03/09/07 Water, water no where II

Water, Water No Where II Yesterday, I told you about losing the water to our house and the ranch livestock. I'm Jeff Keane; today I'll finish my whining about the misadventure. Anyone who has ever turned on a faucet expecting a flow of water and getting a drip or nothing knows the ugliness of being without water. Being our own water department we have usually found a problem in our system, either a pump that has failed, a forgotten water line that has frozen or even where a leak might be. At this time of year with the snow melting no ground-wet spot would indicate a problem, so we relied on my brother's water witching talents to find where water was in the line and where it wasn't. We found water and no water but no leak so the pump was rechecked, foot valves were tested and drain valves were dug up. We called the irrigation specialist who helped put in the system plus a neighbor who also can witch water but that three quarters of a mile of water line still kept lying to us about where it had failed. Finally, after about a week of frustration and nearly losing our sunny dispositions, we heard of a professional leak detector about 150 miles away. I called, got on the problem list and about five days later one of the company's technicians worked his magic and pin pointed the leak in about three hours. Since my brother had a knee replacement two days before, a friend that is an excellent back hoe operator dug out the ditch to the leak and I repaired the nightmare. The smile on my face now when I turn on the faucet is for the water, friends and neighbors who all helped. I'm Jeff Keane.