A step in the right direction....

When we woke up Patty still wasn't feeling good....And she's not worried, because we still have about 4 weeks or so before the chicks have to be outside. But that's 4 weekends that we could be sick, or have crappy weather, or would rather be playing with chicks! So I feel the need to make some kind of progress today...
So I headed down to the barn with my sick P in tow...determined to connect the power today.
While Patty sat in the little bit of sun we had fixing the weed wacker, I went to run a few cables up a post in conduit. I managed to cut my finger with the pvc saw. Who the hell does that? Do you know how jagged those things are?! It didn't bleed a lot but good lord it hurt. I didn't cry...didn't run to show P my owie...I contined and went to hook up the outlet, when I noticed it was a 15 amp receptacle. I needed a 20 amp one...I wanted to do it once, and do it right. So we jumped in the car and headed to Ace hardware. I grabbed a couple outlets, Patty grabbed squirrel food, and I also grabbed some conversation hearts for Mariah that were in Spanish. (A class she is taking at school right now.) We also helped the local girlscout troop outside of the store by relieving them of one of their boxes of thinmints. My favorite!
We came home and went right back down to the barn. It only took me a few minutes to finish wiring up the outlet. I gave Patty a quick lesson on how to wire up an outlet, and I closed up the box.
I looked over at the well house and I knew Brutus was waiting for me. I thought about giving him a thinmint as a peace offering...but P had a better idea. She grabbed a 5 foot rod and took the covers off of the well house. There was Brutus...and Patty cringed a bit. She knocked Brutus down in to the water with the intent of a watery grave, and we both watched in wonder as Brutus mastered the butterfly and backstroke.... That would never do while I worked in there, so she got Brutus to climb back on the rod, and I hurried in the opposite direction as she flung Brutus first class through the air and into the woods. I actually began to calculate in my head how quickly they run, and how far he was probably flung. We looked in the well house for anymore "distractions" and we found "Brittany". Brittany was bigger than Brutus...so much I just about gagged. While her adrenaline was still pumping, Patty gathered Brittany on the end of the rod and ran toward the creek with her jeans falling down and buttcrack showing. She put Brittany in the river and I shit you not...from 15 feet away I could see that black spider go down the river...Patty followed her aways...one hand holding up her jeans... and Brittany grabbed onto a rock and pulled herself from the creek. Good God!!! Where was my freakin windex when I needed it?! So she knocked her back in the water and came back to give me a hand with the wiring.
Now the wiring in the well house is confusing. I'm not sure what the previous owners were doing...so out of the eight wires coming in...I picked the most logical two, (They were all hot before I turned the breaker off), and continued to hook up the outlet.
Moment of truth...I ran up to the house and flipped the breaker. I yelled down to Patty to plug in the light......NOTHING! She suggested the bulb may be burned out...bless her heart...
I came down and tried my meter...less than a volt. I tried it in the well house. Nothing...My tic tracer showed the lines were hot. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! After 3 hours of work I felt like a huge lame-o loser. Patty assured me it wasn't me...it was the wiring...and I dragged my feet as I put my stuff away...I know the problem is in the well house...so the rest of the wiring I accomplished today wasn't a complete waste of time.
I came up to the garage and inspected the open boxes again...I also pulled the breaker panel cover again. I had to be missing something. Several of the wires weren't connected in the panel, which I hadn't noticed before...just isolated with a wirenut. Which means they ran lines for potential future use....smart...but I wish they noted that on their little schematic! So I made note of wires that weren't connected, and obviously the two I connected and have eliminated down to two. I will hook those up next...and hopefully...there will be light.
Later that night when we went to go to bed, my finger was throbbing...it was turning bright red, (the first sign of gangrene I think), and my whole hand started to hurt. I mentioned it, (possibly whined a little) to P, and she brought out the hydrogen peroxide. It looked like a little science fair project bubbling away...and then the PAIN!!! Patty muttered something under her breath and put some ointment and a bandaid on it. The next morning the pain was gone, and it wasn't more than a little scratch. She saved my finger...which is good...because I am sure I will need it for the rest of that barn....