Irrigation work

Now that my sprinkler lines are all in the pastures, today I removed the mainline pipe from the hayfield.  First I moved the sprinkler lines to their new position in the pastures.  Then I turned off the irrigation pump so I could disconnect the mainline pipes in the hayfield.

Because of my initial electrical startup problems when I started irrigating this year, I was concerned that could happen again.  No electrical problems.   But I couldn't get the irrigation going.  The pump would not suck up the water and pressurize.  I tried a number of times.  I tightened the bolts on the packing 'structure' for the packing around the drive.  But it seemed as if the bolts couldn't be tightened anymore.  I undid the bolts and looked and didn't see any packing.  The packing prevents air from getting in that would prevent the suction and pressurization when the pump first starts up.   I went to Diversified Electric, who did maintenance on my pump some years ago, and got some more packing.   The packing is graphite.  Costs $10.

Why would the previous packing disappear?  The packing goes around the rod/drive and heat can make the packing deteriorate.   The employee showed me another pump that has a small hose to provide water to the area.  My pump doesn't have a hose.  Other pumps may have some grease for lubrication.  My pump does not.   My pump is very, very old.  The company quit making pumps in the early 1960s.  My pump is from the 1940s or 1950s.  The pump is bigger than modern pumps this horsepower, but simpler and more basic in design.

I put the new packing into the pump and reattached the 'structure'.    The pump would not pressurize to start up.  Huh?  Then I looked at the packing structure.  I had put it on backwards.   On the left is a photo of it wrong.  On the right a photo of it correctly installed.  Once I fixed the packing structure then pump would pressurize and start up and I was back to irrigating the pastures.   I think I have 11 days to go before I am done.  I can't wait.

I figured I would remove some of the mainline pipes from the hayfield, then go and eat breakfast and sleep some more. Then remove the rest of the pipes later.  But, I don't get hungry and for some reason wasn't tired, so I kept going.  A few more pipes.  Then a few more pipes.  I ended up removing all the mainline pipes from the hayfield.   It was like I was younger.  Why quit?  Waiting until another time, it may be harder to carry and remove the pipes.  The steel pipes weigh 61 lbs each and the aluminum pipes weigh around 31 lbs each.

Here are the mainline pipes I removed from the hayfield.  The three pipes on the left are extra sprinkler line of pipes.

After I removed the pipes I had breakfast and then went to sleep at 2:30 pm.  I had been up since 6:30 am after 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep.  When I slept this afternoon I slept hard.  Apparently it rained a little bit when I was asleep.  I never noticed. 

Moving the pipes, and the irrigation pipe packing problem, distracted me from checking the sprinkler heads.  When I moved the pipes in the evening I found one sprinkler head was not working.  I used the wire to clear the sprinkler nozzle but it wouldn't clear completely.  It was the last pipe so I disconnected the pipe from the active line.  I found a small twig in the line, the length of a person's fingernail.  A wire would move but not break the twig down.  With the twig removed the sprinkler now worked.

Last week I bought a used 45 degree sprinkler line connector from Myron, my irrigation guy.  I have a 90 degree sprinkler elbow, but sometimes I want to the line to only 'curve'.   Since my pipes are 40 ft long I can move/bend them to curve them slightly.  But that is not ideal.   The 45 degree connector worked great when I wanted the line to move away from the pole shed and into the corral slightly.   The main reason I want the 45 degree connector is when I am at the end of the mainline for the line that goes around the middle and north pastures.  The pastures are not square due to bends in the river and I end up with a kind-of "u" shaped line.   Since the 45 connector works great I could use one or two more connectors for the "u" shape line.  But Myron doesn't have any more connectors.   I may look elsewhere or continue to bend the remaining pipes to make a "u".

45 degree connector for three inch pipes.

Lastly, last year my irrigation pump would shut off when the temperature got 93 or 94 degrees or greater.  This year that did not happen.  A handful of times the past few weeks we had 94, 95, 96 or 99 degree temperatures and the pump stayed working.  Hurray.  One less headache.