Water Works--the Joke is on ME!

About eight days ago, I saw a nice little pond where there should not be one. It was coming from the valve cover for the valve that shuts off water to the barn. The valves do get old with age and fail. To shut it off, I had to shut off the well, which of course shut off water everywhere. The best part is that my handyman was out of town helping out a family member. So each morning I would turn it all back on, water the horses, and fill up water containers for the house, then shut it all back off again.
Yesterday, Joe was back and came over and dug out the valve cover and surrounding pipe to see what the problem was. Turns out the valve is just fine. The coupling between the valve and the pipeline was cracked. I could have turned off the valve and still had water! OH GOOD GRIEF...

Lesson learned--dig out the problem area myself and see what is going on.