From A Wide Spot In The Road

Discussion in 'Personal Diaries' started by Bill Boggs, Mar 25, 2019.

  1. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Yes, I liked that one also. Terms of Endearment made me appreciate MacMurtry's wide range of expression.
     
    #121
  2. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Went shopping late this morning. Needed few groceries, some corn pads,
    a pair of clip-on sunshades for my glasses, and some blood glucose test
    strips. Also the old ford is about out of gas. I need to fill up today or park it.
    Got some fruit, grapes, strawberries, and watermelon. Some frozen veggies,
    and some c.eap, low cal TV dinners. Bought tomatoes and dressings for
    salads. I had to have help getting the groceries out to the car and loaded.

    Now my biggest job is getting them from the car to the house. I can take my
    time doing that. I had a watermelon today and my good wife brought out a cart
    and hauled it in the house.

    My son and his family will be back stateside on 31July. I had his lawn mowed
    as well as mine and will have his mowed again the last week in July so it will
    look good when he returns home. Mine gets mowed every other Thursday.

    Norman's last and only full service station closed a while back. I used them
    religiously during the winter months or when I was too exhausted or too short
    of breath to get out and fill up my own car. My son and I both traded there
    because when a shop like that closes, well, they are not likely to be replaced.
    So good bye full service.

    Here's a note for @Frank Sanoica if you don't mind. My back yard has two
    low places where water stands. I want an electric pump to pump out those low
    places when it rains. I'd like to run an electrical line into thee house so I can
    activate the pump whenever the pump is needed. I'd like to have one I could
    hook on to a lawn hose and pump the water out to the street. So Frank what
    kind of pump do I need. You're an engineer and I'm a paper pusher and there
    has been no need for the likes of me ever since the digital age came about. A
    small diagram would help, along with the type of pump I'd need. OIr you can
    tell come to go jump in that lake. I won't do it but I'll get the message.
    eventually I want to bury a line and do it up proper. Apprciate it. Don't know why
    I'm breathing so hard. Can't beieve merely writing could make me so short of breath.
     
    #122
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  3. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    I know you will be glad to see your son & family back, Bill.

    I can't remember when I saw the last full service gas station. I wish we had one here. I really, really hate pumping gas. It would be worth a few cents more to me not to have to pump it.

    I'm sure @Frank Sanoica has a solution to your water problem. He's pretty smart.

    Be careful and rest when you are short of breath.
     
    #123
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  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs

    First, and absolutely foremost, you will need to feed power to the pump via a Ground Fault Circuit Breaker (GFCI), to eliminate the very real possibility of electrocution. Your home, if not too old, will possibly have an outside outlet, which for at least 30 or 40 years now is legal only if fed by a GFCI. If you have no GFCI breakers or outlets in the home, it is fairly easy to remove an outlet where convenient to the need for power, and replace it with a GFCI outlet, which looks like this:

    [​IMG]
    Oklahoma City Home Inspection

    This type of outlet provides protection to any device plugged into it. It replaces a standard outlet as seen below:
    upload_2019-6-27_17-1-24.jpeg

    The National Electrical Code, which applies uniformly to our entire country, specifies that all residential structures must have GFCI protection:

    "GFCI receptacles were required in houses starting in 1971. Originally they were only required at the exterior of the house and by swimming pool equipment. Over the years, GFCI receptacles have been required in more locations such as garages, bathrooms, kitchens, etc."

    So, you may already have outlets in areas such as kitchen, bathrooms, garage, and outdoors outlets protected by a single circuit breaker located in your main Electric Panel, the "breaker panel":
    [​IMG]

    If you plan to run the pump using an extension cord, you can safely (and legally) do it using a GFCI "Pigtail" like this:
    [​IMG]
    Extension cords are also available with a GFCI built in the plug-in end:
    [​IMG]
    All of the above discussion is based on a temporary, "on the ground" power source for your pump. Regarding pumps: To make a wise choice, we need an estimate of how much water you need to move, and how far. Where do you plan to "dump" it? A long distance, say over 50 feet or so would require a high-capacity pump than say a swim pool circulation pump. Also, how much "uphill" will the water need to be pumped to get rid of it? It takes 2 psi of water pressure to lift water a height of 1 foot. Most small inexpensive pumps will not deliver much more pressure than 10 psi or so; they could not pump the water up into, well, your attic, for example.

    A bewildering variety of pumps is available, see:

    https://www.grainger.com/category/pumps/centrifugal-pumps
    Those are all "Centrigal Pumps".

    It's possible a "Sump Pump", intended for basements and such, might do the job for you, see: https://www.grainger.com/search?searchQuery=submersible sump pumps&suggestConfigId=6&searchBar=true

    Beyond this, I could not recommend a specific pump for you, without knowing more specifics about the job to be done. Safe to say, if your water to be pumped might contain debris such as dirt, soil, or sand, a more specific pump is needed, usually called an "Effluent" pump. Hope this helps! Frank

     

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    #124
  5. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Thanks much, @Frank Sanoica. I've got a depression in the back yard about 20' X 20' when it comes a good rain (1/2"). If it rains more than that the20' X20' expands out toward the house to a 25' circle. And if it ccrain several inches likes it has repeatedly this year, it gets up underf the house and the whole back yard gets soggy. I'm interested in keeping the 20' x 20' drained so it don't get all over the yard and under the house. The water only gets about six inches deep, maybe seven in that twenty foot circle at its deepest. I dom't know know if there is a pump for this.. My only thought was a small lake pump but I don't know S. from S. about pumps. What do you think. I suppose I need to dig a sump, let the water drain in to it, then pump ot out when it reaches a certain level or something.

    IMG_1395.jpg
     
    #125
  6. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I know this is hard to see. Here's another view.

    IMG_1400.JPG

    What do you think? And if i didn't say so, thanks for your efforts and help.
     
    #126
  7. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Okay, think I was kinda hoping for something like a kid's toy, maybe a little lunch-box looking thing, with a little battery,
    and a little switch you could switch on, and a little plastic handle you could hold while thee water was being pumped
    out and it couldn' shock you because it was plastic and it was, of course, run by blue-tooth and I could look out my
    window and switch it on when ever needed. I guess a good man with a shovel could get it done in a half day with
    gravity flow. Do they exist anymore? Oh, to be young again. Okay, I think a sump pump will do it.
     
    #127
  8. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs Sorry, I'm tied up all day, but will get back this evening. Frank
     
    #128
  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs
    I don't know of a small pump that's battery operated, but no doubt one exists. I would say if you locate the lowest spot and dig a small hole, a small submersible sump or waste pump lowered into it would do the job. A GFCI extension cord would allow you to plug it in as well as turn it on and off, by using the "Test" button to turn off and the "Reset" to turn it on. We do this with our small pool pump.

    Only thing is, do you have a place to dump the water? Sewer, maybe.
    Frank
     
    #129
  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Yep, sewer or on the street like everyone else does on these messed up lots. Thanks,@Frank Sanoica, bunches.
     
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  11. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs
    Sure thing, don't mention it! Main thing is some locations are very picky about dumping water, but sounds like you don't have such worries!
    Frank
     
    #131
  12. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    @Frank Sanoica, At the the present time that the way it goes. I'm wired okay, too.
     
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  13. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I have come to the notion that I am on my last leg. Almost.
     
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  14. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    So say we all, Bill. :D
     
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  15. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Yes, these shoes are killing me.
     
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