Work Progresses

Part of the land prep for the Pole Barn is to solve some of the rainfall issues inherent in our landscape. I wanted the run-off from the barn to be collected and routed to our pond. easy enough, gutters drain to down spouts, to pipes under the ground and into the pond. Simple, gravity is always in play.  Additionally, I needed to address the pooling of excess rain water in our back yard. A low area was wet and muddy for a week or more after any moderate rain. The “Dudes” would come in wet, muddy and sometimes a little smelly.

Simple, establish the line of flow through the pasture, mark it, trench it and install a French drain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain). Turns out I needed about 300 feet in order to get to the pond. Yesterday I rented a trencher from Tri-County Rental Center for 4 hours, turns out I needed more time then that and ended up with a whole day charge.

No matter, the trenching got done and so was I. Phew! still have some hand work to do and make the trench sections connect and prep for the install of the soil filter fabric, gravel and perforated pipe. The gravel arrives on Tuesday.

I’ll call back Horst Excavating to spread the dirt pile over the French drain and grade to the pole barn site. Sometime this fall I may top coat the area soil and seed it. We’ll see how the budget looks. What the heck, weeds are free. I’ll still need to connect the barn downspouts to the system but will do that after the barn is up. Don’t need to put in the pipe and have the post hole digger dig them up. I’m making sure that the work I do does not impact the barn builder. Need to have his work go smoothly.

During my breaks I am working on a floor-plan using Sketchup. This should help me in locating plumbing, sewer and electric stubs so I can get those in before concrete. When I have something presentable, I’ll post it in the blog.

Thanks for your interest!

Stay Tuned!