Typical Day In My Back Yard

A few more photos. Risers glued on:


risers.jpg



Valve, air gap, and riser on mainline:


valveandairgap.jpg



A little more mainline plumbing: FYI Sprinkler system design is an art. Systems have to be sized so the sprinkler at the end of a line 1/2 mile away puts out the same pressure and volume as the one right next to the pump. Hydraulics is complicated, and all the tees and elbows have to be figured in when designing it. Back when we did the system at the home ranch, it was all done slide rules, charts, and calculators. Now computer programs do the majority of the work. Punch in the field dimensions, pump location, GPM and pressure, and let the hard drive do the work. Up to a point, that is.


plumbing.jpg



Side note: I mentioned the root system of alfalfa. All the work done tilling the soil, and you can see the roots still there.


roots.jpg


Don't think too much different will happen now until they get closer to the end. We take the camera with us, just in case.
 
Thanks for sharing how it is done.

Glad you enjoy it.


Just like that, it's gone. One pass with the small dozer and the pipeline is covered. I don't know if they will partially pack the trench, or possibly irrigate once and let the water settle the dirt in the trench before finishing the backfill. Again, we'll see.

backfill.jpg
 
Not a very good photo, but here it is anyway. They started laying the mainline in the field for the sprinklers. We are walking in tire tracks, about halfway through the field crossways, and we're about halfway to the house. Note our pudgy shadows - the pipe sections are 20' long, and our shadows are about 80 feet long. It's just before 7 AM, and the sun has just come up over the Sierras behind us.

You can faintly see the moon - it's about over San Francisco (west). Again you can see Mt. Diablo, and the long white building is the almost completed Amazon Distribution center.
pipe1.jpg

Couldn't help noticing your photo looks similar to this album cover:
two_against_nature.jpg


:D
 
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And a third trencher just showed up. If they get close to the shop, I'll get a photo today. If not, probably tomorrow.
 
They got here sooner than I thought. Here's a side view of the small trencher and a lateral line. Notice that the pipe can flex enough to facilitate going up and over the machine. This way, they can assemble the pipe on the ground instead of in the trench.


trencherside.jpg



Another view:


trencherrear.jpg



And another. Don't know why this one came out blurry. It's not beer o'clock yet.........


trencherback.jpg



Another side note: I mentioned earlier what a "tough" crop alfalfa was. After all of the discing, ripping, and scraping, some of it still survives. I spotted this while walking back through the field.

alfalfa.jpg
 
Sunday - day off.

Just a quick factoid:

I showed you earlier how they covered the mainline. With three trenchers, the dozer can't keep up. This morning, I showed the wife how every couple hundred feet, they had pushed dirt in on the laterals. There's a reason for that. It's highly unlikely it could happen here, but there have been instances where a sudden storm with a deluge of water will fill the trenches and float the air filled pipeline out of the trench, usually breaking them. The occasional backfill will prevent that from happening.

backfill2.jpg
 
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And just like that, it looks like it was never touched. They finished most of the underground assembly and backfilled everything. The only hint there is are the risers and valve handles. The remainder of the system will be very similar to the black plastic you use for a drip system in your yard.

finished.jpg


The trees won't get planted until after the first of the year, preferably after a good, deep frost to make the trees go dormant. I don't know if they put the above ground system in now, or wait until the trees are in. Well see.
 
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Another little factoid for you to peruse. Take a look at this photo:

hardpan.jpg


Notice the hole in front of the camera. See how the dirt around the hole is lighter? Now look ahead and see how some of the holes have this lighter colored dirt.

There is a strip in this field that runs from bottom left to upper right, between 50 and 100' wide. This is the tail end of that strip. When the alfalfa was growing, you could see how the growth was "stunted" a little. Since the angle of the strip is along the natural fall of the land (from the mountains on the left to the river on the right), I'm guessing it might have been a low spot or creek bed at one time. If so, it's likely that it's an alkali spot, or there is a layer of hardpan down there. The posthole diggers went down 48 inches, so it's likely they either hit it or went through it. Some hardpan can be almost as bad as concrete if it's old and packed. This looks like it's fairly soft, judging from the color.

After the trees are planted and irrigated a few times, possibly next fall, they will probably come in and spread gypsum in between the rows, and let the rain take it into the ground. That will help break the soil up and give the roots a better chance to spread and go down.
 
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Thanks for posting this. Very interesting stuff, and lots of effort by you to keep this going.

:thmbsp:
 
Very interesting post. I live just over those mountains in Santa Clara County.

I often drive by the Tracy area traveling to the other side of the central valley.

The bay area and the central valley are so different it's hard to believe they are both in California. I have some friends that live out in Chowchilla. Total peace and quiet and beautiful sunsets every night. :thmbsp:
 
We've lived here since 1986. Every day there's something different going on in the area, and it's all right outside our back door.
 
Back to being busy again. The sprinkler/dripper hose was delivered:


dripperline.jpg



The tubing is .820 X .930 (+-), which they call 3/4". The field is 2607 feet wide by 3875 feet long, apprx. With a row every 20 feet, there are apprx. 193 rows, 2607 feet long. That totals over 505,000 feet of hose - just over 95 miles if my math serves me correct.

Here's the setup they use to slip the tubing in the ground. There is a furrowing shovel with a feed hole that digs a trench and inserts the tubing. The shovel doesn't have very wide wings, so most of the dirt falls back in the trench on top of the tubing. A rear wheel packs it.


slipper1.jpg



A rear shot:

slipper2.jpg



When a roll runs out, they put them together with a coupler, feed it through the shovel, and move on.



slipper2.jpg



At the end of the row, they cut the hose and move on.


hoseend.jpg



Another side note: I mentioned how tough alfalfa roots were. Here's what collected on the shovel shank in this section:


roots2.jpg
 
Hit the wrong button before I was done.

The hoses are laid along side where the trees will be planted. One row will have both hoses, so every other one is vacant. Since those rows won't be used any more, they run a "float" through them. It's basically a short box scraper with a lid, and a roller in the rear. There are probably tines inside to break up any clods. It's almost as wide as the rows, so the driver has to be careful not to fill in any of the tree holes.


float.jpg



He is doing every other row, and will come back and do the others once the lines are all installed. Here's what it looks like:

floatedrows.jpg



When finished, the field will be basically no-till. The ground is now smooth enough to make harvesting possible. They will strip-spray the tree rows to keep them clean, and use a flail mower in the centers to keep weeds down. After the nuts are knocked during harvest, the sweepers have a blower attachment on the rear that blow the nuts out of the tree lines and into the center.

It will probably be "floated" another time or two before it's all done.
 
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