More re Treloars catalogue

Sorry to the 'stay on topic' gods. But this is just too important!

muscovyduckling wrote:

Oh, and another thing John - if I run a black poly pipe to somewhere, is three some way of turning it into another garden tap, instead of just plugging a hose directly into the end?

Yes, you can do this....bury a piece of 4x2 into the ground where you want this tap......run your pipe to the base of the 4x2. Now this is where you go to your reticulation shop and let them know what you want and that you want to connect to the black poly pipe. They will either set you up with a house tap looking arrangement or a inline pvc ball valve. Sometimes they can be hard to turn on and need to be fixed to the 4x2 to stop it from twisting.....go for a tap and get all the connectors...... any thing more , you know where to find me......

I got lost at the multigrips.

Believe me when I tell you that with a spare hundred thou, I could actually arrange to fly in those Seattle loggers. That I could do. I am very good at finding personnel, arranging travel and visas. But Poly pipe, and all those connectors.... I dunno.

Zoe, if you do get this show on the road, can you take pix every step of the way?

Betty, if it really worries you, get a reticulation expert in because they will be cheaper than a plumber. The local paper will have lots of adds about people dealing in retric.......

Talk about taking out trees. We had a very, very large (over a metre diameter) Tallowwood growing up along our back boundary. The thing must have been growing there when Captain Cook sailed past it was so big. Anyway it passed away late last year and as it hung over nets over the lychee trees on the farm next door we decided we better get it taken down.

We had it cut down and chipped the bits we could. The rest was good solid timber and their was about 15metres of the tree left there for someone to come and take away and get it milled.

Anyway I was on my way home from the local hardware this morning and Lee rang and said that Dave (the local backhoe driver) and a truck had turned up to take the log away. They decided to cut the log up into a 6 metre section (it was the largest diameter bit and it ended up being 6.5 metres long) and three 3 metre sections. Dave had no problems with the small bits but really I wish I had a video of the moving of the long bit.

First he had to drag it round to where he could grab it. In the process of doing this it nearly took off down the hill (it was on quite a steep bit of land (1 in 6 slope) which would have resulted in the destruction of part of our garden followed by a large splash as it hit the water in our dam. Luckily it got stuck in the ground where a branch used to be. So he managed to pick it up going onto three wheels in the process as he turned it around. Off he went with it until he then hit a soft spot where water seeps out the hill and the front of his backhoe sank nearly a metre into the ground. So he dropped the log and pulled himself out of the hole. He then dragged the log down the hill onto a bit of flat ground. He picked it up and headed for the dam wall.

A problem soon became apparent when it was obvious that a 6.5metre log would not fit in a 3 metre wide gap in the trees. Well so I thought anyway. By twisting and turning Dave managed to get it through the maze nearly dropping into the dam and wiping out a small Mallee which we planted back in the eighties but never really grew that well in the process. Once on the dam wall he was fine. Over to the spillway he went until the log dropped out of the grip of the bucket and landed right beside the small concrete weir we have which raises the height of the water by 400mm or so. If it had hit the weir it would have smashed it and the log and most likely the backhoe would have been washed off the dam wall.

He picked up the log again and crossing the spillway Dave utilised the hoe arm to balance the machine and he managed to get it across and up to a gate where I was holding a tree back so he could get through. Unfortunately he forgot about the hoe arm and the machine tipped over onto two wheels and headed straight towards me and the Bear (one of our dogs). I took off one way and poor Bear got the fright of his life and ran about 20 metres away and jumped up onto a seat to watch the rest of the move.

Dave managed to right the machine and get it through the gate and to the truck where the loading went without incident (surprisingly).

As I said I wish I had a video of it and I recon we could have edited the tape into separate parts and won Funniest Home Videos for the next 5 or 6 years.

That's hilarious. The visual image I have is better than any hoem video.

Tallowood. Sigh. Soemwhere out there, there shoudl be a beautiful, lustrous new floor for some fortunate soul.

or some nice furniture once it is dried....

Very funny mental images you've painted. So many disasters averted. I bet Dave was mighty pleased when the tree was finally loaded. And you too. And poor Bear!

Hehehehe I can just imagine Gary!

Really folks I was laughing more than I was worried. My words could not really describe it all.

Zoe, the line which ends at the last tap, what is it made of, and what size, is it copper or Galvanized pipe. I ask this as I am going to take photos of the pieces that are required to get water to the end of your yard.

Oh thanks David!!! It's a copper pipe, but I don't know what the diameter is. I'm at work tonight but I will fish out the callipers tomorrow and check.

Hello Zoe.........

Haha hi Neptune! I had a bit of a hectic weekend with the garden show, and I went to a workshop with my gardening school on Saturday for making hot compost and raised garden beds. And, errr, I can't find the callipers. I think DH may have put them somewhere in The Shed, from whence they will never return.

So I have eyeballed it, it looks to be about 15mm copper. I don't know if copper pipe comes in 15mm, but it's about that size.

1/2in = 12/13mm
5/8 = 15/16mm
3/4 = 19mm

I reckon it must be the 5/8th inch then David. In the old money.

Zoe, you can get a rough estimate using a wooden ruler/ tape measurer and laying it across it top

I will do that when the sun comes back up tomorrow. But it will be one of those three sizes, right? 12mm, 16mm or 19mm?

Take photo as well Zoe, your irrigators are waiting with baited breath to help design the layout.

Ok, here goes. This is the tap at the very front of the property, right next to the water meter. The pipe is made of copper and it is 19mm I think.

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Yep, the pipe from the meter is bent a bit because I ran over it once.

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This is the other tap, it's about 30m further down the driveway, near the house. This pipe is galvanised and is 25mm I think.

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The property is about 25m wide and about 80m long, roughly.

We also have a 20,000l water tank that is on the opposite side of the house to the driveway. This is plumbed into the house and I don't think it has a garden tap outlet attached. But I would prefer to one day be able to use the tank water to irrigate, rather than pay for the city water.

We have a grey water tank which is not currently connected (council disconnected it when they brought the sewerage through out area and we connected to that). And we have a biggish shed/garage at the front of the property that I would like to hook up to another tank  (yet to be purchased). The house tank and future shed tank are uphill a bit from the back yard.

Ok, next Q, are the two taps on the same side of the property?, also how far is the tank from either taop or pipeline ? As we are thread jacking and some one will complain I will start a new one totally about Irrigation.

Yep, both taps are on the western boundary fence which is 80m long. The current tank is on the east side of the house, about 20-25m from the second tap.

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