Well, not really.

Last winter was the first time we realized how expensive hydro is for people living out in the country. They charge you by the pole, so there must be a lot of poles between our cottage and the place where the poles start. At its worst, the winter of 2012 landed us a $460 hydro bill for a month that we weren’t even present, where we had only left the peripheral rads on low enough so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. We realized that we couldn’t keep that kind of usage up. The alternative was to drain all of the water down to the pump and leave heater on in the pump room. That helped, but it was still expensive. Then we tried just the lightbulb on in the pump room and that worked. However, the water line in the upstairs bathroom must have had some water left in it because the pipe burst. The upstairs bathroom is situated against an outside wall and the room overhangs the front door, so wall and floor were exposed. Luckily T heard it during the night and water damage was minimal. It turns out the pipe burst in a spot that had been repaired (badly) in the past. T pulled out his welding torch, an extra length of copper pipe and patched it up in no time. We were good to go.

Or so we thought. We left Toad Hall after the Christmas holidays in early January to head back to the city, not to return until February. Unfortunately the little light bulb wasn’t enough to keep the pump from breaking. While there was no water damage, our four-day weekend in February was going to be without running water. So, what to do, what to do? Well, we took out every pot we could find and started cooking snow. Our son was delighted at the novelty of the exercise and when we explained to him that this was how people made their water since the beginning of time, he was shocked. At that point I felt like going out and building an igloo to make him sleep in it over night so he’d realize how good he’d had it.

Silly turkeys!

Snow Quote by Walter Scott.