It started out with this, yesterday, a giant trench to the back pastures. Where we had NO WATER and NO ELECTRICITY, but where our sheep spend the entire winter. This entailed us (mostly my husband, truth be told) hauling water all through the winter, 5 gallon bucket by 5 gallon bucket. One of the major difficulties of keeping livestock is the challenge of keeping them watered in the winter. It is a major PITA.
To keep the water unfrozen, we ran heavy duty electrical cords from the sole outlet on the back of the house aaallllllll the way back to the water heaters. The pastures are located about 400 feet from the house, which required several sets of electrical extensions, the connections wrapped with electrical tape to keep them dry and working. This presented obvious problems when one line would short out anyway, at the bottom of two feet of snow, and we had to figure out where the problem was.
Can you see the exciting major development at the bottom of the trench? A WATER LINE, being laid below the frost line.
The chickens appear to be unimpressed.
Today they came and backfilled it partway, put an electrical conduit in the same trench, then backfilled it the rest of the way.
This afternoon: HALLELUJAH and pass the fresh water.
It will be fresh UNFROZEN water once the electrician finishes his part, which will result in a few more outlets back by the standpipe. No more hoses run to the back in the summer. No more electrical cords run to the back in the winter. Most importantly of all, because we are getting older and creakier and our strong boys are moving out at an alarming rate, no more hauling water.
I had to beg and plead for this to be done while the construction crew was here trenching for the barn line, but all that grovelling was worth it. It's not even winter yet, but all the caps and exclamation points should give you an idea of just how excited and thankful I am that we finally did this, after talking about it for the last ten years.
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