It's Raining In The Basement!

 The summer squash is still producing from our fall planting, so I decided on a whim to make some stuffed squash. I went downstairs to get a jar of spaghetti sauce when I heard this sound that shouldn't be down there. It sounded like it was raining. Sure enough, one of the pipes sprung a couple of leaks and water was spewing all over the place. I ran upstairs to get hubby (interrupting his work meeting) to let him know of the leak. He left the meeting ASAP and turned off the water as much as he could. It appears that the gate valve does not close all the way any more. Another fix. 

We put buckets around then hubby went to Lowes and got all the supplies needed to make the fix. It took us three hours to get it done, but there is no longer any leak and things look good. I can't even imagine how much a plumber would have cost to do the job (probably a lot faster). Hubby used to work in construction back in the day, and learned how to fix so many things. It's been a blessing to have him be able to take care of all the issues in our last home - from the roof being replaced, to all the issues we had with so many other things that went wrong. Sadly, now that we are close to retirement age, he can't do the things he used to do. The roof being one, and guess what needs replaced soon. A family member that lives in our area just had one installed on a small home and the cost was $14K!!! I guess we will be shelling out at least that much in our near future. I still can't wrap my head around that amount. I really took advantage of what hubby could do in the past, and now that he can't, I never realized how much money we saved by doing so much ourselves - from cooking, canning, preserving, fixing vehicles, gardening, to home repair. As time goes on, more and more has to be done by someone else, and it HURTS to cough up all that money! 

Having to have someone else do what we used to do on our own, makes me realize how much we did on our own and how much we saved over the years. It also amazes me how many people no longer know how to fix things that, we as kids, took for granted. I sewed the kids clothes, cooked from scratch, preserved, knit sweaters, socks, etc., crocheted household items and some clothing for the kids as well, made blankets, etc. Hubby took care of the mechanical side of things by fixing our cars, house repairs, small engine repairs, maintaining a garden, building things from scratch, etc. He was amazing - but then again, most guys could do those things in our childhood locale, since they grew up on a farm or had some type of rural life. It was expected.

We were lucky to grow up during those times. We learned a lot and used a lot that we learned.