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Yes, yes, yes – we have water flowing in the house again. All of us are thrilled beyond belief. The problem was incredibly complex and took days to decipher. Ok, well, that might be half right. It did take days to decipher. We will tell the whole story with a few pictures thrown in for good measure, even though it is a little embarrassing for the hu-dad (you can just skim for the pictures if you want to – those are about us).
Water pressure began dropping several weeks ago. We checked the well (hot summers have been known to dry out wells), but everything was ok. Being busy humans, no plumber was called. Then, last Thursday night, the water was not running at all. Time to panic – er, start thinking things through.
The well is used by three houses- one belongs to the ski resort for seasonal help, one to a family from Florida that used it as a second home (uh, like 5 times) and then has been trying to sell it for two years, and us. One line goes straight from the well to the ski house and one comes down the hill, hits a t-intersection (this is an important detail) to split off to the second home, and then comes down the hill to our house under the road and then under our driveway. Once in our driveway, the pipe goes to the cut-off valve which is directly under the dog room (another important detail) and then into a utility room.
We determined on Friday that no water was coming into the utility room, so we would need to dig up the water line until we found the clog. But we needed to access the cut-off valve under the dog room, so the Herd could not be free. Close your eyes – this next picture is shocking.
The dogs of cell block H.
The digging began on Monday morning. No, The Herd was not enlisted to dig. Our fantastic neighbor (the one with his own well and the only other year round resident) brought his backhoe and began digging (this neighbor also has a big tractor which is our snow plow in the winter to the main road off the mountain – again, a fantastic neighbor). We did not exactly know where the pipe was, so it took a few holes to find it. Once found, the hu-dad began ditch digging so that no damage was caused to the water line.
The hu-dad does not get to operate the tractor. His equipment is leaning against the trailer. He is barely qualified to work that.
The elusive water line. Note the hu-dad's excavation around the pipe. This is specialized labor.
Ok, let’s speed this story up. Cut this water line. No water. Moved about halfway up the line. Repeat digging. Repeat cutting the water line. No water. Started to move further up the line to the T-intersection to the home that had been for sale for 2 years.. Remember we said this was important. The neighbor suddenly uttered a couple of HBO words. He remembered seeing a house inspector wandering around that house. The inspector would have wanted to confirm that water was running into the house. So he would have turned valves. Some day, this will be funny. Some day, this will be hilarious. But to discover that this inspector had turned the WRONG valve and LEFT it that way was, well, hmmmm, frustrating. Repair the two cuts in the water line. We now have water flowing, but still low water pressure. Call plumber who promises to arrive Tuesday morning.
Qannik inspects the hu-dad's pipe repair work
Rusty is far more interested in how the machinery works.
Think of the holes we could dig with this!
Don’t let Rusty fool you. They have dug holes that big in the dog yard. Anyway, Tuesday morning, plumber shows up and quickly traces the problem to a clogged pressure reducing valve which was replaced. And, we have water in the house again. The neighbor used his backhoe to fill in the holes and the work was done.
Wait - no work is done until the inspectors approve.
Uh, Qannik, we just filled the hole in. We do NOT need to dig it back up.
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Oh wow, what alot of work! So glad that water is flowing at a good pressure again!!!
So happy to hear that you have water again. 🙂
I can’t believe they needed diggers and didn’t ask the herd…who would have thought???
WE SOOO KNOW where you are coming from!!!! Our waterline runs 1.5 miles across 7 neighbor’s pastures to our place and over the twenty years we’ve been here, it has broken numerous times. The last time we didn’t have running water for 9 months! We, too, are blessed by a wonderful neighbor with a backhoe! In fact, it will be 1 year ago in Sept. that we finally got it fixed after that 9 mo. run!
It looks like Qannik wants to take another look at the repair of the water pipe before he gives his final seal of approval! 😀 Dig it back up, herd! (It serves those humans right for turning you into a bunch of inmates.)
All this is billable back to the inspector who didn’t turn the water back on, right?
Cool, clear water! Hooray! Question is did you mark EXACTLY where the pipe runs (no Herd NOT like that!) so that you can find it easily in the future…because you know once you uncover a pipe it can never be ignored again!
Hurray! Glad your water is back!
