Water, Water Everywhere (?)

March 6 – Early Monday morning about five o’clock AM, I heard a strange sound and wondered what was going on! Not having heard anything but that first sound, I didn’t think it was necessary for me to get out of bed and check out the problem, if it were a problem. However, about breakfast time, as we had just sat down to eat, Dale asked, “Did you hear anything unusual a couple hours ago while we were still in bed?”

“Sure. At least I thought I did. I didn’t want to ask you about it because I knew you would think that I never even heard anything!”

[ Only a trickle ]

Now we knew that both of us had heard a strange sound. But what was it? We found out very quickly! When I turned on the water in the bathroom, ready to wash my face and hands, I noticed that just a small trickle of water came out of the faucet. That made me wonder about the other faucets in the kitchen and down in the basement, so I rushed down the stairs and off to the wash room. I got the same answer as earlier up in the kitchen. Just a tiny trickle.

Since Dale is the “fixer-upper” when anything doesn’t work, I hurried back upstairs and asked him to forget the food until he had fixed whatever might be broken. (Sometimes after I have asked him to take care of a zillion problems, mostly minor, he is not too keen on being the one who knows what to do—always.)

By the time we had inspected the faucets in the bathroom sink and tub, then in the kitchen, and downstairs once more, he felt that we couldn’t make any repairs, so phoned Janice, our neighbor who reported that she had no problem. After filling the bathtub, and the kitchen sink, right up to the top, he decided that we might as well turn off all the faucets, and use what we were saving.

After looking up the telephone number, he talked with Russell, of the Cass County Water District 5. Fortunately Russell was already in the area checking on another problem. He would be back to our address as soon as possible. While we were waiting for him, we went from the sinks to the bathroom and wash room in the basement.

[ Digging out the bank ]

Just outside the big front window, we could see a stream of water, bubbling and bubbling as it made its way down the bank and off to the road. Now a few things were being understood. Neighbors Bob and Rob were moving on down the road with the tractor all loaded with big hay bales ready to be taken to the cows for breakfast. We saw them as they stopped to check out the bubbling water as it continued to shine in the area that needed to be cleaned up.

Later that day Russell stopped to give us the good news that Tyler and Nick would soon be there to help, to make plans for just what they planned to do. Half an hour later, the trio team was pulling up along the side of the road, all ready to start work with the bobcat that was soon to leave the trailer. By this time, as I looked out the window, Tyler and Nick were measuring here and there right in the area where they had dug deep enough to give the water a chance to move out to the road. Russell tried to explain to me just what they would be doing and why, but I didn’t catch on.

[ Down in the hole! ]

I was just glad that I could tell them how much we appreciated the work they did! When they were down deep in the hole, with the water swirling around, I remarked to Nick and Tyler that they must be pretty cold as they worked in that icy place. “No, not really,” one of them said. “What about your hands?” I asked. “Oh, when they start to get wet at a job like this, I just take off my gloves till I leave the area!” I told him that I follow this idea, too. When I go outside on a really cold day to take care of burning the papers and carrying out the garbage to the big heap under the trees, I hardly ever wear my gloves.

Needless to say, it was an interesting day today, trying to get our usual work done while keeping track of the workers who were taking care of that problem out so near to the road. A big thank you to Russell, Tyler, and Nick and I hope you weren’t overly tired when you got home! – CHRIS