WATER

You don't realize how important water is until you have none, or at best very little.  We have a good deep (380 feet) water well with a 525-gallon pressure tank, all automated to serve the household, the barn, watering troughs for the cows, and the yard sprinkler system.  So what's the problem?

 

About 10:oo p.m. Friday evening my wife announced there was no water pressure at the kitchen sink.  I immediately went to the pumphouse.  Water was running all around the pumhouse and pressure tank.  The submersible pump in the well was running full force trying to fill the tank.  I immediately saw there was a major break in the water line piping directly underneath the tank.  I threw the circuit breaker switch to the pumphouse and shut everything down.  Using a flashlight I dug down underneath the tank and found the source of the leak, a break in the 1-1/2 x 6 nipple on the upstream side of the gate valve that controls the water flow to the sprinkler system.  I couldn't do anything that evening so we were without water, except for the one-gallon jugs of water stored in the garage for just such an emergency.

The next morning no water to speak of.  I spent a good bit of the day digging out all the dirt from underneath and around the end of the tank so I would have room to work.  A lot of digging.  Not easy.  Lots of roots.  Finally I got it dug out to where I could get down and do a close inspection.  I determined it was a job I could not do by myself.  If I was 30 years old, no problem.  Since I'm 80 past I know my physical limitations.  About 2:00 p.m. I called my good neighbor and friend, James.  He and his teenage son, Austin, came to have a look.  James said they could fix it, but had to take another son, Cameron, to a baseball meeting that afternoon.  They came back about 7:30 that evening and worked until about 10:00.  They replaced the broken  pipe nipple, cleaned up the gate valve, and re-installed to where we had water to the house, barn, and cows.

The next morning I got up at 7:00 a.m. and thirty minutes later was at the pumphouse digging a trench to uncover the water line to the sprinkler system so the 1-1/2 PVC pipe could be bent enough to engage the connector to the connection end on the down stream side of the gate valve.  Not easy.  Lots of roots.  I got the pipe connected, but was unable to tighten it enough to keep it from leaking a little.  I just don't have the strength.  James and another grown son, Ryan, came by this afternoon and tightened it up for me so now everything is back working like it is supposed to and without leaking.  Now we have water for the entire system.  

Its great to have good neighbors and friends.