Laying Pipe

This morning closer to lunch time, I was pulling 1in water pipe from the edge of the field and untangling some sections that were kinked.  I don't know how long he was standing there, but it looked like some time.  One arm thrown over the Toyota truck bed the other smoking a cigarette, Freddie chuckled when I noticed him.  I began to shake my head.  He chuckled louder.  He surprised me.

Freddie helped me untangle the last few kinks.  I grabbed the front of the pipe and started walking to where Butch has resumed excavating from last weekend.  I felt like a Swedish strong man in the rope competition pulling the 400 feet of pipe up the hill.  Eventually everything settled nicely in the hole.  I told Freddie that we should get some paintball guns and reenact the first world war.  He recommended his wife and step daughter charge us in the trench from the open grass.

I had a few frost free water hydrants that I wanted to splice into the line.

My grandfather's dull dovetail saw has become my new plastic saw after its exceptional performance the other day installing the greenhouse fan.  It is by far the best method of cutting I have found for in ground water pipe.  The saws-all shook the pipe everywhere or maybe it just shook me everywhere, bolt cutters were terrible, and the hacksaw lacked any kind of gusto.  The blue ribbon goes to the dovetail saw. 

Once the pipe is cut.  Use a torch to heat up the black pipe.  Once it is hot it will easily slide onto the brass fitting.  Follow up with hose clamps to ensure leak free longevity.  

Watch Freddie do it

One T finished

The other end of the T'ed in pipe is a step down elbow and the start of a frost free hydrant.

Although Freddie and I laid out most of the pipe,  Butch blew a hydraulic line on his back hoe.  After raiding the shop I was confident that I would have the parts that he needed.  I had several combinations that might have worked, but nothing exactly like for what was called.  Butch made a run to the nearest hydraulic store a half hour away.  Some time later he returned empty handed.  They did not have the right fittings we needed.  I think the plan is to have it up and running Monday as everything is closed Sundays.

Freddie and I walked around the property just before dinner time looking for the prime place to put a deer stand.  We saw least three spots that would be perfect, and several other spots that wouldn't even need a stand.  There were some monster deer tracks in the loose dirt by the pond.  I wonder if it was the huge elk wanna be I saw the other day running with the smaller buck.