The lawn hydrant got bent in the center before the fitting at the pipe broke, about 3' under the surface. So I got to dig.
The nice thing is that I know exactly where the break is, the bad thing is that the water table is pretty high. So as I dig I'm getting an increasing amount of water. Drat.
So I have to dig an L shaped hole so I can get a bucket down lower than the pipe to bail the hole. So this is dig dig bail dig dig bail and so on . Wet sticky mud is hard to shovel. Wish I had a backhoe on my tractor. 
Since the water shutoff is more than 1500' from this particular hydrant, and since there's some chance that it'll happen again, I decide to remove the old T fitting (seen at the top of the picture, above) and replace it with a T fitting and a shutoff valve. So I assemble the valve, measure it, and then cut the pipe in the hole to the correct length. If the hydrant leaks this means I can turn the water off right in the hole, which will be handle. Downstream from this hydrant are the outlets for the farrowing barn and greenhouse, so having a shutoff valve for a portion of the property will probably be handy. Notice that I use two clamps on each barb fitting -- because I never want to see this fitting again, and it's pretty expensive to have a water leak. They're hard to find. Two clamps gives you some insurance. Each clamp is oriented opposite from the other. I also have wrapped the threads in teflon tape -- more insurance against leaks. Finally the whole thing is as tight as I can get it.
These blocks are to keep the hole open so I can access the shutoff valve. This is the cheapest way I've found to make a relatively stable hole. I've tried cutting the bottom off 5 gallon buckets and stacking them and they get crushed eventually. The first two blocks are on either side of the pipe -- so that if the blocks themselves get run over in the future they won't cut the pipe until they're depressed at least 8".
Pouring rain and wind while I was doing this today. Joy of farming.
These blocks are to keep the hole open so I can access the shutoff valve. This is the cheapest way I've found to make a relatively stable hole. I've tried cutting the bottom off 5 gallon buckets and stacking them and they get crushed eventually. The first two blocks are on either side of the pipe -- so that if the blocks themselves get run over in the future they won't cut the pipe until they're depressed at least 8". Pouring rain and wind while I was doing this today. Joy of farming.
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