20152706 Afternoon Edition

I’m soaked from head to toe with a mixture of sweat, water, and tears. At least the chickens are fed and watered.
I treated the rain barrels yesterday, which we water the chickens from with chlorine. This morning, I had to top off those barrels from the garden hose connected to the faucets through the window in the basement. I had to top the up because I didn’t want to poison the water barrels, but I did want to kill to mosquito larvae.
Now here is the fun part. We do have 3 water barrels for livestock. One is down by the garden pen, two are up by the house. A fourth water barrel is for washing up with when you come up from the garden or what have you. That barrel is on the deck.
We had garden hose scattered all the way to hell and gone. I had to round up the hose, connect it to each other and the faucet in the basement. So far, so good. Here is the fun part. I got two barrels filled with the short hose, and the upper chicken coop watered. The lower coop barrel needed 3 more hoses attached. Okay fine, while I was filling the 2nd upper barrel, I made sure everything was working otherwise. I connected the hoses together, went down to make sure the barrel was getting filled, and whoosh! One of the hoses split. Crap!
On investigation, I saw that there was a slice in it possibly from a mower. Okay, so I went to the house, grabbed the duct tape, and got moving. I pinched the hose off, because by this point not much water was getting through. In wrapping the duct tape (temporary fix) and releasing it, I proceeded to get covered in water from ear to ankle. Joyful. The mosquitoes were laughing at me, I could tell. At least they weren’t biting. Re pinching the hose, wrapping more and more, and finally I got the water running again.
The patch isn’t elegant, but I’ve got water dripping down my back, neck, ears, and look like I’ve been in a monsoon at this point.
All was well, and then I looked in the lower barrel. I used language that one shouldn’t use around 1 month old chicks, and had to dump the barrel completely out. I wasted probably 20 gallons of water. I then fed the chickens, after scrubbing the barrel, and starting the fill. After the long walk back to the house, downstairs into the basement to shut off the water, I need a shower.
I really need a shower, and a cigarette, and to use some words that I don’t normally post in here.
Have a good afternoon,
Louise Ann Benjamin