Dirty Weekend

Now that I've got your attention, here is a picture of my water tank.

As you can see, it's not a pretty sight! The tank's been empty all winter in an attempt to avoid frost damage to the pipes so before refilling at the weekend I steeled myself to take a look inside. I'd had a quick look last year, but the tank was full at the time and although I didn't like what I saw I used the excuse that I would have had to drain it not to do anything. Needless to say we don't drink any of the water from this tank, preferring to carry it aboard in plastic bottles.
It took all day to clean it. I was surprised to find I could actually get inside (I'm 1.88m tall) and, with difficulty, I could even get out again, but you can imagine the state I was in when I'd finished. Still, it would all be worth it to get running water again. I cleaned up as best I could(not easy) then decided to light the fire. It wouldn't draw, which meant the chimney needed sweeping. A simple job, except that all the soot is swept down onto a baffle plate above the grate from which it can only be removed by sliding a hand between the plate and the stove roof and scraping it out with your fingers. Fortunately, the BW Sanitary Station at Norbury includes a shower in its facilities!
After all this I took Starcross over to the water point, put some water in the tank, switched on the pump - and found I had a burst pipe under the sink, where the lagging I had put on in December had come adrift!


Sunday was a better day!