A Near Disaster in Cottage Country

We’re at the cottage shortly after noon on Monday. We arrived at about this time on Friday to a disaster … or what could have been a disaster. Inside was colder than outside and everything was frozen, by which I mean the taps and the toilet, and by toilet, I mean that the water was frozen solid, both in the bowl and the tank. And … the furnace wouldn’t fire-up, which, of course, was why the place was ice-locked in the first place.

Having no clue as to what to do, and it not being our place, we drove to the nearby small village where there is quite a decent little restaurant and waited for the owners to arrive. They found that there was oil in the drum and that the furnace simply needed resetting. Meanwhile, we gathered around the cooker to try to get warm as the thermostat began the climb. It soon reached the freezing point and within about two hours was up to 50F/10C.

(I am hoping to insert a photo here of Cuppa and her sister sitting around the stove, but with this internet connect, I don’t know if it will work.)

SIL found a hair dryer and used it to hasten the thawing of the toilet, and by about 10 PM, it had worked: mercifully, as relieving oneself in a local snowbank is not the most desirable accommodation – particularly for the ladies and for anyone in the middle of the night (such as unowho) for that matter. Somewhat miraculously, there were no burst pipes or taps, and all has been well ever since.

Meanwhile, forgive me for not reading your blogs for another few days; the connection is simply too problematic.

(Note: Apparently the photo didn't upload although it said it did. It has been quite a process to do this much. There is a way to email posts; I may experiment with that later this week, but I suppose that, if it works it will only apply to text.)