up early for my kero delivery this morning - 1501 ltrs @56p+5% ...
wasn't too unhappy with that price, considering the time of year
looked out the bathroom Velux at a completely white, black Sportage ...
ferk was it ever cold here this morning.
Coffee, arse into gear and summat warm and here comes the tanker
sun wasn't even up over the ridge behind us yet...
turn boiler off - last thing I needed was having to prat about purging anything out the supply line from having that lot cascade down into the tank and stir up anything sat in the bottom ... and leave it off for an hour or so
IBC down about 200 ltrs so went to turn on the outside tap supplying the pro-tem lash up for water - tap solid, hose solid, icicle hanging out the IBC end of it -- ferk!!
check the line down from the IBC's outlet to our pump/filtration system - felt pretty solid, sounded pretty crusty, pump had locked itself out
forecast to be pretty much the same for days
sun was now up over the ridge and got as much black rubber/whatever it's made of, line into the sun, as I could and it'd thawed in an hour (thank ****) - ditto the IBC feed line, but ......
if we were gonna get more of the same for days - some action was required on our proper line, even if it was only a temp. fix ......
not the greatest of morning to be playing with very cold water, but needs must!!
set up and purged the line from the kitchen to 'the hole' with our pump and hose reel set up, fed by the IBC ... bit of tish out, but nothing of any significance.
opened the tap I'd fitted to the end of our tank's supply line in 'the hole' and got a gallon or two out which soon disappeared to nowt
turned the tap off and tried connecting up the now 'known' purged line from house to hole, pressurised that line from the still connected pump, then opened the tap on the supply line coming down to us ......
pump went for it, pressurised the line.......... and stopped
Hmm ... did it not have sufficient guts to overcome the head of the line AND the still connected 1500 ltr storage tank's head?
or was the 'purging line' through the house to the hole too small a bore? (who ever plumbed it from where it enters the house in 25mm MDPE to the rest of the system used 15mm copper with an in line ball with a mere 10mm bore when open)
It is going to get completely re-plumbed (when it's a bit warmer) in 25mm to feed the pump
so.......
turned off the tap in the hole to seal off the pressurised supply line, disconnected the hose from my purge line (which I forgot was still at 1.5bar) and got bloody soaked and connected up a.n.other purge line in 25mmMDPE direct to the tap in the hole, pressurised that with the hose 'til the pump stopped and opened the tap 'in't hole', 'smartly' pump kicked in for a minute or so .... and stopped
at 1.5bar
toddled off up the drive, having left Pam with instructions on what I wanted to try -- and her phone in hand ...
pulled the connection at the tank's tap .. opened that - plenty of water available .. and a bit of a trickle coming
back up the line
...
thumb over the end of the line and it 'quietly' pressurised to the point I couldn't hold it any longer and I got some flow (and another wetting) ... Hmm?
repeated this a few times and was getting better (and me wetter) with each 'pulse' ... then I had 'a blockage' appear in front of me and better flow, so kept going several more times, pulsing it and out came another and a hell of a lot of nice clear, clean, water
and I'm still getting wetter by the minute ..
stuffed the now 'full bore', flowing line into the tank's tap union and fought it 'til it wasn't soaking me any longer ... and opened the tap.
Rang Pam and told her to close the hose's tap in the pump housing, which'd stop the pump, when it pressurised the closed line
Walked back down the house clutching two 'trophies' of obviously differing 'ages' --
.... the lighter of the two, was the first to appear, followed by the darker conglomeration - of the opinion that the inserts 'd been 'holding' these in particular positions
I know there is one in line joint about 40 feet from the tank - found it and replaced the pushfit, when we re-located the tanks a few years ago , but reckon there is either a second and/or a third, if the lighter root blockage didn't emanate from the closest joint ?? (which i don't think it did)
the darker of the two is so dense it'd managed to reduce the flow to next to nothing - coupled with the leaking push fit and zero wasser / flow in the house
so ... back in 'the hole' .. line tap off, connect up the 20ft line to the house, which still had my purging line/extension to out side connected, opened up the line tap and low and behold, major flow out the purge's free/open end -
line tap back off, indoors and disconnect the purge line, re-connect all the 'indoor' plumbing lines (sadly through that poxy 10mm bore ball valve) and out to the pump's enclosure.
back outside - disconnect the IBC's feed line to the pump (after disconnecting the IBC and draining down the line to the pump, with the pump
, 'til it locked out - I'd learnt by now, to avoid yet another shower) - reconnected all the original plumbing from the house to the pump and opened the supply's tap in the hole - re-set the pump and it pressurised as I'd expected
..........
and we had water in the house again
...
how long for is anyone's guess, but I'm hoping there're no more root 'conglomerations' in the line anywhere -- flow was good in both directions, so
reckon that darker 'conglomeration' 's been growing in the line many years (and trapping any silt in it, for a long time)
anyway ......
Pam ecstatic ..
I was fairly pleased
then spent an hour emptying all hoses and lines of water, (cos it'd been getting more 'brass monkeys', by the hour), in case I needed any of 'em tomorrow
tools away, recovered 'the hole', 'til I feel enthused enough to delve into it again
and had some late lunch
every puddle/water trace out side was solid by 4 o'clock and it is seriously cool out there ATM.
lovely sky tonight though
don't think I'll be doing a lot tomorrow ... Pam's invited some mates round for lunch
... 3C when we got back here, last night, but oddly little wind, so has felt warm in comparison 
.. same this morning .. way warmer than I've felt for the last three days 
on a bulker and send it down if you feel like your missing out 
