In my own defense I do a lot of stuff around here too, but it seems that Mrs Widds is on a roll so it’s only right that credit is given where credit is due.
(As an aside, we have a good working relationship with our landlady and if we can fix things ourselves, she has no problem OK-ing it, and paying for parts, etc)
On the 23rd of December, right at the tail end of the baking frenzy that is part of our year-end gifting to the offspring, (from Mrs Widds loins they sprung, not mine. I can’t think of anything more horrifyingly painful than trying to squeeze a whole, albeit small, human being out of my vagina, and I have the utmost admiration for all the women who do) the oven stopped working. Well, not completely, just the bottom element, the most important one.
Only the upper one remained, which left to its own devices, proved that it had the capacity to burn everything to a charred wasteland if left unattended for three seconds. Mrs Widds was not amused.
Once the Christmas festivities had concluded, the last ‘do’ was on Boxing Day, Mrs Widds, true to form, eviscerated the oven and discovered this …

Ring connectors, lightly fried
Ring connectors are the little thing-a-ma-jigs that transfer electricity from the wiring to the heating element itself. Tucked away behind the back wall of the oven. Tightly secured. Really tightly secured. So tightly secured that we had to cut the wires to get the bloody things out.
Take one trip to Canadian Tire, add a small packet of ring connectors, stir in Mrs Widds to reassemble, and turn the oven on again.
Heating, heating …
BOOM! KAPOW!
This happened …

It looks like Kane’s chest after the alien exploded from him… Emegherd! There was an alien in our oven!!! …Alien (the movie) reference, in case you missed it
Out into the pouring rain we went, again. (it’s been raining, heavily, here since the end of November)This time to our local hardware store who had the exact right replacement element.
And now the oven looks like this …

Working perfectly, and a whole lot cleaner
Mrs Widds bakery on Widder Island is back in business!
We did pick up a couple of loaves to tide us over, they were OK, but nothing compared to the real home-baked thing.
Well done with sorting the oven – I agree nothing like home made bread
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Always smells like ‘home’. 🙂
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Well done, Mrs Widds! I like to fix things, but if my oven breaks again, its on its own!
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Yeah, me too. 😀
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Good for Mrs Widds
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She’s a champ. 🙂
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I am suitably impressed! And a little jealous . . . freshly baked bread? Sigh. Dreamy.
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Store-bought bread comes in a distant second. 🙂
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And I thought ovens worked by magic! To be good at baking AND DIY is very impressive. We spent Xmas with daughter and family, but Cyberson2 and his superwoman came and he cooked Xmas dinner and spent Boxing Day fixing a new tap, a toilet and other jobs. So the chaps have their uses – however his girlfriend is a marvel as she is a pyrotechnic expert and lighting technician and also builder’s mate – she helped Cyberson build our shower room.
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She sounds like a keeper’ 😀
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I replaced an element in our oven. Us women know a thing or two 😏
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We sure do … and the more women make that fact known, the more women will try stuff that stretches them … that’s why what you do is so important too. 🙂
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My boxing 🥊🥊
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Yep! 😀
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I’m verily impressed. have no doubts that it would take several weeks before we stopped ignoring the problem and call the appliance guy to come look at it, if that happened to us. Neither the Husband or I would have ever given thought to finding a replacement at the hardware store. On our own. Now, I know better, but we’ll still call the appliance guy.
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Even if we can’t fix something ourselves, it’s always good to know what we’re being charged extortionist rates for. 🙂
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