Sliding into an Amish existence
Feb 23, 2009 10:21 AM, By Jeff Ryan
One
of the other waterers — where we didn't have to do any work with wires or poles
— broke its icy grip after the start of the second thermos. The one with all
the activity was another story. We got to about the third or fourth water jug
and the water began to gush . . . out the base of the waterer, not in the
trough where it belonged.
No problem. Open the side door and see what's going on down there. Remember all
of those weather events all winter? Each one, and the ongoing row-crop-fertility-production
in the feedlot, meant the waterer kept shrinking in height. The access door on
the side of it was covered by a mountain of ice and, uh, stuff.
So I switched to Amish mode again and got an axe and a giant steel crowbar and
went cardio once again. We finally got the access door opened. The valve to
shut off the water was turned to the OFF position. This looked like a job for
professional plumbers. A call was placed. Once again, it was in the 4:00 hour.
Once again, I'd be at the top of the batting order the next day.
At 7:35 the next morning, while moving yet another million skid loader buckets
of winter weather production, my phone rang. It was the plumber. He already had
a job booked at 8:00, but he'd get to me right after that. I should look
for him in that 11:30-ish range.
Hey, trust me, I didn't look surprised.
At 11:32, the van arrived. The plumber got down in the cubby hole I'd dug out
to get to the waterer and took a look around. He tried connecting the loose
water hose to the threaded stud on the base of the trough like I had done
several times unsuccessfully the previous night. Each time he turned the water
valve on again, the gusher returned. I had secretly hoped it wouldn't be easy
for him.
He finally decided he needed to go back to the shop and get some more supplies.
He was going to install a 90-degree elbow to improve the access we had down
there and make it a whole lot easier to work on this in the future.
No complaints here, buddy.
Around 12:40, we finally got everything together and turned the water on. All
was right with my world once again. The plumber looked at me and asked how long
it had been off. When I told him it had been about 44 hours, he was amazed I
wasn't a bit more agitated.
Hey, in my world, it's just another day . . . and-three-quarters. Try it
sometime. You'll enjoy the ride.
Guy No. 2
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