...And Not A Drop To Drink

Water!

Water lines are such a pain in this part of the country! Well, in any part of the country that gets freezing temperatures. Add in the factor that almost all of the water lines on our properties are OLD and voila...you have major headaches.

When they ran the new and fabulous rural water lines to the river ranch(my brothers' and my place) they brought it to the yard and that was it. If my brother had not been wacked out of his gourd at that time, they would have ran the lines to the barn too. But, since no one could find him, they capped it off and that was it. My mom made sure it ended up getting connected to the house, but eight years later there is still no water line to the barn. All tanks are filled by running hoses from the house. A huge pain in the winter.

The house in town(where I live) is in better shape. Only because it it a much shorter distance to the barn. The water line that runs out to this barn has major leakage, so we had shut it off(a couple years ago). Last week we dug up that hydrant thinking that was were the leak was...oh yea...the hydrant was shot, but we have no idea where the other leaks are. Since the electric line was put in on top of the old water line, the general consensus was to simply run a new water line.

Mom's ranch has relatively new water lines. But, she has problems with her waterer for several years now. The electric line to it broke somewhere between the electric box and the waterer a while back. She kept it working by running extension cords to it last winter. Obviously, not an ideal situation. People who work on this stuff are few and far between in this country and they are usually booked months in advance. To make matters even slower, mom couldn't decide what type of new waterer she wanted to put in. See how the wheels just churn slower and slower until they stop?

Finally...FINALLY...It all came together yesterday. The new waterer was here! The guy who does this was here! Even the weather cooperated! It just doesn't get much better than that in SD.

It was time for out with the old...
Everything was going like clockwork...
The new trench was prepared...
This is the new waterer...
A fantastic design that comes from some Hutterites in Montana. No electricity is required. The three tanks hold water and suction between them keeps the water circulating so it does not freeze. The drinking cups are on the outside tubes. Should there be any freezing of water in the cups, you just remove them and dump the ice out. A pretty neat set-up. Mom's corral gets to be the guinea pig. If it works as well as they say it does, we will be installing several more of these at the river ranch and possibly even in town.

So, here we are, old waterer out, trench dug, gravel base prepared, we are ready to slide the new waterer in the hole....

We flipped the tubes over, so the bottom goes in first and what do you suppose we find?
You have got to be kidding me? They punched a hole in the bottom with a forklift!! There was nothing that could be done to repair it. At this point you literally want to slam your head into anything hard enough to knock you unconcious! This is just not right!

Oh, I know...after the fact it is easy to wonder why the hell a person didn't inspect it a little closer. But really, they are billed as indestructable. Two inches of hard poly plastic. It had to have happened after it left the manufacturer, but before the truck driver delivered it to me. Because the truck driver and I slide it from his truck onto the trailer by hand. I never thought in a million years to flip it over and check for damage. Since it was light enough for me and him to handle alone, I never dreamed that they would use a forklift to move it around. Absolutely crazy!!

And the best part? Now mom has 7 head of horses that we get the pleasure of bucketing water to for the next week until they can deliver another waterer. Oh joy!! Not to mention the fact that two of the three corrals she uses to seperate horses and feed are now unusable due to the prepared pit.

I hate dealing with water issues in SD!! What doesn't kill ya around here just makes ya stronger right??