Running water at Lucky Glider Rescue and Sanctuary
Something we never take for granted at Lucky Glider Ranch is running water. We use the water to fill stock tanks, clean feed buckets, hose-down critters and to wash out stalls. But keeping the water running is an ongoing challenge. Some highlights:
- The water meter that services the sanctuary’s two barns is actually a mile away from where the water is actually used. Who’s responsible for maintaining that line? We are!
- In an effort to save money, the previous owners of the property used only thin-walled schedule 20 PVC pipes and only buried the line a foot deep – making it very susceptible to breakage.
- Bosque County’s soil is not much soil… About two inches of top soil and everything underneath is solid limestone. You need a rock saw, heavy duty ditch witch and a jackhammer to dig trenches deep enough for water distribution.
When we moved Lucky Glider Rescue & Sanctuary from Northern Texas to Central Texas, there was a lot of preparatory work before the animals could be shuttled to the new facility in our livestock trailer. We started by retrofitting an old airplane hangar on the property into a barn. The catch was there was no water or electricity in the hangar.
The closest water source was an old water line about 1,000 feet away next to an old outbuilding. So we rented a ditch witch to score the top of the earth and dug out the rest of the trench with a jackhammer and pickaxe. It was a long and tortuous process, bu t after a few months the trench was ready. We used 3/4 inch PEX pipe and adapted it to connect to the old PVC.
We dug post holes for 4×6 beams that we used to prop up water hydrants in the vicinity of the hangar and up by the new barn site. Hydrants are useful because when you shut off the water, a weep hole allows the water to run out of the standpipe which keeps the above-ground part from freezing. Of course if you have hoses attached the hydrants, they will often freeze.
The idea is to limit the amount of water you have to ‘carry’ just to water the animals on a cold winter’s day.
One of the special projects we have been planning for is the replacement of the mile-long legacy PVC water distribution pipe. We aim to dig a much deeper trench and to use a more resilient material that will not be breaking and leaking constantly.
If you are interested in helping to fund this project, it’s easy to Donate. We are a 501(c)3 public charity / non-profit organization. This means all donations are tax deductible. Animal feed and especially veterinary care are very expensive, so we welcome both one-time and subscription-based donations. On the website, you will see donate buttons when you’re ready to make a contribution.
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