Water, water, everywhere...

Or not!

Having named this blog : "Our Life by the Stream", I went for a wander in the woods yesterday [and lowered my blood-pressure about ten points, I think] and actually made it to the far end of the land...

Because the stream has dried up, I could step across easily.  I was expecting to get as far as the stream and no further.  I'm hopeful this is just a blip because the summer has been mostly dry, but suspect it's not really a stream and just a run-off during wet weather...

All ponds on our land are also dried up [although a couple I could see on the neighbours properties had water, so maybe digging them out would be worth it?].

Oh, well.

More liquid-related news:

• MTS came and 'sucked out' our septic tank [apparently it's in very good order, if small (perfectly fine for two people), apart from one section of dropped pipe (added to "building" list of things to fix)];
• MTS separately came to pressure-blast the drainage pipes clean [a dropped section withstanding, there were only a couple of 'anomalies' - a soil pipe that doesn't appear to service anything, and no collector for kitchen waste] - so now we're 'good to go';
• South East Water came to turn on the supply [and, despite being told by the vendor that it was turned off in the road, it was already on], and an incredibly-helpful man showed us where the external stop-cock is - handy, because the internal one is seized open;
• The outside tap worked straight off, so I filled the WC cisterns using a tub trug, and cleaned up the lavatory pans [note to self: buy seats];
• We don't think the kitchen sink is even connected to the water supply, but haven't really investigated, so it probably is;
• David managed to part-fill one (or both?) cold-water header tanks, so we had flushing loos [but I'm not drinking water from an open-topped header tank, especially one I haven't seen inside/cleaned];
• There's a water leak...  So we turned the water off at the outside stop-cock [better safe than sorry], opened taps till they ran dry [turning on the downstairs bath tap stopped the upstairs one completely], mopped the ceiling, and left a tub trug on the step-ladder [so the floor could dry out] under the still-dripping ceiling, and added another things to the "plumbing" list!

I spent my time taking out more lower branches from the front garden conifers so that David could get in there and strim more easily [he managed a bit before we'd both had enough], and the lower offshoots from the hornbeam [David had to get the chainsaw to help me in the end; that wood is hard], and managed to get to the side part of the garage; I'm gradually hacking my way around the outbuildings/the worst of the thistles, but it's a work-in-progress.

We've got Paul lined up for Saturday to fit a spare gate they had, and he's bringing his electrician friend to check out the wiring and give us a price for our "sparks" list.

A different Paul reckons he can quote us for the door and windows with just photos and measurements, so we'll take those on Saturday and kick that off.

It's all inching its way to becoming habitable - who needs heating [we plan to replace the anthracite boiler with something from the late 20th Century or, preferably, more modern], if we can get hot water and a woodburning stove?  I would like the place to have doors/windows in all the openings [I've lived without in France, but would rather wait a bit longer here], and no water dripping through the bathroom ceiling, and I'm not going to clean/paint until workmen have finished their work [I know from experience that all efforts put into getting a place sparkling are wasted if the first thing to happen is anything more than a tap washer being replaced].

At least by the time we move in the outside will be much tamer!