An Old Goat Ranch in Texas

[Kyle_in_Tex]

You know, I'm almost certain you picked the hottest time of year to prove your manhood. I am a "reverse seasoned old bear", I hibernate in the summer. Maybe I should've been born in the southern hemisphere???

Anyway, my hat is off to you, but only for a split second 'cuz its hot out here.

My waterline laying "dude" put blocks at the ends of long runs butted up against the 90's.

 

[terry.dinerman]

Good looking project Terry . We always put that pipe together with a 5#hammer and a block of 2x4, then again we did it with more than one guy ! Next time look for true union ball valves, save you a lot of trouble .
Too bad good neighbor Joe didn't get some safety gear with that saw, at least he has top notch help to patch him up ! Great thread, just need to quit going off to work, we miss you !:thumbsup:

Thanks Tom and Kyle!

Hammers ....

Yeah, boy.... I am sure that if I had a helper, we could have stuck most of those pipes together by hand, and in fact, once the pipe had warmed up in the sun, roughly half of them went together that way without the need to use the winch.

There are few things that a set "Irons" or a sledge hammer wont cure, but working alone most of the time saves me enough $$$ to afford the little luxuries of life ...

Like rental equipment ... boy I hate digging ....

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Valves ...

I considered a lot of valve options there at the Big Plumbing House and chose the PVC.... All the Gurus there in the shop spoke quite highly regarding their durability, when they could have talked me into bronze valves at 10 times the price.

If each of those valves gets turned once in a year it will be a lot of use, and I hope to never see the day I have to dig one up, but did everything I could think of to make the job as easy as possible should that day arrive ...

Probably in February .... during a freeze ....

"....next time...." , ain't a-gonna happen, Bub. This was my one and only shot at developing a property as a SOLO act.

I might consider standing around a watching someone else do the work while I nod sage-like from under a shade-tree while sipping iced tea, tho.
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Safety Gear ...

Yep, Joe does like to work "bareback", but he is well set in his ways, and I am not man enough to make him do ANYTHING.

Should the wheels of the universe grind against us, and somebody springs a sudden leak or gets suddenly ill, well, I keep a nice "Blowout Kit" handy in the tractor toolbox and my cellphone in my pocket for just such occasions.... and St. Joe's Ambulance has a crew over in town (small "t") about a mile away to carry me / us over to the hospital in Town (big "T") ....

It ain't "Dustoff" but it'll do ...
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Work ....

Well, since I was not "To the Manor Born" I have to do what I can with those skills I have .... and since I ain't clever enough to make it on Wall Street nor particularly purty, I am stuck with going to work.

After the Gummint gets done with penalizing me for working overseas and having the gall to live in CONUS I could probably make as much working a "straight job" in Texas and be home every night.

But, I get my time off in large chunks thus giving me ample time and some loose change to develop TOGR and I stay out of Precious Brides way for at least half each year in the bargain.

Tho we are both slowing down a bit, she is still pretty good with a knife ...

Be Safe and go tell somebody you love them!

Terry

 

[mojoinco]

Just an FYI for future bucket needs (and when have you ever had too many buckets?): Have PB stop off at the local grocery store bakeries (or even stand alone ones if you have any). They usually have a variety of large buckets for the taking. Sometimes they even still have frosting left on them (talk about a bowl to lick).

Another way is to find a house painter. They usually have a bunch of latex paint buckets (usually 5 gallon). All it takes to clean them out is cutting/scraping the top of the paint edge loose and peeling out the rest. Not that you would need to for the project you had.

But none of them will be orange. Is white ok?!

 

[terry.dinerman]

Just an FYI for future bucket needs (and when have you ever had too many buckets?): Have PB stop off at the local grocery store bakeries (or even stand alone ones if you have any). They usually have a variety of large buckets for the taking. Sometimes they even still have frosting left on them (talk about a bowl to lick).

Another way is to find a house painter. They usually have a bunch of latex paint buckets (usually 5 gallon). All it takes to clean them out is cutting/scraping the top of the paint edge loose and peeling out the rest. Not that you would need to for the project you had.

But none of them will be orange. Is white ok?!

BOYOBOY - Can you EVER have too many 5 gallon buckets??

Now of course, the only folks who would even know those buckets are down there are the moles and my faithful readers .... and I doubt either group would mind what color they might be ...

Like you, I usually get my buckets from the local Donut Hole ... but the pressure was on to get rolling and it was just one of those days when I would waste anything but time ...

