Rockin' the Box
Aug. 15th, 2020 19:58![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillAs today was the first full day of a "heat wave" (it reached 90 here!) I decided it would be a good opportunity to go deal with the water box.
I collected the parts I thought I'd need a couple of weeks ago, so I hauled them, a screwdriver (for hose clamps), a PVC cutter, two pipe wrenches, a hacksaw (in case), knee pads, river shoes, and a lunch up the hill late this morning.
I replaced the incoming valve first, as it was pretty much just a free-floating valve with a pipe splice a couple of feet further up... it turned out to be the easy swap I anticipated. Then I turned the valve off while I puzzled out the outgoing valve assembly. I saw at once it had a 3/4" pipe coming out, where I had only 1" on hand -- well, bugger. I made sure I had everything else I'd need, and turned to the overflow. After taking off what was obviously a broken cap (I guess that was how Ivan secured the two ends of the pipe passing through the box wall) I found a 1" nipple. I tried fitting 1" poly pipe to it, and found it wasn't adequate: despite 1" poly pipe feeding the box, I guess the pressure at the inflow was high enough to create a volume greater than an unpressurized 1" overflow could take. Which would be why Ivan had put together some 1 1/4" poly, but he had never managed to attach it. All I needed to do was get a 1" threaded to 1 1/4" poly adaptor, and I'd be golden.
So, with those parts in mind, I turned the water back on (why not) and hiked back down again. Wow, the warm muggy air descended as soon as I climbed eight feet out of the ravine; what a difference.
A trip to Skyberg's showed me their weakness: while they carry plenty of PVC pipe and fittings, as soon as you venture into threaded PVC, they carry almost nothing (except adaptors to slip). They also had nothing I could use to fit the 1 1/4" poly to the overflow. I managed to cobble together something for the outgoing line that would work with the PVC nipples I got from Wilco -- thank goodness for my reflex of "grab a few of these" -- plus some teflon tape and WD-40 to replace that which the thieves stole, and came back to the house. After lunch, I loaded up my duct tape and the additional parts, and hiked out again.
I found a buried splice a couple of feet beyond the outflow valve, which let me simply unscrew the whole assembly (two elbows and a bunch of pipe) from the box, and screw the new one on. Turning the valve on showed no more leaks than there had been -- a slight trickle from the splice, which like its companion on the other side has no clamps, but the hillside won't care. Before filling the box completely, I wound a bunch of duct tape around the 1" nipple for the overflow, and wedged the 1 1/4" poly pipe onto it, clamping it down. It leaks slightly from where it goes through the box, but that's not enough to make much mud or erode the bank. And the overflow pipe now runs neatly across the path and cascades into the stream below.
After turning everything on again, I took off my shoes and pants, and set about fixing the pathways. There isn't a whole lot I can do about the somewhat steep initial descent to the box, but I did lay down some sheets of alder bark that were on the slope above it, using them for traction and to help stabilize the mud. I excavated a little more of the slope away from the stream (which my fingernails are not thanking me for) so that we're not walking quite so close to the edge. The rest, I'm afraid, will just have to be traversed carefully, unless I decide to bring up a few pieces of wild cherry firewood and some rebar to make steps.
I scoured the streambed for portable rocks, and placed them on the low spots of the 25 feet of path to the ford below the screen. I excavated a bunch of mud so they'd be on solid ground, and used stones ranging from a couple of inches to the size of melons. I did find enough to basically make cobblestone paths, rather than stepping-stones, so they should be more stable. I rolled a few large-watermelon-size rocks over to act as steps to the ford and, in one case, to stabilize the bank for the trail. I didn't even mash my fingers or toes, despite wearing nothing on my feet but river shoes.
Most of the time I was only about ankle-deep in water, as the creek there has a few small pools connected by shallow rapids over bedrock. The water was about 50 degrees, perfectly pleasant for a summer day. While I was working, I cleared some of the small branches out from over the streambed, so that can act as an alternate path when the water is low... or if I decide I'd rather get my feet wet.
I was back down in time for dinner. Hopefully that will solve a lot of the silting problems we've had -- with a healthy flow through the box, I suspect the screen will be less likely to silt up, and both valves are now clear and fully open. I also hope that the winter storms don't completely undo my work on the path. I can cope with small mudslides covering it up, but a real gully-washer could make short work of smallish rocks simply placed on the bank. We'll see.
