Speaking of Spouts

Speaking of Spouts was Originally Posted on March 4, 2011 by lavarock

Yesterday, my friend fell and was taken to the emergency room. The x-rays showed a broken hip, so she was flown to Honolulu where they will replace her hip.

I came up to her farm to help tend to the dogs where there are many large dogs and 7 new puppies. Another dog (my dogs Mother by the way) is due to deliver a litter in the next day or so. We haved multiple whelping boxes set up.

I am a member of a raw food for pets co-op called KonaRaw.Org and helped cut and distribute about 450 pounds of raw meat this afternoon. Members order on Wednesday and the meat truck delivers on Thursday afternoon. In an hour or so we separate the various meats and make up peoples orders. I have to admit that up until a year or two ago, I was very squeemish about blood and so on. It appears that after cutting up spleen and trachea and seeing cow noses up close, I can now stand it quite well

In the middle of the meat project, I had to move, test, clean and make ready a garden tractor/mower that was to be picked up today. Then I helped load the thing in the back of the guys truck.

I ran into Keauhou to grab dinner and returned with a submarine sandwich. Upon arrival back at the farm the electronic gate was stuck and I had to reset it.

When I sat down to eat my dinner I found the water was not working. I followed the wate rline down the property and found no leak. I then drove to the meter and did not see any activity. Thinking I had the wrong meter (there are about 6 in that area), I drove back to he farm and pulled my friends water bill with the meter number on it. Again I drove down to the meters and found that her meter was not turning. HUH? No other neighbors were down there checking their water meters, so I assumed that there was not a problem at the nearby pumping station.

As I was about to turn off her water valve and worry about it in the morning, I noticed that someone had closed one of her other valves. This one is on the backflow prevention unit. That is required to keep water on the farm from reentering the water system. I turne dit on and watched the meter. The water flowed and the meter ran. After a few minutes the pressure built up and the water meter stopped turning. That means there is no leak and I left the valve on. One of two things may have happened. Since the water meter and the anti-backflow don’t line up, perhaps someone turned this one off thinking it was theirs. The other obvious possibility is that the water company was testing the anti-backflow and forgot to turn it back on when they are done. they are supposed to test each unit once a year.

So I had a fairly busy day so far and I only now have to hope that the other dog holds off on having her litter until I can get some help. I *might* be sitting on the bathroom floor, paw-holding a soon-to-be mother.

I almost think having a hip replaced might have been less work!

By the way, while not obvious, this blogs title refers to the possibility of a water spout from the broken water line. That did not materialize just as thr water spout over the ocean did not on Tuesday.