As it so happens, Precious Bride, the Jedi Master of Craigslist, has recently cut a deal with a dude who has a regular "hook up" for used buckets from some food processor .... we should have a lifetime supply sitting on a pallet in my backyard by the time I get home ... at popular prices, too ...

I wouldn't have 2 cents to rub together if it wasn't for PB ... :2cents:

Anyway, go tell someone you love them!

T

 

[terry.dinerman]

WATER!


Having refined my technique the previous day, I woke up the next morning a certified pipe-slinging Jedi Master, and by noon, I had reached The End of The Line ...

I was sorry to see it go, but I took the excavator back to the Big Rental Yard and sadly gave up the keys ... I had taken the time to wash the dirt off with my brand-new water hose, and the Boyos showed their appreciation for my efforts by only charging me a half-day for the second day

I like these guys .... there will be more donuts in their future
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The next bit of work was what the manufacturer referred to as "Thrust Blocking" .... It seems that under pressure, the movement allowed by the gaskets in this piping system can, with fluctuations in pressure, create enough movement to push the pipe apart and eventually out of the gaskets, causing all sorts of mischief ....

The cure for this condition is to cast concrete blocks at each end and any point where the pipe changes direction such as 90's, tees or 45's ...

In this way, you provide a hard bearing surface for the pipe to push against versus the soft earth of the trench wall and a much larger surface as well in terms of square inches.

It made Good Sense to me ...

I collected up some of the abundant scrap wood from my Great Pile-o-Stuff and built some make-shift forms, whipped up a little sack-crete and got on with it...

The recommended size thrust blocks for the larger size pipes shown in the manual were enormous .... the chart in the manual recommended the equivalent of at least 2 sacks of sack-crete for my little stuff since according to their engineering calculations, a maximum line pressure of 160 psi could conceivably create over 750 pounds of force at one of my elbows ....

I figure couple of sacks of mud is a small investment and when it's all over, if the pipe comes undone, it wont be because I didnt follow the insttuctions ....

While the concrete was setting up, I got the post hole digger hooked up and the Little Green Giant and I dug a couple of holes for posts for the hydrants ...

They are considered one of those points that require Thrust Blocking, and I calculated that the cross section of the post would provide more than enough resistance to movement as well as provide support for the PVC pipe and a small hut I plan to build over each hydrant.

I cobbled up some pipe straps out of galvanized conduit clips, put it all together and stepped back to admire my work for a minute ...

By now the Texas heat had cured the concrete and I was able to strip the forms ...

I thought hey looked pretty good ...

The rest of the after noon was spent partially burying the pipe ... since this system is designed to allow the pipe to move, you can't just pressure it up unrestrained as it will likely expand and come squirting out of the ditch and make you a very Sad Panda indeed ....

And just to show you that it PAYS TO READ THE MANUFACTURERS INSTRUCTIONS the boys at the Big Plumbing House forgot to mention THAT little tidbit about weighting down the pipe ....

I walked the length of the line with a shovel and a hoe, made sure the all of the pipe was in good contact with the bottom of the ditch and then hung my York rake on the Little Green Giant and made quickwork of burying the middle few feet of each section of pipe .... I left the connectors exposed for the pressure test ....

I went back to the End of the Line and pulled the 2 inch plug and hose-cock out of the line then went back up front to the main valve and cracked it open ....

I figured a slow fill would be best at first .... I had opened all the taps to bleed as much air as possible out and I worked my way back down the line, waiting for each line to stop burping air, closing it and moving downstream to the next ....

I was soon at the pond and clear, cool water was gurgling out of the hydrant ....

I haven't been this excited since the last time I was shot at!

I walked the line back up to the front and finding no leaks, shut it in to allow me to replace the 2 inch plug at the pond hydrant and with that done, I opened up the main valve fully

I checked the line pressure and then set up a bit of hose on the pond hydrant hose-cock where it was soon directing a nice fountain into the pond ....

Not exactly the Bellagio, but it was a beautiful sight nonetheless ...

I had put a comfy chair and my cooler in the shade under the oaks, so I broke out some ice water and took a well-earned break to the sound of the schpritzing .... it was intoxicating ...

Somehow an hour slipped by ... the relaxed pace of this long vacation decided to express itself in a cat-nap under the trees ....

SWEEEET !!!!!

