Hot Diggity! and Oh Snap!

Hot Diggity!

I had SO much fun this morning!

Last night, when it started to rain, i put a big stock pot and a 3 gallon bucket under the drip line to catch water to help with our current inside water shortage.  It rained lightly last night, but this morning started to come down heavier.  I was delighted this morning, when i looked outside and found this.

From catching rain and fixing well

From catching rain and fixing well

Awesome!

The water in the dirty red bucket could be used for only one thing, flushing the toilet. I immediately snatched it up and did just that. Woohoo! It's the little things that really make life a lot better.

Then i put the bucket back outside (this time with a little bleach to clean it out), and it started to rain a LOT heavier. And it was refilled in less than half an hour. So cool!

But i didn't really get to having fun until it stopped raining, and i discovered the creek.

Whenever it rains very much, an impromptu creek flows through our yard, funneling neighborhood run-off toward the real creek at the back of our property. I was so excited when i discovered this little drop off that created a little tiny water fall where i could very quickly collect water from the very rapid flow. I watered the chickens and the dog and collected extra water to flush the toilet - and i don't know what else i did, but i was having a great time!

I felt like a pioneer woman - carrying in creek water in a bucket to do my chores. What fun! I would've taken a bath in it if it weren't so cold. brrr!

I also brought in the (clean) stock pot full of rain water and heated it on the stove to use for washing dishes and other cleaning around the kitchen. So awesome.




Oh Snap!

Then this afternoon, i helped my darling and very excited hubby pull the newly un-stuck pipe out of the well casing.

This is my loving man at the beginning-ish of today's process.  That towel is for wiping the bleach off of the pipe.  An expert told us pouring bleach down there would help.  Apparently, he was right.

From catching rain and fixing well

And then, pretty quickly, there was a lot more progress.

From catching rain and fixing well

See the pipe? In these pictures, you should be watching the pipe.

And then a lot more progress.

From catching rain and fixing well

From catching rain and fixing well

And then this hammer contraption was getting stuck in the tree.

From catching rain and fixing well

And then after that, my arms weren't long enough to hold this part up while freeing that part from the ground, and then there was a lot of yelling, and then

Snap!

From catching rain and fixing well

We had successfully pulled up 78 feet of pipe when, SNAP! the end at the well broke right off, dropping the last 22 feet of piping down the 200 foot well casing into never never land.

After several attempts at salvaging the situation - and one not very hopeful phone conversation - all communication with my previously hopeful hubby was reduced to mumbling.

I was able to distinguish from some half words and nods that there is a trip to some large hardware store planned for tomorrow. I was not able to ascertain what good that will do. Exhausted and deeply disappointed, my darling fell asleep early to the comforting (to him) sounds of NFL playoffs.

I'm usually annoyingly optimistic, almost always seeing hopeful possibilities when others are buried in discouragement. So the whole snapping of the pipe didn't phase me earlier. But just now, when i read my own description of my husband's disappointment, i made myself cry.


Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. -Proverbs 13:12 (NASB)


For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink ; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing ? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life ? And why are you worried about clothing ? Observe how the lilies of the field grow ; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith !
Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things ; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow ; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:25-34 (NASB)