Happy Cow Happy Pond Project: Game Day

I woke up Saturday morning surrounded by sick kids and adults. Josh had just gotten the bug the day before and so did Laura. Most of the kids were sick or recovering. Josh said he would try to get out and help. Marc, unfortunately was out for the day.

So I went about my usual duties, cleaning up after the horses. Then I headed down to the shop to load up on every possible supply I could need. Ladders, hacksaw, hammer, drills, screws, brackets, chain, wire, and so on...

The ever-growing pile of supplies for my project.

I drove over and unloaded what I needed and began by attaching my Leaf Eater. I had to build out the fascia by about 4 inches to get it under the appropriate spot for my run. As I installed it, I decided that I would need to start on the other side to get the grade correct. I had a wall, door and window to guide me, where as on the other side, the pipes would be suspended from hangers.

This was how tight over the door I would be going.

I started out and layed the first run across the window and above the door. I used brackets to keep it relatively stationary. I connected my two 45 degree joints and realized that I would need to cut myself a hole in the right gutter to continue on. At this point, Josh joined me and helped make the cut. We positioned and siliconed it in place, secured the brackets and carried on.

Josh prepares to cut the hole in the gutter.

 Once this was up, we proceeded to run the pipe down along the door and put in the directional-T joint. This would merge the two sides before hitting the diverter. The right side was 1 1/2" pipe (thanks to the in-line filter) and the left side was 3" pipe. Thankfully, my trip to Andrew Sheret netted me the correct bits to make this happen.

By the end of the afternoon, we had run and hung the left and right pipes and glued most pieces together. We had only one issue, which was the drop along the door to the T. It was a bit short. We left it unhooked and I kept some pipe ends to join in another piece. I was pretty sure I could locate something in our pool on Sunday.

I knew the 20' of 1 1/2" pipe would be tight.

Josh headed back and I lingered behind with the boys to put the bottom of my diverter together. As with the top, their suggestion of a 3" pipe was not accurate. It was way too small. I would find a solution for that in the morning, but for now we called it a day, having accomplished quite a bit.

By the end of the day we accomplished a lot.