Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A Minor Project Finished





It took about 2 weeks but I finally got the 100 foot of plastic pipe I ordered in. Originally the store said they had like 10 rolls of it in stock but when I went to pick it up all they had was perforated stuff and that wouldn't help me at all.

The problem is the back of my barn. The barn here at the Small-Hold was originally built for a much larger farm than can be boasted with a mere 25 acres like we have today. Seriously the thing is about the half the size of a football field and hasn't had any maintenance done to it in about 30 years or more until we took it over.

I am not sure how the water run off was dealt with in the past but the old gutters, which are some nice heavy duty things I might add, just dump the runoff right on to the ground. This creates a muddy mess as you can imagine. One side drains out into the pasture which isn't my concern right now but the other half comes right down into the area you see pictured above. Usually from about March until July it is a muddy swamp back there and I am tired of it.

My temporary solution for this Spring is to put the 100 foot of 4 inch pipe off the drain spout and just run it out into the hayfield. I will more than likely go ahead and bury it after I have figured out a few other minor issues but unless we have a drought the rains should start soon and I want to see if this 4 inch pipe is going to be able to keep up so for right now I am running it all above ground and will just move it out of the way.

Of course the current LasVegas odds are 70 to 1 it get's run over by my step father before this Spring is finished. I am going to have to just keep an eye on it and run it out myself when we are forecast for rain.

I had to do some serious ethnic engineering and use some baling wire to get the thing hung sturdy enough on the barn.




The brace things you can buy that supposedly go with this pipe are not really strong enough to hold the pipe when it is empty. I can only imagine what would happen if there was all that water running down it so I wired it up in a couple of places as well.

This is all part of my plan to get the back half of the barn painted this year. The trees you see on the right of the picture will all be getting cut out over the next few weeks as well. You can also see I had to attach a bit of an extra wooden support to even use the metal brace.

If this pipe configuration proves up to the water capacity than I will design some way to divert water into another catchment system and bury the pipe for the overflow. My hope is this will divert all that water that collects up behind the barn so any vehicles we take in and out of there won't sink to their axles any longer.

I need to let this area dry out a bit as well to figure out how deep the pipe will need to go underground to keep it from being crushed by the heavy tractors and trucks. Right now the ground is so wet you have to dig down almost a foot or more just to hit anything solid and I still have standing water under the layer of wood chips I put down.

If it all goes as planned I will dig the trench, spread out the load of gravel that's already there and make the swampy area usable.

We are forecast for rains tonight and tomorrow so hopefully I can get an idea how this is all going to work. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!






13 comments:

  1. Lots of pipe, that could be a fun project to figure out. I am thinking what I would do, maybe build a bridge like structure on the ground to carry the weight of equipment over the pipe. Bound to be some junk laying around to work with. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sf - The problem is at the moment the ground back there is so wet it's almost a pond. I need to let it dry a bit to figure out just how to tackle it. I hope with just redirecting the water and adding in the gravel it will be enough.

      Delete
  2. If you bury it, make SURE you have enough fall from inlet to outles so that the underground portion is empty when it isn't raining.

    Else it'll freeze up and take forever to thaw.

    Ask me how I know....

    As an aside, if you put 2 runs of 12 guage wire in the bottom of the pipe you can use them to thaw a bot when you need to.....use a big battery charger or a welder to warm the wires. This will allow water to drain around them, melting bigger channels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. B - If I bury it, or when I guess I am pretty sure it is going to end up having to be well below our frost level just to make sure it isn't smashed from the tractor weight. My guess is it's going to need to be at least 24 inches right there but yes it needs to have sufficient drop that's for sure.

      Delete
  3. PP,

    Now talk about a good looking quick fix. I'm hoping your dad doesn't drive in real fast and flatten the hose with his truck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sandy - When he is on that Massy tractor of his wildlife disappears in a 3 mile radius. He is always running over or bashing into something with it.

      Delete
  4. Was the water run to the old cistern?

    Agree with B. Also a second brace just below the 1st may keep down pressure from any twisting action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Russ - Nope as near as I can tell the water from the barn roof has always just ran off onto the ground. There is an old cap on the other side of the barn that makes me wonder if that side didn't maybe drain into a cistern over there but my guess is back when the barn was built around the 1920's they didn't have the vehicle weight issues we have so didn't worry about it.

      Ultimately I hope to put in an underground water tank though.

      Delete
  5. hey pioneer p !!

    good job - 4 inches will do the trick - i might suggest that you get a long log/board that goes form the roof to the ground - anchor it to the roof and round and lash the pip to it - burying it will be a chore... be sure to make the trench with enough flow like b said and cover with gravel the whole length so you can get at it easier if you need...

    runoff suck - trust me i know - good luck buddy!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jamby - There is actually another two supports attached directly to the pipe under the one in the picture. My biggest issue atm is figuring out if I am going to bother using this side as a collector or not. I may just direct this one down and out and worry about collecting off the other side.

      Delete
  6. Really I impressed from this post. the person who created this post is a genius and knows how to keep the readers connected. thanks for sharing this with us. General Prong

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment. We like comments. Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls.