Clearing Cedars, Draining Low Spots

I've been debating on knocking down some cedars near the four-wheeler shed for some time now.  I'd hesitated because they looked kind of nice, but deep down, I knew they had to go.

The problem with clearing is that knocking down the trees is relatively quick and easy.  Cleaning up the mess after is a lot tougher.

The usual process is to cut off the stumps and push them to the stump pile, take the center log to the log pile, then burn the top.  It's a lot of work, but after several years of experimentation, seems to be the way to go.

From 20015-10-31

This fall has been cool enough to give us nice leaf color.  This view is looking down a road I cut last year.  The fallen leaves on the road reminded me of the The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

From 20015-10-31

One thing I've trying to figure out is how to keep the water away from the new pole barn.  It's on high ground so it is fairly dry, but the drip lines above the doors still cause water to accumulate.  I've started cutting some small trenches to drain it.

From 20015-10-31

Once I feel pretty good about where the water wants to go, I'll put some french drains in and see if I can guide it towards a little water collection area down the road.

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It's a lot of work but it's a productive way to spend a rainy day.  Nothing like cutting the drainage in realtime.

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Where does the sweat begin and rain soaking end?

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Building a Rain Barrel

I finally got around to one of my backburner projects, which is turning a few old barrels I had laying around into a rain collection system.

Hopefully it will serve the dual purpose of keeping this area from getting so soggy as well as giving us a supply of water when the old well dries out during dry spells.

From 20015-10-31

The first step was to drill a hole in the bottom of the barrel to put a spigot in.  I decided to go with a ball valve instead a normal spigot since it's supposed to have a lot better flow.  From preliminary tests, it seemed to work well.  However, the plastic fitting I used seemed to leak a lot so I ended up having to put a lot of silicon around it.  Hopefully it will hold once it has full pressure on it.

After I got that done I turned the barrel over and cut a hole in the other end for the water entry point.  Since these barrels are kind of dirty inside (gravel and such), I'm not too worried about screening the incoming water.

I'm just going to send the water right in.  If too much junk eventually collects, I'll just open the valves and drain it.  All it takes is one or two storms to fill it and we get plenty of those so I'm not too worried about it.

From 20015-10-31

Once I got the barrel leveled and seated as well as sealed up tight and not leaking, I put up a rain gutter on the end of the carport that drains most of the water.  I didn't really take height into account when developing my plan.  I ended up having a few minutes of worry when I realized I didn't have an inch to spare.  Luckily, it fit just right.

From 20015-10-31

Now, bring on the storms.  Let's fill this baby up.  If it works as expected, I'll start adding more barrels for it to overflow into.  Look for more updates as things progress.