About a month ago, I pulled some dishes out of our dishwasher and noticed a film on the glasses and silverware. Our dishwasher is a Jet-Dry hog, so that’s unusual. I assumed it was a dishwasher hiccup, cleaned it, refilled Jet-Dry reservoir, although it was mostly full, and carried on.
Then Kid 1’s boyfriend pointed out that there were “chunks” floating in the electric kettle. I looked into it and discovered that the entire bottom of it was crusted over. This normally happens with hard water over a long period of use, but the kettle was brand new. I poured vinegar into it and let the neutralization take its course.
A week later, another layer of crust. The iced tea is cloudy. The dishes are coming out with a white film out of the dishwasher and there is so much residue, you can actually draw a little pattern in it with your fingers.
We called a water purification company, who did a few simple tests, which I carefully watched. First, our water softener died a sad death. Second, if our water was any harder, we could actually sue the city because by law they would have to improve the water quality. We are just under the limit.
The problem is compounded by the fact that we technically have well water. It’s community water well managed by the city. Curiously, a water dude came to the house and informed us that he needs to shut off our water for a bit to do “some testing.” When pressed, he said he was checking pressure. Three years and this is the first time “testing” happened. I am suspicious.
So the answer to the water dilemma would either be many plastic bottles, which I am not willing to do or a whole house purifier/softener system. One one hand, it will give us bottle quality water and my hair will no longer resemble garage sale Barbie straw. On other hand, it’s a bit pricey.
Long story short: they are installing one today. We are sitting all masked up. Kid 1 isn’t here – she went to run an errand for us – and her little dog Nykie is locked in the bedroom with the outside door open for her and other dogs convenience. Nykie has now been without human contact for the whole hour and she is howling. She is howling like the world is ending.
Amount of work done: zero. Because howling. We threw out 3 chapters last night and I really want to fix what’s left so it would make more sense. We can’t wear headphones because we have to talk to each other and we can’t go to the office, because the installer is here.
Howling.
Hooowling.
Kid 1 is not allowed to leave the house.
Awroooooo!
Holy tolito am i first?!! Also you will not regret the softener! My parents love their new one!
Thank you, Ilona Andrews, for the post. Yes water softener pricey but really do make a big difference over time.
At least it’s not hazardous environmental contamination of some type. I get my well tested every decade. Get sibling city water tested too as Mother is on so many prescriptions now and she has been living with her since great grand baby born. It helps to know chemical levels and what chemicals she is imbibing in water, cooked food etc. she isn’t speaking to me right now because I made her take Covid vaccination. She is 77 and demented. She has taught her chihuahua to bark at nieces boyfriends. ????
Poor Nikki. Separation anxiety is tough on everyone.
You could always do the gaming headsets and Zoom between you and Gordon. 😛
That’s ingenious!!!! Tink!!!
That was my thought too! ????
Is she like my lab mix dog? Not an emotional support dog but an emotionally supported dog?
An emotionally compromised dog.
????
We always claimed that we were our dog’s emotional support humans. But she did come from a pretty nasty background and we didn’t mind holding her paw during thunderstorms. Better than drugging her to the gills…
Get headphones and get on a call together! That way you can hear each other and mute background noise. 🙂
And I agree.. soft water is SO much better on hair. I have gone through the same process
Good luck!! Here at my house, we have a saying, “It’s always something!”
I hope your something resolves soon!!
Poor baby, he misses his mama.
My friend got a Jack Russell dog from a rescue group. She lives in an apartment house.Her sister lives next door.
He howled, whenever she left.
Her sister who was at home , would call her at work and take the phone to him. He would hear his mamas voice and become quiet.
Sometimes ,if I was home, I had to go visit Kenny ( the doggy) to keep him company . Or take him out for a walk.
But it caused quite a problem, other neighbor called the owner to complain.
Eventually, with some medication the doggy adjusted to being alone at home. But my friend and her neighbor are still not speaking .
