Something in the woodshed....

We have "wildlife".

This morning, my beloved came in from the garden to inform me that something was "hissing at him" from the pile of rubbish (stuff from the old kitchen, cabinets, drywall, wood etc) that is stacked up against the wall of the house.

A while ago we found a (harmless) corn-snake in the driveway. In addition we found out that there is a species of rattlesnake that lives in ny state (nowhere near us though and it's rare). Einar's brain had clearly abosrbed this information in a somewhat selective fashion- "corn-snakes=snakes=I am going to be eaten alive by a massive timber rattlesnake that has caught the bus up from the Southern Adirondacks specifcally to hunt for tender fleshed Norwegians."

In view of Einar's snake jitters, and feeling that it would be a little cruel to leave him to face this dangerous hissing pile of rubbish alone, I decided to march out bravely (and for tactical reasons behind my husband) to take a look.

I wouldn't say it hissed exactly. But it was making grunting piggy noises and shuffling sounds. It sounded a bit put out actually. Mind you it sounded even more put out when I gave the pile of rubbish an experimental kick. Was it even possible to get a pig infestation....?

Anyway, before we could figure out what to do with the piggy-sounding wildlife under our rubbish pile, the boiler repairmen turned up again. I should explain that (see yesterday's blog entry) we have been having a problem with our boiler. After finishing my blog yesterday the boiler man was still here, saying things like "oh my", and "this is NOT good" and "now what's THAT doing there" from the depths of the boiler cupboard. Eventually he emerged to tell me that there was water in the boiler where it shouldn't be and he wasn't sure how fixable the problem was. He'd done "stuff" he said, but had to order more parts as it was an old boiler type. These wouldn't be in until tomorrow. Even if he did put new parts in though he was concerned that more water would pour out from the boiler casing somewhere, in which case the only option would be to replace the whole thing....at a cost of $3-4000......Oh, and the bill for today's work would be $469 so could I write a cheque!!

At this point I think I began to gibber helplessly at him. $4000-Jesus Christ! This was it, were either going to have to leave. Either that or Einar was going to have to prostitute himself while I attempted to sell crack to the tofu-eating, vegan, Ithaca locals....Oh dear....

I began to have visions of scavenging in the rubbish bins of our neighbours in order to feed ourselves, while the boiler repairmen whistled cheerily from the cupboard under the stairs.

Seeing me wilt visibly at the thought of replacing the whole thing, he said he'd leave me to chat with my husband when he came home but could we call tomorrow when we'd decided. He could then order the parts if we had decided to risk fixing the old boiler. After all this I called Einar with the news and we spent the rest of the day worrying ourselves silly trying to decide whether to risk patching up the old boiler which might not work, or biting the bullet and using all our "fuck-up funds" to replace it. We were definitely not a pair of happy campers yesterday night.

But, this morning the gods appear to be smiling-believe it or not! We called the plumbers and spoke to another man (Dave) who said he was coming out with the guy from yesterday to take a look. Dave has done the plumbing on our house for years and so they'd asked him to come and check it out. Thankfully, when Dave and mate turned up, Dave rummaged around in the cupboard, went to get a part, then did some more rummaging and then..thank the lord...declared the problem solved! We practically wept with gratitude-this man was some kind of god, he clearly knew everything! So we also asked him whether he knew what kind of things made piggy noises and lived in rubbish. He thought for a bit, contemplated the rubbish, and suggested it might be a raccoon (one of those animals that have stripey tails and black fur round their eyes so that they look like minature highwaymen.) Having solved our boiler problem and helped solved the mystery of the "thing in the rubbish" Dave and mate then departed, leaving us very much relieved!

So that was that. We now have hot water-which is great because I was starting to whiff. We also have a new dishwasher which was delivered after the plumbers left. Of course we still have the thing in the rubbish pile, but then you can't have it all. Maybe we can keep it.......

more animal updates soon!
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