Electric & Water Lines, Day 1

This was one busy day. It started about 6:00 am and hasn’t quit yet, since now I am sitting down to write this article. We accomplished a great deal today, and have ditches in the pasture, by the chicken house, through the branch in two places and into the yard to show for our efforts. Here is a glimpse of our work in pictures.

We started off with a real treat. As Frank left the house, right before the sun peaked over the horizon, he called me on the radio to let me know there was an eagle in the old dead tree in the pasture. He recommended I get the camera and head out, which I did. I waited for the sun to come up, but because I was on the west side of this tree, I still didn’t get the full effect of the light. Eagles are magnificent birds. We had the opportunity to see one up close and personal at a veterinarians place in Alaska one time. They were trying to return it to good health so they could release it. The size of the beak and talons are a sight to see, not to mention the wing span.

Frank and Henry went and picked up an excavator first thing this morning as the company opened so we could make the most of the daylight. Henry ran the excavator while Frank and I worked on the wire and conduit in the first ditch.

After a few hours, we had power to the barn, which is a goal we’ve had for seven years now. This is just in time for our next set of baby goats which should be arriving in about 17 days.

About this time, we discovered that our neighbor down the road had a hay fire. They lost a lot of hay, but had no other major damage.

After lunch, it was time to start working on the water lines. There will be two lines in the same ditch most of the way. One will be pressurized with the water from our rural water supplier. The other will be gravity flow from the rain catchment water tanks at the barn, down to the house.

Frank got most of the electric line covered up with the tractor while Henry kept digging and I went after more PVC glue. It turns out that we got two cans of cleaner instead of one cleaner and one glue.

 
As you can tell, there are lots of deep ditches and dirt everywhere. We ran out of daylight and energy, so it was time to quit for the day, do the chores, have some supper and work on the blog.

The places where the water lines will cross the branch are full of water. This will be an interesting challenge tomorrow when we lay the rest of the water lines.

It will still be a few days before we can install and connect the no-freeze faucets to the pressurized water line. We need to reopen the hole Emmet dug for us when we found the location of the water line. It had to be filled in temporarily because of freezing weather. Then we will need to get the water storage tanks plumbed and connected to their water line. Since both lines are in the same ditch, we’ll need to get everything connected before we cover them up.

We’re very tired and very pleased with the progress of the day. We’ll update you again in a few days. 

Until next time – Fern

Visit Thoughts From Frank and Fern at http://thoughtsfromfrankandfern.blogspot.com/