June 2021 – Drains Around the 8th Green

On Tuesday June 15th and Wednesday June 16th Freebie, Ron, Clive, Bruce and Tony set about marking out, trenching, laying the 25mm scoria, laying the 100mm socked agi-pipe, fitting the storm water pit and then backfilling the drain aon the Sth and E of the 8th green. Sevi rocked up with the pit and was eager to get on with the job but he was crook so we sent him home to recuperate.

This horseshoe drain will see the water that regularly accumulates beside (Sth) and behind the green drained away into the bottom dam. Many thanks to Mitch Atlas for his advice and other efforts to assist this project.

1st: Clive, Ron & Bruce set up the dumpy to get the levels correct

2nd: Tony, Ron and Freebie hand trenched to find the 25mm pipe to the green sprinklers and the 40mm blueline ring main

3rd: Freebie and Clive marked the line to be trenched and get the 100mm, socked agi-pipe organised

4th: Tony got Brutus going trenching along the blue line, once again, a graceful curve is a thing of beauty!

5th: Freebie had the Bulldog into the act adding a layer of 25mm scoria to the bottom of the trench

6th: “Carefully” fit the 100mm, socked agi-pipe into the trench.

7th: Tony settled the pit making sure it will also provide good surface water access then Clive marked the inlet/outlet points.

8th: Freebie got the gennie going for a cuppa while Clive cut the entry & exit points in the pit.

9th: pit fitted with inflow and outflow pipes connected.

10th: A spot more of the 25mm scoria in the base of the E/W drain to the dam

11th: Pipe laid, scoria over the top then backfill as best as possible given the very soggy soil

12th, Ron and Clive tidied up around the pit, now wait for the soil to settle before we clean up.

On Tuesday June 22nd Freebie, Tony and Ron started cleaning up the soil from the original horseshoe drain and trenching for a 2nd drain on the Nth side of the green. A smaller, hand dug, drain was also run from the lowest spot on the front of the green into the horseshoe drain on the Sth of the green. The loose soil was still very gluey and hard to handle but the “Bulldog”, with some shovel assistance, did a great job.

After lunch Clive arrived with his trusty dumpy and we made sure the new drains would all flow as intended. Trench, clean out and level off then watch the water come out of the soil and see if there were any high spots. More 25mm scoria, pipe, more scoria dent backfill with some the soil. There is still a great deal of soil to move about and fill low spots in the area behind the green

Brutus back in action while Freebie and Ron begin to clear the excess soil