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Ram Pump
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After
I retired from the military and got all of
the boys off to college, we decided to move
back ‘Home’, but . . . we had
been away for a very long time. It had been
almost 30 years. Pat’s father offered
us land if we would move to the farm, so one
weekend in December 1997, we decided to look
at the land on the farm. Our oldest and youngest
sons came to walk the farm with us. We must
have walked the nearly 200 acres, looking
for the perfect place for us to live, and
found a couple of promising spots. |
Now,
if you have never been to our farm,
I have to warn you that it is not like the
flat plains of the midwest states, but it
is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
in south - central Tennessee. In some places,
the difference in elevation easily rose 150
feet in the span of 400 feet, causing us to
quip about the how the hills are closer to
mountains when you have to walk them, |
As
we walked, we knew that the two main things
were were going to need was water and electricity.
City water is over 3 miles away, and we were
told we could not get it for any price. So,
we knew we needed to find a spring to support
our water requirements. Pat’s dad show
us all the springs; he was born and raised
on the property and knew which springs were
“year ‘round” and which
weren’t. |
After
more than two days of walking and looking
- looking back from the valley, looking down
from the hill tops and various level areas,
Pat’s father wanted us to take a good
look at the apple orchard and the hill above
the apple orchard (there probably haven’t
been any apple trees there in the past 100
years!). We looked and looked and looked.
Finally, we spotted a group of walnut trees
- then found our way up the hillside to the
top. Perfect! The perfect location. Flat land
and a great view. But we had a big problem.
Water!! |
This
hilltop (mountaintop) was on a draw,
so I sent the boys in search of water. David
went up the hollow on one side, and the Kerry
went up the hollow on the other side. It was
only a few minutes before David came running
up the hill (he is in the Army and is in good
condition). He found
water. A spring. A big spring
- bigger than the one that supported the original
homestead. It was being used by our neighbors
who’s house had burned under suspicious
circumstances. Unfortunately the spring was
not on our property. The spring in question
was approximately 150 feet down a steep hillside
with an elevation change of over 100 feet.
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The
spot to put our house was looking more and
more promising with the discovery of water.
We checked with the electric company, and
learned that we could get electricity brought
in from the old homestead 1000 yards away.
The only two requirements were to clear the
hillside and to get running water! |
In
this area, if you drill for water, 9 times
out of 10 it would be sulfur water. I talked
with my brother-in-law, a mechanical engineer
(rocket scientist) who lives in Huntsville.
The next weekend he came up to look at the
place. He was very interested in the spring
and how ‘we’ could get water from
the spring for our use. |
After
trekking down to the spring, he declared,
“What you need is a ram pump.”
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Picture
of the Ram Pump |
Closer
Look at the Pump itself |
I didn’t know what that was but got
on the internet over the next week. I found
a company in Virginia that sold them and gave
them a call. I talked to the late Richard
Fleming, who referred to himself as the Water
God, at The
Ram Company. He asked questions about
the spring, the lay of the land, the fall
from the spring to the stream, the rate of
flow of the spring, etc., and finally told
me that I needed a 1 ½ inch Ram pump. |
I
talked with the owner of the land where the
spring originates and got permission to use
the spring. Then, I had a long talk with my
brother-in-law, and we made the decision to
buy the pump. The parts arrived, and my brother-in-law
and I assembled the pump. |
The
following day, we took the pump, parts, garden
hose, PVC pipe and other materials to the
spring. Toting of all of this required several
trips down the hill. Kerry assisted. We installed
the Ernie’s Reverse Flow Pickup Strainer
in the concrete catch tank, and installed
a stack and the 1 ½ inch PVC pipe from
the concrete tank to the ramp pump. |
We
put several pressure gages in, although I’ve
never figured out what they are for. Then
we unrolled the 150 feet of commercial garden
hose from the top of our mountain to the Ram
Pump. After all of the connections were made,
we opened up the upstream valve and the pump
started pumping, about 70 beats a minute.
Within a few minutes, Pat shouted to let us
know we had water at the top of the hill.
Just a trickle, but we had water. |
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PVC
Pipe Running Across the Valley Floor |
Installing
the Pump |
We
checked the flow of water at the top of the
hill, and discovered we were getting 5 gallons
every 7 minutes. For the first couple of weeks,
maybe even a couple of months, we would collect
the water in a bucket when we needed water
or in jars. We added another garden hose and
ran the hose into the kitchen sink. At one
time we connected the water directly to the
water pipes to the house and with that, we
had running water in the house and we could
now get electricity!!! |
Running
water may be a little over statement; we had
a stream of water. A couple of weeks later
we bought a 550 gallon tank and a shallow
well pump with a pressure tank. We poured
a concrete slab and build a cement block “pump
house” for the tank and pump. We ran
electricity to the “pump house”
for the shallow well pump, and we had water
with pressure in the house. |
About
once every month, I have to make the trek
to the spring to check the ram. The ram has
a bladder that must be checked and air added
every once in a while. We have also had breakage
of the PVC pipe, the pump, the check valve,
and the cradle. But when it is pumping, it
pumps approximately 1000 gallons per day.
Fresh, cool, clear, pure spring water. |
After
a couple years we determined the holding tank
overflow could be directed down the other
side of the hill to provide water for the
goats. 450 feet of ½ inch black pipe
later and the goats had spring water. A 100
gallon holding tank near the bottom of the
hillside provides a little pressure when needed.
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Water
flows from the spring, down the PVC pipe to
the Ram pump, up the hill in a garden hose
to the 550 gallon tank, through the overflow
pipe, down the hill in the black pipe to the
100 gallon holding tank, then through a hose
to waiting water tubs so the goats can have
fresh clear spring water. |
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Ken and Pat Motes
Clear Creek Farms
33 South Clear Creek Road
Fall River, Tennessee 38468
Phone: (931) 852-2167
Fax: (931) 852-2168
Copyright © 2002 -2019 All Rights Reserved
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