Life in the Last Frontier

Sometimes living through an Alaskan winter can be a bit of a challenge. Yesterday morning I took my shower, & when I finished, I stepped out & dressed, used the toilet & flushed, & water started flowing from under the toilet. Yikes!

I also found water standing on the floor in the mechanical room. Warren was out running errands, so I called him to tell him about this new development. He said to call our plumber Dave. Well, we've been having a long very unusual very cold, spell of below zero weather, & Dave the plumber is a really busy guy right now. After Warren got home we discussed the situation, & he called Andy, the sewer guy. Andy came within an hour & pumped out the septic system. It seems the builder put in the new system without pumping the old, & with all the rain we had last summer, our drain field was full. Hence the back up. So it seemed our problem was solved.

We heaved a sigh of relief, & then went to an Irish dance festivel/dinner/fund raiser with our friends Mindy & John.

There was lots of fun Irish music, & performers...
& of course the girls performed....
they were spectacular! This is Christy on the end above, & Hope on the end below, right in front of my camera.
The feet flew & their curls bounced.
We had a good time. Dinner was a traditional corned beef & cabbaged. I skipped the beef, as I'm not a red meat eater, but the veggies tasted good, & dessert was lovely.

This morning I was sitting & drinking my coffee,the temperature outside has warmed up to a balmy 17 degrees.

When Warren got up, & used the bathroom, he flushed the toilet, there was a loud hissing & running water noise. A pipe broke in the mechanical room. Suddenly there was a flood of water running into Warren's workshop & heading toward the carpet in my studio. I dammed the way with towels, while Warren waded in & shut off the water. I had to plunge the drain on the floor to get the water draining. Thank goodness that whole area is cement & unfinished right now. I'd hate to see what a mess we would've had if Warren's laminante flooring was down there. Dave the plumber was called again. He's got one lady with heating problems that he has to see to first, then we're the 2nd most urgent call on his list, so hopfully he'll be here to get our water running again.
In the meantime, I drove down to the grocery store to use the bathroom, then bought 4 gallons of water to use while we wait.

& here I thought I'd give you a sneek peek of what I'm working on in my studio. Oddly enough it's an Outhouse Quilt!
The white thing at the top is Broccoli's toes. He wanted to hold it down for me while I snapped the picture.

Happy St Patty's day!