What happens to your house if both dams fail? Are you up or down grade from
them?



"Cybe R. Wizard" wrote in message
news:20030613145526.22dd76b1.cyber_wizard@mindspri ng.com...
Today we've had one, a real drencher. It's been really wet for the past
few days. (three to five inches of rain per day) My house sits in a
hollow that, up until four years ago when I began the excavation,
drained about five acres in an amphitheater configuration. During
excavation I pushed up a small dam just outside the house (thirty-forty
feet away) to collect runoff water and another, quite a bit larger dam
outside the basement entrance (again, thirty/forty feet away) which is
to be a/big/ garden pond in the unforseeable future. Until this week
both dammed areas have been empty or almost empty all the time. This
morning I noticed that the upper dam was running over. The bottom dam
was almost full. As I watched, the overflow from the uper dam filled the
lower dam(which has a four inch drain that ends in an upflow pipebelow
the dam) to overflowing, rushed into this drain, and started shooting up
from the upflow pipe below the dam with enough force to fire a four inch
column of water three feet high above the pipe. It made the prettiest
bell fountain I've ever seen!
Of course, all this water flowing in a fairly small area has cut some
pretty drastic ditches right where I /didn't/ want them to be.
Oh, well, it looks like bobcat day tomorrow. (if it doesn't rain
again!)

Cybe R. Wizard
--
Unofficial "Wizard of Odds," A.H.P.
Original PORG "Water Wizard," R.P.
"Wize(ned) Wizard," A.P.F-P-Y.
Barely Tolerated Wizard, A.J.L & A.A.L