Plumbing 101

What does plumbing have to do with a horse retirement farm? A lot when you realize one of your water lines has a leak!! To say we were both dreading tackling this job would be an understatement. I don't know what we did to anger the fix-it gods of the universe, but it seems that whenever Jason and I tackle projects like this it always takes five times longer than it should and costs three times as much money.

Such a little leak, but such a big problem!

With much trepidation we loaded up the trusty Kubota utility vehicle with our tools and drove out to where the leak was. We were pretty sure the leak was coming from a coupler where we joined two pipes when we ran the lines. At least we were pretty sure there was a coupler in the area where the very wet soil was. All we could do was start digging. Jason started digging first while I watched (and took pictures) and within a few minutes we had found the pipe AND the coupler. I started looking up at the sky to see where the lightening bolt was going to come from. Then I started digging to enlarge the trench and give us more room to work.

Digging the trench

Bear was extremely helpful (NOT!) as he lazed around in the shade and watched us. He did come over to inspect our work though and make sure we had done enough work with the shovel. Bear had obviously called his union rep who informed him he did NOT work on the weekends!

He did find the energy to come over and inspect our work

Then it was off to Home Depot to get the supplies we would need for the repair. I also picked up a present for myself which I will blog about in my next entry.

A little over an hour later we were back at the farm. Jason pulled off the old coupler, and then prepared the new one. Placing the coupler on the first side of the pipe was easy because we could just use a hammer to pound it on. The second side is trickier since you can't use a hammer, or anything but your own sweat and muscles. Thank goodness Jason was around to do that job!

Removing the old coupler - the easy part

Jason contemplating (or maybe dreading?) how to get both ends of the pipe in the new coupler


Tackling the job since we've run out of reasons to procrastinate

We waited 15 minutes for the pipe compound to set up and then I switched the water back on. Voila - leak repaired! We shoveled all the dirt back into the trench and were done for the day. We were very dirty, sweaty and tired but we had accomplished our mission.

Way to go Jason! Mission accomplished and filling the trench back in.

I hope the horses appreciate all that we do for them. I doubt it!