Working Around the Yard

We have several hose bibs that leak.  They need to be replaced to save on the cost of water.  We drove to Fillmore.  I picked some up at Ropers.  The one east of the house was leaking the most.  I had a difficult time removing it. My short pipe wrench would not turn it off.  The bigger one didn't work either.  I used the big hammer method. I put the wrench to the hose bib and hit the end with the hammer.  I hit it harder and harder.  finally it started to turn just the littlest amount.

Below is the pipes that are connected to the well.  I had to buy a new union. I glued the short nipple to the union and the other end to the ell.  At the bottom is a female adapter that I attached to the pressure tank.  I taped it Teflon tape and tightened with a pipe ranch to where I could tighten it no more.  I then undone the union and glued the rest of the parts together.  I turned the pump on.  There was another leak.  It was the gate valve.

The phot below from left to right shows a nipple, then the gate valve, another nipple, and then the union.  The size of all was 1 1/4 inches.  The union was the hardest to remove.  It was difficult to tell which way to turn the union.  The small pipe wrench wouldn't work.  I used a 14 inch wrench.  I ended up turning is clock wise.  I put the wrench on and pounded the end with a heavy hammer.  It didn't move.  I pounded harder and harder.  It finally turned a little.  Eventually I got it off.  Using the same method I removed a gate valve leaving the left nipple in place.  There is a heavy duty vice in the garage which held the gate valve firmly and with a hammer and wrench, I took it all apart.  A tripe to the hardware store for a gate valve and back.  I put it all together using Teflon tape.  The next morning I was able to get water to the garden.

I fixed an other tap that had a hose bib attracted to each end of a tee. The ball valve froze  and has a crack in it.  It works okay of it is all the way on or all the way off.  Put partly own it sprays through the break.

We have a lilac tree next to the garage.  Every winter some of the branches die.  Some are mostly dead with one live branch at the end.  I have a saws all that head a  metal cutting blade.  I removed it and after some difficulty put in another blade for cutting wood.  With a ladder and an extension card I was able to remove a few branches.

 Lisa gave us some dahlia tuber last week. We planted them this afternoon.  There are drip lines in this garden.  I dug a hole under every other emitter until we had them all planted.  We put a sprinkler on the north end and after thirty minutes I moved to the south end for another thirty minutes.  It should be looking pretty in about six weeks. 

A couple of lilac bushes are struggling.  We pruned several of them.  I used the chainsaw to cut some of the larger branches.  It is pretty sick looking.  We hope that it will branch out some.