So, you'll remember that not very long ago we had a little water shortage. Wellllll....
Less than a week later, my gut told me to check our water levels again. I was just too nervous that something wasn't quite right. I toddled up to the tanks in our back yard and tap tap tap. Nothing. A lower tap tap tap. Still nothing. I was thinking, This can't be true! How! How can we be so low again? So soon!
I alerted the husband and we began the search for water. We looked all around the tanks: the ground was dry. We checked the holding tank: all normal. We checked the pump: no excessive pump action, indicating that all was normal within the house. The Zimbo began digging holes to find the water pipe from the tanks to the house. Then we began checking the neighbouring property, which lies downhill of our tanks. There we found quite a bit of water lying above the ground, as well as trickling out of the wall of a freshly dug trench. We stood in the trench by torch-light, pondering the path of the water we could hear. O, how the sound of dripping water is an unpleasant one!
After 12 more hours of pondering, discussions with any passerby, and several theories of how the water was escaping, I finally had my light bulb moment... 2 weeks earlier I had taken to the fence with tent pegs and a rubber mallet and pegged away merrily, pegging down the fence to prevent Banjo the Wonder Stuffy from shoving himself under it and escaping from the back yard. Pegging gives me great satisfaction! I feel strong and useful as I bash away with my mallet! Little did I know that I was successfully hammering a hole into our water pipe and with that, releasing 30,000 litres of precious water into the earth. What a shame.
At least I no longer feel that we cheated by running out of water through daily use. It was a valuable lesson in knowing your property. We now know (roughly) where our pipes run, not far below the surface, as well as how to access emergency water if we need it.
Less than a week later, my gut told me to check our water levels again. I was just too nervous that something wasn't quite right. I toddled up to the tanks in our back yard and tap tap tap. Nothing. A lower tap tap tap. Still nothing. I was thinking, This can't be true! How! How can we be so low again? So soon!
I alerted the husband and we began the search for water. We looked all around the tanks: the ground was dry. We checked the holding tank: all normal. We checked the pump: no excessive pump action, indicating that all was normal within the house. The Zimbo began digging holes to find the water pipe from the tanks to the house. Then we began checking the neighbouring property, which lies downhill of our tanks. There we found quite a bit of water lying above the ground, as well as trickling out of the wall of a freshly dug trench. We stood in the trench by torch-light, pondering the path of the water we could hear. O, how the sound of dripping water is an unpleasant one!
After 12 more hours of pondering, discussions with any passerby, and several theories of how the water was escaping, I finally had my light bulb moment... 2 weeks earlier I had taken to the fence with tent pegs and a rubber mallet and pegged away merrily, pegging down the fence to prevent Banjo the Wonder Stuffy from shoving himself under it and escaping from the back yard. Pegging gives me great satisfaction! I feel strong and useful as I bash away with my mallet! Little did I know that I was successfully hammering a hole into our water pipe and with that, releasing 30,000 litres of precious water into the earth. What a shame.
At least I no longer feel that we cheated by running out of water through daily use. It was a valuable lesson in knowing your property. We now know (roughly) where our pipes run, not far below the surface, as well as how to access emergency water if we need it.
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