DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE PIPES!
There was a young man once that had a family of three sons, a wife, and a shepherd herding dog. The family moved into a sleepy little town not too far from here. They had a really nice place on two acres of land that they intended to make into a country home.
The house was built by the previous owner, an old man who’d grown up in the area. He had been a house builder in his day and had decided to build his own home. He built the home and lived in it many years until he eventually passed away. His estate sold the home to the young man and his family with three sons, a wife, and dog.
The young couple was so happy to move into the home the old man had built. There was plenty of space in the home, it had good bones. But the old man hadn’t done much to the house to make it comfortable for living. It was missing the usual customizations that seemed should be there, like built in book shelves, extra storage areas, plenty of cabinets, nooks and crannies tailored to certain needs.
So the young couple decided to make some repairs around the house and to build some improvements. They worked diligently weekend after weekend, working on their house to make it their home.
The outside property of the home was also pretty neglected, though it had a great layout where they could start on some improvements. They built a section of fencing as a corral for running the horse they planned to get, and built a pole barn for it to live in.
Next, they created a chicken coop area in one part of the lean-to barn, and fenced it all in with chicken wire so they couldn’t get out.
They also put in some fencing where it was missing or where the neighbor’s cows had knocked it down. Once the fencing was done, it was time to get the animals. After the animals arrived and got all settled in, their work was nearly done.
All they had left to do was create a garden where they could grow their own fresh vegetables. The property already had plenty of fruit trees, including peach, pear, plums, nectarines, and some crosses between them that they didn’t know about, so all they wanted was an area for veggies.
They began plotting out their new garden with the garden hose, lying it along the ground where the garden’s edge would be. Once that was done, they removed the top layer of the existing turf. This was removed so they were ready to dig and turn over the soil in the garden area.
After the young man added some nice manure to the soil, he began to dig it in and mix it with the existing soil. He used a shovel to do most of the work, but at times he would come across a large rock that had to be dug out. He found that the prong on a spading fork worked well if he fit one of the prongs in under the edge of the rock, he could lift it up.
So the man continued to work until the garden bed was dug. It was a good job, a nice hard day working out, and he felt good when he’d finished. Expressing this, he puffed out his chest, said something to his wife and kids and then stabbed the spading fork into the ground as if to say, “Good job family, we’re done!”
The only problem is that he stabbed the fork into his water pipe he had unknowingly dug down to. He got wet and so did everyone else! Needless to say, he had a big pool of water going for some time on that garden spot. To make matters worse, the weather took a turn for the worse that night and everything froze. Some would say it’s strange to have a cold front came through at that time of year when it’s supposed to be getting warm again, but it could happen.
This is why you hear it said to find out where your pipes are before you go digging. It’s much better to have your land mapped out for you so you can know where your plumbing, gas, electric, and water lines are buried. If you need help figuring out where your water and other lines are, call us and we’ll be glad to help you out.
