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.