaved, and heaved and well heaved - the planks broke but the bridge did nae budge!

Ok so plan 2!

The ropes were passed under the bridge with much worry on the angry wasp frount, then Dad and Al heaved and heaved and heaved some more - this time the bridge is flexing but no mass movement 🙁 I was even shouting 'heave ho' to get them synched - all to no avail. At this point I asked how Babara had been planning to do this and Al said by getting in the stream and pushing from underneath (next to the wasp' nest with head about right height for stings!). We didn't fancy that, so off I went to get a spade and fork so that we could dig out the nice grass round the two ends of the bridge. This caused a bit of confusion as there are bits of wall-making sized cotswold stone (mill pond wall maybe?) around the ends. We hypothesised on whether they were put there intentionally to stop the bridge sinking or whether they were just there anyway (erm hope that makes sense!). This meant we dug up a bit more than was needed (I say we I was at this juncture just holding the torch!).

That done we tried plan 3, praying that we wouldnt have to kit girly out in wellies for a plan four - I really didnt want to be going in the stream but Dad doesnt have any wellies so it would have been me and Al!

They heaved and heaved and the bridge moved and didn't want to stand on its side as we had been instructed to leave it - instead it flopped onto its back, onto the poor plants! And there on the underbelly of the bridge was a writhing mass of angry wasps - in the shape of half a football - in the torch light they looked black and shiny and were begginning to rise - we did the gentlemanly thing and ran!

Still we actually only left one piece of rope behind which I think was pretty good! I lament not having the camera with me though, even though I know that it wouldn't have been able to capture what I saw. It was quiet frankly beuatiful, the torch light lent a green luminosity to the plants, which being in or around the stream were tall reeds or rainforestesque type plants - the rain was little silver lines paralleling down from the sky at an angle of 35 degrees and the wind was making everything dance with a natural elegance. I also really wanted a photo of the wasps nest but when I went down there this morning to take the pic I discovered (unsuprisingly given wasps nests are made of paper) that the nest had melted in the rain! There were lots of bewildered wasps flying around the bridge.

We feel this is a good this cos a) it doesnt now need poking at further to remove it and b) hopefully the wasps can go and find a nice new home (hopefully not in our garage or anything like that!).

Due to helping Dad with the car and then dealing with the wasps nest - I only got one other job done yesterday and that was cleaning out the cupboard under the sink - I thought 'crikey I didnt check under there after the last flood'. It was bad - the cupbord itself was really wet but thats cos all the water goes down the half inch gap at the back and some idiot put the cupboards in onto top of the carpet here! This meant that I was confronted by cream fluff eminating from said half inch gap 🙁 I wasnt happy cleaning that out I can tell you - I dread to think what its like under the actual ciupboard - Al wouldnt let me 'break' the cupboard to look properlly as we dont have the money to replace the units - sigh - I want lino! (well actually we want some nice tiles but they are v. expensive so we'd be happy with lino until we're rich!).

Water and Electricity Stupidity! (by sarah)

Grrrr!!!!

Well today I opened a letter from our electricity supplier - I wasnt expecting a bill as we have recently payed one. Unfortunatly two weeks ago we'd had our first meter reading since we had moved in - add this to the fact they hadnt changed us off of economy seven and I cant remember if I posted the letter asking them 🙁 We have a bill for £1000!!!!

This is a magnitude different to previous bills - it incorporates all the extra we havent been paying over the last yr that they didnt know about cos they hadnt read our meter 🙁

The economy seven is a right pain! Al works with computers - we prepear most meals at home - during the day! For those that don't know about economy seven it is a tarfir that changes less at night that standard but almost double! during the day.

This bill would have included all the excess from heating over the winter too. This was exceptionly high becuase a) we have no gas or oil heating and the fire only heats a small patch of down stairs. We only managed to put the thermal curtians, mum made, up towards the end of the winter - plus I didnt unpack synthia the carpet snake draft excluder until spring. Ontop of that we have no double glazing and we have found a couple of 1/2 inch gaps in some of the windows!

We are peed off with the gas people as we have been waiting for the quotes and stuff for over six months now - they came and did the free servey! We still want gas for cooking but we now thinking that oil central heating might well be the way to go!

I am slightly worried over the ecological-ness of our house at the moment 🙁

Still we phoned them up and have arranged to pay this nasty bill a bit every month though the household budget is now completely up the creek 🙁

The other stupidity is the water company - I could strangle them!

Now when the first water bill came it was obviously in Babaras name - I phoned them up and advised them of the change and who we were etc...

Bow I got one more bill and that was it - this was becuase for some reason they started sending our Bills to Babara - wrong address, wrong name. She kept phoning saying she had payed her bills - they look it up on the pooters and yes she has etc... but then another letter arrives and nother - she phones up each time - then one threaterning solicitors - then she noticeses that it our account.

I phone them up and they apologise and say they have taken our account off the 'bad' list and a new bill will be sent.

Then over a month later I'm thinking I've still not got a bill and lo! We go to feed the cats and sitting on top of the post at the Mill is a letter from the water company saying - with the wrong name but our adress - this again was threatening balifs and stuff - I have sne t the cheque off along with a peeved letter. But am still expecting the balifs to flipping kinock! Incompetance!!!!

What is wrong with the srtructures of these companies that this can happen?

ok thats all folks!

Olives olives every where and not one to eat! (by sarah)

Mysterious olives keep turning up every where - I know I collected them as a child as thought they were brillient along with the tap fittings off of stop cocks and those ball bearing mount things, but this is rediculous! Today we found another one in the stable near the washing machine! Are they teleporting in just to confuse us?

Randomly popping into existance? Like the paper clip at the biginning of time?

Maybe they are my collection from when I was little - I have been unpacking the boxes from mum and dads house which they packed up whilst I was at uni! It is conceeivable I just didnt notice them and have some how scattered them everywhere? These are mostly uncrushed olives some in brass and some in copper! Oh well perhapse I can make them into some funky sculpture or something?