Barn Leak
This last summer was a severe drought, & altho Dick & I thought we had solved the barn leak problem, there was no rain water to test the situation. Now we are once again experiencing wet weather, and at one time almost flood conditions... the barn is now actually worse than before we commenced remedial work. Now, after rain, I pump out the pond which can be several metres across and up to 15 cms deep, being supplied by the "river" flowing from under the pump installation.
The "stream" from under the pump room concrete.
The barn floor after pumping out for a few minutes.
General view "pond".
This is the "back" of the barn, "side-barn" door, looking towards the weeping willow tree / dyke. After exploratory digging, discovered blocked 6" concrete drainage pipe. This was traced to within 1.5 metres of the ditch, ending in a well blocked pipe, & solid ground.
The solidly blocked pipe.
End of the (now fully unblocked) drain.
The ditch is at least 1.5 metres down stream, after the unblocked section has been put back, there is still a good metres run of the water through the ground!
Levels here are fairly critical as the minimum ditch water level ( the sill of the bridge concrete pipe) is about the same as the end of the exposed pipe, if not slightly higher.
This is probably why the pipe stopped here as there was a slight miscalculation!
The lip of the concrete pipe sets the levels on this side. The tunnel was also firmly blocked in the middle and was a devil of a job to free-up.
Now all systems are freed-up this side of the barn, all we need now is a good downpour of rain to see if we have identified & fixed the problem.
Don't forget, until 2 years ago, the barn floor was literally dust-dry. It's my hypothesis that in previous years there was enough regular summer rain water to ensurs that silt deposits in the 'drains' could be washed away after each shower, but under the last few years drought conditions has allowed these deposits to be baked hard in the heat, and thereby unable to be washed away, & has quickly led to the blockages, causing localised flooding & the water finding alternative down hill routes, ending up in the south side of the barn.
It's a job I could do without!
