<< January 2003
Sunday, 9 February, 2003
Holey Coke Bottle
I went with Mel yesterday to check the water source. All of our water comes from a spring a hundred or so feet above us. That’s vertical distance, of course; to actually get there is not so easy. We walked up the road that runs behind the property and came to a smaller side road. From that road we went down into a ravine that was fairly steep and blocked with fallen trees in a couple places, but not too hard to get through. We reached the water source, which is a little basin that Mel made out of cement. In it there is a one-inch pipe with the mouth of a plastic Coke bottle stuck in the end of it. The bottle has quarter inch holes drilled all over it, and acts as a filter to keep out things large enough to clog up the system. Water seeps into the basin from the sides, and is already filtered through rocks and clay, but when it rains a lot of stuff can get in there. Normally the basin stays full with excess water spilling over the lip, but when we arrived the level was several inches below that.
We had brought some sand and cement and I mixed up a batch to use for patching the leak in the basin. First, Mel removed the Coke bottle and plugged the hole with an Alpina water bottle, then he bailed out the water so we could apply the cement. I mixed it a little wet, not taking into account that the sand I was using was already quite wet from the rain the previous night. Mel put it on with his hands and molded it around and then we sat there watching it harden and periodically bailing the water out. It was taking a long time to set up, so Mel took some dry cement and sprinkled it over the wet stuff, trying to get it absorb some of the water. This cause it to harden some, and we decided that it would be okay to let the water level rise, as cement is not dependent on air to harden. Once the water level got above the pipe, Mel pulled out the stopper bottle and a lot of bubbles came out; probably the stopper was not a perfect seal and the water in the pipe caused a suction that brought pulled some air in. Mel was worried that there might be so much air that it would stop the water flow, but it seemed to be sucking in water in between the bubbling. Because the pipe goes up and down some on its path to our house, sometimes air can accumulate at a high point and cause the whole system to stop flowing.
Since we were already up there, Mel wanted to do some preventive maintenance as well. He had brought along a short piece of PVC pipe with which he intended to replace a joint of steel pipe. The steel pipe seems to be conducive to the growth of root balls inside the pipe that actually can get big enough to clog it up. These roots are not coming from outside, but actually grow in the complete darkness of the pipe. We headed for the spot where the piece needed to be replaced. The going there was much rougher, and each of us slipped and fell several times. We walked along the upper edge of the ravine, next to a fairly steep slope, but there was always plenty of vegetation to grab onto if I slipped; sometimes the vegetation seemed to be trying to grab me! We reached the place and Mel took off the rubber straps that were wrapped around to contain the water, plugged one of the pipe ends with the plastic bottle, and put his hand over the other to keep from getting air in the line. He stuck in the new piece of pipe, wrapped it back up and we went back to the water collection point.
The water level still had not risen above the level it was when we first arrived, but water was flowing into the pipe, so we hoped that the level was only low because a lot of water was being used. Mel used his hands to clear a channel from a pool of water a few feet above the basin which was getting a lot more water flowing into it. Most of that water had been flowing underground and around the basin, and now it started flowing straight into the basin. We hoped that the problem was fixed, and so far it seems to be. Alaine did a load of laundry today and it didn’t seem to affect the water pressure.