Author Topic: One of those weeks..  (Read 8217 times)

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
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One of those weeks..
« on: November 23, 2011, 09:37:17 am »
Hmm, you know when you reckon you've got costs pared back to the bone and might not have to take a job you don't want that would involve you relocating several hundred miles and working out what to do with 28 other lives for which you're responsible in addition to your own?

OK, so the kettle starts by not quite completing the boil - realise there is a wee plastic bit in the stand that has broken so it works but only if you hold it down from part way ::)  Kettle you think, £5-10 ok I can manage and the old one will go to the garage to do poultices and add to mashes..

Don't quite get to the supermarkets due to avoiding unnecessary journeys and not yet having passed near one on such an essential journey - next the 10yo Dyson starts ignoring the sucking up dust part of its job description and you've a few folk coming in the next few days who might not be quite as comfortbale with the hayseeds and welly dirt that is overlaying the usual cathair layer on all carpets ::)  Try and DIY fix it but nothing improves - start to look at online electrical sales prices and realise a new Dyson is the best part of £300 so begin trawling reviews of cheaper products you doubt will be as good while emailing the last person that helped get the Dyson restarted again..

Finally get Scottish Power to remove a redundant off peak meter so you can renegotiate prices with them and alternative providers - while standing by the external meter box, notice a distinct whiff from the drains and resolve to inspect after the electricians leave.. realise that drains need jetting again - an annual occurence when for some reason it gets blocked, possibly dead mouse season or something coming through from the now occupied barn where there used to be a caravan with access to the drain..

Oh yes did I mention the emergency vet visit to an aborting mare, a week before the routine tetanut visit (and without the materials so the 2 visits total £200+ ?  And the pony with a foot abscess on a boggy field just 7 weeks after you got that field and now need to move out and bring them home to the barn?  And 2 farrier visits to dig/widen the drainage plus 6 other routine trims that total £130 odd?

Back to the drains, you start calling Yellow Pages companies who might also clear a septic tank like Scotloo - except that contrary to the ad they no longer do drains, only the tank and there's little point having an empty tank if nothing gets to it and you've spent £250 so keep phoning and either get a helpline in Edinburgh that can't promise when in the next 3 days (8am-6pm) they might send someone to jet drains, or someone who is supposedly covering Glenrothes and Cupar areas but doesn't come north of that line because it's a franchise so you have to call Dundee but doesn't give a number ::) Eventually fall back to the not great franchise you've used the last 2-3 times this was necessary, and they tell you they don't cover your area at all - within 5 miles in any direction but not your postcode exactly ::)  Explain they do because they have, and receive a head office polite call that says no franchise now for that area and therefore no service - despite 4 engineers within a 5 mile radius >:(

Stumped you go to get a shower and a cup of tea (holding kettle time included).  To discover the shower won't work, the pull cord has died and the light adjacent (twice fixed by electrician with different excuses) surprisingly enough has also gone again..  Wonder how that relates to the power going off for the meter removal that saves me £10 a year - call electrician who is on a job and wants you to call the office in half an hour - do so, they call back 15 mins later to say no chance of a fix til after 3pm..

Great, at least it's today and I don't have to impress animals with my BO - but I do have a haircut and a trip to the library with overdue books at lunchtime :o and not only have to go with manky greasy unwashed hair or stick head in bathroom sink - oh yes, it would be great to have a kettle to pour over wouldn't it ::)

Can I go back to bed now?  Leaving my broken light, broken shower, broken drains, broken kettle, broken hoover and filthy house uncared for and taking my smelly body somewhere a bit warmer than it is out here where the gales are rattling through the window and my fingers are cold cos my cup of tea isn't hot enough ::)

Maybe I could read a book - after all I'm paying the library on a daily basis til it goes back ;)
Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

robert waddell

  • Guest
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2011, 10:10:01 am »
so you are not in the best of spirits then
septic tank is there not a local farmer with a vacuum tanker to suck the tank out
drains if they are silting up as often  get a set of rods      the time you spend cleaning the drain and the experience you get  you could start the franchise in your area
in short in stead of saving money you are hemorrhaging it at an awful rate :farmer:

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2011, 10:14:19 am »
Poor you  :(

I have a spare kettle you can have  :) Try your nearest swimming baths - when we were living in the caravan, the shower wasn't fab. We used to go en famille to Arbroath Leisure Centre and use the showers there  ;D

Hermit

  • Joined Feb 2010
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2011, 10:22:33 am »
Oh dear, cant help you with much but arent Dysons guaranteed for life? I only say that cause a neighbour got one out of the skip and as he knew they were guaranteed for life sent it to be repaired for free!!!! Ditto with the sports centre showers, my mum had a memebership at a sports centre near her and always had a swim and a shower there as she paid her water bills on a water meter. As for a kettle you can pick one up in a charity shop for a couple of quid . As for the folk coming ring and tell them you are ill, say you will do something nearer xmas.

nic99

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2011, 10:45:15 am »
Ellie, I also have an old kettle you can have. It is not very pretty but it works. I will leave it out on the kitchen table for you and you can take it away with you when you come to feed my bunch tomorrow morning. You are also welcome to borrow my vacuum cleaner for a few days, which hopefully should tide you over til you can get yours fixed. It is a henry so not a particularly good one (Henry and I often have a falling out, he is a lazy so and so!) but probably better than nothing. Hope things start to look up for you.

