WATER!
That was a lot of danged pipe ... the trailer was full to overflowing, and I had a large box of fittings and valves to go with it ...
The crew at the Big Plumbing House loaded me up with just about everything I could think of, but they were, unfortunately, completely out of 5 gallon buckets of AMBITION ... it looks like I will have to brew that up by the cup ...
The counter reps at "Coburns Plumbing Supply" in Huntsville were super ... every one was at least a journeyman plumber, and spent a good bit of time explaining how to assemble this gasketed piping system properly and looking over my system plan ...
Nothing like talking to someone in the biz ...
Anyway If you are within driving distance of Huntsville, need professional grade plumbing supplies at popular prices and like 5 star service, I recommend Coburns ... They are the best ....
With the pipe and such loaded up, I dropped the whole lot off at TOGR and headed South to pick up Precious Bride for a long weekend of fun in the sun
Springing PB from work over at the Giant International Corporation for a few days is like taking a kid out of school for a trip to Disneyland ... the dear girl gets positively giddy and when you throw a couple of Micky D's "Frappa-rappa-cappa-zingo" coffee's on top of that, we got us a PARTY ...
Between the sugar, chocolate and caffeine, PB and I rattled away like a pair of dueling auctioneers ....
We did a lot of planning during the trip up to TOGR ... this project is the last major infrastructure improvement needing completion before we can start looking for a builder for the "Barn-do-minium", so we were both quite excited to be working on this major milestone.
After checking in with MIL and FIL and delivery of the traditional offering of burnt mammal flesh and pickled vegetables we headed over to TOGR to walk the pipe route and show off the results of my forestry work.
PB agreed with the deer .... it is to laugh ... I am cursed when it comes to felling trees.
It was late afternoon, and it had cooled off a bit from the heat of the day, hardly even nudging 100 or so ... I hooked the trailer up and we spread out the pipe so the trailer was clear for hauling the trenching machine I had arranged to pick up the next day.
With PB driving and your faithful author slinging, we had the pipe stretched out and had plenty of time left over to hand out snickedoodles to the Pasture Posse and get home and cleaned up in time for supper.
I love it when a plan comes together ...
We rose early and got a good leg under us, and after a stop at a local Donut Hole in College Station for some kolaches and other assorted sugar bombs, we were waiting at the Big Rental Yard gate as they opened.
As promised, the trencher was ready to go, and the boys had the trailer loaded up and the machine chained down before I could get out of the office ... They appreciated the goodies ... I appreciate not having to dig 1500 feet of trench by hand ...
The heavy machine made the ride back to TOGR a sedate affair, but it was a nice cool morning and the back roads from College Station to TOGR run thru some lovely country ... and road signs for places like "Carlos", "Gibbons Creek", "Roans Prairie", "Iola", "North Zulch" (there isn't South Zulch it seems) and last but certainly not least, "Bedias" ...
I love it around here ....
It was warming up by the time we got the trencher unloaded, and PB and I were already into the ice water supply but time is money, so I got the machine fired up and PB stood by to run interference for me so I could stay in the saddle ...
The Vermeer was the same machine I had rented before, so there was no learning curve ... I got right on with it and began making trench ...
Owing to the shallower trench, the ground was cutting like butter, even in those spots with dense root tangles, and though the drought has baked the earth even harder than it was last summer, the Vermeer was buzzing right thru it, the straight-ish run of 600 feet down the driveway was cut in the first hour.
Cutting all the corners in the "back 40" took a little bit longer, but by early afternoon, the trench was done, and I was loading the machine back up.
I even got Precious Bride to try her hand at running the trencher .... she finished up the last couple of hundred feet by our little pond ...
PB listened to my instructions and operated the controls with a firm but gentle hand ... Unencumbered by the male chemical cocktail of testosterone and Old Spice, she was happy as a clam at high tide to boogy along at a nice even pace ... and did a fine job of it ...
A natural machine operator ...
PB and I cleaned up, and headed back to College Station, returned the trencher and had ourselves a nice meal too.
The next morning it was time to put some fittings together.
One of the suggestions the boyos at the Big Plumbing House made was not to cut into a 20 foot length of pipe if it could be avoided, as man-handling the sections in order to grind a taper onto the cut ends of the pipe would be a real PITA.
(The "spigot" ends of the pipes have a long taper to ease assembly thru the rather tight gasket in the "bell" ends and fittings.)
Instead, since most of my tap and valve locations were approximate, they recommended I cut short lengths of schedule 40 PVC and taper the ends of those stubs to fit the gasketed bells, tees and elbows and place the fitting wherever a bell worked out to be near a convenient location as I assembled the pipe.
It made good sense, so I set about piecing together 5 taps, 3 line valves and 2 hydrants, as well as the valve boxes.
The valve boxes were a bit of an "engineering" exercise ... Most systems in this area are apparently fairly shallow, as 24 deep valve boxes were only available by special order.
So I had to improvise ... Some nice orange buckets and a bit of baling wire and we had some nice deep valve boxes ...
Throw a little dirt on it and nobody but me and the scorpions will know ....
I went a little overboard on the line valves just in case I ever have to change one out, I set them up with unions, to allow me to dig em out and then R&R without having to cut and glue PVC pipe in what would most likely be a very wet hole.
I even went so far as to pressure test them, since the only valves in stock that day were threaded, and it's a good thing I did, too, as I wound up finding and re-sealing a couple of small leaks.
I just kept after it and by days end, I had all the fittings assembled, all the tools and supplies to assemble the pipe laid out and was pretty much ready to go.
All of the assemblies were cut to length so I could just pop them into place and drop them into the trench, cover them with a valve box and move on.
Unfortunately, I would be on my own, as Precious Bride had to get back to work.
As ever, the fortunes of the Giant International Corporation rested on her shoulders, and her presence at endless vital meetings was all that stood between vast wealth and utter ruin.
Or something like that .....
So I took PB back to the coast, then headed back up to TOGR to continue the work alone ....
