sorry - it has been a while since i posted, a LOT longer than kymber's one week ;-) kymber got her prize in the mail yesterday from sandy's giveaway... lucky me.... kymber has won two things since we moved here.. a chainsaw and a hunting knife - LOL! i think i had better get on some cooking sites and win a food processor and some nice kitchen knives ;-))
looks super - i lucked out, i don't have a pocket knife, this CRKT Pazoda Folding Knife is perfect, the Eat'N Tool is pretty cool too!.....thanks Sandy you are awesome!!! and we will get great use out of this prize!
so in the basement @ the manor, we have a jet pump and plumbing of sorts... the way it was "installed" is a constant source of aggravation... here is part one one of a "i fixed the &*%*%&8 thing" post. this is the previous setup, note the homemade berkey bucket - heh heh !
i had wrapped tape around the pipe on top of the pump to patch a leak:
decent bladder:
old hose at the bottom though:
i bought this 4-way splitter at crappy tire to use the only tap in the basement... left to right:
1 - hose in the basement for berkey etc.
2 - hose to front yard and porch
3 - hose to backyard
4 - hose with ANOTHER splitter for basement washing machine
note the copper connected to plastic connected to the bladder - argh!!
here is the whole pump/bladder ensemble - bent old and crappy!
here we have various pieces that will save the day, or at the very least, make our life better - including an in-line filter to the left:
i decided to make a "thing" before it disconnected the water:
i mounted the "thing" on wood for support and clamped it. left to right:
1 - post-filter tap for laundry (i'll still use the splitter for both lines)
2 - water filter with 3 settings; filter, pass-through and closed
2 - pre-filter tap for misc rough use
4 - t-junction for outside hose line
5 - ball valve to cut water supply after the bladder (to change filter, add lines etc.)
cheers all!
Very good Jam ! You did an excellent job. If the plumbing doesn't work, not much else matters ! Love to Kymber.
ReplyDeletethanks jane!
Deletewait 'til you see part 2 - i am pretty stoked at the difference.. part 3 will entail re-doing the whole place with pex tubing... but that's down the road. k got your love!
cheers!
Those are some Nice Trout!!! Wow.
ReplyDeleteSoooo ahhh unless I am mistaken are you using plastic hose? Doesn't that wear out pretty fast?
towards the end of the season, trout start to migrate back to the streams to spawn... brook trout spawn sept-oct. i got these babies just before.
Deletebuddy (the guy who owned the place before) left a TON of flexible black abs lying around. the stuff is great - durable and easy to work with. it's only drawback is UV damage, which won't happen in the basement. you will see more of it in the next installment. the pipe from our well is buried abs. plastic pipe has come a long way and is well suited to colder climates, everyone here uses it for all applications- here is a link:
http://drpipe.ca/pvc-piping-vs-abs-piping/
cheers!
I agree. Sometimes plastic corrodes slower than the metals if it is installed correctly. It depends a lot on what the chemicals/minerals are present.
DeleteI have heard of putting goldfish in your cistern to keep down the algea, but was not aware that trout had similar uses.
hey russell!
Deletethe water flowing through the pipe is all organic matter and minerals - the pipes last a long time, especially buried flex abs. i don't use solvents, but plastic nipple insets and hose clamps. seems to work great so far.
hmmm - i have never tried using trout for that purpose... i might be tempted to try if they weren't so damn tasty!
Bladder? the big white thing? Is it a water heater? If so, why is it plumbed to run hot water to different places? It all looks so complicated, but you seem to have it under control. I need a live-in plumber...lol.
ReplyDeleteOnly tap in the basement? Me too! Now, I have something else to worry about.
My plumber left things undone and has not been back since last Saturday and I am so mad I could spit!
But, once I stepped through the rotten floor in my bedroom yesterday, I now have another priority to worry about. It's always something here!
Do you filter all your water through your homemade Berkey? I have read about those. Your basement is much neater than mine...lol.
pp:
Deletethe bladder is one of two parts of having a jet pump setup. basically, that tank has two compartments - one has an air bladder that is like a balloon inside it which is filled with air for a pre-determined pressure (40 psi in our case). the jet pump has a pressure switch on it and the pump will fill the second compartment of the bladder with water until the pressure exerted by the balloon and water meets 40 psi. when we run a tap for a second, the pump doesn't come on... if we fill a bucket, the pump will kick in and re-charge the bladder. here is a link for you:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex1143
this is our pump:
http://www.globalindustrial.ca/p/plumbing/pumps/clean-water-pumps/little-giant-convertible-jet-pump-three-quarter-hp
we have more than one tap now ;-))
sorry about you home troubles, hope the plumber comes back soon!
we filter all drinking water through the berkey, we have for 5 years now, noting safer.
cheers!
