Druidic Dabblings and General Twaddle !!

[V8Druid]

would not believe the difference 'tween yesterday morning and today

been a very busy day today ..... got given this and it needed removing from this enormous bramble patch, bout 10ft high , with this in the middle of it .... took a bit of getting at - glad I took the Husqy hedge cutter

's never gonna mow again, but might make a replacement for the old Mountfield for tushing trailers about here ... got it out and hauled into a trailer (sorry no pix - bit busy)
had to get on, as I also had to meet .......

after lunch, for a bit of a swapsy ... he suggested it and I was happy enough

get back into a service area after dragging said Countax out o' the brambles and get a text from our 'nice' neighbours .. would I have time to have a look at their water system again ... it'd stopped pumping/pressurising
so after pulling the ropes off, bungee-ing a bag over the above and gathering some tools together, went and had a shufty at that ... 's a right pigs guts of a set up

didn't come from there 'til gone eight and gonna have to go back to it .. either got a blocked inlet line or his underground line to the house has decided to leak - just not building pressure - swapped his new pump for a known good spare and still the same ... said it stopped flowing mid use, yesterday evening? not being able to pressurise the line doesn't bode well

love the earth bond - onto an MDPE riser
more on all subjects anon .... kids in the morning .. need some zeds

 

[Gecko]

... said it stopped flowing mid use, yesterday evening?

That's unusual. Suggests it's sucking a lot of air and lost prime.

 

[V8Druid]

I cracked it ... laters ... took soooome bloody finding

 

[JD450A]

He included the rope

 

[V8Druid]

He included the rope

?? you have some very bizarre thought patterns Rory

 

[JD450A]

?? you have some very bizarre thought patterns Rory

Ask Paul

 

[V8Druid]

Ask Paul

Oh! you mean the line on the winch! ... a page ago - lost me fella -- getting the rope off would've meant plumbing it all up again and it was how he advertised it initially, so didn't expect him not to.
now who has a nice rope sheave 'bout 9-10" diameter I can buy off 'em ... not got any sat ... binned or sold all I had in work

 

[V8Druid]

I cracked it ... laters ... took soooome bloody finding

So ... James and Rorie (the 'nice' neighbours), who have two teenage girls had no water this morning and Pam reminded me we have visitors tomorrow so was gonna have to get down there today. Took Clara to school, grabbed some extra tools and headed down to their place.
Ripped it all back out, refitted their shiny new pump (circa 4 weeks old, after calling in 'the professionals' back then ) and re-assembled everything, newly sealed/PTFE-ed, etc. back as far as the MDPE inlet line, which was the only bit I'd not had apart, but was now weeping due to all the pulling about. Took a new piece of 'blue' and a few inserts to remake that ... got it apart and put a digit down into the stopcock and felt ----- summat floating about in there .. stone perhaps??
small needle nose pliers in the hole and out came ... a plastic 'stud' .. 'nother fiddle about with the digit ... more detritus floating about ... repeat process and out came ......

so offed the stopcock from the line (nother gate valve at the tank 30 ft away) so line stayed dry in the pump cab. ...
trimmed the incoming, to lose a very ropey looking insert and fitted a new one ..
pulled the stop cock to bits and as far as I could see, confirmed my suspicions that the two extraneous bits were the seat and seal ...

spindle looked very second hand on the end of it and no way was this one going back together properly/functionally - and one of the few things I don't carry spares of ...

so reassembled it, minus its guts and wound it full open, then re-assembled it all with a nice new length of 'blue'

went and turned the gate valve on at the tank and opened up all the various ball valves in the cab ... sounded promising - 2400l head of tanks at same level as this assembly, near as ... house about 5m higher and upstairs bathroom another 4m ... little annex behind the pump cab. so went and bled that through after opening the bleed on top of the pump (supposedly self priming, but wanted to be certain ) ... outside tap at the house is on the pressure line, but too high for the tanks to gravity feed it. So turned the pump on .. outside tap bled up with plenty of air escaping 'til I got some serious flow.

