The Watering Hole

Oh where do I begin?

So, out where we live, we get our water through a cistern. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a big vat in the ground that gets filled with water and then pumped into our various water sources. i.e.: the shower, faucets, toilets, washer, outdoor spickets....you get the idea.

We have 2 actually; we have a very large one, I think it holds 8,000 gallons, in the front yard. This cistern is shipped in water only - meaning it can only be filled by a truck coming with water and filling it. We've only attempted to use this one once (on 4th of July when the back cistern was running close to empty and we were expecting 50-ish people over for a party) as the pump doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us!

The back cistern holds about 3,000 gallons and takes shipped in water or rain water. Don't start ewwing and gaging! It isn't that bad; it goes through a filtering process before we use it....and hey, it is free water most of the time.

Anyways, Allen waited until late Saturday to tell me the cistern was getting low *sigh* - I put a call in to our water supplier for delivery, but as they do not deliver on Sundays, it wouldn't be until Monday that he'd be there. So this meant go easy on the water! i.e. no laundry [darn!], no being over-zealous in watering the garden and flowers etc....

So what does my brainac of a husband do Sunday? Starts a small bonfire of brush he needed to burn...because he couldn't WAIT to do it during the week....and it required water to be put out before we went in for the night.

Luckily, we had enough water to shower Sunday night and take care of other water related necessities. In the middle of the night however, I had to go potty. When the toilet tank was refilling, I heard a gurgling that didn't sound right. I figured that was it for the water ;( Little did I know (and I didn't divulge this info to the husband!), the pump continued to run all night trying to pump water that wasn't into the toilet tank :(

Monday morning started off with a bang! Allen running through the house yelling that the pump was hot as fire and ran all night, probably blew up etc etc - *sigh, great* I just went outside to do my barn chores. Heaven forbid we ever have a LIFE THREATENING crisis - I'd hate to see how he'd react to that!

Of course, the horses needed water and the water cooler in the kitchen wasn't gonna cut it! I had to trek all the way back to the pasture and take water out of the pasture water troughs to fill 4 buckets for the horses. After I trekked it all the way back to the barn, Allen appears with a large bucket of water; he went to the front cistern and lowered the bucket in to get water. Did he NOT hear me say I'd handle it. Heaven forbid I add more stress to his morning!

So the day goes by, we come home from work, Allen starts the pump up since we now have a filled back cistern, and the pipes to the pump are LEAKING EVERYWHERE. Let the deju vu of the morning begin again. Like I said, Heaven Forbid we have a true life threatening crisis! So again, I go back outside to do my barn chores and take the dogs with me!

While I am cleaning stalls, I hear yelling etc.. that I will spare you from having to read! Allen did have to leave to drive 20 minutes to a Home Depot to get supplies; seems he had to redo piping :/

While he was gone, I was back to my dilemma of watering the horses - this time WITH water available, but no use of the hose since the pump was out of commission. So I reverted back to the good ol' watering hole. Laura Ingalls has nothing on me, let me tell ya! One problem, the lid to the back cistern is cement and must weigh AT LEAST 100# - no problem! I can do it!

Good thing I work with 1,000# +++ animals and a hound that feels like a freight train on the leash; I maneuvered that sucker right off the opening of the cistern and proceeded to lower water buckets into the vat to fill them with water. (Mind you, I am not fond of any large, dark enclosure filled with water and all the while it was raining with the threat of a full blown storm on the horizon). I was half hoping Allen would come home then to see me filling buckets out of the cistern! I could imagine his shock to wonder how I got the lid off myself! HA! Don't tempt me, I can do anything I put my mind to! ESPECIALLY when it comes to caring for my animals!

So, with relief, Allen fixed the pipes and all seemed to be running, flushing and working well by the end of the evening. All animals were watered, humans showered and just another day of Life on the Farm behind me!