House Sitting is Fun, but has its Challenges

We talk about how wonderful our house sits are, they are. But House sitting is also challenging sometimes. Okay, every time. We learn a bit and add to our DIY skills. All the challenges in our house sitting have been worth it.

I cannot tell you how much we miss those Devon Rex cats. They were really a hoot. Constant entertainment and companionship. It is really true how different they are from regular cats. And no cat hair! We have moved on, but we plan to be back. Those folks have an air B&B that we may rent from time to time. We liked them as much as their cats. 

Currently we are further north in the country, expecting warmer, nicer weather. Warmer maybe, but still Winter. This is a village house, probably one of the original ones, older and therefore leaking warmth. But it is charming with period details and character. The village has a petrol station, fire department (volunteer) an inn/pub and a café. All this within a minute walk. We have no cats, and a rarity no chooks. Just two dogs a lovely english spaniel (hers) and german shepherd (his). These homeowners are newlyweds with a new baby. She is Welsh, he is Dutch; she’s a large animal vet, he’s a dairy farmer: guess how they met? Luckily we are not taking care of the dairy herd. They are the first homeowners in New Zealand that have gone overseas. We hope they can get back. NZ is only open to Australia and the Cook Islands (where these guys went), and it closes its borders at the first hint of covid. Currently travelers to Victoria Australia have been stuck for two more weeks than they planned. So, fingers crossed. As it was, the last house sit went long by two days just because an inter island flight was diverted for two days; it could not land because of wind in Queenstown. 

House sitting always comes with Challenges

As house sitting veterans, we have learned some things. Number 1 is to ask if there are any unique challenges with the house. Home owners have always said “no”. Then when we arrive we find something they forgot to mention that break with some consistency. We have experienced a broken boiler in Germany: extremely loud noise of steam escaping the room-sized machine in the middle of the night. For the rest of the stay we had to watch the water level and refill it from a garden hose. Security alarms that go off despite not being set. Solar system that tripped the breakers because of a diversion issue. Probably because the cattery pulled too much power due to the cold weather. Water tank accidentally drained just before we arrived and no rain in sight. Not to worry, as southern Californians, we know how to conserve water. Electrical disruptions are common in NZ and often this means no hot water. Water is often rain water collected from roofs – and nothing else.

The water leak

Here it is a water leak at the fireplace. What you say? Yes the home’s hot water is heated through the wood burning stove. The fire also warms the home obviously. This time of year it is going 7/24. They had a plastic bucket, about the size of a large peanut butter jar that fit perfectly in the tight space between the wall and fire box, and under the lip of the box. Strategically positioned to catch the leak, but not touch anything hot. We were warned to watch the bucket and dump it periodically. The homeowners left for their super early flight in the middle of the night, and we woke up to a flood. 

This leak was said to be changeable: sometimes a slow leak, sometimes faster. We found it to be a very stable leak that filled the little bucket every hour fifteen. We timed it, all day. Then woke up every hour fifteen all night. We could not find a bigger vessel that fit into the tight space. We were able to use our own pryex roasting pan under the tiny bucket as an overflow. You may recall we bought this, a frying pan and a cutting board when a different vegetarian homeowner would not let us cook meat in their pans. This gained us another 50 minutes. In order to get a plumber to work on this leak, we had to let the fire go out and the fire box cool. Done without too much sacrifice: just heat and hot water for a day. He got the leak fixed without too much trouble and we were back in business. Now we can leave the house for more than an hour and explore the area. 

Nearest winery is 45 minutes. What? The nearest farmers market was smaller than a garage sale. We walk the dogs at the Domain. A Domain is a town park. This one is unique in that it also doubles as a public horse facility: tie rails, lunge ring, and arena equipped with a variety of jumps. Every time we go, there is a horse float or two (that is a horse trailer) and people using the facilities with their horses. Not much else to do around here. 

A few days before we arrived this area, Canterbury was the sight of a 100 year flood. Farms were wiped out, bridges gone. Transportation to the entire island was impaired starting a panic at the grocery stores. There are not a lot of roads in this country, so a bridge wiped out can cutoff trade and isolate huge parcels of the country. We see some evidence of flooding, but the place is resilient. The rivers are “braided” around here, so they always look like a recent flood occurred. They are all glacial in origin and still today, the rivers originate at those melting glaciers. It makes for a very wide flood plain cut by moving ice.

Stay tuned. We have plans ahead and an anniversary to share soon.