Friday Night (Nov 12): The water line that runs through the creek and has been exposed for a couple years, finally has an accident and gets busted. The water is still running, so it's not a cause of concern yet.
Saturday morning: Got a quick shower in after a morning run on the runway - little did I know it would be my last for a while.
Saturday evening: Increasing loss in water pressure until we have no water left in teacher housing. We also got our first snow, so I scooped all the snow off of the porch with a dust pan to melt in a bucket for future use.
Sunday morning: The village does the best with the materials they have on hand for the problem (a clamp and a bunch of tape) and does a temporary patch job.
Sunday afternoon: We have water! I think about doing laundry, but am nervous because the water pressure is still low so I decide to wait.
Sunday evening: We have no water. Crap! Forget laundry, I should have showered when I had the chance. Text Mike (who is about to get on a plane in Arizona) to let him know and get an idea of what to do about school the next day. Take some pictures of the pipe in question, e-mail them to district office and wait for word back.
Sunday night: No word on school yet, so assume there will be school and use my melted snow to shampoo my hair and get a rough bath.
Monday morning: Still no water in the house and I'm convinced the water coming out of the faucets at school is only emptying out the pipes in the building. Just in case, I save all of the water in milk jugs, when I check for water. If we don't have any more water, I will be very sad that I ran good water down the drain. School starts and Mike returns to take over the problem. He spends the next two days on the phone dealing with it.
Monday afternoon: Send kids home early. The Borough (our version of a county) decides what part is needed and agrees to buy it and send it over on the plane on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning: No school - surprise!
Tuesday noonish: The barge shows up with it's load of treasures for the community.
Tuesday early afternoon: The plane company calls to say they have the part and will send it over on the next flight.
Tuesday late afternoon: The plane circles the runway, does not land, and flies back to Homer.
After the rough fix Sunday morning |
Tuesday evening: It gets too dark for the plane to leave before the barge is finished. The part will be on the first flight in the morning.
Wednesday morning: No school. We get the kids ready to leave for a Middle School basketball tournament. I never thought I would see the day that I would be excited about getting to take a shower in a middle school locker room.
Wednesday afternoon: We fly out and the part gets put on the broken pipe. The community has water and I am headed to a locker room shower and looking forward to every second of it.
Wednesday late afternoon: In another part of town, workers driving pilings in for a new building puncture an underground water line. No water, again. Community scrambles and puts together a quick fix.
Thursday morning: They have school
Thursday evening: Quick fix quits. No water, no school Friday.
Friday: Finally, water is on and stays on!!
Fingers crossed, it will stay that way.
A little video showing the rate of water loss right after the rough fix. It got much worse as the day progressed.