Seems like every winter something breaks. Well this year it just so happened to be one of our newer water lines that we put in that runs the full length of our corral system.
When we moved here there was only one single water spigot out by our shop. So every year we would have hoses stretched as far as the eye can see for watering animals, gardens, pastures. Hundreds of feet worth of hoses, winter time was miserable! But then something happened! We installed over 500 feet of 1" pex underground water lines spread throughout our property to bring wonderful clear liquid to the vast dry land! What a game changer! There were a few kinks here and there but this one started with the pump constantly running and then water bubbling up towards the end of the line.
So today we rented the track-hoe and Derek started digging away. Had to move the cows into the big pasture for the time being as their pen got flooded out. In the winter we move all the animals to the corrals so we can feed them easier and only have to heat the two water troughs that are available to them all. When each tank heater equals 1500 watts the more you have the faster your electricity bill rises. So we try to keep it to 3000 watts worth of tank heaters for the animals. That doesn't include all of Dereks tank heaters for his degreasing and macerating tanks for taxidermy.
After pulling boards off the corrals to better access the pipe line we found that at one of the splices in the pex had busted in half! I don't know if anyone realizes how much water a 1" line puts out at full capacity but it's a lot! So glad we were able to get it fixed. Luckily the weather was descent and Sissy was there part of the time to supervise! Colton likes the machinery but hates walking in the snow. He has a real fear of slipping and falling so the poor thing was just in tears until he got back to the house, so I had to wait until their nap time to assist their Dad in finishing up our little project.
Once covered back up Derek headed down to the neighbors house to dig a new corner post hole for their fence since the pole had rotted off and fell over in the last wind storm. Figured since we had the piece of machinery for over the weekend we might as well put it to good use! So thankful that my husband is so handy! If he was not able to do all the little things I would be so in debt to all the repairmen in the area! Either that or it would take me 3 times longer to fix something after watching You-Tube How-To's.