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I replaced three grinder pump floats.

We had to run a new conduit and drill 1.25” hole in concrete tank. Then rig up a bracket to hold the floats that can be removed so you can get the pump out.

It wasn’t done right to begin with. They used a 4’ square concrete box and put a 24” manhole cover on it. But the hole in the tank is 17x14. Looks like something Jeff Handy would do 😜 J/k
 
Havasu, I hope you get to start enjoying the vacation soon. That water leak did not sound like a good thing but I'm glad it got fixed quickly (and was not on your side of the meter).

I forced myself to get up and got out a flashlight bc the sun wasn't shining in the window enough to help. Finished filling bag number 8 from the previous day (making it bag number 15 and then I filled 2 more so it was 17 total). It didn't look like much work to do but it took me hours because I had to pick out all the coins, pencils, pens, mail, and other things that had fallen. I had to pile a bunch of mom's stuff on her chair temporarily to clean the trash out of her non-trash stuff. Then I moved the end table over to near her desk to put stuff on. I took the lid off the 13 gallon trash can I found under her garbage and set it up under an overhang on her desk. She doesn't like it there but it's the best place for it. She doesn't really like the end table so I offered to have my brother haul a nice little end table I got at a flea market out of my room and set it in place of the wobbly end table over. Flea market one has doors so she can open them and store stuff inside. It also looks nicer and isn't wobbly. Then when I move more stuff out of the way I can get my brother to help me move a tall shelf thingy that matches my bedroom furniture into my room.

Since I busted hump for 3 days Mom was OK with me getting food from Burger King for her bc I was too tired to try to cook something. My back really hates me right now. Still waiting on Fedex to see if they will deliver our Starlink equipment. They are really pissing us off by refusing to deliver. They claimed it was out on the truck for delivery yesterday but their driver was too lazy to bring it out to us so he took it back to the main hub in Lake Charles. They claim they are "too busy". I call BS. It's not like it's a major holiday like Xmas. I mentioned filing a complaint with the BBB to see if it gets their attention.
 
I'm embarrassed. Did something stupid.

We ordered a new washer/dryer to be delivered and installed. But the old units must first be disconnected beforehand by the owner and readied to be taken away. No problem, I thought.

Well it was a problem.

The hoses unscrewed very easily from the back of the old washing machine, but the installers insist on fitting entirely new braided hoses. So the original rubber hoses first had to be removed entirely (by me) from the shutoff valves. Except I can't get them to budge. They're seized on solid. Surprisingly, the shutoff valves work fine. I just can't get the hoses off.

Kacked.jpg

So, I just cut the valves off and installed brand new 1/4 turn ball valves. I soldered on threaded couplings, which the ball valves screw into. Clever, eh? That way if I ever eventually need to do this again, I can just unscrew the valves to replace them. No further soldering required.

So, run all the way back down to basement to turn the water back on, run back up to the laundry room to check for leaks. All looks good. Solder joints are beautiful and water tight. Oh, wait a sec. It's dripping from both of the threaded joints. Darn.

Run back down, shut off the water, run back up to open the ball valves to release any pressure and drain the pipes again. Unscrew both ball valves, wrap some more tape around the threads, screw the valves back in a little tighter this time. Should be good to go now...

Run back downstairs, turn the water back on, run back up to check for leaks...

OMG!!!

I'd left the ball valves turned wide open! There's water BLASTING everywhere! Brilliant.

My wife was deeply (ankle deep) impressed by my plumbing handiwork. :beeroclock:
 
Ferdinand said:
I'm embarrassed. Did something stupid.

We ordered a new washer/dryer to be delivered and installed. But the old units must first be disconnected beforehand by the owner and readied to be taken away. No problem, I thought.

Well it was a problem.

The hoses unscrewed very easily from the back of the old washing machine, but the installers insist on fitting entirely new braided hoses. So the original rubber hoses first had to be removed entirely (by me) from the shutoff valves. Except I can't get them to budge. They're seized on solid. Surprisingly, the shutoff valves work fine. I just can't get the hoses off.

View attachment 33687

So, I just cut the valves off and installed brand new 1/4 turn ball valves. I soldered on threaded couplings, which the ball valves screw into. Clever, eh? That way if I ever eventually need to do this again, I can just unscrew the valves to replace them. No further soldering required.

