Ah, the County Life

The other day, for no real reason, I went to the window of my studio to inhale my view. It's really worth doing every once in a while. I told Ian that there appeared to be some standing water at the well. West Nile virus has appeared in our area, and we are warned to avoid any standing water - just be cautious. He checked, and the water was a clear indication of some greater underlying problem. Our neighbor Tom drove his backhoe down this morning.



He's locked and ready to finish what he started last night. He's so funny - he had been thinking of our problem and called to Ian in the front yard on Sunday evening to go inside and call up - he had a plan. When you have your own well, you are your local municipal water district. Who ya gonna call? Not Ghostbusters - Tom!




This is what Tom had started last night. The guy we hired to bring water from the well to the sheep shed had jury-rigged the connection and over time it failed, so we are paying again for what we paid him to do the first time. Tom told Ian that he's giving him a break - he's only charging for tractor time because he says the rest is friendship. He and his wife are the best neighbors we've ever had. My tomato jail comes from them. Recently, they put their retirement dreams on hold to become foster parents for their grandchildren, and they do it with pinache. That's the kinda neighbors we have.






My concern over standing water ended up in uncovering this defective join.







That defective join made our pump run round the clock and reshape our yard. We have a family reunion here in a couple of weeks, and all I can think is what great timing this was, and what it could have been.