I recently began working in a virtual office called Immersed because I live in an RV, but that same package would allow you to wear headphones AND talk to each other by working in a shared space. hmm…though your mics might also pick up the howling so maybe that is no good either.
Thanks for all the books. I think I have read your books more times than any other author. I’m sitting on my copy of Blood Heir anxiously awaiting the audible so I can listen with my wife before I read it on Kindle. You two kick much ass!
Beautiful dog. Beautiful child. We live just north of Austin and cannot imagine how we lived without our water softener the first couple years we owned this house. My hair is a delight to deal with now!! Enjoy!
I love this stuff! Thank you, you brightened my day.
Sounds like you are having a month like one of my friends is having. If it could go wrong or cost her money it has. Plus side she did get her appointment for her COVID shot.
I feel your pain. We adopted a dog in March. He is the first dog we have ever had who has that “guarding” instinct. He is also only a foot tall. It is humorous. But not to repairmen. When my little doxie mix goes off trying to kill the nice repair people it is not so funny. I end up holding a solid twenty pounds of howling terror who seriously wants to eat the strangers. Now if this were a guest, we would go through the introduce the dog and make a friend routine, but I am not going to do this with repair folks. Tried locking him in the bedroom and he seriously went beserk. So I hold the crazed doxie, while repair commences and my ears hurt. Sometimes if it’s warm enough I can take him out, but it’s winter in Wisconsin and that doesn’t work right now. Hopefully, no more repair folks for a while. At least you aren’t forced to hold the howler.
See, I have never understood this. We had a Siberian Husky who would not allow the neighbor to get close enough to the door to knock to get his nieces out of our house to go home. But of course, as anyone who has ever had one knows, Huskies don’t bark. He just looked at the neighbor as he sat between him and house and used his blue eyes to intimidate. I heard someone making noise outside, looked out, and I told the dog he was good, the dog backed off, the man came and got the children.
My in-laws had dogs that barked. Every dog, every time. We inherited the last barking Black Lab and within three days, the dog no longer barked after the first notice he gave of strangers. How? Because when he barked, I immediately got up and went to see why, petted his head, and told him how good he was.
Guard dogs guard. They need to know that you have gotten the warning and that you will handle it, but if you tell the dog to stop, the dog doesn’t realize that the warning is not needed and is trying to tell you about danger. If you pet the dog, praise the dog for the warning, the dog knows you got warned and he can stand down.
The dog howling because his mommy is not there won’t be good with this, but with your dog barking at strangers and you having to hold him as you scold him for barking, this works. Praise him for warning you, with your voice and hands, and tell him how good he was to warn you, and he’ll know you’ll take charge and stop barking.
Yeah, I heard that rumor about huskies also. I have two, same mom, almost two years apart in age. H1 woos and howls. We very rarely get the big dog bark when he’s after prey (poor possums and woodchucks). H2 barks. She gives h1 the funniest look when he howls. She tries, but doesn’t get it. She’s a barker and occasionally a tortured growly wooer.
I grew up with city well water. Much of Illinois, except the 80 municipalities that get water from lake Michigan (many from the city of Chicago) exist on municipal well water. As a kid sometimes the iron in the water would get so high all our clothes would come out of the washing machine with orange dots. A dot for every hole in the washer drum. Some areas mitigate the harness better than others. It’s a reminder just how valuable water is.
Central IL here, our water comes from Mahomet Aquifer (natural underground water reservoir) I’ve never had soft water…it’s not bad, but further north…no thank you, nasty!
Sounds like my dog. Upside to a pandemic puppy: get to be home to raise her while I telework. Downside to a pandemic puppy: separation training isn’t going well. She panics if I leave the house and waits by the door even when my partner is home. She’s the dog of my dreams otherwise.
We adopted a deaf and almost blind 10-year-old miniature poodle 4 years ago. I suspect his previous homes were with women because he attached himself to me immediately and regarded my husband with great indifference.
