Chili cheese chicken. A 5 star recipe whether you are low carbing or not!

We have running water.  Showers work!  Toilets flush!  I am in heaven!

The well guys were supposed to be here 1st thing in the morning, but they were late.  As it inched toward noon, I decided I would wait until after lunch and call them.  Just then Ron announced, “They’re here!”

One of the guys unexpectedly had to go to the doctor first thing this morning.

They replaced the tank, and all above ground plumbing and wiring.  The pump itself is a submersible pump, so it wasn’t damaged.  I asked the guys how long I could expect the pump to last.  They said generally 10-12 years.  I did NOT want to hear that, since we had the well drilled 15 years ago!  But he said it depended on a lot of things, and some of them go 30 years.

Since our water is not hard and doesn’t leave mineral deposits, I am hoping we can go the full 30!

The new pump house!

When they were doing the estimate yesterday, I had asked them about a replacement pump house.  They said they had a couple of models –one fiberglass and one polyresin.  I think we ended up with the polyresin one.   I was picturing a little white wood pump house with a shingled roof.  I was shocked when a big rock turned out to be the new one!

It’s kind of cool.  It will just visually disappear into the woods.  They also ran an electrical outlet so I can plug in a light to keep everything from freezing when it gets below 20 again.

The pump tank, wiring and plumbing were burned, but it doesn’t look nearly as scary as I expected. Only the pump house was totally destroyed.

Insurance is covering everything except our $250 deductible, so that’s a huge relief!

The recipe for my chili cheese chicken in the header photo is from Linda’s Low Carb Recipes, and it is superb whether you are low carbing or not — if you like spicy Mexican style food.  Here’s the recipe.  Do add the extra cheese she suggests.  I added 2 ounces of cheddar.

I had lost the pattern for my raised rose afghan, so went looking to see if I could possibly still find a vintage crochet pattern from the ’70’s.  I’m not sure this is exactly the same granny square motif, but it’s close.  Here’s the pattern if you’d like to do it.  Since the photo in the pattern is not good, I am inserting a better photo that I found online.  Like I said, maybe not exact, but close.

Photo is from http://ortsov.com/motif-crochet-patterns/

I am definitely going to do this one again someday!

My next Casita project will be replacing cabinet latches.  Some of the push buttons are becoming uncooperative and are hard to open without hitting them several times.  Ron could not get his sock cupboard open our last trip so kept banging on it trying to get it to cooperate.

It broke instead.

So instead of just replacing that one, I think I’ll go ahead and redo all of them.  I’ve read that they are using better fitting bezels now.  If that’s so, the problem shouldn’t recur.

Ron’s afghan. I am slowly making myself one to match.

Also, the hinges on the large cupboard over the refrigerator are rusting so badly that they leave a little pile of rust on top of the refrigerator when I open the cupboard door.  Some of the lower cupboard hinges are getting rusty, too.  So, if I can remember to call Casita tomorrow, I’ll go ahead and order them.

I posted a photo of Ron’s afghan the other day.  But I found a better picture, so I replaced it in the original post.  I’ll add it here just cause I want everyone to see how truly gorgeous it is!  That’s the nice thing about a blog.  You can show off to your heart’s content!  😀

After all the stress and excitement of the past couple of days, I think I’m coming down with a cold again.  So now I have an excuse to have homemade chicken soup and spoil myself.  And go to bed early tonight!

Not too bad!