Pump IT

I love this picture! The dogs were all watching my mom. Shasta is right up in the action, and Tippy and Patches aren't sure about all this pumping stuff. They liked to watch and then run off to find mice in the fields.

Look at all that water coming out of the mainline. Crazy huh? It is 10" mainline, so it takes a long time to pump, because there is so much water in them. The mainline carries the water from the pumps to the watering devices (such as pivots, linears, etc.). So, it has to be big and strong to carry all that water, and have all that water pressure on it.

We had just barely opened this spot and water shot out every where. We get really wet from the water, and dirty from all the mud when we are out pumping mainlines. We were just glad that it was a warm day today. Usually, we are doing it when there is snow on the ground, and it is cold outside. This year, we have been really lucky and the fall has been rarely warm.

The pump just pumps the water out onto the ground, and it makes a big puddle. We pump out the mainlines so that when it freezes in the winter, the water isn't freezing and expanding in the pipe so that it would break the mainline. We have to make sure we get as much of the water out of the mainlines as possible so that the mainlines don't break. If they do break, it is really time consuming and expensive to get them fixed.

Waiting for the pump to finishing pumping out the water. It is quite the art trying to get the mainlines pumped. We had to keep adjusting the hose that pumps the water out up and down the pump out spots, because it was being touchy. It was a lot of waiting around, but also a lot of maintenance.

Getting the pump ready to pump out the mainline at one pump out spot. There were about ten pump out spots we got done today. We were only using one pump, because the other one we have is broken. We really need Adam to fix it, because it went so slow today, and we have a lot more to do.

Look at the size of that wrench. Do any of you know what the name for it is? It is called a pipe wrench because it is so big. It works miracles with pipe. Trust me, I know...and so does every other farmer in the world.

This is my mom trying to get the cap off of one of the pump out spots. They aren't too hard to get off when they are plastic, but in this case, it was metal, and the metal ones are way hard. I even had to help her get this stubborn one off.

This is my sick face smile. I can't believe how sick I was today. I hate being sick! It seems like I always get sick in the fall...why is that?

Tippy looks like she is on top of the world getting out of the yard and out on the farm.

Look at how happy Patches is to be out on the farm. I love how only one ear goes up and the other one stays down. It is such a signature look.

Tippy and Patches found tons of mice on the farm today. I can't even count how many they ate today. It was kind of a bad thing though, because they were digging up the field, so we had to keep yelling at them. They just wouldn't wait and be patient for the stupid mice to come out of the holes, they had to have them right at that moment, so they would dig for them.

There was tons of water that we pumped out of the mainline, and so it created a big, deep puddle at each spot we pumped at. Well, the dogs were loving the water. They would go and lay in it, and play in the mud. I tried to get it on camera, but each time I went to take a picture, they would jump out. So, my mom tried pushing Tippy in so I could get a picture. Even with a push, she still wouldn't go in.

Patches was giving me kisses because she loves me so much for letting her come out on the farm with me.

Me and my cute dogs!!! They are so much fun to take out on the farm. I just love them!

Okay, so I am sure that from the title, you could totally guess what we have been doing today. Yep, you guessed it, pumping mainlines! My mom and I were out there all day. I have been really sick today, so I really wasn't much help, just more for moral support and picture taking. I took the dogs with me, because I thought it would be fun, but they kept digging holes in the fields trying to find mice, so I had to keep yelling at them. It almost made me lose my voice, and it made my sore throat hurt even worse. Yuck! I hate being sick, so if I can stand it, I like to be out doing stuff and not sitting at home thinking about how sick I am, which makes me more sick. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and really warm. I stayed all bundled up though because I had a fever. Hope I will get feeling better tomorrow. We will be pumping mainline for a couple more days.