Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

BTW you need a small remote-controlled boat for when your swell floods.
That would be the coolest thing...
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:42 pm Nice fix!
I like the multiple attachments. You should tell me how you did that. :lol:
(Thanks for finding that php bug.)
with great difficulty
I think you'll find that the concrete will cure a lot faster than you think.
My contractor likes to set post holes dry and then after he has the posts plumb he adds just a little bit of water.
After about 2-3 days the absorption of ground water provides enough for a hard cure.
Its a lot better method then setting posts in liquid concrete.
After Katrina the new power pole the utility dropped in started washing out because it was next to a fast running rain ditch. A bag of concrete mix, down the hole nipped that in the bud.
I realize your bags are pretty high up but if they're in direct ground contact they'll suck up a tremendous amount of moisture.
I noticed while loading them into the trunk of my car that the outside layer inside the bags felt a little stiff... so they would probably cure from MS humidity.
Some people around here use concrete bags as steps.

common practice for reinforcing culverts and the like. Just stack up bags of dry and let them cure in place.
Fortunately for use we have four Home Depots and two Lowes within a 5 mi radius.
I shop my local Ace Hardware though whenever I can and avoid the big box.
My closest Lowes is like 22 miles, home depot is Jackson so 60 miles or more. I don't even know where an Ace is. Generally I can let my fingers do the walking but when shipping costs 3-4x the product, I fire up the old cobra and let my legs do the walking. Even with rolling carts, just humping around the 50# bags of concrete mix over short distances irritated my arthritic knee. Getting old sucks. :oops:

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

In Desoto they used to make entire retaining walls for the creek bed out of those concrete bags.

IIRC once they got a 2-3 courses of bags laid down they drove rebar dowels vertically into the soon-to-be hard wall to reinforce it.

Sorry you had so much trouble with the multiple attachments.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:43 pm BTW you need a small remote-controlled boat for when your swell floods.
That would be the coolest thing...
A small boat would surely disappear into the 3' culvert never to be seen again.

I actually have a 4" diameter pipe buried under my side ditch to pull the back water down even lower than my lawn level. I had a square fiber colander stacked upside down on top the mid side ditch sediment trap feeding my buried pipe to filter out sticks and leaves. One time after a storm I found it 30' feet away, and it doesn't even float. The last time it got loose, I never found it. :lol:

That is a pretty serious rapid and I doubt a toy boat would have enough power to overcome the current. It may look calm in that picture but where the two streams of water meet it can make a standing wave a foot high or more (surfs up).

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

When it drains does it leave you snakes and fish?
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

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mediatechnology wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:57 pm When it drains does it leave you snakes and fish?
No I am not at the bottom of the flow... but lots of tree branches and flotsam remain after a big storm. I have even found fire ants that floated down stream and reestablished in my yard, but fire ants hitch rides on anything moving (lots fall off the logging trucks driving past). Heavy rain motivates the ants to get up on something dry.

I often find new grass growing in my rain ditches from people seeding uphill from me, but the last bag of grass seed I spread in my rain ditch ended up down stream (its all about the timing, no rain then too much).

I have even seen snakes down underwater in my rain ditch just sitting and waiting to eat a mud bug... I try to keep my rain ditches drained (a full time job as they sediment up with silt and hold water). Mainly to prevent mosquito eggs from sticking around long enough to hatch. Mother nature abhors dry rain ditches (she apparently prefers swamps).

JR

PS: Never saw fish anywhere near my ditches and run over the occasional snake with my lawnmower, usually a terminal encounter for the snake. I have seen people fishing in rain ditches, but just like I can't account for how some people vote I won't comment on the wisdom of fishing in roadside ditches. [edit- in hindsight many people fish to get away from their wives, so fishing in ditches would work for that. [/edit]
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emrr
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Re: Entropy

Post by emrr »

Hmm, I'm not seeing JR's last picture for some reason.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

emrr wrote: Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:00 am Hmm, I'm not seeing JR's last picture for some reason.
I can see both images that are in my last post viewtopic.php?f=11&t=406&start=460#p11605

you may be missing some of the test images we put up and then deleted.

JR
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Re: Entropy

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Image

of course it hasn't rained since I put the dry concrete in the ground.... after raining almost daily for weeks. No rain forecast until maybe Wednesday and then only tenths.

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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Go spray the garden hose on it for a couple of minutes to get it started curing.

You remind me that my neighbor needs to call City of Dallas Trinity Watershed Management and have them clear the culvert down the street.
Your is nice and clean compared to this one.

Yesterday it was 111°F at the nearby airport: http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KRBD.html
Maybe we'll get some rain soon.
My water bill is ridiculous.

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