Adulting!

it's been a little over a year since I got a house and some horses. We've been slowly making improvements to the property and this holiday we rented some machines and dug a big ass trench and added water lines out to the pastures since we've been ruining hoses like crazy.

First we dug the trench

The other machine there is an augor for drilling some post holes but it was crap. It went about 18" deep and hit some clay and wouldn't go any deeper. They refunded me the rental for that one. The trencher was great. Ran about 300ft of Pex pipe 18" deep.

When I got to the pasture the horses were currently in I had to rope off the corner so they wouldn't break a leg in the hole while I was working.

Serenity Firefly Class Horse tried helping

When all was said and done it took a couple of days, $250 to rent the trencher and $150 in Pex pipe, fittings, posts and connectors. It was hard work but it was a lot cheaper than hiring a plumber to do it!

Now we've got automatic water in both pastures and a wash station in the main one and we can keep the hoses from getting ruined all the time and reduce some of the tripping hazards around the house.

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Template88 2016-09-07 07:45:14

Pone

VicariousE 2016-09-07 19:54:57

I used to do that sort of thing for a living. Hope 18" is deep enough, should be, sitting on clay wouldn't help either, but, should be okay if it doesn't get wicked cold for too long. Worse case, let it drip slightly, to let the expanding mass have somewhere to go. Myself I would've duct taped a wire to it, this way the line could be traced, if you need any other digging done.. but the pics will help, looks like you've got a decent sized spread.

Couplings (compression likely) went on ok? Leery of plastic ones, sometimes a bit of sand in a coupling's thread can worm it's way through plastic (when the line runs, the debris can cyclone around, pressure forcing deeper), had it happen once on a job, had to come back almost a year later to fix it.

Malachy 2016-09-07 19:54:57 (Updated 2016-09-07 20:30:20)

The frost line here is only 12 inches and we went to 18 to be safe.

I wish i thought of the metal idea! I guess I'll have to remember when we sell to add to any survey information.

I ran Pex and used shark bite connectors. Was very simple and almost every connection is above ground except for 1 but we triple checked for leaks before filling in that spot.

We actually had a hard time finding adapters for garden hose to pex. Most of them had indoor or water heater threading. But some washers and plumbers tape made every connection dry. All of the adapters we got were metal. Actually got them off amazon since the hardware store only had plastic.

I probably will let it drip when it gets below freezing because although I put pvc and insulation over the pex where it came out of the ground I'm still a little worried it isnt enough.

VicariousE 2016-09-12 20:43:45

Sounds good dude, proof positive that a layman can do as good a job as a professional... after all, it's your backyard isn't it? Some blue collar guys like to say, "Yeah, looks good from my house."

Oh, er, you know that garden hose isn't meant for drinking? They used to be up till the 1970's, then there were a flurry of stickers saying, "Not for potable or garden use." Not fond of city water either, used to fill up 5-7 gallon buckets of water from the tap and let them sit for a day or two before hand watering crops (temp acclimation and chlorine boil-off). Does look like a expensive, no-kink hose, should leech less plastix, especially after a few years... those green ones never seem to stop leeching :p

Malachy 2016-09-12 20:43:45

I didn't know you shouldn't drink out of garden hoses! I drank out of them as a kid in the 80s/90s and I turned out... well I turned out didn't it?

Considering we went from 400ft of garden hose to get water to the horses to 300ft of pex with only a few 6ft sections of hose connections to the automatic waterers I'll say it's an improvement. The coiled one is now mostly just for cleaning things or running the power washer on the cement around the tack shed and whatnot.

We don't have crops but we are considering a raised vegetable garden so I'll remember to let some water sit before watering the plants.

Now that the projects for the horses are complete we can start working on the house itself. We just went to Home Depot and purchased a garage door and opener and an hour later we met with an electrician to rewire the garage and carport. I'm heading back to the hardware store to pick up some replacement light fixtures (unfortunately we're going with new florescent fixtures because apparently LED messes up garage door frequencies) and the electrician said he'll be able to do the whole project on Wednesday. After he's done I can clean up the garage, rent a construction dumpster and start ripping out the sheet rock over the doorway.

I"m letting professionals do all of that. I would rather it be done right when ti comes to the interior.

VicariousE 2016-09-13 09:57:54

Wow, never considered LED lighting would mess up IR remote signals, when the past and present technologies collide, eh? Hope you don't find anything creepy or moldy behind the old sheetrock, some French folk used to seal up cats inside the wall, thinking the cat's spirit would keep mice away. Buddy of mine lived outside of Paris and was fixing up a rental, found a mummified thing, actually got a good chuck of Francs from an antique dealer in town for it.

The other classic 'behind the wall thing': poor family decides to redo sheetrock, finds over 100 movie posters from the early 20th century, as cheap insulation in the walls. Cutting sheetrock is just as much art as taping and plastering, might as well get it done right the first time. Be careful around the dust, old skin cells are eaten by spider mites, and their poop is one of the world's worst allergens, I got a face full once, throat almost completely closed up

Malachy 2016-09-13 09:57:54

All of that sounds gross!

A previous owner put 1 row of sheet rock right over the garage door opening. Very redneck job, I can see through the cracks. The rest of the garage doesn't even have drywall. I kind of prefer it that way since I have more space to store things. Doesn't even need insulation since it's attached to the house only on the back wall.

Sometimes I wish I was able to afford a house with everything finished buy I just tell myself I'm adding to resale value down the road

Adulting!

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