Cindy, I like your home made grates for the end of your return pipes. I will have to remember that those in case I ever need something like that. I would do away with those but they do add friction to the flow of the system. Since these are DYI there are no exact measurements on these but I would guess that they are the same as 6 ft of pipe. So let's calculate the friction on your return lines. First we have water going from the drum into the 4" pipe. So we have 4 ft of the diameter of the drum and 2 ft of the 4" pipe for water to move from a larger pipe to a smaller pipe. The drum is large enough that four ft of it won't amount to any friction to worry about. But the 2 ft of 4" we will look at. Then we have a 45 elbow which is the same as 5 ft of 4" pipe. Then we also have 90 elbow which is the same as 12 ft of 4" pipe. Then we have the Ferco fitting. I am going to assume that the pipes inside the Ferco fitting are tight against each other and are in a straight line and this is the same as 4 ft of 4" pipe. Then we have the pipe expanding in the pond and this is 4 ft. of the 4" pipe and 2 ft of the diameter of the pond which will be about nothing. Then we have a 4 ft of pipe and a 3 ft of pipe. So each of the return lines are as follows: 6+2+5+12+4+4+4+3=40 ft of 4" pipe. So that short length of 7 ft of pipe is actually with fittings and changes in pipe sizes equals the same as 40 ft pipe. So the question is how much flow do we get by gravity through 40 ft of a 4" pipe with 1" of head? We actually get 3146 gph per return and we have 2 returns so the actual flow back to the pond would be 6292 gph. But I would guess that the head pressure is less than 1" so if I look at .5" head pressure we have flow for each return of 2156 or a total flow 4312 gph. So I would guess that when you actually take a good measurement of the head pressure you are going to find that it is a little more then .75 inch. .75 inch would have a flow of 5302 gph. Mike

Thanks Rott ;-) blameitontherain : Pretty much because I will never have to rebuild them ...ever (but your reasons are great too ;-) Lloyd: I could never be as cool as you...but I do have ALL the necessary tools to do such things....I was contemplating using my skidsteer w/fork attachment and aerating the pile with hydraulic ease...I'll post a video when I get some more compost going ;-) Borderbarb: You remind me of my mom (I Love Her ;-) she lives in San Diego (Ramona) and Loves Compost... Yes ,I want to do very little bending over for long periods,I just transplanted 100 heads of lettuce and never came close to putting a crink in my back...Love those 2' High raised beds ;-) Kim:That's what I was going for...Thanks ;-)

You have such low temps already? Yikes. My aunt said she saw pictures of Vermont on the news and they had snow! Glad you are feeling better and finishing up the garden chores, I did some cutting back and made things look a little more tidy around the courtyard garden yesterday. There is a patch of tall dried phlox and some still blooming anenome surrounding the new chaste tree. I think I'll leave them to give the tree more protection this winter. May go browse the bulbs again at Lowes today, hopefully I won't bring anything else home - those clearance racks in the garden center are killers! Now I have to remind the neighbors to save their leaves for me so I can make some shredded mulch before winter and try to get some of that down.

hello well I'm fully into getting ready to move(funny we have not evan listed the house or looked at a new one yet) but I'm going throug 10 years of accumulated stuff and getting rid of much of it. my aim is to get most unnessasary stuff packed and put in storage before we evan list the house. I still need to do some painting and lots of rilly good cleaning. wow I would love to have a house with 3 acres, but we are looking to move to Missouri, about 20 to 30 miles from here, I would like to be much closer to my in-laws farm so I can do much of my gardening there(180 acres should be enough to keep me buisy for a few years) idealy I would like to build a house at the farm but it is over a mile to the nearest house, and I'm not sure I want to be so isolated. well I can't wait to see what I get..... stay warm everyone michelle