Adventures in Plumbing

This is from my Live Journal posting dated 12-10-09:

Some things are very predictable in life. The sun will rise each day. The seasons turn. And the water in the hoses will freeze up here in December. Unless, of course, you're my husband. Then, hope springs eternal in your life that you can continue to use the self-filling waterer (whose supply hose is stretched across the yard) all through the year. As usual, that hope has been dashed. Yes, the water in the waterer as well as the supply hose are frozen solid. That's should not be surprising given our recent temperatures, but yet Steve still seemed to be not only shocked, but insulted that such a thing would happen to him.

This if from the same Live Journal dated the next day:

Remember the frozen water? Well, it turns out that galvanized metal is not a match for expanding ice. I had hoped that since there was an open path, we would have escaped the pipe-breaking portion of the program. But, today when it warmed up enough, Sarah discovered a nice little fountain spurting from the side of the stand-pipe on the frost-free spigot. The good news is that her logic circuits have developed to the point where she turned the spigot off before she came to get us. The other good news is that since it is a frost-free spigot, the valve at the base of the stand-pipe is intact and is sufficient as a shut-off until spring. The bad news is that Steve gets to replace the spigot this spring after ground thaws. While he's at it, he's going to put water directly to the chicken yard to we won't have to string hoses across the ground all year long. Aaaah, the wonders of farm life. And yes, this entry is to document this occurrence for future reference. I'll need it next winter.

The photo is of Steve standing in the almost-hip deep hole that he had to dig in order to get to the supply line so he could replace the frost-free water spigots that are a necessity in this part of the world. If you look carefully at where he is pointing, you'll see the split in the pipe. He replaced two of these and a shut-off on another spigot that day. Of course, it was raining. But we now need the water supply to the coop, so sacrifices had to be made. Wonder of wonders, everything worked the first time. Only one extra trip to the hardware store was required, 'cause the first store gave Steve the wrong size adapter. That is actually very impressive. Plumbing is not usually that successful around here.

Hopefully this will not be a recurring theme.