Saturday, May 7, 2011

Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Somehow, in spite of record cold snaps this past winter, the Lair never broke a pipe. It wasn't because of great planning on my part, and I spent the whole winter waiting for it to happen. It would have been a disaster since I got all my water from the Lair site all winter long.

I also spent the winter thinking about what I should do about it. This morning I finally did it.

Dug out the supply line and cut it off. This is just far enough under the Lair to be a real PITA, so when I actually installed the new gadget I crawled all the way under and did it prone.

This is the new gadget. The gate valve shuts off water to the cabin (believe it or not the only other shut-off I've got is all the way by the cistern, and even that probably wouldn't be there if M hadn't put it there.) The tap will allow me to drain the cabin's pipes if I fear a big freeze - or just if I'm going away for a long time.

Got it installed, and it Doesn't! Even! Leak!

Okay, you know me better than that - of course it leaks. ($%^#ing threaded PVC fittings) But only a little, and only on the tap, which will actually be easy to fix. Probably should have just glued the threads instead of depending on Teflon tape - which almost always leaks.

See, I think this is very pretty. Sparkling, tinkling water flowing in the desert. It's completely impractical, but I often think I'd like to recreate the little water garden I built at my house in Kalifornia.

I wasn't the only one who thought that would be a good idea - the little stream that formed while I emptied air from the water line attracted wildlife pretty much instantly, though only this guy came close.

1 comment:

Big Wooly said...

Got a nice little slope on that roof. Didn't you have a tank that you could use as a rain barrel? I'm sure you don't get much, but it might be enough for a little patch o' green.