He was a very quiet dog and wouldn’t make a peep if you vacuumed on top of him, but if I left his sight, oh he would bark. Not yip yip yip but Big. Loud. Barks. And he would keep it up indefinitely. We’d go away for most of the day, and he’d still be at it. Wouldn’t even be hoarse.
Fortunately, we’re mostly retired and are home most of the time. Don’t live in an apartment so no complaints.
Now that the dog is 14, he will sometimes just sleep through my absences but my husband still has problems working when I’m gone because the dog paces and fusses (whining, muttering). Sometimes he still barks but fussing is just as annoying.
Good luck!
We ended up having to have a new well drilled three years ago.
Yesterday? A delivery truck ran over the well head. (Which was marked with huge signs and cowbells for extra emphasis.) Hubby had mentioned life was looking up just that morning…arrrrgh.
The howling at our house is me pulling my hair over repair costs and idiot drivers.
Here’s to three renewed chapters and a happy doggie.
Poor baby. Poor everyone in hearing distance of poor baby.
If I had the resources, I would definitely make the decision y’all made with the water purifier. You will all be more comfortable and healthier for it.
I’m not sure where you guys are, but in Texas we have to get an annual report on water quality whether it’d from a city, MUD (mulitple utility district) or co-op, which is the responsiblity of the city, MUD board or co-op board. And, they have to tell you when they are cleaning the pipes, testing your water, or even performing smoke tests on sewer lines.
We have a flooding problem in our neighborhood and I’ve spent the past 15 years having to know things like this.
Vegas has horrible water. Horrible. I bought a filter and an RO for the kitchen – best investment ever. I now live in Portland and chortle when I can drink water from the tap. You won’t regret.
All I could think of was that you are probably going to start thinking about moving again.
Hopefully, still ruling the Florida sandbar out. While you manage (somehow) to put a comedic touch into all of your blog posts, most of us couldn’t take the disasters that would happen in Florida.
It would be nice to have soft water and not scaly water. Good luck with the new system.
Poor doggie needs hugs
We love our softener/filtration our local water is extremely hard
I feel your pain! Last summer my water softener failed. I have my own well that is iron-rich. $6500 later and I have a lovely peroxide/resin/salt/carbon system with fantastic water. It’s worth the price but ouch at the time!
Sorry about the howling, hopefully Kid1 comes home soon. Hard water is so much fun to deal with even with a water softener. Your new system sounds great, will have to look into it.
Enjoy the new water ????
Nykie looks to have some dachshund in her. They do not do well without their peoples. Why no video of the singing?
She does, we think, at least half. The rest is up for debate. I think Scotty, but unless we shell out the dough for a doggie DNA test (that is a thing) we’ll never know.
I’m sure people pay to find out what DNA makes up their pets, but who really cares? Better to not know than to pay out the big bucks for that stuff! She is the dog you have, and what’s what matters.
A friend of mine from Cornell has started Embark a doggie DNA company. The science is solid, and it gives you both ancestry and health information. For about 100, I can also try to find a discount. If you do decide to go for doggie DNA, I highly recommend Embark. I sadly do not get commission, just hearing all the wrong guesses we have made on our friends dog ancestry before they did embark.
Oh my. At least your sewer line didn’t get clogged up. Mine did and it took me basically strong arming the leasing office to do something about it. I was not a happy person on Saturday.
It sounds like Beast is making herself known to the world. Sounded like Nykie wasn’t a happy camper either.
Hopefully peace has descended in the land so you can get some work done.
I live in an apartment. The next door neighbor’s dog “arooooo”s every time they leave. For hours. I work from home and have explained this to them. Zero remorse. Apartment complex says unless it’s after quiet hours I am SOL. The workday is fair game.
I feel sorry for the dog. I feel sorry for myself. Too bad the dog and I can’t get together and have a pity party while his/her mom and dad away. We could arooooo our sad song in chorus. ????
