I had a small, bittersweet victory over inefficiency today.  Regular readers will know that I obsess about water and the challenges of getting it to my flock.  When we’re out grazing the town, I bring water in a 250-gallon tank that rides on the front of the tractor.  I place the tank at the high point in the fields we’re grazing, and pipe it down to the flock with gravity doing the work.  The sheep drink out of a couple of 15-gallon tubs, and often they don’t drink everything I’ve given them.  I’m loathe to waste water (it’s usually a pain to refill the 250-gallon tank), but the 15-gallon tubs are heavy and floppy and awkward to carry.  So when I move the sheep, it’s hard to bring leftover water with them, and I do in fact waste a good deal of it.

I’ve been using some of my idle brain time (like when I’m rolling up electronet) trying to come up with a better way to move stock water. I had a low-slung water cart half-designed in my head when I remembered that my logger friend, Mark Smith, moves his chainsaws and other gear over dry ground using a utility sled.  This is the same sled that was such a revelation to me last winter, but I had forgotten that it might be useful in the summer as well.

The idea worked, and I’m very excited not to be carrying half-full stock tanks, wondering each time whether my back will go out, and whether it will have been worth the water saved.  But it’s hard not to be peeved that the solution has been leaning against a wall in the barn since last winter.