We Love Gysers and It's a Good Thing

 4

 

That's the number of geysers we have had in our back yard in the last 6 years.

If you remember, it was just this spring that we had our last water pipe break.

Olivia ran it over with the lawn mower.

This time however was not our fault.

Pierce, Hannah and cousin Jacob were preparing to do the Ice Bucket Challenge.

They got out the 50 gallon cooler and Pierce turned the spigot on in the backyard.

He turned the handle and noticed the water felt sluggish.

He couldn't figure out what was wrong.

 A very short moment later a gush of water shot up

and sprayed him right in the face.

Kids came running in the house where I was preparing for dinner and

to have friends come over to watch a movie outside.

The kids were screaming

"There's another geyser!"

My thought was, "Who did it this time?"  And "How embarrassing!"

I knew the firemen came out to take care of situations like this after hours and

I wasn't ready to face that. But I had no choice.

I called the city dispatch, yeah, it should be on speed dial by now, and they

told me to stay away from the water, be in the front yard so the firemen knew where to go,

and keep the kids away. He repeated the instructions several times with emphasis.

I thought, "That is no fun. The water won't hurt anyone."

But I obeyed. Well, for the most part.

I had to keep telling the kids to stay away from the water because

I didn't want to get in trouble when the firemen showed up.

In about 20 minutes a city worker came.

I got a big grin and loudly announced to all the kids to start playing.

I didn't care about a city worker. :)

After inspecting the damage the guy came up to me

and said he would have loved this as a kid.

Free game.

 

 

 

When I first went outside and we couldn't play in the water

 I took advantage of the situation.

I had all the kids pick weeds out of the sandbox so it would look

nice when our company came. Even though

weeding the sandbox was a job two weeks in a row

it doesn't look like it got done very well.

That weed was growing quite a while.

 

 

Just the day before a friend was over and the kids made a series

of ditches. The friend wanted to see what would happen

if they filled it with water. Sadly this child

had to leave right as they finished digging.

Just a couple hours later the kids got to witness

the maze fill up. Then it began to overflow.

Margaret, this is what happens when the ditches fill up.

 

The kids were trying to get more water into the sandbox

so it would completely fill.

That wasn't working so well so we

tried daming up the water going the other direction.

We sat on the ice chest and that helped a little.

 

 

Hannah yelled at me and said "Hyrum and Bria are stuck!"

They were really stuck. It took all of Hannah's strength to pull

each one of them out.

 

 

 

 

The kids dug and splashed and had a great time.

Most of them ended up soaking wet and had to go

in to change. We were expecting company in 30 minutes.

Watching a move outside with wet clothes wouldn't be

very fun. It makes it worse that they were soaked in secondary water

that is from the bottom of a green lake.

I call this water sewer water. It smells so bad.

 

 

 

As the kids were trying to fill the sandbox I walked to the back

and realized that the water was running over the edge in the back.

Yes, the playset needs a good paint job.

We had intentions to do it all summer.

Pierce now has a paying job. Paint the playset before winter.

 

Cousin Jacob sitting on the ice chest when I realized

we would not be filling up the sandbox.

 

The kids loved running through the water. It took Clayson

a little bit to get the courage. There was a lot of water.

The geyser had to be spraying between 30-40 feet in the air.

 

Marshall had the shovel trying to dam up the areas that were allowing

the water to go behind the playset. It was all in vain,

but he had a lot of fun doing it.

 

Scott was very reluctant to get in the water.

He wouldn't even stand in it.

After watching the kids laugh and play for

about 30 minutes he shyly walked over to the geyser.

I noticed him as he walked up and stood in the water.

He started laughing  and laughing.

He then held his arms out in an expression of pure joy.

 

About 45 minutes from the time the fun began the city turned the water off.

The kids continued to play for a short time until I informed them

the fun had ended and we needed to get changed for the movie.

Our company came about 45 minutes late, which saved us.

 

Once the water was off it was clear our hypothesis was correct.

When the city workers fixed the last break in the pipe they

hadn't glued it correctly and with the pressure

the spigot blew off. An accident that created great memories

and family bonding. It was great!