When oldest Son (Tom) bought a small farm 14 miles away 3 1/2 years ago, it was nice to have his family close rather than 3 hours away. The place was well taken care of although pretty rough ground. The previous owners had built a 3/4 acre pond at the lower end of the place and installed a submersible pump under a float in the pond with pressure tank in the corner of a heated shed. Within a year, he had a waterline break above the pond on the very steep hillside. This became a common problem with a waterline break every year. The PVC pipe was pulling apart at the joints. This summer we dug up a leak to find it had been repaired before. With winter coming on and livestock depending on this water source, we sought a solution. The steepness of the hill, proximity of sandstone to the surface, and likelihood of excess erosion resulting from digging in a new line(not even considering the high cost of backhoe, waterline, and electric line) seemed to make this project prohibitive.
During a brainstorming session, I suggested "pulling" a smaller continuous line inside the failing 1 1/4" PVC line. Tom wasn't too big on the idea so I did some investigation into the project. It looked do-able and a big cost savings plus far less disturbing to the hillside. The decision was made to go for it.
The backhoe guy is a friend and he was skeptical but cooperative. The first problem was finding the old line. My "divining rod"(witching fork) was confused by the numerous tree roots and we missed with our initial search holes. We finally got another friend who works for the local water district to "find" the old line. After digging at both ends of the line, we "blew" a fluff bag with attached 20# mono fishing line down the pipe and used that to pull a "mule" tape back. After 3 partial days of prep work, the actual "pull" took 1 1/2 hours mostly because we were being over cautious.
Anyhoo, by 11 AM, we had water pressure in the system. By 3 PM, we had all the backfill completed and were smoothing the backfill on another line laid to a new year-round livestock water tank.
The backhoe operator is impressed and we have added another "how the heck did you manage that" page to my big book of such odd-ball solutions.
During a brainstorming session, I suggested "pulling" a smaller continuous line inside the failing 1 1/4" PVC line. Tom wasn't too big on the idea so I did some investigation into the project. It looked do-able and a big cost savings plus far less disturbing to the hillside. The decision was made to go for it.
The backhoe guy is a friend and he was skeptical but cooperative. The first problem was finding the old line. My "divining rod"(witching fork) was confused by the numerous tree roots and we missed with our initial search holes. We finally got another friend who works for the local water district to "find" the old line. After digging at both ends of the line, we "blew" a fluff bag with attached 20# mono fishing line down the pipe and used that to pull a "mule" tape back. After 3 partial days of prep work, the actual "pull" took 1 1/2 hours mostly because we were being over cautious.
Anyhoo, by 11 AM, we had water pressure in the system. By 3 PM, we had all the backfill completed and were smoothing the backfill on another line laid to a new year-round livestock water tank.
The backhoe operator is impressed and we have added another "how the heck did you manage that" page to my big book of such odd-ball solutions.
