You have probably heard about the epic storms in California.
Now, we Californians aren’t really complaining since we are all living in a drought stricken state… however… spacing the storms out a bit would really help my situation, at least.
You see, the previous owners built our wonderful wood barn at the bottom of a hill in the spot where all the natural waterflow – flows. So, if there is a huge storm, the barn floods.
Finally, the sun came out after 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Well, not really… but it felt like that around here.
I put on my ‘dirty project’ clothes… Bagheera came over to greet me. She was so happy that the rain had stopped!
ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Over the years, we’ve put in a french drain, a gravel drain, a mesh drain… for some reason, all of those methods have failed.
The only system that seems to work was digging a hole, letting the water fill the hole and then pumping it out. Ugh. It looks awful, but it works.
Well, at least it did work, until it stopped. Yup, it stopped pumping on the very first day of our torrential rains (Oy) and Hubby wouldn’t be back to the house for another 2 weeks.
My wonderful barn, which I love, was built on the lowest area of a huge hill. All the natural water flow, flows right into the barn.
EPIC WET
This morning, I woke up to a thin layer of water covering the barn aisle.
The front of the barn was a pooled mess.
I knew the flooding would soon seep into the hay compartment. NOOOOOO! When bales of hay are $25, the LAST THING they should be used for is sopping up water!
So, I went to the nearest Harbor Freight, I bought a new pump… and then I called my neighbor.
This is the general gathering area for all the water from the entire ranch that sits above the barn. You can imagine the flooding that occurs during epic rain and pump failure.
Scouty, of course, had to sniff everything Jay touched.
JAY
Jay is the kind of neighbor who comes over when you call and does the best possible job. He never complains, he always wants to do the best work and he never wants payment – except maybe cookies. I try not to abuse his good graces.
Now, he sounds like an old guy, but he isn’t. He is a very young man with a large ranch at the end of our street. Jay has a nice place and spends his time playing with all types of cars – mostly old trucks. Once he has a few restored, he sells them to buyers in Asia. Smart kid. And very handy.
Anyway, along with his love of old cars, he also has some very new and large equipment… every kind of tractor/John Deere/lift truck/tree dragging/dirt moving/hole digging device known to man. And, he loves excuses to use them! He actually kind of salivates when you tell him you have dirt to be moved or a hole to be dug or a tree to drag away. Jay loves that stuff! (I imagine him with a bunch of Tonka trucks as a kid telling himself that he was going to get the big ones when he grew up…).
So, I called Jay and told him about my situation.
Jay: Describe the coupling.
Me: Uh, it has threads?
Jay: Metal or PVC?
Me: Both. Metal pump, PVC pipe.
Jay: OK, I’ll be right down.
I knew he meant it so I pulled on my ‘dirty project’ clothes and ran to open the gate.
These were the tools we used… plus the hose to flush out the debris in the pipe. Easy peasy. Hacksaw, zipties, and a thing to push out the clogs. Oh and we got rid of an unnecessary elbow.
Here is the new pump, which we didn’t need, and the flymask that we later strapped onto the pump to filter the debris until I can get a basket for the pump housing.
THE TASK
Jay arrived, looked at the situation and in about 10 minutes, had the line cleared the PVC rearranged and the pump running – the old one. It wasn’t burned out at all. The line was clogged.
He told me to get a ‘basket’ to put the pump in so that it doesn’t suck up the leaves that then clog the PVC drain pipe. He told me where to get the basket and how to ask for it at the plumbing supply place.
In the meantime, we strapped an old fly mask onto the intake hole to use as a screen.
He was in and out in 15 minutes.
Everyone needs a Jay.
Thank you, Horsegods, for putting him at the end of my street.
And this ugly thing was Jay’s last stroke of genius. He grabbed it out of the dusty hay room and put it at the end of the draining pipe. He said, “Have the water flow into here first so it doesn’t dig out a big hole of erosion in the driveway.” Genius. Ugly but genius. I’ll think of something more sightly tomorrow.
JANUARY BUCKET FUND!! MEET ARACELY, a Peruvian Paso mare with a horrible infection! She needs meds and constant packing for the next 60 days. Can we help her?! Click here to read her story!
Click to read her story!
