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Aug 20, 2018, 05:54 PM
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Member Since: Nov 2002
Location: Mid World
Posts: 18,120
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I love living in the boonies, really, but there are times....
We got one humdinger of a storm yesterday. I was turning the oven on to start dinner when there was a loud noise out side and a flash. I about pooed my drawers. Power went out. For those of you who live in the city no power out in the boonies is a major pain. It not only means no lights, A/C, etc it means no water. Gotta have power to run the pump.
This happens often enough I have the power company's power outage number programmed into my phone. It took four attempts to complete the call because the signal kept dropping out. (Wind and rain means rotten cell reception in the boonies too.) It took four and a half hours to get the power back on due to a series of SNAFUs. Yeh, power = water! Hopped in the shower. I was totally covered in soap suds when the water flow got really slow, then none at all. Well crap. Wiped off the soap best I could and went out to check the well. There I am dripping, still had soap on me while ants and mosquitoes tried to eat me alive while I checked out the pump using emergency lights. Looked like the points were blown. Should have been a simple fix, but couldn't get it done last night. Finally decided I'd deal with it in the morning.
Dipped water out of the horses' trough and carried it in the house. Heated some on the stove and rinsed off the soap residue. Not the best way to get clean, but better than leaving the soap on me.
Point replacement today required TWO trips into town for parts. Again it was a series of SNAFUs trying to install them. I've done this a zillion times before. It's an easy half hour job usually. Not today. Murphy's Law ruled, if it could go wrong it did. Finally got the new points installed and still no water!  
Gave in and called the well guy. Bless his soul (that's a Southern thing). He came out and got things fixed. It wasn't the points. It was the capacitor. Might have been the storm yesterday or it could just be rotten timing. He said the capacitor was ancient.
Bottom line is I have both power and water tonight. I am looking forward to a nice long hot shower tonight.
What's all this have to do with country living you ask? If you live in the city and the power or water go out you call the appropriate agency and they fix it. If you live in the boonies you have to do most repairs yourself. I take pride in being able to look after the farm, but the last couple of days have been a trial.
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