So, run all the way back down to basement to turn the water back on, run back up to the laundry room to check for leaks. All looks good. Solder joints are beautiful and water tight. Oh, wait a sec. It's dripping from both of the threaded joints. Darn.

Run back down, shut off the water, run back up to open the ball valves to release any pressure and drain the pipes again. Unscrew both ball valves, wrap some more tape around the threads, screw the valves back in a little tighter this time. Should be good to go now...

Run back downstairs, turn the water back on, run back up to check for leaks...

OMG!!!

I'd left the ball valves turned wide open! There's water BLASTING everywhere! Brilliant.

My wife was deeply (ankle deep) impressed by my plumbing handiwork. :beeroclock:
Click to expand...

I would’ve blamed her for not turning them off
 
Don't feel bad. I got so excited about installing Starlink that I forgot to wait for my friend to drill a larger hole on the exterior wall so I tried to push the cable through the wall. It got stuck because it deploys some sort of mechanism to keep it from coming back out and my friend had to cut a bigger hole in the exterior wall to avoid hitting the cable. Took a lot longer. Herpderp.
I had previously cut a metal pipe on which to mount my Starlink dish but it was too thin-walled. OD was good but ID was too large. Fortunately, I had another thicker pipe with same OD lying around. I took it down to the workshop to cut it on the chopsaw. It took awhile. Sparks were flying everywhere (I wore eye protection) and I had to stop, rotate the pipe in the vise, and then cut again. Did that several times until I got it cut all the way through. Love that chopsaw. We tried to bend the pipe with the pipe bender but it wasn't anchored to anything so it didn't work. Ended up using a straight pipe temporarily. Used T-Rex tape to hold the pole on because trying to cut a 1/2" square hole in that pipe was not happening. Official mount has been ordered to replace it.
My friend wants to move out here to use our internet now. LOL.
It is 10x faster than our old ISP. What would have taken days to download took less than an hour. And we don't have to worry about going over a limit. Freedom!!
It arrived in time for my brother's birthday. He's been bummed out for awhile and he just admitted to me that he found out his girlfriend in Japan died of an aneurism 2 months after he met her in person. She suddenly ghosted him and he didn't know why. Now he said she "literally ghosted" him. It's had him depressed. But he was able to download every game in his Steam library and he grouped with my sister in DDO so he's feeling much better.
I've got some yellow rice cooking in the pressure cooker for Mom. She loves that stuff. Just wish I'd been able to get a butter garlic rotisserie chicken but I missed out while waiting at Popeyes.
 
havasu said:
How do you make yellow rice?
Click to expand...
I get 2 packets of this
1644626475012.png
Pour it into the pressure cooker, add butter instead of olive oil, pour in water until the water level is about knuckle deep above the rice, stir it up, add some garlic salt (optional), hit the rice setting on the pressure cooker, and wait. Cooks for 20min after building pressure.
 
Ferdinand said:
I'm embarrassed. Did something stupid.

We ordered a new washer/dryer to be delivered and installed. But the old units must first be disconnected beforehand by the owner and readied to be taken away. No problem, I thought.

Well it was a problem.

The hoses unscrewed very easily from the back of the old washing machine, but the installers insist on fitting entirely new braided hoses. So the original rubber hoses first had to be removed entirely (by me) from the shutoff valves. Except I can't get them to budge. They're seized on solid. Surprisingly, the shutoff valves work fine. I just can't get the hoses off.

View attachment 33687

So, I just cut the valves off and installed brand new 1/4 turn ball valves. I soldered on threaded couplings, which the ball valves screw into. Clever, eh? That way if I ever eventually need to do this again, I can just unscrew the valves to replace them. No further soldering required.

So, run all the way back down to basement to turn the water back on, run back up to the laundry room to check for leaks. All looks good. Solder joints are beautiful and water tight. Oh, wait a sec. It's dripping from both of the threaded joints. Darn.

Run back down, shut off the water, run back up to open the ball valves to release any pressure and drain the pipes again. Unscrew both ball valves, wrap some more tape around the threads, screw the valves back in a little tighter this time. Should be good to go now...

Run back downstairs, turn the water back on, run back up to check for leaks...

OMG!!!

I'd left the ball valves turned wide open! There's water BLASTING everywhere! Brilliant.

