Success!

I do believe the guys got things fixed yesterday!  They finally found the real problem, which wasn't with the actual pump or with an O-ring, but with the plumbing on the pipe that brings the water up to our level and sends it to our homes... ours and the grandson's.  At the very top of the pipe through which the water travels to get to us, which attaches to the pump a hundred feet below at the bottom of the well. The fitting at the top of said pipe had actually eroded a tunnel where water could escape.  Here it is in my husband's hand, next to the replacement fitting:

 The guys couldn't find a fitting that size in the nearest towns, so they had to go to Blue Springs, where they were told there were no fittings of that size available; then the guy waiting on them remembered there had been some fittings returned.  Thank goodness, one of those was the right size.  

This being the last you'll hear about the well problems until some new disaster occurs, I took a picture of the hole in the ground where our old well is.  It still holds the box where they turn the pump off when they're working on it.  Also a tank that makes pressure to lift the water up to us.  Once in awhile it gets "water-logged", but I won't explain all that boring stuff.  It isn't a big problem, and could be totally fixed by buying a new pressure tank.

As for the huge leak that started near the barn later in the day Monday, Cliff can't imagine why that happened at the same time they were working on the well.  I think that after the water had been turned off for hours that day and Arick turned it back on, the lines bled back some of the water in them and had gotten air in them that compressed and caused what was already a small leak in a cracked fitting into a gusher, but my husband isn't so sure... and what do I know about this, really?  Nothing.  Anyhow, it gave them two separate problems to solve instead of one.  I have told Cliff for a long time that I thought we had a leak someplace, because the light that lets us know when the pump is running was coming on too often.  Sometimes when Arick (the grandson) wasn't at home, and Cliff and I hadn't been doing any flushing or hand-washing, I'd look out and see the light on.  But as in other situations, I have learned to shut up about such things; after all, I'm not the one who has to repair them.

Now, on to happier things.

When we went to Iowa on Labor Day weekend and came home, Mama Kitty wasn't here; she often seems to disappear when we're gone, and I often announce her death prematurely; I think she gets mad at us for leaving and goes away to pout.  The cats always get fed while we're gone, thanks to the grandson.  But this time she came back not looking well and throwing up her food every time she ate.  I babied her and soaked the food for her, but she was only showing up about once a day to eat and the rest of the time I didn't even see her around.

Well, she's back to normal for a 13-year-old, outside cat.  She hangs around the porches much of the day, waiting for me to pet her.  And yesterday, I noticed she was back in the tree-climbing business.

Grooming herself

"What are YOU looking at?"

The longer she lives, the more I appreciate this wise old mama cat.