SOMETIME WE CATCH A BREAK — YAY!

The main water valve from the house-proper area to the upper pond, gardens, and Reunited Resurrection garden is located right at the base of the steps to the left of the lower pond. It serves a unique and invaluable function of providing and conversely shutting off water to all the rest of our property and that connection is over 25 years old . . . ahhhhhhh the joys of dealing with long-term and best-available and affordable fixes, eh? Well, we have always done the best we could with what we had so we just keep fixing. Additionally, the water line T’s at that valve to supply flow to the lower pond, front dining room terraces, and main yard. Lately, the site of the valve had begun to look soupy with standing water which was also draining down the line in front of the lower pond so we didn’t truly know the source of the break. The notion of having to dig up the flagstone was a real daunting YIPES!

Joshua had no choice but to just start digging and possibly to have to suction out the water to locate the source, hence the shopvac at-the-ready.

Lo and behold after he dug and siphoned off a little water, we could see bubbles rising from right over the valve itself. Joshua drained more preparing to have to shut off water and replace the valve. With one turn of the connection to unscrew, he found it had somehow worked its way loose so that one turn did the deal!

Mysteries from the past again revealed themselves as he discovered that nearly all the associated parts were the ‘wrong ones’ – what the hector! We decided to go with the adage, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ and he simply refilled the hole and replaced the huge piece of flagstone. We all breathed a large sigh of relief. Within 12 hours everything was dried out and no more leaking . . . thank you UNIVERSE.