WATER FOR THE COWS (gave this while on my mission as a devotional January 2020) Marie
The Barn well pump broke on Sunday night. There was no place
we could go to get parts. Milk cows drink so much more water than beef cows and
our cows were letting us know that they were thirsty. Early Monday morning
Darrel had to leave for very important meetings up North and told me to call
the plumber after we were done with chores to come and help. Darrel left with a
prayer in his heart everything would turn out OK.
As soon as milking was done I called the plumber and no
answer (this is before answering machines and cell phones). I needed to replace the check valve and ran
to town 15 miles away for the part and came back; with the new check valve in
place I turned the pump on and tried to prime the pump (meaning you pour water
into a hole on the top of the pump and soon the water would come back up and
“Waa La” you have running water) . You need to understand we had a sand point attached at the bottom of
the pipe about 20 feet deep. This pipe is attached to the electric pump that
draws the water out of the ground and in order to prime the pump you
pour water down the hole on the pump, thus forming a vacuum in the pipe and the
pump draws the water to the surface, where you then screw a plug into the hole
on the top of the pump but you do not tighten until the water is at the top so
the air can escape. Usually it would take about a quart of water poured into
the hole before it forms enough vacuum to pull the water up the pipe to the
pump.
I poured the water in, screwed the plug down loosely and
waited for the bubbling sound and to see water coming out around the plug. The
sound of the pumped did not change. When the water starts to come up the pipe
the pump sound changes and you can hear the water rising in the pipe. NOTHING happened. “Ok,” I told myself, “No big deal I’ll go and
get more water from the house and try it again.” I did this many times and still no
water. I could hear the cows they were
in dire need of water. I was getting
frustrated and worried as to what I could do.
I made sure everything was tightened. I had done everything I knew how
to do. I went to the house praying all the while that the pump would work. I gathered two buckets of water and headed
for the well house. I was determined the pump would work. I poured all the water I had into the hole, loosely screwed the plug on
and waited NOTHING!
I had done everything in my power to fix the well! As I was on my knees in the well house I
closed my eyes and started to pray fervently, I sincerely prayed to the Lord
and told him my predicament and how I needed his help. I was determined to pray until I would hear
the water escaping around the plug and I even had the wrench in my hand to
tighten the plug as soon as water was flowing out around the plug. I prayed and prayed. I am not sure how long I prayed I was not
going to give up, I knew the Lord could help me. Then I heard the sound change from the pump.
My heart started to beat faster; THE SPUTTERING WATER AND AIR started bubbling
around the plug and water started spraying, I felt the water and opened my
eyes. With my wrench in hand I tightened
the plug on the pump. I ran to the barn and opened the valve and water was
flowing through the pipes in the barn to the drinking cups. The cows started slurping up the water. What a great sound. It took a while for the cows to get their
fill of water but they did get their fill.
I could not thank my Heavenly Father enough for helping me
that morning. I did everything I could
do and He took care of the rest. I have
thought of this miracle many times.
Farming is a hard life with ups and downs but I would not
change anything well maybe a few things. Life’s lessons are all around and on a
farm we needed the Lord every day. Our family worked, played and came to know
God together; we are a team. We were not perfect by any means but we never gave
up on each other. Through our trials, challenges, heart aches we persevered and
grew to Love each other unconditionally.
We came to know God through scripture studies, family home evenings,
prayers, and drawing upon his love to guide us through the rough times.
Alma 34:17-20, 26-27
17 “Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye
may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon
his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; 18. Yea, cry unto him for
mercy; for he is mighty to save.
19. Humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.
20. Cry unto him when
ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.
26. But this is not
all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and
in your wilderness.
27. Yea, and when you
do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and
also for the welfare of those who are around you.
The willow stick it is there to help us find the water, but
we have to do are part to get the water flowing to be able to drink it.
Like the willow stick Heavenly Father is our stick, there to
lead us to living water, Jesus Christ, but we have to do our part by priming our
pump and opening the valve, allowing Him to quench our thirst and come into our
lives and if for some reason our valve breaks replace it with a new valve,
prime your pump with repentance and open the this new valve through mighty
prayer continuously and drink of the living water again I pray.
Water Witch (this was my power point for the above devotional but a little different from above) I could not use it as the computer we were to use for the power point didn't work right, thought you might enjoy the pictures at the end.
We bought a farm in 1971 with a rundown barn. After major
repair we were ready to buy cows to fill the barn but we needed a new well for
the barn. Darrel asked around about how
to find out where to place the well which had to be placed so many feet away
from the barn. Days later we had a Water
Witch using a willow switch finding the perfect place for the well. Many neighbors and relatives showed up to
watch. It was fascinating watching this
man walk around the area with his switch in hands and then the switch would
point straight to the ground. It was a
sight to see, he found many places that would work but where he found the
strongest pull from the switch is where we marked the spot. The kids took turns trying their luck with
the switch and adults joined in. Many of
them were able to have the switch work for them. It was fun to see everyone trying their hand
at it, walking around with a Y shaped willow branch, holding the top of the Y
in their hands and the tail of the Y pointing straight out in front of
them. If it was working for someone the
tail would dip down pointing to the ground.
It sounds silly but it works for some people. We were the talk of the farming
community for a while.
Where the mark was made we took a sand point and attached an
8 foot long pipe to the end and with a fence post driver pounded it into the
ground. As the top of the pipe got close
to the ground we attached another 8 foot long pipe and pounded it in. We did
this two more times. A plum was dropped
down the pipe to see how deep the water was in the pipe. We had water at about
15 feet and we drove the sand point down to about 25 feet to make sure we had
plenty of water in the pipe. We then connected our water line from the barn to
the pump. We had water to the barn! Now
we were ready for the cows.
In the following days we built what we called a dog house
over the well to protect it from the elements.
During the winter, the above ground pipes were wrapped with insulation,
electric heat tapes and a heat light was always on, to keep it from freezing.
