...11.8...Over the Weekend...Catch-up Edition...

...well...(well-problems that is...haha)...we fell off the internet for a couple of days...

...so this is our 59 year old water pump...in the basement...and it failed...

...imagine that...having run reliably for 59 years...it finally conked out...haha...

...so I went over to the Church and filled up our 5 gallon emergency water jugs...

...for one thing...we're Boy Scouts (ha!) and we like to Be prepared...and for another thing...we're not new to the whole live without water thing...

...remember the Elk River chemical spill back in January of 2014 when crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) was released from a Freedom Industries facility into the Elk River, a tributary of the Kanawha River...

...so it was a little bit like that...without the pervading licorice smell...and of course we knew it wouldn't las that long...so we did what we could to conserve water...washed dishes in bowls in the sink and then reused that water for flushing...(tmi?)

...and so you're thinking...we had no water...well...what's that got to do with the internet...

...well...

...the Church Sexton called the Well Guy...and he came and got started digging up the well...because...this set up would no longer meet code...the well was completely buried with no above ground access...and the entire pump was in the basement...i.e., not submersible...

...and then...maybe two seconds after this photo was taken...the internet went out...

...because...

...the well guy cut the cable...arghhh...so now we've got no water...and no internet...not sure which is worse...haha...only joking...definitely no water is worse...

...so we called for a repair for the cable...and they pulled 120 feet or so of pipe out of the well...

...so that's it...just a pipe in the ground...

..then they installed 120 feet or so of new pipe...and a submersible pump and raised the well above ground...and water-wise...we were back in business...

...no worries...they came a couple of days later and fixed the cable...so now we have water...and internet...YAY!

...we started the weekend with a big breakfast...and I do mean BIG...veggie bacon and Just Egg...

...the veggie bacon is leftover from a Julia Child recipe...it's pretty yummy...but not too healthy...

...and with that...I had an English muffin and applesauce and a couple of pancakes...

...and then early Saturday morning I got a call from a dear friend from West Virginia...and she and another friend were in Charlotte...they were my Book Club/Downton-Abbey-watching/Dog-Walking Besties...asking if I'd like to spend the day with them...

...these ladies were my nearest neighbors in W.V. and my closest friends...the ones we planned the progressive Christmas dinner party with every year we were there...

...so of course I changed my plans (not really...I didn't have 'plans') and met them...we had the BEST time just talking our heads off and catching up...Chanel was there too...and we had such a sweet reunion...Jack was so sad when I got home and he smelled Chanel and realized he'd been left out of the reunion...

...then Sunday...in the afternoon...I made a batch of Brownie Bites...always delicious...

...and...I got out the new month's Porch Pillow...November's Give Thanks pillow...

...and I just pulled all of the 'stuffing' out of October's pillow...and stuffed the November pillow with it...it's just a bunch of plastic grocery bags recycled here and kept out of the landfill...nice and puffy and waterproof...

...and while I was downstairs getting out the new month's Porch Pillow...I saw this tattered Christmas potholder in the bin...

...and thinking...no time like the present...I got it out and a scrap of orange cloth...

...and just sewed a quick new cover for it...so it kind of went from being a Christmas potholder to a Halloween/fall one...I left the little green tab poking out so it looks a bit like a pumpkin...

...and then I spent some time catching up on all the blogs I missed while I had no internet...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!