The big news this month is the birth of Amadea Petra Srochenski, our seventh grandchild, fourth granddaughter and Nick and Rebekah’s fourth child. We went to Edmonton near the end of November. Amadea was born on the 29th and came home from the hospital on the 30th. We returned to Meadow Lake early in December.
Other than that, November was pretty quiet for us mostly in Meadow Lake, with some visiting and lots of reading and a few chores.
I installed an on demand hot water heater.
The existing, tiny hot water tank didn’t hold enough hot water to run a proper bath. Quick showers work for me but not for she, so a slow but steady supply of hot water is a real improvement.
The other improvement is one of water quality. If water sat in the tank for long periods there was an unfortunate reaction between the stagnant water and the tank internals. The resulting skunky water is a problem that Dr. Google can diagnose. It is not an unusual problem with seasonal dwellings and different cabin dweller forums suggest solutions.
One remedy is installing valve arrangement above the tank and pouring a few ounces of peroxide into the tank when arriving back at the cabin after an extended absence. That wouldn’t work well with a tank crammed into a kitchen cupboard with no head room. I guess I could drill a hole in the counter and put the valves above counter height. Can’t see that being a popular fix among all parties affected. And besides, counter space is already pretty limited.
One can drain the tank every time one leaves for a couple of weeks or more and refill it in returning. We already drain it before leaving for the winter. That works, but is an incredibly complex procedure involving pulling out the kitchen range and running a hose across the living room and out the front door. Seems to me that it should take fifteen minutes, but also seems to me to have always taken closer to two hours by the time one finds enough hose and does everything and rolls up the hose and puts it away. Probably not quite that long but time is relative and work expands in fact and in perception when you are doing something you don’t want to be doing. Not quite Parkinson’s Law, but some element of truth to it nonetheless.
Shocking the well with granulated chlorine works. Doesn’t take long to do, but seems to take three days to take effect. It eventually takes care of the skunky water while giving the cold water gag-me-with-a-place-setting taste for a few days. Not a third world level complaint merely a first world whine, but hey! In any case the on demand water heater solves all the smell issues the hot water tank had and means there is no draining sub-component of the winterizing the plumbing issue. Just pump plumbing anti-freeze through the heater until the flow from the hot water tank runs pink. That’s enough to warm the heart of a lazy man.
