Thursday, October 11, 2007
One more "to do" project DONE!
Yeah, I know... it's been nearly a week since I last posted.
Here's why... another one of those simple, "dig a trench, lay a water line, cover it up" and you're done projects.
First, to bring you up to date... we didn't get any snow over the weekend, but it was pretty cold on Saturday. We pretty much "hid out" inside that day. I guess you could say we kind of took most of the day off, with both football and baseball games on the TV.
Sunday was more of the "get ready for winter" stuff, and that included work on the compost pile. Bev and I spent about three hours cleaning the horse pen and stalls so we'd have hot, fresh manure to add to the compost pile. When the wind came up, we declared ourselves done for the day.
Monday, I hand cut cucumbers, onions, tomatillos, green tomatos and sweet red peppers so we could can "sweet relish". Got enough for nearly 8 quarts. Yes, we can our relish by the quart since we use it so much. We managed to get the first 4 quarts done before running out of spices... and even though we'd already run to the corner store... 17 miles one way, we were content to make do with alternate spices for the next 4 quarts.
Tuesday, we spent the day getting ready for our neighbor, Ray to bring his big backhoe over for the "trench project". The first issue we always have here, is where do all these old irrigation lines go, and what happens if we cut one? Do we have a geyser?
Bev and I cleaned the big hole we'd excavated last spring. This is the one next to the chicken coop, where the first frost-free hydrant will go. In the process, we found a one-inch galvanized line (about 36 inches deep) heading somewhat north from below the nipple for the frost free. Where the hell does it go? What does it feed? We know it's a "charged line".
We tried several times to locate the line, even having Ray do a couple of "pot holes", but were unable to locate it. Oh well... we'll just have to keep an eye on any wet spots, or if we here the well pump running at odd times.
By dark Tuesday, we'd managed to dig about 25 feet of the trench. I has to be 36 inches deep to be below the frost line here. It was particularly difficult as the chicken run limited access with the backhoe... no room for the stabilizers.
Add to that we just knew there were two lines about 6 or 8 inches below the surface that we had be locate, cut and cap. Again, no idea if they were hot, or charged... or even where they came from or went. Cindy and I had both encountered them when we were trenching in the chicken run... just 8 inches from where this really deep trench was going.
We probed, we tickled the dirt with the backhoe to no avail... Those lines weren't to be found
Yesterday, we really settled in to all the hard work. This trench is 60 feet long, 36 inches deep, and better than a foot wide... dug in very sandy soil. The real "hard pan" is at about 30 inches, so that meant the backhoe really had to chew hard, and since Ray couldn't get a direct (inline) shot at the trench, it often meant he was chewing from the broadside.
That meant the trench walls would semi-collapse with each "chew" to go deeper... Enter the "three-man"... well one man, one fat woman, and one young boy... shovel crew. I gotta' tell you... I really didn't know I could do all that! I shoveled in that trench for about 5 hours, until finally we had it deep enough, and could move to the next step.
By then, Bev had come home from work... just in time to miss the shovel detail. That's ok... her job was to help Ray with the plumbing... cut all the PVC, and configure all the valves and angles.
We needed hay to insulate the lines. The worst hay was in the horse barn, so off we go with the backhoe. Now, I had two choices... walk to the horse barn in the 30 mph wind with all the dust swirling from the backhoe, or jump up on it, and ride on the fender. This old lady actually got on the backhoe and rode... both directions! No small feat when you consider all the "lead in my butt".
Ok, hay in the trench, water line laid, time to backfill. Once again, we've got the same issue... The backhoe can only get "so close" and is unable to really compact the fill. I'll be raking, and watering for weeks.
Labels: Around the farm, Chickens, Horses, Sheep
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