When 6 inches is not 6 Inches

No this isn't about the difference in how Men and Women measure things, but I did get your attention. When ordering my materials for the french drain, I ordered 6 inch perforated plastic drain pipe. (300 feet of it), as well as the filter fabric sock that prevents dirt from seeping in over time and clogging the system. Rent a 6" trencher and all should be well. Right?

This is where assuming something creates problems. The inside diameter is 6 inches, the outside is close to 8". Hmmm, doesn't fit. Well, it's plastic and flexible, so maybe if I apply force. Then the ground should move some. Right?

First try was standing on it. Very little success.

Run over it with the garden tractor. Not much better.

Go get the truck! That did it, pushed that pipe right into the hole. This is when the neighbor comes over and states the obvious. "Looks like your stuck".  Yeah, with all the rain we've had recently, the 2 wheel drive, open differential Ford was spinning wheels. WE got it out with the help of my neighbors truck and life moves forward.

Donna's Note: I looked out the window just in time to see this or there would be no photographic proof! LOL!

That was yesterday. Not going to repeat the performance. I just widened the trench by hand and the pipe fell in easily.

Post trenching, pre-enlarging

Enlarging with the shovel

Gravel layer first, once widened

Wrapped pipe put in on top of gravel

Gravel in the right places and cover it up. Today was much easier.

I intend to work on this project every other day. Need a day off to let the seldom-used muscles recover. I have about 85' completed and around 200' to go. Needless to say, I will be glad when it is done.

Drain from left side of garage (facing towards back of property)

Drain from right side of garage (facing towards back of property)

Stay Tuned!

Free stuff is a lot of work

When the excavating company prepared the site and driveway, they placed a 12” pipe (two 4
20’ sections) in the culvert. During the prep it was damaged and they replaced it with a smaller one of different materials. I asked what they were going to do with the damaged pipe, they said take it to the dump. I told them to leave it and said I would make use of it near the pond.

I used my garden tractor and a chain to drag both sections to the area by the pond. When I did all the trenching, I attempting to run 2 trenches side by side. That didn’t work to well in that one of the wheels of the trencher fell into the adjacent trench. Wrestling it out of the hole was part of the reason for the chest pain visit to The ER. (see last blog post)

So now the “lot of work” part started. I needed to hand dig the trench wide enough for the "free" pipe to fit. This took a while, in that it decided to rain for close to a week.

Today I got the two pipes together and into the hole, pounded it home with a tamper and finessed some of the high parts down.

Whew, it would have been easier to just run the smaller pipe all the way to the pond, but free stuff is hard to turn down.

Now on to placing the remainder of the French drain over the next week or so. The pole barn should start by the end of the week, anxious to see it go up. That work is being done by Troyer Buildings, a local company. They are supplying all the materials and erecting the poles and roof only.


Stay Tuned!

What do a trencher & losing weight have in comment?

Well, just another side effect of losing weight. Over medication! Seems the dosage for my previous weight was too much for my slimmer self. That and a full day wrestling with a trenching machine, I decided some chest pains were in order.

Long story short, a late night trip to the ER and an overnight in the hospital, 4 blood draws over time showed I was not having any kind of heart issue. Pulse rate in the 40s kinda freaked everyone out. Drop one of my meds and the problem has resolved itself....follow up tomorrow with my PHP and we adjust my meds accordingly. Most likely a stress test to rule out any issues.

Thanks to my wonderful wife, Donna, for all her support and love!

Stay Tuned!

Work Progresses

Part of the land prep for the Pole Barn is to solve some of the rainfall issues inherent in our landscape. I wanted the run-off from the barn to be collected and routed to our pond. easy enough, gutters drain to down spouts, to pipes under the ground and into the pond. Simple, gravity is always in play.  Additionally, I needed to address the pooling of excess rain water in our back yard. A low area was wet and muddy for a week or more after any moderate rain. The "Dudes" would come in wet, muddy and sometimes a little smelly.



Simple, establish the line of flow through the pasture, mark it, trench it and install a French drain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain). Turns out I needed about 300 feet in order to get to the pond. Yesterday I rented a trencher from Tri-County Rental Center for 4 hours, turns out I needed more time then that and ended up with a whole day charge.



















No matter, the trenching got done and so was I. Phew! still have some hand work to do and make the trench sections connect and prep for the install of the soil filter fabric, gravel and perforated pipe. The gravel arrives on Tuesday.

I'll call back Horst Excavating to spread the dirt pile over the French drain and grade to the pole barn site. Sometime this fall I may top coat the area soil and seed it. We'll see how the budget looks. What the heck, weeds are free. I'll still need to connect the barn downspouts to the system but will do that after the barn is up. Don't need to put in the pipe and have the post hole digger dig them up. I'm making sure that the work I do does not impact the barn builder. Need to have his work go smoothly.

During my breaks I am working on a floor-plan using Sketchup. This should help me in locating plumbing, sewer and electric stubs so I can get those in before concrete. When I have something presentable, I'll post it in the blog.

Thanks for your interest!

Stay Tuned!