I was going to start by talking about water problems...but we'll get to that. Instead I'll start with Christmas, since it will have come and gone before I post again.
Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope that the "Reason for the Season" figures large in your celebrations, for without Jesus Christ, there would be no reason to celebrate anything. God revealed his true self to us and reconciled humanity to himself through Jesus, his Son, for which we can sing "Joy to the World!" with a glad heart...
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20
We enjoyed a small pre-Christmas celebration with the family for our grandson, Aiden, who left for Canada before the holiday to spend Christmas with his lovely girlfriend, Faith. (Until now, they have only been internet friends, but they are hitting it off wonderfully, according to a recent family update.)
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Aiden opening his gift... while on the phone
with Faith... and Olive looking on |
Now to the water problems.
A few weeks ago I began to suspect our water pump was on its last leg, mostly because of all the laborious noise it made every time we ran the water. And I prepared myself for the inevitable conclusion that in fact came to pass not long thereafter. We turned on the water and got nothing. At that time, we suspected, but of course didn't know for certain, that the water pump was the problem. So we connected our hose to the house water spigot and Mark began the process of looking for a new pump online (which is where everybody buys everything nowadays).
Fortunately there's not a big demand for RV water pumps, because we were able to find one at a reasonable price and actually take delivery within a few days. The unit he selected was under $100, and is a 5-chamber construction, which is supposed to be much quieter. We were advised to get at least a 3-chamber unit (which the original unit was), but the name-brand replacement was actually more expensive and less efficient.
Mark installed it in under an hour and it is running beautifully-- and virtually noiselessly.
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New water pump installed
(old one below) |
In the meantime, we had another water problem... a blocked up drain. Most of you RVers may never run into this problem, what with the low-fat diet craze still being a thing. But we are carnivores; and every day we dump grease down the drain. We try to mingle the grease with soap, but apparently there's not enough soap to manage the amount of grease we dispense into our pipes on a regular basis, because they finally clogged up and said, "no more!"
Being all about non-toxic, environmentally safe consumerism, our first effort to clear the drain was the classic vinegar and baking soda remedy. Followed by hot water. Again. And again. And again. To no avail.
So, off Mark went to buy some caustic drain cleaner. Three bottles later, the plugged up drain remained stubborn. Time for Plan B-- a drain snake. Three feet ought to do it, he thought. I'm not sure what Walmart does with returned drain snakes that have been used on somebody's nasty drain... but I hope they don't try to resell them. The 15-foot drain snake finally cleared the problem. We are back in business flushing grease and soap down our drain. And we have a drain snake for the next time the pipes rebel against us.
We are now back in water-heaven. Everything is working as intended and life is good.
We're counting down to Christmas...six days to go. Today we attended the family's church and watched the kids perform in their Christmas program. It was delightful! Olive was a little lamb and Asher played the part of a store clerk in a skit where everyone was trying to buy a toy that was out of stock. On Friday, Sophie was a Christmas tree in her school program. I'm still hoping to see some pictures. Christmas is, and always will be, a beautiful time of the year.
May yours be blessed and happy!
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| Sophie at her Christmas table |