I collected the parts I thought I'd need a couple of weeks ago, so I hauled them, a screwdriver (for hose clamps), a PVC cutter, two pipe wrenches, a hacksaw (in case), knee pads, river shoes, and a lunch up the hill late this morning.
I replaced the incoming valve first, as it was pretty much just a free-floating valve with a pipe splice a couple of feet further up... it turned out to be the easy swap I anticipated. Then I turned the valve off while I puzzled out the outgoing valve assembly. I saw at once it had a 3/4" pipe coming out, where I had only 1" on hand -- well, bugger. I made sure I had everything else I'd need, and turned to the overflow. After taking off what was obviously a broken cap (I guess that was how Ivan secured the two ends of the pipe passing through the box wall) I found a 1" nipple. I tried fitting 1" poly pipe to it, and found it wasn't adequate: despite 1" poly pipe feeding the box, I guess the pressure at the inflow was high enough to create a volume greater than an unpressurized 1" overflow could take. Which would be why Ivan had put together some 1 1/4" poly, but he had never managed to attach it. All I needed to do was get a 1" threaded to 1 1/4" poly adaptor, and I'd be golden.
So, with those parts in mind, I turned the water back on (why not) and hiked back down again. Wow, the warm muggy air descended as soon as I climbed eight feet out of the ravine; what a difference.
A trip to Skyberg's showed me their weakness: while they carry plenty of PVC pipe and fittings, as soon as you venture into threaded PVC, they carry almost nothing (except adaptors to slip). They also had nothing I could use to fit the 1 1/4" poly to the overflow. I managed to cobble together something for the outgoing line that would work with the PVC nipples I got from Wilco -- thank goodness for my reflex of "grab a few of these" -- plus some teflon tape and WD-40 to replace that which the thieves stole, and came back to the house. After lunch, I loaded up my duct tape and the additional parts, and hiked out again.
I found a buried splice a couple of feet beyond the outflow valve, which let me simply unscrew the whole assembly (two elbows and a bunch of pipe) from the box, and screw the new one on. Turning the valve on showed no more leaks than there had been -- a slight trickle from the splice, which like its companion on the other side has no clamps, but the hillside won't care. Before filling the box completely, I wound a bunch of duct tape around the 1" nipple for the overflow, and wedged the 1 1/4" poly pipe onto it, clamping it down. It leaks slightly from where it goes through the box, but that's not enough to make much mud or erode the bank. And the overflow pipe now runs neatly across the path and cascades into the stream below.
After turning everything on again, I took off my shoes and pants, and set about fixing the pathways. There isn't a whole lot I can do about the somewhat steep initial descent to the box, but I did lay down some sheets of alder bark that were on the slope above it, using them for traction and to help stabilize the mud. I excavated a little more of the slope away from the stream (which my fingernails are not thanking me for) so that we're not walking quite so close to the edge. The rest, I'm afraid, will just have to be traversed carefully, unless I decide to bring up a few pieces of wild cherry firewood and some rebar to make steps.
I scoured the streambed for portable rocks, and placed them on the low spots of the 25 feet of path to the ford below the screen. I excavated a bunch of mud so they'd be on solid ground, and used stones ranging from a couple of inches to the size of melons. I did find enough to basically make cobblestone paths, rather than stepping-stones, so they should be more stable. I rolled a few large-watermelon-size rocks over to act as steps to the ford and, in one case, to stabilize the bank for the trail. I didn't even mash my fingers or toes, despite wearing nothing on my feet but river shoes.
Most of the time I was only about ankle-deep in water, as the creek there has a few small pools connected by shallow rapids over bedrock. The water was about 50 degrees, perfectly pleasant for a summer day. While I was working, I cleared some of the small branches out from over the streambed, so that can act as an alternate path when the water is low... or if I decide I'd rather get my feet wet.
I was back down in time for dinner. Hopefully that will solve a lot of the silting problems we've had -- with a healthy flow through the box, I suspect the screen will be less likely to silt up, and both valves are now clear and fully open. I also hope that the winter storms don't completely undo my work on the path. I can cope with small mudslides covering it up, but a real gully-washer could make short work of smallish rocks simply placed on the bank. We'll see.
