This is so ironic...

Today, after hauling my drinking water from the Lair to the Property for over a year and on the virtual eve of moving into the Lair, I had to haul water to the Lair.

I was sick over it.

Friday the Lair's faucets went dry, because the cistern was dry. That surprised me, because 2600 gallons should go further than that. Saturday M discovered the cause, a broken pipe at the apple trees which are at the lowest point of any part of the water system. Most of Saturday and all of yesterday the pump wouldn't run because of heavy clouds, but today I had hopes. Now there's over three feet of water in the cistern and I still don't have any running water.

Two possibilities: Icing at the cistern outlet (happened twice last winter) or a sediment plug at the shut-off valve to the Lair. I had about ruled out the first because while we've had some freezing nights (hence the broken pipe) the days have been quite mild, and besides the line to M's Dome and the hose outlet at the cistern work just fine. So I'd about resigned myself to digging out, removing and cleaning that valve. But then this afternoon just before leaving the dome the drip rate increased from nothing this morning to pretty fast, and that sounds like icing. If that's the case, a few more hours might have cleared it but I ran out of time. Tomorrow's supposed to be nicer than today, which was gorgeous with not a cloud in the sky. If it's not running by noon I'll probably start digging up pipes. Sediment's still a strong possibility since the last water out of the cistern would have swept all before it, and there's a lot of sediment in there. But that doesn't explain the increased drip rate.

Either, way, crap.