You just gotta face your troubles

Water pipes should never ever be plastic. Water pipes should always be metal of the strongest type, always made to withstand the temperatures of inner or outer space. The metal should be strong enough to endure the weight of eight semi-trucks fully loaded with elephants and cement blocks.

I would like to bring these facts up before congress. Well, maybe not this particular congress, but later!

One little cold night and a feller has a fist full of water leaks to contend with! I know it was more than cold but, for goodness sakes, three water leaks in one pipe is ridiculous.

I was pretty sure I could hear the pump kicking on and off during the night but I dismissed it. I didn't want to hear that and I sure hoped it was the ice maker working.

Some nights are filled with sounds that rouse me enough to hear them, but I am not conscious enough to think about them. I remembered the sound as soon as I pulled on my boots and immediately went to check it out.

Sure enough, there were three places I found leaks. The one in the barn was overhead and an unprotected pipe. I had wrapped it in some old insulation a couple of years ago and it was sorta pitiful so I wasn't too surprised. It was the other two that were a pain. One was pretty close to the well house, maybe seven foot toward the barn; and the other one was dead center of the drive to the machine shed. Driving over a pipe for several years does compact the soil to rock hardness and, since the ground was frozen, it was a dire occasion.

We didn't have but three head in the sick pen and they were not actually sick, just a little thin so we were giving them some extra feed. I moved them to another lot and put Snip out in the three acre trap for the day. It was a treat for him and he bucked around the fence line like a colt. I was glad to be able to cut the water off and wait for the offspring to arrive.

My coffee was hot and good, as were the hotcakes and sausage when I got in the house. My close relative was figuring on a piece of paper sack just how much the plumbing job was gonna set us back. We got a new garden catalog last week, the first of many that will soon spill forth from the mailbox. The costs of flowers and tomato plants are higher each year, and she is calculating her bounty and has not one desire to share her cookie jar egg and cream money with the plumber!

I figure on putting in a good pipe and may even bury the one to the tank instead of going overhead with it. I have been around the feed store when a feller or two were talking about the cost of T-posts and it sorta scares me to think of the expense.

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, you just gotta look trouble square in the eye and work your jaw muscles a tad. Put on the gloves and proceed to take care of what ails the life on the rock pile!

I moan a lot and yet I am so thankful I am in this place. I can't carry on too much. I dug up the line close to the well house and the offspring finally got the other one uncovered. We ate fried potatoes, ham and beans, and corn bread for dinner and finished off with coconut cream pie. I guess we will live!

Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.

Editorial on 02/05/2014