Okay, found the source of the problem. The blackberry bushes by the tank and over the line from the spring got so heavy that they snapped it off at the tank. So now I have to go buy the connector that broke, and go back up the mountain with a ditch blade to take care of the bushes. And there's such a layer of silt and algae that I might as well flush the tank while I'm at it too. At least the problem is something I can repair on my own. I was worried it might be more than I could handle. Garrison has been my helper this morning, too.
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It's 1:30pm now, and I hopefully have the tank repaired. While cutting the briars away from the line, I inadvertently also cut the line. But I had extra connectors with me, and extra pipe clamps, and soon had that blunder repaired, too. Water was going in when I left, but it's not coming out at the other end yet. The other end is about 200' down the hill at the faucet behind the house. I hope that once enough head pressure builds up, if there's a slug of algae or sediment in the lines, it will blow that out. Not sure I can make another hike up there - that's a hard climb! Water is such a precious resource and living out here where my entire water storage depends on our own ability to conserve, repair, and harvest the water is a good lesson in preparedness. When I bought new fittings for the part that broke, I bought extra connectors, too. If not for that, I would have been in a real bind when I accidentally cut the line I was trying to repair.
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It's 2:40pm now and we have water! it's nasty dirty water full of bleach, but at least there is flow. We'll continue to flush this out and soon we'll be back online. I had shut off the valve to the house so that none of this nasty water makes it into those lines. But we had drained the tank last night with showers and washing clothes, so I probably need a new filter inside.
3 comments:
'glad to hear things appear to be in order.
Roxanne, a friend of my, for hunting purposes, has his truck equpped with ready backups for everything. He even has an extra battery and alternator already welded into his truck so he can just hook up cables.
He broke his steering wheel off ,once (rough roads), and drove in with 2 pair of vise-grips somehow clipped to the steering column. He just assumes most things will break, and since he hunts alone, is always prepared.
I don't know how difficult or realistic it would be to rig-up a back-up line to your water delivery tank, but since it is a rough climb in the summer, I imagine it would be awful in the worst of an icy winter.
'just something to think about. But, on this occasion, it seems you handled everything , on your own, with great initiative and know-how.
Thanks for posting and updating with photos. It is all very interesting. Good luck. ...bob
Hi Bob, a new line would be very costly and difficult. BUT, a second tank independently plumbed, would be a good thing to do. That way, the second tank would be on standby and if something like this happened, I could just swap the lines over to the spare (which would hopefully be full and waiting). Another spare I need to keep on hand is more of the pipe, in case I have to cut and connect pieces to make it meet the tank in the future.
In a winter icy situation, we'd just have to do without running water until the ice thaws. If we don't keep it running fairly hard, it will freeze up. We usually save up gallons of water before hard freezes, just like we used to do before hurricanes when I lived in Louisiana. I'm hoping to make it through the winter with no water lines, freezing, but I'd sure better stock up on parts before the weather sets in.
Thanks for reading and commenting :)
Roxanne, Hi; I didn't know you would be right there. Any plans toward a back-up -- even just having extra clamps, and short pieces of plastic pipe -- is a smart move . Let us know when the water is again, running, to your house. ...bob
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