Cool Saturday, indeed. About 48 degrees here in Northern California - warm(ish) by comparison to other places, but a bit chilly here. Sun shining, and no rain in sight. Will probably warm today to the low or mid 70's.
Many places here in California have metered water, which can be a bit expensive. The basic bill for water (without overages) is $70./month.
My bill shows my useage, and I have been noticing that my useage had been going up - slowly - over the last several months. I called the water district to be sure my meter was not being mis-read, and was assured that it wasn't. I was told to check for leaks (from things like dripping faucets, etc.), and I assured the water district that I didn't have any. Over the last several days I began to notice that my water pressure seemed to be dropping - not a lot of water pressure when doing dishes. But I thought nothing of it, except to think that I might need to give the water district another call to see why my water pressure was dropping.
Well, a few days ago I was out in the back yard tossing the ball for Big Joe and stepped in a wet spot that I thought strange, but again thought nothing of it because my neighbor does a lot of watering of outside plants (pretty dry here, even in December) and supposed that water from their yard had just run into a low spot in mine.
Duh.
Last night I was out tossing the ball again, the wet spot seemed larger, so I pulled some of the grass around the edges of the wet spot to try to see where it might be coming from. Finally (this had been hidden by the tall grass) I found an upwelling of water in the middle of the wet spot - not exactly a geyser, but pretty close.
I dug down with my bare fingers less than an inch, and found a cracked plastic pipe (probably from the in-ground sprinkers that are back there).
Water coming out even more rapidly once the overlaying grass and soil was removed. I went into the house and turned off the hot water tank and the water to the house. I will go out as soon as it warms up a bit and see what I can do - it should be an easy fix (one that will probably require at least 10 separate visits to the hardware store before I am able to gather all of the "bits"). I have worked with plastic plumbing quite a lot, am comfortable with it (DIY is a
lot better than a multi-hundred dollar bill from a plumber) and in fact fixed a leak on another portion of plastic pipe in the yard a year or so ago (this leak was from a water spigot that I could see dripping - couldn't see the underground one).
I travel now and again in my van, and I always turn off the hot water tank and the water when I am gone - even if it's for just a day or two. Patting myself on the back for that one. I don't like to think about what might have happened with the hot water tank had the pipe totally let go while I was gone, maybe draining the hot water tank with the gas still turned on to it.
Maybe BOOM. Would not have made my neighbors happy.
Wasn't exactly the way I planned to spend my Saturday, but there you go. Better to fix it now, than the alternative.
Anne