" The Ridge" near Durham, Ontario
HUMILIATION and forgetfulness, that's
what this post is about and to make matters worse, it belongs to me, yes it is
mine. Now, not that I relish the idea of telling all of you about my
forgetfulness, but there is a lesson here .
If you have followed along, you will
remember that we get our fresh water from my " in-laws " well, a short distance away by filling a water
bladder and then pumping it into our fresh water tank. The last few times of
doing this, I noticed that it was taking longer and longer to pump the water
into our tank. Monday of last week while
going through the process, the 60 watt light bulb in the block on top of my
shoulders came on, OH, I wonder if the filter is clogged? I stopped the pump,
opened the canister and took a look at the filter. Sure enough, it was clogged,
leaving it out, I replaced the canister and finished pumping the water in no
time.
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| The canister with the filter |
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| Clogged Filter |
When finished, I took the canister
back off with the intention of showing
my brother - in - law the rusty particles in the bottom of it. He had been
telling me that when they flush their system in the fall, there are rust
particles that come out of the pressure tank of their system, this I think
verifies their suspicions.
On Thursday we were having company
and I still had 10 or 12 gallons of
water in the bladder after I filled the tank on Monday. So I thought I
would top off the tank, hooked everything up, turned on the pump and went
inside to eat breakfast. Back outside, the bladder is empty and I can hear
water dripping from every screw hole under the trailer. If you haven't figured it
out by now, yes I forgot to put the canister back on and that 10 or 12 gallons
of water was now in the underbelly and not in the tank.
The air around "The Ridge "
turned blue after some choice words ( like, dab nab it and golly gee", to
name a few ) that I had to say about the situation and myself. How could I be
so stupid, well maybe not stupid but forgetful?
After beating myself up and calming
down, I took a good look at where the water had gone. Reaching in through the
storage area into the belly, I could feel the wet insulation. After poking a
couple of small holes in the plastic corrugated bottom to let more water drain
out, I left it for now as company would soon be there.
The next day after our company has left,
I turn my attention back to the issue at hand. The insulation is still wet and
if I push up from the bottom, there is still water coming out. After a couple
of phone calls and some research, I know I have to open up the bottom and get
the wet insulation out and make sure everything is dry before we have a mold
problem.
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| Water laying on the corrugated plastic |
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| The underbelly cut open |
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| Any wet insulation removed |
I go about cutting open that
corrugated plastic bottom where I figure the water has gotten to and pull out
any insulation that has any hint of water in it. Confident that I have it all,
I proceed to wipe dry all the areas in the frame, making sure it is dry. Next
off to town to buy a bundle of insulation, screws and a roll of "Gorilla
Tape" to put it all back together. Putting the insulation back up while
laying on the ground under the trailer is a bit tricky, but I did manage to get it up. Fastening some 1 X 2 strips of wood along one side of the opening then
bringing up the cut pieces and fastening them to the wood strips also. Last was to
cover the seam with the tape to make sure it was sealed.
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| laying on the ground under the trailer |
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| Wood strips for refastening |
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| putting in the insulation |
I am happy with the repair job I have
done. There are times when I don't think I can do repairs or projects, either I
feel that I don't have the skill or knowledge or tools to do it. There are also
the times that I know when to get the professionals to do it. On the other
side, there are times when I take on a project with no idea of what I'm doing
and it turns out great. Pat tells me I don't give myself enough credit at times. I like to
think that I'm a" jack of all trades, but master of none."
The lesson here is a number of
things. One, check all your hook ups before executing the task at hand. Don't
let anyone tell you that insulation will dry and not grow mold. Some of the
insulation that I pulled out was so saturated with water that I could wring it
out, it would not have dried for months. Something else, I was told that , the
insulation if it did dry would grow mold and the insulation would crumble to
dust particles.
Well that's my story, hope you had a
chuckle at my expense and learned something also. In an upcoming post I will
mention another project that I took on to make storage in the basement of the
trailer better.
Until the next time, thanks for
following along, take care and be safe.
