> > Actually, now that I think about it, I'm still using that hose. I guess a hose can expand enough to withstand freezing. But you can have problems if you leave it attached to the faucet all winter with water in it. The faucet might be damaged.
>
> Too true. When we bought our first home, we didn't know it but the previous owners had been leaving their hose attached to the faucet all winter long for something like 3-5 years straight. Our first year there, we had to get that faucet and part of the attached plumbing replaced. We tried to fill our son's kiddie pool that summer and ended up with a different kind of pool on our bathroom floor.
>
> Seems like there's always something going wrong or needing to be fixed when you own your own home. When you rent, you just call up the landlord and get him to fix it, but if you're your own landlord then you get to handle stuff yourself. Our latest problem has been a large family of mice that moved into our walls for the winter. I let them be as long as they let us be, but when they started leaving droppings all over the attic and then started coming into our bedroom and waking us up at night, I declared war on 'em. It took two weeks but I think they're just about all gone now... the body count is up to fourteen.
>
> Gri"sorry Mousie... but these mice weren't nice"shny


Who was it that said, "Anybody who owns a home deserves it." Oh, now I remember. It was Alan King. We have a parade of repair people coming through all the time. Tim the plumber was here last week. And Van, our county commissioner who has a home maintenence business, comes by twice a year to clean out the gutters. Then there is the man who turns and discs our garden. And the pressure washer guy. And the heat and air man. Did I forget the painters?

The only good news is that both of our sons are contractors who work on the house if it is something major. They built our garage, our sunroom, our deck, added a shed to the garage, put up some paneling, took out the old rusty wrought iron posts and put in white columns on the porch and carport, hung doors, put up paneling, put up shutters. They don't work free, just cheap, and we know we are getting it done right. But I guess they are protecting their inheritance.

Mice! When you live in the woods, the little critters move in every fall. Once they got into the pantry and chewed holes in every box, bag, and package. We had to throw it all out. It was big $$$ because we tend to keep a good inventory on hand in case we get snowed in. That actually happened once, many moons ago.

In the last 35 years or so, we have chased a few snakes out of the basement. Maybe they were after the mice. Maybe Alan King was right. I wonder why the lights are flickering. Do I hear something dripping?
Howard