Gurgle Gurgle Swish

Last night as I was dozing off to sleep, I heard that sound coming from our bathroom.  I nudged Brett awake and he heard it too.  When he checked the toilet, he discovered that we had no water.  None.  Zippo.  He got dressed, grabbed a flash light and headed outside.

While I waited for him to return, I remembered seeing a huge puddle in the clover arena when I drove up the driveway from work.  I hadn't thought much about it at the time; it is the low end of the pasture near the marshy area where the streams converge and flow out of the ranch.  I thought that the inch of rain we received over the weekend was gathering there.

Brett finished his investigation and climbed back up the stairs.  He said that the holding tank was dry.  He had seen the puddle marsh as well and we reached the same conclusion -- we had a pipe leaking between the well and the house.  Brett had turned off the water at the well and we tried to sleep.  The water table is low right now and he was worried that the holding tank wouldn't refill.  I worried about not having a toilet to use in the morning before work.

Brett called a plumber in the morning and Marv came over to help.  Fortunately, the holding tank was slowly refilling with water.

Brett and Marv were able to locate the pipe and a coupling was definitely cracked.  The plumber arrived in the afternoon and fixed the pipe.  Once the glue set, we were able to turn the water back on -- at 7:00 pm.

Meanwhile, the floor guys were busy working on the floors.  They finished sanding and applied the stain.  We are keeping the floors natural, with just a coating of oil, under the sealant.  The rustic red oak is beautiful and we wanted to be able to see all the color variation and grain.  We were not allowed to go into the house until after 8pm and we were instructed to go straight upstairs (the wood flooring is all downstairs), to wear socks and to not go anywhere else.

Brett had my mucking clothes waiting in the barn when I got home from work so I changed in the tack room.  I walked Winston around the dressage court, letting him nibble on the bits of green grass coming up after the rain, and just chilling.  He was happy to be hanging out with me and curious, but unconcerned, by the court.  We worked on reinforcing my position as alfa -- I chose which bits of grass, he couldn't crowd me, and he had to promptly back up when asked.

Yesterday, Brett filled all the letter cones with sand.  They weigh close to 100 lbs each so they won't be going anywhere.  He also filled some of the pylons.  And then he groomed the arena.  Of course.  It looks awesome.