Hanging out in the old Neighborhood, Dinner with Friends, Home again

Thursday

No matter where we seem to camp it seems that at sometime you can hear train whistles.  I read in other blogs that many have the same experience.  Last night between 9 and 11 it seemed like they were almost constant.  Not loud but in the distance.  But once I laid down I was out and had a good nights sleep.  Its good sleeping weather down to 41 overnight and low 50s inside the MH.  I was up a little before 8 and turned on the furnace and plugged in the electric heater.  The furnace ran for 20 minutes and now the heater is keeping up and I am comfortable.  Bonnie is still in the warm bed.  Many have electric bed pads but we have not made that step yet.

Today we hope to visit our old neighborhood and the other areas we used to call home.  This is where we bought our first house and the kids first went to school.  It will be interesting to see how much it has changed.

We found the old house.  There are a lot of foreclosures in the area and it looks like our old house was one of them.  It looks like it has been empty a long while of course we have been gone over 30 years.  The garage, deck and shed are new as well as the fence.  I looked in the window and it is gross.  Notices on the door tell that it has been winterized.

Front view Dad and I peaked the roof on the garage it was flat.

Garage and fence are new

Backyard and new shed

Rear of house with a deck

 We knocked on the neighbors door that we knew but there was no answer.  So we drove over to the church and met and visited with the new Pastor Kyle.  He showed us around the church and the newly remodeled sanctuary and sound booth.

We attended church here

We then drove over to Avon Lake and had a snack of pizza as we had an early lunch.

4 cheese pizza for lunch and reading the Kindle

 Yesterday we had made contact with some long time friends and today we were able to get together for dinner.  We had a fun time catching up and talking about memories.  Its been a lot of years since we were last together but it did not take long to feel right at home with each other again.  Paul is still sharp as a tack at 83 and Mark is pretty young looking to be a grandpa also.

So we are now back at the MH, the furnace was running when we got back.  It was 40 outside and about 59 inside.  I turned on the electric heater and the furnace has not run again.  It is down to 36 out now and is to get down to 31 tonight maybe I should have plugged in the block heater.  Tomorrow we should get home later in the afternoon so hopefully we can get up and moving in the morning.

Time to read a little and then hit the hay.

Friday

We left Findley State Park at 9:10am after we dumped the tanks.  It got down in the low 30's but the electric heater kept the chill off and the furnace did not run until about 4:40am.  I was up at 7 and started to prepare for leaving, Bonnie got up at 8 and got ready.

The GPS routed us close to downtown Cleveland but traffic moved right along.  In fact we hit little construction and no backups on the whole trip.  I will try to put the numbers together for tomorrows post.  We stopped at a pull over close to home and unhooked the car.  Took our time and I noticed we were done in 5 minutes.  Bonnie followed me to the driveway and then continued into Varysburg and picked up the mail.  We had a little trouble starting the Ranger so I put it on the charger while we put our clothes and food into tubs to go to the house.  I got the Ranger started and we moved everything up to the house.

I am feeling exhausted and just had to relax a little.  Bonnie made supper and now we are taking it easy and I am headed to bed soon.

Saturday

Woke up to a snow covered ground, Welcome home to western New York.  It is in the low 30's so hope the water does not freeze in the MH.  We sorted through mail etc in the morning.  I left for court and Bonnie cleaned the house.  Then in the afternoon I caught up on the bills and Bonnie looked at more mail and a couple recorded TV shows.  Then it was time to get ready for a dinner theater we were going to with family at our church.

Thats when it happened.  Bonnie was taking a shower when she called out from the bathroom, "I am covered with soap and there is no water"  I jumped into action.  I went down and looked at the pump pressure gauge, 0.  No pressure I tried to hold the switch and get pressure but no go.  I got my meter and checked to make sure I had power, yes its good.  I turned off the power and measured 4.6 ohms through the pump motor, so it and wiring appear to be good.  Must be the pump.  I also changed the filter in case it was plugged.  Then I called a friend who is a plumber and he agreed it sounded like a pump or a leaking connection.  Any way he is going to come over in the morning and check it out.  If need be I will help him pull the pump.

Elizabeth and Alexus got here and we loaded up in the car.  We met her sisters at the end of the driveway and headed for Attica and the play.  We had a great time the play was funny and the players were great.

Lawrence the Piano player

Pastor Keel

The meal was delicious and we all came home stuffed.  Bonnie's sister picked up our old TV and they signed up for some class they want to attend.

So a little TV and in the morning I will stay home from church and help Bill work on the well.

Sunday

I got up early this morning and got dressed in warm old clothes to work on the well when Bill got here.  He is also the county Fire Coordinator and I saw there was a call just before 4 am this morning for a structure fire so I knew he might be tied up there.  But he called before 9am and said he was on the way.  He was here in 20 minutes and we double checked the power etc and then went out to pull the pump.  It had been raining but stopped by the time he got here

 Checking the well to pull the pump.

Looking for where to hook on to pull the pump

 We had to pump down the well some to see where to screw in the pipe to use to pull the pump.

Got it hooked up

 Got the pump out it was only down 57 feet.  And the problem was obvious the steel fitting hat corroded through and the water pressure blew out a hole.

The new fittings are Brass and Stainless steel

 So the Pump and motor were good but I opted to replace them as they are over 16 years old.

I helped Bill pull the pump and he ran the line to check the pipe and wires, all OK

Pump looks bad after 16 years in the rust bacteria environment our well has.

Bill had all the fittings and pump he needed so we got to work and removed the old pump.

New pump all stainless steel

 We also replaced all the steel fittings with new brass ones at the top of the well.

This slides into a fitting at the top of the well

All done and recapped

 Just as we finished it started to sleet but only the last 5 minutes or so.

Thanks Bill for coming out on a Sunday after getting up early for a fire!

We flushed out the lines once and then let the well settle for a while.  Then I flushed the lines again and opened the valve to the house.  We are back online and have plenty of water again.  Later today I will back flush the water softener and we should be all set to return to normal.

Its rained off and on since we finished almost a quarter inch so far.  We are still catching up on mail and recorded TV.  Hope to get a bit of a nap also and catch the end of the race.

Going to publish this now, Thanks for Checking in.