A Hose, A Hanger, And Lots Of Water

Let's suppose that a certain farm wife told her farm husband that it was warm enough outside at night to be able to turn on the water out in their barn. This would allow the farm family to use the toilet and sink out there so they wouldn't have to run to the house all the time. It would also allow them to clean a very winter-messy shop and prepare for an upcoming garage sale. The farm wife likes things in her garage sales to be clean and sparkly as much as possible when she sells them.

Anyway, the farm wife's farm husband finally gives in and turns on the water to the barn. After all, the animal waters have not frozen in many weeks. He turns it on and we work out there a whole day, scrubbing, cleaning, organizing. No issues with the water.

The next day, the farm wife goes out to the other barn to measure some stuff and finds no tape measure. She heads to the shop in the other barn to get a tape measure. She opens the door. She hears a great noise. (great= loud, not super awesome, oh-happy-day) She looks. Oh no! There is an inch of water in the bathroom and surrounding rooms. She rushes to the bathroom where the water shut off valve is located and shuts off the gushing, spraying geyser. Now what?

There are boxes on the floor full of garage sale stuff. Move those. There is an antique buffet that the farm family is using for a sink base in the bathroom. Thankfully, they have yet to install the sink, so the oldest of the farm kids helps the farm wife move it out of the bathroom and to a dry place. They get the wet/dry vac and clean up the mess. They enlist the help of the other farm kids and move all the garage sale stuff into the main (and dry) area of the shop. Crisis cleaned and cleared.

Now this sore farm wife returns to the house with the carpet vac she used to finish drying the shop floor. She decides to scrub out the dirty water container since it stinks. She fills it in the sink, empties it, and waits for the sink to drain. She waits and she waits. The sink doesn't drain. Now what?

Go find the only wire hanger in the house and straighten the hook. Use pliers to make a small hook at the end. Fish out a sucker stick and a bit of gunk out of the drain. Fill sink with water. Wait for it to drain. She waits and she waits. Again. The sink still doesn't drain. She uses her hand to create suction like a toilet plunger. It works a little. She repeats the process. It helps a bit more. She realizes her hand is just too small to cover the drain completely. She looks around and grabs the sink drain stopper. She uses it the same way as she uses a toilet plunger. It works! The sink drains quickly.

She does it a few more times to make sure the drain is cleared up. Crisis two for the day has been handled.

The farm wife goes outside and measures what she needed to measure first thing that morning. She is quite glad the the farm husband didn't have a tape measure in the barn. It meant more work, but it saved money and a bigger disaster. And it saved a work-weary husband from a mess later.

The farm wife apologizes that she didn't take before and after pictures for you. She was distracted. She hopes your day is a bit better.