RatMan's Goin' In!

The search goes on for some mysterious electrical box without which we apparently can't proceed to the rewiring of the well pump to the inverter. Some day this might all make a funny story. At the moment, I am not at all amused...John donned his rat suit (a nomex overall left over from his 
Chevron days) last week to crawl through the basement (more like a black hole under the house). Today he added knee pads and a head lamp to crawl through the attic which has had insulation blown into it causing drifts of bits of ground up paper to cover up anything that might be an electrical box. Another wait ensues while Ali tries to recruit somebody to follow the wire from the pump house. We're afraid to ask how much this is costing on top of the substantial cost of the battery, the inverter and the 'critical panel' which don't work until this further problem is solved....

Much as I have enjoyed making quilts, three of them is enough for the moment. I have to poke my head out of the rabbit hole once in awhile and do something else, so today I put the sewing machine away and cleaned up the work top. Then I made a bunch of appetizers for our friends Kathy and Mike who are coming over for happy hour. They live in Windsor and were evacuated last week, but were allowed to come back a couple of days ago. We probably won't be drinking champagne but I thought they deserved some special goodies and a little relaxation.

Tomorrow will be tomato sauce. I'm hoping the smoke hasn't affected the flavor of the tomatoes. Many of the wineries are weighing the choice between an early harvest before the sugar level is at the desired level and smoke taint which affects the taste of the wine during the fermentation process. I think I am suffering from some sort of smoke taint myself since I have a sort of low grade cough, sinus congestion and burning eyes. 

According to the fire maps there are only a few hot spots, but the fire is only 25% contained. So far it has burned 55,353 acres. There is a steady drone of planes over our house every evening. These are not commercial planes, so we assume they are CalFire tankers.  

Although he couldn't find any sign of the mystery electrical box, I'm pleased to say that RatMan found no sign of rats in the traps up there.