A few years ago we were re-building our cattle corral to make it bigger and change a few things. We needed to dig a bunch of new fence post holes to accomplish this. Jason was on the tractor and I was behind the tractor guiding the post hole digger. (on a side note Jason and I are terrible at digging fence post holes, it is a real challenge for us to get them straight and somewhat useable!) We're digging away and we here a pop and then Jason turns around on the tractor and says "do you smell gas?"
I said that I didn't but the wind was blowing away from me and towards Jason. He moves the tractor over and hops off, and as he was doing that the wind shifted and I got a very powerful gas aroma around me. Once he turned off the tractor that was when we heard the hissing noise. We had hit a live, pressurized gas line! We had called one call and been told that there were no lines in that pasture, and that even if there were it didn't matter because they were turned off. Ummmm, someone's information was slightly WRONG!
We came to all of these conclusions in the span of about a second and pretty much simultaneously. Jason, always a cool head in a crisis, just takes off running while screaming "gas line! we hit a gas line!" I move a few feet away wondering if there is anything that should be done before I start running, after all I don't have a lot of experience with hitting gas lines. Jason finally notices that I'm not with him and yells at me to start running.
I start running, and quickly catch up with Jason who was fading fast. He screams at me through labored breathing to keep going and call the gas company NOW. Of course neither of us had a cell phone. So I keep running and Jason is down to sort of trotting along breathing like a freight train. I make it to the barn and at that point I'm ready to pass out as well. For those of you who know the farm I ran from the back all the way up that huge hill to the barn at a sprint!
My dad happened to be working at the barn and asked what the heck was going on. I said we'd hit a gas line and I needed to call the company right away. He didn't believe me! So we get in his Gator and drive over to the scene of the crime and sure enough the line is still hissing and spewing out natural gas. We call the company and thankfully they happened to have someone out working just a few minutes away. He came quickly and put a cap on the line and the crisis was over.
I was telling my Mom the story later and told her the part about Jason just taking off and leaving me. I made the comment that chivalry was dead around here. Jason chimed in and said "yeah, Melissa looked pretty scared when I passed her!"
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A couple of weeks ago we had two days that were unseasonably cool with high's in the low 6o's and blustery winds. Jason had bought a new pair of Carhartt coveralls in prep for cooler weather so decided that would be a good time to wear them.
As you all know we are the proud parents of Mina and Jo, World's Cutest Fainting Goats. When Mina and Jo saw Jason walking towards them in the coveralls they went thunk and thunk. Two fainted fainting goats at the sight of Jason in coveralls. We were never able to convince them that Jason in coveralls was not scary and in fact was the same person they know and love every day. Jason was finally able to bribe them over with food but as soon as the food was gone the World's Cutest Fainting Goats were gone too. The next day when Jason was not wearing the coveralls all was back to normal with Jason, Mina and Jo. Apparently Jason looked a scary, one piece monster in them or something!
Jason bribing Mina and Jo over to him with food. They ate the food but then ran away again.
Jason hanging out with Chili. Jason looks happy. Maybe Chili is making a snarky comment about Jason's coveralls?
Chili and Jason
Slinky, O'Reilly, Lucky, Spike and Snappy grazing in the shade
Levendi and Leo napping; it is a hard life but some horse has to do it
Hoffy and Levendi
Cuff Links and Murphy
Lily, Maisie and Harmony hanging out in a shed. There really wasn't enough sunlight to get a decent picture but anytime I actually see a shed in use I take a picture. It makes me feel better about all the money we waste spend on the sheds.
Murphy, Dutch, Fuzzy, Wiz and Boo walking single file through the pasture
Asterik, Winston, Sebastian and Romeo
Dutch, Fuzzy and Murphy
Baby with Chance, Apollo and Hemi in the background
Asterik napping
Asterik napping
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6 comments:
Love the story about the gas line - you guys were sure lucky with that one!
The overalls are really cool, he suits them!......Always pleased to see the horses.
Love the goat story... "thunk, thunk." So cute.
Wow on the gas line. I work for a gas compression company, and I've seen pictures of the craters you might have made...
Also, I used to respond to the One Calls on a pipeline. I remember one year when the line walkers came in all riled up because an Amish guy had dug a pond on our right of way. The gas line ran right through it submerged by a few feet of water!
At home we've dug up nearly enough small parts to assemble a mid-30s Ford car. Or maybe it's a tractor. Not sure! And we have a very nice collection of pre-depression era beer bottles. The kind with the cork stoppers. Milk bottles. Hinges. Horse shoes.
Why is it when your horse loses a shoe in the pasture you never find it, but you can find shoes lost nearly a hundred years ago?
Yikes about the Amishman !
Fortunately, pipeline right of ways are usually very well marked. Still, I have no desire to find out what would happen if I punctured a 30 or more inch high pressure gas line, so I make it a habit to call when I'm planning on digging anywhere in the vicinity.
What I actually hit was an unmarked and apparantly unrecorded low pressure residential 1 inch line. The bigger question is what it doing way out in the middle of my cow pasture.
Woah, crazy story! I hope I never dig up anything quite that exciting.
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