Gill woke late and leaped out of bed at 7.30 to get our youngest off to school in the taxi she booked last night. We are using the taxi today as Rachel has offered him a lift back home on Mondays after school. Gill was then going on to the Credit Union to get a big cheque out, almost the last of the Uncle Tom money, to pay for one term of the Steiner School.
I was woken by the phone. I got downstairs just too late to speak to the caller, but used 1471 to get the number and ring back. It was Justin, our electrician friend... and yes, he'd rung last week and said he'd be available on Monday, to check our rather dreadful wiring. We've had to turn the loft spur off as when we used it, it tripped fuses, and the 'under the stairs' area looks like electric spaghetti.
So Justin came back and explained that he would first check the state of the sockets with the power off, then with them on. But when he got to the junction box, it was such a mess that he said it needed to be replaced, so he got on with that. It'll cost us a small fortune, but we really do need the wiring sorting. When we bought the house, we took advice from my father not to get a survey done. We are now regretting that as we didn't know that actually, the best thing to have done would be to rewire the house. It has been installed by a succession of amateurs, and bits added here and there, and it is a fire risk. Hopefully, two days of Justin will make it a bit safer.
So, we had the whole day with no electricity. Glad to have the stove to make hot drinks. I got on with some tidying outside, stacking, pruning and tying in the loganberries. Gill set our home-schooler a task. We kept Justin fed and watered.
Half-way through the day our Polish roofer friend Artur arrived... I'd seen him in the street a while back and asked him to come and fix a couple of slates that had been dislodged by the chaps who took the chimney down and installed the solar panels. Artur and his chaps fixed the missing slates in about 15 minutes. Good to get that done.
Justin worked til after 4pm, and will be back at 10 tomorrow.
I cycled round to Amanda's to pick up another load of her waste wood. I started to riddle the sawdust from the front, to separate fine sawdust from bigger bits of twig, wood etc. The sawdust is my compost toilet cover, and the bigger bits of woody stuff goes in layers with the fruit and veg composting, so a productive day.
I was woken by the phone. I got downstairs just too late to speak to the caller, but used 1471 to get the number and ring back. It was Justin, our electrician friend... and yes, he'd rung last week and said he'd be available on Monday, to check our rather dreadful wiring. We've had to turn the loft spur off as when we used it, it tripped fuses, and the 'under the stairs' area looks like electric spaghetti.
So Justin came back and explained that he would first check the state of the sockets with the power off, then with them on. But when he got to the junction box, it was such a mess that he said it needed to be replaced, so he got on with that. It'll cost us a small fortune, but we really do need the wiring sorting. When we bought the house, we took advice from my father not to get a survey done. We are now regretting that as we didn't know that actually, the best thing to have done would be to rewire the house. It has been installed by a succession of amateurs, and bits added here and there, and it is a fire risk. Hopefully, two days of Justin will make it a bit safer.
So, we had the whole day with no electricity. Glad to have the stove to make hot drinks. I got on with some tidying outside, stacking, pruning and tying in the loganberries. Gill set our home-schooler a task. We kept Justin fed and watered.
Half-way through the day our Polish roofer friend Artur arrived... I'd seen him in the street a while back and asked him to come and fix a couple of slates that had been dislodged by the chaps who took the chimney down and installed the solar panels. Artur and his chaps fixed the missing slates in about 15 minutes. Good to get that done.
Justin worked til after 4pm, and will be back at 10 tomorrow.
I cycled round to Amanda's to pick up another load of her waste wood. I started to riddle the sawdust from the front, to separate fine sawdust from bigger bits of twig, wood etc. The sawdust is my compost toilet cover, and the bigger bits of woody stuff goes in layers with the fruit and veg composting, so a productive day.
