05 Dec 2009
Back to Yesterday

Pitcher PumpWe had a minor catastrophe in the barn yesterday - the frost free faucet froze. Not as in "frozen with ice" but as in "frozen - won't work". The shaft that pulls the valve actually snapped. Repair parts not available. I could probably make my own replacement shaft with a steel rod and a die set, but I can't get the blasted thing dug out of it's nest. It's down three feet and it ain't budgin' an inch. The ground is frozen, of course, and to top it off, the hydrant is inside the barn, partially under a foundation stone that is also frozen in place. I can get down about 2 feet, but moving that stone is not going to be trivial in any case, and is flat out impossible, given the tools and parameters I have to work with, until spring.

This hydrant supplied the barn, including the big stock tank in the barn lot. We're in trouble.

But we do have an ace in the hole, so to speak. There's an old well shaft in the barn lot, out of which I foolishly ripped a hand pump and wellhead seven years ago. Maybe not so foolishly - it was in bad shape, and had been jury-rigged to a washing machine motor by the previous owner, but in hindsight I wish I'd not been so hasty. Be that as may be, there's still the well. And it's still flowing - depth to sand is ~17', and the water level stands at 6'.

Enter the Pitcher Pump. One of which I have not operated in at least 40 years, when I was a kid visiting a relatives farm in Ohio. I do have electric out there, so I could've gotten a small electric pump. I still might, depending on how things go. But the tank heater is on that circuit, along with the entire barn. Not sure what firing up a motor in there would do - but I'm guessing it'd probably blow a fuse. With the hand pump, I don't need no stinkin' juice - blackouts not a problem. And they do happen here in the winter, not very often, but often enough to be annoying.

The hand pump, twenty feet of PVC, some fittings, a stout wooden stand, and I should be in business. We'll see. Tomorrow.

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