Water. It doesn’t seem that important until you don’t have any!

While farm life is fun, it does come with certain challenges. Such was the case this week when our pump stopped working . There was electricity to the well/pump, but the water tanks were empty, and that pesky red “fault” light was blinking!

I don’t mind being without water for a bit. That little inconvenience occurred often when I lived in Turkey. While overseas I learned to take a sponge bath with bottle water. Now I have a huge bathtub in my backyard, commonly known as a swimming pool . I can survive just fine taking my daily bath in the pool as the waterfall flows.

But not my 20 sheep, 10 chickens, and 2 dogs. They need fresh water. And let’s not forget the three sprinkler clocks for all the grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers! I can’t imagine losing 18 years of my hard-earned gardening efforts.

Yep, we needed water…and fast. After a quick call to the pump company and a water truck delivery company (and a few bills in between), we were back in business. Everyone is happy and well-watered. I could even run the dishwasher later if needed.

How do I take all this in stride? First, I did the troubleshooting to find out which repairman to call and to give them an idea of the problem.

Then I counted my lucky stars that I had done several loads of laundry earlier this week, just cleaned and refilled all the animals’ water containers, and lastly had my hair done yesterday. Additionally, I reflected that this occurred while I was home and not traipsing the world. All in all, it was a good time to be inconvenienced, if there is such a thing.

But what did I learn from this experience?

-Don’t take little things for granted.

-I can handle life’s challenges.

-In the big scheme of life, this is merely a little bump in the road.

-The timing was good.

Lastly, I realized things could have been much worse…such as an electrical outage or no internet.

So, I’d like to ask you to reflect upon what you are taking for granted these days. Is it water, electricity, your family, your job, your health, or something else?

Perhaps it’s time we all learn to be grateful for the little things in life.