On The Third Day, And The Fourth

With the trench opened up and fairly level, we started laying the 2 inch PVC pipe. The pipe comes in 20 foot lengths and each one needed to be glued into place with a super-resin compound, this is the same glue substance that is used when plumbing houses.

At each end of the 200 foot trench we added on vertical pipes with valves so we could attach hoses if needed during fire season. The vertical pipes are attractants for the cows to rub and scratch on so they have to be enclosed or they could get broken.

The bulldozer did a pretty good job of getting the trench laid out but there were still some big root pieces that needed to be broken off and hauled out of the ditch. The curve needed to be straightened a bit by shovel but it only took two days to get the pipe into the trench and secured tightly to each other.

After all the PVC was installed we covered it by hand shoveling several inches of dirt around and on top the pipe before stomping it solid. Mike came back with the dozer and filled in the trench before we were stopped with a couple of days of rainy weather. The ground is not very pretty at this stage but the job is completed enough so that the cows can be moved back to this side of the river to graze for a week or so while we keep them out of the hay field.

When we have the bucket attachment on the front of the tractor, we will smooth out the very bumpy areas on top of the pipe. It may be fall before this gets done because we will be focusing on getting hay equipment ready during the next few weeks before hay season goes into full swing.