Rorie'd had to go out and James had left hours earlier. Pam turned up with Harper in the pushchair to see how I was getting on (in the hope me being finished SOON - she's a two man job ATM ) ....
perfect timing for me .. house was locked, but Pam knew where the 'spare/emergency' key was and I was in, to purge the whole cold and hot system
great flow and pressure everywhere after losing all the air at every tap and cistern.
" So that's sorted then? - I'll go put the kettle on "
" er - not quite - just got to re-lag it all and check the pressure in the annex .. be about half an hour "
so she hung about whilst I got that done - Harper was fast asleep in her push chair ..
got it all done and Pam headed off as I was packing up all my gear ..
carted the spare pump and all me tools up to the car ('s a long walk around the drives down to theirs - specially if you have much to carry) and as I'm about to jump in the car I thought I'd just check the outside tap one last time - NADA - not even a dribble ..
went down to the cab. and opened it up ...
I'd only turned one of the ball valves off to get the lagging on and forgotten to re-open it ..
Had to open up again and re-purge the bloody lot

Get home and Pam says " where the hell did you get to - yer coffee's cold " ...
laughed and called me a plonker, when I told her what I'd done, so told her it was her fault - she'd watched me lag it all and 'should' have spotted my 'deliberate' mistake ..
went down like a lead balloon in a vacuum

Rorie and James over the moon to have water again - 'proper' water

no chance of anything for me tomorrow, but hopefully the weekend might be different ..
Half term next week for the kids, so a week plus to ourselves might stand a chance of getting at a few things, if it doesn't p*ss down -- aside from the green shite of course and any/all the other can you justs, that're probably already lined up
I have a few little things I'd like to get my head around

 

[Cyberprog]

It's always simple crap like that which lets you down!

 

[V8Druid]

It's always simple crap like that which lets you down!

bloody thing .. not a fan of placcy taps anyway, but this has really put the tin hat on 'em for me - brass gates or stainless balls - end of

 

[V8Druid]

Oh! you mean the line on the winch! ... a page ago - lost me fella -- getting the rope off would've meant plumbing it all up again and it was how he advertised it initially, so didn't expect him not to.
now who has a nice rope sheave 'bout 9-10" diameter I can buy off 'em ... not got any sat ... binned or sold all I had in work

this is going to severely limit the start of the winch project, not having anything suitable

 

[bobthebuilder]

bloody thing .. not a fan of placcy taps anyway, but this has really put the tin hat on 'em for me - brass gates or stainless balls - end of

we do like a good lever valve

 

[V8Druid]

text from James tonight when he got home, twenty past nine (he's a TV prog. producer - did Bruce Parry in the Arctic, a few others with Bruce and loads you'd recognise - does long hrs)
" Water flowing beautifully. Washing machine on, dish washer on, daughter in bath, other in shower, Rorie grinning. Many thanks again, for restoring order - and water - to our lives "
Makes the effort worthwhile
if only the other A-holes, could be as nice as these people are

 

[bobthebuilder]

text from James tonight when he got home, twenty past nine (he's a TV prog. producer - did Bruce Parry in the Arctic, a few others with Bruce and loads you'd recognise - does long hrs)
" Water flowing beautifully. Washing machine on, dish washer on, daughter in bath, other in shower, Rorie grinning. Many thanks again, for restoring order - and water - to our lives "
Makes the effort worthwhile
if only the other A-holes, could be as nice as these people are

good work that man ,did i pass you today in rockfield village about 3.30 ish ? black disco and trailer?

 

[V8Druid]

good work that man ,did i pass you today in rockfield village about 3.30 ish ? black disco and trailer?

well I was in Rockfield around that time in the Kia with the BIL in the front and SIL and Pam in the back .... went and had some lunch at Millbrook ... love their home made steak and ale pies -- BIL approved
did you mean you were in the Disco - if so - did sort of notice you IIRC just before getting onto the straight, 'fore the turn right for Newcastle???

 

[bobthebuilder]

well I was in Rockfield around that time in the Kia with the BIL in the front and SIL and Pam in the back .... went and had some lunch at Millbrook ... love their home made steak and ale pies -- BIL approved
did you mean you were in the Disco - if so - did sort of notice you IIRC just before getting onto the straight, 'fore the turn right for Newcastle???

i am up in st maughans for the next few weeks if your passing ,i will chuck old 6 toes box of wires in

 

[V8Druid]

i am up in st maughans for the next few weeks if your passing ,i will chuck old 6 toes box of wires in

If I know I'm going that way again I'll let you know ... otherwise I must find time to come see you

 

[Stock]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guy faux night........or bonfire nite roll on great to see the precious devour the black donuts.............................................................yum yum...................................................................

 

[V8Druid]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guy faux night........or bonfire nite roll on great to see the precious devour the black donuts.............................................................yum yum...................................................................

one I took for you earlier, last week @Stock

 

[V8Druid]

14 years ago today I took possession of Chez Druid 's changed a bit