We have a date and a starting point and we are getting ready for this years Crippled Critter Benefit event.  Dixie Thunder of Aiken County holds an annual event to help support the animals in our private sanctuary for disabled pets.  In the last 2 events we managed to get a small kennel built, a gate built into the kennel and wheelchair ramps that not only assist me, but help with our blind animals and our seniors so now they have no stairs to go up or down.  Local donations of dry dog and cat food kept us going, our animals don’t eat dry food as a total diet, they are fed raw meats and kibble food is mixed with a dehydrated raw food prep kit that makes a healthy warm stew.

We have been doing pretty good for a little while, I guess it was time for something bad to happen.

My last update was around my birthday which in spite of a sprained wrist went pretty good. Shortly after my birthday Amy got some fleece and had spun some yarn during a nice peaceful outing at Hopeland Gardens. Life was pretty good through August…what happened?

The other night my son went to do a load of laundry and heard hissing coming from the area where the water heater is tucked away. He pulls away panels to find the outlet pipe spraying water and the floor soggy. Uh…that’s not good. Have no clue how long it was leaking but we do know it put the floor in the utility room in a very unstable condition. No shut off valves…do they do this in all mobile homes? We had to cut all the water from the curbside tap.

Next morning we go off to building supply to get new pipe and a piece of wood to repair the soaked area. Josh was doing a great job, got most of the fittings in place and was shifting the water heater back into it’s cozy little nest when the bottom pipe decided to fracture dumping gallons of water and the tank was in trouble. Particle board does not hold up well to flooding. Josh yells for help and of course I can’t get in there on wheels so Amy runs in, he tells her to get the garden shears and hacksaw, he’s got to cut everything loose before we lose the water tank.

Amy runs…then falls and scrapes up her knee…does manage to get the shears, She’s cutting the electrical while Josh is frantically sawing off water pipes to haul the half full water tank out to the porch to finish draining.

Well…we knew we needed to replace the utility room flooring due to a pipe disaster a while ago, now we have no choice but to replace the floor…right now. No time to raise the funds, that comes out of grocery, bills….uh…wherever the money usually goes it’s not going there this month because now we have no water and a floor too unstable to be safe.

Off to the lumber supply today to drop some of our bill money on building supplies we couldn’t afford for the last year…and still can’t afford…but have no choice. No time to look for salvage lumber, no time to look for sales we need it now.

So we get there and manage to get the lumber, stared wide eyed at the cash register like children wondering how those things can count that high then get outside with our neat carrier filled with stuff we couldn’t afford to find A FLAT TIRE!!!

My Goodness how many FLATS have we had!!!! Tire salesmen can eat healthy on the amount of rubber we keep buying

So here is how our day went…We got some plywood, some OSB, some nails, tons of plumbing fittings including a freaking shut off valve, some lengths of pipe, throw my wheelchair on top and limped on a flat tire to the nearest gas station.

It’s not too bad, not riding on the rim yet…I figure we can slime it and get it home. We don’t want to call a wrecker and don’t want to buy a brand new tire after unloading money two days in row to the tune of $160 at the building supply. So

We slimed her. After Amy pulled the bottle away she got spit on by the tire blowing green florescent slime at her just to add insult to injury to the lady who has a scraped up knee, little sleep, in the hot sun after loading up wood, late for work in a parking lot with a flat tire. My poor wife has had a BAD few days.

We did manage to get the truck home safely and Amy took the car into work. Right now my boys are pulling up the vinyl flooring to tear out all the wet wood. We are rebuilding the utility room floor. We will tear apart an old stove that we were suppose to haul off to the dump ages ago. Glad I never did. I keep these things because there is a wealth of reusable material. Why do you think the recycling centers want them? Anyhow, we will tear all the metal off the stove and sandwich metal between two sheets of plywood to go under the water heater and washing machine. The metal sandwich will offer strength to these heavy appliances and if any of them should leak again it won’t be leaking onto particle board but onto a 3/8 sheet of plywood with a metal barrier underneath. It’s much easier, cheaper and safer to replace one single 3/8 sheet of plywood than to replace a whole huge section of waterlogged subflooring.

The OSB will be used in the areas that are not holding weight or subject to water pipes or water appliances.

Hopefully out of all this crap a few healthy mushrooms will grow, in a few hours if all goes well I’ll have a new laundry room floor to show off.