Blog Archives - BWTL

Episode 40 - Winterizing Your Irrigation System

9/25/2017

It's our one-year podcast-aversary. Thanks for listening!

Listen to "Episode 40 - Winterizing Your Irrigation System" on Spreaker.

Episode Highlights:

[1:48] Elizabeth talks football - feel free to skip ahead unless you want to commiserate with her.
[3:00] Brent's Travels - Brent discusses his recent travels, including the water situation in California.
[4:20] The Birthday Game - Play along!
- Will Smith
- Mark Hamill
- Senator Bill Cassidy
[7:30] More football talk - Go ahead and listen. This is actually related to to water.
- Gilette Stadium ran out of bottled water and charged fans $4.50 for a cup of tap water.
[10:28] Winterizing your irrigation system - Now that it is fall, it's time to start thinking about system maintenance.
- Winterize means getting the water out of the pipes and valves so they do not freeze.
- It's done in areas where the ground freezes.
- Can be challenging to DIY this. It is critical to hook up the air compressor to piping correctly.
- Winterizing and other maintenance efforts are critical for the life of an irrigation system.
- [25:03] Best practices for weatherizing - 1) Do not have too much pressure and 20 Do not wait until it is too late.
[30:12] WaterSmart Innovations - We will be recording a podcast from Las Vegas again.
[30:30] It's our 40th episode and our one-year podcast-aversary - Thank you for listening.
[31:38] Save the Date! - We will be doing a LIVE podcast from the Irrigation Show on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Pacific. Stay tuned for more details.
[33:00] Brent's Tip of the Week - If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. - Milton Berle

Episode 39 - 2017 Irrigation Show Preview

9/15/2017

Listen to "Episode 39 - 2017 Irrigation Show Preview" on Spreaker.

Episode Highlights:

[3:45] Birthday Game
- Prince Harry
- Dan Marino
- Sam Brownback
[6:25] Hurricane Irma - Weather forecasting and the devastation.
- Washington Post graphics John mentions.
- Irma forecasting kept changing, and the hurricane ended up going more the the west than expected.
[14:05} Drought in Portugal - worst in more than 20 years.
- Ensuring water for drinking is a top priority.
  - "... could end up bringing a ban on the irrigation of farmland, which uses up 80 percent of the region’s available water."
[19:30] 2017 Irrigation Show and Education Conference - Taking place in Orlando from Nov. 6 - 10.
- Details found at www.irrigationshow.org
- Keynote Speaker: Doug Rauch - Former president of Trader Joe's Company. Currently the CEO of Conscious Capitalism.
- Water Summit: Taking place on Friday, Nov. 10.
- Education Classes: Attendees learn new skills and earn CEUs with the industry’s best education for agriculture, landscape and golf irrigation.
  - IA is offering Spanish-language classes this year.
- Show attendees will also have the opportunity to learn about new water technologies through the New Products Contest and Pitcher's Mound.
[34:47] Brent's Tip of the Week - with Brent being out, we made sure to get his tip of the week via email.
- This is a Yogi Berraism “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Episode 38 - Disaster Response

9/1/2017

Episode Highlights:

[1:26] Podcast Birthday! - The Bringing Water to Life podcast turns 1 in September.
[4:08] The Birthday Game - Play along.
- Warren Buffet
- Lewis Black
- John McCain
- Tom Ridge
[6:00] Hurricane Harvey and excess water - We've all seen the devastation this week.
- Harvey has unloaded 24.5 trillion gallons of water. Cannot manage this amount of water and it is honestly hard to comprehend.
- Washington Post article provides graphics to try to give some perspective to this devastating natural disaster.
- Another article showing what 500-year flooding could look like in five cities.
- After damage is assessed and rebuilding can begin, the irrigation industry will see how best to help.
- Some current efforts in Texas:
  - Resources from Texas Nursery and Landscape Association: http://www.tnlaonline.org/huricane-harvey-information.html
  - Texas Farm Bureau Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund for Agriculture: http://texasfarmbureau.org/texas-farm-bureau-hurricane-harvey-relief-effort/
- City of Beaumont, TX, dealing withloss of its water supply. After flooding near a pump station and loss of secondary water source, the city of 120,000 people does not have access to clean drinking water.
[20:50] The Politics of Disasters - With Congress back in session in September, there will be a response to this disaster.
- Hurricane relief bill will likely be worked on in September.
- Congress also needs to finish FY 2018 funding bills in order for the government to state open passed September 30.