Good snoopervising job!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
HOoray! So glad you got your water back! The dogs look like they were enjoying doing the “inspections”! 😛
Looks like it was a big job. I don’t envy any of you – including the dogs, who had to stay cooped up while all of the excitement was going on!
Congrats on getting water again!
Don’t forget, we moved to http://dogisgodinreverse.com
Well at least you didn’t have to dig up the house first 🙂
Glad everything is OK now. Hey, Rusty! Did you get to drive that back-hoe?
Play bows,
Zim
I dont know if the inspector turning off the valve would ever be funny, Im annoyed by it! Glad you guys finally have running water! What a pain!
The Queen did not look pleased to be in jail!
Glad everything is working now! The Herd did a great job supervising! 🙂
Mochi
So glad you have water again. I can imagine how frustrating that was. The poor Herd reduced to a cell block!! lol I’m really surprised you needed a back hoe at all, with the Thundering Digging Herd. We’ve had several excavating prodedures done with our yard thanks to the 24 Paws!
oh yeah…. “check the valves before you dig…” isn’t there a rule about that somewhere? Being a husky owner, woo probably just ignored it — we know woo like to take after your dogs-
and congrats on the relatively easy fix. When our bipeds lived in the country, their “no water” turned into a new pump… quickly followed by a new well when that didn’t help. Star & Sherman (their sibes at the time) didn’t get to help dig either.
jack a-roo & miss moo
Oh no! I swear hours of repair troubleshooting always ends with an easy repair. At least, the longer the work, the more straight-forward the problem. Oh how a sense of humor can be sanity saving!
The dogs of Cell Block H – heehee that cracked me up!!! We had brush fires here a couple of weeks ago, and broke out cages. I don’t think they have recovered yet from the sight!!!
What a nightmare! It’s frustrating to spend so much time and energy discovering and correcting someone’s stupid mistake. Bet the Herd went crazy with all the strange goings on.
The Herd in jail!!!! Horrors – just think how much they could have helped you.
Glad all is “well” again, but what a nuisance.
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
I’m so glad to hear that you have water and there was no huge problem.
*That* photo was shocking beyond words… The Herd should call some dog rights organizations to show them the photo. They’ll be as shocked as I am 🙂
Glad that the inspectors liked the work!
Who complained the loudest about being in doggy jail?? We agree with Kira the TH would have dug your holes for free (well maybe they would have wanted a few treats) they probably would not have filled them back in but that would have only been because they wanted to share with you some of the fun they had digging!!!! Rusty trying to help out & get a job operating a back hoe!!!! What would we do without y’alls blog!!!
Licks & Nibbles,
Kody & Nia
Woooos! So woo have SIX huskies and still went out and hired a backhoe? I just do not get it, I could have dug that hole will my little paws….
~husky kisses~
-Kira The BeaWootiful
At least you now finally have water and didn’t have to go through the expense of a lot of repairs! *snicker* I can picture Rusty in his hard hat out there driving that backhoe now! Who knew that Sibes dreamed of big tractors?
We laughed at your Prisoner cell block H shot!!!
Thank dogness you were there to snoopervise the hu Dad in his repair work.
Thank dogness there is now water!
You don’t know how much you need it till it’s not there.
love
Martha and Bailey xxx
Wooo thats really funny, same thing happened to us, a neighbour turned the valve off, we didnt know the valve existed!!
Glad the Herd have their house back to normal now and are not too traumatised from the cage time 🙂
Khumbu
We checked the valve at the pump and the two cut-offs at the house. I did not even know that we shared the water line with that other house (knew we shared the well but assumed there were separate lines), so had no clue there was a T or a cut-off 100 feet from the well. Sigh.
So glad you are back to normal….so far. I enjoy your sense of humor and one day…maybe this will be funny!
Oh no!!! That totally sucks! But, at least it wasn’t anything major and the water is back on!
Maybe they should have asked for Qannik’s help prior to using the backhoe!
Holly
We’re so glad everything is fixed and working again.:)
Love,
Teddy Bear
So, when electrical things don’t work, the rule is “make sure it’s plugged in/power is on.” When water isn’t flowing, the new rule is “make sure valves are open”?? Glad all is fixed and The Herd survived their horrific imprisonment. (Which husky protested the most about the change in routine?). Happy H2O!
We finally get to paw…
All’s well that ends well…
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra