Crossville oughta qualify as being on the outskirts of Gatlinburg... I know a guy who has a sticka wood there...
How's your day been?
- Thread starter Kevin
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Would love to stop by, but if I used our anniversary trip to do so (when our list of things we want to see/do is already longer than the time we have), and if I brought home wood with me (when I've been working on downsizing what I have), well, my wife would probably find a secluded place to bury me - which I'm sure there are plenty of such places down there!
On our recent camping trip, we passed through Ishpeming, MI a few times, where Bell Forest is located. I had stopped there once quite some time ago when we were in the area and had wanted to go back if we were ever in the area again. We were camping 20 minutes away and it actually was not hard to resist the temptation to stop in. I have too much wood in my shop right now...
Too much wood is my current problem. Still working on the trailers full of walnut that I picked up right before my wife open heart surgery. And I have 3 other fellows trying to get me to look at some more
woodtickgreg
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I finished up my silverwing refurb today. Now she looks nice for a 22 year old bike.
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Before and after.
Congrats! Incredible difference — night & day!
We had over a dozen calls last weekend for CO2 alarms from generators. Most were fixed units installed to code. No wind and high humidity made some strange results. Most people had power back within 2 days, some 40K or so went 5 days without. Makes holiday memories for sure.
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It's generator maintenance day. After every use I drain the fuel, drop the float bowl on the carb to drain. It, and change the oil. I store it bone dry, doing this assures it will start the next time I need it.
Well, it was an okay day until I noticed some saturated soil around this hydrant. Was hoping it might just be a cracked pipe a few inches down and I could braze it. Down about 16" and no luck so far. Worst of it is ground is already saturated, and don't want to shut off water as it would cut it to house too. Not a catastrophic leak, and being its the weekend, I'll dig all weekend with the hope I find a crack and don't have to go down to the bottom. I know this is at least a 4' bury, and maybe even a 5' bury hydrant. Not sure I have it I'm me to hand dig a 5 ft hole big enough to work in if whole thing has to be replaced. Hydrant is 55 years old, so can't complain, but still...
Best of luck with your digging project!
Dummy me, I'm not going to find a crack in the pipe. The valve is at the bottom and the pipe is only under pressure when the hydrant is on. The valve is working fine as no water is leaking from the spigot. The leak is probably from a cracked elbow at the bottom.
However, the soil is saturated around there, so I'll continue to pump water out and dig a deeper sump. Otherwise, when we get the well guys to come in next week, they'll dig a hole to work in, but it will rapidly fill with water.
Don't know if I'll make in a dent in the water, but if I do, may save an hour or two of paid labor later.
However, the soil is saturated around there, so I'll continue to pump water out and dig a deeper sump. Otherwise, when we get the well guys to come in next week, they'll dig a hole to work in, but it will rapidly fill with water.
Don't know if I'll make in a dent in the water, but if I do, may save an hour or two of paid labor later.
If you can find where the line exits the house to feed that (hopefully) you can shut off just that line. Otherwise, the only way to empty that water is a small pump type water extractor...
And while you've got that hole dug, figure out where to include a shutoff valve for the future. Might not be you, but the next person will appreciate it.
I've got a submersible pump that works pretty well. Not huge but works
Unfortunately, there's no shutting off any of the lines, they are all fed directly from the well pump. One branch goes to the house and a hydrant next to it, another to a hydrant the other side of shed, and a third to this hydrant.
No well pit or any other place to put shutoffs with out digging the whole thing up and then doing it at a very large cost. This is 50+ year old work that was done on a farm. They used good materials, these are Merrill hydrants, but didn't always use the best design in regards to future consideration of needs and maintenance.
You should be able to drop a shutoff just at the outer edge of your work area while you have it dug up.
@2feathers Creative Making @DLJeffs
Thanks to you both for talking enough about a shutoff, that it finally sunk into my thick head.
