Checking Spring Water Supply Pipes, a Motorcycle Ride and Loading the Van

Friday February 23, 2018 Guerneville, CA.

Spring water lines need checking

It was a bit warmer out this morning as I got it going and went outside.

The cat came by but wouldn’t pose for a picture.

My brother Barry came by. He took my quad runner up the hill with his chainsaw to cut some trees off the roads.

Rode Mike’s bike

That left me with another brothers motorcycle to go up the hill on. It needed a battery charge anyway, so I got some tape and rode up the hill to our old Indian spring to check the pipe for any leaks as sometimes wild animals eat into the pipes to try to get water in late summer.

The white pipe is an air vent pipe at the main spring where I started my walk along the pipe going down the hill to our water tanks, about a thousand feet down.

I was able to ride the motorcycle to here, but then I had to hike along the black pipe going where it went straight down the hill.

There’s not a trail so I had to watch my step.

The waterline goes on down through these redwood trees so I went down there too.

I was almost to the bottom where the water tanks are located below this spot.

Water valves

I have some valves here where the two main spring lines come together and head for the water tanks just below.

Checking how much water

I checked the water from each source here with this one gallon paint can. The main spring filled the can in thirty seconds so that’s two gallons a minute for that spring and the other spring filled it in sixty seconds, so that one has one gallon a minute. That’s three gallons a minute total or 180 gallons in an hour.

I thought the one gallon spring should be a bit more so I checked on that spring later.

Checking the second water line

I did walk back up that spring line through here, but didn’t find any leaks. That was a steep area to go through without sliding down the hill.

Motorcycle ride

By now I was pretty beat so I hit the road and walked back to where the motorcycle was parked and rode it on up the  hill to the ridge top overlooking the town of Guerneville here.

Here’s the Guerneville area as I looked down.

Repaired this spring tap

On the way down the hill I rode over to this spring and found all the pipes pulled out from the wild pigs so I put it back together which will add a bit more water to the spring that was a bit short.

It took me longer to do this than I thought it would so I got back down the hill around 4PM.

Tuckered out but did some van loading

I sat in  my chair and had a hard time getting it going again. But after a rest and a cup of coffee I went out and loaded my drinking water in the van and some other food stuff until it got dark and I came on in the house for the night.

All that hiking and the motorcycle ride really stretches my body which has got to be good for these older bones, at least I hope so.

That was it for me today.