Thanks for the sites. All these women with in-home plumbers and carpenters are making me envious in a good way!
Deletehey, if you have any other questions - fire away!!
DeleteCongrats on kymber's win and the trout. Plumbing? I try to avoid it as long as I can.
ReplyDeletethanks gorges, it really amounts to a win for me. the trout are nice and taste as good as they look. none now until April 15 ;-)
Deletei don't mind plumbing at all, i find wiring even easier... it's screwing around with poor carpentry and bad construction i try to avoid!
cheers and thanks for stopping by!
nothing like engineering up something that works in place of make do.... exellent post
ReplyDeleteWildflower
without question it is satisfying to replace make-do !
Deletethansk wf!!!
from my viewpoint , it is a good example of being able to be repairable, recyclable, maintainable, and changable
Deletesomething so sadly missing in many items these days
one piece of knowledge, "shark bites" fittings are trash..... better off using compression fittingd when working with copper pipe....
may it last well
Wildflower
thanks - i try to make things easily maintainable... probably because the originals aren't ;-))
Deletei have has success with the shark-bites so far, but that is going copper to pex... when i do full pex, i will get the clamp fittings.
there are a few compression fittings around the house and i must say they do work well. i will keep your suggestion in mind - thanks!
I'll be interested to know how the in-line filter works for you and for how long before you have to change it. Are you on a drilled well? You must be if you need a filter. At least that would be the case where I live...great water in a dug well, but really stinky and full of minerals if you drill :-(
ReplyDeletewe have been using it a while and it is certainly helping, but our water is still a bit smelly and minerally... i change it every two weeks, but every week might be in order. our well is a deep dug well, but close to a lot of forest run-off. this time of year, as things die and decay, the water is pretty "thick"... it gets better in winter.
ReplyDeletei think just about everyone here has a dug well, this whole are is water tables galore, some people are lucky enough to tap right into a spring.
i have scoped out a couple of locations where there might be a better place to have a well, we might even hit our own spring... project for next year!!
cheers sue!
Maybe it's all that white stuff that Kymber was showing us the other day in the run off trench.
DeleteNow that I said that, Kymber will have you changing it twice weekly. :^D
on your setup.... Nice job. Your pre-planning really showed through.
Great post, buddy.
hey matt!
Deletei don't think it's that stuff per se, but there are coal veins everwhere in cape breton and our area is marshy - which has a fair amount of natural gases.
oh trust me, i am equally happy to change the filter!!
thanks, i had about a year and a half to think about it so it should be well planned ;-)
cheers matt!
Much depends on where you live, I guess. Here in the People's Republic, the black abs pipe is legal for use ONLY as DWV...drain, waste, and vent. Any inspector would lay an egg seeing it on the supply side of the equation.
ReplyDeletePVC pipe, on the other hand is fine for the supply side, but only for cold water. Plumbing it on the hot water results in brittle pipes and rapid failure. PEX pipe is only a little better though more resistant to hot water. The one thing almost nobody ever thinks about is the glues and solvents used to work with plastic pipe. All are toxic as hell and leave residues behind that you will drink with the water. I suggest we all need to think more about that issue.
Mostly upscale plumbing here is copper pipe and it is serviceable hot or cold, supply or DWV. Us old farts sweat the copper, but the newer method is compression fittings.
In cold climates pipe insulation is important. When I built I insulated about half the pipes in open cell foam pipe insulation and the rest in fiberglas. One winter we had a sudden low blow in from the Gulf of Alaska that dropped temps fast. My water pipes froze and caused much trouble.
In the aftermath what I discovered was no pipe froze that had been wrapped in the foam. MANY pipes froze that had been wrapped in fiberglas. The downside remains hot water will melt the foam insulation, so be sure to ask about that when you buy.
And lastly, while it suffers from some nasty drawbacks like being hard to work with, galvanized iron pipe can resist much colder temps than copper. I use it outside and never even insulate it. True our winter temps rarely go below 20F. I have frozen the fawcetts. but never the pipe.
