Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

I have lots of progress to report about my rain drain/trench drama...
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Now months later, the rain ditches have not stopped flowing. I was disappointed that my new improved two-pipe drain was not draining very fast, and my yard immediately around the ditch was wetter than before.

When I buried pipe 13 or 14 years ago, after Katrina, I apparently guessed correctly and used slitted pipe. This time even though I buried two courses of pipe I used solid pipe... Bzzzt fail. The slitted pipe helps drain subsurface water, which my yard has in volume.

There is always time to do something over when you do it wrong, so I just finished digging up the puny solid pipe and laying down a single run of 6" diameter slitted pipe... My yard is noticeably drier already and the 1x6" pipe drains faster than 2x 4". I also bought a 100' long sock to pull over the pipe to keep dirt from coming in through the slits.

It turns out the larger 12" drain box I already had will accept 6" pipe, so thats all good. I just had to remove the 4" adapter plates.
DSCF0132.JPG

I widened and deepened the silt pool by the drain inlet. The water looks still in that picture but water is still flowing.
DSCF0131.JPG
I have also refined my silt trapping/collection. I repurposed some old 4" pipe to steer runoff from my mid side ditch into a silt bucket first. So the silty water flows into the bucket then reverses direction twice to finally reach the drain box.

Again it doesn't look like much going on, because it hasn't rained for several days but there is still a steady stream of water coming down from uphill of me. I will add another section of pipe and bucket to capture silt coming from far back ditch.

I expect my silt collection buckets and shorty pipes to fill up with silt/sand every few months but they will be relatively easy to clean out.
jetter.jpg
jetter.jpg (21.62 KiB) Viewed 5827 times
Speaking of cleaning out my pipes, this is called a "sewer jetter" nozzle... Connected to my pressure washer, one water jet sprays forward and the rest back, so it centers itself and helps pull itself into/through a pipe. I already used it to flush out my front yard french drain that is only 50' long and doesn't get much silt in it because it drains water from on top of my grass... Between the relatively stiff pressure washer hose and water jet assist I had no trouble reaching 50' into that buried front drain.

If I had found this jetter nozzle before I dug up my first clogged drain, I might have been able to just clean it, instead of replacing it... but that is life.. always giving you the answers for next time, not for this time. :oops:

JR
Last edited by JR. on Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Expecting rain soon?
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

DSCF0113.JPG
mediatechnology wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:03 am Expecting rain soon?
Always... This picture was from a few weeks ago. Rain runoff completely covered the 3' diameter front culvert.

You can see water spraying up out of the manhole cover across the street.

My yard hasn't been dry enough to mow completely yet this spring. I mowed about half of it last weekend.

Weather report actually looks dry for next few days... Rain ditches keep flowing because ground is saturated uphill from me.

JR
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Jacko
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Re: Entropy

Post by Jacko »

My chainsaw has a severe gas leak. Must get it fixed before Spring cleanup.

The riding mower won't start because the battery has gone down even with a float charger on it all winter.

Float charger is crap and probably needs to go in the dumpster. (or maybe modified)

The wind blew a shutter off the house. They are held on with barbed plastic pins that are now stripped. I see some on Amazon but cringe at paying $15 for 5 plastics pins that cost about 25 cents to make!

The deer jumping over the fence have knocked off the top boards in several places and now the boards are warped from being wet and on the ground, so they must be replaced. Deer are like big rats; eating the garden, knocking down the fence and grazing on my wife's flower beds!

Entropy.

regards, Jacko
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

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Jacko wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:53 am My chainsaw has a severe gas leak. Must get it fixed before Spring cleanup.
Ethanol is rough on chainsaw fuel systems... I have seen the gas tubing dissolve and disappear. I had an old chainsaw that refused to be repaired. After I tried everything reasonable, I took it to my local small motor whisperer and he said it couldn't be fixed (or wasn't worth it). My speculation is warped crankcase leaking, hindering it's ability to draw fuel. It was an old cheap saw, but I was disappointed. The replacement stihl is a definite upgrade.
The riding mower won't start because the battery has gone down even with a float charger on it all winter.
I had a soft battery in my car (slow cranking on cold mornings) it turned out my once a week short 7 mile each way, shopping trip, was not adequate to keep the battery topped off. I now use a NOCO Genius trickle charger once a week and the battery seems fine, but a proper test requires another few years.
Float charger is crap and probably needs to go in the dumpster. (or maybe modified)
My trickle charger is microprocessor controlled, taking several hours to fully charge, so unless it is something real simple not trivial to repair.
The wind blew a shutter off the house. They are held on with barbed plastic pins that are now stripped. I see some on Amazon but cringe at paying $15 for 5 plastics pins that cost about 25 cents to make!
keep looking, amazon is not always best price, especially first time you look (they read your cookies so know you are looking.)
The deer jumping over the fence have knocked off the top boards in several places and now the boards are warped from being wet and on the ground, so they must be replaced. Deer are like big rats; eating the garden, knocking down the fence and grazing on my wife's flower beds!
but deer taste better than rats when cooked (probably).

JR
Entropy.

regards, Jacko
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

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The deer jumping over the fence have knocked off the top boards in several places and now the boards are warped from being wet and on the ground, so they must be replaced. Deer are like big rats; eating the garden, knocking down the fence and grazing on my wife's flower beds!
I love Venison.
Steaks are good.
Sausage even better.
Makes the best Chili.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Maybe don't eat the deer if they have symptoms of chronic wasting disease... so far no reported human cases in US of transmission to humans (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). Apparently they have documented monkeys getting sick from eating diseased deer meat.

I saw one questionable looking wild deer, stuck in a fence on my friends property in GA, so far all the deer around me here look healthy.

JR
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billshurv
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Re: Entropy

Post by billshurv »

At my old house the record was about 15 deer in the garden at once. Scares the sh*t out of you the first time you walk out in the dark and see all those eyes staring at you. Tulips and Roses were their favourite foods. Oh and plums. They would clean the plum tree of fruit. But they were tasty...
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Re: Entropy

Post by Gold »

I was at my oldest friends house for Christmas. We were in a band together when we were 12 years old. We both ended up in New York. They have a vacation house just over the New Jersey border in Pennsylvania. It's in a gated community with a couple of man made ponds. It's not fancy. Every time we visit we see tons of deer. It's not unusual to see a bear or other wildlife. His sister in law has a house next door. A friend of hers got bit by an otter when swimming.

They can't understand why we would want a place that is so remote. His wife asked about wild animals with fear in her voice. We hardly ever see anything. There is so much wilderness they don't need to encroach on human territory. I think people in the ex-burbs see much more wildlife than we do because they are encroaching on habitat.
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

I think people in the ex-burbs see much more wildlife than we do because they are encroaching on habitat.
When there's construction anywhere around here we see an uptick in Coyote sightings.
Right now they have the run of the place.
I found Coyote droppings this morning.
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