The pipes are calling for Julian Ellis

This month has definitely had a water theme running through it. Shortly after I last wrote, we had some much appreciated heavy rain and have had sufficient showers since to keep the grass growing. Fortunately, the showers did hold off while we made some hay.

While digging a trench for a pipe to feed a new water trough we ripped through an old black pipe in two places, and convinced that the pipe was redundant we blanked the end and continued with the job in hand. At 7pm that evening we had a phone call from the neighbour, who didn’t have any water. It turns out the new pipe that he installed several years ago only served the new holiday lets and this black pipe was still supplying the house.

Conscious that we had a young farmers club coming at 7.30pm for a farm walk, we grabbed our large grate of assorted fittings and hoped for the best. Miraculously, our usually unyielding crate came up with four fittings which temporarily fixed the job up for the weekend.

As well as gradually replacing our drinking troughs with larger ones, we have now also been given the go ahead for a bore hole to replace our mains supply, which should pay for itself very quickly.

We have also been taking advantage of water on our time off, doing some surfing and canoeing. They tell me I didn’t look cool surfing with a life jacket and I certainly didn’t feel cool when I got my kayak grounded.