s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Yesterday morning I went out to check the stock, and noticed that the concrete water tank was only 1/2 full. It is easy to tell how full it is, as it is so shot-full of cracks you just see how high the leaking extends! So I went up into the paddocks and found that the water troughs were nearly empty! Seems the water had stopped flowing a few days previously (probably right around Friday when I finally got the new plastic water tank plumbed into the house system). Now, we had a good idea where our water came from, so I decided to investigate. Up the back hill, about 300 m back from the house, is the spring/seep that we get our water from. We had previously discovered the plastic sediment tank (used to catch the sand and silt that comes along with the water so it does not come down into the water tank). I tried following the path of the water pipe back up to the actual spring, but without gloves or tools the gorse and tree-nettle quickly blocked my path. So I went back and got tools (a long walk). It took over an hour to trace the pipe, as it was under a thich layer of old grass and mud, and it followed such a crazed serpentine path there was no way to “skip ahead”, I had to reveal it all meter by meter. But in the end I found the pile of rocks, sheet metal, and platic sheeting that was the catch basin for the spring source. I cleaned it out, cleaned the pipe between it and the sediment tank, and got the water flowing again! Woo! Made me feel very farmer-ly to go out and restore the water system.

In other news we left the back door wide open last night. The lack of cats on the bed when we got up this morning was a big clue. They came in during breakfast, all with the smug expressions of cats that had just had a fun night out, breaking the rules. Out past curfew! Those little hooligans!