The softener is worth it. I grew up with one- although even with it the water at my parent’s house is still extremely hard, but better than it was prior. We live in a different state now and the city water here is actually not terrible quality, but our Christmas present of choice this past Christmas was a big old Berkey water filter ???? they make a shower filter we may get too!
I love my 2 gallon Berkey water filter! I can actually drink water now. I literally gag when I I’m forced to drink tap water. It’s okay for showers and laundry but not drinking.
You are able to take negatives and turn them into humor. It is such a rare and special gift especially at times like these. Thank you.
I hate water issues. I’m on a well where I had to install a sediment filter. Tiny black iron bits and gravel clogged my toilet valve and ruined a washing machine motor. Ugh. I’d love to have a softener too.
I had to get a new furnace installed in December. The 30mins pre-inspection with my dog barking from the bathroom was enough to make him reservations at the local doggy day care.
We have very hard water where I live. I use citric acid in the dishwasher to keep the buildup down and it keeps our dishes fairly clear. But the water keeps destroying our coffee pots. My husband says that if the water was any harder you could walk on it without a miracle. We are planning to install a water softener in our new house as soon as we can.
We killed 3 Bonivita coffee makers in close succession. They have excellent warranties and kept replacing them. Eventually bought a Bunn. Now that we have the softener, we may try our last new Bonivita.
Bahaha. Got to love those four footed babies.
My parents and sisters lived in the same community with horribly hard, mineraly water. They both had to get water softeners and loved them. We have Lake Ontario regular water at home and soft river water, purified with UV lights and back-washing filters at the cottage and do not like it at all– not because it’s soft, but because it’s river water. We’ll be switching to trucked-in water from a water tanker truck this summer. Wells up there cost a fortune. You never know how far you’ll have to drill through hard Muskoka rock, if you find water at all. We also have two rescue dogs from the Dominican Republic. One is totally loopy– who knows what happened to her before she was taken into the rescue? I shudder at the possibilities. After 6 months, she’ll sleep beside my husband, but barks and growls at him when he walks around the house. Poor baby, but thankfully, no howling.
Ive been working from home since March last year. Our dog,Baby is my constant companion. When the kids went back to full day school I had a good week of her going from room to room crying until they got home.
Today I left her with Oldest kid to drop off younger ones at school. He had a virtual dr appt. He said she climbed into his lap and whined at the door for about 10 mins.
The dramatics, I dont know what we are going to do when I have to go back to the office.
Hope the water system works well for you guys!
I travel in an RV for a couple of months out of the year. Anytime I’m in Texas, New Mexico or Arizona the water is so hard it’s almost crunchy. Crunchy water is not good.
Investigating water softeners for RVs now. Pricy, but it beats trying to descale all the water lines after every trip. Just think of all the little annoyances your new water softener will eliminate! Isn’t your future lack of little stressors worth it? And if you do move, it should increase the desirability of the current house!
So sorry for the water tribulations. If it’s not one thing, it’s another…..
Hope new water softener works for you. (garage sale Barbie straw hahahahah – so funny!).
BTW. your daughter is gorgeous!!!
Feel this so hard right now. My tea is gritty. Over 10 in a water hardness test is very hard. We tested and ours is currently 27. We have a whole house filter that isn’t working and waiting for Culligan to come fix it.
I did the white vinegar in my kettle on Saturday and doing it again today, after 3 days of use.
We just went through something similar. Had a leak under kitchen sink. Plumber repaired and was going to leave when he noticed white film on underside of faucet. We have 2 cylinders in basement for water due to tiny high level of mercury. One has carbon, to filter mercury and the other is neutralizer for taste. He wanted to put softener and RO water filter in addition to replacing 2 cylinders for $8700. (You need RO unit for drinking water due to softener.) softener will eliminate white film from well water. We said no. Will replace faucet for $100. Salt in softener bad for my high cholesterol and fish tanks and plants. We have RO unit in basement for some animals we have. Plus, takes a long time to refill RO tank. (Get a pump). Depending on how hard water is, choice would be hard to make. Our state had money set aside to put the cylinders in when we bought the house that the seller had to put in. Home ownership means class in chemistry ????