So, for the benefit of those who will listen to an old man retired from the construction trades, here is the best advice available.
Winston
hey w!
Deleteour first winter here i found out the hard way that wrapping copper pipes is important.. split a whole pile in teh uninsulated basement - *&^*()^*(_!!
the pipes i am using for supply are all flexible and i attach them with plastic insert nipples and hose clamps - no solvents at all.
if i were to do a bunch of copper, i would sweat it - way cheaper than compression fittings, but i will opt for all pex next time round. it is becoming really popular here, but then all flex pipes are popular where pipes freeze... just a little more forgiving than rigid when the ice forms.
cheers w!
Well, you can lead a nag to water...You know that song.
DeleteBut you have to live with it. I am strictly old school about these issues because they work and tend to offer high reliability. As my mentor instructed many years ago, there are three ways to do the work...the wrong way, the right way, and the Navy way. Guess which I was taught.
How 'bout you Senior, LMHO
Winston
Hey Jambaloney and Kymber,
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't get to post anything until now. Our computer decided to die and we had to purchase another after playing target practice on the old one. I'm glad you like your knife and eatn'tool. You need to keep your eyes open for my next giveaway.
The fish look very nice, wish I was up there fishing with you both :-)
As for the plumbing, looks like alot of work and a bit complicated. Is all of this to get a clean water source?
Don't work to hard, lots of love sent to the both of you.
Your Friend, Sandy
no probs sandy - i am late getting back myself!
Deletesorry about your computer, had i been there i would have fixed it for you!! thanks again for the knife... it fills a niche for me!! if you ever make it up here, you can be certain i'll take you fishing!!
i find plumbing pretty easy to do, it's a matter of having all the right pipes and fittings on hand. the filter will help get cleaner well water in the house to save wear on the bathroom and water heater, but we run all drinking water through the berkey filters.
lots of love back to you!!! ;-))
Those are some cool products from CRKT. They make good stuff. No invite for dinner?
ReplyDeleteSenior
hey senior - thanks for stopping by!!!
Deletei am really stoked with the knife and tool - they are great quality products!
i would have invited you, but the trout don't make it to dinner, they get eaten for breakfast, you would have gotten here too late!
cheers!
It looks to me like all you're missing is some hydraulic cement. It works great when you spring a leak. At least that's what we used when our cistern would start getting spouts of water coming in from the outside.
ReplyDeletelotta:
Deletethe leak was due to a hose being too short for the job... the flexible hose is all clamped, no gluing... you will see in the second part.
the hydraulic cement would work on a cistern... i imagine it is made of concrete?
cheers!
I hear you on the plumbing thing. Our house is a mix of copper, pvc, and even a few pieces of old garden hose for patches! Once we get a real foundation put in (hopefully next summer) I plan to redo the whole thing in PEX. My brother and I replumbed my mother's house completely in PEX and we both loved it! It's easy to run long sections, good for both cold and hot, and since it all goes together with compression fittings, no solvents to worry about! Our well is 300' deep so we have a 110v jet pump in the well itself. The 110v pump is nice to have as we can easily hook it up to the generator. Do you have a plumbing supplier near you? They can usually test your water for about $50.00 and tell you exactly what's in it.
ReplyDeletehey prepared canadian!
Deletenothing like a red green pluming setup, eh?
i hear you on the pex... i have used it anywhere i need to make changes... LOVE the stuff!! and it is pretty cheap too. i can hardly wait to install a hot and a cold manifold too... it will make changes and repairs so much easier!
we only have a shallow well, the jet pump is 110v too so if we lose power, the generator can power it.
we had our water tested at the hospital, teh result was "some" coliform bacteria... which is useless, it's well water, there will be some bacteria, regardless. the berkey takes care of drinking water, i have scoped out a couple of spots near the house that might have a spring... if we get a new well, then i will send the water away for proper testing... for now, it's kinda rusty and we live with it ;-)
cheers!
Good luck with all of that, and I love the homemade Berkey - I always wanted to make one until I found ours at Goodwill.
ReplyDeletethanks mm!
