Irony and a long-handled round-point shovel

I should not have reminisced about clearing irrigation ditches in spring.

Walking the dogs last night, M. and noticed standing water where there is normally none. With a sinking feeling, I realized that it was near where a valve on the water line from the well to our next-door rental cabin is located.

This morning I dug down a couple of feet (through waterlogged Holderness silt loam, for those of you keeping track of soil series) to determine that, yes, the water was coming up from below. It was not from melting snow.

Then I called the "backhoe guy." Now there is a six-foot-deep muddy hole waiting for the "well guy" to put in a new valve. (I could do it, but it would take me three times as long, and I have to teach classes.)

And at the end of the day, I was trudging in high muddy boots back up my driveway, shovel on my shoulder.

Just like irrigation days.