Another post about water, but this time featuring two separate dramas, and illustrating rather nicely the importance of water (and the tensions that can escalate amazingly rapidly when water is involved). The dramas happened a month or two apart – it’s been a while since Post 7.
So.
Drama 1: Remember that lovely nearly-full dam we had in post 7? The one I was so excited to see in person when we finally made it over the newly-opened border into Victoria? Well, one day a few weeks ago, we had a phone call from our neighbour asking if we had given someone the ok to run the dam pump. Erm….no? Turns out the pump had been running all day, pumping water to…who knows…and the dam was now as good as empty.
LOML stayed calmer than I did. He went straight to ‘philosophical’: “Well, it’s done now, not much we can do about it, can you please make sure the pump has been turned off. We’ll be there in a few weeks.” I dwelled rather longer on ‘furious rage mixed with deep disappointment’. Think along the lines of those cartoon phone calls when you just hear enraged squeaking pouring out of the headset. That was me.
We don’t know what happened. We’re confident it was an accident (honestly). I’m not entirely sure how, but neighours’ sheep do use our paddocks from time to time, so perhaps it was someone assuming we’d be ok with it and just forgot to turn off the pump to the water trough… If we lived there, we’d probably follow it up, but from a distance all that’s likely to happen is that misunderstandings get even more entangled and life will be unnecessarily tense when we do finally move there. So now no-one can get water from the dam.
Drama 2: This one we were there for, at least initially. As we were having coffee in town, about to head homewards, I realised I’d missed a couple of calls from our tenant. I called back, to be informed that there was an emergency: all three of the tanks to the main house were empty and there was just brown sludge coming from the taps. It was noted that the tank for the cottage (reno job) was full. We clarified that it’s not possible to siphon water from the main house to the cottage, and we wouldn’t, even if we could.
Having made sure the problem was also called in to the estate agent (they would need to arrange tradies, plus we really want to separate our neighbour/tenancy relationships) we diverted back to the property to check out the tank situation. No sign of water leaks anywhere – no water lying around on the ground, leaks to be seen anywhere, banging the tank walls didn’t give any clear indication of water levels, and turning the tap on at the bottom of one tank ran brown then clear. Hmmm. A mystery.
However, water is vital, no question about that. With the assistance of our tenancy manager, who did a truly great job, a water carter was found (no mean feat, as it turned out) and a tank maintenance company agreed to rearrange their day’s scheduled to attend asap. Quote to check and clean three empty tanks: $1,400 approximately. Gulp. But what can you do.
Well, long story very short, the maintenance guys attended very promptly, and very promptly – and I gather a bit tersely – informed the property manager that all three tanks were full. Call-out fee would be payable. No argument with that – their day had been messed around and they’d attended very quickly.
I figure there’s something to learn from most of life’s dramas, and this one was no different. Take-aways from this one:
- I know where to find a tank maintenance company (whether they will ever agree to come again is a different matter)
- I know of at least three water haulers if needed, and that they often don’t answer their phones.
- Tanks run with brown water (not sludge – later photos confirmed the difference) for a while if they’ve been disturbed, but run clear again after a little while. Chances are, our building work (or something else) had done this. And following on from that:
- Tank filters need to be cleaned regularly.
- People get very stressed about water, very quickly. Sometimes a little quicker than is strictly necessary.
- Staying calm, not fighting fire with fire, and having a good tenancy manager, all help to avoid relationships going off the rails. Misunderstandings happen, and good relationships with neighbours are almost as vital as water.
Two other exciting things to share from this trip, not water-related.
Firstly, our gorgeous kids gave us a custom-built fire pit for our 60th birthdays. How fabulous is this! (Be assured that it’s just on the deck for photo purposes.)
And second, the community of fairy martins whose nest we had to disturb to build the rear deck have returned and, undeterred, have rebuilt. We will now build around them so as not to disturb them further. We’re so pleased to see them! (This photo is taken from a video, through a screen door, so it’s not great quality, sorry)
This all happened over a month ago, but work commitments were a bit overwhelming and blogging went by the wayside. We’re back and getting stuck into our own bit of the renovations, so Post 9 is about to follow. There will be pictures of insulation and indoor scaffolding…it’s very exciting.
Books and Chooks 