Today didn't go to plan, but fortunately in a good way, not a bad way.
It was extremely gusty this morning, we slept in a bit, but were woke up by a major gust of wind and a banging sound. I looked out the window, and saw that the structure next to our house was blown over.
Now a bit about this structure, it is a covered walkway, built in the 80s, to give the workers, who were once housed in these dorms, easy access to them, without the company needing to shovel snow. They are made of 4x4s, and that thin corrugated plastic. 50 years of the elements, is more than enough to rot that thing nearly to the ground. Since we first looked at the lodge, that has been on our list to remove. Issue is, it's on our neighbors property. Issue is, no one we have spoken with knows who actually owns that property.
So low and behold, waking up to that thing being blow over on to our property, or let me say, half blown over, was a bit of a rude awakening. It came within inches of smashing our kerosene tank, which would have been a big issue, so super lucky on that, but it is all half down, and precariously placed. I ran out, and started unscrewing the corrugated plastic, just so it would stop acting like a sail. Denise ran over to our neighbors, to get some help. Shingo-san, was at work, but our ever helpful neighbor Yuki-san, ran over to see what was up, and as soon as she saw the issue, she started making phone calls.
I am used to the American way of dealing with issues, you got to figure it out yourself, because thats the way it is. I was figuring out where I was going to tie it off, and attach it to my car, so I could pull it away from the house and fuel tank.
Thats not how things work here, for better or worse. It isn't just on you here, there is a network that provides assistance, and in our case, it started with the Police, who promptly showed up, who then called the fire department, who then started figuring out what to do. While this was happening, the police were trying to figure out who the property actually belonged too, and cute enough, they pulled out a huge book, filled with handwritten entries, that list who owns what. Surprise surprise, no owner was listed in the book, so this started off a chain of hunting down who might own this, but after several hours, and no luck, we were at an impasse. Without the owner being notified, the fire dept couldn't pull down the structure. They tied it off, so it is atleast supported, but it is still standing part collapsed, part precariously perched next to my fuel tanks.
On the plus side, we were introduced to the local police officers, and the fire department, which was a great thing. It is better to meet them in this sort of situation, then an actual serious situation, for the first time. We had plenty of time to talk and they all know Wakaranai Lodge now.
Hopefully the owner is found, and things get resolved soon, but this is the way it goes here.
The rest of the day, was less eventful, and we proceeded with working on the sink, but were pretty exhausted from dealing with the day, that we only put in a pretty short amount of work today. Shogunai
have a great day n wakaranai