I’ve had a trying couple of days. One thing that has discouraged me is losing Hazel. I had the vet over to check her, but there was nothing he could do. Upon butchering her, I found a large mass of rope and twine in her rumen. Looks like she had been eating it for a good while, and it had built up to the point that it had twisted and blocked her gut.
We have been without water again for about a week now. We’d had running water only three days before it quit again. All the neighbors have water, so that means there’s another broken pipe somewhere.
I cannot tell if there is a wet spot from a leak anywhere because the neighbors above us are flood irrigating their fields. That’s why our ditches are drying up. I guess the only thing to do is dig up all the supply line, but with the fields flooded, that’s pretty well impossible.
I have been trying to track down who the officials are on the water committee to see if anyone can help. No one seems to know who they are or how to find out. They only collect payment for water once a year, so we’ll find out sometime in the next few months. I did reach one committee member from last year, but they didn’t know anything and said they couldn’t help.
We have a few bottles of drinking water yet, and I hope to be able to get more from our one neighbor.
I tried collecting water from the one well today, but it was too contaminated. That was a fail. I may try the lower well tomorrow. These are shallow wells that aren’t filtered at all. If I could get to town, I think I could get the supplies to set up a bio-sand filter.
The front ditch was dry today, but there was some water in the back ditch. The children spent the whole day hauling gallon buckets of water to Steph to wash and rinse the laundry by hand. It was hard for all of them. I didn’t help them because I was out hunting for water issues.
Our quarantine has been extended two more weeks, seriously impeding my ability to get out and solve problems. Please pray that I learn what to do. This is becoming more and more serious as the ditches dry up, removing our sources of water.
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Juan David 