By the time I woke up, all the snorting, belching and gurgling had stopped (from the hose that is, I was fine) and I had got as much air out of the line as I was going to, so I shut the hose-cock and marked the time on my watch.

We were now officially Pressure Testing for the next 24 hours.

I walked the line back up to the front gate and once again found no problems ....

So I took some time to clean up some of the mess I had left in my wake ... my workbench under the barn roof was piled high with tools and bits of everything, the truck was loaded with stripped form-boards, heaps of tools and pretty much the entire pipeline route needed to be policed up.

It didn't take a whole lot to get things back in order, so I took advantage of the fine late afternoon to commune with the Pasture Posse and see how their day went .... once they assured me all was Peachy on their side of the wire, I walked back up the length of the line one more time, and finding no leaks, I marked down the reading on the water meter, closed things up and headed over to MIL and FIL's to clean myself up and engage in shameless self-back-patting.....
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I was upset the next morning to find that the meter had moved by nearly 40 gallons overnight and the "tattletale" dial on the meter was still slowly moving .... when I walked the line and inspected each connection and fitting, all was well.

In fact the powder-dry dirt would have shown up even a drop of water .....

I shut off the main valve and the tattletale stopped immediately, and then resumed its slow roll when I turned the water back on.

This did not compute .... there HAD to be water leaking somewhere ... water was running thru the meter, after all ...

Throughout the day, the tattletale eventually slowed to a crawl, tho it never really stopped and repeated checks of the line revealed no leaks ...

I finally called one of the Jedi Plumbing Masters over at the Big Plumbing House for advice ...

We talked about it for a few minutes and his take on the issue was, it is most likely a large volume of air still trapped in the line.

My property slopes about 6 feet from the high point at the main valve to the low end of the line at the pond, so this made sense.

Apparently, according to the Guru, the trapped air, once compressed to line pressure (50 psi) by the water, is slowly dissolving into the water, and more water slowly trickles thru the meter to replace the volume of air consumed, thus the slow roll of the tattletale .... when the pressure is released by opening a valve, the air comes out of solution, starting the process all over again.

He said that since I had slowly run a large volume thru the system before starting the pressure test, the air was most likely trapped at the high end, well ahead of the taps and that eventually, most, if not all of the air would be absorbed.

The final word from Yoda was, if I had no leaks show up in the system after 24 hours at full pressure, to get on with covering it up and give myself a pat on the back.

I was convinced.

So, at the appointed hour, I made one final inspection of the line and once again found no leaks.

The tattletale was still moving slightly, in fact, it was occassionally rolling backwards ... So I went to the pond hydrant and opened it up for a couple of minutes and then closed it.

Sure enough, the tattletale was spinning like a top while you could barely detect movement on the main gage needle so it looks like Yoda was right ...

By 6 PM, I had the driveway section closed up and smoothed out ... I spent a little extra time wet packing the backfill in the first 20 feet near the meter box that vehicles will cross to make sure that section was properly supported.

Sure is nice to have that hose hooked up!

The rest will wait till the morning ...

 

[jinman]

BOYOBOY - Can you EVER have too many 5 gallon buckets??

Terry, my neighbor just gave me a HoDePo Bucket like yours. He said he went to the store and they had them on sale for $0.25 each or some such reee-diculous price. They only had half a dozen left and he bought them all.

Also, I used plastic ball valves on my well when I built it. The cutoff valve has never failed and doesn't leak a drop when turned off. That's good, because when I had a frozen pipe in the wall this last winter and flooding of my walkout basement, that valve stopped the flow until I could cut and cap the CPVC pipe.

Congratulations on getting your water line installed. You did a great job considering you were your own helper. With water and electricity, progress will surely speed up now. Are you planning any permanent markers along your water line so it can easily be found in the future? It's probably not necessary on short runs, but I'd put several markers along the longest runs.

 

[terry.dinerman]

Congratulations on getting your water line installed. You did a great job considering you were your own helper. With water and electricity, progress will surely speed up now. Are you planning any permanent markers along your water line so it can easily be found in the future? It's probably not necessary on short runs, but I'd put several markers along the longest runs.

Thanks Brother!!!

With the power and water systems in, we are sending out tenders for a builder .... PB and I would like to have someone on site by years end ... and I am thinking about trying the septic system myself as well ...

With the water and power done, I have the courage of a mob right now ...

OH YEAH - Markers indeed ....

