Drying out?

Having just ended a 7-day period which saw us receive 13 inches of rain, with the last 3" coming last night, we are due to dry out, at least until Sunday, so they say.  Pine Creek is well out of its banks yet again today, flooding pastures on both sides of the main road into town.  So far though, it has not cut the road itself.

We find ourselves in the midst of several projects, both here at the casa, and through church.  Through church, we are running two water stops on the local half marathon on Saturday, and helping one of our members clear out a huge fallen tree on her lot.  We can't fix the hole the tree put in her roof, but at least we can chop up the tree once the insurance is settled.

Our other projects include continuing our demolition and remodel work on the house.  We have been diligently peeling wallpaper, scrubbing, sanding, and learning how to skim coat drywall with mud.  It is, for sure, a learning experience!  I have learned that I despise wallpaper!

We always wondered what this box was for...

Saturday was the day the kids and I were busy in the morning with helping support a half marathon.  DH stayed home to deal with the pool repair/electrician guy, who was coming to help diagnose a problem with the pool lighting.  Problem:  Pool lights quit working.  Answer: Bad GFCI.  Final answer:  WAY more complicated than just a bad GFCI...

Little black ants living in the wiring box.

The fix is still in progress, but what should have been a 30 min repair including the 20 min drive to the hardware store for parts, has devolved into a 6 hr  problem.  Turns out the wiring from the spa light, which runs to a box on the side of a tree in the dog-run (yeah....that's definitely gotta be code, bolting an electrical box to a tree!) has a short to ground in one of the wires.  But this can't be simple--the tree has grown around the offending conduits damaging the wiring and causing the short.

Well....the wiring was fixed, the lights worked, and now we know why the box was stuck on the tree where it was...yep, new problem to solve.  You know how water seeks its own level?  Yeah, ponder that one for a bit, and understand that the spa sits above where the wiring box now lives.  Yesterday sucked.  I can only hope and pray that today is better.