I am a dog sitter (sharer?) of Lucy my neighbors dog. For precisely this reason. Lol.
I laughed too much so now the cat refuses to sit on my lap. Meoowing for disturbing his sleep while reading the Hoowling. I hope your new water system works well!
My poor dog has horrible separation anxiety. He doesn’t bark all day, but instead will pee inside, despite a doggie door that he uses perfectly when I’m home. I recently moved and now he spends the week with my retired parents and the weekends with me. Miss him all week, but I work 4 10hr nights, and he was miserable. I’ve actually been staying with my parents for the last 2 weeks because of home renovations, so he couldn’t be happier. People are almost always home, and there are 3 other dogs to play with.
Be glad you figured out the water softener failed before the barrier broke and your water lines were filled with the tiny balls inside the water softener. It’s really not fun.
Before we figured out the problem, we thought there was sediment in the line which had blocked the line that fills the toilet tank. So we looked on the internet and figured out how to clean the line. We couldn’t unhook the hose that goes into the toilet so we unhooked from the wall. I was to hold a plastic cup over the the water valve. Imagine super strong water pressure blasting the cup from my hand, grit filled high pressure water blasting me in the eye, and my very shocked husband trying to turn the water back off. After that setback and my close call with losing my eye sight, we cleared the line for that day. Week or two later, it happen again. After google search I figured out where the weird sediment was coming from and called a plumber.
We had a new water softener installed in November.
Oh no! I’m so sorry. Poor pup.
Love this, next time howler needs to go with kid 1 , well unless kid 1 going to a cattery????????????????
Your family stories always give me a chuckle and brighten my day. ???? Thanks for sharing a peek into your family, and may Kid1 stay home with her poor baby until you get the book finished.
Could we read the three chapters that you throw out. We still want to read them ????
I feel your pain. I was 7 months pregnant and our well went bad. All of a sudden one day globs of mud came out of everything-toilets, faucets, showers. I couldn’t even pee, which is torture when you got a little dancing man on your bladder. I did some investigation and a *bleeping*contractor was blasting bedrock for a new development and caused mud to collapse into our water supply. I called 4 well companies and the only solution was to either drill a new well or hook up a hose and hope we can pump out the muck so it ran clear again. It took three days to finally be clean again. Then came the fun part-cleaning up. I still have nightmares!
My Airedale learned how to howl from the beagle that lived on the street below us and so did our next door neighbour’s daschund. It was quite hilarious when all three of them were outdoors and started to howl.
We have city water but it was very hard and I kept smelling chlorine (which I refuse to drink no matter who tells me to) so got a soft water system and an RO faucet. Love them! And totally off the subject, did anyone try the Milk Bread recipe Ilona posted on her blog last year? I decided to try it this week so went to the YouTube video again, but can’t quite figure out what they pull off the bottom of the bread. Do they grease the loaf pan and then put wax paper in the bottom and grease/not grease it, or is it parchment paper or what? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Parchment paper – no grease needed. I didn’t need to grease my pans, but all pans are not the same. Makes great hot dog buns, too.
Thank you! Will try it tomorrow. I use glass loaf pans, so will grease just to be safe.
Oh, you have my sympathy with the Barbie straw. I had a four acre property with rain water for the house, and a bore for the land, but it was piped so if the rain water ran out, I could divert the bore water into the house. One fine summer day written, produced and directed by the archdemon himself, the pump on the rain water tank blew up, and leaked two entire tanks of water into the yard while I was at work. I get home in the dark to no water.
Half an hour in the back paddock with a torch, a wrench, approximately two hundred and eight four mutantly huge orb weavers, and three curious young jerseys channeling their inner golden retrievers, I got the bore switched over to the house.
Despite the filters, despite the purifier, despite the softener, I looked like Bellatrix Lestrange for about two weeks before I got my tanks refilled with town water. And then it turned to dandelion fluff. lol