Friday night I came home to a problem – no running water in the house. This is bad. Water is something we’ve gotten rather used to. I guess, technically, we still have water. It’s falling from the sky so we’re not quite as bad off as some and I guess I can always wash my face in the bird bath – I don’t think the birds would mind too much – as long as I fill the feeder while I’m out there.
But thank goodness I didn’t have to upset the birds. Hubby discovered what the problem was – a leak in the pressure tank that had sprayed water all over the electrical stuff down in the well pit. Since water and electricity are not very friendly to each other the breakers had tripped (like they are supposed to) and shut everything down.
So early Saturday morning we made some calls and found a new pressure tank at the hardware store 16 miles away and I made a quick trip to town and brought home a shiny new red pressure tank. Just like our last ‘date night’ (remember the ball joint on the Ford pickup) Hubby and I got to spend some quality time together fixing the plumbing.
Pretty darn romantic isn’t it?
Here’s my man in the pit – yes, it’s a hole in the ground and in the summer you might find salamanders down there sometimes but luckily no snakes so far.
After a quick switch-er-oo life is good once again and we have water.
And the girls are just as pleased as we are – look at them.
They came running as soon as we pulled up to the well pit – which just happens to be beside one of the stock tanks – where the girls hang around and visit.
“Gertie – don’t be such an old ‘water buffalo’. It’s my turn!”
Cattle are actually very curious creatures. They were bunched up pretty close – checking out the pickups, the well pit, and especially the stock tank because the water was getting low there too. You see, when we don’t have water in the house – they don’t have water in the tank.
They don’t like it either.
“I need a drink – a tall, cold one.”
Everybody on the place starts to get a little antsy when that happens.
“Move aside Missy – I’m next.”
But even more amazing than running water – check out what I saw in the tank as I was checking for running water.
That’s a Koi (goldfish) in the stock tank. If I remember right – 3 summers ago I had a small tank set up in the garden because I love goldfish and every garden should have some – right? Well things went good all summer but when it started to turn cold in the fall I had to drain the tank or it would freeze solid and split out. I have owned several aquariums over the years but that fall the only ones we had both had small leaks so I filled them with plants instead.
So what where we going to do with the Koi fish? That was the question. Hubby came up with a great idea, he suggested we throw them into one of the stock tanks. These tanks are not heated in the winter but they are built from huge old tires off of heavy equipment and if you build them right – the water rarely freezes. First, you lay down the big tire, cut a hole (for the cattle and horses and wildlife to drink from) on the top edge of one side, fill the center hole on the bottom of the tire with bentonite (a mineral that is heavy and gets really slimy when wet and will pretty much seal off the water from escaping into the ground. Then you set up a float system so the water shuts off automatically when the tank is full (like in the back of a toilet), cover the center hole on the top of the tire with lumber and bury as much of the tank with dirt as you can while leaving the spot open for the cattle to drink. Pretty simple.
I wasn’t sure if the fish would survive but at least they would have a chance so we set them free in their new stock tank and pretty much forgot about them. The next spring I asked Hubby if he had ever seen the fish through the winter and he just shook his head and we figured they were gone. If the cold hadn’t got them probably a snake or something else had. So we pretty much wrote them off – at least until Saturday morning when this little guy swam right out and said hello. He’s gotten a lot bigger then when we put him in and he’s kind of pretty thing. I think we’ll name him Spot. I’m not sure if the second one is still in there but we just might have to figure out a way to catch them. Maybe it’s time for another tank in the garden.
I still love goldfish!!!
RanchDaze 