I check water.... a lot!

I check water.  A lot.  It may seem like a pretty unimportant job to drive into a pasture every day and look down at your reflection in the water tank.  But I do it anyway.  And you get to know the grazing and drinking habits of your herd pretty quickly.  Did you know cows are creatures of habit just like you and I?  I can generally find this group at the tank for a drink around 5:30 every night.  Tonight, instead of my usual reflection, I saw a nearly empty tank.  The pump was running constantly but no water was coming out.  Dang.  We called the well repair man and he said he would come out tomorrow.  

In the meantime, the cows have no other source of water in this pasture so the kids and I went home and pulled out the portable water tank and started filling it up. [It would've been good entertainment value to watch the three of us trying to carry that big bulky tank.  We may or may not have dropped it on Nate...but no child was hurt in the process.]  It only took about an hour to put in 350 gallons of water.  The slow part came in draining it back out and into the stock tank at the pasture.  It runs by gravity flow so it took a couple of hours to empty it back out but in the end the water tank was nice and full again and I knew it would hold the cows for the night until the well guy could come fix the problem.  Besides, we went for a walk, played some catch with a football, and caught up on some e-mails on my phone.  Always, always, be prepared to entertain.

Turns out it was an easy fix for him and we are up and running again.  Just another example of the hard working people who contribute to agriculture.  And a good reminder of why I am supposed to check the water.  Every.Single.Day.