Monday, December 6, 2010

Raining for days and I want more

Rainy days have become boring and I was looking forward to them ending. I had to race out thismorning, dodging the raindrops, to fill up the poochies water buckets. I was hoping to have a dry patch to do some grass retardent work.

However, thisafternoon I arrived home to find a minor spoke in the works. After unloading a few things from the car and feeding the dogs a small afternoon treat (couple of bikkies each), I sat inside for a while, faffing on the computer. A bit later I went outside, it was about an hour after I arrived home.

Heard a funny noise. Unusual.

Oh NOES!

There's water spraying.... is it coming from the neighbour's place? No. It's my pump. Going like the clappers. Water squirting out of a split in the hose...I have no idea how long the pump has been going. Usually when I arrive home my first stop is the toilet. I went before I left work, so didn't go to the end of the house where the pump is and so didn't hear the pump going, or the water spraying. Danggit!

Don't know how much water has gone out of the tank or how long the pump was going... and didn't check, grass is a bit high near the back of the tank where I can look into it (with a torch) and see how low the water is, I had no shoes and no torch, it was still raining.

Didn't know that the local creek had been flooding until yesterday when I went into Ipswich and saw the "water over the road" signs, and heard people asking how to get to X without going through W as the road/bridge was flooded, and then today seeing the "final flood warning" alerts!

Now I'll have to fix the hose, cut out the split bit and join it - or check the whole thing, it's got a few bulges so I might need to replace it completely. Anyone need some old hose? (Handy for syphons!)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well...I can probably take a length of hose off your hands...but I could probably buy a flatbed full for what shipping it here would cost!

Hope you've got it resolved, take care, eh?

Merilyn said...

Were you able to fix the problem?
Don't think you need to worry about not having more rain to refill as the Courier Mail, says there is more rain on the way.

Anonymous said...

I know I'll be jumped on but can't help myself.

Why do you have a hose, not designed for constant pressure, under constant pressure?

I only presume this because you said something about the hose having bulges, only a proper pressure rated poly pipe should be directly under pressure.

OK fire away and say I should mind my own business.

Cheers

Mad Enough to anger kae.

kae said...

Mad enough

Because it's a garden hose and I forgot to turn off the tap.

And the garden hose is pretty old, about 16 years... and lives in the sun, sprawled out ready to use.

Mmmmkay?

Anonymous said...

PS
I can almost see a thin walled black half inch polypipe!
They are definitely not designed for constant pressure, they are only good for irrigation with a tap or valve for turning on and off at the pump end !

Specially exposed to the sun and heat they are worst than garden hose.

ME

Anonymous said...

OK
Sorry

Merilyn said...

We have had the Father of a storm today, with everything, thunder, lightning, hail, and blackouts, power has only just been restored.
Last week it was the Mother of a storm [no blackouts].
Yes we have been flooded out again, drat!
Storm today reminded me of the ones we used to have in QLD.

Merilyn said...

PS looks like Bob's computer has blown out with the storm, mine was off.

Ian said...

You have my sympathy on pump problems. I'm on the Hawkesbury NSW and the wind blew the small tin cover off the pump puncturing the high pressure hose fitting. The Tin cover now has gaffa tape to blunt it's edges but then like you I walked out the back to a geyser of water, luckily before it had pumped anything significant from tank.

Then came the hell of attaching the hose back onto the screw fitting on the pump, apart from the joy of having to coat myself in insect repellent and then perspiring in the heat, how hard do you think it is even using a heat gun to get the hose back on without dripping and thus causing the pump to surge ? Very bloody hard is how hard, every time I would think "done" the next day or a few hours later I'd walk out and it would be dripping, tried with plumbing tape, without plumbing tape pushed well on, pushed not so far on and the bastard still isn't fixed.
Still this might cheer you up Kae, when the old pump died a few years back and I had to replace it for $900 at very short notice (can't spend days shopping around when I can't even shower)my colleagues at work pointed out $900 doesn't pay much in the way of water rates (well not here in NSW anyway)and you should get close to 10 years out the pump.

Merilyn said...

Have found a use for your bit of hose, send soonest.......[mutters] now all I have to do is find Tim Flannery!

Anonymous said...

@Merilyn: hahahahaha!!!

kae said...

Do you need a funnel too?

Merilyn said...

Good point Kae,.........YES!!!!!!