My husband Alan and I lead a nearly trouble-free life. We are incredibly blessed, and we know it. We have “paid our dues” so to speak… and our good fortune at the moment is not lost on us. We both spent decades in marriages where we were abused or invisible or both. Because of that, we appreciate our love and our relationship above all else. Our only concern is our health and our hope that we have many years together. Other than that, not much bothers us.
Trouble #1
And so it was that the first in our triplicate trouble, me getting Covid, was only a blip on the radar. Yes, we had to cancel the rest of our trip. Yes, I lost a couple of weeks, but it was a blessedly short course as I was vaccinated. We were blessed by the fact that Alan did NOT get sick. How is that possible in an LQ trailer, even though he was vaccinated? And although I did feel miserable for a while, I was miserable with Alan in my life…
Trouble #2
The tire whizzing past our truck that came from our LQ trailer was Trouble #2. Thank you, Lord,that it didn’t cause an accident or kill someone before it settled. Yes, we lost 7 hours that day and arrived home very late. Oh well… we arrived home together.
Trouble #3
We had been home about a week before Trouble #3 appeared. I was just starting to feel like my normal self, except for that nagging cough… Alan turned on the hose to fill the horse tank, and the water in the kitchen disappeared. He decided he’d reach out to the folks who had inspected (and readily passed) our well when we bought the place last February. Alan was thinking there was some issue with the way water was routed to the barn or to the house.
Imagine our surprise to learn that our pump was sitting at the water level of the well! The pump was unable to draw sufficient water to supply our needs. Apparently, many of the wells around us have needed to be drilled deeper in the past couple of years. I didn’t know that was something I should have ascertained, but I am not sure it would have changed our minds about buying the place.
So… we lined up the guys to come and drill our well deeper. That was less expensive than drilling a whole new well, of course. They shut our water off on a Wednesday morning. They started by pulling out the pump… until it got stuck. They told us if the pump broke loose and fell back into the well, we’d have to drill a new one. If they couldn’t get the pump out, we’d have to drill a new one. Lovely options, right? They called the owner of the business who has been doing this for decades. He arrived and pulled on the pump, rotated the pipe, pulled on the pump some more, and VOILA! the pump came up!
Once they got the pump up, they had to drop the drill to commence drilling deeper. They couldn’t drop the drill because the original liner, made of metal, had caved in. That is why they had trouble getting the pump out. Once again… if this problem couldn’t be fixed, we’d have to drill a new well.
Apparently, this company is one of literally only a handful in the country that has a special machine that can spread a broken pipe apart enough to drop a liner. Perhaps that is because most companies would rather charge you to drill a new well than help you repair your existing one? For an additional $2000, they would use this special piece of equipment and attempt to enlarge the pipe. They gave us 70% odds. They were successful!
It would not be until Wednesday night the following week that we once again had running water. And yes, our bank account took quite a hit. But hey… we were without water and somewhat poorer together.
We did have options for showering. We had purchased a Montana Big Sky 5th wheel that we initially lived in when we first came to Arizona last year. We really hadn’t planned on buying property down here. The “Monty” had been parked at the Arizona property since we moved in here last spring. We had been unable to sell it in the short time we had before we headed back to Colorado.
As soon as we returned home from our aborted equitrekking trip, I relisted the Monty. The first couple that looked at it bought it! (The used RV market is crazy hot right now.) However, it took a couple of weeks for them to get their financing squared away. Was it a coincidence that their loan closed the day our water was restored? Was it a coincidence that we had money out, but money in as well?
Our blessings are too numerous to list as subheadings! Again, we are fully aware of the fact that we are blessed to be financially secure enough to absorb the cost of deepening our well. However, that is largely a result of careful financial planning over the working period of our lives. In a recent conversation with our financial advisor, the office gal was genuinely impressed at my “c’est la vie!” attitude about our recent troubles. She said we were “inspirational”.
We just know what is important, and money isn’t at the top of the list. Relationships are… You can’t take money with you. It is best-spent blessing others, in my opinion. Our pastor just preached a sermon about what makes for a happy retirement. The top four answers when he queried the congregation on Facebook were:
FAITH… Invest in your relationship with God.
RELATIONSHIPS… Invest in family, friends and those who need assistance.
FINANCES… Invest in your future as early as you can.
MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH… Invest in your body and your mind.
We haven’t done much riding since our return. It took me about 10 days to have any energy, and we returned to a filthy home still under construction. I just put together a different bridle for Sadie. I need to spend some time teaching her to collect up and round her back. When I ask for that using her current snaffle, she just roots on me. There might be a blog there in the future…
