Follow the shenanigans of a woman's attempt at going green while trying to raise a little one on a small ranch in Arizona with chickens and horses.
Bah, it’s just a leaky pipe, sure we can fix it…. uh oh…
The joys of home ownership. 
We had a cracked faucet that broke due to our weird freezes this year. We have been trying to find time to tackle it together and due to some insomnia today, we had that chance.
We turned the water off at the road (well, mostly, it’s still got a little pressure which is causing issues) and went to tackle the pipe. The idea was to move the pipe slightly away from the cement wall it was attached to so we could get the pipe wrench around it and unscrew the nozzle that cracked. As soon as Ray moved the pipe from the wall, the pipe fitting broke…. UNDER GROUND…
There’s too much PVC glue so we can’t get the fittings unscrewed. Ray’s on hopefully his last trip to Home Depot, we had to cut off the pipe below the elbow and we’re going to have to get a new elbow joint, put that on the pipe, and then cap the elbow. Hopefully we can get it sealed, the issue is that there’s still water pressure and stopping it completely requires other tools. Worse comes to worse, I know what we need but hoping we can avoid that.
So as you can see, it’s a little muddy. On the positive side, due to the leak being so bad, it was very easy for Ray to dig down to it. Usually you can’t dig into the ground unless you’ve got a breaker bar and some major tools due to the Arizona hard ground…
We have no water right now. Thank god we irrigated and it rained because we’ve been using the puddles and water from the horse trough to get the mud off of Ray. (Bless his heart, I haven’t gotten any mud on me because he’s doing all the hard work.)
Holy Overflow Batman!
It’s irrigation time! We don’t irrigate often in the winter here but come mid-February, it’s already spring time for us here in Arizona and it’s time to heavily water the fields. Sometimes we get “meh” for water, most times we get just enough, and every once in awhile, THIS HAPPENS.. OH NO!!!!!!
The field to the right was the only one that was supposed to get water. Not only did our two farther fields (not shown) get some, but the ditch did too, from the corner…..
down to the street, both sides…
I’m so disappointed. Not only did we miss an opportunity of a strong pump flow that could have watered all 3 of our fields, but we lost a ton of water to the ditch. 
Our irrigation was scheduled at 6am this morning, so Ray had to get up to make sure the gates were open and then go back to bed. We’ve never ever had water flow this hard and fast, so it’s usually a waste to just sit there and watch it. There’s not much that could have been done to prevent it, usually our 3 hours of irrigation is just enough for the field. I don’t even know how we ended up with so much water.
I came home at 9:15, right on time for the water gates to be closed in case any neighbors forgot and the gates were already closed off for us. I think our neighbor got water too that he wasn’t anticipating because he had some standing water in his yard but not enough to indicate he’d asked for it.
The far fields did get some at least, not the lake we usually have per field but at least a little to help green it up.
Water + Dirt + Poop= Messy Horses
It’s been one crazy morning here. We got a massive rain-storm yesterday (which we rarely get, being Arizona and all.) I was sleeping when it happened and my husband had crawled into bed to take a nap. When we woke up, it was pouring. Lake Sanders is back in our front yard of course, our driveway floods every time it pours, making it difficult to get out to the pole barn.
It was too late for us to move the horses into the stalls last night so they had all of last night to play in the mud. The horses are a mess and the field is a disaster. They trampled mud up and down the field, they rolled in it, and judging by how far out the muck goes, it looks like they had a “horsin’ around” party last night…
I finally got them roped up and moved to the stalls, slipping and sliding in the muck myself, my slip-on tennies are ruined. I really should have put on my rubber boots but I just wanted to get them moved.
The chicks must have panicked in the storm last night and tipped over their water bin. 3 quarts of saturated water/wood bedding, oh my gosh that stuff STINKS when it’s wet!!! They were so thirsty, they pretty much jumped all over my hand and the water bucket trying to get their drinks in. Poor chickies! So I got them taken care of, and since I was on a roll, I tackled cleaning the bunny cage as well.
Quite a productive morning, now it’s time to go to bed! Third Shift life can be so strange.
chickies made it through last night
Well, The chicks did well last night on their own. All accounted for this morning which is good considering our farm cat has taken an interest in them. EEP! We are pretty sure he can’t get into the bunker though.
Chicken coop made significant progress today, tomorrow it should have the roof on it (thanks to my husband!) After that, we need to do the swing gate for the front of the coop, paint it, and fencing.
Pics are on facebook
More Water Please….
As my chickies are getting bigger, they go through more feed and more water daily. They’re now going through almost twice the original amount. They drain their water and food bins and then promptly tip them over. HA!
The sizes I have now are 1 quart… I should have gotten the 3 quart ones. I ran over to the store today to get bigger feeders. It was inevitable, as will be really big huge feeders when we move them outdoors.
The chicken coop is up on all 4′s, 3 walls are erected. We’re making a modification to the current plan to allow the side of it to completely hinge open. It will make cleaning it a lot easier. Apply face mask, Insert rake, PULL….. Voila!
We got the wood for the roof trusses last night, just gotta cut ‘em and mount ‘em. Then a little plywood, some ondura roofing left over from when Ray built his observatory, and then we’re on to the fencing.
Fencing: We’ve decided to go with wood posts and chicken wire. This will let us build a nice big enclosure that is sturdy and build a gate into it. It will also make enclosing the top of it a heck of a lot easier, which is a pinal county requirement anyway.
