Water

It's been very stressful around here the last few weeks what with Doug's heart, I've got another horrible cough, etc, but last week tipped me over the edge. I had to start taking my Ativan, half a pill a day, to manage my Panic attacks because, well, here's what happened. 

Our water pipe goes under the road we live on to connect to our well. Last Wednesday the pipe broke under the road. It made a small fountain in the middle of the road and was draining into the ditch. The highway department is not happy. We had to shut our water off. This is a major disaster for us. 

The highway department said we are responsible for fixing it. The break is actually their fault, but when we got our permit in 1992 to put the pipe under there, the contract says we are responsible for any and all repairs to that spot in the road. At the time, the road was just a little dirt one. Hardly anyone drove by, and if it was spring you didn't go past our house because the road turned into a huge mud bog when the frost was coming out. No big deal, right? Now it's wide, paved, and lots of traffic. Husband calls it the Mexican freeway.

Down the road from us, it's not as nice as it is from our property line to the east. From our property line to the west and ending at Hwy 41 the road is narrower and has poor quality paving. We call it pot hole alley.

At the beginning of this month the highway dept started working on that section to widen it and make it match the rest of the road. They've been digging down and large dump trucks have been going by constantly has they haul the top soil away, and the old paving. Our road wasn't designed for dump trucks as big as they're using. That's part of why the pipe broke.

To make things worse, we can't fix it ourselves, even though we have the capability to do so. We have to hire a contractor. Most contractors are booked up until the end of the summer. I was beginning to panic when the highway dept suggested someone and, thankfully, they were able to work on it yesterday. They also are going to repair it for less than $5000. We can afford that.

The repair consists of digging down to the 4 inch pipe on both sides of the road,

This is my husband looking in the new hole, watching the guys cutting the pipe and getting
 ready to slide the 2 inch pipe through to the other side.

cut the pipe at both spots, run a 2 inch pipe through our 4 inch pipe going under the road, connect the two pipes with adapters, bury it all. It's done. They got the digging done and the 2 inch pipe running inside the 4 inch pipe. 

The other side of the cut pipe. The cord you see has been threaded through.
 They tied it to the 2 inch pipe and pulled it through the 4 inch pipe.

Unfortunately, they brought the wrong adapter connecters. They had adapters for sewer pipe. Not water pipe. Those would work, sorta, but we want this repaired right. I want an archeologist 2000 years from now digging it up and being amazed at how well preserved it is.  It will be Monday or Tuesday before they can get them, so we're living without running water for awhile

My biggest worry was the bathroom situation. We can't flush the toilets, and I have IBS-D. I solved it. I rented one of those Porta Potty's. It isn't very expensive at all. I was surprised! It's sitting out by the front steps. We can manage just fine with that.

Another fortunate thing is I'd just finished the laundry for the week literally hours before it broke, so we're okay for now on that.

I am also concerned with all those marigolds I planted on the deck. They need water every other day when it's dry. Our weather has been very dry lately. However, it cooled off and we actually got some rain yesterday afternoon. A good soaking so they are well watered.

We've been pretending we're camping. We filled some water jugs. I went to my brother-in-laws house to shower when needed. Today I'm going to my nieces house for that, and filling up our water jugs cuz they're empty now. We can make it a few more days. This better not happen again ever! It's no fun at all.

Live long and prosper. \\//