Work Party Weekend

We informed The Offspring, that we were having a work party weekend and they were ‘invited’ (conscripted) to join us in the fun.

“Woo Hoo”, they said…or something like it.

We are under the gun to get ready for winter and with one winter under my belt, I’d had some… concerns.  Hauling water to our growing herd with frozen hoses was not a situation I wanted to repeat.  All we needed to do was, dig trenches, add piping, install stand pipes and turn the water on…no big deal.

The first stop was (early in the morning) to pick up the ‘Ditch Witch’, a Bob Cat supper digger.  My Loving Spouse popped out of the truck went into the shop, saw no one there, came out and set off the bugler alarm.

“They’ve been broken into”, he told me, “the lock is broken and no one is there”.  We ‘called it’ in to the alarm company to alert them that we were the ones that set off the alarm, but the lock seemed to be broken.  He was instructed to remain in the truck and wait for the police.  A pair of Ellensburg’s finest showed up fairly soon.  They were a cautious, careful duo, who were not immediately won over by My Loving Spouse’s British accent, so he opened his coat to show them he was unarmed, explained what had happened and offered to pick them up some doughnuts, to which they were not amused.  Turns out the lock just looked broken, they hadn’t been burgled, they’d just forgotten to lock up well the night before, so we were back to our working weekend in no time flat.

We off loaded the Ditch Witch and started to dig in…literally.  We knew we had to be careful.  We did not want to dig up and sever the electrical that ran all the power for the barn, the garage and the woodshed!  My Loving Spouse informed us approximately where he believed the power lines to be, and told us all multiple times, that we were going to need to be careful.  It was a great relief to The Offspring and I, that when the power lines did get sort of completely severed, it was while My Loving Spouse was driving the ‘Witch’….(Bad British word).

The Ditch Witch digs a deep, narrow trench just right for a water line that will not freeze (we hope).  The trench is narrow…really narrow.  Luckily for us, Our Friend the Farmer, used this digger a few weeks ago and added an exceedingly thin shovel to his arsenal of digging equipment.  Knowing what we were up to, he dropped off the new shovel for us to use, which we did, almost immediately.

We’d hoped to add two new stand pipes one at each end of the barn.  We’d really needed to make use of our time this Saturday, so we were on ‘it’ no matter the weather.  Luckily, for us, it only rained a little, was cold (not freezing) and the wind only blew in the afternoon (cold wind…very cold).  Yep, it wasn’t all that fun, to continually lie in the dirt looking for leaks.

Somewhere along the dig, we hit what had to be an old ‘dump’ from years gone by, as we unearthed bits of pottery, glass bottles and the top of an old iron stove, to say nothing of wood, wire, rocks and old rusty nails.

We actually did have enough help.  The Offspring reported for duty with good attitudes and giggles, a welcomed change from when they were ‘younger’ and showed up with sarcasm and sullenness.  Our Friend the Farmer stopped by in the afternoon to check on his shovel and was soon bonding with his buddy, My Loving Spouse over the fine tuning of hose clamps and leaks.  I think it was everyone’s good attitude that contributed to the surprisingly small amount of ‘Bad British’ words being uttered.

At the end of the day, we were muddy, tired and wondering where the Advil was, but we were also delighted to stand back and say, ‘we’d done it‘ as the new stand pipe got turned on and the trough filled up easily and quickly.  A long day’s work, but so totally worth it!

As for the severed power lines… well, tomorrow is another day.