Be careful what you wish for...

This morning I was up bright and early, and got to measuring and digging. Planted the first of four fence posts and set it in concrete.
Then the phone rang, call out.

I got cleaned up, put on a work shirt, and headed out. Fixed the problem.
Back home I got busy again, planted the other three fence posts, secured in concrete.
Then the phone rang again, call out

I wiped off the sweat (did I mention it was fucking hot and humid?) sprayed on some "stink me pretty" (deodorant

), put on a clean work shirt and headed out. This one was an interesting problem; the home is a rental and the landlord sent out his handyman to replace the pump that had packed up. The handyman replaced the 1 HP pump with a half-horse pump (it is much cheaper) but could not get the pump to get up to pressure. So he relented and went and swapped it out for a 1 horse power pump. But still he could not get it to build up any pressure... That is when the tenant got pissed off, called us, and when I told her that I was certain that I could fix the issue she called the landlord and insisted that I come out and fix their water.
Well it was actually quite a simple fix... In the US we can have either 115 Volt power, or 230 Volt power in our homes. The 230 Volt power is usually used for big stuff like water heaters, AC units, stoves, tumble dryers, etc. And most pumps that are on a dedicated circuit will also run on 230 Volts. Other "lesser" things like lights and wall plugs etc are all wired for 115 Volts. Now when you run a big pump like a 1HP you should use 230 Volts, as the pump draws quite a lot of current, and 230 Volts can carry this load more effectively. A 115 Volt line can also run a 1 HP pump, but because of the high current draw on lower voltage, you should use a thicker gauge wire.
All pumps come factory pre-set for 230 Volts, and inside the back cover you can change a terminal, or turn a selector for it to run on 115 Volts. They are preset for 230 Volts because putting 115 V into it will not cause short term damage, but putting 230 Volts into a 115 Volt pump will burn it out very quickly.
The pump the handyman installed was preset for 230 Volts. The breaker in the main panel for the pump was a 230 Volt breaker. But the power at the end of the cable to the pump was only giving 115 volts. So I opened up the junction box on the wall above the pump, and found that one of the two "legs" (wires) was disconnected... I fixed that, and then the pump ran perfectly

What made the call out "interesting" though was the customer / tenant. An older lady, around 60-ish. A hippy-type lady, and very friendly. Her daughter who was living with her was, I guess, mid-20's, and had two small kids. But there were no men living there... While I was sorting out the invoice on my I-Pad with the elder lady, the daughter was in the pool behind me in a "eitsa-klein" bikini... and she was pretty good-looking too

I was sweating from the heat, perspiration running down my forehead. The older lady asked if I wanted some water, I told her thanks, but I was ok. Then the daughter asked me if I wanted to have a swim in the pool to cool off. I replied that I would love to, but that I didn't have my swimming cozzie with me. Well, if she didn't reply "you don't need to wear swimming trunks..."

I guess my accent did it again

I politely declined, sorted out the invoice, and left.
Without having a swim.

Back home I told Mrs Zog about it and she had a good giggle too

I cooled off for a few minutes, then headed off to Home Depot to get more wood for the fence. Just as I was paying for the wood the phone rang again. Call out

For this call out I needed to go up to the shop to get a submersible pump (21 Miles north) then take it to the address where I would need to install it (another 40 miles south). Eish... So I dropped the wood off at home, sprayed on some more deodorant, and hit the road. Picked up the submersible pump at the shop in Melbourne, and then headed down to Fellsmere in the County to the south of our County. I arrived just as it was getting dark, and got to work. Tested the old submersible pump, it was dead, and installed the new pump. Got it all sorted out, and came home. I got home just after 9:30pm...
Had a quick shower (I think I smelled pretty bad by then

), and heated up my supper in the microwave. Now I'm writing this all up for all-y'all, and then I will go to bed. I'm FUBAR....

Tomorrow I'll try do some more work on the fence... then when it gets too hot I have a project for indoors... maybe I'll even get some pics for y'all...

Thanks for reading