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2011, 11:03:42 am »
Thanks - will take Nic99 up on the loan of a kettle and hoover so at least my weekend visitors will be ok to get in for a cuppy ;) and I'll have a look at the Dyson website to see if I can wangle a free fix :)

I'm not unhappy, a bit frustrated as today was marked up for catching up on my prep for the Masters exam and I am easily putting it off now, I have the hairdresser at 130 so will boil a kettle/hold it down to get enough hot water to do my head in the sink, go in damp and hopefully be charged less for the cut and blow dry without shampooing ;) so it'll be fine.

And the felting day on Saturday has been moved to Perth so I'm not going (transferred deposit guaranteed as its easier for them) which leaves me with an easier run to Nic99's on Saturday morning and I can reschedule the academic stuff to then ;)

Robert I looked at drainage jetting hoses on ebay and am considering putting one on my credit card but it needs a Karcher pressure washer to run from apparently?  Need to ask my next door neighbour if his pressure washer that he cleans his patio with would be compatible and whether he'd lend it to me if I buy the hose for about £70-80 - or maybe he already has one :)

The Dynorod or non-existent Drain Doctor engineers would be £150 for 15 minutes work so if I can sort it myself that would be fab and half price ;D  Not sure I'd offer to drive around doing it but there was a fully equipped transit van with all the tanks and gear included for £2k if anyone wants to step into the area gap ;D
Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

robert waddell

  • Guest
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2011, 11:15:27 am »
yes you can get one for a pressure washer but it has to be compatible with the flow/pressure that you are going to use it on     we have one for our steam cleaner cant remember what it cost us

£10 a minute that is a rip off :farmer:

















SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2011, 11:37:07 am »
Ellie - I am sure you have removed and cleaned and dried all of the Dyson filters...?  If not, if you find your model on their website it should have a guide telling you how to get at and clean each of them.  There's probably a troubleshooter there too.

I had BH replace his aging and useless Dyson when I came to live here, and now I know more about them I often wonder if I could have fixed up the one he already had..   :-[  (Don't tell him please!)

Sadly you won't be able to get a kettle at a charity shop unless they are licensed for electrical goods... but if you have recycling centre near you that sells the 'good enough' stuff, you might get one there.  When I was living on minimal income I had a gas kettle I got from the recycling centre in Ilfracombe.  It cost me £1.50 and some work cleaning it up, and its whistle didn't work, but it did me fine for several years!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2011, 11:56:42 am »
I've pulled the dyson apart and cleaned all the blocked bits but it now traces back to a damaged exaust seal (discovered by following online instructions back from the last blockage!) only dyson site doesn't have new seals on the parts page and it's about £1 worth of rubber but can I get one?  ::)

I've got it picking up more now as a result of the last hour working on it but loss of suction is why it's blocking - that and the amount of hay and animal hair it is being asked to suck up ;) so it'll be back to square one after a couple of goes round and isn't exactly Dyson like power wise at the mo..

Anyway, enough of that, I'm going to swish it round while it is doing some part of its job and then go to hair washing in the sink with a kettle of hot water :)  then lunch and away to pay library fines and get damp cut ;)

The joys of simple living ::)  Thanks folks ;)
Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2011, 12:28:46 pm »
I have a hoover and a Dyson animal - I'll bring the Dyson over either tomorrow or Friday.  Can't today as Freckles has a mammary gland tumour and an appointment to see the vet this afternoon, so I'm a bit stressed.
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2011, 12:36:59 pm »
I have a hoover and a Dyson animal - I'll bring the Dyson over either tomorrow or Friday.  Can't today as Freckles has a mammary gland tumour and an appointment to see the vet this afternoon, so I'm a bit stressed.

Fingers and toes crossed for you and for Freckles, Annie  :bouquet:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2011, 02:22:22 pm »
Thanks, Sally. She'll need an operation - been an ostrich these last few weeks but it has changed so had to phone the vet today.
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2011, 02:35:57 pm »
Ah, hope Freckles is OK.

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #13 on: November 23, 2011, 07:38:23 pm »
This is hijacking so only one more comment about Freckles - an operation to remove the tumour next Thursday.

Ellie, do you want my Dyson?
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: One of those weeks..
« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2011, 08:01:07 pm »
Thanks for all the advice and offers - I'll be up at Nic's every morning now and have things planned on the way home tomorrow and Friday but should be home lunchtime or thereabouts and am always happy to see you Annie.  That said I have managed a half hoover and if I borrow Nic's tomorrow while she's away then I should be ok for a week or so, so there's no rush to get another and I might manage to track down the part..  For goodness sake don't come to me if you're needing to look after your own animals, I'll manage fine honest :)

Progress report - the bathroom light and shower are now fixed and my hair is cut, the drains no joy yet but I hope to speak to my neighbour tomorrow, he was out today when I was feeding ponies so I didn't get a chance to ask him. 

I also bought a big tin of chocolates in the coop for a fiver - no bets on how long they're going to last but it won't be late December that's for sure ::)
Barleyfields Smallholding & Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
https://www.facebook.com/kirkcarrionhighlands/
Ellie Douglas Therapist
https://www.facebook.com/Ellie-Douglas-Therapist-124792904635278/

 

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