I'm getting older. Saturday I only set out and hooked up the irrigation mainline pipes. I have 40 foot aluminum pipes and 21 foot steel pipes. The steel pipes must be around twice as heavy as the aluminum pipes. And it also seems as if the steel pipes gained weight since I last moved them last year. After moving four steel pipes my one hip started bothering me due to carrying such heavy weight. I used a wheelbarrow to move the rest of the steel pipes, one by one.
I had about four pipes left to move and I decided to take a rest break in the shade of a nearby evergreen tree. My hip was still sore so I laid down to rest. I woke up a little bit later. I found I had used as a pillow the tree's trunk where it went out as a side root.
I started moving the sprinkler pipes but I soon discovered I forgot to bring a couple of wrenches used at times to adjust the hooks. Since it was getting late I called it a day.
Sunday I laid out and hooked up the pipes for the two sprinkler lines and the pipes for the transition line used so I don't have to turn off the irrigation pump when I later move the two sprinkler lines. I had a half dozen pipes to get from the other stack of pipes. I was tired and wanted to sleep. Even though I had slept 9 hours the night before I ended up laying down (in the house this time!) and slept hard for another hour. It seems like I have to sleep lots these days.
Once the pipes were laid out and hooked up I started the irrigation pump. It started right up this year. I had left off the end plugs on all lines as I wanted to wash out the dirt and grass and pine needles so they wouldn't go up and plug the sprinklers. Once I put all the plugs in I found the sprinklers only had two-thirds pressure. I checked all the pipe connections and found the last pipe in the mainline had partially come loose and was leaking lots of water. I tried to get the pipe back in to no avail. I had to walk all the way to the irrigation pump and turn it off. Then walk back and re-hook the pipe. I also put into the ground at the mainline end a couple of metal rods to also help the last pipe stay in place.
This time when I started up the pump all the sprinklers had good pressure. Initially I was complaining that nothing every works smoothly and right the first time. Then I remembered all the problems I had last year with the check valve and first corner of the mainline pipe. Those problems took me eight days to fix. So an extra half hour or so was not much.
Now I am back to spending two to three hours a day moving the two sprinkler lines twice a day. 8 in the morning and 8 in the evening. The hayfield has 11 valves so it will be 5 and 1/2 days to cross the hayfield, then another 5 1/2 days to go back. Depending on how and dry August is I may have to go out and back once more before I move the pipes into the pastures and then do the second hay cutting.
2 minute 1 second video of my irrigation lines and my irrigation pump: https://youtu.be/86-ac2-4np0
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