Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[RaZ]

Just got word that I'm still expected to report to work on Monday. Us grocery stock boys are essential.
Tomorrow is last pay from the gas station. I hope it's enough to cover animal feed and my prescription refills. I'm out of a couple of scripts. It will be 2 weeks before I get paid from Meijer.

 

[aart]

Us grocery stockers are essential.

HellYeah you are!

 

[RaZ]

HellYeah you are!

I wonder if they will move up the Grand Opening date. It was supposed to be 4/17. I can see working OT to pull it up some. But I'm just guessing.

 

[yorkchick]

Hello! I just started wondering how all the Michigan peeps are doing in this strange time. Personally we are healthy and taking the self-isolation thing seriously. Luckily, the DH is able to work from home. Me, I can’t work as a dental hygienist. My other job, sometimes referred to by me as my “hobby job” as a veterinary assistant, is almost shut down as well. I have been called in only one once so far to help with a sick dog.

While I’m here can I pick some brains? (Not literally! That would break social-distancing rules! ) Can we talk water lines and frost-free hydrants? I know nothing about them, except I’d like to run water out to my barn. Right now, someone has a Ditch Witch on our road and is going to be running fiber optic cable for internet access to several homes. I asked him if he’d be interested in a side job to run a water line from our well to the barn. He said he would be able to do that but he has no plumbing skills.

What would be involved in this project? How hard would it be to hook up to the well and to install and hook up to a frost-free hydrant? I’m certainly not against hiring someone to do the hookup.

Would it be practical for the Ditch Witch guy to run the line now, and then at a later point get the hookups done by someone else? And what kind of water line would I want to put in?

Any advice or thoughts would be welcome!

 

[1muttsfan]

They are not hard to hook up at all, I did mine. You do need to make sure the line is deeper than the frost line, a local plumbing company would know what that is in your area. If you run your line under an area that is plowed in the winter, it needs to be deeper.

I had a neighbor with a backhoe dig mine. Then the bottom is covered with a 3-4" layer of sand, then your line, followed by more sand, then a layer of foam insulation board, then backfilled. The sand reduces the risk that rocks will damage the line, and the insulation protects from freezing.

At the point of connection to the hydrant, dig a deeper area and fill with sand if the soil that deep is not well-draining. The hydrant empties some water out the bottom each time it is turned off. Then back fill with sand, just in case you have to dig it out again in the future, much easier than digging up dirt.

Follow the attachment instructions closely. If the hydrant is twisted after being hooked up and buried, the fitting will come apart and you will have to dig it up. I put in a wooden post next to the hydrant to protect it from damage.

I put a few bags of pea stone down at the top of the fill, to allow better drainage.

Use black pex water line, size depending on your source. Mine is 1" and it comes out like a fire hose, It is attached (by a plumber) at the house to the water line that comes into the house from the well (before the pressure tank) and has great force. Make sure they install a shut-off valve as well.

I layed a power line down in the same trench, on top of the sand, below the insulation board.

While you could certainly dig the ditch and place the line, then leave it for later, it would be easier to do pipe and hydrant all at once, so you don't have to re-dig the end where the hydrant goes. You could do the hookup at the house end later.

 

[Folly's place]

We also have them here, and would have loved having the trenches dug by someone else!
Hydrants vary in quality; we've had to replace all four of ours over the years, once in January! Also, the weak point is the connection at the hydrant; don't mess that up.
Carrying water through the snow, and over ice, all winter is the pits! You will love having a hydrant out there!
Mary

 

[yorkchick]

This is great info, thank you both!

 

[RaZ]

This is great info, thank you both!

Hi yorkchick,
If I remember your home and coop location correctly, you will need a DitchWitch trenching machine to run a ditch from house to coop. The machine will cut through tree roots and clay. Do you have a contractor to do it?

When the electricians ran power to my garage they had a ditchwiich machine to dig the trench. But my ground is such dense clay and filled with large rocks that the small machine couldn't do the job. They had to bring in a huge machine to do the job. What they brought in was essentially a bulldozer with a back hoe and a large trenching blade. It took them a day and a half to run that trench. Had I any foresight I should have run a water line at that time.

I can't run a water line now because it would cross the buried electric line.

 

[yorkchick]

Here’s the DitchWitch currently hanging out in our neighborhood.

According to code, apparently all over Michigan, the frost line has been declared to be 42 inches...

 

[bigmrg74]

Here’s the DitchWitch currently hanging out in our neighborhood.
View attachment 2067140
According to code, apparently all over Michigan, the frost line has been declared to be 42 inches...

42 for southern Michigan at least. pretty sure its deeper up north and in the UP.