Sump pump slump

Well, we've come back to Warrior for the weekend - my first time up here in months - so the chances of uploading a photo are minimal; this the advent calendar, sadly, must wait until Monday. Thanks to Mike for his title suggestion for Clent the red-nosed tar boat.

The main reason for coming was for me to catch up with what's been going on, and in particular to see the graining - very impressive, and I really like the effect in the bathroom. Secondarily, Moominpapa has arranged for the Lucky Ducks to come over to Bill Fen in the afternoon, when we shall ply them with mince pies and mulled wine before going over to the Jolly Sailor to meet up with John and Lyn, and then to sample the delights of the Railway and possibly the Chilli Hut.

So in preparation for this social whirl, I forewent washing this morning, instead waiting until we had run the engine for a while to warm up both the bathroom and the water, in order to do it properly. And what bliss it was. Until the water suddently stopped coming out of the taps and the lights went off. Fortunately I was very nearly rinsed and still had some nearly clean water in the handy standby bucket, so was able to complete my ablutions before proceeding to the engine room to apply my logical mind to identifying which offending piece of electrical equipment had tripped the circuit breaker. It turned out to be the sump pump, that empties the bath and the bathroom basin, but not, thank goodness, the kitchen sink. I've often thought it's madness to have all your waste reliant on one little float switch, although some people do.

Anyway, Jim set to and dismantled the slimebox, and concluded that this time the pump really has had it. Ideally we think we would like to replace it with a Whale gulper, as they seem to be both much more robust and not to necessitate keeping a box of grey sludge and hair in the cupboard under the sink. So the next step will be a feasability study into this, and in the meantime we are back to washing in the kitchen sink. Oh happy days.