Drowning

Water. Can't live with it, can't live without it. My soaked saga of the past week.

1. Last Wednesday I stopped in the barn on my way out to work the Blue Jackets game. Casey needed some water, so I opened the spigot to fill a bucket while getting hay for the horses. One thing led to another, and I forgot about the running water. About an hour or two later Robin came home to find a mess. Perrin, god love her, bailed water for who knows how long to get things cleaned up.
2. By Friday, Robin noticed that water was percolating up from underground around the standpipe. Bummer. We have a leak. I don't know if it was precipitated by Wednesday's flood, or that I forgot to anchor the standpipe to some rebar when when I installed the spigot last summer. You'd think that being buried three feet would provide enough stability, but I know that every time I open/close the spigot, the whole standpipe wiggles, so I guess not (hence the rebar hint in the installation directions). This is going to be a major hassle to fix. In the mean time, we have to remember to shut the water off in house when not filling water buckets. And the gravel-filled pit below the standpipe to absorb the water that drains down when you shut off the spigot is probably full. Hope it doesn't freeze.
3. It's raining cats and dogs. The ground is a saturated mess, and the Direct TV guys, who came down the drive looking for an address drove through the grass while turning around. The barn is flooding (natural causes - and at least Casey has a dry stall now that he's moved into Pony's old digs). There's standing water everywhere. The french drain in the basement is gradually clogging with silt - I hope it holds up.

Just to make life more interesting, the horse trailer lights/brakes have quit working. I think I need some ice cream.