Death by Irrigation

[David Hare-Scott]

It has been dry lately so I have been irrigating the orchard. I moved the sprayers this morning and then started the pump. One of the four heads wasn't working at all. These are the type with two nipples, one has a tapper, a spring loaded arm that rotates the whole assembly using the pressure of the water. Normally they will give out some dribble of water from either of the two jets even if blocked with organic matter sucked through the pump from the river. On closer inspection something slimy was being squeezed out of each jet. I pulled at it but did no good as I couldn't get hold of it. So back to get some tools and take the head apart. As I lifted it off the stand what should be hanging down out the inlet side - legs. Green legs with webbed feet.

Imagine you are a frog and have curled up inside a bit of pipe for a kip. Then a gush of high pressure water hits you and you are travelling at speed down the main pipe, waterslide! Then you take a branch into a much narrower pipe and round a few bends, upside down, wow water rollercoaster! Then you reach the sprinkler head where some of you goes out one jet and some goes out the other....

D

[Brooklyn1]

Only the lead imbecile of all imbeciles pumps water from a natural source without installing a proper screen... you sick bastard! /\ / \ / \ / \ | ¤ ¤ | | ¿ | | «» | |________|

[songbird]

how sad for the froggie.

i hope you'll put a screen around the end soon.

also, it may be worth the time to set up a small wetland/sandbox/pondlet to filter the water before you suck it up as then you'll keep stuff out of the lines/heads.

songbird

[David Hare-Scott]

yes

This is the first time for this kind of problem as normally there is no opening to the system.

No need, the drawing end is a foot valve in the river which is screened. The screen is fine enough to exclude frogs etc but will occasionally admit a bit of grass or stick. The frog got in because I opened the system to add in a new section of pipe.

D

[Brooklyn1]

Liar!

[Fran Farmer]

Grow up Sheldon. It's a frog that met with an untimely accident not some cute furry, big eyed, little mammal such as those used by TV anchor idiots to bring forth gasps in incredulous viewers at the end of the half hour of crud that passes for "News .

David didn't go out of his way to step on it and nor did he use any of the arsenal of the flora or fauna killing substances most of us have in our sheds. The frog was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Get over it.

[Derald]

Does "pissing into the wind" mean anything to you? ;-)

[David Hare-Scott]

Into the ether actually since I have him plonked, I only see Brooklyn's stuff when others quote it. Him inventing a reason to give an insult (to Fran) was the reason on this occasion. Now he does it again. It must be unhealthy to be so filled with anger that you not only go looking for excuses to blast people but manufacture them out of whole cloth.

As I explained to Bird a couple of days ago (which obviously never made it to Shelly's server), the system is normally sealed against intrusion.

D

[Fran Farmer]

:-)) True. But we could also apply that old maxim about "good men" how their inactivity ensures the triumph of evil.

We are a form of community here and, IMO, any disagreements should be based on logic not just poop on the liver in an individual.

[Fran Farmer]

Even if it wasn't sealed against such problems, I've begun to notice an increasing squeamishness in media of all types about death and the source and production of food. Too few people seem to be aware of the most basic realities of life. That ignorance is for me almost as offensive as the anti science approach that climate scientists have to face.

[David Hare-Scott]

I suppose you mean the one often attribute to Edmund Burke which usually goes something like '.. all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing..." I quite like the sentiment and have used it myself. The odd thing is I went looking for the origin of it and it turns out that nobody can say just where and when he said it, so it remains unattributed. It was used in The West Wing where they have POTUS using it and attributing it to Burke. I suppose I will now be branded a 'lefty' for liking the show about a fictional Democratic President. There are tougher things to bear.

Yes. But you can see around you all the time arguments based on insult, bias, bigotry, popular appeal, .... the list goes on... but arguments based on facts and logic not so much.

Enough of this foolishness back to dragging hoses about.

D

[David Hare-Scott]

Those who have "eeewwwww" so ready on their lips all practice ahimsa and walk about sweeping the path in front of them like monks who must avoid treading on any of theirs God's (or maybe Gods') creatures. And they never spray, or buy food from those who do, or allow spray into waterways where it puts at risk those frogs who didn't get into the wrong pipe.

D

[Fran Farmer]

Hmmmmmm. I'm married to a hair splitter so when the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says of the quote that: "Attributed (in a number of forms) To Burke, but not found in his writings.", I'd either be told (or would say myself) that just because it's not yet been found in his writings is not proof of anything yet.

It was used in The West Wing where they have POTUS

I never watched it enough to know one way or another whether it was left wing or not. US politics always seems very right wing to me.

Yes. At a breakfast get together this am a friend was saying how lucky he is to have sold his property because "the drought is about to start". I hope he's got that very wrong because I do not need any more dryness round here.

[Billy]

Don't take it seriously. Shelly is a drunk, and not a happy one. For some people the only happiness is to see others down in a hole. If you are down, then Shelly is up, but then who gives a crap what Shelly thinks anyway?

The frog, I have sympathy for. Poor, unsuspecting little froggy. At least the frog made this a better world, unlike Shelly.

[SteveB]

A simple diverter device would channel any oversized material out of a relief pipe. If said pipe was mounted vertically, and the pressure kicked up a tick or two, I would bet one could get performances up in the 9.3 th 9.7 range, with a bonus for height.

Steve

[SteveB]

What happened? Get kicked out of the foodie groups? What is the figure just above this text? It looks like a stool sample. Not one of mine, mind you.

[SteveB]

Maybe you need to go down to the local dirt road and install "FROG CROSSING" signs.

Steve

[SteveB]

Normally.

We had to pig an oilfield pipe line one time. For those who don't know, a pig is a vinyl coated bullet cone shaped wad that is shot down a pipeline under pressure to make sure the line is clear before it is sealed or put into use. On one end, a "trap" of expanded metal is put on to catch any high velocity refuse, and to make the discharge come out in a T fashion rather than straight out.

Job ends one afternoon, and pipe end pig cap protector left off. Nutria (google it) love tunnels, and an estimated four of them went into the open end of the pipe. Next morning, pressure cap is placed on end of pipe, and 15,000 psi pump attached. Pipe is something extra heavy, so very heavy pressure is used to "PIG" the line. A mixture of seawater and nitrogen at a 7000 PSI pressure.

The nutria (never determined how many) made the 2+ mile trip in less than .5 seconds, and hit the expanded metal chamber on the catching end.

It was very easy to see the personnel who were anywhere near the terminus, as well as any vehicles. Red spray was the description.

Joke of the day to anyone wearing red was, "Hey, did you save any of that for lunch." Somewhat the consistency of pulled pork with a little swamp grass mixed in.

Only a couple of injuries from puncture wounds caused by high velocity bone shards.

Pigging was always an exciting activity.

Steve

[David Hare-Scott]

This is a polypipe system not steel. There is a limit to the pressure it will take (for those who are interested the pipe itself is quite strong it is the joints that pop under excess pressure) and so the pump is not very powerful, not that it needs to be as I am not raising the water far nor trying to pump or spray it long distances. The diverter idea only works if the intruder gets in the inlet end, if it gets in down stream (as in this case) it will be past the diverter already. This has only happened once in ten years I think I will leave the system as it is.

D

[F Murtz]

And even if you did not I can see tadpoles getting through the mesh and growing up in the pipe.