Wild West Gardeners: Chapter 1: Down To The Nitty Gritty

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Chapter 1: Down To The Nitty Gritty

We are doing this DIY style, so I expected things to take longer than we planned and I anticipated setbacks along the way. My expectations were realized from the get go!

As we pressed our 3 shovels into the ground, my dad, my husband, and I hefted the reddish desert dirt into mounds. Each shovelful removed was one step closer to digging up the main blue water line that feeds the house. We knew it would take awhile to dig a hole 4-5 feet deep. A couple hours later, the hole was dug and there was no pipe to be found. :(

It had rained hard the previous few days, which softened the soil and cooled the weather nicely for digging, but it also made for heavier dirt. My muscles were telling me it was time to leave the men alone to build some "character." They kept digging while I made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. My step mom was quite helpful in the background, watching the kids and weeding the prairie grass that has gone to seed everywhere.

We found this frog hopping into the weeds.

Passersby mentioned it looked as though we were digging a grave. I preferred to not think of it in those terms even though it would fit a coffin vertically if we tried. As the hole got deeper, we had to hoist 2 five gallon buckets (tied to my hubby's capoeira rope) up and down and up and down to remove dirt from the hole. 5 hours later, 2 very spent men, one less-than-helpful female (me), and a hole 8 feet deep by 5 by 3, we hit blue gold. Need I say there was much rejoicing in the land? We had to get a 10 foot ladder to get out of the cavity.

If only gold medals were given for digging holes this large by hand.

In haste to get my dear father and his wife on the road again, we cut the water to the house, sliced into the water line, glued fittings together and slipped them over the pipe. The fittings hung loosely. Not okay! They were obviously not the right fittings for the type of pipe we have. And what type of pipe is that anyway? I didn't know, my hubby didn't know, my dad (the only one who has any DIY plumbing experience) didn't really know. We called my dad's neighbor who is a plumber and from our description, he guessed it was Pex pipe. Time was ticking, the sun getting lower, the sprinkler supply store was closed, my dad had to get on the road soon, and we no longer had water to the house.