Well, can you believe that we had some more horrible weather again and more trees are down? As I explained in my last post a huge ice storm hit the western Kentucky area in January along with 70+ mph straight-line winds. When we went up to check on the cabin a few weeks ago we started noticing the tree damage when we were still about 40 miles away on the Bluegrass Parkway! Both sides of the road showed broken trees and huge bare areas.
After getting to the cabin we first noticed a few small trees across the lane just past the gate. No problem we thought. We can clear that. A little further down there was more trees across the lane. Again, we knew we could cut that by ourselves. Then we went over the hill and around the bend when we saw the largest tree on that part of the property laying across the lane. That one was the stopper. No way could we cut that up and even if we could we could never move it. So we called Ronnie, the guy who helped us cut our way in back after the tornado a couple of years ago. What a life saver. He showed up within an hour and started clearing the lane with his saw and backhoe. While we were waiting on him to arrive, Kim and I had already cut up and cleared the small trees and branches across the lane in 3-4 different spots. After a couple of hours it was done and we could drive the car down to the cabin to get settled in.
We knew power had been out for weeks so we were hoping it had been restored. we had already seen that our neighbor Dewey was not living at his house and was likely staying at a local shelter. Once inside the cabin we discovered we had no power. So was it out in the area or was it just our place? We checked the main power pole leading from the road to the meter on the property. it was standing and looked to be OK. After checking the power pole we noticed our meter wasn't running. After checking the breaker box I discovered that the main breaker was in the off position. I switched that back on and presto, we had power!
So the next step was to check out the water supply and see if everything was OK inside the cabin. After turning on the main water valve we had water running but soon discovered that when we turned on the hot water heater we had a leak coming from the closet where it was located. To make a long story short everything else in the cabin was fine with the water and we likely had a small leak in one of the water lines coming from the water heater. Usually not a big problem except a small leak in a pipe that should take a minute to fix turned out to be a huge job. The previous owner built the addition on to the cabin and when he built the bathroom and installed the water heater he put it in first and then built the closet and bathroom around it!!
So it sits in a closet with the two water pipes going down behind it next to the outside wall. there is NO way you can get to the plumbing to repair it! And the door is too small to remove the heater! So on this trip we lived without hot water and we'll have to replace the whole heater on our next trip. We'll either have to de-construct the whole bathroom wall and closet or try and cut out the heater and remove it, which is my plan. Just destroy it to get it out. then replace it with a tankless water heater which can be mounted on a wall with easy access and it doesn't hold any standing water. So we have work cut out for us when we go back in May.
But we stay positive and still love the place. We just have to live with what mother nature threw at us and be patient for the next 7-10 years for the old trees to rot away and the new growth to fill in the area again. by the time the grand kids take their kids there it should look it did when we first got it! regardless, it's still our place to get away from civilization and enjoy some quiet time with friends and family.
Go to our Facebook page and see all the pictures of this trip. We had some good company with Kim's dad and Donnie who came for a day and night and with Terry who also came and spent a night with us.
So can we please have a few years with perfect weather???
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