Monsoon’s finally over, time to do something less dramatic with the gray water outlet.

This is the original outlet for the Secret Lair’s gray water. Originally it just terminated at a random point downhill. A couple of times a year the gully behind the Lair would run, overwhelm the pipe and mostly dig it out of the ground. No big deal to rebury it. But…

But then Ian gave me this little peach tree, as thanks for helping him with his own infant orchard. I thought this would be a good chance to use that gray water, so that’s where I planted the tree. That’s because I’m not very smart. Since the water from the gully wanted to go through the same pipe, it would be like aiming a fire hose at the poor little thing. A big fire hose. So I blocked the inlet of the pipe with a rock. I figured that when Monsoon was over I’d move the rock.

On a typical year that probably would have worked. But this wasn’t a typical year. Monsoon took most of the summer, and it rained and rained. The ditch leading from the gully became a much bigger deal than usual, to keep the water away from the Lair and the chicken yard.

I had to give the water a safe path from the gully to the wash. Unfortunately the only path available intersected my sewer pipe. So I undermined it. The water undermined it more, but at least it worked to keep the water away from stuff vulnerable to damage.

But now winter is coming and I need to cover that pipe, while still leaving the gray water a place to go. I originally planned to restore the first pipe, but that would be a lot of work for not much gain considering I’ll probably still have the same problem next year. So I decided to leave the water’s path the way it is. I laid some scrap 4″ under the sewer pipe…

…and buried it all together. When I restore the trench next season it’ll take less work this way. I hope.