Rain, Rain Drain Away

While Jen has been toiling away in the garden this past week, I was working diligently on making sure our house didn't wash away. Recently I was walking around the outside of my house and noticed a large hole in one side of our garden. I set out to discover what was causing the ground to erode away.

Hard to see in the picture, but trust me it was eroding away.

As it turns out there were four downspouts draining to this one particular spot which meant a lot of water was being sent to this area. Upon further inspection I discovered a six inch clay pipe running underneath our carport that was full to the brim with mud. So the first step was to get all the mud out of the clay pipe.
Tools to get mud out - Garden hose and very long sticks.
Method of use - Shoving water hose and very long sticks into pipe repeatedly for about 2 hours to break up mud muck.

I didn't know I was going bald until this picture. Anyways one of the very long sticks used.

The next discovery was that metal downspouts were used underground and not surprisingly the decades of sitting in wet dirt had caused big chunks of the pipe to rust away. It was decided these had to go. In its place black drain pipes were used that were not perforated because as little water was wanted on the house side of the carport.
Tools to take off rusted pipe - Tetanus shot and reciprocating saw
Method of use - inserted into arm and cutting pipe off before it went underground

a) Rusty drain pipe in okay condition. b) Rusty drain pipe in not okay condition.

c) Not-rusty drain pipe in superb condition.

The next step was to make sure the water that went under the carport had a place to go away from the house. A drainage system was created by having a pipe run into a collection box to help prevent unwanted items going down the system. Leaving the box was a perforated drain pipe that let water seep out of the pipe and into the gravel that was put down surrounding the pipe. After that all that was left was to cover the gravel with a protective covering that allows water in but keeps silt and dirt out for 30 years.
Tools to dig trench - Shovel, level
Method of use - dig and dig and dig and dig and dig then fill and fill and fill and fill and pray it was level...or at a slope away...not an incline...

The final step was to prevent further loss of erosion. So I made a little cement basin to catch the water and send it on its merry way down the mudless clay pipe. After that rocks were gathered from around Independence and a rock wall was built and lined with more material to prevent dirt from getting in. It was fun figuring out what rocks to put where. It was a real life puzzle and I have always been into jigsaw puzzles.

And then it was complete

Hmm...two ladies watching me work.

Final Thought
The number of people that will notice what Jen did this week - ALL
The number of people that will notice what Ian did this week - only the sophisticated few that read this post. :)