Jack sprints home and arrives on Wednesday – –
Most mornings Wendy wakes up long before me and heads downstairs to start her day – very often around six o’clock. She usually leaves me to slumber on for another hour or so. But if she comes back and shakes me awake then that means there is some kind of emergency. Maybe a large pile of cat poop somewhere or the chickens have escaped from the yard; that kind of thing – –
A few days ago we had one of those mornings. I stumbled downstairs to find that a corner of the kitchen in front of the sink had transformed into a paddling pool!
Kneeling in the water, and after frantically closing off all the valves I could see, we could still hear water spraying somewhere. Finally Wendy discovered the main valves to the kitchen hiding in our bathroom closet and the sound stopped. Every towel in the house was utilized to soak up the water.
Having made sure we’d stopped the leak and still had water available in the bathroom for coffee and to flush the toilet we could attend our weekly Zoom meeting with close friends. It’s quite hard to have a relaxed conversation while wondering if there’s a swimming pool under your kitchen floor!
I checked under the sinks and couldn’t see any sign of a water leak there so began to realize that it must be the dishwasher which is right next to them. I pulled it out, made sure that the appropriate valve was closed and got Wendy to turn the main one back on, while listening carefully with my one good ear. No sound, so I very carefully opened the valve for the dishwasher and peered under – eureka!
The metal braided hose had a hole and was spraying water happily – – –
So we washed dishes in the sink while we waited for Amazon to send us a replacement hose and it arrived today. Since I’m getting a bit stiff these days and finding it more difficult to get into convoluted positions it was a ‘fair fechty battle’ to fit the new hose. But when I looked at the old one it was pretty obvious it had been chewed by a mouse and when I pointed my flashlight into the void I could see where it had come in. I cut up a tin can and closed off the mouse entry and will spray peppermint oil liberally while keeping my fingers crossed!
I can still see that mouse singing in the spray – – –
