!!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BEL #667

Today's hydrant install was successful! I have some photos from that to share. However since it's Thursday I wanted to share the weekly Boots' GAMCOD project update. So here it is...!



That's all for now. Thanks for reading and watching, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #668

I grabbed a few photos of the hydrant replacement that fellow Boot Chris and I took care of this week. These photos are mostly from Thursday.

Melting and then removing the old hydrant's barbed connection from the poly pipe wasn't working, so our second option was to simply cut the pipe and attach the new hydrant to the trimmed end. (sorry for the "sparkles" in there...?)



I trimmed the pipe out maybe three inches from the junction point: far enough that the blade wouldn't scrape against the barbed connector inside the pipe, but not so far that I had too little pipe to work with.



Here's the failure point, by the way. Looks like a weld just simply went away over time. It's a very clean crack through the metal.



We invested in a "Woodford" hydrant, which is the next price point up from the previous hydrant we had installed. According to the staff at Mountain Supply, the additional price is worth it in terms of quality and reliability.



We tested it and: success!



After our test, I immediately heard a leak...! Fortunately, it was just the weep hole. This allows unused water to drain out the bottom of the well pipe, above the opening to the hydrant's water supply, and thus prevent freezing water in the pipes.



Now we're up to Friday. With a successful test complete, it was time to cover everything. Before complete burial of the hydrant, we covered the workings of the hydrant with gravel to aid with drainage of the unused water.



Finally, Chris and I returned all the sandy soil back to the hole we originally started digging last week. Looks like we weren't ever there.

We'll be back sometime next week to add a bit more gravel round the "pour zone" at that large rock, and maybe mound a bit more sand around the hydrant pipe.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #669

Here are a few snapshots of the washing machine task that Chris and I busied ourselves with yesterday. The main objective was to change out the bearings for the rotating drum of the washing machine, and also replace the water pump that drains out water from the tub. The water pump was, as it happens, the easy part. Even our YouTube University instructional video provided a warning that replacing the bearings was "a lengthy process." Well, it's not done yet, but we'll be back at it Sunday.

Here's a photo of Chris removing the motor from the back of the machine. It's connected to the drive shaft of the rotating drum.



This section of the back of the machine reminds me of the Millenium Falcon (and I don't mean our dump truck, I mean the space ship).



I seem to recall these being the wires that power the heating element. The video strongly suggested we take photos of all wires so we know how they are reconnected.



Here's one of the two bearings we replaced. I think this was a step that was almost as dirty as lubricating all the joints on the excavator. I recall Paul inspecting it and mumbling the words, "Grindy, grindy, grindy..."



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #670

The washing machine saga... Chris and I replaced the bearings that help the drum spin, then re-assembled everything. All the hoses were connected, all the plugs were back in place. Machine was plugged in and we set it for the shortest "rinse and spin" cycle. After 20 minutes, we came back inside to check on things: no spilled water, however the same error message popped up. No YouTube University videos describe how to troubleshoot this, so we're waiting to hear back from a Ringer about other things to check prior to completely throwing in the towel.

We had to grease up the driveshaft of the rotating basket in order for it to fit through the new bearings. Good ol' white lithium grease to the rescue...!



Here was the washtub with the new bearings inserted. The grease and a few dozen well-placed hammer strikes (buffered by a large piece of scrap wood) fit the driveshaft snugly in place.



In other news: Black Spark had her kittens...! SEPPer Clay followed-up on my hunch that she had kept her kittens in the Berm Shed, and then showed me where he found them. All six (wow!) are snug and safe in the bottom of this straw-lined, 55-gallon drum. She'll have her hands full for weeks...



In plant-related news: good news, Hans Quisdorff! One of your grapevines pulled through and survived the summer! It's about four inches tall at the moment, but the leaves look healthy and there are several curly vines spreading out. Hopefully they make it to the trellis cable soon.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

In plant-related news: good news, Hans Quisdorff! One of your grapevines pulled through and survived the summer! It's about four inches tall at the moment, but the leaves look healthy and there are several curly vines spreading out. Hopefully they make it to the trellis cable soon.

The intention was to uncover the coil of vine in the spring and wrap it around the cable.  More buds could possibly have responded with exposure.