Prairie Pedagogy: Got water?

The Saga Continues-Dean tells the story in his own words this month.

Good progress is now being made on the water project. We leased a bigger and better pump from a company in North Dakota and it has made all the difference in the world. We now have two of the neighbor's dams full and the pipeline was extended to our dam last week. After hooking up more pipe borrowed from yet another neighbor, we started up the pump and waited anxiously for water to come out the end. After a couple of hours, we questioned whether this pump was big enough to push water another mile over to our dam. We once again checked the pipeline and could tell by kicking it how far the water had come. It seemed strange that it could go halfway and suddenly stop! We took the pipe apart one more time and found that grass, skunk nests and other debris had accumulated and was acting like a giant cork. No problem! After cleaning out several joints of pipe, everything was back in place and the pump was once again cranked up. Finally, the water came gushing out the end. What a beautiful sight! It ran continually for four days and put about two feet in the dam. However, two days ago, the pipeline burst and collapsed five joints of pipe so yesterday, I borrowed some more pipe from yet another neighbor. It's not high pressure pipe but we hope to put it in a place in the line where it will suffice. This morning, we'll try it again. Mother Nature has been cooperating with us with warm temperatures. We hope it continues. In 1996, we had a blizzard on October 28th---that would be tomorrow!