Going to the well one time too many...

So first, my DSL modem mysteriously died this weekend...so no Internet for the weekend...no biggie because my folks were up visiting from Richmond. I got ahead on my work so I could enjoy the weekend relaxing with them. We don't get to see them often enough.

Well, Friday night we all got ready to go to bed and Christine and I decided to watch a little TV downstairs to unwind. Suddenly, we heard a noise that sounded like the washing machine is filling up....but no one was doing laundry! The hot water heater...emergency pressure valve opened and let out several gallons of water all over the laundry floor. Then all three toilets in the house started to "run" simultaneously. The water pressure inside the house is usually 30 - 50 psi, but had risen to well over a 100 psi (the needle on the pressure regulator readout had gone all the way to the backside of the gauge).

We live in the mountains and share a well with our neighbors, so as we opened all the taps in the house (to keep the pressure in check) and began to clean up we called the neighbors to make sure they were aware of the problem...cause according to logic they should be having similar issues. The well is 500' deep and has an industrial strength pump. This setup is not that uncommon where we live. Well our neighbor comes over to help and says he is having no problem because he shut off the water to move a hot water heater...as you might guess he hadn't done quite that, in fact what he had managed to do is disengage our pressure regulator at the well head and leave his pressure regulator (off-line) operating the pump.

OK...so we had it more or less figured out, but set up an appointment with plumbers in the morning to see what we could do to make sure this didn't happen again...in case either of us wanted to do some sort of plumbing repairs or upgrades in the future. However, "nice neighbor" did not fully believe us and decided to repeat his engineering wizardry in the middle of the night and duplicated the problem again....leading us to have to all get up and turn taps on etc. at 2 a.m. I think after we spoke the second time he got it :-)

On a more fun note, the student's studying Forestry have a Timber Sports Team. As part of an opportunity showcase they put on demonstration for county high school and middle school students.
Many of the competitors wear this cool modern day armor so that they get to keep all their fingers and toes in the case of a mishap. As you can imagine, Timber Sports are not the most forgiving when it comes to injuries.