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Summary
Paul continues his review of
Sepp Holzer’s
Desert or Paradise with Opalyn, Mark, and Katie along for the ride.
Drainage, overflow, and the invention of the pivoting monk (AKA the Holzer monk):
“Water
should not spill over the dam wall in heavy rain. An emergency drain needs to be installed instead. I usually build a spillway (overflow channel) that leads the
water around the dam, preferably over natural ground. If that is not possible because of the existing landscape, I need to protect it from erosion and washout by installing a drainage pipe or a channel clad in heavy natural stones. I also use heavy natural stones for the inlets. I plant various water plants between the stones – they stabilize the sidewalls, and prevent soil from being carried into the stream and
pond. With heavy rainfall, the
pond would become cloudy for weeks otherwise.” A spillway plus overflow are fairly standard in pond design. Sepp puts the output pipe for the monk very low in the dam, which Paul disagrees with, saying that the water will dig a channel along the pipe. Sepp also likes to put an elbow on the input of the monk so that it points vertically, as well as allowing the pipe to be swiveled to change the max height of the pond. Paul prefers to use a siphon pipe instead.
“A monk is used in a fishery to drain or to regulate the water level in a pond. In a pond with a monk, the emergency drain would only be used when the monk is blocked by branches or leaves, so the emergency drain is slightly higher than the monk at its tallest level. “What is a monk”, you ask. It is a draw-off path. It consists of a shaft lined by a u-shaped iron (pipe? Reader gives up trying to interpret at this point)” Sepp uses plastic pipes in his monks because they deal with frost well, but Paul disapproves based on his premise of using as little plastic as possible. To make the pipe connections waterproof, Sepp put horse manure and sawdust around them. As they get forced into any gaps, the fibers clog them. Paul has doubts about this. To counter the possibility of water leaking down the edges of the pipe and compromising the whole dam, Sepp wraps the pipe with jute and cement.
Relevant Threads
Ponds forum
Sepp Holzer on ponds and "the monk"
Paul Wheaton's trickle tube
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Eivind W. Bjørkavåg
Suleiman, Karrie, and Sasquatch
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Chris Sugg
Sasquatch
Bill Erickson
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
havokeachday
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Pasquale DeAngelis
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Eric Tolbert
Matthew Stone
Nuno Marta
Polly Jayne Smyth
Opalyn Brenger
ellen fisher
Eliot Mason
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
JMBlackwater226R
Nathan Hale
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