We have a water pump :-) It might not have been as easy peasy to install as the nice people at Kumeu Plumbing suggested, but we have a pump.
Buying the thing was easy, after that there were a few trips back and forth to get the right fittings (grrr, who decided there should be male and female fittings??) and then the most startling part of it all - turning the thing on.
I flicked the switch, the pump burst into life, and.... a geyser of water at least 3 feet high spouted out of the hot water cylinder overflow. Not quite the desired result. Turns out the HWC was lacking a pressure valve, so one visit from a plumber and $337 later everything was sorted. Funny thing is it takes a bit of getting used to only having to turn a tap on a wee bit to get water out now.
Winter is creeping in and we've had a few fires now, earlier than most people I suppose but then we don't have insulation so that's a good enough excuse for me. Have had horrendous winds the past few days, surprised nothing has fallen off the house yet - or maybe I just jinxed things then...
The chooks are obviously shutting down for winter as our egg production has dwindled to an average of one a day. On the up side, we have a whole heap of pumpkins growing in the garden courtesy of the compost heap. Yum, pumpkin soup!
Oscar had a session with Rachel Phillips, an equine therapist, on Thursday and turns out he is quite stiff and tight in a few places, including his left fore which would contribute to the problems we have with left canter leads. His muscles are a bit under-developed on his left hind too, sort of at the top of his hip, so we will be doing some gymnastic exercises to help work on this. And fingers crossed by the beginning of next season we'll be cantering happily on both reins! I was planning on doing the Huapai ODE next weekend with him but have decided not to, partly because of this soreness and also because the dressage asks for canter on both reins and, er, well it's just all bit hard right now.
We also need to look at his saddle, hopefully it can be adjusted to fit him. It is a bit narrow for him and needs repacking so fingers crossed that's all we have to do and I don't get told to go out and buy the only saddle that will fit him that just happens to cost $4,000...
