[AT] Flail mowers - now pasture drainage

[Steve W.]

Mike wrote:
> Hi Charlie, congratulations to your niece that is a huge accomplishment!
> 
> The pasture drains to a "private drain" as it is referred to in the 
> county map. The problem I have is that the former owner thought that the 
> way to get it to drain was to dig it deeper, so that now a drain that is 
> a trickle downstream, it now 15' wide and a foot deep across my 
> property, and is moving nowhere fast. I made a earth bridge over the 
> ditch and ran a 16" drainage pipe under that. I think what I'm going to 
> do is block off that pipe and hook up a trash pump to pump all the water 
> to the other side. Then I'll work on filling in the ditch to make it 
> narrow and shallow like it should be. I've even considered burying a 
> septic tank and having the field tiled to it, where it could be pumped 
> downstream. Another thought would be to dig a deep narrow (18") trench 
> where the ditch is now and having it tiled to there, where then again it 
> could get pumped downstream.
> 
> Mike M

do like tho locals do, buy a used backhoe, dig trenches, toss in some 
river wash and black perf pipe, run it to a manifold at the edge of the 
field and drop the end of it into a holding tank.

Now IF you can say with certainty, that it would stay full AND you can 
locate the tank in an area that is accessible from a road you could talk 
to the local fire department about installing a dry hydrant in the tank. 
They might just come out and help you get it done as a drill or two. 
Unless you're in an area with easy access to water many departments like 
having them around. In states where the water doesn't freeze over much 
the "hydrant" is nothing more than a removable grate in a riser (like a 
manhole cover) they flip up the grate and drop a line in. A couple of 
the local farms did this and they installed 2-3 5000 gal. tanks.
(actually "de-certified" underground gas tanks from station change outs)
The bonus for the homeowner is that you can buy a pump and use the same 
water on the fields and if you talk to the insurance folks you might get 
a rate reduction on fire insurance.


-- 
Steve W.