Good News and Bad

Sorry there aren't any pictures this week as we are in survival mode. We learned that we can survive for a week with no running water, 3 horses, 2 dogs  and 40 chickens. It wasn't easy! We did borrow our son's shower in town a few times, but did survive on 3 cases of bottled water and about 5 gallons of melted ice per day for doing dishes  and manually flushing.

Our man with the well experience showed up and found the problem pretty quick. It was not the pump that failed, but the controller. he also was a real good teacher on the care and feeding of a well. The electrician didn't pick up that the controller had failed, but the well tech said that was pretty normal.

So the good news is, we have running water again with a cost of $640. We should be replacing the pump next summer as he figures the time in the well is about max. I pray that it lasts till then.

We also found that our well was not under the trailer, but about 300 feet away, and a lot easier to pull when the time comes. That is a LARGE blessing!

Now for the downside. For that last week, the daytime high has been below -23C (-7F) with the nightly lows at -30C (-21F) With wind chills, it approached -40C (-40F). The result was the water from egg washing, dish washing etc, did not make it to the septic field. There are 80 feet of 3 inch sewer line that is full of ice!

So we have water, but no place for it to go.

The options are to call in a steamer truck at $150 per hour, minimum  4 hours, or cut the pipe and  replace it for about $120. I am choosing the latter and my goal today is to get at least one bathroom functional. The kitchen end is planned for tomorrow. It is a much longer run.

Currently, I am inside warming up.

Bring on SPRING!