Deletewe had two smaller berkeys we got with the filters, but i found them to be a pain so i made one with buckets, only one thing to fill. we keep 5 18L jugs on hand all the time... we drink a LOT of water for two people!! naturally, you and yours drink more... i used this as a guide:
http://www.alpharubicon.com/kids/homemadeberkeydaire.htm
but i used 3 filters instead of two, you get your water faster... i didn't bother with the tap on the bottom half, every morning i use a funnel to fill water cooler jugs and then top up the top half. which then go into the water cooler - works awesome!
once a week, i clean teh unit and filters.
cheers!
haha...that is too funny..at work this morning I ate my oatmeal with a CRKT Spork that is in the first shot. I keep it with me all the time but only use it when I am too lazy to scrounge up a spoon..or a fork.
ReplyDeleteI have been pricing a 12v(or 24v) submersible pump recently in an attempt to get rid of our noisy jet pump..If I get one I might have a jet pump forsale..CHEAP!
take care!
hey egb!!!
Deletethat IS too funny, do you keep it on a string around your neck?? ;-)
how deep is your well? i would keep the old pump on hand for emergencies. do you have the pump mounted on top of the bladder? i took mine off and bolted it to it's own wood platform and the noise is way less now - the wood is a good dampener!!
cheers buddy!!!
I'm in rental property both crash pad and away, while I scout out land to build on so I can't mess with much, but this post is going to be saved for it's a great deal of good info and definetly shared with Partner in Grime who owns a 107 year old place with basement.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I know Kymber likes Kimchee. I was in Amish Country and one of the ladies at the fair gave me a hand written recipe for saurkraut and sausage soup. I'm not sure if saurkraut and kimchee are close in origin but it looked good. If you'd like, I'll email it to you.
hey brigid - glad there is some good info for you. let me know when you get a place and i will be glad to help you any way i can!
Deletei gave kymber a head's up - she LOVES saurkraut !
cheers!!
J, Do you know the cost of the work you did? I had to pay $307 to have the commode leak stopped and to have a washer replaced in the tub faucet, to have the drain in the tub replaced and three leakes in the plumbing stopped. And, the guy is not done yet. I have to obtain a genuine Chicago faucet washer. for 4 months. I was looking at the lovely water flowing into the tub and not out onto the floor and thought of all the work you are capable of doing, and just wanted to tell you that your skills saved you so much money!
ReplyDeleteEven though my exbf still helps me with some things because I cannot do lots of things due to injury and needing surgery, the only thing he can do with plumbing is turning the faucet on and off. I am not putting him down or complaining. It's just that not everyone can do what you do.
I don't know where the rest of the sentence went, but I could not bathe or shower for four months. That's a long time when it is he hottest four month period of the year. And, I don't have a hot tub or a river.
DeleteWill the coliform in the bathing water cause a problem if it gets in a cut on your body? I know some water is not fit for bathing if not fit for drinking.
thanks pp - it is a lift to think about it that way... will be doing all the plumbing from here on in, next big project is moving the hot water tank to the basement to free up space in the closet - THAT should be fun.
Deletei didn't start out doing this much ;-) i appreciate the sentiment - i would roll up my sleeves and sort you out pronto if i was there.
when we got our water tested, there was no fecal coliform, which is dangerous... as for the rest, i am not sure about bathing. i am sure there are plenty of microorganisms in the river... i tend to think that eating well and keeping a healthy immune system is the best defense.
cheers pp!
cheers!
J - Here is the recipe. I am going to post rather than email Kymber so others can try.
ReplyDeleteAdd some homemade bread and this makes a hearty winter meal.
1 pound of bulk beer or venison sausage seasoned with sage
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 pound sauerkraut (undrained)
2 garlic cloves (cloves NOT bulbs) minced
6 cups homemade chicken stock or canned low sodium broth
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons flour
pinch of white pepper
1 teaspoon raw honey
In a large soup pot, on low, saute the sausage, onion and garlic til the garlic is browned and the onion is softened (about 7-9 minutes). Drain off almost all of the fat, but don't drain completely dry OR rinse. Add sauerkraut and chicken stock and cook, covered, for 40 minutes on low.
In another small saucepan on medium low - melt the butter. Make a roux by whisking the flour and white pepper into the melted butter, just til it bubbles and then pour in a cup of the stock and continue to whisk well. Return this mixture to the big soup pot, raise the temp to medium and cook about 10 minutes (should start to thicken). Add the honey, blend well and ladel into soup bowls.
That BEEF sausage not Beer sausage, thought that might be good :-)
ReplyDeleteHi to all. Thanks for the recipe. I'll try that one. Looks delicious and appetizing. Thanks again. I appreciate it.
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