Snakes in the Well

After a long time on the market, we're in the middle of negotiating a short sale on the Erie house. When all the tests were done, we ended up with a high bacteria count in the well and they suggested we "shock" the well. Since the count was probably high just because the water was not being pumped on a regular basis. So Our Mission was to open the well house, take off the well cap, turn off the pump, dump a gallon of bleach into the well, turn the pump back on, and leave it sit for 3 days before running the system clean. We got a big surprise. I lifted the heavy roof off the well house and Rowan said "snakes" I dropped it like a rock, probably scaring the garter snakes out of their minds..but I didn't know if I had a pissed off copperhead at my legs or not...

We had fun with the snakes, there wefre probably betgween 5 and 8 of them, but we couldn't shock the well as we had no ladder or tools and it wasn't as simple as "take the cap off and pour bleach down the pipe" We called the realtor and he said the testing company will do it for us for another $45..so that took care of that :) Hopefully the second test will go well and we'll be rid of it.

Back From Brushwood

Sometimes our pottery sales take us from the unusual venue of Renaissance Faires into the even more unusual venue of what we call "Pagan" events. Gatherings of folks in the earth focused religions usually liberally crossed with old and new hippies, eco-geeks and young party seekers. In either case it translates to a week of fun where a live-and-celebrate-life social order is created and we can all relax and take a deep breath even while selling and working. This particular festival was at The Brushwood Folklore Center and the festival was called Sirius Rising.

The Merchant area looks more like a tent city than a tightly wound fair of any sort, but the people buy and we can relax and enjoy the sunshine..or the rain, or the horrific storms, or whatever comes our way. Sorry for the fuzziness of some of the phone pics, but phone pics are what they are.

As you can see we roughed it...we camped in a 20x10 garage tent, with a queen size bedframe that holds an air mattress. We also brought a nice kitchen and dined well all week. Crepes, Pancakes (chocolate chili-chip with Caramel Sauce and fresh blueberries) , echildadas, Pad Thai, Portobello Gnocchi, Risotto were a few of the fine meals we experienced. Some simply delicious and others a calculated venture into decadence. I am pleased to say we only bought from food vendors once :)


The wildlife theme of the week was snails and slugs..I've never seen so many. When we packed up the garage tent I spend a few minutes finger-flicking them into oblivion..

One of the highlights of this particular festival is the end of the week bonfire.This year they constructed a huge wooden dragon and burned it on top. It was really fun, but the merchants were all busy watching for falling embers onto their tent roofs. We had a few close calls, but between vigilance and a little sprinkling of rain before the fire everyone survived unscathed.

Overall the week was very relaxing, I bartered for a 90 minute massage and the weather for the first two days was lovely if a bit cool. Thursday and Friday and Saturday were overcast most of the time and the temperature was in the 60's during the day and high 40's at night BBRRRRRER. Good thing we had a fair amount of delightful antifreeze, like Magpie Meads. Magpie makes fantastic mead, a honeywine infused with fruit. I highly recommend sampling a bottle if you live within a state he can legally ship to. Rowan and I both love the Black Raspberry with Blueberry as a close second.