Tom the plumber

Well it didn’t stay cool for long. We’re back to dry and hot days.  The bushfires in Queensland and NSW have burned out just over 3 million hectares.  The landmass of Wales is 2.07 million hectares which provides some idea of the scale.  I haven’t included the fires in West and South Australia in this figure.  Even more worrying is the first month of the annual official bushfire season isn’t over.  Unless something radical happens with the weather it’s going to be a very bad period.

Meanwhile I’ve been in the backyard digging up the lawn for the planned pool.  Only three rows of turf daily as I’m old, unfit and fat!  It’s also hot!  Well I broke one of the larger pvc garden reticulation pipes two days ago.  This meant we wouldn’t be able to water the back lawn and gardens.  Obviously this was going to be an issue with the current high temperatures.  Consequentially the plan to modify the reticulation system was bought forward and yesterday both of us made the trip to my favourite store to purchase the required fittings.

When the pool is installed it will be surrounded by a liquid limestone pad.  this will make it exceedingly difficult to install any subsequent underground services (pipes, wires, etc) and I therefore decided to include a 90mm pvc duct for any future requirement,

Nothing is ever easy and I unexpectedly hit a large tree root during this operation which necessitated me using the bowsaw to cut a channel

This root is a mystery?  There hasn’t been a tree anywhere near here since my parents first purchased the house in 1994.  My guess is the tree was removed for the house foundations.

I’ve modified the pipe and valve layout to bypass the pool area.

The pipes were then laid the length of the limestone cement pad.

I’m not going to backfill the trench because the pipes might get damaged during the pool evacuations.

A new trench was then dug from the end of the pad to the back fence.  This proved hard going as the grass roots have bound very tightly.  I couldn’t drive the blade of the spade into the ground even if I jumped on it.  This was eventually solved by me using the electric grinding wheel to sharpen the edge of the spade.  The old PVC piping was then recycled and relocated into this trench.

By now all my sweating, huffing and puffing had caught Jan’s attention and she started expressing concern about my continuing work.  This eventually led to enticements of cold beer.  <love that girl>

The work isn’t complete.  I’ve blanked off one pipe which will eventually need to go in a new trench across the other half of the yard and supply water to the flower gardens.

 

The larger 90mm pipe will terminate here where it can be accessed should the need arise.

I can report the bottle of cold Aldi lager went down the throat without touching the sides!!!!