Around lunchtime on Saturday, I took Ollie out for a potty break. I heard a hissing sound and followed it to the back of the guest annexe where water was spewing out of a small pipe. It must have frozen overnight and with the climbing temp had thawed and was doing a good job of watering the flowerbed. I called up the property management company, but I got their voicemail. Luckily, they included the number for emergencies. The repairman for the company arrived in about 20 min, before the leak could cause much damage to the landscaping. He turned the valve off and told me he would let the company know of the situation so someone could come out this week to repair it.
All of this happened just before I had to take the youngest daughter and her friend for a swim at the leisure centre. When we returned home, I decided to fire up one of my new candles since the converted garage area was starting to smell a bit like Ollie. I keep my stash of Yankee and Woodwick candles stored on shelves in one of the guest baths downstairs. I opened the door and took a step forward without looking down, whereupon my foot made a wet plopping sound. Oh joy... the bathroom floor had about a half inch of water completely covering it. In full freak out mode - since it was headed for the hardwoods - I dialed up the same emergency number.
I did my best with a mop and bucket, but it was slow going. Thankfully the same gentleman arrived with a wet vac. After removing all of the standing water, he figured out it was an overflow problem in the toilet tank, something about it not being routed properly. Plumbing is all Greek to me and I was just glad we had averted any serious messes or damage. The repair guys arrived this morning and are busy at work tracking in and out of my house letting in the cold air to get it all back in good working order. Honestly, I'm just glad we're not responsible for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of this 75+ year old house... other than replacing lightbulbs and adding salt blocks to the water softener.
Saturday evening, we started seeing some snowflakes. When we woke up Sunday morning, we were greeted with this view of the back garden. You can see the little dog tracks where somebody made a potty run.
The girls thought it was great, but Ollie was just enthralled with it. He snuffled and shuffled and rooted through the snow. The girls would create a hard-packed snowball and throw it. Ollie, ever the retriever, would fetch it, run around with it in his mouth for a bit and then drop it and try to tear it up with his teeth.
When the girls had enough, they all trooped back inside to warm up. Ollie really loved it and camped out at the french doors, wanting to go back out and play for a bit in the fun white fluffy stuff.
Below is a short video of Ollie and the youngest having a romp. Old man winter may not be around much longer, and it certainly didn't earn the girls a snow day on this Monday morning with temps moving into the low 40s, but we did enjoy the pretty white landscape while it lasted.
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