The Cooks Corner

Pulling the pipe

Many years ago we built a pond down over a hill to provide water for our yard and garden. We installed an electric pump down there and pumped the water back up the hill in a good sized plastic pipe that we connected to several hoses and then to sprinklers. It worked very well until the pond filled up with trash and the Russian olive trees grew up around it. We were unable to get it cleaned out to keep the foot valve deep enough to keep suction. To power the pump, we had a fairly heavy-duty wire run down over the hill to the pump. A few years ago, I caught the wire with the lawn mower and broke it. Rick patched it, but a year or so later, the cow stepped on the wire and broke it again. I was trying to figure out why the pump wasn’t working when she walked by again and I saw the wire sparking on the ground. I ran to the power box and flipped the breaker for that wire. Because it was late summer there was a good chance that arcing wire could have started a fire in our yard. That put the whole pump situation out of commission and the next summer Rick went through some health issues, so the pump got brought up out of the pond area, but was not set up to use again. Fast forward two years, some other health issues, uncooperative weather and just not moving as fast as we used to, and finally we are looking to get the pump set up on the ditch bank up here near the house. We still needed a good length of pipe to get the water to where we want it and hated to think of buying a new chunk of pipe when we have nearly 100 feet of pipe running down the hill to the pond. With the help of Angie’s tractor, a log chain and some crazy ideas, we started trying to pull that pipe back up the hill. At first there was a big metal piece on the end that we had used as a manifold. We hooked a chain on that metal piece and Rick put the tractor in reverse. He was moving backward slowly and the pipe was coming slowly, then it stopped. When it hung up on something, it broke the plastic pipe. I was ready to give up. I honestly didn’t think there was any way we could get anything to hold on that pipe to pull it on up, but Rick has more experience handling pipes and chains. We came in for cool-off time and some water, then went back out. The next thing I know that pipe is sliding up the hill and out across the yard. By Golly he got it! Sometimes I am not as smart as I think I am.

No Peel Egg Salad

- 1 Dozen whole eggs

- All your favorite seasonings for egg salad. 

The trick is the way the eggs are cooked. I hate peeling eggs, so I rarely made egg salad even though I really like it. This has changed my egg salad world. 

Break eggs into a loaf pan or a casserole dish. Don’t stir the eggs at all, just put them in the pan cover and put the pan in another pan that is filled with water. Bake the eggs just until set. In fact, I like then to still be a little jiggly in the center, they will finish cooking after removed from the oven. Let cool, chop into pieces, then mash and make egg salad.