My wife was deeply (ankle deep) impressed by my plumbing handiwork. :beeroclock:
Click to expand...
Ugh !
The exact same thing happened to me last year after we moved house.
The plumber working in our laundry did the same thing only no one noticed until there was a waterfall coming down into the dining room below and out of the front siding of the house.
Horrible.
We had to spend 3 days drying it out and replace the drywall in the laundry, dining room ceiling and one dining room wall.
Water leaks freak me out more than anything
 
I’ve done it before. Replaced the valves in laundry box. Thought I turned them off. I go turn water on and walk back in the house and water shooting across the room.

Lucky it was a tile floor and vacant at the time.

I sucked all the water up with a shop vac and threw a blower fan in the room and turned the AC on max while I took a lunch break. I got lucky
 
Mark.S said:
Water leaks freak me out more than anything
Twowaxhack said:
... water shooting across the room.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
That's what impressed me the most. Not just the VOLUME of water that came out within those few seconds, but how FAR it could shoot out of those valves.

Just image a pipe breaks while you're away on vacation.... Eek.
 
I don't even remember what I've been doing. Had some headaches. Went to Samclub on Friday to get cat food but the were out of the usual stuff. I got a different kind. Cats don't like it. My dog, Princess, has been going out at night and waking me up when she comes back in and wants to warm up by climbing on me. Went out to check something last night and there was a big dog with a collar out there hanging out with her. So, she's been playing with a friend (think the dog is female) at night. And Fippy has gotten jealous and has been humping her to try to exert dominance. But he's considerably shorter than her so she turns around and knocks him down.
New internet is having an obstruction to the east- I think pecan tree that no longer makes nuts. Considering having it cut down because it also drops leaves and twigs in to the cow waterer. But, its been there a long time so cutting it would be a shame. Maybe we can get it trimmed down. And/or get a taller pole/pipe for the dish.
I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the pipes put together or maybe just buy a new taller pipe and find a way to clamp the dish to it.
 
Went to unjam the rod last night and found my cat sitting on the ground inside the shed in a few inches of water with water splashing all over him. It was around 34° out there. I grabbed him up and brought him inside to towel him off. He reeks of cow urine and crap. The cows sometimes piss on their crap so I can only assume he sat in some while wet. He was staring at the water like he wanted to drink it but wasn't. First thing he did was start drinking water from every water bowl in the vicinity. I got him in my room but he slipped out when I looked away for 2 min. (I had a flashlight and kept checking on him). Couldn't find him but my brother went out at first light and found him just sitting in the cold field near the barn. He brought him in and we took him to the vet as soon as they opened. They did bloodwork and his wbc was way too high and kidney functions bad. Kidney infection w/ signs of kidney failure. He won't eat but he'll drink some water. They gave him IV fluids for a few hours and then we brought him home. He still has an IV in just in case he gets dehydrated. He's sleeping on my brother's bed for now. When we first got him home he let me groom him but after he drank more he got agitated and growled when I tried to clean his back legs and back end (which are still nasty smelling). But he's on my brother's bed so its ok. :D

While we were waiting for blood results, we visited our friend and I cleaned my friend's toilet. He passed a kidney stone and it made a bloody mess all over the seat and front of the toilet.

Might take the kitty back for more fluids tomorrow since we can't get him to eat. Tried chicken and canned food. No interest. My toothless cat was happy about the canned food though. He got to eat most of it.
 
Ferdinand said:
That's what impressed me the most. Not just the VOLUME of water that came out within those few seconds, but how FAR it could shoot out of those valves.

Just image a pipe breaks while you're away on vacation.... Eek.
Click to expand...
I remember this horror story when my parents left their home in Kansas City for a vacation in sunny California during the dead of winter back in the 1980s. The power went off at the house and the heating system never recovered even though the power came back on. The temperatures dropped well below freezing for two weeks and one of the pipes in an inside wall burst filling the entire basement to overflowing and continued to fill the first floor until ice flows could be seen coming out of first floor windows. I thought that water companies had the ability to detect runaway water utilization and do something about it but I guess I was wrong. I also think my parents should have left a key with the neighbors. Lot's of lessons learned no doubt.
 
i do this at my little vacation home but at this home, because I'd also kill the sprinklers in the backyard, I hesitate to shut off my main water line.
 
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