It's Been Intersting To Say The Least!

     We have had a year here where the water has been a constant problem and source of stress... at least for me.  It started about a year ago when we decided to clean out the liner in the spring house and in doing so, made a small leak.  Now the leak itself was bad enough because of all the mess it made...mud and standing water around the building but when you couple that with the frozen and busted pipes and the pump itself that we experienced with this past winter, it became even more of an issue. We've lived here for 21 years and while we have had frozen pipes before, this was the first time it was bad enough to actually break things. I mean really!....how in the world can it get so bad that the iron pump actually breaks into several pieces? We spent almost 2 and a half MONTHS carrying water from the spring to the house in 5 gallon buckets but even in that I felt blessed since a lot of folks went that long or longer with NO water at all.  (We can at least haul our water even though it gets rather old)  After more attempts than I care to remember to get the plumber out here to fix it and ACTUALLY fix it, we were well into spring.  Even though we had running water again, the system was not (and still isn't) working right but at least it was working well enough to take a bath and flush toilets and do laundry.  THEN the next problem hit! We have gone pretty much from mid June to the past few weeks with NO rain at all....not a freaking drop.  Again, after living here 21 years we have now seen the spring as low as it can possibly be without actually going completely dry.  To say that I have not handled it well is a gross understatement. (Just ask Susie!)  All the while what little water we were getting was still slowly leaking out.  I do have to stop and say that regardless of my stress and lack of faith, GOD has never allowed us to be without water...but I do have to say that He's cutting it a little closer than I care to live.  Besides the leaking liner, we also had a roof that had caved in due to being over 30 years old so the past 2 weeks we have undertaken what may seem like a small project to normal people but to a career printer was like building the ark.  During this time we have removed the old roof completely, re-wired a new light fixture inside for a heat lamp, replaced the liner, and re-insulated it.  Above shows the results of all our efforts. (I know...don't laugh but we are fairly pleased with the results)  I still need to finish cleaning up the area around it and replace the siding on the right side but at least it's holding water now and the ground is beginning to dry out and the rain isn't going straight through the roof.....and I hope and PRAY that I will never again have to do this project.  Our next step is to build a completely new spring house in a different area with a plastic holding tank and a flush valve on the bottom and a new water line to bring more water here than is currently flowing.

 

 

And here is a picture of the overflow just to show that we do in fact have water!  Many years ago when Jeremiah was still here, he hand dug and buried this overflow pipe to drain into the creek rather than into the yard like it had been since the original owners had built the place. The pipe is about 130 feet long which may not sound like much but if you've ever tried digging 130 feet in length in the Tennessee ground you'll know this is more than a major accomplishment! This is something I doubt I could have done on my own but he just went out one day and the next thing we knew, he had a buried overflow pipe...and to Jeremiah we are thankful!