Didn’t post last night since I spent the afternoon and evening babysitting for Brandon and Megan. It was their anniversary, and they deserved a nice night out…
I won’t blog any about what I spent most of the day working on myself… just let it be said that 60 year old plumbing is gross and old and stinky.
Yesterday morning, though, I did help Vernon for a bit. While we have our huge water tank and pond working on the Slope Pasture, every little bit helps – plus, it helps spread the cows out if there is more than just one place to get a drink!
Our mission: hook up a water tank to the overflow of a little bitty seep pond. The spring is slow running, and therefore we label it a seep rather than a spring, though both are correct. The pond is full, the tank is set.
There’s the seep back on the hillside. The pond is fenced off to keep cows and wildlife from tromping in it. The black overflow pipe can be seen through the water.
The tank sets below. Here we have already installed the inlet to the tank and buried the pipe leading into the tank.
Vernon pulls the end of the pipe up and primes it by pouring water into it.
I’m down below at the tank, keeping the valve closed until it’s primed.
The old empty bleach bottle serves as a float, shutting off the valve when it gets to the end of the chain. That way we won’t have water overflowing the tank.
But we have water!
It will continue to fill… and offer another spot for cattle to get a drink! Yay!
(I would much rather do this kind of plumbing than what I spent doing in my basement today!)
Find me here!
You are also a plumber. You are so talented.
You guys are so clever and ingenious! It reminds me so much of my Dad, who grew up on a dry land farm in NM and who could literally fix or build anything–from building our house and practically everything in it, to fixing watches or diesel engines! (He passed away in 1984, but what he built is still standing and usable.) I admire what all you do, like I admired him.
Hooray for the empty bleach bottle. Were you a McGyver fan? Or in the Uk a kids programme called Blue Peter. Gosh what you could do with an empty anything was amazing. Glad there is another drinking place for the cattle especially in the hot temps.
I am always so impressed with the engineering ingenuity of farmers/ranchers. The things they can design and build are amazing!