Our 23rd Wedding Anniversary

But first a little farm news.  On Friday when we got home from the cabin, I decided to let the young turkeys out of their pen finally.  There had been no more poultry killings, and I was going to keep them out of the area that seemed to be the issue.  They were tentative at first.  But so far, so good.

Wally and Ryeleigh were guarding our front porch together.

I spent a lot of Saturday getting the garden ready.  Transplanting some melons and squashes as well as putting up cages and bamboo for the plants to climb on.  In the process I noticed that our walnut tree is finally (after many years) producing a lot of nuts.  Hopefully I get some from the squirrels this year.

Tom was able to go to his Vintage Motorcycle Club meeting and then for a ride.

But our anniversary today kind of sucked.  I was getting ready for work.  I had washed some dishes and was running load of laundry.  I was about to get in the shower and suddenly there was no water coming from the spigot.  So I got to wake Tom up, say happy anniversary and we have no water.  I ran to turn off the pump before it burnt out.  And we looked at our system.  It seemed like the pump was working fine, and that the issue is that our well went dry.  I was sort of hoping that the well would replenish itself with some time, but when I got home from work, nothing had changed.  We pulled a cap off of the well and looked down.  It was bone dry.  But also we could see gravel much closer than it should.  This was a 6 foot well (which has never failed us in 24 years) but the gravel seemed 3 feet down.  So we seem to have a serious problem.  We called a local well drilling company.  They said they would try to get someone out today, but we didn’t received a call back.  So we decided to take one of our 250 gallon water containers to get water.  First we had to clean it though.  So Tom put it on a trailer, and we took it to a car wash place in Mount Vernon and cleaned it up.  There was a lot of algae in it and an unexpected dead bird.  Good times!

I had contacted our local PUD and arranged for access to bulk water fill station use.  That actually went quite smoothly.  But then we had to purchase a two-inch hose with a female camlock fitting to get the water.  This was hard to find, but we found them at our local Tractor Supply.  We assembled it at the bulk filling station just down the road from us and filled our container.

We brought it home.  The other aspect of all of this is that we were planning on going to the Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival on Wednesday.  We have tickets and everything.  But without water we cannot leave the farm.  So we cannot go.  Which is a huge disappointment to us but also our friends that were going to go with us.  So we were really bumming.  Since it was our anniversary (and we needed to eat dinner), I proposed that we go out to dinner to the Chuckanut Manor.  I thought since it was a Monday that it wouldn’t be too busy.  But I was wrong.  They were packed.  So they put us out on the lawn while we waited for a table.

But then we got a table and lovely dinners.

The view was amazing.  It did lift our spirits.

When we drove back home, we noticed Wally guarding our water.  That was cute.

So this will be a memorable anniversary, but not in a good way.  Dinner helped, but we have a lot on our plates right now.  Wish us luck getting our water supply sorted out again.

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8 Responses to Our 23rd Wedding Anniversary

  1. Jeanne says:

    Oh, dear, Donna! I’m so sorry about your water problems! And also your not-so-happy anniversary. What a bummer! I hope and pray that your well problem will soon be fixed!

    Wally looked so cute sitting there, guarding your water!

    I hope the well drilling company will be there quickly, and be able to drill your well down to a good water supply.

    Hang in there my friend.

    • Donna says:

      Thanks Jeanne! It did mess up our anniversary but our well is back in order again. It turns out that it was the pump and the well still has some water. So good news, for a change. Wally is cute. She always makes me smile, how dog -like she is.

  2. Happy anniversary! Life on a farm is never boring! Hope your well is back in business soon. Wally is so well camouflaged I had to zoom in to find him.

  3. I live in dread of our well drying up. I can’t imagine one only 6′ deep! I think ours is between 200′ and 300′ deep. I sure hope you get it resolved quickly.

    • Donna says:

      I have worried about this too. We live in a wet area so the water table is close to the ground. It turns out the well wasn’t dry though. It was the pump’s impeller that broke. He measured the well at 14 feet with 4 feet of water in it. So we have a new pump and water again. Much better news than we were expecting!

  4. Denise says:

    Thank goodness it was just the pump! I’d heard that folks out on Colony Rd have had wells go dry, but was thinking how scary it would be if it was happening in your area too, given how high the water table usually is.

    • Donna says:

      Yes, we are grateful! That is sad about Colony Road. Where I used to live near there alone, my well would go dry all the time. I had a cistern I would use but had to get water delivered. I also fried a few pumps when the well went dry, and I didn’t realize it in time. I got really good at replacing pumps. So I know how precious our water table here is but have always worried about it with these increasingly hot and dry summers. And our well is so shallow. But I actually misunderstood Tom’s text message. The water level now is 4 feet from the top of the well so we still have lots of water.

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