Bring on the Rain!
They say that if you want rain just wash your car. Well, I just finished installing my sprinkler system. I figure Mother Nature will now provide lots of natural irrigation – somewhat along the lines of the wash your car theory.
Yesterday I installed the last zone of sprinklers, hooked up power to the timer, and connected all the valves to the timer. Then I held my breath and set the timer to cycle through all 8 of the zones one at a time for 1 minute each and pressed enter. The pump came on the valve to zone 1 opened and the sprinklers watered for one minute. Everything worked! Each set of sprinklers ran for one minute and then stopped. That meant that I was done installing the system and now could fill in all the trenches and cover the valves (which is what I did today) and move on to the next step – sodding the front yard.
The most difficult part of the installation was adjusting the rotors to spray where I wanted them. I thought I had cracked the code on doing this but the first time I turned things on I was watering the road, spraying the house and pretty much watering everywhere I didn’t want to. I pretty much had to dig up and reposition half of the sprinklers – sometimes more than once – to get them aligned properly. Next the arc of the spray needed to be adjusted. The first time through this process I got soaked and the water is cold! The angle of spray is just right to hit me in the crotch. I looked like I severely wet myself.
The job involved a lot of work with my hands and each evening my wrists and fingers ached. It reminded me of when Christy started working at Baskin Robins and had a sore wrist from scooping ice cream. My wrist, thumb and forefinger have felt that way each evening for the past 5 days. At least my shoulders are not acting up.
I am almost at the point where I can start splitting my time between the lawn and the crib. Rototilling will be a full day and laying sod will also be full days. Beyond that spreading sand, leveling and doing the garden can be done on a mixed schedule allowing me to get cracking on the crib.
They say that if you want rain just wash your car. Well, I just finished installing my sprinkler system. I figure Mother Nature will now provide lots of natural irrigation – somewhat along the lines of the wash your car theory.
Yesterday I installed the last zone of sprinklers, hooked up power to the timer, and connected all the valves to the timer. Then I held my breath and set the timer to cycle through all 8 of the zones one at a time for 1 minute each and pressed enter. The pump came on the valve to zone 1 opened and the sprinklers watered for one minute. Everything worked! Each set of sprinklers ran for one minute and then stopped. That meant that I was done installing the system and now could fill in all the trenches and cover the valves (which is what I did today) and move on to the next step – sodding the front yard.
The most difficult part of the installation was adjusting the rotors to spray where I wanted them. I thought I had cracked the code on doing this but the first time I turned things on I was watering the road, spraying the house and pretty much watering everywhere I didn’t want to. I pretty much had to dig up and reposition half of the sprinklers – sometimes more than once – to get them aligned properly. Next the arc of the spray needed to be adjusted. The first time through this process I got soaked and the water is cold! The angle of spray is just right to hit me in the crotch. I looked like I severely wet myself.
The job involved a lot of work with my hands and each evening my wrists and fingers ached. It reminded me of when Christy started working at Baskin Robins and had a sore wrist from scooping ice cream. My wrist, thumb and forefinger have felt that way each evening for the past 5 days. At least my shoulders are not acting up.
I am almost at the point where I can start splitting my time between the lawn and the crib. Rototilling will be a full day and laying sod will also be full days. Beyond that spreading sand, leveling and doing the garden can be done on a mixed schedule allowing me to get cracking on the crib.
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