I said that the hydrants are plumbed direct from the pump. That's obviously wrong and wouldn't work. Pretty obvious in retrospect as I often notice the throw of sprinklers as they increase/decrease with cycles of pressure tank/pump.
How did it finally occur to me? Decided to turn off the well, and pump the hole dry to make sure we didn't have a little artesian well developing. It's not unheard of around here, so was worth checking.
Went down into the basement to trip the breakers and the pressure tank sits right there. And guess what, there are two pipes coming through the wall! One into the pressure tank, and one off a "T" that the pressure switch is mounted. One side of the "T" is copper to the house, which I had plumbed a shutoff onto years ago when renovating a bathroom. Wanted to isolate the house from the tank so wouldn't loose hydrants outside while plumbing inside. The other side is a nice, easy to cut and splice, length of black plastic that guess what, goes to the hydrants.
So, tomorrow, it's back to town for a ball valve and fittings to be able to isolate the hydrants. They will be turned off, I'll drain the hole and let it dry out for a couple of days before I resume digging. In my mind, that's a great plan as we are expecting heat indexes over 110° for at least Sunday and Monday.
Guessing it's a crack in the elbow at bottom of hydrant, but will probably just replace the whole hydrant. I'm sure it would keep on working, but it is 50+ years old, and would be silly not to replace it while the hole is dug.
I'll definitely sleep better tonight.
Thanks to you both for talking enough about a shutoff, that it finally sunk into my thick head.
I said that the hydrants are plumbed direct from the pump. That's obviously wrong and wouldn't work. Pretty obvious in retrospect as I often notice the throw of sprinklers as they increase/decrease with cycles of pressure tank/pump.
How did it finally occur to me? Decided to turn off the well, and pump the hole dry to make sure we didn't have a little artesian well developing. It's not unheard of around here, so was worth checking.
Went down into the basement to trip the breakers and the pressure tank sits right there. And guess what, there are two pipes coming through the wall! One into the pressure tank, and one off a "T" that the pressure switch is mounted. One side of the "T" is copper to the house, which I had plumbed a shutoff onto years ago when renovating a bathroom. Wanted to isolate the house from the tank so wouldn't loose hydrants outside while plumbing inside. The other side is a nice, easy to cut and splice, length of black plastic that guess what, goes to the hydrants.
So, tomorrow, it's back to town for a ball valve and fittings to be able to isolate the hydrants. They will be turned off, I'll drain the hole and let it dry out for a couple of days before I resume digging. In my mind, that's a great plan as we are expecting heat indexes over 110° for at least Sunday and Monday.
Guessing it's a crack in the elbow at bottom of hydrant, but will probably just replace the whole hydrant. I'm sure it would keep on working, but it is 50+ years old, and would be silly not to replace it while the hole is dug.
I'll definitely sleep better tonight.
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Well, long story short, I've conceded and going to call the well/pump guys in the morning.
It's a 4 ft bury hydrant and I got down to the top of the drain valve to confirm, but that soil down there is all clay that has been saturated for who knows how long. Sunk above my ankles in the clay, every shovel full has to be scraped off, and the heat index is 110° right now with no breeze. Had to belly crawl to get out of the hole
Enough is enough.......
It's a 4 ft bury hydrant and I got down to the top of the drain valve to confirm, but that soil down there is all clay that has been saturated for who knows how long. Sunk above my ankles in the clay, every shovel full has to be scraped off, and the heat index is 110° right now with no breeze. Had to belly crawl to get out of the hole
Enough is enough.......
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Guess you can be grateful you aren't digging septic lines...
If this soil wasn't clay that was saturated, I'd probably still try to do it, however, it's about 5 times the effort to dig wet soil.
And just because I got down to where the problem is doesn't mean that I can work on it. As much as I've dug, there is probably three times as much to remove to be able to work on it. Then it's getting a new hydrant properly installed by myself. Will be expensive, but they will probably get the job done in 2-3 hours.