Water – surfeit and shortage

First the surfeit. It’s been raining practically non-stop ever since I returned from England last Tuesday. And I’m not kidding, except for one brief slightly sunny afternoon when my hopes of cutting my grass rose and then were dashed again. It was raining earlier today and although it has now stopped and it’s quite bright actually, here’s what the foundations of my house looked like earlier.

I’m chasing the builder who has not been on site for a month to find out what’s going on. They missed some good weather while I was away and now I bet that they’re excuse will be that they’re unable to do anything until the site has dried out and all of the water around the columns that they put in has drained away. I’m beginning to get annoyed again.

Now the water shortage. Several weeks ago when I moved my caravan from the top to the bottom of my land I had to extend its water supply. I did so by purchasing a 100 metre length of ‘potable water’ grade clear plastic hose pipe that I added to the 15 metres that I’d originally purchased to make the connection to my water standpipe. However, it immediately became clear that the new plastic was not what it seemed. For a start, the water that came out of it had a strong chemical taste and a distinct chemical smell and I soon decided that it was totally unsuitable for either drinking or cooking with.

And when it emerged from the taps in the caravan it foamed almost as though it contained washing up detergent, as the following couple of shots show.

I tried running (and wasting) vast quantities of water through it in the hope of flushing it clean but that never happened and the water coming out of it continued to remain effectively unusable as even when used for washing of either self or objects, it still continued to leave behind a nasty smell. In the end I complained to the supplier, saying that although the tube was labelled ‘for water’, this didn’t necessarily mean ‘drinking water’ and that I wanted them to take it back and refund my purchase price.

This being France, they ‘ummed and ahhed’ but eventually conceded that if I repacked the roll and provided them with its dimensions and weight, they would arrange for it to be picked up. But then, of course, I had to leave for England which let them off the hook, so naturally I’m still waiting, and I’m getting annoyed about that too.

In the meantime I’ve had to order a replacement hose as I can’t bear to live without a water supply in the caravan for any longer. It’s not much fun trudging up to the top of my land to fill up two 5 litre water bottles in the pouring rain. In case anyone thinks I was imagining the old plastic tubing producing foaming water, here’s a shot for comparison of the water coming out of the new pipe that I connected up today. Case proven I think.

And lastly, my damaged ‘tonnelle’ that Victor kindly secured for me while I was away after it had been destroyed by the high winds that hit it the day after I’d left for the UK. As the next shot shows, although much of its metal framework was only flimsy, it wasn’t just bent but was torn apart by the wind.

The fabric is also damaged so there’s nothing of the ‘tonnelle’ to be saved. It’s being used to cover, not very effectively I might add, what I put into it before I left for England.

With all the rain we’re getting, as soon as I can cut my grass I’ll have to get my second ‘tonnelle’ out and put that up in the same place as the old one to protect the stuff that’s been covered up. It looks as though there might be a window during the coming week and if I can do that I’ll then be able to think about sourcing another to move my plans forward for creating a cosy little ‘hospitality’ area in the area between the two ‘tonnelles’ and my caravan. I must say, I’m getting a bit sick of all the setbacks that I’m receiving lately, seemingly one after the other… 😐