Monday Morning Woes and More Pink Blue Bird Eggs

August 4, 2014 by Elizabeth Melton Parsons 38 Comments

Saturday morning I was sipping coffee and watching the sun rise when I noticed a puddle of water next to the foundation in front of the house. My first thought was that perhaps my hubby had dumped something there. But he’d never done anything like that so I kind of nixed that idea. I knew it wasn’t from rain. It’s been exceedingly dry this summer with only a light shower here and there, but mostly just sprinkles. And there had not even been that for several days. Once the sun had lightened the sky enough to see better, I went down to investigate and saw water bubbling up from underground. I thought, UH OH, this is not good. My hubby was at work so my son dug it out. This procedure only took FOUR hours. He had to tunnel trough 40 inches of heavy clay, large boulders, tree roots… and he had to work around a large gutter drain pipe in order to find the water main line.

Big Hole

And of course it was the original 80-year-old metal line. The line had a nice little hole that didn’t look too bad so when my husband got home he went out and purchased a couple of clamps made especially to seal these off without having to replace the entire line from meter to house. Unfortunately they didn’t work. When he put the first clamp on another hole developed right next to the first. When trying to cover both holes the pipe began to split. I believe it might be beyond fixing and needs to be replaced. We called the plumber. He wasn’t there so we left a message. It’s Monday morning and we still hadn’t heard back. My husband called a few minutes ago to tell me he’d called the plumber again and he’s supposed to be here sometime this afternoon. We’ve had no running water in the house since Saturday morning. Not the first time I’ve had to carry water from the spring, but a pain in the butt anyway. The spring is privately owned and not more than a couple of blocks away. It’s tested regularly to be sure it’s safe for drinking and it’s free for any who wants it. Also my next door neighbor said we could use his outside spigot whenever we need water. Bless his heart. We have plenty of access to water. Thank goodness. I really don’t mind standing in the tub pouring cold buckets of water over my head. No really…I don’t mind.  Actually I don’t do this. I heat some water first and pour it in with the cold. But my husband uses it cold. Burrrrr….

I have no clue what something like this will cost, but I bet it won’t be cheap. May even wipe out my little bit of savings, which means my new front porch and my bathtub refinishing may be put on hold. My biggest worry aside from cost is my huge sugar maple tree. They will have to trench right next to it. Which means they’ll probably destroy some major roots and it may die. 😦

Sugar Maple on Right

For some brighter news. My bluebird pair is nesting again. This is the third time this summer. Same pale pink eggs. My husband snapped a photo of them this time. There were three eggs/babies each of the previous times. This time so far, there are five little pink eggs in there. They look more white in this picture, but they are a true delicate pink shade in person.

Pink Bluebird Eggs