This afternoon I got the rest of the sprinkler lines laid out. I have a pile of cut tree trunks stacked in the NE corner of the middle pasture. I have found they get wet when I irrigate. I decided to move some of them - a pickup and a half load - over to the stack of logs near my garage. They won't get wet there from the irrigation. I left the rest of the logs in the middle pasture as they also protect the fence. When I get some boards added to this corner of the fence I will then move the rest of the logs.
At my irrigation pump at the river, after irrigation is done for the year, I always unhook half of the intake pipe so the pipe doesn't break when the river freezes in the Winter. When I went to hook up the pipe I discovered grass and small branches in one section of the pipe still attached to the pump. Whichever bird that was trying to make a nest next to mailbox earlier, later tried to make a nest in the irrigation pipe. That's a new thing. So I had to clean out the grass and branches. They went a ways into the pipe. To make sure I got it all removed I took off the priming pump and poured lots of water into the pipe which washed out the rest of the grass and sticks.
But before I hooked up the pipe I looked in the river where the intake screen / foot valve would go. Weed type of grass was growing in the river. Last year I had to remove this as eventually it covered my intake screen and reduced the water flow. So I had to spend lots of time today to try to remove as much of the weeds as I could from the area near the intake screen / foot valve location.
I tightened slightly the packing, primed the pump, and started the irrigation pump. It started up. When I turned the valve to release water into the irrigation pipes I discovered the valve had a leak in the valve stem area. What? A few years ago I had a pipe crack over Winter as I hadn't completed opened and drained the water after I finished irrigating. I do that now. And I had opened this valve. So I don't know why the crack happened.
The crack only sprayed out a small amount of water. So I thought I would run the irrigation in order to clean out the irrigation pipes. Mice - or birds - can put stuff into the pipes when I store them. So I first leave the end caps off and let the water wash out the pipes, then put the end caps back on. With the end caps on the sprinkler action then starts. All sprinklers appear to be working. Then back to the pump to see how much water is spraying out of the crack now that the pressure is up. It was annoying but I could live the the area getting wet for now.
It was getting late and replacing the valve will take a little effort as I have to unhook and then remove the irrigation pipe from the valve. To remove the pipe, that means moving a number of irrigation pipes to the corner. I can't move the irrigation pump from the pipes, I have to move the pipes from the pump. Tomorrow I will fix the valve. Even though the valve is large - a three or four inch valve - I do have another similar valve. My memory is that I had used that valve before but it had a problem completely closing. Or maybe not. I still have the valve as I haven't recycled my metal items yet. I looked at the valve and it appears to open and close correctly. I'll try using it tomorrow when I have more time to make sure everything works.
It's always something.
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