Rick wrote:DComeaux wrote:Blocked the pipe with a board?
The drain for the east end of the farm is a 16" pipe running under the center road and into the interior canal that goes around your end and feeds the pump. Once had a board overflow box like those on your piece, except it was already broken up when we took over the farm, and I cut a plywood piece that just completely blocked the pipe, instead. Something has since happened to that board, and someone tried closing the pipe with one of the old board box's sides that wasn't wide enough, instead of butting the two sides together, which would have done the trick. Hence their "leak". Put a proper sized board there yesterday, least that mistake be repeated.
While I've opened and closed the drains on that farm often enough, this was the first time I've done the pumping, and that's been revealing. Pump canal is so full of flotant that water has to be pulled very slowly for it to get from the the outside pipe or screw gate to the pump without sucking the flotant with it and clogging the works. But it turns out that's a good thing, because the eastward flood canal is so full of canouche/maidencane that water going into it finds it easier to get out over the south end of the canal, back by your blind, and into the center portion of the farm than push through to the east end at other than very low volume.
Of course, what's sorely needed is a hoe to clean both pump and flood canals, which doesn't seem apt to happen under current mgt. But it's something to keep in mind, if you should end up there without us, as the pump's very near the end of its usefulness without it.
Yes to all of that. Flooding that east side is one heck of a chore right now and it was a relief of sorts not to have to mess with it this year. That place needs a lot of TLC.
The drains in the levee that forms the cut where that east side drains were blocked by us last year. We used sand bags and dirt in all drains except for the first drain in the the east west portion of that levee near the road, we made and installed a gate on that one. There may be some leaks in one or more of those drains, as we had to monitor those drains and patch leaks all season. I think there are (4) drains in that levee, if I remember correctly.We did that to shorten the pump time needed to flood the main cuts for the blind area. We didn't have that drain pipe closed last year.