I learned when we moved out here that I was going to have to change my behavior on a lot of things. I am a list maker – I constantly make lists and enjoy marking items off them (I have stopped adding things I’ve done to the lists just to mark them off).

On the farm, making a list of all the things that need doing would take forever and leave you curled up in a ball, whimpering. So unless it is making a loud racket, threatening to fall down, or on fire, it tends to be ignored.

One such thing was our water softener. We have pretty good well water, great actually, but it could use a little help. The previous owners of the farm had installed a
Rainsoft water softener, but as it had stopped using salt (something like a year and a half ago) I didn’t think it was working. I finally got around to having it fixed, when the well broke.

No, that wasn’t the plumber that showed up to the fix the well, but Carolina Plumbing out of Mebane did a good job.

Basically, the well started to “cut out” at times, usually when Andrea was in the shower. It would come back on shortly afterwards, so we didn’t worry too much about it, but it was always in the back of my mind. We have a home warranty through
American Home Shield, so I called them on a Friday to schedule someone to come look at it. Since we had water, it was scheduled for the following week.

Of course, it stopped running Friday night. So my ticket with AHS was upgraded to “emergency”. We limped along until the Carolina Plumbing team showed up on Saturday, and after checking everything out, they decided the well pump needed to be replaced.

This consists of pulling up (by hand) about 180 feet of pipe and a 50 pound well pump. It was hard work, and I broke into a sweat watching them do it.

But now we have a new well pump, and (touch wood) water is flowing just fine. I just have to hold my breath waiting for the next thing to break.