Water

As ever there is a lot of water about. All day yesterday it fell from the skies, and the fields are so sodden they can't take any more, and it lies in small ponds and large puddles.

But yesterday there was one place with no water - Strickley taps. At dinnertime we turned on the cold tap and nothing came out. Quick investigation showed there was none going to James' house, and more importantly the cattle troughs throughout the buildings. We rang the help line at United Utilities and explained our problem. The magic words were "dairy farm" and 200+ animals with no water. While the call was passed to the engineers Henry and James drove up and down the road to try and spot a burst (the mains runs under the road). There was a lot of water on the road, but nothing gushing. United Utilities arrived and also tried to find the burst.

Meanwhile we began to put contingency plans in place. A few years ago we dug a borehole and eventually connected the water to the main cattle housing (if you search "borehole" you'll see all the details - including the "magic" involved). While there is always plenty of water, the pump does have a tendency to trip, so we have to watch carefully when we use it. So we switched to borehole water and setup a brighter warning light to show if/when it had tripped. We also have a rain harvesting system than gathers water from various roofs and stores in a tall tower, which supplies the heifers. So we gathered as many barrels and buckets etc as possible to fill from that for the calves. It's not safe for us to drink so we nipped to Asda for some large bottles of water. There was still enough water in the hot washing system in the dairy to wash out, so milking was not a problem. And the welly washing trough was full of rainwater, so we had something to flush the toilets!

By now United Utilities had a arrived in force and worked out a plan that involved installing a valve in the mains that meant we would get water from the part of the mains the other side of the burst (I think!). They set up with flashing lights etc and waited for the digger and some special part (from Salford).

** having thought about it, I may have completly misunderstood this - but it does involve a valve of some sort, and feeding from a different "zone".

Having no fresh water in the house we were forced to have a takeaway and wine for supper. We left UU to it and went to bed (having been promised a phone call when they were finished). About 11:30 the pipes in the house started gurgling so Henry got up to check what was happening. Water on tap!

The fix with a valve is just a temporary measure I think as UU still have to find the burst, but we're very grateful for all their efforts in working out a way to get the water flowing to us. We do know that the main impetus was to get water to the stock and parlour, and that if were just a domestic house it may not have been as quick. It puts us in our place!