I have the utilities marked eight ways from Sunday .... I have them measured out and entered on the Master Plan, took many "as built" photos, the posts marking the proposed fence-lines were in and used as guides to cut the trenches, and last but not least, I buried a stack of 3 "Recycled Subterranean Utility Markers" (crushed aluminum cans) about a foot deep every 20 feet.

If that isn't enough for my decendants to figure out where the water lines are, I give up .... :confused2:

Take care .... and go tell someone you love them...

 

[brin]

Terry, that is a lot of work...I am impressed...Like Jim said, you were your own helper and motivator at the same time...I know you are glad it's done and I am sure you can handle the Septic by yourself...

Are you working on that book yet.....? If not ..shame on you...LOL

 

[terry.dinerman]

Terry, that is a lot of work...I am impressed...Like Jim said, you were your own helper and motivator at the same time...I know you are glad it's done and I am sure you can handle the Septic by yourself...

Are you working on that book yet.....? If not ..shame on you...LOL

I AM working on the book .... and all my friends on TBN get to read it in its larval form ....

I'll get around to formalizing it as soon as the house is built, the fences are done, I get that first load of goats to the sale barn, etc etc etc ....

Be patient!!!!

...now go tell someone you love them...

 

[terry.dinerman]

WATER!!!

A cool mist was still hanging around when I got back to work, a pleasant change from the furnace-like heat that has driven some of the worst brush-fires in the county in many years.

The wind was from the south and carried a faint scent of smoke from fires burning over 40 miles away ... I count myself lucky I am not currently in their path, but still wonder, after over 18 months of a Burn Ban, how much longer this drought is going to hang in ...

I walked the entire line again and found that it was still bone dry ... so I gave myself another pat-on-the-back and finished covering up the "Back 40" and then snapping lids on the valve boxes ...

And suddenly ... it was DONE ....

I celebrated the finish with a cool drink ....

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

...OK .... it tasted like the inside of a new hose .... but IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING ....

Celebration or no, it was time to get TOGR ready to close up for a while .... the downside of this nice long vacation is, I will have to do a double shift to make up for it.... 8 weeks of fun on the Love Boat ... which is nowhere near my all-time record deployment of 7 months, but still, a good reason to complain, come home looking all haggard and try to get some "sympathy points" with PB.

She usually don't buy what I'm sellin', but you can't blame a guy for trying...

Most of the rest of the day was spent untangling the tools, salvageable materials and trash ....

I even cleaned up El Trucke and must have washed 2 yards of dirt out of the bed and found tools I lost last year ...

With everything back in its place, I took a last break under the oak trees and watched the red-birds work over some cracked corn I had thrown out ... their aerial fights are epic ....

The water is as low as it was at the height of last summers heat-wave ... the water table is still high enough to keep about 4 feet of water in it, but it is so warm that the fish are long dead and the turtle and frogs are probably buried in the mud waiting for the winter rains for relief ...

Oh well ... the Old Philosopher may not have meant this when he said "It don't rain EVERY day..."

I took a last look at my work, shut in the main valve on the water, blew "Colors" and struck Old Glory and the Lone Star and then headed back to MIL and FIL's to pack up and head on home.
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Now on a normal schedule, I would be getting ready to deploy, but this time the Girls and I are going to take a little mini vacation

Precious Bride had a hankering for some beignets for breakfast, I wanted a mess of nice fresh-shucked Gulf Oysters and a daiquiri to wash em down for supper and Girl Child wants to stroll down Rue Bourbon with a large dangerous-looking escort to keep the street urchins in line ....

So we had us a road trip ....

New Orleans is not exactly around the corner from our house, but the Girls had rented us a nice comfy ride, and like her Mom, Girl Child is wonderful company on the Road ...

It was sweet motion all the way to The French Quarter ...

We did Cafe Dumond for breakfast, Acme Oyster House for supper and Rue Bourbon in all it's tawdry glory in between ....

Say what you want about New Orleans, but having Cafe au Lait and beignets with your best Girls whilst serenaded by a jazz trumpeter is my definition of Good Living ...

There are few places where I've seen Precious Bride more relaxed than in the French Quarter ... we may have to make this a regular stop ....

Of course, it's not The Old Goat Ranch, but you can't get a frozen daiquiri down at the "Jubilee Feed Store Hair Care and Tire Emporium" either ....

Be Safe, and tell somebody you love them ....

Terry

...and just because I love a woman who appreciates heavy equipment here is PB having some fun.....